Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 20th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The terms of the Secretary of State’s initial reply to the right hon. Member for Chelmsford (Sir Simon Burns), perfectly properly, went somewhat beyond Chelmsford. I make no criticism of that at all, but it simply widens the field to colleagues who do not represent Chelmsford.

[Ms Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) (Lab)]

Thanks to increased investment and the work of teachers, other teaching staff, supportive parents and the local community, standards in our schools in Southwark have massively increased, but our schools are not overfunded. Surely it cannot be right that, per pupil, we will see a cut of £1,000 per year as a result of this so-called fair funding formula. It is not fair. Whatever levelling up the Secretary of State needs to do in other parts of the country, she should please go ahead and do so, but do not cut schools funding for the poorest children.

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[Karin Smyth (Bristol South) (Lab)]

24. My constituency sends the least children to university. Bristol University’s Bristol scholars scheme, which is aimed at widening access, has taken a third of its pupils from private schools. Does the Minister agree that that makes an entire mockery of the scheme?

[Mr Speaker]

I fought the hon. Lady’s constituency, but, unfortunately for me, and probably beneficially for her, the constituency fought back.

[Edward Timpson]

We of course welcome initiatives, such as the one the hon. Lady has described, to widen participation in higher education. In 2017-18, universities intend to spend more than £833 million on measures to improve access and student success through their access agreements for students from disadvantaged backgrounds—up significantly from £404 million in 2009.

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[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am keen to get through some more questions, but we do need shorter questions and shorter answers.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

17. Heads in my constituency have told me that they are already having to cut teachers, teaching assistants, key courses and even school hours, and from Friday’s EPI report we find that there are unlikely to be any schools in England that will avoid per-pupil funding cuts. Does the Minister recognise that the Government are breaking yet another manifesto promise?

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[Mr Gibb]

My right hon. Friend knows how dealings with the Treasury work; one has to justify every penny. We managed to secure a very good deal with the Treasury, and we have the highest level of school funding— £40 billion, rising to £42 billion by 2019-20, as pupil numbers rise—at a time when we seek to continue to tackle the public sector deficit that we inherited from the Labour party.

[Mr Speaker]

We will have two questions from the hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner). They need to be extremely brief, otherwise we will just have to move on.

[Angela Rayner (Ashton-under-Lyne) (Lab)]

Earlier, I set the Secretary of State a simple maths question on free schools, but I do not think we had a clear answer. So let me set her one on verbal reasoning. If David promised to protect school spending per pupil and Justine’s new funding formula cuts spending per pupil in more than 9,000 schools, what does that make Theresa?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

I have been advised—as I could have seen with my own eyes, but I must admit that I had not—that the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) is not in the Chamber. Fortunately, the hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Rehman Chishti) is here, so we will hear him.