Oral Answers to Questions

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 17th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

As my hon. Friend rightly says, we are undertaking a review of relationships, sex and health education guidance in our schools, and I have asked the Department to look at wider settings as part of that.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

3. What steps her Department is taking to increase mental health training in schools.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Gillian Keegan)]

Schools promote and support the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils to help them thrive and reach their potential. My Department is helping schools to develop effective approaches to mental health by offering senior mental health lead training. More than half of all state schools and colleges have received that training grant since September 2021. To give children more access to support, we are increasing the number of mental health support teams from 287 in 2022 to 400 in 2023, and the number of teams will grow to 500 in 2024. I recently visited St Wilfrid’s Catholic School in Crawley, where I saw the fantastic work done by that school and West Sussex’s mental health support team to offer one-to-one support and group sessions for pupils who are struggling to prepare for their next steps.

[Giles Watling]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her comprehensive answer. Like a few other colleagues, I recently visited Baton of Hope UK, whose work on suicide awareness and prevention is second to none—it is admirable. Will she commit to meeting Baton of Hope to further its efforts to improve children’s access to mental health support?

[Gillian Keegan]

Many of us and our families have been struck by the tragic loss of loved ones to suicide, and we must work together to support young people’s mental health and to prevent suicide. A new suicide prevention strategy will be published this year, and we are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to drive progress on reducing youth suicides and helping children to access the support they need.

Baton of Hope is a brilliant organisation that does excellent work in raising awareness and on prevention. I met Mike McCarthy, who is the co-founder of Baton of Hope, when I was the Minister for care and mental health, and I am sure that my successor, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield), would welcome its input to this important work.

Suicide Prevention and the National Curriculum

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 13th March 2023 Westminster Hall

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is humbling to be called to speak in today’s debate. Every step breaks taboos; every mile tells a story; every day hearts are joined in grief and healing as sons and daughters are mourned and celebrated. But the void they have left is beckoning with not only questions but answers. As three dads are traversing our nation, they are tearing down the stigma of suicide that too many are wrestling with. They are creating safe spaces to talk; they are ensuring that Sophie, Emily and Beth are heard. They have brought us to this place, through their petition to seek change.

Andy, Tim and Mike, we are indebted to you. Today, it is their pleas that must be heard, and I sincerely thank them for all they are doing. Having had the privilege of meeting them last week, I know how much this debate means to them. I am sure that the Minister and shadow Minister will not only listen, but advance their calls. Their mission is to reduce the number of young people who take their own lives, by shattering the stigma surrounding suicide and equipping young people and their communities with the skills to recognise and respond to emotional distress. Across our nation, people are struggling with their mental health. Let us be honest, we all do, in different ways and at different times. For some, the night passes quickly, while others spiral into a dark and enduring place, where the echoes of despair resonate louder than any hope.

Papyrus knows better than any charity the scale of the problem, and I sincerely thank them for their work. Our mental health services cannot cope. Child and adolescent mental health services are struggling, and with mental health receiving just 8.6% of the health budget, there is no parity of esteem to speak of. We know that with early intervention only a few would ever need to call on the NHS for care. That is the call that must come out of this debate. Young people talk extensively about mental health, but when the moment gets hard—in the silences—it is the toxicity of TikTok that is sucking them into the algorithms of despair, drawing them to make the wrong choices. From self-harm to suicide, children are accessing content that takes them down some very dangerous paths. As adults, parents, teachers, youth workers and politicians, let us acknowledge that, and take the necessary steps to keep our young people safe.

As we have heard, suicide is the biggest killer of under-35s in our country, with over 200 school-age children taken every year.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

I thank the hon. Member for giving way, and my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher) for bringing forward this very important debate. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) was saying, the internet has some dark places. Surely, in schools we must be warning about online harms, and we must also make those platforms take more responsibility. I welcome the Online Harms Bill, but should we not also be addressing the platforms on this?

