All 4 Debates between Lord Johnson of Marylebone and Desmond Swayne

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Johnson of Marylebone and Desmond Swayne
Thursday 5th July 2018

(5 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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I would be delighted to engage with my hon. Friend on that question. We are investing substantially in midlands services and ensuring that new trains provide extra capacity and reduced journey times.

Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)
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The most recent assessment must be that passenger rail usage is down, because people cannot get into London today. Can the Minister tell us why that is?

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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Yes, I can tell my right hon. Friend why that is. There has been a major signalling outage on the Brighton main line service, which has affected services throughout the network. Although this is the responsibility of Network Rail, the situation has affected services substantially on the Brighton main line. That is why we are investing £300 million in this route, with work starting in the coming months.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Johnson of Marylebone and Desmond Swayne
Thursday 19th April 2018

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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Simplification of ticketing and ease of understanding for passengers is extremely important, as is ensuring that passengers have access to the fares that are right for them. It is important that train operating companies look carefully at their ticketing arrangements to ensure that that is the case.

Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)
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Is simpler necessarily cheaper? Because if there is a choice…

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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Simpler may be cheaper, and there may also be circumstances in which it leads to cost increases. It is important that we achieve a system that is comprehensible, in which passengers do not have to struggle for hours to work out which ticket is the right one for them. Following the 2016 fares and ticketing action plan, we introduced advance tickets for sale on the day of travel that benefit hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Higher Education Funding

Debate between Lord Johnson of Marylebone and Desmond Swayne
Wednesday 11th October 2017

(6 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.

This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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I thank the hon. Lady for her suggestion. We continue to keep that aspect of the system under watch. Clearly, it is important that courses that are more expensive to deliver receive appropriate support from the Government. Obviously funds are not unlimited and we have to be careful in terms of promising further resources to all subjects, but we keep it under review.

Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)
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The right hon. Member for Twickenham (Sir Vince Cable) described the current regime as having all the advantages of a graduate tax with none of the disadvantages. Is that not still the case, and would we not want to avoid the ridiculous situation at the University of St Andrews, where Scottish student numbers are capped at 20%?

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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My right hon. Friend puts it very well. Our system has enabled us to release student number controls, an option that has not been available to the Scottish Government precisely because they have not got the balance right between the individual student and the general taxpayer. I entirely agree with him.

Tuition Fees

Debate between Lord Johnson of Marylebone and Desmond Swayne
Wednesday 19th July 2017

(6 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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A better way of looking at it is that the Government are making the most resources available to the people who are most in need of them. We want people from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to university. We are delighted that they are doing so in record numbers, and that they are now 43% more likely to do so than they ever were before.

Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)
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If we were to put the best possible gloss on what the Leader of the Opposition said, and imagine that he was merely misunderstood in his intentions by students when he said that he would “deal with it”, what faith can we put in the new language that is being used? It is now being said that the Opposition will merely “look at” a number of propositions. If we cannot trust what “deal with” means, how can we possibly trust merely “look at”?

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait Joseph Johnson
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That is exactly right. The Opposition’s policy platform is collapsing before our eyes. The inevitable next step is their abandonment of the albatross around their neck that is their policy of abolishing tuition fees in their entirety. They are currently saddled with it. They are trying to wriggle off the hook of their clear promise to abolish student debt, and they will soon be trying to get rid of that appalling albatross of getting rid of tuition fees in total. As I have said, abolishing student debt would mean a huge addition to our net debt. The proposal to abolish tuition fees and reinstate maintenance grants would add £12 billion to the national deficit, which is equivalent to 0.7% of GDP and to an additional 2.5p on the basic rate of income tax.