Academies (Funding) Debate

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Department: Department for Education

Academies (Funding)

Helen Jones Excerpts
Thursday 16th June 2011

(13 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Helen Jones Portrait Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)
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I feel sorry for the Minister today, because he has clearly been sent here as the fall guy. Speaking as a parent and on behalf of the parents in my constituency, I should like to ask him a question. We have a Secretary of State who botched up the Building Schools for the Future programme, who had to do a U-turn on school sport partnerships and who cannot spot errors in the funding programmes of his own Department. Why should any parent have confidence in his running the education system when he cannot even run his own Department?

Nick Gibb Portrait Mr Gibb
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I know and like the hon. Lady; I have known her for many years. She is trying to create a theme here, but there is no theme. The problem that was reported in the Financial Times today occurs every year. It arises from the complexity of the funding system, which we are trying to simplify. It is as simple as that, and we will sort it out.