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Business of the House

Will the Leader of the House arrange for an Education Minister to make a statement about the decreasing number of students coming forward to study physics and chemistry, which is causing grave problems for important manufacturing industries such as pharmaceuticals? AstraZeneca, the largest employer in my constituency, has spoken to me at length about the matter. The problem is that too few teachers are prepared to teach those subjects in secondary schools, which therefore reduces the number of students who go on to study them at university. Chemistry and physics are vital to the future of this country.