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Opposition day on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, in the House of Commons, led by John Denham. The answering member was Lord Willetts.

Opportunities for the Next Generation

Twentieth opposition day debate (part one). Main question negatived on division (234 to 297).

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
532 c899-957 
Session
2010-12
Department
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 532 c927 (Link to this contribution) Order. To make sure that everyone follows the hon. Gentleman's excellent example, I am now going to ...
Adrian Bailey | 532 c915-6 (Link to this contribution) The debate is about future generations. The prospects for the next generation will impact profoundly...
Show all contributions (148)
Gordon Birtwistle | 532 c916 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Stephen Lloyd) and I have held meetings with local industr...
Lord Willetts | 532 c913-4 (Link to this contribution) No, I shall try to make progress. We are delivering more apprenticeship places, which I very much ho...
Lord Willetts | 532 c914-5 (Link to this contribution) I shall not give way, as I am going to try to make progress, although I would welcome an interventio...
Speaker | 532 c915 (Link to this contribution) Order. Will hon. Members take their seats? A number of Members want to participate in the debate, bu...
Lord Willetts | 532 c912 (Link to this contribution) I am trying to explain exactly what we are doing to deliver a significant increase in the number of ...
Lord Willetts | 532 c912-3 (Link to this contribution) I shall try to make progress. Those are real apprenticeships. The shadow Secretary of State said tha...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 532 c928 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that debt is a good thing. As has been mentioned, we are spending £120 million a day ...
Speaker | 532 c928 (Link to this contribution) The usual injury time will apply.
Debbie Abrahams | 532 c928 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Lady aware that debts in the City of London in 2009 stood at 245% of gross domestic prod...
Chris Evans | 532 c927 (Link to this contribution) That is the point I was trying to make. We in Wales have realised the importance of EMA, which is wh...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 532 c927 (Link to this contribution) I am speaking not just as a member of this coalition Government but, like the hon. Member for West B...
Speaker | 532 c927 (Link to this contribution) Order. Will the hon. Lady face the Chair so that the microphones can pick up her words?
Baroness Brown of Silvertown | 532 c926-7 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the biggest problem with this Government is that they take an awful l...
Chris Evans | 532 c926 (Link to this contribution) I agree with that, but I am saying that it needs to go much deeper. I was talking today to a friend,...
Chris Evans | 532 c926 (Link to this contribution) I apologise for not having caught part of the hon. Gentleman's question. The point I am getting at i...
Ed Davey | 532 c926 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making an important point, which is why the Government have introduced the acc...
Chris Evans | 532 c926 (Link to this contribution) The apprenticeship scheme was during the Labour Government, and we have a Labour Government in Wales...
Justin Tomlinson | 532 c926 (Link to this contribution) Is it not the case that those potential apprentices who do not have the necessary skills were educat...
Chris Evans | 532 c925-6 (Link to this contribution) Has Christmas come early? Is this the pantomime season? I come to this debate remembering the exper...
Justin Tomlinson | 532 c926 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his eloquent speech, but will he confirm that those very same p...
Toby Perkins | 532 c924 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Robin Walker | 532 c923-4 (Link to this contribution) I totally agree that we need to deliver economic growth. I welcome that intervention, and I will com...
Chris Evans | 532 c925 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Member for Worcester (Mr Walker) on manfully standing up and giving us the T...
Robin Walker | 532 c924-5 (Link to this contribution) I will not, I am afraid; I have already given way twice. With their unfunded tax cuts, the Oppositi...
Esther McVey | 532 c919-20 (Link to this contribution) I find that hard to believe. I am not sure how that has happened, because under the Department for W...
Pat Glass | 532 c920-2 (Link to this contribution) I will focus on the reality of Government policies on the lives of our young people. The Chancellor ...
Robin Walker | 532 c922-3 (Link to this contribution) Today's debate is on a vital subject, and I have no doubt that opportunities for the next generation...
Baroness Brown of Silvertown | 532 c923 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman trying to convince the House that no young person in his constituency has talk...
Robin Walker | 532 c923 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely not. I have met young people in my constituency and I have been to my local technical col...
Lilian Greenwood | 532 c923 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not share my concern that even if we do see the apprenticeships that he is t...
Esther McVey | 532 c919 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Lady says, but I hope she recognises that we are paying £120 million per day on...
