Covid-19: Impact on Attendance in Education Settings

Debate between Gavin Williamson and Greg Clark

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

I can absolutely assure the right hon. Gentleman that that is the case. Obviously, the Department for Work and Pensions has its covid support fund, which is available for local authorities to provide free school meals. Any changes as part of the road map that would lead to the lifting of further restrictions and of bubbles within schools would also take effect for the summer holidays, so children who wanted to take part in holiday activity and food programmes would be able to do so without operating within a bubble system.

[Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells) (Con)]

Because of new variants, it is quite possible that long into the future the number of covid cases will increase from time to time. Is the Secretary of State aware that Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, who was behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has said:

“If…high protection against hospitalisation continues despite spread in the community, the public health crisis is over”?

Does my right hon. Friend understand that we must move away from being concerned with the number of cases of covid and disrupting schools needlessly through testing and isolation, and focus squarely on hospitalisation?

[Gavin Williamson]

I very much have that at the forefront of my mind. If my right hon. Friend has time, it would be very interesting to sit down with him, and with some of my team and some from the Department of Health and Social Care, to discuss this in greater detail. The key thing is making sure that people are not being hospitalised and people are not in danger of dying. The vaccine has had enormous success in doing that, but we cannot then have the brake on children’s lives in the future.

Educational Settings

Debate between Gavin Williamson and Greg Clark

Wednesday 18th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

We will certainly write to all local authorities and all schools with guidance, and that will happen today. Before I came to the House, I spoke to the director of children’s services who represents the Association of Directors of Children’s Services about what we are doing. They were very clear about the need for local and national Government to work together. On supply teachers, there will be exceptional demand for the services of all teachers in the system—those on regular contracts and supply teachers.

[Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells) (Con)]

We will pay teachers when their schools are closed, because the closure is not their fault and we will need them again, but that applies to many other employees across the economy. That could be addressed very straightforwardly if the Government brought forward urgently a package to support employees’ wages right across the economy. Will the Secretary of State, when he finishes this statement, talk to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to ask them to turn their attention, within the next few hours, to making a statement on support for employees generally across the economy?

[Gavin Williamson]

I am more than happy to pass on such representations.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Williamson and Greg Clark

Tuesday 11th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

15. What steps the Government have taken to reduce the cost of credit to the real economy.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)]

rose—

[Greg Clark]

Goodness. Thank you. I feel like Boris Johnson.

The Government and the Bank of England have launched the funding for lending scheme to enable banks to make loans cheaper and more easily available to households and businesses. In addition, 19,000 cheaper loans have been offered to smaller businesses under the national loan guarantee system.

[Gavin Williamson]

I welcome my right hon. Friend to his new post and wish him every success. Many businesses in South Staffordshire face a great challenge in raising finance to grow and recruit new workers. Will he explain how the measures that he has outlined will help small and medium-sized businesses in my constituency to grow and expand?

National Planning Policy Framework

Debate between Gavin Williamson and Greg Clark

Tuesday 27th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

The changes in the Localism Act 2011 dealing with enforcement provide greater powers for local authorities to act on the unlawful occupation of sites by any resident or applicant.

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

Green-belt land is often threatened as much by industrial development as by residential development. What assurances can my right hon. Friend give the House that the green belt will be protected from inappropriate industrial development?

[Greg Clark]

Inappropriate development extends to both residential and industrial development. It is the nature of the green belt that is protected, irrespective of what is proposed.