[Rachael Maskell]

The hon. Member is absolutely right that the online space continues to be unsafe for too many people. There is so much more that needs to be done to aid our understanding of new initiatives online and to ensure that everyone can be safe online at all times.

Of course, we are not talking about numbers, but about people who are struggling. According to the ONS, 5,583 suicides were registered in England and Wales just last year, with a ratio of men to women of almost 2:1. It is the young people we often think about. They need the skills and resilience to manage the very worst of their emotions. We know that talking is powerful, but, without young people knowing who to talk to and how to talk to them, and without parents and teachers actively reaching out, we are leaving our young people in danger. We need a greater therapeutic approach to our education system. We locked up our young people through covid, which proved tougher than anyone could have imagined. A generation is really struggling. They do not need brutal academic stress and harsh disciplinarian regimes, such as those that I discussed this morning at a local school in York. The behaviour in schools guidance needs serious revision.

The need for talking is there before us. Who can help young people to work through their anxieties, stresses and depression? They need space to explore and explain. Mums and dads need tools and skills to support and listen. Teachers need help too; they need training to talk about suicide. We cannot shy away or soften the words, for suicide is real. Adults need to catch up with young people and recognise that. As politicians, we cannot be squeamish or in denial, because we are losing our sons and daughters, and sadly mums and dads, too.

Life is really tough. People have not got enough money, and home is not always a safe place. Some young people carry a heavy weight. Life never turns out as we hope. Bullying is rife, there is a loneliness epidemic, and toxic social media is ever judging and tormenting, yet we do not talk about suicide and when that starts to play on the minds of its victims.

Minister, it is time to teach and time to talk to every child in every school. We start with the teachers, who need Government backing. We need every teacher trained so that they are ready to talk to their students, whatever age or context, knowing how to check in and reach out as well as guide and care. Every school needs to be a safe place for parents to learn and ask those questions that are never aired, for we can no longer hear the cries of “Why didn’t anyone tell us?”. We must also teach every child. For younger children, it is about mental health first aid—having safe conversations when they feel sad. As the years grow, children need to know who to talk to, how to talk and how to keep themselves safe. If we do not talk to our young people about suicide, it will find them. But if they are taught resilience, they will have the skills for life that they need to stay safe and well.

The pilgrimage of Tim, Andy and Mike has brought them to this place, to the Minister’s door. They are not here to beg or plead, because for them, this has come too late. Instead, they are here to tell us what it means to lose their beautiful daughters and how the tears of other parents need never be shed. This will probably be the most important debate of the Minister’s time in this place. It is time to open the door to open minds and open hearts. Let us listen and learn and ensure that all is done to keep our young people safe. It is time for walking to turn into talking.

Oral Answers to Questions

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 28th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

The hon. Lady should know that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the additional schools funding announced in the autumn statement— some £2 billion extra on top of the money already announced in the White Paper—and £3.5 billion in the spending review will fully cover expected school costs up to 2024. As she rightly says, it will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms, which she will recall was the highest ever level of funding.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

One pledge in our 2019 manifesto was the introduction of an arts premium. The British arts are central to our soft power projection across the globe and they start in the classroom. I will be teaching an acting class in Clacton very soon; in case the question is raised, can the Minister tell me that there will be a commitment to an arts premium or an arts-specific package?

Water Safety

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 12th July 2021 Westminster Hall

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)[V]]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I am grateful, as always, for the opportunity to speak in this important debate. I support the principle behind the petition. The Government must review and, if necessary, enhance curriculum content on water safety. This is a change that the 109 people in my constituency who signed this petition want to see, and I know that there will be many more residents in our area who support improvements in water safety education.

