Speeches by Phillipson.

“I strongly agree with my hon. Friend about the need to ensure that every child has the best start in life. I am grateful for her generous invitation, and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Early Education Minister and I will consider it along with, no doubt, a great many other invitations. We intend to test and learn as…”

“We intend to deliver the roll-out as soon as possible, because we know it is urgent, and we know the difference it will make to children’s lives. Free universal breakfast clubs will also mean that every primary school child, no matter their circumstances, is well prepared to learn. That is why we believe in that import…”

“I agree with the hon. Gentleman that there is always more that we can do, and I note that many companies already involve themselves in important charitable works in this area. He names one company. It would be remiss of me, as a north-east MP, not to give a special plug to Greggs, which does fantastic work in this spac…”

“I am delighted that my hon. Friend’s constituency is part of the early adopters programme. Our breakfast clubs scheme is all about making sure that children get a great start to their school day—a welcoming space that provides them with valuable opportunities to play, learn and socialise. However, as she identifies, th…”

“I am confident that the funding being made available to schools will be sufficient to deliver on this programme. The hon. Gentleman quotes the daily per pupil funding rate, but alongside that, as I set out earlier, there will be start-up costs, as well as lump-sum payments to cover the costs of running breakfast clubs,…”

“I am delighted to hear about the good news for St John’s. I am sure that the Minister for Early Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan), and I will receive lots of invitations to visit fantastic breakfast clubs across our country. We will do our best to service those invitations, but …”

“I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the importance of supporting local providers where that is possible and the fantastic contribution of British food and wider produce. I just observe that it is my understanding that his constituency is set to benefit from the early adopters scheme. I hope that he will be able to se…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this important area. She is right that breakfast clubs must be fully inclusive and take account of the needs of all children, including children with SEND. That is why, as part of this process, we have announced 50 special and AP schools that will be taking part in the early …”

“I understand your concerns. If I may, Chair, I will ensure that further information is provided on all those points.”

“The OEO is a Cabinet Office business unit. It leads on that cross-governmental, cross-cutting policy related to all the areas that you will be aware of. It is right that it sits at the heart of Government through the Cabinet Office because so much of that work does require co-ordination across Government Departments. T…”

“I can certainly ensure that that is raised with colleagues across Government to make sure that updates are provided as the Committee requires.”

“We are committed to enacting the socioeconomic duty, and we intend to set out in due course when that will happen, but there is also the relationship with the opportunity mission, which is cross-governmental. The key focus of that is to ensure that background is no barrier to opportunity. We are looking at the measures…”

“Great question.”

“I will just add that, alongside the work that I have talked about today, I co-chair the child poverty taskforce with the Work and Pensions Secretary. We know that far too many children in our country are growing up in poverty and, again, this is an area where we are working right across Government to make sure that we …”

“Would you like me to address the precise measure as well?”

“I am not aware that I have, but I am happy to check and come back on that point. Just to re-emphasise the point that Anneliese was making around the approach that the Government take in these areas, when it comes to single-sex exemptions, we want providers to have absolute clarity on what is covered by the law. Before …”

“I will add a bit on children and young people, if it is helpful for the Committee. We have seen increases in diagnosis connected to education, health and care plans partly because there is a much wider understanding of neurodivergence and autism, and that is a welcome development. But where it comes to schools in parti…”

“This is a DFT lead but we are committed across Government to making sure we improve accessibility to the railway; we know it is absolutely crucial. We are considering our approach to Access for All. We are not able to offer comment on specific stations or projects at this stage, other than to say that a further eight a…”

“No, I understand, and it is a very reasonable question. Both of us have a busy set of responsibilities, but if you want something doing, you usually ask a busy person, don’t you? More seriously, we are both able to dedicate the necessary time to this crucial work. I find the work that I do around equalities, together w…”

“Just to add to that, there is work going on across Government. While the Deputy Prime Minister leads this, I attended the first meeting of the cross-governmental steering group that she set up. The Department for Education is also represented as a part of that work. We know that this is about the wider services that ar…”