Speeches by George.

“I strongly agree with my hon. and gallant Friend. I will come to questions to the Minister in a moment; I believe that the Government need to look at the robustness and sustainability of those services. What has been put in the place of banks is rather flimsy in the longer term, and that represents a risk to the future…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the accessibility of banking services. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for permitting me the opportunity to raise the issues and concerns about access to banking services across the country and…”

“At the end of the day, the issue is that the FCA and Link primarily undertake an assessment of access to cash, and not to the full range of banking services. The Minister says that adequate alternatives are in place. Of course, the banks will no doubt attempt to put some facade in place to satisfy that requirement—as s…”

“I do not know whether that is permitted or not, but I will if the Chair allows it.”

“We have had a good debate and I am pleased that the Backbench Business Committee has permitted us to have it. It is clear that although we have aired so many of the issues today, there are still matters to be resolved. The Minister has helpfully addressed the Government’s position on the points that I raised at the beg…”

“I do not wish to reopen the debate. I have no summed up a debate before so I was uncertain about the procedure; thank you, Mr Western, for your advice. I will not accept any further interventions and will bring my remarks to a close as soon as I can. The hon. Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) ma…”

“I want to make sure that the Minister understands that I was simply describing what the community banker working on behalf of Lloyds was providing. I was referring to the Lloyds replacement for the closed branch, not a banking hub.”

“I did.”

“Isn’t the role in which they operate about being the champion of the parent and the child? Or are you suggesting that some take on that role as kind of an arbiter?”

“Certainly, in the enormous amount of casework that I have as a Member of Parliament—I am sure this is also the case for others—the role of caseworkers does not seem to arise at all. Is that why people end up coming to the MP—because they do not find a caseworker to help them?”

“So that is just a general problem so long as there is a healthy private sector driven by the shortages?”

“Is the new model proposed in the White Paper likely to result in stronger demand for SEND caseworkers? You have undertaken studies on this.”

“I will not pursue this much further. I want to come on to the issue of the creation of SEND caseworkers as a means of helping families navigate what is inevitably a very complex system. Before I do, on the previous question of professionals in both camps, there is still a drive for parents who can afford it—I am sorry,…”

“Does that compromise the ethics of the profession?”

“Are you aware of professionals with a foot in both camps?”

“I notice that the Education Committee, in its inquiry into West Oxfordshire, found that all those who attended a forum had gone to the private sector to undertake assessments in order to speed the process and get their care plans in place. To what extent is that happening around the country, and are you content with th…”

“So it is primarily an objectivised role? They are ambivalent as to which way it goes. They are not instructed, or advised, to be there to help parents and children through the system, to be their champions and to help them, to co-ordinate.”

“I am grateful for that clarification; I am sure that it will be music to the ears of the steamship company. Going back to the point about Artemis, which is exciting—I congratulate the Government for investing in it—is there any indication of the timescale for any roll-out that might benefit the Isles of Scilly?”

“To a certain extent, the Minister has implied the answer to this, but of course he is well aware that a bus cannot drive between the off-islands and St Mary’s—though there might be some inventive way in which someone could do such a thing. He must accept that if one is looking for parity between the Isles of Scilly and…”

“I am pleased that the hon. Member and his family have strong connections with the islands, but I caution him against describing them as the Scilly Isles—he will not be well received on the islands if he uses that particular nomenclature—but, certainly, if he continues to call them the Isles of Scilly, I am sure that he…”