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Five-year-olds (Baseline Assessment)
5. Ms Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to introduce baseline assessment for five-year-olds. [20127]
Mrs. Gillan: The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority is undertaking a survey of current practice and views on baseline assessment, as the precursor to a full consultation exercise in the autumn.
Ms Hodge: Last year's standard assessment task results for 11-year-olds, in which more than half the children failed to reach the expected attainment level in mathematics and English, are a national scandal. Does the Minister agree that monitoring a child's progress throughout primary school is essential to raising standards and that a baseline assessment is essential to that monitoring? Will she join me in applauding the work that has been done by Birmingham city council in experimenting with baseline assessments? Will she tell the House what the Government's current plans are to extend the use of baseline assessments?
Mrs. Gillan: I certainly join the hon. Lady in applauding the many schools and local education authorities that already carry out some form of baseline assessment. I also admit that Birmingham's work is particularly well known, but there are some questions about how its approach guarantees consistency and parental involvement. I invite her to join me in welcoming
the sensible approach that the Government have taken. We are consulting fully on this matter, and we have asked the SCAA to undertake a survey of current practice and draw up proposals. I am sure that she will welcome that; it is the sensible approach.
Mr. Hawkins: Does my hon. Friend agree that, in addition to problems with Birmingham's baseline assessment scheme, to which the Labour party is committed, there are considerable concerns about the Labour party's attitude to testing? Does my hon. Friend agree that it is rather surprising to hear questions on education coming from the hon. Member for Barking (Ms Hodge), who was responsible for a system in Islington that was so inadequate that even the Leader of the Opposition had no confidence in it for his child?
Mrs. Gillan: My hon. Friend makes a valid point. The situation he mentions just goes to prove that the Labour party is in a complete muddle and mess on its education policy. There is no doubt that baseline assessment is a good thing. The information that is gained enables teachers to develop detailed knowledge of children in the class so that they can match work to children's needs and abilities. We shall introduce proposals after examining good practice throughout the country, which is the sensible approach. I wish that Opposition parties would listen more carefully--they could then, perhaps, sort out the mess that their education policies are in.
Unemployment
6. Mr. Booth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what studies she has made of the United Kingdom's record on reducing unemployment in relation to that of other major EU countries. [20128]
The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Mr. Eric Forth): Studies show that the United Kingdom's unemployment rate is lower than that of most other European Union countries. We have a lower proportion of people unemployed than France, Italy or Spain and we are well below the European Union average.
Mr. Booth: As my hon. Friend well knows, having been conversant with the figures for some time, Britain has performed much better than the rest of Europe--indeed, 68 per cent. of our work force is in employment. Is not it curious, therefore, that, were we to believe Opposition Members, we are in a state of complete economic collapse? To what, then, does my hon. Friend ascribe our extraordinary success in Europe?
Mr. Forth: My hon. Friend is correct. It is extraordinary that Opposition Members continue to espouse tired, clapped-out old policies such as the social chapter and the minimum wage, which we know do not work. Anyone who doubts that need only look to the continental mainland and the recent experience of economies there which, having saddled themselves with the social chapter and a national minimum wage, find their unemployment rates higher than ours and rising whereas our economy, freed from such shackles under the Government's successful economic policies, has found unemployment falling and continuing to fall.
Mr. Sheerman: Does the Minister realise that competitiveness and job creation are important in the long haul? This is Science, Education and Technology Week, and the lesson to be learned is from the way in which our competitors--countries such as Germany, France and others--have made a long-term investment in education. It is the long haul that counts, not the cheap attacks on not only our main competitors but our customers across Europe. Our competitors invest for the long term; is not is about time that we invested in higher and further education?
Mr. Forth: I do not understand the hon. Gentleman's comparison. If he were to examine, as he clearly has not, student-staff ratios and class sizes, the length of courses and quality of output on the continent--
Mr. Forth: The hon. Gentleman keeps shouting, "Germany" in a pathetically repetitive way. He may have forgotten that there are countries other than Germany on the continent and in the European Union. He should recall that we bear comparison with any country on the continental mainland in terms of the quality of educational output, especially in higher education.
Mr. Sykes: I am disappointed that the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Llwyd) has left the Chamber. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister will have heard him rubbish the Government's policies for Wales. Would it be a good idea for my hon. Friend to remind the House and the country at large that the Koreans are thinking of investing £2 billion in this country and that Wales is at the top of their list? Does that not say a great deal for the Welsh? What does it tell us about the minimum wage and the social chapter in Europe?
