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Tag: Robin Walker

  • Robin Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Robin Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to better connect cycling and rail infrastructure to support more active travel.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department is funding £14.3 in 16/17 to improve integration between cycle and rail through the provision of new cycle facilities at railway stations. This includes new high quality cycle parking, cycle hire and improved access to stations and will support more active travel.

    In conjunction with this, a revised version of the Cycle Rail Toolkit was published on 19 May 2016 which will help those implementing cycle-rail facilities to ensure that high-quality infrastructure is in place to encourage new users and to ensure that cycling to stations becomes easy and convenient and the natural choice for short trips to the station.

  • Robin Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Robin Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to support Paralympic sport.

    David Evennett

    The Government, through UK Sport, is investing almost £73m into 18 summer Paralympic sports during the Rio 2016 cycle, an increase of 48% from London 2012, and £3.9m into 2 winter Paralympic sports during the current cycle.

    In addition, Sport England is investing over £170m to make sport a practical and attractive lifestyle choice for disabled people and to get more disabled people playing sport.

  • Robin Walker – 2022 Speech on BBC Local Radio

    Robin Walker – 2022 Speech on BBC Local Radio

    The speech made by Robin Walker, the Conservative MP for Worcester, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.

    It is a pleasure to speak in a debate with so much cross-party agreement. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Sir Mike Penning) on securing it and the Backbench Business Committee on granting it. I was very happy to put my name to the petition to the Committee calling for this debate, because this issue matters in all our constituencies.

    I began today talking to Andrew Easton on the breakfast show on BBC Hereford and Worcester about a national issue, as it happens, but one with relevance in my constituency. All of us, as politicians, need to engage with local radio. I recently ended a career on the Front Bench and returned to the Back Benches, and one of the pleasures of doing that is being able to pick up some of the causes I championed previously. I remember in a debate in 2011, along with the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), championing the case for local BBC and making some of these same arguments. In that case, we did win some of the argument, and the BBC changed its mind about some of the proposed cuts and kept our local radio stronger. I hope that this debate will mean we can do that again.

    As a Minister, I experienced the value of BBC local radio scrutiny in every part of the country, not just my constituency. I had to do so-called regional rounds and speak to the local BBC in different parts of the country where different issues would come up with an extremely well-informed approach. I remember being really tested by BBC Cumbria about issues of rural remoteness, and I remember challenging interviews with BBC Three Counties Radio. Having to think, as a Minister, about all the different populations that we are serving and that the BBC is serving is immensely important. That genuine localism, which the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) spoke so passionately about, is vital.

    My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) mentioned certain local government reorganisations that the Conservative party tried back in the 1970s. It is a running joke in my family, because my late father was the Minister responsible for implementing some of those. They were deeply unpopular and controversial, and most of them have unravelled over time, because people’s genuine local identities overcame the centralising instincts of Government. The BBC should listen to the lived experience of what happened with those great reforms of the 1970s and the fact that we have returned to a more local approach and the devolution that the hon. Member for York Central spoke about.

    For my constituents in Worcester, that is vital, because we have seen with various regional initiatives over the years the understandable dominance of the population centre in Birmingham up the road of the west midlands. I do not necessarily begrudge that, because it is where the most people are, but the priorities of the conurbation are not the priorities of someone from Worcestershire or Herefordshire. That is similar to Durham—I remember being dispatched on a Department for Education visit where my briefing told me that I was going to Newcastle upon Tyne, which I queried and said, “Are you sure about that?”. It turned out that the school I was going to was actually in County Durham, a rural area where people would not have been happy to be told that they were part of Newcastle upon Tyne.

    That sense of proper local identity really matters and BBC local radio does it well. We have voices on the radio that sound like the voices of our constituents—the voices that people know—so I thank the team at BBC Hereford & Worcester for the incredibly valuable public service that they provide. It should be about public service. The right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington quoted the line about it being one of the “crown jewels” of public service broadcasting and I feel passionately that only the local BBC can do that within the service.

    When we have these debates about priorities, I wonder whether television drama is a good use of a huge proportion of the BBC’s budget in terms of public service, given that it is an increasingly competitive space. My right hon. Friend the Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) made the point about the importance of the BBC providing unique opportunities and I am not sure that it should be putting such a huge part of its budget into an increasingly competitive landscape. I would rather that the small fraction of its budget that it puts into local radio was protected and, preferably, enhanced.

