Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Tuesday 1st May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We are running late, but I am very keen to hear the voices of Harlow and of Washington and Sunderland West. We will begin with Harlow—I call Mr Robert Halfon.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

21. What plans his Department has to develop innovative projects through public-private partnerships.

[The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

The Department has no current plans to develop projects through public-private partnerships. There are a number of areas where the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy co-funds projects with businesses, including in the areas of innovation and skills.

[Robert Halfon]

Does my hon. Friend not agree that the public-private partnership between Harlow College and Stansted airport in building a skills academy is exactly the kind of public-private partnership that we should be following? Harlow will now be the skills capital of the east of England. Will he use the Harlow example for the rest of the country?

[Mr Gyimah]

My right hon. Friend is right: Harlow often leads the way in a number of areas, and I wish to congratulate him on the opening of the Stansted Airport College. The new apprenticeships build on the 1.3 million apprenticeship starts since May 2015.