Mr. Forth: My hon. Friend is right to point out that when hard-headed business men from around the world are looking to invest, they come to this country, having made their comparisons. We attract one third of the total inward investment from businesses in Korea, Japan and the United States. Such businesses have made comparisons and concluded that this country is the long-term best bet for their economic well-being. That must tell its own story. [Interruption.] Opposition Members do not have to believe me; they need only examine the evidence of where the investment is going. That proves conclusively that the economic circumstances that we are creating are far superior to those of our competitors.
Mr. Skinner: Why does the Minister not admit the truth? The Government have fiddled the unemployment figures about 30 times since they came to power. Under the old figures, 4 million people would be out of work. Of those who have employment, some are on zero-hour contracts and many work part time. Is it any wonder that the Chancellor of the Exchequer realises that he is going to be £9 billion short in his tax revenues for this financial year? Why? Because many people in so-called employment are employed only part time and are therefore not paying the income tax that he expected. I managed all that without mentioning the social chapter and the minimum wage.
Mr. Forth: I did it for the hon. Gentleman. I got it in twice before he got it in at all. He is unusually off the mark because he ignores the fact that the bulk of people in part-time work choose to do it and that many people, mainly women, freely choose it because it suits their domestic and personal circumstances. We respect that, even if he does not. The truth about his tired, old accusation about fiddled unemployment figures is that the method of counting the unemployed favoured by many Opposition Members, and even by so illustrious a body as the International Labour Organisation, results in a figure close to our claimant count. There is no fundamental disagreement about the number of people out of work in Britain.
Job Creation
7. Mr. John Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she last met EU Employment Ministers to discuss job creation. [20129]
Mr. Forth: Employment issues are now frequently discussed at meetings of the European Union Social Affairs Council, which are attended by EU Employment Ministers. At these meetings, I and other UK Ministers argue consistently that the way to create jobs is through fostering an economic environment in which business can prosper and through the development of competitive, flexible and efficient labour markets.
Mr. Marshall: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. When he next goes to Brussels, will he point out that Britain has become the enterprise centre of Europe because we have enjoyed a revolution in industrial relations and low corporate taxes and because of our opt-out from the anti-social chapter?
Mr. Forth: My hon. Friend is correct. We cannot point out often enough that the route taken by our partners on the continental mainland has demonstrated that the social chapter is a way to discourage enterprise and business and to lose jobs. The deregulatory route that we have chosen has demonstrated beyond all doubt and argument that we attract inward investment and provide jobs for the future, that our unemployment rate is falling and that our long-term and youth unemployment rates are lower than those of most of our competitors and partners in the European Union. Those facts speak for themselves.
Mr. Janner: Did the Minister discuss with colleagues in the European Union a problem that the Government have created--that even on the figures that they have built up over the years, with all the exclusions, there are vastly more people unemployed now than there were when they came into office?
Mr. Forth: That is of course true. Unemployment in Britain is higher than it was in the late 1970s, but the hon. and learned Gentleman seems to have forgotten the background. Perhaps he did not read his brief. Unemployment throughout Europe was lower in the late 1970s than it is now. A detailed comparison shows that we have been more successful since the late 1970s than, regrettably, has the rest of Europe. His selective use of figures is no use at all.
Mr. Elletson: Has my hon. Friend discussed job creation in Blackpool with other European Employment Ministers? Is he aware of the good news that Mecca is to expand its facilities on Talbot road, creating 80 new jobs, and that Whitbread is to set up a brand-new complex, creating 50 jobs, which will include a Travel Inn and a Charlie Chalk fun factory? Does not that confirm Blackpool's position as Europe's leading entertainment and leisure centre?
Mr. Forth: I must confess to my hon. Friend that Blackpool's role as a Mecca has not been recently discussed in Brussels but I undertake to ensure when I next go there that I weave into my remarks in the Council of Ministers some of the typically positive points that he has made. Time and again, we hear doom, gloom and negativism from the Opposition, even about their own constituencies, whereas Conservative Members recognise what is going on up and down the country, not least in Blackpool, where businesses are creating new jobs.
Mr. Meacher: It is not a selective use of figures to point out that there are today fewer people in employment than there were in 1979. If deregulated labour markets are working, why are there now, even after the most recent fall in unemployment, more than 1 million fewer people in jobs than on the day the Prime Minister took office? The Minister seems to think that flexible markets and casualisation are desirable. Is he aware that the rise in part-time jobs since 1979 has compensated for less than a quarter of the full-time jobs lost? Even that has been bought at the price of a massive rise in job insecurity. Does the Minister not have a little humility? Is he not ashamed of an employment record that has doubled unemployment and hugely boosted insecurity? We now have the Deputy Prime Minister hell-bent on removing all the employment rights from half the work force.
Mr. Forth: That was convoluted even by the hon. Gentleman's extraordinary standards. He obviously thinks that if he repeats the word "insecurity" often enough, he will scare people, presumably in the hope that that will gain votes for his party. His analysis is extraordinary.
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