Business of the House Debate

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Department: Leader of the House

Business of the House

Valerie Vaz Excerpts
Thursday 22nd March 2012

(12 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Young of Cookham Portrait Sir George Young
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I very much hope that schools and colleges give priority to foreign languages that will help us win exports in competitive world markets. I commend the work in my hon. Friend’s constituency, where that is clearly seen as a priority.

Valerie Vaz Portrait Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
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May we have an urgent debate on how we can extend the Freedom of Information Act to commissioning support groups? Under the Health and Social Care Bill they will not be statutory bodies, so no one will be able to get access to the information that they have, and they are set to be privatised by 2016. How will the public find out information that was previously available from primary care trusts but will not be available from commissioning support groups?

Lord Young of Cookham Portrait Sir George Young
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The hon. Lady raises a good question. There will be Health questions on Tuesday, when there may be opportunity for her to ask it, but I will in any event raise it with the Secretary of State for Health and ask him to write to her, to ensure that information that should be in the public domain remains so.