Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Graham Stuart and Caroline Ansell

Thursday 10th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) (Con)]

What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on supporting the recovery of the UK’s English language teaching sector.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Graham Stuart)]

Happy birthday, Mr Speaker.

Recognising the challenges that the sector faces, both I and my co-chair of the education sector advisory group, the Minister for Universities, continue to engage with colleagues across Government to explore options for further support.

[Caroline Ansell [V]]

The English language is arguably this country’s most successful export. Covid has of course devastated the sector, and with the international scene still challenging, the impact goes on and is deep and wide even as other sectors recover. Will my hon. Friend meet me, a delegation of MPs and officials from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to work together to overcome the challenges that the sector faces and safeguard the future of this vital export, which is so important to Eastbourne and to the UK?

[Graham Stuart]

I would of course be delighted to meet my hon. Friend, and I congratulate her on her continued leadership in Parliament on behalf of her constituents and the country as a whole.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Graham Stuart and Caroline Ansell

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) (Con) [V]]

The English language is arguably one of our top exports of all time, and English language schools are a vital part of the local economy in my destination constituency of Eastbourne. Can my hon. Friend assure my language schools, hospitality businesses and host families that Ministers are working with the sector to ensure its survival in these difficult days and working on plans for its success when it is once again safe for language learners to travel?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Graham Stuart)]

No one in this House has done more than my hon Friend to champion the English language sector under the pressures of covid. I congratulate her on today’s question and on the debate that she led in, I think, July, to which I had the honour of replying.

We are determined to champion the interests of the English language sector. That is why it is a key member of the education sector advisory group, which I co-chair with my hon. Friend the Minister for Universities. We are determined across Government to ensure that it can access Government schemes for support. My hon. Friend is also right to say that we should look ahead, and that is why we have produced an enterprise management incentive suppliers catalogue for China and are working to replicate that for growing markets such as Indonesia and Brazil. We have to help those businesses to survive today, and we have to put in place support for the future so that they can grow once again and be such an important part of our education sector and, indeed, our wider cultural offer to the world.