John Bercow
Main Page: John Bercow (Speaker - Buckingham)(12 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Mr Speaker
Order. I want to hear from the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) and I hope that that House will be courteous enough to allow me to do so.
Mr Barron
When a Select Committee reaches a conclusion on an overtly party political basis, it is easy for the Executive to ignore it, and the Committee should not be used in this way. Is the Secretary of State concerned that people seeking such appointments in the future will not want to put themselves through the machine that has been set against Les Ebdon in the past few months, in the media and elsewhere, and that we will end up with a second XI batting for Britain, not a first XI?
Mr Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)
After 50 years of comprehensive education, why do we have this tragedy that only 50 pupils receiving free school meals are getting into the top universities? How are we going to solve this? The Secretary of State says that he is not going to dumb down standards. Is it not a fact that the era of the greatest social mobility—the most opportunities for poor people—was when there was a grammar school in every town?
Mr Speaker
In answering, the Secretary of State will want to focus on the appointment of the director of the Office for Fair Access.
Vince Cable
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to say that I have no intention of dumbing down standards. The access agreements that are being reached through OFFA and which will be implemented by Professor Ebdon will not dumb down standards either.
Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) (LD)
Over the past few days there has been an enormous amount of media hype of the issue and some hyperbolic language, “social engineering” being one of the terms used. To get down to some facts, more than 20 Oxbridge colleges made no offers to black students for undergraduate courses in 2009, with one college not having admitted a single black student for five years. Meanwhile, four elite independent schools have sent more pupils to Oxbridge than 2,000 state schools. Would the Secretary of State—
Mr Speaker
Order. May I very gently say to the hon. Gentleman that there is a lot to get through, so I feel sure he will reach a question mark before very long?
Stephen Lloyd
Will the Secretary of State confirm that the new director of fair access will have sufficient resources to make a real difference to this deplorable record?