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NOMINATION OF SELECT COMMITTEES
- That the Standing Orders be amended as follows:—
(1) In Standing Order No. 15 (Exempted business), line 18, leave out from 'committees' to 'which' in line 20 and insert 'to which that paragraph applies'.
(2) In Standing Order No. 121 (Nomination of select committees), line 10, leave out from 'under' to ', or' in line 13 and insert 'the Standing Orders of this House (with the exception of the Liaison Committee, the Committee of Selection, the Committee on Standards and Privileges and any Committee established under a temporary Standing Order).'—[Charlotte Atkins.]
Andrew Selous (South-West Bedfordshire) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I rise to seek your guidance on what is acceptable parliamentary language when referring to another Member. Earlier today, the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) was referred to in a manner that many people would consider gratuitously nasty. That demeans the reputation of this House, is not appreciated by our constituents and does not contribute to debate. What reassurance can you give us that you will not tolerate such language in future?
Mr. Speaker: I do my best to ensure temperate language in the House at all times. Obviously, I need the co-operation of every hon. Member, and such co-operation is not always the case. But I shall look at the record and write to the hon. Gentleman to see what we can do.
Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire) (LD): Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I fully understand the level of stress that the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) must feel as he observes from directly across the Floor Liberal Democrats in ever-increasing numbers. May I suggest through you that, for the sake of his health and everyone's safety, he be asked to sit somewhere else?
Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab): Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I was sitting in this corner seat when the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) had got nappies on. I am still here and I shall be here when he has gone—done and dusted.
Now then, I am very interested in this wonderful Tory-Liberal pact. I have been waiting years for it and now it has burst out. What a funny crowd they are. Get to bed. [Laughter.]
Mr. Speaker: I sat next to the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) in that corner, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of remarks that were never put on the record—thanks be to God. [Laughter.] All that I can say to the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) is that I have never seen the hon. Member for Bolsover being stressed at any time.
Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I seek your guidance on, and protection from, impersonation of Members of this House? It has been drawn to my attention that in the Strangers' Cafeteria book, it has been alleged that "Bob Russell" made derogatory comments about Fair Trade chocolate and urged Members to eat Mars bars instead. [Laughter.]
Normally, such a bit of jesting would be all right, but I believe that there was malicious intent. The information was conveyed to the London Evening Standard, which regrettably did not check the story. It has attributed to me comments that I take seriously. I support the Fair Trade industry and any suggestion that I do not is derogatory to me. I therefore seek your guidance, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker: Order. The hon. Gentleman has explained his concerns to the House. It is, of course, not a point that the Chair can rule on. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman contact the director of catering services and the Chairman of the Catering Committee to ask them to investigate this very serious matter.
PETITION
Health (Excessive Alcohol Consumption)
7.45 pm
Ms Julia Drown (South Swindon) (Lab): I wish to present a petition from the members of the gastroenterology department at the Great Western hospital, Swindon, who are deeply concerned about the damage to people's lives caused by excessive alcohol consumption. They are joined by more than 500 specialists from across the country who share that concern.
- To the House of Commons.
The Petition of Dr. M.D. Hellier MD MA FRCP, Consultant Physician/Gastroenterologist at Great Western Hospital, Swindon, and others,
Declares that much damage to health is caused by the excessive consumption of alcohol,
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to include in its National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy the following warning:
'HM Government Health Warning. This product contains (relative number of units of alcohol) consumption of more than 21 units/week for men and 14 units/week for women can damage your health.'
And the Petitioners remain, etc.
Manchester College of Arts and Technology
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Charlotte Atkins.]
7.46 pm
Mr. Graham Stringer (Manchester, Blackley): I am grateful for this opportunity to discuss the Manchester College of Arts and Technology. Before I do so I should like to declare what I think is an interest. I am not sure that it is, but it is better to have it on the record that the Fees Office pays for an office that I use within MANCAT. That has enabled me to witness first-hand a wonderful story of institutional success and improvement at the Manchester College of Arts and Technology, alongside the individual success of many students.
To understand the background to that success one has to understand both the position that MANCAT was in in 1997 and the levels of educational attainment and poverty in north Manchester, where my constituency is. In 1997, MANCAT's budget was in deficit. It did not have a good reputation for partnership working. In fact, it did very little of it. The educational achievement of young people in north Manchester was such that approximately 25 per cent were staying on into post-16 education and only about 20 per cent were staying on into post-18 education.
In the 1991 census one of the wards was one of the very few in the whole country, if not the only one, where there was not a single person with a second degree living in it. Many wards in the constituency come within the top 100 most impoverished wards in the country.
