Domestic Violence

Debate between David Simpson and Iain McKenzie

Wednesday 29th October 2014 Westminster Hall

[David Simpson]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about the courage involved in taking that action. We should encourage such organisations, but Women’s Aid and others face massive funding problems.

During the past 16 years in the Province, Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland managed 282,869 calls to the 24-hour domestic and sexual violence helpline. According to an estimate in the Government strategy “Tackling Violence at Home”, the cost of domestic violence in Northern Ireland, including the potential loss of economic output, could amount to somewhere in the region of £180 million each year. Women’s Aid is at the forefront of providing care and support to the victims of domestic violence. I commend it on its most recent initiative, “SOS: Save Refuges, Save Lives”. It is the victims who need to be protected and supported, so I call on the House to ensure that victims and those at risk are kept at the centre of all that we do.

UNICEF research from 2006 shows that figures on incidences per capita indicate that up to 32,000 children and young people live with domestic violence in Northern Ireland. Domestic violence has an extremely worrying effect on children. In fact, I would go as far as saying that children are the hidden victims of domestic violence. In 90% of violent incidents, children are in the same or the next room. They witness the attack and often feel compelled to intervene. Within Northern Ireland, more than 100,000 children were affected last year. Some 1,077 women and 854 children were accommodated in refuges, while 2,938 women and 3,617 children were supported to remain in their home in the community. An astounding 32,349 calls were made to the domestic violence helpline, which represented a 17% increase on the previous year. The issue therefore affects many people, male and female, as well as many thousands of children and the entire family.

[Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr McCrea. I, too, congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this important debate. He was right to say that children are sometimes the forgotten victims, because they will bear the scars down the years. We must stop children who see such violent confrontation from thinking that that is how they should go about a relationship.

[David Simpson]

The hon. Gentleman is right that children suffer, and not only in childhood, but as they grow into adulthood. The experience remains with them and the visions of what they saw as children stick with them, and they might affect their own relationships, because they could feel that such behaviour is the right and natural thing to do.

Manufacturing in the UK

Debate between David Simpson and Iain McKenzie

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr McKenzie]

I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend. That example underlines what I am about to discuss, which are quality, design and improving market share. MINI is a true example of that.

The success of such businesses highlights that, without a strong manufacturing base, there can be no rebalancing of the economy, which we are told is a priority for this Government. Great importance should be placed on invention, quality and design in manufacturing. The importance of development to creating a product cannot be under-stressed. Research and development are essential to build businesses and to dominate markets.

[David Simpson (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I congratulate him on getting this important debate and must declare an interest in the manufacturing sector. Does he agree that this or any future Government need to remove the bureaucracy that affects companies, in particular SMEs, so that they can concentrate on market research and exports?

[Mr McKenzie]

I share the hon. Gentleman’s comments. SMEs clearly need all the help they can get to close in on markets and to increase their market share.

Vocational Education

Debate between David Simpson and Iain McKenzie

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Westminster Hall

[Mr McKenzie]

Thank you, Mr Gray. I will take that direction.

Of course, the curriculum had to change to reflect what business was advising us about problems with employing school leavers. I have spoken to my local businesses and the chambers of commerce about what they required when hiring young people leaving school. The reply was always the same, and perhaps it is the same across the country. They said that they receive young people into the employment world, unready and lacking in the skills to contribute immediately to their business from day one.

Businesses need employees who can apply initiative and solve problems and innovate with limited supervision. There was, more than often, no prepared equation that could be applied to projects. Young people were looking for an equation to populate to get an answer for business. We had to change that and apply a process that would stimulate innovation and initiative when learning.

Business leaders and the entrepreneurs of the future have to be identified. In my constituency, we have pioneered an association with business employers and school leavers based on “The Apprentice”. With numerous employers, we have put in place a six-month programme called “The Recruit”, which provides vocational qualifications and involves tasks set by employers, who evaluate participants for potential hires at the end of the course; it is the longest interview a young person will have. The programme continues to be supported by many local employers, and it has been replicated by many local authorities. It has been a great success, and it regularly secures many jobs for school leavers who want to earn while they continue to learn. The course identifies and develops leaders and those with entrepreneurial abilities.

Our schools also link up with those in the third year of secondary school, offering basic skills in traditional trades that go towards an apprenticeship. The need for apprenticeships has never been greater. Too many young lives are being wasted on the dole queues. Long-term unemployed young people are the most vulnerable, with many trapped in a vicious cycle of joblessness, anxiety and depression. We desperately need to get our young people into training and apprenticeships. The 50% of our young people who do not go to university need every chance to improve their skills and to get good jobs.

[David Simpson]

I agree with the vast majority of the hon. Gentleman’s comments, and we certainly need to encourage our young people. However, the research papers we received for the debate state that some schools now charge parents to send their children on work experience. Surely, that is wrong, and it will not help us target areas of deprivation or encourage young people whose parents cannot afford to pay for them to go on work experience.

[Mr McKenzie]

I share the hon. Gentleman’s concern about charging for work experience. I represent an area whose population is not over-wealthy, and people would find it extremely difficult to pay for work experience. We are therefore fortunate that many employers offer work experience free of charge.

We need a highly skilled, highly educated work force to meet the challenges of tomorrow and to compete with other advanced nations. The economy needs value-added skills to compete with the economies of Brazil, India, China and other emerging nations. Apprenticeships are a valuable way to give young people skills, training and jobs. They also offer on-the-job learning opportunities and, of course, further education. They enable young people not only to learn about their chosen trade or profession, but to do so on the spot. They also enable them to talk to colleagues who are already skilled and experienced. Apprenticeships and vocational education can offer so much, and there is no reason why they should not be expanded to cover a wide variety of jobs and professions. If that is to happen, however, we need to engage more of Britain’s companies and to bring them on board.

We can plan for apprenticeships. Any company wanting to provide goods or services to the public should be required to have an apprenticeship scheme before it can win a contract. Labour’s jobs-for-contracts scheme would increase the number of apprenticeships by thousands and give immediate help to many of the 1 million unemployed under-25s. That simple idea—creating apprenticeship places through public procurement—would provide immediate help with alleviating youth unemployment and would strengthen the vocational sector. It works: the Labour council in Inverclyde has been using it for many years, and the number of those in the NEET category in Inverclyde stood at seven last year—not 7%, but seven pupils.

Today, Britain risks losing the global skills race. We need to be as strong as Germany and Switzerland on vocational education, and as competitive as Singapore and Japan on maths. Britain’s future national competitiveness is at stake and so is our young people’s future. We need to engage employers in designing high-quality apprenticeships, giving them a greater say in spending the £1 billion of funding available to target apprenticeships at our young people.