Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and John Baron

Thursday 13th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

We have listened to those three bodies and to many other people, and we are sympathetic to their concern. However, the precise mechanism that is adopted—I am sorry to be repetitive—depends on the results of the consultation.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

9. What steps his Department is taking to help small and micro-businesses grow.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and John Baron

Thursday 20th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

While we are on our links with the criminal underworld, perhaps I should explain to the House that I have responsibility for offender learning, and one of my plans for the new year is to lay on a basics economics class for the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

3. What plans the Government have to make it a requirement that more than 50% of the eligible membership must approve strike action for it to take place.

Industrial Strategy

Debate between Vince Cable and John Baron

Monday 10th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The Chancellor is doing a great deal of that. Indeed, he is trying to create an encouraging tax environment for business. Of course, what we have to do—and what he is doing—involves a trade-off between specific incentives and producing an over-complicated tax system, about which I know that the hon. Gentleman, with his detailed knowledge of the sector, would be the first to complain.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

Given that growth is a key objective, will the Secretary of State cut at least some of the funding for infrastructure projects, as we cannot export bridges, roads or houses, and instead fund tax cuts for small and medium-sized enterprises to encourage them to grow? That is a more sustainable way of reducing unemployment, particularly if the dead weight of regulation is reduced, too.

[Vince Cable]

I may need to reflect on the question, but I do not think that there is a strong argument for cutting back on infrastructure, as efficient infrastructure is crucial to the efficiency of the economy. I might have misunderstood the question, however.

Office for Fair Access

Debate between Vince Cable and John Baron

Monday 20th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Yes, of course I agree, and I repeat what I have said several times in the past. Indeed, the ultimate assurance that the hon. Lady has are the terms of the legislation under which OFFA operates, the Higher Education Act 2004, which said that the director of OFFA

“has a duty to protect academic freedom”,

including determining

“the criteria for the admission of students”.

That is absolute.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

May I press the Secretary of State on whether he agrees that the quota policy espoused by Professor Ebdon puts the cart before the horse, and whether we should be pushing schools to produce better students, rather than tempering our universities’ freedom to choose students on merit? Otherwise both students and universities will ultimately suffer.

[Vince Cable]

As far as I am aware, Professor Ebdon has never advocated the use of quotas. He is certainly not on record to that effect.

Higher Education Fees

Debate between Vince Cable and John Baron

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I most emphatically will not be following the advice of the Scottish nationalists in government, who are starving Scottish universities of resources and reallocating priorities to cut schools. That is what has happened in Scotland.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I am sure that we can all agree that all students who would benefit from a university education should be entitled to do so, regardless of their financial situation. My concern is that by increasing the tuition cap, participation levels among lower and middle-income students will fall away. What assurance can the Government give that the situation will be monitored closely and that corrective action will be taken, should participation levels fall away?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, of course I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. Of course the policy will be monitored, and it will reflect the evidence that emerges. We have put in place not merely a series of measures to protect low-income graduates, which we have done through the threshold, but a series of measures designed to help children from low-income families to go to university, notably by increasing the maintenance grant from its level under the previous Government, giving access to an extra 500,000 pupils.