To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of teaching provision available to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan; and what assessment she has made of the effects of language barriers on the effectiveness of such provision.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of teaching provision available to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan; and what assessment she has made of the effects of language barriers on the effectiveness of such provision.

My Lords, I am most grateful to have been granted time for us to debate what I believe is a crucial inflection point both in the UK’s relationship with China and in China’s own outward investment story. I declare an interest as the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for...

My Lords, I am most grateful to have been granted time for us to debate what I believe is a crucial inflection point both in the UK’s relationship with China and in China’s own outward investment story. I declare an interest as the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wei, for that wonderfully powerful lobbying from a certain perspective—but that is what an APPG chairman is supposed to do—and I think that we were all extremely interested in everything that he had to say. I certainly will not disagree with anything...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wei, for that wonderfully powerful lobbying from a certain perspective—but that is what an APPG chairman is supposed to do—and I think that we were all extremely interested in everything that he had to say. I certainly will not disagree with anything...

I am very pleased to follow my noble friend Lady Falkner, and I am pleased that she made some points about AstraZeneca, a very current issue and something that we should be majorly concerned about, separately from this debate today. However, it is welcome that the UK is the most...

I am very pleased to follow my noble friend Lady Falkner, and I am pleased that she made some points about AstraZeneca, a very current issue and something that we should be majorly concerned about, separately from this debate today. However, it is welcome that the UK is the most...

From this side, we certainly welcome this debate. As the noble Lord, Lord Wei, observed, this issue is important for the future of the UK economy. The APPG is to be commended for producing this useful report, but the question is what Her Majesty’s Government will do about its recommendations—a...

From this side, we certainly welcome this debate. As the noble Lord, Lord Wei, observed, this issue is important for the future of the UK economy. The APPG is to be commended for producing this useful report, but the question is what Her Majesty’s Government will do about its recommendations—a...

My Lords, I am pleased that we still have some of the Scottish contingent in for the debate. I start by thanking my noble friend Lord Wei for initiating this important debate and for the report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for East Asian Business. China’s rise is indeed an...

My Lords, I am pleased that we still have some of the Scottish contingent in for the debate. I start by thanking my noble friend Lord Wei for initiating this important debate and for the report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for East Asian Business. China’s rise is indeed an...

I wonder whether the Minister could focus not so much on the numbers of visas, but on the problems that the visa process creates: delay and complexity. That is what sends the message that you, the Chinese investor, are not welcome.

I wonder whether the Minister could focus not so much on the numbers of visas, but on the problems that the visa process creates: delay and complexity. That is what sends the message that you, the Chinese investor, are not welcome.

My very next words were going to be that the average time to process a visa is seven working days. Of course, there will be more difficult cases, but we also have a three to five day priority service available. The Prime Minister, during his well thought through trip to...

My very next words were going to be that the average time to process a visa is seven working days. Of course, there will be more difficult cases, but we also have a three to five day priority service available. The Prime Minister, during his well thought through trip to...

The Minister did say that I was out of date, but possibly he did not necessarily mean that in relation to visas. Only last week I had a party of Chinese investors saying that they were having considerable problems with delays in getting visas. These are people who wish to...

The Minister did say that I was out of date, but possibly he did not necessarily mean that in relation to visas. Only last week I had a party of Chinese investors saying that they were having considerable problems with delays in getting visas. These are people who wish to...

I am sure that if the noble Lord would provide me with some details of that particular party, we can look into what their challenges were. We are trying hard to make the process of applying for a UK visa easier. We have a pilot scheme allowing selected travel agents...

I am sure that if the noble Lord would provide me with some details of that particular party, we can look into what their challenges were. We are trying hard to make the process of applying for a UK visa easier. We have a pilot scheme allowing selected travel agents...

The Minister indicated I was out of date. He was perhaps not referring to the surpassing of London by Singapore as an RMB trading centre, which was noted at the end of February. Perhaps he would care to comment on that.

The Minister indicated I was out of date. He was perhaps not referring to the surpassing of London by Singapore as an RMB trading centre, which was noted at the end of February. Perhaps he would care to comment on that.

In currency trading, there are different time zones. I was a spot trader once upon a time in my life and used to take over from Singapore. We shall see how the figures on RMB trading come out for the full year. The UK has established a very strong presence...

In currency trading, there are different time zones. I was a spot trader once upon a time in my life and used to take over from Singapore. We shall see how the figures on RMB trading come out for the full year. The UK has established a very strong presence...

Lords question for short debate on what assessment they have made of the recommendations of the report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on East Asian Business on foreign investment from China into the United Kingdom.

Lords question for short debate on what assessment they have made of the recommendations of the report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on East Asian Business on foreign investment from China into the United Kingdom.

My Lords, I welcome particularly the former members of the Select Committee which produced the report which is the subject of this debate—the members of the old comrades association, if I may say so, of the Select Committee. Our committee report had a good reception from the Government and others...

My Lords, I welcome particularly the former members of the Select Committee which produced the report which is the subject of this debate—the members of the old comrades association, if I may say so, of the Select Committee. Our committee report had a good reception from the Government and others...

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cope, for securing and introducing this debate on a subject so vital to our economy. Indeed, our report goes on giving. This is effectively the second debate that we have managed to have on it, and I very much welcome it. I also thank...

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cope, for securing and introducing this debate on a subject so vital to our economy. Indeed, our report goes on giving. This is effectively the second debate that we have managed to have on it, and I very much welcome it. I also thank...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Cope for securing this important debate. His chairmanship of the Select Committee on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, of which I have the pleasure of being a member, was exemplary.

When my noble friend secured the debate in June last year on the...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Cope for securing this important debate. His chairmanship of the Select Committee on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, of which I have the pleasure of being a member, was exemplary.

When my noble friend secured the debate in June last year on the...

I add my thanks to my noble friend Lord Cope for securing this important debate, and I add my congratulations to him and his Select Committee on a report that highlights the critical importance of ensuring that SMEs—and I am always conscious that that means small as well as medium-sized...

I add my thanks to my noble friend Lord Cope for securing this important debate, and I add my congratulations to him and his Select Committee on a report that highlights the critical importance of ensuring that SMEs—and I am always conscious that that means small as well as medium-sized...

My Lords, let me congratulate not only the noble Lord, Lord Cope, but all noble Lords involved in the production of this report. I speak as someone who was not on the committee. The report is wide-ranging, authoritative and packed with interesting ideas and proposals. As a social scientist, I...

My Lords, let me congratulate not only the noble Lord, Lord Cope, but all noble Lords involved in the production of this report. I speak as someone who was not on the committee. The report is wide-ranging, authoritative and packed with interesting ideas and proposals. As a social scientist, I...

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cope, for initiating this very important debate. It is very important for our country’s growth and it is so essential that the committee has addressed the issue of exports.

SMEs in particular need every possible help they can get to enable them to negotiate such...

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cope, for initiating this very important debate. It is very important for our country’s growth and it is so essential that the committee has addressed the issue of exports.

SMEs in particular need every possible help they can get to enable them to negotiate such...

My Lords, I too thank my noble friend Lord Cope for initiating this welcome debate. The report by the Select Committee was published before I was introduced to the House. Accordingly, I have had the advantage of looking at it from the outside. As a relative new boy, it is...

My Lords, I too thank my noble friend Lord Cope for initiating this welcome debate. The report by the Select Committee was published before I was introduced to the House. Accordingly, I have had the advantage of looking at it from the outside. As a relative new boy, it is...