Speeches by Kane.

“Paragraph 2.21 states, “DWP is examining whether some of the measures in the local flexibility framework could be made permanent”. Can you tell me what sorts of measures could be made permanent? When do you think you will make a decision as to whether that will be the case?”

“To move us on, you might want to write to us when you have decided what is going to be permanent and when it is going to be made permanent. That is what we are we are trying to get to. What will be made permanent and when will it be made permanent?”

“Can I move on now to funding for work coaches? This is paragraphs 11 and 2.12 of the NAO Report. You do not have the funding for the coaches that you asked for. Why? Why have you not secured enough funding to pay for the work coaches that you need?”

“It is a holistic conversation with the Treasury and you come back to it and say, “Actually, we made a mistake. We did not need as much but we can take less.””

“Apologies; I am just trying to get a sense. What I heard there was you saying, “We set a figure at month 1. Then we realised at month 6 we needed less and adapted accordingly.” Is that what you are saying?”

“I am just asking for clarification of what I am hearing you saying. I am just making sure I understand it.”

“Can I ask about what you are doing to increase the number of work coaches? The Report talks about some of the regional variations in where you are managing to recruit and retain the staff. Can you talk to what you are doing to increase the number of work coaches?”

“You are definitely getting it right in north-east England and Scotland. The Report says what you estimate and what you have. In Scotland, you are 0.1% higher than what you estimated, so that is pretty much bang on as much as you will get. If you look at southern England, though, you have a shortfall of 12.3%. What less…”

“Before we come to Barbara, as a Scottish MP, you are already working in a devolved nation, in a devolved environment. You are going to have to put resource into this new devolved world in England. Can I just get an assurance that you are aware that you already have a slightly different way of working in Scotland and th…”

“I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, and I thank him for recognising Billy Bremner—a very good Stirling man. As I was saying, many projects rely on a patchwork of short-term funding, but that reliance points to a deeper problem: the retreat of local government, especially under the SNP Government in Holyrood, who have…”

“When we talk about youth services, we are really talking about the kind of country we want to be. We often discuss crime prevention, education and mental health in silos, but the thread that runs through all those issues is clear: we need to invest in our young people through properly funded, long-term youth services. …”

“Does my hon. Friend also recognise that there is also a funding crisis in Scotland, with the Scottish Government starving local authorities of the funding they need to provide these vital services? This is not just in England; it is a UK-wide problem, and the SNP Scottish Government are certainly not making it easy.”

“In my constituency, residents of the rurally isolated community of Balquhidder did not wait for a major provider; they dug and laid 34 km of fibre optic cable themselves using the Government’s broadband voucher scheme to partner with a small business and deliver gigabit broadband—a remarkable achievement. That success …”

“I have said before in this place that libraries are the NHS for the soul. They are funded by our taxes, free at the point of use and there when we need them the most. Libraries are no longer just about borrowing books, although that is still reason enough to love them; they are community hubs, digital lifelines, maker …”

“On the location of libraries, certainly in Scotland, there is a statutory duty is to provide a library service. That means that only one library could be provided for my constituency of nearly 2,500 sq km. Does the hon. Member agree that access and proximity to the library in terms of travel time is important to any st…”

“It is the concept of the impact it is having on volunteering. I think that volunteering helps to build the skilled workers of the future; it is something that they do prior to them becoming the skilled workers we want in 10 years’ time. I will happily take that up.”

“I am sorry, but I am conscious of the time. I just need the assurance that all of this feedback is actually being listened to and acted on, and it is not just read. I want the assurance that it is being ingested into the system and read.”

“As MPs, we can tell you from the casework that we have received that we do get some frustrated applicants coming in. We can certainly see that there is an issue. Your target is to have an 80% good feedback response. Can I suggest to you that your target should be 100%, and then we will measure against that? Aiming for …”

“Thank you for that; I appreciate the clarification. Moving on slightly, in my constituency, Stirling University, like all universities, is finding that our policies are having a negative impact on the desire to attract the best PhD students and researchers. Given how much value we place in this country on skills and in…”

“I am going to push this one more time; it is important, because words matter. When I am reading that Skills England is responsible for a coherent picture of skills gaps across the United Kingdom, it can be perceived as a tone-deaf name, Skills England, for what really is Skills UK. I want to make sure about that.”