Debbie Abrahams | 532 c919 (Link to this contribution) May I remind the hon. Lady that the UK had the second lowest debt in the G7 in 2007 and only slightl...
Esther McVey | 532 c918 (Link to this contribution) When I became a Member, I said that one of the biggest issues facing the coalition Government was th...
Speaker | 532 c918 (Link to this contribution) Order. If everybody takes 14 minutes, it means that well under half the people present are going to ...
Lilian Greenwood | 532 c919 (Link to this contribution) Last week, my daughter, who is 14 years old and has just gone into year 10, came back from her schoo...
Adrian Bailey | 532 c916 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on that. I cannot comment on his constituency, but I am told that ...
Margot James | 532 c917 (Link to this contribution) Aimhigher was not without its merits, but it did not succeed in getting students from lower socio-ec...
Adrian Bailey | 532 c917-8 (Link to this contribution) I agree with one element of the hon. Lady's point, because the figures for the elite Russell group u...
Jeremy Corbyn | 532 c916 (Link to this contribution) I am glad that my hon. Friend has come on to this point. Does he share my concern that too many coll...
Adrian Bailey | 532 c917 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a valuable point, and that is certainly a complaint I hear from local manufactu...
David Evennett | 532 c901 (Link to this contribution) I will if I get an opportunity to speak later, Mr Speaker. I always listen to the right hon. Gentlem...
John Denham | 532 c901 (Link to this contribution) And the hon. Gentleman will explain why.
Robert Halfon | 532 c902 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman acknowledge that, although there were 90,000 starts under the future j...
John Denham | 532 c901-2 (Link to this contribution) I will deal directly with both those issues in due course, if the hon. Gentleman will have patience....
Stella Creasy | 532 c902 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Government's contempt for young people is illustrated by th...
John Denham | 532 c902 (Link to this contribution) I am proud of the effectiveness of my Government's policies in tackling long-term youth unemployment...
Ian Jnr Paisley | 532 c902-3 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, the ...
John Denham | 532 c902 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The truth is that it was more important for this arrogant Govern...
John Denham | 532 c903 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman speaks with great authority about his constituency. It is a tragedy that the imp...
John Denham | 532 c904 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right, but there is a further point. The refusal to link Government pro...
Geraint Davies | 532 c904 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the key choice in cutting the deficit is the balance between gr...
John Denham | 532 c903 (Link to this contribution) I applaud that company and those apprenticeships. That is a story that is being repeated in my const...
John Denham | 532 c905-6 (Link to this contribution) There is a huge responsibility on the Government to respond to my hon. Friend's challenge—to take th...
Toby Perkins | 532 c905 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is perverse that, at the very time a generation of students ...
John Denham | 532 c904-5 (Link to this contribution) I was very pleased that we ended unskilled immigration from outside the EU and introduced a points-b...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 532 c904 (Link to this contribution) The shadow Chancellor apologised yesterday for some aspects of Labour policy, so will the right hon....
Lord Sharma | 532 c906 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is leaving the House with the impression that the Labour Government left th...
John Denham | 532 c906 (Link to this contribution) I have already made a passing remark about the Secretary of State's role, but let me just say that I...
Denis MacShane | 532 c906 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend think that the Secretary of State is absent from this debate because he re...
John Denham | 532 c899-900 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House believes that young people face a more uncertain future which may not...
John Denham | 532 c901 (Link to this contribution) But the problem did not come from the cash or the capital; it came from the complex financial instru...
Lord Redwood | 532 c901 (Link to this contribution) As the right hon. Gentleman should know by now, the report that I co-authored stated clearly that th...
John Denham | 532 c901 (Link to this contribution) I will have to give way on that point.
Lord Redwood | 532 c901 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
John Denham | 532 c900-1 (Link to this contribution) We will have the opportunity in a few moments to see whether that last claim is accurate, although I...
Lord Sharma | 532 c900 (Link to this contribution) Yesterday the shadow Chancellor came to the House and, for the first time in 15 months, apologised f...
John Denham | 532 c900 (Link to this contribution) We know that the Government aim to cut sufficiently fast to eliminate the deficit in four years. Our...
Lord Redwood | 532 c900 (Link to this contribution) In his motion, the right hon. Gentleman states that one problem is that the Government have cut"““to...
