Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Gibb and Mark Hoban(9 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Gibb
The evidence is that in those small number of examples where free schools have not succeeded, action is taken more swiftly than in local authority schools. There is evidence that many local authority schools languish in special measures year after year. That is not what is happening with the academies and free schools programme.
Mr Mark Hoban (Fareham) (Con)
21. I commend my hon. Friend on his return to the Front Bench. Free schools and academies are rightly popular with parents and many of them, such as Cams Hill in my constituency, turn children away. Will he consider giving academies and free schools the power to borrow to expand so that more parents have a choice of places for their children?
Mr Gibb
That is more an issue for the Treasury than for this policy. We are seeing more and more free schools coming on line, and they are popular. We already have 157 free schools in the pipeline, about 80 will be opening this September, and I am convinced that they will all be very successful.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Gibb and Mark Hoban(11 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hoban
I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman would want to celebrate the fact that an additional 21,000 people in the north-east are in work compared with a year ago. Yes, there are deep-seated challenges in the north-east, but I am confident that progress is being made in rebalancing the economy, and that is down to the strength of the private sector.
Mr Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)
May I ask my hon. Friend what happens when someone who is long-term unemployed rings Worthing benefits centre given its failure to return calls within even the three-hour performance target and its failure to meet the target of processing 85% of employment and support allowance payments within the target of 16 days? What action is being taken to remedy the position, and when does he anticipate that the centre will be meeting all its performance targets?
Mr Hoban
My hon. Friend is right to highlight the issues at Worthing benefits centre. As a consequence of a very high level of applications for ESA, there is some pressure on performance at the centre. Work is being done to help tackle the backlog and to get back to the 85% level. Managers from the Department are happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss the situation.