Speeches by Sewards.

“More than 20 positions are available already and, as time goes on, more will become available. It will be up to the Leader of the Opposition to make that decision.”

“My hon. Friend made the point extremely well. I have had to deal with this on a number of issues, including introducing VAT on private schools, for example, where Members came to this place, argued the point and said that we had no right to do it—yet it was in our manifesto, so we have a moral obligation to pass this l…”

“The Labour party has a moral obligation to fulfil our manifesto pledges, and I am confident that during our five-year term we will make great progress on everything that we set out in that document. I have argued that Lords amendment 1 undermines the core purpose of the Bill and is entirely inconsistent with our commit…”

“The hon. Gentleman chunters from a sedentary position. When it comes to Scotland, the figure is about 2% or 3%—I cannot recall the actual figures, but I will check. The point remains that we have to make the House of Lords more representative of our nations and regions. We could address this issue in a piecemeal way, i…”

“The right hon. Gentleman’s point is well made and I will be following the work of the Select Committee closely. We have already heard names mentioned of people who are over the age of 80 and still making great contributions, so I will follow the Committee’s work closely before making a final judgment on the issue. More…”

“I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and reiteration that we will always support the people of Ukraine. Given Russia’s despicable attack against civilian targets in Kyiv, costing the lives of over 20 civilians including children and damaging a British Council building, it is quite clear that Vladimir Putin has …”

“Is the expansion of free school meals and the introduction of breakfast clubs likely to have any impact on attendance from low-income families?”

“Absolutely. I know that the LGA did some research on this before it became statutory, and it found that 68% of councils actually increased their cost as result of the non-statutory guidance. Is there the money to pay for it now that it is statutory?”

“Very good. Any further answers?”

“The Department for Education introduced guidance on “Working together to improve school attendance”, and it was initially non-statutory when it was introduced. A previous iteration of this Committee heard mixed evidence on how effective that guidance was. However, that Committee still recommended that the guidance be m…”

“You will have heard me asking the last panel about the now statutory guidance, “Working together to improve school attendance”. What is your view of that guidance? Should any changes be made? I will start with Dan, for obvious reasons.”

“Those are very helpful suggestions—thank you.”

“That is very useful. Thank you.”

“That is incredibly pleasing to hear. Any further contributions?”

“The Department for Education introduced guidance on “Working together to improve school attendance”, and it was initially non-statutory when it was introduced. A previous iteration of this Committee heard mixed evidence on how effective that guidance was. However, that Committee still recommended that the guidance be m…”

“That is incredibly pleasing to hear. Any further contributions?”

“Those are very helpful suggestions—thank you.”

“That is very useful. Thank you.”

“Absolutely. I know that the LGA did some research on this before it became statutory, and it found that 68% of councils actually increased their cost as result of the non-statutory guidance. Is there the money to pay for it now that it is statutory?”

“Is the expansion of free school meals and the introduction of breakfast clubs likely to have any impact on attendance from low-income families?”