English Language Schools

Conor Burns Excerpts

Thursday 24th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con)]

It is an honour to give my first speech in this Chamber as the new Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West—a new constituency that should more accurately be called Bournemouth West and Poole East, because it includes wards from the constituencies of my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Mr Syms) and the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke). I thank the Speaker for giving me this opportunity to deliver a maiden speech in an Adjournment debate, which I understand is a slight breach of the conventions of this House.

I believe that I am standing in the same place as another new Member who breached convention some 50 years ago—Margaret Thatcher, who delivered her maiden speech when introducing a private Member’s Bill. I told her on Saturday that I was going to do my maiden and had waited 50 days to do so, and she told me that it was over time to be getting on with it. In fact, in researching this speech, my team found out that Lady Thatcher waited more than 100 days; I shall point that out to her on the next occasion that I see her.

I will, if I may, say a word about my predecessor, Sir John Butterfill, who served this House for 27 years. During that time, he piloted four private Members’ Bills into law, which, I imagine, must be something of a record: the Registered Homes (Amendment) Act 1991, the Insolvency Act 1994, the Policyholders Protection Act 1997 and the Building Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers) Act 2007. I hope that Sir John will have time to reflect, in a good way, in the months and years that lie ahead on the totality of his 27 years of service in this place, and not just on the difficult period in the run-up to the last general election.

I suspect that it must also be unusual for a new Member who represents a constituency that has only ever had four Members of Parliament to be able to pay tribute not only to my predecessor but to my predecessor’s predecessor, Lord Eden of Winton, who joined me, with Bournemouth’s member of the Youth Parliament, Jasminn Osborne, on the campaign trail in Bournemouth during the last general election. Lord Eden has now served for 27 years in the other place.

I bring to the House today the subject of Britain’s English language schools and the enormous contribution that they make to the economy of the United Kingdom. More than 500,000 students a year choose to learn English in Britain. That figure accounts for almost 43% of all students who choose to travel abroad to learn English. It is estimated that they contribute more than £1.5 billion to the UK economy every year. It is appropriate that we talk about this in the context of the Budget that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor introduced earlier this week. We have been talking about diversifying the UK economy, away from sole reliance on the financial services sector, and this is a massive export for our country and a contributor to the bottom line.

Bournemouth has, I suspect, more language schools per head of population than almost anywhere else in the country. However, not only Bournemouth has them. I see in his place my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert). He wanted to intervene in this debate, but the Chair is of the view that we should not breach that convention. I know that these schools are very important in Cambridge too, as well as in Poole and in Brighton. I also see my hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles), who is hoping to make a brief contribution to the debate.

Why am I raising this subject now? It has become a problem because of what the previous Government did in their dying months of office. Immigration became a rising political topic as we got closer to the general election, and the previous Government, in an attempt to be seen to be doing something, did the old civil service Sir Humphrey thing: “We must do something; this is something, so let’s do it.” They changed the criteria on the requirement for competence in the English language that was needed for someone to come to Britain to study English. They also changed the student visa arrangements so that such a person had to return to their country of origin to extend their visa.

I wish to draw attention not just to the question of the English language schools and the employment that they generate in Bournemouth and Poole, but to the welcome additional earnings in the household budgets of the host families who welcome students into their home, and to the boost to the local economy when students’ family and friends come to visit, stay in local hotels and use local restaurants. Professor Fletcher of Bournemouth university has estimated that they contribute more than £200 million to the local economy in the Bournemouth and Poole area.

Then there is the matter that one probably cannot quantify: those who have come to Britain to learn English have a great affection and affinity for Britain which will stand our country in great stead in the years ahead, when they return and enter businesses. The right hon. Lord King visited me during the election campaign and relayed the story of an Egyptian Defence Minister who, on his first night on a visit to Britain, did not want to go out to dinner with the then Secretary of State for Defence because he wanted to go and see his old landlady, for whom he had great affection. We cannot put a price on such things, but they are of enormous benefit.

The previous Government were right to recognise that there was a problem with some bogus schools, and they put in place measures to try to deal with them. Prior to the introduction of the points-based system, it was estimated that up to 50,000 students could be using the student visa system as a way of staying in the United Kingdom illegally. In April 2009 they introduced the new system, which forced schools to gain Government accreditation and led to the closure of several thousand bogus language schools. Great strides were made in tightening up the system.

