Speeches by Spencer.

“I will ask some questions about regional care co-operatives. From the evidence you have given, it seems that most of you are in favour of the regionalisation of purchasing of residential placements—correct/incorrect? Does anyone have a problem with it?”

“I want to touch on good-quality early intervention. Jo, I believe you made a point about parenting classes and support for parents being stigmatising, which is disappointing to hear, because it should not be. Can all four people on the panel give the Committee an idea of what good early intervention programmes look lik…”

“Q On this remarkable relationship between taxes and rent, are you saying that there is a uniform relationship across geographies, locations and shop types? There is a big difference between Oxford Street and a town high street; are you saying that the behaviour of rents and taxes does not vary across those situations? …”

“Q Have you done any analysis of the variation of impact between renters and freehold owners of shops? On my high street, the shops that own the freehold are the ones that have been there for 15 years, so they have not weathered the same problems that other shops have. Surely at the margin there is an impact on shops th…”

“Q The premise of this policy change, as I understand it, is to rebalance fairness back towards local, community-based properties and businesses, which I am in favour of. But can you speak to the impact that the Bill will have on your institutional investors that invest in large warehouse space? What is the importance o…”

“Q Sorry, Professor Green, can we just go back? You said that you would expect 10,000 to 20,000 students to transition out of independent schools and into the state system— Professor Green: Somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000, and that would be over a five-year period.”

“Okay, so we will go midway, which, at 20,000, would be a 3.5% reduction in the total independent school population. Professor Green: Yes, I think that is right.”

“Is that as a consequence of everything that is going on in this context, or just the business rate changes? Do the parameters of that analysis include VAT? Professor Green: That is the VAT estimate, so I am saying that, if that is the VAT estimate, the business rate relief change is one tenth of that.”

“I just want to clarify that that analysis was based on the total changes that the sector is undergoing, not just specifically the context of the Bill. Professor Green: Correct.”

“Q Forgive me, Minister, but is this not a bit of a missed opportunity? The Committee has heard a lot of evidence today that, yes, the measures introduced in the Bill, specifically the ones around supporting local shops and our high streets, are probably very fair and reasonable, and that it is about time, but at the en…”

“Q Thank you, Mr Gerrard, for coming to give evidence. I want to put on the record my support for the premise of supporting community shops and stores and providing somewhere for people to go to do their shopping, but you mentioned that the provisions in the Bill will make distribution more expensive. Should we not be m…”

“Q Thank you very much, Mr Woodall. I was struck by what you said about rural convenience stores and the importance of supporting them, and I could not agree with you more. I represent a rural constituency and in the next-door village there is a shop that has been there for years. I am terrified every year that it will …”

“That is comprehensive, I suppose. Could you give us an overview of how you see Ofqual’s public profile and its reputation, of whether you think it is not where you want it to be, and of how it can be improved?”

“I welcome what this Government are doing to increase prison capacity, but what will the Secretary of State do on tougher sentencing? If she goes to my constituency of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, she will be met with a tough, gruff East Anglian accent that says, “What’s the point of building prison places if you …”

“9. What steps her Department is taking to increase prison capacity.”

“We know that arms-length bodies and regulators are at their best when they lead the public debate. What will you do, Sir Ian, to ensure that Ofqual leads the public debate in this area?”

“Will the Secretary of State reconfirm her commitment to academies and to the policy of academisation?”

“Will my hon. Friend speak for a moment about the situation facing small football clubs? They often have many people turning up week after week to watch their team play and are on a tiny budget with tiny margins, no money to spare and no money available for training. In such circumstances, surely those clubs will be rea…”

“The hon. Gentleman talks about shared responsibility, and how it is the responsibility of us all to protect each other. As a former police officer, is he not worried about a degree of vigilantism, with untrained people taking the law into their own hands and doing things that perhaps, as a police officer, he thinks pol…”

“I serve on the Education Committee with the hon. Gentleman, and I wonder what he will say to people who work in the education sector, many of whom are low paid and running schools that support teaching assistants to work with children with special educational needs and disabilities. They now face a bigger wage bill bec…”