Speeches by Hinds.

“Are you going to make recommendations to Government in the summer?”

“Are you looking at causality? I am not sure I understand how those things would affect your recommendation to up-weight or down-weight a particular subject area. With LEO, you could say you are looking at predictive factors that if children study this early on they do better in a broader range of things later. But what…”

“There are differences between stakeholders, as there always are with these questions. You mentioned earlier that you would follow the data. So what data are there available to be followed?”

“With any curriculum review, there are bound to be multiple objectives that you have to try to balance. You have very clearly set out what some of those are. In the last curriculum review in 2014, the headline or single-sentence explanation that Ministers wanted at the time would have been, “We looked around the world t…”

“Terribly inconsistent!”

“First, is handwriting still as important as it was? Secondly, if you were to change the way that assessment is done for most children in most subjects, might that have an adverse effect on handwriting lower down the school?”

“I just want to ask one other question on a completely different aspect, which is handwriting. There is some debate at the moment about the relevance or importance of handwriting in a world where more and more people use keyboards or other technologies to communicate the written word. I just wonder if you think there is…”

“You mentioned earlier that the national curriculum is actually quite a loose framework, much looser than most people commonly understand. One change we have coming with current legislation is that the freedom to deviate from the national curriculum will be extinguished. It is not used by many anyway, but it is there as…”

“Do we take from that that PE may well become, as it is known, a core subject, as opposed to a foundation subject?”

“I rise to speak briefly in support of the case put so comprehensively and powerfully by the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft). The APPG on Down syndrome, of which the hon. Member for Mid Cheshire (Andrew Cooper) and I are both members, was given a very striking presentation on Down syndrome regression disorder by Dr…”

“The hon. Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) should not misunderstand me, as I am not against regulation. His points about data protection and privacy are really important, although they are probably too big to fold entirely into this debate. His first group of points and what the NSPCC talks about are the same risks tha…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes his point lucidly and well, and I think it stands on its own feet. The bigger issue with more children taking exams on a keyboard rather than on paper is that exam boards would like to move entire exams online for all children. In a sense, that would be better because it would be equal; there w…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the use of generative artificial intelligence in schools. It is a great pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. You will not be presiding over a heated political debate this afternoon, and I hope this is a good opportunity to openly discuss the enormous change …”

“Funnily enough, I agree with the hon. Member, though not necessarily about statutory requirements. It is certainly true—in fact, he inadvertently leads me on to my next point—that we need to be careful and discerning in using these products. There are many risks, including the safeguarding risks inherent in technology,…”

“There are two simple safeguards against misuse of AI in exams here in front of me. Will the Minister recognise that the best way to ensure the security and integrity of exams, and how assessment is done lower down the school, is—for the great majority of children, in the majority of subjects—for exams to be handwritten…”

“I was happy not to wind up, but you have now made me stand up, Sir Jeremy. We have had a good and constructive debate. I am grateful to the Minister for his engagement, and to all colleagues for taking part.”

“Indeed—computers talking to computers, with us as the facilitators. The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I will conclude by repeating something I said much earlier in my remarks. We should always remember that, at whatever pace we, the education system or, certainly, Government can work, young people will work at a p…”

“As the Minister says, fraud is the largest volume category of crime; it was coming down under the last Government, but over the past full year it has gone back up again dramatically. The Online Safety Act 2023 is a landmark reform, but criminals will always seek new channels, so what will the Minister do in his new fra…”

“6. What recent assessment she has made of trends in the incidence of fraud.”

“And the national health service—sorry, I am coming back to hospitality, Ms Butler. As it turns out, one of the biggest users of zero-hours contracts in the country is the national health service.”