Jeremy Corbyn | 532 c911 (Link to this contribution) Before the Minister goes on to talk about apprenticeships, will he acknowledge that the direction of...
Lord Willetts | 532 c911-2 (Link to this contribution) Let me now turn to what we are doing to ensure that young people have more opportunities, so that th...
Ian Jnr Paisley | 532 c912 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the Minister can give me reasons why I should vote against the motion. There are 56,000 unem...
Lord Willetts | 532 c910-1 (Link to this contribution) Just a minute; I want to make a bit more headway on this point. There is a very similar pattern in ...
Tom Blenkinsop | 532 c911 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for giving way; he is being generous with his time. We are experiencing not onl...
Lord Willetts | 532 c911 (Link to this contribution) I was not personally in power then—but absolutely, some groups are excluded from the labour market w...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 532 c911 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend omits to mention one of the biggest catastrophes under the last Government: the...
Lord Willetts | 532 c911 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely; my hon. Friend the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning is doing...
Stella Creasy | 532 c908 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to hear the Minister talk about the importance of debt levels. Will he comment on the f...
Lord Willetts | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) Given what happened to personal debt under the previous Labour Government, about which my colleague ...
Sheila Gilmore | 532 c908 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister explain how properties at 80% of market value rent are affordable and how that lin...
Lord Willetts | 532 c908 (Link to this contribution) In our affordable homes programme we have set out arrangements whereby new providers will deliver ex...
John Denham | 532 c906-7 (Link to this contribution) We must remember the situation at the end of the previous Labour Government. It is no part of my cas...
Lord Willetts | 532 c907 (Link to this contribution) Of course, the Government oppose the motion. I regret that we are depleted as a result of efficiency...
Margot James | 532 c908 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is introducing our side of the argument with great generosity of spirit, but do...
Lord Willetts | 532 c908 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The debate is an opportunity for me and all Government Members t...
Lord Willetts | 532 c910 (Link to this contribution) That is a very important point; indeed, I understand that with its latest debt issue the Bank of Eng...
Lord Willetts | 532 c910 (Link to this contribution) The crucial difference between our economy and those that the hon. Gentleman listed is that our econ...
John Hemming | 532 c910 (Link to this contribution) Does it not surprise the Minister, as it surprises me, that the Opposition seem to be unconcerned ab...
Lord Willetts | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I should have included Alison Wolf's excellent report on my ...
Geraint Davies | 532 c909-10 (Link to this contribution) Does the Secretary of State agree that sovereign debt in Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Portugal an...
Lord Willetts | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) I do not know which specific OBR forecast the hon. Gentleman refers to, but the OBR work I have seen...
David Evennett | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend, as always, is correct in saying that it is essential to repair the economy to ...
Lord Willetts | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the graduate tax favoured by the Labour leader would make th...
Tom Blenkinsop | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister confirm that the Chancellor's own Office for Budget Responsibility has stated that...
Andrew Bridgen | 532 c909 (Link to this contribution) The Browne review estimated that if all new students from 2012 paid Labour's favoured 3% graduate ta...
John Hemming | 532 c935-6 (Link to this contribution) Sometimes, I think that there is a tendency in politics to focus too much on trying to avoid trippin...
Jim Shannon | 532 c933-5 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to be called to speak. The first line of the motion before us says that"““this House be...
John Hemming | 532 c936 (Link to this contribution) I am trying to move on from just being party political about the next few minutes' policies. If we w...
Sheila Gilmore | 532 c936 (Link to this contribution) If people work fewer than 16 hours, they do not get support from tax credits. Under the universal cr...
Caroline Dinenage | 532 c930 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady agree that the emphasis that the Government have put on apprenticeships has been ...
Catherine McKinnell | 532 c929-30 (Link to this contribution) There is no doubt that this is a worrying time for this and the next generation of young people. Tha...
Justin Tomlinson | 532 c931-3 (Link to this contribution) Given the time constraints I shall cover a number of topics swiftly and litter them with personal re...
Catherine McKinnell | 532 c931 (Link to this contribution) I agree that apprenticeships need a sales job to be done on them, but there is a greater need for re...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 532 c928-9 (Link to this contribution) No. The difference, other than the £1, is that the Labour party has not had the decency to tell us ...
Geraint Davies | 532 c936-7 (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming), but in gene...