Clacton is a wonderful place, happy to call itself the sunshine coast, which the vast majority of people enjoy in perfect safety, but due to some ignorance of the sea and its habits, we have had our fair share of tragedy. In 2018, local teenager, Ben Quartermaine, was swept out to sea while swimming with friends off Clacton pier. His body was found two days later. In 2020, another local man, Paul Lee, was found lying face down in the water off Clacton pier after going for a swim from the beach. These are two difficult and memorable incidents for the community, but unfortunately they are not isolated. Our hard-working lifeboat and coastguard teams at Clacton and Walton are regularly called out up and down the sunshine coast—something I have experience of as a former volunteer. I take this opportunity to thank all those involved in those hard-working teams across the country. They often work in the worst conditions imaginable and do it for nothing more than their time, although some do receive the reward of a well-earned beer, traditionally bought by the rescued for the lifeboat crews at Walton-on-the-Naze.

Given my experience in this area, and as a yachtsman as well, I am pleased that some of our local schools provide additional water safety lessons, especially after what happened to Ben and Paul. However, these are not universal across the country, and time and again visitors to our area get into difficulty. As an area so beautiful and so close to London, it is not surprising that we get our fair share of visitors, and as has been observed in the debate, we are likely to get many more staycationists. This disparity in the standard of water safety education in coastal and urban areas concerns me, and I believe it led to another tragedy in 2019, when two siblings from Luton died while swimming at Clacton after getting into difficulty.

I recognise the good work that is already being undertaken to educate all children about water safety, as set out in the Government’s response to the petition, but it is not enough. We are starting with a blank slate, and we must acknowledge that many people are able to enjoy the water safely because of the content in the curriculum and the work of organisations such as Swim England. Nevertheless, as has been said, there were still 254 deaths in UK waters from accidental drownings in 2020, an increase of 34 on the previous year, so I believe that there are too many avoidable deaths, which troubles me. It is the young who are most at risk of drowning, according to the World Health Organisation.

In short, our approach to water safety education has had some success, but it is not there yet and there is more that we can do to protect those most at risk, so I was disappointed to read that the Government had no plans to review current curriculum expectations. Surely we need to look at that again. Figures show that inland open water, such as rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs and quarries, continue to be the leading locations, with 58% of deaths. How do we deal with that? Males continue to represent 78% of deaths. How do we better educate men and young boys about the dangers?

Almost half of those people had no intention of entering the water, with 107 either walking, slipping, tripping, falling, or being cut off by the tide or swept in by the waves. What educational resources can be put in place to stop those accidents? That is what a curriculum review should focus on. Doing so would ease the pressure on our hard-working and overstretched lifeboat crews and other emergency services and would prevent the terrible incidents that leave such a scar on our communities and the families affected. With that in mind, I ask the Government and the Minister to consider again implementing such review.

Remote Education and Free School Meals

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 18th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con) [V]]

Tonight, I will focus on remote learning. That will give me the opportunity to pass on some of what I have heard from teachers about their experiences during the pandemic. My understanding is that, to put it simply, remote learning puts at a massive disadvantage the most vulnerable pupils, who may not have the same resources as others. They may not have somewhere quiet or even safe in which to work, and may be less inclined to continue their learning when not in school. We saw that those who did not attend live lessons during the first lockdown had an evident knowledge gap when they came back to school in September. According to teachers I have spoken to, we are seeing that play out once again, as those same pupils are not participating now. So that gap is becoming ever wider.

Significant investment has certainly been made in remote learning; millions have been invested in supporting remote education and access to online social care. As we have heard, more than 700,000 laptops and tablets have been delivered to disadvantaged children at schools and colleges, with hundreds of thousands more on the way. Ministers are working with major telecommunication companies to improve internet connectivity for disadvantaged and vulnerable families who rely on mobile internet connection, but we must go beyond those initial interventions, as some pupils are still missing from lessons.

