Draft Government of Wales Act 2006 (Devolved Welsh Authorities) (Amendment) Order 2024

John Lamont Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 General Committees

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Vickers. While, as we have heard, this is simply a technical instrument to amend schedule 9A of the Government of Wales Act to remove the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales—which no longer exists—from a list of devolved Welsh authorities, my concern is the Welsh Labour Government’s record on education and that this latest round of reforms will cause further damage to the education of our children in Wales.

Education attainment in Wales is dreadful, as has been clearly highlighted by the latest PISA—programme for international student assessment—results. The results show a large decline in attainment, declining more in Wales than in any other country in 2022. Wales’s performance has fallen to its lowest ever level in maths, reading and science tests taken by 15-year-olds. Wales is at the bottom of the rankings for the whole of the United Kingdom in maths, reading and science. The performance of pupils in Wales has fallen significantly since the last PISA tests in 2019 and it continues to be below the OECD average. For maths, Wales is down by 21 points; for reading, it is down 18; and for science, it is down 15.

But there is absolutely no sign of Labour recognising the problems that it has created or making any attempt to invest in our young people. Labour’s budget last year cut £56 million in cash terms and £140 million in real terms from the education budget. This year’s supplementary budget has resulted in a further £92 million cut in cash terms to the education budget. Those cuts include £930,000 taken away from additional learning needs and £1.2 million taken away from education infrastructure.

There can be no doubt where this failure rests. It rests solely with Labour and its reforms to the education system in Wales. In Wales, the gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils is much wider than it is in England and there has been little to no progress in addressing that since 2009. The gulf between pupils in Wales and in England can be explained only by the difference in policy and approach.

While we will not oppose the instrument, we want to record that we recognise the concerns that parents and communities have in Wales about the failure of the Welsh Labour Government to maintain educational standards.