Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Northern Ireland Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Kennedy Excerpts
Wednesday 2nd March 2016

(8 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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Only the SNP could try to maintain a grievance after a settlement has been put in place. We have built a powerhouse Parliament for Scotland that will have more powers, more ability to set tax rates, more ability to determine benefits for its citizens. Now it is time for the SNP to stop talking about grievances and get on with government.

Seema Kennedy Portrait Seema Kennedy (South Ribble) (Con)
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Q2. The Csa Group in my constituency has recently taken on six new apprentices, and across South Ribble we have had more than 1,000 apprenticeship starts since 2014. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this suggests that the Government should stick with their plans so that even more companies have the opportunity to take on apprentices?

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We have this very stretching target for 3 million apprentices to be trained during this Parliament. We will do our bit by funding those programmes. We want business to do its part by contributing to the apprenticeship levy, but we need small businesses such as Csa in my hon. Friend’s constituency and, indeed, the public sector to get fully involved in training apprentices to give young people the chance to earn and learn at the same time.