Speeches by Chowns.

“Thank you. Perhaps to you or to other members of the panel if you would like to comment; Ms Neal talked about the potential of new technology to help address this—AI, we always need to ask a question about AI. Are there technologies that will be helpful in the next five years in terms of reducing the embodied carbon fo…”

“I welcome some aspects of what the Minister is proposing. It is important to not always fire political shots at each other and to look for common ground and give credit where it is due. I have said this to him before, but I really welcome the moves that the Government are making towards multi-year funding settlements. …”

“What do you think about the fact that the updated MPPF makes no mention of embodied carbon?”

“But these are all effectively voluntary measures within the framework of a lack of clear Government policy and strategy on this—”

“This leads beautifully on to the question I wanted to ask, which was about embodied carbon and whole life carbon assessment, so a lovely segue there. Ms Neal, to drill down on that, it sounds like you are saying that in the absence of Government regulating on embodied carbon, basically organisations like RICS have work…”

“Yes, we need more than a consultation; we need regulation on this. How well equipped is the building sector itself to address embodied carbon? Of course it is becoming increasingly important; we have seen evidence that suggests if 1.5 million homes are built in the next five years the embodied carbon in those homes cou…”

“What do you think about the fact that the updated MPPF makes no mention of embodied carbon?”

“But these are all effectively voluntary measures within the framework of a lack of clear Government policy and strategy on this—”

“This leads beautifully on to the question I wanted to ask, which was about embodied carbon and whole life carbon assessment, so a lovely segue there. Ms Neal, to drill down on that, it sounds like you are saying that in the absence of Government regulating on embodied carbon, basically organisations like RICS have work…”

“Thank you. Perhaps to you or to other members of the panel if you would like to comment; Ms Neal talked about the potential of new technology to help address this—AI, we always need to ask a question about AI. Are there technologies that will be helpful in the next five years in terms of reducing the embodied carbon fo…”

“Just to expand on that, I would like to ask the Minister whether she thinks it is reasonable and justifiable that an academy trust leader has a salary of over £600,000, when a leader in a local authority with responsibility for an equivalent or larger number of schools would have a salary nowhere near?”

“I too absolutely welcome this new duty to co-operate. It is really important in the context of the problems that competition over people’s heads has led to. I am, however, like others, a bit concerned about the vagueness of the way that it is specified in the legislation. I feel that it does not make it clear enough wh…”

“rose—”

“As the parent of a former footballer, I know that the Football Association does not let people coach football, even Saturday league, without being a qualified coach, so the right hon. Member’s analogy falls down.”

“rose—”

“I am so sorry.”

“Does the right hon. Gentleman not agree that the national curriculum is a floor, not a ceiling?”

““Use the scaffolding.””

“I thank the Minister for the statistics she has presented, which echo the point I was about to ask her about. Would like to challenge—as she just has—the assertion from the Conservative Benches that academies are somehow better performing? Would she agree that there is no clear evidence, as suggested by Professor Steph…”

“I warmly welcome the proposal to ensure that there is a level playing field for pay for teachers who teach in different types of schools. Does the Minister consider that now is the time to take a similar approach to addressing pay for leaders of schools? I found it pretty jaw dropping to hear recently that the pay and …”