Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

April is Autism Awareness month, and earlier this month, The Economist led with an article on how the talents and skills of people with autism and on the autistic spectrum are potentially being wasted. It said that if businesses were encouraged to take more friendly approaches to recruitment and to deploy the appropriate skills, we could have many more people in the workplace. We had a fascinating and moving debate last week on autism, during which many Members shared moving experiences of their own children, including my hon. Friend the Member for Angus (Mike Weir) and the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mrs Trevelyan). Will the Minister meet me and a cross-party delegation to discuss how we can get businesses properly to mark the number of people on the autism spectrum and how we can work together more across the House?

[Mr Speaker]

I was going to invite the hon. Lady to seek an Adjournment debate, until I realised that in fact she had had it.

[George Freeman]

I will restrict my answer, Mr Speaker. The right meeting would be with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whose Department leads on this issue, and with the Ministers for Skills and for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise. We are actively engaging with all the relevant charities on this issue.

[Mr Speaker]

I hope that the hon. Lady is content with that answer, although, whether she is or is not, she has had it.

[Mr Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of the potential effect of a UK withdrawal from the EU on the UK’s digital industries.

[The Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to take Question 7 with Question 14, if that is okay.

We think that leaving the EU would be an absolute disaster for Britain’s digital industries.

[Mr Speaker]

It would be okay, if the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Phil Wilson) were here, but he isn’t, so it isn’t, but we will proceed unabashed by his absence, because we have the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown).

[Mr Brown]

The digital sector is very important to the north-east of England, as my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland Central (Julie Elliott) made clear earlier. Some 25,000 jobs are now directly involved in the sector. What reassurance can the Minister give the House that there will be market access arrangements with our partners in the EU in the event of a no vote?

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We must move on.