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Centenary of Scouting

As secretary of the all-party parliamentary scout group, I thank the two-co-chairs, the hon. Members for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) and for Ealing, North (Stephen Pound), for their contributions. I endorse all that has been said, and congratulate the hon. Member for Southend, West on the way in which he set out the case. I will be brief, because we want to hear from the Minister. As a founder member of the 1st Myland (35th Colchester) scout group, I owe a lot to the scout movement. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world owe a lot to it, and many right hon. and hon. Members have served as scouts over many years. Let me add an historical footnote. Before he founded the scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell was a serving officer in Her Majesty’s armed forces. We can understand why he had such strong roots in Colchester, because he spent much of that time stationed at the Colchester garrison. Finally, let me record my appreciation of all the volunteers over the past 100 years, and of today’s volunteers. The message that goes out to the Government—to all of us—is that we desperately need to recruit more volunteers for tomorrow, so that the great scout movement that we have enjoyed in this country, and which the world has enjoyed, can look forward to its second centenary.