Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Chris Philp

Thursday 23rd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

This is an important topic. Paying men and women unequally for the same work has been unlawful for nearly 50 years, and I spoke directly with Frances O’Grady only yesterday about the need for us to work collectively to tackle this. The Department for Education also held a flexible working summit with the teaching profession last month. I agree that improving flexible working is part of how we can ensure that women are better able to get back into the workplace. In relation to equal pay, that is a legal requirement and gender pay gap transparency is part of how we can continue to shine a light on this range of issues.

[Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)]

T4. Many women’s rights campaigners have raised concerns about women’s safety in relation to the use of women’s facilities, ranging from toilets right through to women’s prisons, where people who were born men use them simply on the basis of self-certifying that they are now women. What response will the Secretary of State give to those women’s rights campaigners who are concerned about women’s safety?

New Grammar Schools

Debate between Justine Greening and Chris Philp

Thursday 8th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I have a great amount of respect for the hon. Gentleman. I know he spent a career in education before coming into this place. I would simply say to him, as I have said to many other colleagues, that he should wait for the policy options to come out. I will be interested to hear his response to them in due course.

[Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)]

I went to a state grammar school in south London, and I owe my place here to that school. The best grammar schools actively seek children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and 14% of pupils at Wallington County grammar school, next door to Croydon, are on free school meals. Does the Secretary of State support that school’s plan to open a satellite grammar school in my constituency, rather like the one that was opened in Sevenoaks a few months ago?

[Justine Greening]

I think all of us are here because of the education that we were lucky enough to have. The challenge that we face, and the challenge that we are debating today, is ensuring that no child misses out on that opportunity because of the postcode lottery of where they happen to have been born. We need to ensure that good schools, whatever kind of good schools they are, have more freedom to expand and deliver more good places in our school system for children who do not currently have them.