On 12 November 2009, only months after the system was put in place, the then Prime Minister ordered a review of it due to concerns about those coming in to study at below degree level. The hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Mr Woolas) said about that on 11 December 2009:

“I would like to make it absolutely clear that no firm decisions as to whether and what changes ought to be made to Tier 4 have yet been taken. The responses we have received from all parts of the education sector have suggested that there is the potential for some of the broader review questions to affect the UK’s attractiveness as a destination for study if they are implemented. Damaging the education sector is not the aim of the review.”

However, the reality is that the outcome of the review has done just that.

I wish to go into some detail about what the change to the English language requirement has done. I shall quote a letter from my right hon. and noble Friend Lord Eden, who posed a simple question to my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration on 20 May. He wrote:

“The simple question that needs to be answered is how are students that are coming to this country to learn English supposed to be able to qualify in English language proficiency in order to receive a student visa?”

It is not just a very basic understanding of English that they require. The definition of B1 competence, which is the equivalent of about an A* GCSE, is that a student can

“understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.”

It seems to me that if someone is able to do all that, they are pretty fluent and would not necessarily need to enrol themselves on an English language course. We are saying to students, “Learn English so you can qualify to come here to study and learn English in Britain.” It is painfully ridiculous.

The other matter on which problems arise for the language schools is their dealings with the UK Border Agency. Institutions and students have found it difficult to communicate with the agency. One student trying to negotiate the application process said they had found that the

“UK staff provide conflicting information or are unable to answer queries regarding classification of guidance which does more than simply repeat the existing regulations.”

Hon. Members might recognise some of that in another organisation with which we have had dealings in recent weeks closer to home, but I shall not derail myself by going into that.

The UK Border Agency failed to carry out any impact assessments before implementing the changes, and that was extremely damaging. Under pressure from its flawed system in April 2009, it was obviously anxious to be seen to be robust and proactive, but that meant increasing frustration on the part of the English language schools, which are now responsible under the licensing arrangements for their students’ whereabouts. One college in Bournemouth, Anglo-Continental, which is led by Guido Schillig and has existed since the 1930s, gave an example of that. Guido Schillig is responsible for his students’ whereabouts, yet the UK Border Agency would not tell him whether a student had arrived in the United Kingdom. The situation is grossly unfair.

My hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration met a delegation of local language schools. My hon. Friend the Member for Poole can probably enlighten the House about that if he contributes to the debate shortly. My hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration said that the previous Government had used a sledgehammer not simply to crack a nut but to smash entirely the wrong object.

There is a point to make about the number of students who come to the United Kingdom, learn English in the language schools and progress to higher education. My constituency of Bournemouth West contains the whole of Bournemouth university, which was rated by The Guardian—I give The Guardian credit; I would not normally do that—as Britain’s No. 1 new university. It has a regular flow of new students from Bournemouth’s language schools who move on to degree-level qualifications.

I hope that the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (James Brokenshire) will acknowledge that we do not operate in a vacuum. There is global competition for language schools. Obviously, people can go to New Zealand or Canada, and if they want to learn to speak English badly, they can go to America. The principal relationship is between the agents who place the students and the schools. Those agents are now considering the difficulties that face students who come to this country and are already exploring relationships with language schools in other parts of the world. If we allow the relationships to be severed, we will inflict a terrible and grievous wound on the UK English language schools sector.

I hope that the Home Office will continue to review the changes that the previous Government implemented. We can learn much from other countries and how they handle matters. I am not standing here simply to complain about the previous Government’s actions because that is futile. The coalition has an opportunity to review much of that and find other solutions. For example, we could move to a bond system—I know that my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration examined that before the election—whereby the student pays an up-front sum of money, which would make absconding much less likely. We could have an assessment level, whereby we examined the risks posed by students from particular risk countries, and we could have a classification system, whereby we perhaps relaxed the rules for others.

The changes that the previous Government made are having a profoundly worrying and detrimental effect on businesses in my constituency and throughout the country. I hope that the Under-Secretary will examine all the alternatives because we can be proud of the English language schools sector. The English language is one of our greatest assets. English is the language of world commerce, and if we shut off the ability of those schools to thrive, to welcome people to our shores and to enable them to immerse themselves in our language, our culture and our values, in time we will look back and realise that we made a very fundamental mistake.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Conor Burns]

indicated assent.

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

I call Mr Boles and ask that hon. Members make short speeches with no interventions please.