Speeches by Sewards.

“Thank you all. Adam, picking up on your previous point, we know the role of higher education providers in local economies and the community is enormous. In the event that one did become insolvent, what measures would need to be taken to mitigate the impact on the local economy?”

“As Adam just said, the regional and local impacts are not being discussed at the moment. We are not talking about the broader implications of insolvency. Do you have any recommendations for what should happen to mitigate the impacts of insolvency, should one happen to a university town, for instance?”

“I completely appreciate that point.”

“Yes, exactly right. Among the higher risk ones, we have seen examples of universities that have simply stopped recruiting from certain overseas countries because they just know that they will not meet the figures.”

“As Adam just said, the regional and local impacts are not being discussed at the moment. We are not talking about the broader implications of insolvency. Do you have any recommendations for what should happen to mitigate the impacts of insolvency, should one happen to a university town, for instance?”

“Very briefly before we go to Chris for some more immigration questions, the Government are proposing stricter criteria for the basic compliance assessment. A lot of the written evidence we have received suggests that that is not that welcome. That is not universal; the University of York, which I know you used to work …”

“Thank you so much for being here today. When private providers have become insolvent, there have been procedures for teaching out the remaining students. However, when a university has a royal charter or is a higher education corporation, several pieces of evidence we have received say it is uncertain what would happen…”

“So it is your best guess at the moment.”

“Very briefly before we go to Chris for some more immigration questions, the Government are proposing stricter criteria for the basic compliance assessment. A lot of the written evidence we have received suggests that that is not that welcome. That is not universal; the University of York, which I know you used to work …”

“I completely appreciate that point.”

“Thank you all. Adam, picking up on your previous point, we know the role of higher education providers in local economies and the community is enormous. In the event that one did become insolvent, what measures would need to be taken to mitigate the impact on the local economy?”

“Absolutely right.”

“I warmly welcome the £20 million for Old Farnley, but now is the time for action. Hundreds of people have already completed my survey. I have more than 100 volunteers for the neighbourhood board alone—it will not be that big—and we have plenty of ideas that we want to spend the money on. Given that we are ready and imp…”

“The politicians, civilians and soldiers I spoke to last month in Kyiv were unambiguous when asked what was the best thing the UK could do to help them win the war. The hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian assets that they currently cannot deploy could help them bolster their military and swing the war deci…”

“That is it. I do get the rationale that you have explained there as to why an extra inspector will be useful and why it will potentially have that impact. I also understand why the trade unions have flagged that concern. How are you going to assess the impact? You talked about it having a tremendous impact. How are you…”

“Understood. Thank you for that answer. That answers my next question too. Thanks, Chair.”

“Sticking with the theme of inspectors, the new framework does state that at least one of the inspectors will have experience of working in a similar type of provision. Can you expand on how closely this is going to be matched? For example, will certain types of special schools get inspectors with experience in exactly …”

“Under the new framework you have added an extra inspector for school inspection teams. How are you going to assess whether this has any impact on the quality of inspections?”

“I pay tribute to the Leeds Jewish Representative Council and the Jewish Leadership Council for organising moving tributes in memory of the victims of the Manchester attack. I also thank CST for its tireless work to keep the community safe. I am sorry to say that a few weeks ago a speaker on the streets of Leeds during …”

“The Minister will be aware of the plight of Zoe Ward and Cody Townend, two mums from Leeds who tragically lost babies in different circumstances but who both went to the same funeral director, who did not treat their babies’ bodies with the dignity, care or respect that they deserved. Despite the shocking details of th…”