Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bridget Phillipson and Brian Leishman

Monday 20th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Ind)]

Colleges are the backbone of working-class communities such as mine in Clackmannanshire, but the funding model for colleges in Scotland is fundamentally broken because of SNP cuts. Will the Secretary of State write to her counterpart in the Scottish Government and highlight the importance of Alloa campus to the people of Clackmannanshire and the wider Forth valley, and stress that all Scottish colleges need to receive proper funding?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am very grateful for that question. Here in England, we are investing more in brilliant further education colleges. It is such a shame that in Scotland the SNP Government are cutting that support. I have heard directly from my Scottish Labour counterpart, Pam Duncan-Glancy, about the devastating impact that is having on young people across Scotland.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bridget Phillipson and Brian Leishman

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend mentions a vital area. There is an important role for youth services as part of this, but we also need to do much more around safeguarding. The provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on multi-agency child protection measures and much more besides, and the additional investment that we are putting into the system around children’s social care, will make a real difference in tackling the unacceptable exploitation that sadly blights the lives of too many children across our country.

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

4. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to implement the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on women’s state pension age.