Two key issues remain. The first is that children need interaction with their peers; mental health issues, with potential social care effects, arise from not having that. Of course, the best way to address that is to reopen schools safely, as soon as possible, which brings me on to the second issue. Although most teachers want to get back in front of children as soon as possible, many do not feel safe doing so. Many express anxieties about household mixing, and the hundreds of close interactions per day. To make them feel safer, school staff must be made a higher priority for vaccination, particularly those with underlying health conditions who are under the age of 50. They should get the vaccine soon, at least before the suggested reopening after half-term. Widespread vaccinations will engender a feeling of safety among school staff, and I believe this is the quickest way for schools to return to normal.

Teachers have made massive sacrifices. They have been unable to see their families for months. The only safe and fair way to reopen schools is following a vaccination programme among school staff, and I ask the Government to prioritise that. The future of schoolchildren, especially the most disadvantaged, depends on it. Our teachers have been nothing short of heroic, and they need our support. They are on the frontline, so now is the time to put them at the front of the line.

Oral Answers to Questions

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gareth Bacon (Orpington) (Con)]

19. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools receive equitable levels of funding under the national funding formula.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

22. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools receive equitable levels of funding under the national funding formula.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

23. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools receive equitable levels of funding under the national funding formula.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gavin Williamson]

The Department and the Government are working towards a hard national funding formula to ensure fair funding across the country in every single constituency. I know that my hon. Friend has been campaigning hard to raise the issue facing his schools, and we will listen closely.

[Giles Watling]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his earlier answer. The national funding formula is letting down some of Clacton’s schools financially because of the way Essex County Council is rolling it out. Can the Department not have oversight and work with the council to rebalance the books in favour of our hard-pressed schools in Clacton?

[Gavin Williamson]

I hope that Essex County Council will move towards the national funding formula as rapidly as possible and will see it as clear guidance on what per-pupil funding it should be giving at every school. Part of the reason we have introduced a basic minimum at primary and secondary school level is to ensure that those minimums are delivered to every school across the country, but I would be very happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this in greater detail.

Further Education Funding

Giles Watling Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd April 2019 Westminster Hall

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

Thank you for putting me on the list, Sir Roger. It is lovely to be in a Chamber in which, for once, everybody is largely agreeing with each other. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) on having introduced today’s debate, and the hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin) on the cross-party campaign to get this issue on the agenda ahead of the spending review. Even in these uncertain times, we must continue to fight for causes that we believe in. This is one I believe in, because I had something to do with further education many years ago before I went off into the realms of drama—come to think of it, I am back there now.

I will focus on the much-welcomed introduction of T-levels, which provide a multi-faceted and practical approach to education and prepare students for the needs of industry. Successful delivery of T-levels requires teaching staff with specialist industry expertise, up-to-date equipment, and smaller class sizes, all of which require more funding. For T-levels to be viable, the Association of Colleges believes that we need to introduce a base rate of £1,000 per student as a minimum. We need to get those T-levels right, as they provide the knowledge and experience needed to open the door into skilled employment. Such a potentially transformative scheme cannot be delivered on the cheap: a higher level of investment must be maintained.

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

Yesterday, a group of us met the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to urge that FE college funding be increased in the upcoming spending review. Petroc College in North Devon is eager to get on with delivering the T-levels, exactly as my hon. Friend has mentioned. Does he agree that that is a vital thing to do?

[Giles Watling]

I agree with my hon. Friend. That is exactly what we are here to do, and judging by the comments from around the Chamber, I think that everybody else agrees with him as well.

I want this scheme to be a success, because I am sure that it would be particularly popular in my Clacton constituency. My area of Clacton lags behind the average in Essex and the national average for the number of members of the workforce without any qualification at all, which is why I encourage the Government to invest more in adult education. In fact, the only area in which we in Clacton beat the national average is the number of people who are economically active but have no qualifications; they make up nearly 10% of our workforce. I know from my conversations on the doorstep that people in Clacton have a real appetite for further education, and we have a great facility in Adult Community Learning Essex. I encourage the Government to take investment in adult learning seriously. It will pay great dividends in many areas, especially those such as Clacton, where many small and medium-sized enterprises are crying out for a skilled workforce.

