Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Dinenage

Wednesday 7th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

People should not have to wait as long as they are for ambulance services, and my new Health Secretary is immediately tackling this issue. She has already laid out her priorities, and sorting out the ambulance service is one of them.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

May I, too, warmly welcome our new Prime Minister to her role, and indeed all her Front Benchers to theirs?

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and, as my right hon. Friend knows, cancer is still the biggest killer of children under the age of 14. Will she restate her Government’s commitment to publishing a 10-year cancer strategy, and can that strategy embed a childhood cancer mission at its very heart?

[The Prime Minister]

Cancer is a devastating disease, and it is particularly heartbreaking when children have cancer. We will certainly proceed with the strategy that my hon. Friend has mentioned, and I know that our new Health Secretary will do all she can to help those children with cancer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Dinenage

Tuesday 26th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I am pleased to hear about the hon. Gentleman’s reading material. What I would say on the subject of Cyprus is that the UK supports a comprehensive settlement based on previous parameters set out in the UN Security Council resolution, so I do not agree with the premise of his question.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

4. What steps her Department is taking to help protect the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Dinenage

Monday 22nd April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I can confirm that Ofsted is currently recruiting more HMIs—Her Majesty’s inspectors—for the early years, and will increase the frequency of inspections of weaker providers. It will also give those providers support for improvement. Existing good quality support provided by local authorities will continue, provided that the providers agree. The issue is that such support is patchy across the country, and not necessarily the same in some local authority areas as in others.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

T6. Given the vital role that vocational education plays in delivering the skilled work force of the future, will the Minister explain how the technical baccalaureate will raise standards of vocational courses and attract more learners?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Dinenage

Monday 4th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

Overall, we have increased early intervention funding from £2.2 billion to £2.5 billion. We are also introducing a new scheme for low-income two-year-olds, starting this September and the following September, which will make sure that those two-year-olds access high-quality provision from good and outstanding providers. Let us face the fact, however, that over 13 years of Labour government what we ended up with was the most unaffordable child care in Europe as well as the lowest salaries with staff paid only £6.60 an hour.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

As the Minister said, child care workers in England are paid barely more than the minimum wage. Does she agree that the present rigid staff-child ratios place a cap on wages and therefore on the quality of staff?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I completely agree with what my hon. Friend has just said. Let us make it clear that we will allow more flexibility in ratios only for high-quality providers where high-quality staff are being hired. The aim, as advocated by the shadow Secretary of State, is to move to systems such as those of Sweden and Denmark, which have high-quality providers, high-quality staff and more flexibility and professional judgment operated at a local level. Everyone, from Andreas Schleicher of the OECD to Sir Michael Wilshaw, backs that plan to raise quality.

A-level Reform

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Dinenage

Wednesday 23rd January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

Many creative subjects are also facilitating subjects—I would argue that both maths and English are creative subjects—but we are thinking about the other subjects as well, and engaging in further discussions with universities and other organisations about them.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

I congratulate the Minister on her strong and passionate delivery of a statement which I think will be broadly welcomed by students, universities and employers. Does she agree that allowing students to take the same exam three or even four times creates a distorted picture of their abilities which does not actually serve anyone?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I entirely agree. Our proposals have already been strongly supported by businesses as well as universities. The Institute of Directors has been very supportive, and, indeed, expressed its support this morning.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Dinenage

Monday 3rd December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

We are giving head teachers the power over how they train up teachers and how to ensure that we have the best quality teachers in the classroom.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to raise standards in mathematics in schools.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Elizabeth Truss)]

We treat maths as a very high priority and are working to attract the best graduates into mathematics teaching through bursaries of up to £20,000. From 2014, we will remove calculators from primary tests to ensure that pupils master the basics, and we are reforming the national curriculum to focus on core arithmetic, which is key to so much future success in employment.

[Caroline Dinenage]

With that in mind, what steps is my hon. Friend taking to ensure that children have a good basic grasp of mental arithmetic before they are able to rely on calculators?

[Elizabeth Truss]

At present, the evidence suggests that 10-year-olds in England are more likely to use calculators than those in virtually any other country in the world, and we are 28th in the world league tables for maths. It is important that children understand and are fluent in multiplication, division, addition and subtraction before they use calculators. That is why we are removing calculators from the primary tests, in line with high-performing countries such as Hong Kong and jurisdictions such as Massachusetts.