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Welsh Affairs

Of course I share the concern that if schools are not performing, they should improve. There is always room for improvement, but as I said yesterday in the House in reply to the shadow Secretary of State for Wales, the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan), if one looks at the overall picture for education, and particularly for schools in Wales, standards in our schools have risen, certainly in my constituency. School buildings have improved and class sizes have reduced. Every Member who represents a Welsh constituency will have a good tale to tell. That does not in any way mean that we can be complacent. We have to look seriously at the inspector's report. That, of course, is ultimately a matter for Jane Hutt, the Minister for Education, Culture and Young People in Wales. I am sure that she will take any remedial action that is necessary. However, it is a devolved issue. Our role, as a Parliament and a Government, is obviously to ensure that there are sufficient resources for our public services in Wales. There is no question but that in the past decade, an enormous amount of public money has gone into our services in Wales. That was possible because of a strong economy, which has been handled well, and because of low mortgage and interest rates. The effect of that, as every constituency Member of Parliament can say, is that there are many more people in work than there were a decade ago. Unemployment rates have fallen dramatically in every single constituency, and there are 130,000 more people in work than there were just over a decade ago. That is a good story for our people. It is against that background that we have had the money to give the Welsh Assembly to improve our services.