Oral Answers to Questions

Keir Starmer Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2015 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Keir Starmer (Holborn and St Pancras) (Lab)]

1. What support the Government provide to children with autism in the education system; and if she will make a statement.

[The Minister for Children and Families (Edward Timpson)]

On behalf of Conservative Members and, I am sure, the whole House, let me echo the sentiments that have just been expressed about the Davis cup victory of the Great British team. It was good to see the Scots leading the way in ensuring that we had our first Great British victory in about 70 years.

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced significant reforms so that children and young people with autism could be better supported in education. The reforms have rightly focused on needs and aspirations, enabling all pupils, including those with autism, to achieve better outcomes in education and adult life. The Department is also funding the Autism Education Trust to deliver training to staff, the National Autistic Society to help to reduce exclusions, and Ambitious about Autism to support transition to college.

[Keir Starmer]

Netley primary school in my constituency has a fantastic resource base for 25 children with autistic spectrum disorders. Many of them are making excellent progress, but one of the concerns raised with me is that Ofsted’s published data for the school, which includes children from the resource base along with other pupils, do not adequately reflect that. Does the Minister agree that Ofsted data should clearly take into account the specific needs and challenges of children with special educational needs such as autism, and will he agree to meet me to discuss the specific case of Netley primary school?

[Edward Timpson]

I should be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss what Netley primary school is doing, and some of the challenges it faces in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. We obviously want to ensure that every child, irrespective of his or her needs, is receiving the best possible education, and we are introducing progression measures throughout the school system so that every child’s progress counts towards a school’s overall performance. We shall also be introducing the first ever special educational needs inspection framework, along with both Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission. I am sure that that will help to deal with many of those issues, but I should be happy to discuss them further with the hon. Gentleman.

Trade Union Bill

Keir Starmer Excerpts

Monday 14th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Keir Starmer (Holborn and St Pancras) (Lab)]

Like many others, I am a proud member of my trade union and in my career as a barrister I acted for literally hundreds of trade unionists. When I was appointed as the Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service I joined the two staff trade unions to demonstrate to them my strength of feeling about trade unions. Over five difficult years they worked with me to resolve issues, rather than escalate them, which is a real asset in running a national public service such as the one that I was running. I pay tribute to them: that is what trade unionism is all about.

As other speakers have said, the right to join a trade union and the right of association and protest were won over a very long period. They are now entrenched in international law, not least article 11 of the European convention on human rights and the International Labour Organisation conventions. That means there are four rules that have to be applied to the restriction of trade union rights: first, the restriction must be necessary; secondly, it must be proportionate; thirdly, the Government bear the obligation of showing necessity and proportionality —the burden is on them; and, whatever else happens, the very essence must not be stripped away.

This Bill fails all four tests. The three clearest examples are: treating abstentions as no votes, which is clearly against the international standard and the international norm; putting greater restrictions on public services, a category drawn much more broadly than the international community would permit; and the unjustifiable restrictions on rights of protest both in picketing and away from picketing. So this is not only a blow for trade unions and trade unionism; it is also a blow for human rights and civil liberties, and that is why we must vote against it.