Speeches by Johnson.

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on her statement and on the report she has produced. To succeed, great British films also need a good audience. Will my hon. Friend tell us what she thinks of the Government’s support for local and regional cinemas?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West on bringing forward this very important piece of legislation. I declare an interest as a consultant paediatrician who has looked after a number of children with rare conditions such as teratoma, rhabdom…”

“Minister, the National Audit Office said that misaligned priorities and incentives is undermining a whole system approach to SEND. What work are you doing, along with the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure that your priorities are aligned to improve the care for SEND children?”

“It is the training. Catherine McKinnell: However, we have been very clear, in terms of the way that we fund apprenticeships, that we target the funding where it can make the most impact, and particularly on the lower levels of apprenticeships and particularly ensuring that we bring young people into the market and supp…”

“Yes, from your Department saying that level 7 apprenticeships will be essentially abolished in most cases. At the moment, they are offering training in leadership for those leading our inclusive services and now you are getting rid of them. Do you regret that?”

“Inclusive culture requires good leadership. There are at present several level 7 apprenticeships available in educational leadership and, in particular, ones that relate to leadership in relation to SEND and SENCOs. Do you regret that the Government are restricting access and essentially abolishing level 7 apprenticesh…”

“When talking to parents and staff in schools, one of the groups of children that they find most difficult to manage in mainstream settings are children who display very challenging behaviours, where they need quite a lot of support and quite a lot of staff to manage that. How do you envisage that the system will be imp…”

“Some children out there today at school will receive a level of support that their parents feel is effective. The school may feel it is effective, but the Department may think differently. The parents will now be concerned that you are going to remove their support. If a parent believes that the provision they are gett…”

“Good morning, Minister. In your opening statement you said that you wanted to be really clear that you will not be removing existing effective support. Who will be determining whether the support is effective? Will that be the Department, the parents or the school?”

“You have seen an increase year on year of need, so what is driving that increase in need and is any of that need preventable with other measures?”

“Minister, the question was not so much about the interventions you are putting in place. We can see that there are more children with need, and they need support, and you want to make support for everyone; you have said that repeatedly. The question is what is driving the need for more children to require support than …”

“You are saying that with the changes to UC transitional protection, no child who is currently receiving free school meals will stop getting those free school meals? Is that what you are saying?”

“My understanding is that you have removed the transitional protection for children with UC transitional protection, and therefore those children will not get free school meals any more. Are you saying that is not correct?”

“Minister, children with special educational needs are twice as likely to be on free school meals; 44% of children with an education care plan are entitled to free school meals. The Government have ended free school meals for children on UC transitional protection. How many children will that affect? How many children w…”

“Perhaps, Minister, you could write to the Committee with some information on the data that Alison described on the drivers of the increasing number of children with special needs.”

“Alison, you talked about the data that the Government have been collecting and explained that the rise in cases relates to SEMH, ADHD and autism. What information, Minister, do you have on whether that is an increase in diagnosis or an increase in cases and prevalence of those conditions? Presumably, it is a bit of bot…”

“How you are working with the other Departments, particularly Health and Social Care, to align priorities so you get a more joined-up system across Government to help children with special educational needs?”

“Would you be able to write to the Committee and talk to us about the effect of the level 7 apprenticeship changes on special educational needs leadership apprenticeships?”

“The Secretary of State has spoken about responsibility at the BBC, and of those who said those dreadful words. What responsibility do those who were organising the festival have both legally and morally to be held responsible and accountable, and to ensure that this does not happen again?”

“It seems entirely reasonable that a Government should want to control the amount that they spend on welfare, and entirely reasonable to want to focus that on the most in need. However, I do not understand why they brought out such rushed changes, which have done nothing but cause anxiety and distress, and left them in …”