Schools Update

Debate between Justine Greening and Andrew Selous

Monday 17th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

Briefly, the local authorities will now go through a process of setting a local formula, but we will confirm the allocation notionally to each school in September. That is a significant process, which involves confirming allocations for around 24,000 schools. Today, I have set out the funding not just for the core schools budget, but for high needs, and I hope that that is good news for my hon. Friend.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Schools in central Bedfordshire that currently get £4,314 per pupil will be very grateful to learn of the new figure of £4,800 per pupil. What can the Secretary of State do to spread best practice across academies regarding covering lessons when teachers are not ill? Some of my academies do this really well. They timetable a bit of extra time in so some staff can cover other staff. Could she have a word about spreading that best practice across all academies so that children do not miss out on lessons?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Andrew Selous

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We need to make sure that all Departments are pulling in the same direction on this agenda, as I am trying to do. The hon. Gentleman is right. Modern-day slavery is a disgrace and my Department will look at what role we can play in relation to human trafficking.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

7. What recent contact she has had with the Pakistani Government about UK aid.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

Following Pakistan’s historic elections on 11 May, I have spoken with incoming Government Ministers about their priorities, as have my officials. The federal and provincial governments made clear manifesto commitments to reform and now have a clear democratic mandate. The people of Pakistan have put their faith in democracy and they now want to see Governments delivering on those promises.

[Andrew Selous]

Tax collection is very weak in Pakistan, with apparently 70% of its MPs not even filing a tax return. Given that Pakistan promised back in 2008 to close its tax loopholes as a condition of an International Monetary Fund loan, why should we believe Pakistan on this occasion that it will be better at collecting the taxes due to it?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue, as the International Development Committee did. The incoming Government have a clear-cut manifesto commitment to increase the proportion of GDP from tax collected. We support that, and we hope and expect that they will get on with it.