Speeches by Hinds.

“It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Butler, and a privilege to take part in these proceedings under your guidance. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) on setting out his case—our case—so comprehensively and compellingly. It is a shame that hospita…”

“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.”

“There were almost a million fewer workless households in 2024 than in 2010. One factor behind that was universal credit and reducing the barriers and perceived risks of going back into work if people were not sure how it would work out. Notwithstanding the right to try, if there are to be two different levels of health…”

“My right hon. Friend makes powerful points, including about the additional unfunded cost pressures for nursery providers—of course, that argument also extends to regular state-funded schools. The one thing I might quibble with is his statement that this Labour Government came in promising to do so much for education. A…”

“The most recent figures—the Government’s own figures—show a fall of 11,000 in the number of children at independent schools. Of course, the number of teachers in the state sector is not going up in this country; it is coming down. The Government have tried to have this every possible way. There is a line in their manif…”

“No? If the Government simply mean teachers with qualified teacher status, then I gently remind the Minister of something we covered in Bill Committee, which some colleagues might recall. The number of teachers today who do not have qualified teacher status is 3.1%, which does not sound all that high. What do colleagues…”

“This debate is a very important opportunity to discuss the upcoming cuts in the Department for Education. We know from the estimates document that overall resource departmental expenditure limits are coming down. We are told that that is largely a technical change as a result of changes to the student loan book, but I …”

“It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Western. The family farm tax was a hammer blow to our agricultural businesses. We understand that the Government seek to raise money, but there is an alternative on the table: the so-called clawback proposal. I hope that the Minister will update us on that and, if the …”

“No, that’s all right. I want to ask about payments for listed building consents. In written evidence, we have had a variety of views on this topic. There is an argument that if you charge for listed building consents and they are at economic full recovery level, you could, in return, expect to have more conservation of…”

“No, sorry—I meant that there is an opportunity, if you are employing people who are very serious craftspeople, who are doing very serious crafts. Them teaching is another way of recouping the investment that effectively you have made in people. I am not suggesting—although I am sure she was brilliant after a day on a s…”

“I have to confess, I am not sure I have quite understood.”

“Thank you. I think we have broadly covered conservation officers.”

“Thank you; your views have been put very clearly. My final question is unrelated to that. Camilla, you work with Historic Royal Palaces, and you are in one right now. Do you have any advice for Parliaments, from your breadth of experience?”

“That is a subject to which we will return, I believe with our second panel.”

“Except leading members of that sector say something different, which is that because in construction you have subcontractors to subcontractors and people working on self-employment contracts, you cannot do that in necessarily the same way, but you can with smaller organisations, where needed, collaborating with each ot…”

“We are going to talk about people and skills—Hilary, you were very keen to talk about this earlier. Maybe we start with Ben and Hilary. Could you outline the biggest or most pressing skills gaps facing the sector? Could you try to distinguish things that are specific to the heritage sector, as opposed to overall constr…”

“I am not sure I quite follow. You said that there was an abundance or an overabundance of people wanting to do the jobs, but it was hard to get in there.”

“Is that not what you—you are the employer.”

“Why would it not be Hilary, as the National Trust? Why would you not lead in the sector? I was at a commercial radio operation the other day—Bauer is a media group that runs the Bauer Media Academy. I think there is the Global Media Academy as well. They don’t only train their own people; there is a recognition that th…”

“A final question from me, and this might also be a question for Alice. Is there a revenue opportunity, given the move, particularly post-covid, to experiential—I do not know what the phrase is, but to people wanting to have that practical thing? There is a facility near me called Butser Ancient Farm, which is brilliant…”