Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Andrew Selous

Monday 23rd May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

The Church of England and the Catholic Church run a third of schools in England. How does the Secretary of State plan to improve that partnership even further for the benefit of all children?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

The Church of England and the Catholic Church have been partners on the journey of the White Paper. They are already making ambitious plans to deliver what we all want to see—great schools where children get a great education in the classroom wherever they live in the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Andrew Selous

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I want to just squash that misrepresentation: we are not withdrawing funding from BTECs. BTECs that are of high quality and are valued will continue, but it is only right that we look at the landscape and see where quality lies and how we can increase the ladders of opportunity, not take them away from people.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

6. What plans he has to introduce a mechanism to help enforce food standards in schools.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Andrew Selous

Monday 19th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I thank the hon. Member for his question. I would just respectfully say that, on the contrary, the Government work with the diagnostics industry. Indeed, we were able to scale up. When we entered this pandemic, we were only capable of doing about 2,000 tests a day, but we now have a PCR testing capacity of 600,000, as he will have heard earlier, and millions of lateral flow tests. I think it is the combination of both those things that works, but if there are other companies in his constituency or indeed elsewhere in the country that he thinks are worth looking at, I will certainly put them through to the relevant team in the Department.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con) [V]]

Can I thank my hon. Friend for his unfailing courtesy and diligence in responding to MPs week after week in respect of his duties, and also ask him if he could share with the House the results of the test to release experiment? Like many businesses in my constituency, the Dine Yard restaurant in Leighton Buzzard had to close for a week, and I have been told that GObowling in Dunstable may have to close as well, because of a lack of staff, so anything the Minister can share with the House on that issue would be very welcome.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. We are, as he rightly outlines, incredibly aware of the stress of self-isolation and the effect of the policy on various workforces. Subject to the results of the clinical trials, which are expected within the next one to two weeks, we hope to be able to extend the use of daily contact testing for some workplaces, although the initial focus will need to be on workplaces with established asymptomatic testing sites, or possibly those that can rapidly stand up ATSs, given that the first clinical trial is for assisted rather than home-based testing.

European Union (Referendum) Bill

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Andrew Selous

Friday 5th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

rose—

[Nadhim Zahawi]

rose—