Since 2000 MANCAT has had an unqualified audit. It has increased by 150 per cent. over the last four years the number of 16- to 18-year-olds in education. I do not have the figures for 1997, but I guess that the increase is more than 150 per cent. over that six or seven-year period. And from that average 25 per cent. staying on in post-16 education on a ward by ward basis in Manchester, Blackley, the lowest percentage now is 62 per cent. and the highest is 72 per cent., which is almost a threefold increase and compares to national averages. The national average is 67 per cent. across all constituencies. For urban areas, it is 63 per cent. It is an extraordinary achievement—and it is not just educational achievement. The Government's priorities are for regeneration and joined-up government, but we know that it is not possible to have regeneration without educational achievement alongside it.
The college is now working on educational schemes in partnership and is sponsored by Jaguar and a local company that does coatings in the motor industry, called H. Marcel Guest. It also works in partnership with the health authority, the city council and schools and it has been involved in an investment programme of £35 million, leading to new sixth-form colleges in St. Matthew's in my constituency and the North Manchester high school for girls. It is hoped that another sixth-form college will be located on the old Harpurhey Baths site at the corner of Moston lane and Rochdale road.
I am talking about my own constituency, but similar achievements apply in the constituencies of my hon. Friends the Members for Manchester, Central (Tony
Lloyd) and for Wythenshawe and Sale, East (Mr. Goggins). As I said, it is a remarkable achievement, and it is a tribute to all the staff of the college from top to bottom, and to the leadership of the college principal, Peter Tavernor. What explains such an extraordinary achievement? It has gone from being a college with one of the lowest success rates to one of the highest in the country.Clearly, it has not been achieved through standard methods. For a start, the college has employed youth workers, guidance workers, social workers and care workers, alongside the usual qualified lecturers that one finds in a college of education. All those people have been working on flexible contracts. They have had to work with some of the most difficult young people, in the sense that their educational achievement at school has not been good. Either the education system has failed them or they have failed within the education system—whichever way one likes to look at it. About 50 per cent. of the people entering the college in that age group are from ethnic minorities, and English is the second language for many of them. About 20 per cent. of extra people attending have been offenders, and social workers believe that they could offend again.
Flexible working was necessary. Obviously, we could not expect many of the students who do not read and write in English—literacy levels are poor—to sit in front of a lecturer and be lectured at in the traditional sixth-form way. What it boils down to is adopting many innovative ways of proceeding. Sometimes the support and youth workers have had to knock on doors to get people to attend the college. Those forms of support have led to a 71 per cent. success rate in terms of getting those people into college. It is an extraordinarily good story, and it has not been achieved in the traditional way.
There have been real difficulties, however, with the audit process—the main purpose of the debate. To avoid any misunderstanding, I should like to make it clear that I believe, along with virtually every hon. Member in the House, that whenever public money is spent, it should be audited. There is no question about that. When I spoke to Liz Davis, the chief executive of the local learning and skills council, which is responsible for the audit, she told me that there is no question that any money has gone missing.
However, because of the innovative working arrangements—involving youth workers, and perhaps people who might put a cross down on a piece of paper because they do not have a signature, English not being their first language—there has been a real problem with the audit.
It is true that public money should be looked after, and we should know how it is spent, but it is now the view of senior management at the college that the audit is being carried out in a racist way. That is not to say that any individual member of the learning and skills council is racist; the process is at fault. That view is shared not only by the leadership of the college but by the deputy leader of Manchester city council, Martin Pagel.
It is obvious that if we are dealing with young people at the extreme end of the spectrum of difficulty in getting them into colleges, and 50 per cent. of them are from ethnic minorities, many of those coming in from
elsewhere, there will be those difficulties. Any auditors should be responsive to those immediate difficulties, such as people not being able to write English, and not being in the classroom or the lecture hall. It is the view of the principals that the auditors do not understand that.The process has also been extremely expensive for the college. The principals say that it costs them, in that successful and innovative area, hundreds of times more in staff time to talk to the auditors than it does in traditional colleges. They also say that one third of a million pounds has been taken out of MANCAT's budget because of its innovative approach. If lecturers in traditional lecture theatres and classrooms had been doing the teaching, the money would have been paid, but because the activities are non-traditional, the college has been penalised by that sum.
I wrote to Liz Davis, the chief executive of the learning and skills council, and I was disappointed by her response. It would not be out of context to quote from her letter, but I do not have time to read out more than one sentence:
- "We do however also need to ensure that the policy is developed properly and in consultation with others to ensure consistency and accountability for public funds is maintained, and not in response to the demands of individual providers."
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