Lord Johnson of Marylebone debates involving the Department for Education during the 2010-2015 Parliament

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Excerpts
Monday 17th October 2011

(13 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Tim Loughton Portrait Tim Loughton
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I was delighted to attend in Leeds recently the Magic Breakfast charity, which has done fantastic work. It is a social enterprise that has worked its brilliant magic on schools up and down the country to make sure that kids get a healthy breakfast. We want to see more of that through organisations such as Magic Breakfast. I would hope that the hon. Lady supported such organisations.

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson (Orpington) (Con)
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There is a strong feeling in Bromley, which is in the vanguard of the academies movement, that the proposed formula for the top-slicing of LACSEG—local authority central spend equivalent grant—unfairly penalises very efficient local authorities. Will the Secretary of State agree to a meeting to discuss this concern?

Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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Strong feelings in Bromley always weigh with me. It is the case that the approach to LACSEG needs reform, and we are consulting on it. I expect that, as ever, voices from Bromley will be among the most persuasive.

Public Accounts Committee Report (CAFCASS)

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Excerpts
Thursday 11th November 2010

(14 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness Hodge of Barking Portrait Margaret Hodge
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Yes, there was unanimous agreement in Committee that the failure to collect adequate data to be able both to predict future case load and to manage current peaks and troughs in case loads was extremely worrying. I do not think that we were given any proper undertakings or comfort that CAFCASS was on top of the data and information requirements that would allow it to improve its performance.

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson (Orpington) (Con)
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One way in which CAFCASS was world class was in the amount of pay that the chief executive received: £168,000. Given how long he had been in the role—since 2004—and the litany of failure against key performance indicators that the report exposed, did the right hon. Lady feel that the Department was sufficiently engaged with the possibility of management change at the top of CAFCASS?

Baroness Hodge of Barking Portrait Margaret Hodge
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That is a matter for Ministers. I hope that the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), who is in his place, will note this point: we were all a bit taken aback by the fact that the permanent secretary appeared, from the evidence that he was giving, to believe that the organisation was world class, as all the data in front of us suggested otherwise.