Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Lord Willetts

Thursday 6th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

After 2016, graduates will be paying back less per month than under the current arrangements, so that factor should not deter postgraduate study. Our extra funding is paying for 20 programmes, in 20 universities, to explore different ways of encouraging more postgraduate study.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

15. What recent estimate he has made of changes in the number of applications by (a) part-time and (b) mature students since changes in the level of student fees.

[The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)]

Data are not collected on applications for part-time study in higher education. However, the number of part-time students enrolling in higher education has fallen by 42% since its peak in 2008-09. The latest figures from UCAS show that the number of mature applicants to full-time undergraduate courses has risen over the last two application cycles by 5%.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

I thank the Minister for that answer, and for that rather startling statistic. Another startling statistic is that the number of part-time undergraduates fell by 19% in 2012-13. Does he now regret the trebling of tuition fees? Does he understand that it has undermined the number of part-time students and that it is leading to declining social mobility?

[Mr Willetts]

This is not to do with the introduction of the fees and loans. As I said in answer to the previous question, the burden of repayment on graduates has fallen. The hon. Gentleman describes a trend that began under the previous Government. We believe it is attributable significantly to their policy of not funding students who already have an equivalent-level qualification. That is why I have started the process of reversing that by extending entitlements to loans to more part-time students, and we aim to continue to reverse the damage done by Labour’s policy.

Opportunities for the Next Generation

Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Lord Willetts

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the graduate tax favoured by the Labour leader would make the fiscal crisis that we have inherited far worse. That is one of the many objections to the idea.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Will the Minister confirm that the Chancellor’s own Office for Budget Responsibility has stated that the borrowing requirement will have to increase by £46 billion and that unemployment figures will increase by 200,000 as a result of the Chancellor’s economic strategy?

[Mr Willetts]

I do not know which specific OBR forecast the hon. Gentleman refers to, but the OBR work I have seen makes it clear that although there are reductions in public sector employment, they are more than offset by increases in private sector employment. That is one of the many ways in which we are rebalancing the economy. We are now hearing claims to fiscal rectitude from the party that left us the largest structural deficit in the G7 and the largest level of borrowing in the developed world. Unless the Labour party gets serious about the importance of prudent management of the public finances, we simply will not take seriously its commitment to caring about the interests of future generations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Willetts]

That is a very important point; indeed, I understand that with its latest debt issue the Bank of England has secured historically low—almost unprecedentedly low—interest rates, which is further evidence of the confidence that people have in our seriousness about tackling the deficit that we inherited from the previous Government.

I now want to make progress on some of the specific points in the motion that the shadow Secretary of State put before us. First, let me focus briefly on youth unemployment and those not in education, employment or training. Youth unemployment is a serious problem; it does need to be tackled, and of course we regret the fact that it now stands at 949,000, having been at 924,000 when we took office. However, as we have heard, when Labour took office it was at 664,000, and the rise in youth unemployment began long before the economic crisis hit.

The really serious question that parties on both sides of the House need to address is why, even during Labour’s boom years, was youth unemployment already starting to rise. That tells us that it is a deep-seated trend, which tells us that something has gone seriously wrong with our education and training system—it was not meeting employers’ needs.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Willetts]

Just a minute; I want to make a bit more headway on this point.

There is a very similar pattern in numbers of NEETs. On the current data series starting in 2000, there were 655,000 NEETs in 2000, and when Labour left office there were 874,000. I have looked up the figures for two dates that may particularly strike the shadow Secretary of State’s memory. When he arrived as Secretary of State in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, there were 835,000 NEETs. During the following two years, until he left that post, he was remorselessly harried on those figures by his Opposition spokesman. By the time he left the post, the number of NEETs had risen to 954,000; we debated that many times in the House. We had an increase of 120,000 on his own watch as the Secretary of State responsible. Actually, he got out just in time: the quarter after he left, the number went over 1 million, to hit 1.74 million. I had hoped we would hear a slightly more frank account from him of the lessons he learned about the difficulty of tackling the challenge of NEETs, drawing on his own experience.

The shadow Secretary of State went on to complain about our record, but I have to say that when in opposition we warned about Train to Gain, which we said was not a serious investment in training opportunities; about programme-led apprenticeships, which were losing contact with the jobs market; and about paper vocational qualifications being churned out that did not meet the real needs of employers. Those warnings, sadly, have proved to be correct.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

I thank the Minister for giving way; he is being generous with his time. We are experiencing not only record youth unemployment, but record female unemployment. I believe that the last time that such rates were experienced was in 1988, when the Minister was last in power.

[Mr Willetts]

I was not personally in power then—but absolutely, some groups are excluded from the labour market whenever times are tough, and youth unemployment and female unemployment are both aspects of that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Lord Willetts

Thursday 14th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

This morning, I will be going to the topping-out ceremony of the bio-incubator at Stevenage, which represents precisely the kind of future for our life sciences that we wish to see. It is also very good news that Pfizer has now decided that it wishes to have a continuing presence at its research centre in Sandwich.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Can the Secretary of State confirm or deny that his Department is giving grants to fire authorities to set up arm’s length companies that will tender for private sector contracts?

Off-quota University Places

Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Lord Willetts

Tuesday 10th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

If that constitutes the Labour party’s response to our proposals, we can understand why our party is serious about improving conditions in our country and Labour is not.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

What consultation did the Secretary of State have with UCAS before launching the policy, and what was its response? Will he clarify what the range of fees will be for students who try to jump the queue?

[Mr Willetts]

As I have said, the idea was mentioned in public speeches to Universities UK and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The proposals will be further set out in the White Paper, after which there will be further consultation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Lord Willetts

Thursday 8th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)]

I always enjoy visiting universities, especially when they have enterprising ideas that bring forward business opportunities, so I am happy to accept my hon. Friend’s invitation.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State confirm what communication he or his Cabinet colleagues have had with Corus and Tata Steel Europe, since the announcement of the departure of the coalition Government’s fiscal friend, Kirby Adams?