Education: Return in January

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

It is always lovely to hear from the hon. Lady, and with such a festive backdrop behind her. Frankly, whatever we do, she will probably always be a little bit miserable about everything. We put in a £1 billion covid catch-up fund, making sure that we are supporting children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. We go above and beyond at every stage to ensure that children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are given the most assistance. We on the Government side of the House have always understood that by actually preserving education, by making sure that children are in the position to be able to return to school at the earliest possible moment and to benefit from being in school, is the best way to give them the greatest advantages in life. I know the hon. Lady—it is not in her DNA to be able to give credit to any Government. I am not sure whether it would take £1 billion, £2 billion or £3 billion for her to acknowledge the fact that we are taking action.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con) [V]]

I welcome the—[Inaudible.]—showing at this stage. Given that Amber Valley as a local authority area has some of the higher levels of cases in the country, will the Secretary of State confirm whether we are in the contingency area where schools will not be allowed to open at all? I hope that we are not, but will he publish the criteria for deciding in which area schools cannot open?

[Gavin Williamson]

We will be publishing details of those local authorities within contingency framework areas later today on the gov.uk website. We would want to see schools entering the contingency framework very much as an absolute last resort, where the public health evidence and public health advice are that it is important and vital to do so in terms of the management of covid infections.