Oral Answers to Questions

Mims Davies Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

6. What recent steps he has taken to promote the provision of pro bono legal services.

[Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)]

7. What recent steps he has taken to promote (a) public legal education and (b) the provision of pro bono legal services.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

8. What recent steps he has taken to promote (a) public legal education and (b) the provision of pro bono legal services. [R]

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[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. It is right to pay tribute to the existing pro bono commitment by the legal professions, working alongside the voluntary sector, to providing trustee support and other advice to a range of local charities in both her constituency and mine, and in many other communities the length and breadth of the country.

[Mims Davies]

Does the Solicitor General believe that public legal understanding has caught up with the legal changes in relation to sexting and revenge pornography?

[The Solicitor General]

Public legal education has an invaluable role to play. I have seen at first hand in schools how the Citizenship Foundation, with the support of lawyers, runs sessions on issues such as social media and the law. The particular issue that my hon. Friend raises is extremely sensitive and important to young people in particular, and I believe that running the appropriate courses can teach them about the consequences of such criminal acts.

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[Justin Tomlinson]

First, to be clear, those who would be in the support group will see no changes at all. On the specific area of those with learning disabilities, my Department, jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has set up a taskforce, which is chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard). We are looking at the best ways of accessing the apprenticeships scheme to help those with learning disabilities to have a greater chance of taking up an opportunity to work.

[Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)]

Will the Minister confirm that there have been detailed conversations about the value of the Access to Work programme and that the Government continue to be committed to it? The scheme was raised with me at the weekend by two disabled working people in my constituency who are concerned that the Government are not committed to it and that they may be let down.

[Justin Tomlinson]

The Access to Work programme is one of the incredibly important levers we are using to meet our commitment to halve the disability employment gap. I am delighted that funding has been increased to provide an additional 25,000 places a year, which builds on our near record number of just short of 37,000 people who benefit from the scheme.