Children in Need: Adulthood

Giles Watling Excerpts

Thursday 6th September 2018 Westminster Hall

[Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)]

It is, as always, a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Buck. I, too, pay tribute to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) for his passionate, informed and heartfelt speech. He spoke for many of us when he highlighted the consequences of the UK Government’s continued austerity for vulnerable young people and those who are trying to help them.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and the right hon. Member for Knowsley (Mr Howarth) made their usual thoughtful contributions, detailing the real consequences for individual children of not getting this right—the social problems and the educational attainment problems.

The hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) is absolutely right that early intervention is vital. Supporting families, where possible, is something I wholeheartedly agree with. The hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Alex Burghart) said that the issue of children in need was not a marginal issue, but had too often become so. He is right that far too often in the past we have looked at its symptoms rather than its causes. The hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Bambos Charalambous) said that vulnerable children become vulnerable adults. That is incredibly simple, but it is an incredible truth, which we have to accept. Their problems do not go away, but follow them through life. That is why early intervention is essential if we are going to address this issue.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is good to take a holistic view of these issues and not just deal with the symptoms? We are looking at many generations of poor parenting, which we have to address. We cannot just deal with the symptoms of the children. If we improved the quality of the parenting, we would start to bring those children into a good place, where they could get a decent education and life.

[Brendan O'Hara]

That holistic approach is something that I will come on to. It is more than good parenting; it is a societal issue. We have to change the culture of how we address these issues, rather than focusing simply on improving parents.

The hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Paul Farrelly) gave a powerful testimony focusing on the serious gap in local provision in his area of north Staffordshire. I would like to be a fly on the wall in his meeting with the health officials tomorrow.

Much of what we have discussed is wholly devolved to the Scottish Government. I will share the experience of Scotland, so that we may learn from each other across these islands in this vital area of supporting children in need, vulnerable young people, children with disability and those in care, helping them in that transition to adulthood. We believe it is absolutely essential for the good of us all that children, regardless of their personal circumstances, receive all the support they require to ensure that they can make that transition into adulthood and flourish into the happy, well-adjusted adults that they deserve to be.

I was delighted, therefore, that Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, in her programme for Government on Tuesday, promised a further £33 million to local authorities to provide targeted initiatives, activities and resources that will help to improve educational outcomes, specifically for care-experienced young people. I wholeheartedly welcome her pledge that the Scottish Government will incorporate directly into domestic law the principles of the UN convention on the rights of the child.

One of the most important pieces of legislation in recent years in Scotland was the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, which gives all children in Scotland the right to be protected from abuse and neglect. It is the cornerstone of the Scottish Government’s strategy for making Scotland the best place in the world for a child to grow up. The 2014 Act directs public services towards early years intervention. Early intervention and family support are critical. The legislation actively encourages prevention measures, rather than responding to crisis in later life.

The 2014 Act establishes a new legal framework within which services have to work together in support of children and their families. It is underpinned by the Scottish Government’s early commitment to the UN convention on the rights of the child. It seeks to establish a more holistic understanding of child wellbeing and how we, as a society, support our most vulnerable children, helping them to become the happy, well-adjusted young adults we wish them to be.

One of the many initiatives in the Scottish Government’s programme is “Getting it right for every child”, which is a national approach to improving outcomes and the wellbeing of our young people by offering the right help at the right time from the right people. “Getting it right for every child” supports young people and their parents into working in partnerships with the services that can help them best. It is designed to empower children, young people and their parents by, first and foremost, recognising and promoting their rights. That means putting their needs at the heart of any service delivery. “Getting it right for every child” builds on what most families already know: children benefit from a wide network of support, to promote and enhance their wellbeing. It is absolutely right that that support network should start with the family, but then the family can call on social services, the health service and the education services for support, as and when they need it. We all know how important it is to have a positive support network when transitioning into adult life.

