Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Leslie Excerpts
Monday 20th December 2010

(13 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Hayes Portrait Mr Hayes
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As I am sure my hon. Friend may have anticipated, I will be delighted to meet him and the representatives of those organisations. We are absolutely clear there should be a vocational pathway that is as rigorous and accessible as the academic route, and it should be available to people in rural areas, which is why I am particularly conscious of transport and other issues that might inhibit that.

Chris Leslie Portrait Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)
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How can we see more young people in vocational education if the Minister is taking the axe to the education maintenance allowances, 4,000 of which were paid to people in my city of Nottingham? When the Education Secretary told The Guardian on 2 March this year that he would not be scrapping EMAs, should they not have taken that statement at face value?