Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Wood Excerpts

Thursday 20th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Anne Milton]

I am very happy to meet the hon. Lady at any time because, as she rightly says, this is a vital area. We are spending £1.5 billion on adult education, some of which has been devolved to combined authorities and also delegated to London. It will be interesting to see how those different areas best use that money in education—in a way, they are like pilot schemes. I have also seen extremely innovative projects that work with women with children, and help them to help their children with school tests and such things, as a way of improving their own English. Those are often women who would not otherwise have come forward.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

What are the Government doing to support women in their communities who are isolated as a result of poor English language skills?

[Anne Milton]

I have commented on the English language courses we are running, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also has a big programme. Integration is uppermost in our minds at the moment, and the first step towards integrating people and helping them to gain confidence is for them to have good English language skills.