Speeches by Dixon.

“I am just trying to understand this. You have increased the funding in the national funding formula at the same time but, as you say, they are quite different, in that the pupil premium is at least intended to more directly address disadvantage, where we have seen the gap get worse and attainment levels deteriorate for…”

“I appreciate what you are saying about empowering local school leaders to make those decisions, but it is very clear from the evidence, with the cuts to school budgets, that the pupil premium is going just to fill gaps. Given that the evidence base is there for tutoring, and that the amount that went in was never as mu…”

“If I can jump ahead, because this builds off that, it sounds good that you are investing in an evidence-based approach in terms of the breakfast clubs. Looking at the EEF data, there is hugely positive evidence for a national tutoring programme, yet that is an area where you have stopped or withdrawn funding, or at lea…”

“But it does not just happen. Again, if you are a school that is struggling, you do not just happen to notice, “Oh, that school has performed well. I will go off and go on a visit.” Whose responsibility is it to spread good practice, capture and share?”

“But you are funding the education investment areas, so are you capturing and spreading good practice from the education investment areas, which is specifically where deprived funding is going in?”

“Do you have a sense of how much of the research is focused specifically on what works for disadvantaged children?”

“I have spoken about victims, but I also want to underline the impact of waiting on defendants. I have a constituent whose trial has had many reschedulings. It is having an impact on his family life and his contact with his son, which is obviously incredibly distressing. To reduce disruption to family life, is there ano…”

“Thank you, Chair, and good morning, witnesses. I would like to pick up on the issue of how long people are waiting. We understand that the average time from the case going to magistrates right through to completion at Crown court has gone up from 158 days to 279 days. Since the Committee’s last Report on the subject, b…”

“So you do not currently have any data on that?”

“I do not think that there was data in the NAO Report on variation. Could you follow up with the geographical variation in the backlog data?”

“I am conscious that there are many levers. Not all of them are within your direct influence or jurisdiction, but clearly you have a role and a responsibility to make sure that they are all working together. My final point, which is relevant to the backlog, is about consistency and geographical variation. Bradford Crown…”

“Like the Chair, I want to probe you on that shocking figure for victim attrition. I hear you saying that that is a wider issue and not just a specific one, but clearly for victims of sexual violence against women and girls or of rape, the idea of waiting for a year, two years or more even to have the opportunity to hav…”

“Can I probe you on that? Is there any data to show how many of those cancellations or deferrals relate to people who have given video evidence? I ask because there is some suggestion that in these cases, very vulnerable victims are giving video evidence because of their vulnerability, but from the point of view of the …”

“No. I want to come on specifically to violence against women and girls. You have raised it yourself, but we have received evidence from the Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre, which makes it very clear that short-notice cancellations and postponements, often on the same day, are making the situation even more dif…”

“Yes, please. I will come back to some of the specifics.”

“In England, more than 200,000 people were waiting for an autism assessment in September 2024. In my constituency, some adults have waited more than two years for an autism assessment, and one child has been waiting eight years—and is still waiting—to receive support from child and adolescent mental health services. The…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. It is personal to me, as I lost my grandfather in a road traffic accident before I was even born, and my grandmother was left with disability. Shipley experienced 183 road casualties in 2023, one of which was fatal. My hon. Friend mentions vision zero. West Yor…”

“In Shipley constituency, there are over 3,000 veterans. I have enjoyed meeting local veterans recently, and I invite my hon. Friend to join me in thanking them for their service. However, with the number of homeless veteran households in England reaching 2,270 in the year 2023-24, will the Minister assure me that veter…”

“20. What steps he is taking to improve support for veterans.”

“In my constituency, Bradford council’s Home FAST—first assessment support—scheme aims to get people home from hospital more quickly and to be assessed for any onward care services when they are at home. Since its launch, there has been a large reduction in the need for intermediate care facilities after hospital care. …”