The Scottish Transition Forum is another initiative from the Scottish Government. It encourages people to work collaboratively, share learning, identify gaps in current provision and generate solutions. Currently, it has 800 members. It is open to anybody who is committed to improving that transition experience for young people with additional support needs. Crucially, the Scottish Transition Forum involves those young people with additional support needs, their parents and carers in defining its policy.

The Scottish Government have also created the Care Experienced Employability Programme, which is helping hundreds of care-leaving youngsters between the ages of 16 and 29 to move into appropriate work, training and educational opportunities. It will deliver intensive support to young people who are often excluded from attaining their full potential because of their circumstances. It offers work experience, qualifications, practical skills, community projects and life coaching, all of which will be focused on the individual young person. The CEEP is a good example of the Government working with the third sector—in this case Barnardo’s Scotland, Action for Children and the Prince’s Trust, which have come together to form a young persons’ consortium in order to deliver that programme. There is so much being done in this holistic approach in Scotland. I advise the Minister, if he has not already, to speak to his counterpart in Edinburgh to see how Scotland is developing this programme.

Time is pressing, so I will be brief. In Scotland, local authorities have a statutory duty to prepare young people for leaving care once they cease to be looked after. They must also provide assistance to young people who have ceased to be looked after on or after their 16th birthday, and are legally required to provide after-care support until that care leaver turns 19. It is vital that young people are not cast out of the care system and left to fend for themselves; that is a recipe for disaster, which we have seen so often. To ensure that the Scottish Government are doing all they should for children in care, they have recently set up an independent care review, which will look at the existing legislation and the current practices, culture and ethos of the care system in Scotland. It will listen to the voice of young people in care and those who have been through the care system.

When she launched the care review, the First Minister said:

“Every young person should have an equal opportunity to succeed in life, no matter their circumstances. We should celebrate the progress that has been made that has allowed many of our young people who grow up in care to do great things…this review is not about determining if this can be achieved, but how we create a system that puts love for the children it cares for at its heart.”

Help and support for children is not an event, but a lifetime commitment by society. If we see it as an event, we are destined to fail. While in Scotland things may not be perfect, we put the needs of our young people at the heart of policy making and political thinking. That is the only way we can get this right. If we do not put young people at the heart, we will not get it right for them. As I said, we may not be there yet, but there is a firm commitment to make Scotland the best place in the world for children to grow up.

Post-18 Education

Giles Watling Excerpts

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

The hon. Lady is right to talk about the choices that are made early. That is why drawing attention to the so-called facilitating subjects can be useful for keeping people’s options open for higher education. The point also highlights why we need to make clear early in school the routes to technical and vocational as well as higher education.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that high-quality apprenticeships are key to addressing the UK’s skills shortages?

[Damian Hinds]

I agree entirely. That is why we have such bold ambition for what we will do on apprenticeships—not just the numbers, but with the Institute for Apprenticeships, and moving from frameworks to standards to ensure that they deliver what business needs.

University of Essex

Giles Watling Excerpts

Thursday 2nd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jenkin]

I very much welcome my hon. Friend’s intervention. At the point where I am celebrating the University of Essex’s global reach, it is entirely appropriate that Southend and Rayleigh should be included in the equation.

Staff and students come from all around the world and the university collaborates internationally on a high proportion of its work. The Times Higher Education rankings for 2018 placed the University of Essex second in the UK for “international outlook” and I am delighted that applications to the university from international students continue to increase. I am also delighted that, on their arrival in Essex, international staff and students are met with such an open and inclusive welcome.

As the UK regains control of its borders following Brexit, I urge the Government to ensure that barriers are not put in the way of universities such as Essex, one of the UK’s great export success stories, continuing to attract talented students and staff from around the globe.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that as well as having an excellent chancellor, the University of Essex is a great centre for the local community it serves, not just the global community? This summer I was fortunate enough to give out graduation certificates to hundreds of students who attended during the summer break. Does my hon. Friend agree that the university serves a useful purpose in that regard?