Speeches by Paffey.

“My next question is just to Sarah Tillotson. You have stated in evidence that the stronger practice hubs vary in expertise. Do you have any brief thoughts on how we can get all stronger practice hubs brought up to the level of the best ones? What is the best strategy for achieving that?”

“I am also a member of Unison.”

“I will listen to the experts before I listen to the Front Bench any day—the Opposition Front Bench. [Laughter.] If the right hon. Member listens, she will hear that. Will the Secretary of State please look at the overall load throughout school, not just in GCSE year, and comment on how she sees the introduction of an a…”

“I welcome a curriculum review that will break down barriers. It opens up so much of the digital and financial literacy that the Conservatives seem to think is unimportant to all, but which we know will raise aspirations by equipping young people from all backgrounds. I have two questions that I would like to ask the Se…”

“On the issue of shoplifting, does my hon. Friend agree that the Tories are having a bad day with their memory? Not only have they forgotten that next to my seat of Southampton Itchen is Madam Deputy Speaker’s equally fine seat of Romsey and Southampton North, where twice I failed to persuade the people to vote for me; …”

“My hon. Friend is making an incredibly powerful point in this debate, which she has thankfully secured. Last week, a group of Southampton care leavers came to Parliament, and raised housing and accommodation as one of the most urgent issues they want us to tackle. I have heard her welcome, as I do, innovations like Sta…”

“My constituent Clive has a rare and incurable neuroendocrine cancer. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended that selective internal radiation therapy could be used for people with his condition and would improve both life quality and expectancy, but that still is not happening. Will the L…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank and commend my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), the chair of the Education Committee, for leading the inquiry, securing the debate and making an incredibly powerful case as to why, particularly as we begin National Care Le…”

“I appreciate you have had several things going on at once, with covid and so on, but if we are saying that the vast majority of schools where there is RAAC are still to be remediated, is now a better moment to start looking at that? Will there be monitoring and tracking of schools where RAAC remediation is going to hap…”

“From the context of RAAC, I want to think about the wider lessons around the condition and maintenance of the school estate. You publish an annual report from the DFE. The last one, in July ’25, described the risk of building or element failure in the school estate as “Critical – Very Likely”—that was the category. Can…”

“Yes, if it is about the risks that you are identifying and if you might be expecting there to be issues.”

“We hear your reassurance about no children being in unsafe buildings. On your point about revising the way that you assess risk, that is good, too, because obviously, the problems with RAAC were known about well before the school buildings crisis of 2023. At this point, with the revisions that you are doing, how confid…”

“Thinking about the impact of all this, our predecessor Committee was told two years ago by Baroness Barran that, actually, remediation had been pretty quick across the board. That was her view. I just wanted to get your view on whether RAAC remediation has been timely and straightforward, as it is presented to be. I am…”

“It is helpful to hear about how you are taking on the learnings and making sure that ongoing, day-to-day, business-as-usual maintenance will be different. Has anything already changed in how the DFE deals with emergencies as a result of the RAAC crisis?”

“I appreciate you have had several things going on at once, with covid and so on, but if we are saying that the vast majority of schools where there is RAAC are still to be remediated, is now a better moment to start looking at that? Will there be monitoring and tracking of schools where RAAC remediation is going to hap…”

“We hear your reassurance about no children being in unsafe buildings. On your point about revising the way that you assess risk, that is good, too, because obviously, the problems with RAAC were known about well before the school buildings crisis of 2023. At this point, with the revisions that you are doing, how confid…”

“It is helpful to hear about how you are taking on the learnings and making sure that ongoing, day-to-day, business-as-usual maintenance will be different. Has anything already changed in how the DFE deals with emergencies as a result of the RAAC crisis?”

“There is a double challenge, too, because obviously, if you start losing children, you start losing revenue and the funding that comes with it. Have you seen this, again, not necessarily in those that you are dealing with, but across other parts of the sector?”

“That is helpful, because it moves us on to my next question, which is: what is the impact on usable space? You have outlined it in the short term. Are there any longer-term impacts that we should be concerned about or looking into at this stage? For example, one of the other things Baroness Barran said is that, on aver…”

“What information do you hold on the estate management capacity of all the responsible bodies that are looking after our schools?”