Prorogued
Parliament has now been officially prorogued and the second session of the 55th Parliament in the 62nd year in the reign of the Queen has concluded. Essentially, the upshot of Parliament being prorogued is that we will all return home to work in our constituencies until we are summoned back for the Queen’s Speech on May 8th. As with much parliamentary protocol, there is a degree of pomp and circumstance to the occasion, with the sitting of Parliament suspended momentarily before being recalled for the formalities to be conducted. The Queen’s Speech will outline all the Bills the Government intends to introduce over the next 12 months or so, meaning it is usually followed by a comprehensive debate.
Although the final week of any parliamentary session is usually dominated by what we refer to as ping pong (where legislation is sent to and from the House of Lords as we seek agreement), the House did also play host to some important debates and statements. On Tuesday, the House held a final debate on the Growth and Infrastructure Bill. Although this bill is a wide-ranging one, there is no doubt the provisions within it that have attracted most commentary in recent time have related to changes it seeks to make to planning regulations. I am pleased the Government has introduced legislation designed to simplify planning guidelines. It is right it has acted so that more affordable homes can be built to allow key workers and those who have lived somewhere for a long time to afford to get a foot on the property ladder in their communities. However, it is vitally important we preserve our beautiful green belt land and natural environment.
The week also saw Michael Gove build further on recognising the importance of technical education by announcing the new technical baccalaureate. The “tecc bacc” will be aimed at the 50% of school leavers who perhaps are not considering going to university. The Department for Education has suggested a tecc back will be awarded to recognise high standards in “a rigorous high quality vocational subject, maths and literacy”. The tecc bacc will be on a par with A-Levels and would offer those aspiring to a technical career a first class alternative to the more traditional A-Level route. The new measure is to be counted in school and college league tables from 2017 and the Department for Education is consulting on the list of qualifications that will qualify for inclusion in the tecc bacc. The tecc bacc is something I have been calling for and I am absolutely delighted the government continues to focus on the importance of delivering high quality technical education.
Campaigning & In The Patch
Regular readers of my column will recall that I led a debate in the House of Commons on the teaching of life saving skills in schools. It is my view that every child should leave secondary school knowing how to try and save somebody’s life in an emergency situation. We know this is a measure the public, pupils and teachers want, so the job now is to persuade the Government that introducing the teaching of life saving skills is a good thing. To this end, I led a contingent of MPs and the British Heart Foundation to meet with Education Minister Liz Truss to discuss this matter further. There are a number of ways forward from here and I get the impression the Government could be receptive to some of them – so the onus is now on us all working together to see if we can find a way forward.
On Friday, I attended the first University Technical College Steering Group meeting held since the Department for Education confirmed or bid to bring a UTC to Newton Abbot had been successful. Senior officials from the Department for Education travelled down to discuss the logistics of how we progress from an agreement to fund a UTC to seeing pupils attending a fully functioning college. As you would anticipate, there are many hurdles still to clear but we all remain dedicated to making this project the resounding success we all want it to be.
The APPG for Micro Businesses held its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday in Parliament. It has been another busy year for the APPG and it has now firmly established itself as one the largest and most active APPGs in Parliament. David Willetts, David Gauke and Greg Barker have all addressed the group this year and we have successfully lobbied for fuel duty decreases and national insurance reliefs. I believe it is vitally important that our very smallest enterprises have an effective voice in Parliament standing up for their interests and that’s why I intend to ensure the APPG continues to go from strength to strength. Staying with business, I went along to the Devon and Cornwall Institute of Directors board meeting to update them on the work I am doing to support enterprise in Parliament. Organisations like the IoD, FSB and FPB play a vital rule in connecting the political and business worlds together and I am always pleased to meet with them to think through how we can enhance this important collaborationa