Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 14th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

As I have already said, I am more than happy to do so, but I want to consult the maintained nursery sector before I do that. There is no point in Government taking a high-handed approach and thinking that they know best. We need to consult the sector and plot the best possible way forward to maintain its outstanding future.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The cuts currently planned by the Government will be crushing in the nursery sector. Does the Minister not realise that the current level of nursery provision will be unsustainable if these cuts are implemented?

[Caroline Dinenage]

There are no cuts. The cuts are a figment of the hon. Gentleman’s imagination. We are putting an extra £6 billion of funding into this scheme by 2020. It is more than any Government have ever spent on early years childcare.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure the hon. Gentleman will bear up stoically and with fortitude under the burden.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Could the Minister now answer the original question? Is he advocating the abolition of national pay scales, because that is what it sounds like he is saying?

[Mr Gibb]

What I am saying is that, with the new freedoms academies have, they are able to pay salaries to attract the best teachers. That is a very good policy; it enables them to retain and attract the graduates in maths, physics and modern languages that schools and headteachers are telling us they need to recruit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

That is yet another clear example of why the school funding system needs to be reformed. Torbay receives £1,530 extra for each pupil on free school meals, while schools in other parts of the country can receive £5,000. However, as a result of last week’s announcement, Torbay will receive an additional £1.52 million and will continue to receive that funding because of the £390 million being baked into the school formula.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

So why exactly have 800 children’s centres closed since the Conservatives—and, previously, the coalition—came to power?

[Mr Gyimah]

Yet again, the Labour party decides to confuse mergers with closures. As was said earlier—before the hon. Gentleman came into the Chamber—what we should care about is the outcomes for parents, rather than simply counting buildings.

[John Cryer]

I was here!

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman signals from a sedentary position that he has been present throughout the proceedings, so that is on the record.