Business of the House

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Thursday 4th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

As always, my hon. Friend raises an important issue on behalf of his constituents and many others. He is right that under the devolution settlement, roads within Scotland are the responsibility of the Scottish Government, and it is for them to prioritise and fund any relevant schemes. I hope that they will take the decision to do so. For our part, UK Ministers and officials regularly collaborate with their counterparts in Scotland on issues of mutual interest, including cross-border connections, and they have previously discussed the dualling of the A1.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

I wonder whether the Leader of the House can provide us with a date when the Timpson review of exclusions will be produced. If she cannot provide a date, perhaps she can explain why we have had a delay since December last year.

[Andrea Leadsom]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question. She has raised this on a number of occasions and, as I have said to her, I have chased for a date on which this report will be published. She is absolutely right to keep pursuing it and I am continuing to seek to get an answer for her—[Interruption.] She is asking “Why?” from a sedentary position. As I have tried to explain previously, the review is considering the difference in exclusion rates between areas and why that is taking place. That, therefore, makes the review quite complicated and time-consuming.