Speeches by Sewards.

“I take your point. You mentioned earlier that you had doubled the early years pupil premium in an attempt to address this gap, but if you accept that attendance is the biggest driver, are these efforts fruitless? Is it pointless to do these additional things if you cannot even get these pupils into school?”

“As someone turning himself into the first AI MP, I can appreciate that there are always pitfalls in this area.”

“We know that since the pandemic the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and those who are not disadvantaged has grown significantly. The Education Policy Institute has said that this is “entirely explained by higher levels of absence for disadvantaged pupils.” I would be interested to know whether you agree w…”

“I am pleased to hear that you are taking account of the feedback, looking at those pilot breakfast clubs, and then making adjustments to the financial arrangements going forward so that they are viable, because it is so important that they succeed in every school. Turning to free school meals, I am extremely pleased to…”

“A number of councils have adopted auto-enrolment policies—I think Lambeth, just over the river, has done so—but of course councils have to expend a greater amount of their resources to do so. A national scheme of auto-enrolment would simplify the process and essentially save councils money, as well as feeding more than…”

“Absolutely. On that difference, my final question is about how you will assess the impact. What plans does the Department have to assess the impact of breakfast clubs and the extension of free school meals on things like attainment and attendance?”

“I want to turn to child poverty, breakfast clubs and free school meals—I will start with breakfast clubs. I acknowledge how amazing they are. They are absolutely the right thing to do. They make sure that children do not have to start the school day hungry. They provide wraparound care and amazing benefits for parents …”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech and a powerful argument. I have been dealing with an advanced manufacturer of metal and steel wires in my constituency that has been put off by the very thing he describes. That company stands ready to support the Government’s mission on clean and green energy—it wants to su…”

“Is that the incentive you are thinking of?”

“Turning now to governance of institutions and providers, there has been some criticism of governance. We have had reports into Dundee University, and the Secretary of State in May of this year wrote to the Committee of University Chairs saying that there needs to be an improvement in providers’ governance. I know that …”

“Turning now to university research, there are a few questions on this, but not just from me. We know that grants from research councils are supposed to cover about 80% of the cost of research. However, that might have been true or close to being true 10 years ago when it was about 75%, but last year, 2023-24, it stood …”

“To pick up on something you said there, you talked about there being a culture—I do not think you used this word—of fear challenging the leadership on financial assumptions. The independent report into what went wrong at Dundee University certainly said that there was a culture of fear and that people would not dare te…”

“I do not want to hammer this point home too much, because I take your point that this is a predominantly a DSIT responsibility. But thinking about some of those trade-offs and what you set out in terms of aligning with the economic growth mission and with our desire to be world leaders in science and technology, where …”

“Like my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West and Leigh (David Burton-Sampson), who is no longer in his place, my inbox is full to the brim with emails about fireworks. When they are enjoyed as part of professional displays on national holidays, they can be magnificent, but my constituents are concerned that they ar…”

“I am delighted to hear the Home Secretary announce that we will keep our promise to British national overseas visa holders from Hong Kong. That is something that I have worked with my constituents to lobby the Government on over the past few months, and I am delighted that the Government have listened. As well as trans…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent argument for more support for children and families in this position. A family in my constituency wrote to me about their granddaughter who has Huntington’s disease. She is 10, and she desperately needs an education, health and care plan so that she can get to the right special edu…”

“The hon. Member is making an incredibly powerful speech. One of my constituents, an NHS nurse, suffers with ME. He cannot play with his children, walk his dog or undertake basic activities. When he went to the NHS, he got a referral, but was told that it would be nine months before he got an appointment, which forced h…”

“Thank you for those answers. As somebody with a one-year-old and a four-year-old, I wouldn’t mind a bit of the predictability that you referred to, Professor Lloyd. On SEND, the Institute for Government has stated that 10% of children with autism were school-ready last year, and 0.6% of children with severe disabilitie…”

“Brilliant stuff.”

“Do you think the Government strategy addresses these things?”