Speeches by Hinds.

“Do you have a formal road into Skills England—or did you go to IfATE before—for setting the occupational standards in these craft skills? Matthew?”

“There will be more flexibility in how the apprentice levy will be used. It is changing to the growth and skills levy, although that question about covering salaries is a different one. How long would a typical apprenticeship in a craft skill be?”

“I largely agree. In truth, it is a blend. Having distinctive independent traders is what sets all our towns apart; it makes them unique and it makes us very proud of them. But customers want both those independent traders and some brand-name retailers, and there is nothing wrong with being a brand-name retailer. The se…”

“It is a pleasure to take part in this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is natural in these debates that we repeatedly hear phrases like “lifeblood” and “beating heart”, because colleagues across the House love our town and village centres; they are the essence of our local communities. For me, that means principal town…”

“One of the worries about the new regime and Skills England is the loss of independence, and the loss of what we had in the former Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education: a guaranteed business voice, written into law. How will the Secretary of State ensure that business has a voice in setting standards, a…”

“Could the hon. Member explain how he would stop that practice by the holiday companies?”

“Alton and Petersfield hospitals give excellent step-up, step-down and end-of-life care. The trust is introducing more home-based care, which is good, but it also proposes closing a ward in one of the community hospitals. Will the Minister ensure that there remain sufficient beds and sufficient capacity in our local com…”

“After the creative reimagining of the Government’s target for hiring more teachers, it would be helpful to have some precision on the record for the target of two thirds of young people in higher learning. We know that higher learning means level 4 or above, but what exactly is a gold-standard apprenticeship? Does it m…”

“It is good to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. Assessment in education is obviously one of the most important aspects of what we do in education. It gives children a chance to show what they have learned, what they can do, and we want that to be stretching, but also to be fair. Anything that measures our attainment is …”

“Good morning. What would be the long-term benefits from stronger funding of elite Deaf athletes?”

“Obviously we are talking about elite athletes. Sometimes in the branding world, you talk about a halo effect. With investment in elite athletes, and with other Deaf people seeing role models—but also, crucially, everybody else in society seeing those elite sports performances—I wonder if a sales pitch could be made to …”

“Not at all. Looking more widely than elite sports, in the national disability strategy the Government is committed to addressing the inequalities that people with disabilities face in sport and physical activity. How would you assess performance against that objective? The Committee has talked about this in the context…”

“There is a big question that hangs over this whole subject and which we have not addressed directly yet. Would you prefer to have a better funded elite sport programme specific to Deaf people and a higher-profile Deaflympics, or to be fully integrated in some way into the Paralympics, with the funding, the visibility a…”

“We have been talking about funding, but also about visibility and profile. I wonder what breakthrough or kick-start effect there might be from just having a much higher profile with one event. In the Tokyo Deaflympics, will there be live broadcasts of any events? Have you had discussions with Channel 4, for example, ab…”

“I intend to speak mainly to the provisions dealing with guaranteed hours, but I begin with a word of thanks to the Government for what they have announced about special constables. It is not quite as good as adopting the amendment, but I welcome the review. I also commend my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Sir A…”

“In the positive spirit in which the Secretary of State speaks, will he commit on the Floor of the House that the reference period used to calculate hours for sectors that have serious seasonality—we have heard about boat building, hospitality, tourism and farming—will not be a ridiculously short period, such as 12 week…”

“I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for suggesting that he will try. I turn to the provisions dealing with guaranteed hours and zero-hours contracts. I understand why it is attractive to the Government and the Labour party to seek to restrict the availability of contracts that do not have a guaranteed number o…”

“And some people do not, as the hon. Gentleman quite rightly says. When I was working at the Department for Work and Pensions, the issue of zero-hours contracts became a totemic issue under the leadership of the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), the immediate predecessor of the current leader of the…”

“There are few that have quite the same tension that we have. It is a fundamental tension and it is particularly strong here because we are a country that has both a strong, very creative sector and a strong, nascent and developing AI sector. In the machinery of government, this Government have tried to deal with that b…”

“You mentioned the different sub-sectors—publishing and music—and art is another. They have quite different existing systems, processes, associations, guilds and all the rest of it. Is it physically possible to have an effective opt-out mechanism?”