Speeches by Sewards.

“That is brilliant. We will see what the outcome of the spending review is. Just very briefly, once the report card system has come in schools will be inspected. Will all schools retain their one-word judgments until they have been inspected under the new regime?”

“Not on that topic, but just on the education inspection framework, we know it is going to have to be reformed to facilitate report cards. How long do you estimate it will take to inspect all schools under a new system?”

“Chloe Cheung, a resident of Leeds, has been subject to a £100,000 bounty simply for telling the truth about Jimmy Lai. At 19 years old, she is the youngest person to be subject to Hong Kong’s national security law. What reassurances can the Minister give Chloe and other Hongkongers that they will be protected from tran…”

“That is fine. Thank you very much.”

“That is right, but they will retain their one-word judgments, essentially, until the new report card system.”

“As a maths teacher, I have had Ofsted experiences too.”

“Thank you for your answers so far. I particularly appreciate your last answer to Patrick about the purpose of Ofsted and why we do it. To follow up on something that Patrick was asking about, he talked about the fact that 91% of respondents said that Ofsted was not fit for purpose. In your response, you talked about th…”

“You mentioned the Big Listen. I am just going to turn back to that because I know that Patrick referenced it as well. It has run into some criticism. Some people have said that it asked too many leading questions and some have even suggested that it was wrong not to ask people directly about their opinions on one-word …”

“On data, as a councillor in Farnley and Wortley and now as the MP for Leeds South West and Morley, I found that when I tried to help residents with accident spots on problem roads, I was often told that the average speed on that road was not high enough for action to be warranted. I have been met with that excuse so ma…”

“I have follow-ups, but, in the interests of time, I will leave it there, Chair.”

“I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether or not he would support that pay rise. I am very happy to give way—I was just coming to the end of my point.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I start by thanking those who organised the petition, including Mr Westwood, for securing this debate on today of all days. It is my birthday, and I can think of no better place to be, so I thank them very much for that. I also thank the Chair of the Select Co…”

“I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention. The simple fact is that the Opposition have to make a decision about exactly how much they would have given in public sector pay rises. They chose to dodge that decision and hand it on to the next lot—to us. As a result, we have had to take decisions to cl…”

“I congratulate the Government on this announcement, which is incredibly welcome news for all those workers who get to keep their jobs as a result. It is a shame that the Conservative Front-Bench spokesman chose to attack the Government over the 2.5% target while responding to the statement, and asked for a timeline for…”

“I start by welcoming the Minister’s statement. It is incredibly welcome to hear that we still fully support the people of Ukraine and will back them financially for as long as it takes. I have two questions for the Minister. First, he mentioned the 11,000 North Korean troops in the Kursk region. He said that they had m…”

“May I wish a Merry Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, the excellent House staff and of course the Speaker’s staff, who have shown extraordinary patience with me as I have asked many questions about how this place works. In my constituency I am supporting somebody who has a real problem with cyber-bullying. Her dau…”

“Absolutely and, of course, we will see the details soon. I will open it up to anyone else now who wants to contribute to this question.”

“This is a brief follow-up from my original question. Katharine, you quite rightly highlighted that the three examples I gave did not cover the entire workforce. Maris came and said that we need to value social care more. I talked about pay and workload. I am looking for any other specific measures we can take to retain…”

“Thank you for your answers so far. We know that there are shortages of staff everywhere across the sector. We know that pay and workload often come up, so by all means reference pay and workload in your answers, but I will be interested in other things too. What measures do you think are needed to deal with the shortag…”

“Thank you all for coming in this morning and thanks for your answers so far. The previous Education Committee heard a great deal of evidence about the number of children being placed outside of their areas. What measures should be put in place to reduce the number of out-of-area placements? I will start with Dr Kerr, s…”