Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Hayes and Andrew Love

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

The hon. Lady rightly identifies that apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship training can provide an important vehicle to bring people from disengagement to engagement. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education has cemented the work done in the Budget to create those extra apprenticeships for people moving from the very circumstances the hon. Lady describes to the skills and success they deserve.

[Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Government’s flagship policy on employment and small businesses is the national insurance holiday for all companies outside London and the south-east. We heard only yesterday from Treasury officials that that has created only thousands of jobs, so is it time to go back to the drawing board on this policy?

[Mr Hayes]

I learned long ago never to pitch above my pay grade or outside my purview, and I rather suspect that that question might be both.