Speeches by Naish.

“My hon. Friend referenced a very high percentage—I think 40%. In Nottinghamshire, each month over the past 12 months we have seen a 50% increase in SEND diagnoses in comparison to the year before. Does he agree that more research must be done to understand the relative growth in special educational needs, so we can get…”

“I thank the Minister for speaking so clearly on this important issue. On the intervention I made earlier about empty classrooms, we are seeing in Nottinghamshire that there is not the demand for nursery places that there desperately is in other parts of the country. Does the Department have any appetite to think about …”

“This Government have made a very clear and welcome commitment to turn 3,000 spare classrooms into nurseries. Does my hon. Friend agree that where demand for nursery support is lower, we could look at alternative ways of using those classrooms to enhance SEND provision at a local level?”

“As my hon. Friend knows, I represent the nearby constituency of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, where the average waiting time for neurodevelopmental assessments is 54 weeks. That is actually an improvement from a year ago, when it was 68 weeks. Does my hon. Friend agree that a lot of what she is describing is systemic,…”

“So if you just flip that then, those are the strengths of the multilateral organisations. What should we be achieving through bilateral aid that the multilateral approach cannot achieve?”

“I want to look at the distinction between DFID and the FCO and their relative levels of performance. I think we are all here saying and listening to the fact that you would say DFID was a top performer. The FCO, by comparison, was rated one of the least transparent spenders on foreign aid, 38th out of 47, as late as 20…”

“6. What steps his Department is taking to support hospices.”

“A final question from me. You mentioned trends going more and more towards multilateral over bilateral. I think that is what we are seeing here as well. I think the FCDO has us up at around 42% of the Department’s ODA budget now being spent through multilateral channels and 33% through bilateral spending. Does that bal…”

“Sorry, Jennifer, but can I just jump in and ask, you mentioned there the multi-bis. What do you think the perception is of that approach where money gets tied up within an organisation for a particular country? Is that generally perceived to be a good thing or are there disadvantages to that for those larger organisati…”

“Finally, Jennifer, anything that you would add?”

“Enhancing, yes. Jennifer, Abdou, do you have thoughts on that?”

“Have you seen other countries choosing to do that as opposed to going down the grant route?”

“I am not sure who wants to take this one. The FCDO has also started to use different types of financial products as well, so use of financial guarantees, for example. I think it is also using more British investment partnerships. What are your views on those other avenues for delivering support for different parts of t…”

“By leaders but not the average person on the ground.”

“What you are saying there about DFID almost being inherited into FCDO—I am not sure that we have quite the same confidence as you that those reporting levels are as strong as they used to be. I will just put that on record. You mentioned a word earlier, which was sustainability, which is not really baked into a lot of …”

“A British flag. It is very crude but—”

“While I wholeheartedly welcome the £100 million capital funding boost for hospices announced before Christmas, 17 members of staff at Nottinghamshire hospice, which is a large community-based hospice serving my constituency that provides care for family members in their own homes, have recently been told they are at ri…”

“From the UK’s perspective those are incredible things. How is the role of the UK seen by those who are benefiting from the investment that is obviously being made by UK taxpayers? Is there anything to show and to see or are these just programmes that are being delivered through the Global Fund?”

“When we talk about soft power for the UK, which is something that people do value coming out of this type of spend, for the people on the ground they would not necessarily see the UK. Would that be fair to say?”

“That is easy therefore to demonstrate value for money with a smaller budget.”