Robert Halfon | 532 c939-41 (Link to this contribution) It is interesting to hear that, because youth unemployment rose steadily over the past 10 years. Fo...
Sheila Gilmore | 532 c939 (Link to this contribution) If we are to have a history lesson, it is perhaps pertinent to point out that the rate of youth unem...
Robert Halfon | 532 c939 (Link to this contribution) This is a very important debate. As I said in my maiden speech,"““In Essex, nearly 4,000 young peopl...
Geraint Davies | 532 c938-9 (Link to this contribution) The average spend in Wales is less, but the reality is that the Welsh Government have given an under...
Ed Davey | 532 c938 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman and his colleague from Wales, the hon. Member for Islwyn (Chris Evans), have prai...
Geraint Davies | 532 c938 (Link to this contribution) What the hon. Gentleman is doing is making England weak.
Geraint Davies | 532 c938 (Link to this contribution) That is complete rubbish. The calculation is that Wales is underpaid by £300 million. We started in ...
John Hemming | 532 c937 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept that Wales gets a lot more money per capita through the Barnett formu...
Tom Blenkinsop | 532 c944-6 (Link to this contribution) This debate is about the ability to provide skills, work and disciplined, self-organising working co...
Toby Perkins | 532 c943-4 (Link to this contribution) We can tell that we have a Tory-led Government when we are back here again debating how a whole gene...
Robert Halfon | 532 c946 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thought that this debate was about opportunities for th...
Chris Williamson | 532 c946 (Link to this contribution) I want to talk briefly about the promise of Britain and how it applies in Derby, with specific refer...
Chris Williamson | 532 c946 (Link to this contribution) I am trying to make the point that denying Bombardier the opportunity to fulfil this contract denies...
Speaker | 532 c946 (Link to this contribution) Mr Halfon, I think that you will find that that is a matter for me, not you. The hon. Member for Der...
Speaker | 532 c946 (Link to this contribution) Order. Mr Williamson, I am sure that you are illustrating a point, as you said, and mean to address ...
Speaker | 532 c941 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I ask the remaining six Members who wish to speak—there were only five on my list—to resu...
Nicholas Dakin | 532 c942-3 (Link to this contribution) When young people in my Scunthorpe constituency express exasperation about how hard it is to get a j...
Debbie Abrahams | 532 c941-2 (Link to this contribution) I will be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. With a few notable exceptions, it is a shame that hon. Membe...
Ed Davey | 532 c951 (Link to this contribution) I welcome this debate because I believe that all Members of this House came into politics with the i...
Gareth Thomas | 532 c950-1 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen set out in his opening remarks what Labour w...
Lord Willetts | 532 c950 (Link to this contribution) The shadow Minister attacks our higher education policies, but are the Labour Opposition committed t...
Gareth Thomas | 532 c949-50 (Link to this contribution) As my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen pointed out in his opening remarks, youth...
Ed Davey | 532 c952 (Link to this contribution) We are doing a lot better than under the apprenticeships guarantee. The hon. Gentleman should have a...
Gareth Thomas | 532 c952 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman aspires, as he says, to high-quality apprenticeships, why is he part of a Gove...
Robert Halfon | 532 c949 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that youth unemployment was falling under Labour, but Office for National St...
Sheila Gilmore | 532 c947-8 (Link to this contribution) I shall address first some of the points that the Minister made, yet again, at the outset of the deb...
Chris Williamson | 532 c946-7 (Link to this contribution) I am, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am merely pointing out that the Government have not fulfilled their ob...
Ed Davey | 532 c952-3 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman will not admit that the percentage of unemployed young people increased. Th...
John Denham | 532 c952 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman made a big point about statistics. Does he accept that the size of the cohort of ...
James Morris | 532 c903 (Link to this contribution) I visited a forging business in Cradley Heath in my constituency on Friday. For the first time in fi...
Lord Willetts | 532 c908 (Link to this contribution) I want to make a tiny bit more progress. Although we are doing those very important things on highe...
Gareth Thomas | 532 c948-9 (Link to this contribution) We have, as ever, had an interesting debate, with the first Back-Bench contribution coming from my h...
Subjects
Apprentices Women Housing Education maintenance allowance Higher education Public expenditure Young people VAT Unemployment Future Jobs Fund
Link
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