    Several hon. Members have mentioned the covid crisis, and we all know the enormous value of BBC local radio during that time. In my patch, we have frequently faced debilitating floods; Worcester falls victim to floods too often. During periods of huge disruption, BBC local radio is vital to many local people. My right hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead made the point about school closures, which is one issue that we have faced as a result of floods over the years. People will not be able to get that vital local knowledge and local input—the scale and the level of detail that tells them when a primary school has been affected by floods and needs to close early—on a regional level.

    That local knowledge does not stop being vital at 2 pm, so the idea that we can have local radio just for the morning is for the birds. It is about democratic scrutiny: we as Members of Parliament will all have been asked to go on the breakfast show and on drivetime to follow up the news bulletins. Although the local news bulletins are being protected, we follow them up with detailed discussions about local issues on drivetime, so to lose those programmes would be a huge mistake.

    John Redwood

    Is it not important that local radio journalists go to the council meetings, which are not normally before 2 pm?

    Mr Walker

    My right hon. Friend makes a crucial point. Of course, our local councils are a vital part of local democracy. Without local radio journalists covering and attending those meetings into the evening, we will not have the quality of democratic debate and discourse that we can and should have in this country.

    I was struck by the point of the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington about the BBC chasing a younger audience with its move to digital. We have to ask why, because that younger audience is much more savvy and focused on a wide range of media, and does not necessarily rely on local radio in the same way that the older audience does. It is not just about the older audience, however—although we have heard from many hon. Members on both sides of the House about the importance of local radio to the elderly and isolated, which is right—people who drive for a living also value what local radio does. It gives detailed information about road closures that it would not be possible to get at regional level and that commercial stations can rarely provide. Reaching the audience that local radio reaches—the millions of people up and down the country who benefit from and rely on it—is important.

    A good thing about the BBC’s proposals is that they talk about investing in investigative journalism, which all hon. Members would support. If that investigative journalism is taking place at a local level, however, it needs an outlet and regular opportunities to report and feed into programmes.

    Sir Mike Penning

    My hon. Friend is making an exceptionally good point. One problem with the redundancies is that those who have not lost their jobs will no longer be local reporters; they will be regional reporters. Some of the award-winning reporters in our constituencies and on our local radio will be smothered around the country and we will lose that expertise. I do not believe that that is what the BBC is looking for.

    Mr Walker

    I entirely agree, and I would also say that investigative reporting needs to be done a local level in our communities. My hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier), who has just had to step out of the Chamber, recently had a debate about nitrous oxide misuse, and that really important issue was highlighted by a local journalist working for BBC Hereford & Worcester, based on stories that emerged locally.

    At Education questions a week or so ago, I raised the case of Rhys, a boy from Worcestershire who has been unable to get a place in a special school and was not able to get a local placement. Such cases are brought up by the high-quality journalism taking place in our BBC local radio. The coverage we have had of the situation at the Worcester Warriors, which has been very worrying for many of my constituents—not just on the sport side, which I am glad to say the BBC wants to protect, but on what was going on behind the scenes and the business story of what went wrong at a premiership rugby club that has been driven into administration—could not have happened without the brilliant investigate work of Felicity Kvesic from BBC Hereford & Worcester.

    For all these reasons, I think the BBC needs to rethink these proposals. I am very grateful for the constructive way in which the NUJ has been engaging on this—I think we have all had a useful briefing from it. It has shown that it agrees with parts of what is being proposed, but it disagrees with the fundamental move against localism. For local identity and for the vital public service that this provides, I urge my hon. Friend the Minister to keep on pressing the BBC on these issues and to get it to rethink.

  • Robin Walker – 2022 Speech on Early Years Childcare and Staff-Child Ratios

    Robin Walker – 2022 Speech on Early Years Childcare and Staff-Child Ratios

    The speech made by Robin Walker, the Conservative MP for Worcester, in Westminster Hall, the House of Commons, on 14 November 2022.

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Harris.

    I congratulate the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) on leading the debate, and the family on showing great bravery in coming forward to champion this issue in the way they have. The circumstances of any death of that nature are deeply concerning and must of course be investigated properly.

    I agree with one of the things the hon. Lady said in her opening speech: a functioning early years system is fundamental to our society and economy. I agree profoundly with that. In my time as Schools Minister, I saw the increasing awareness among schools of the importance of the early years support that children were getting, whether in nurseries or school-based settings, and the concern in our primary sector about school readiness, often driven by the circumstances of some of those children who had not had the opportunity to engage with early years provision or to attend nursery. Getting that right is crucial.

    The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North and my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Siobhan Baillie) both made the point about the UK having some of the highest costs for childcare. In that context, I wonder whether the putative figure—even if we accept that £40 per week is right—would make a substantial difference to the overall position. I wholly agree with the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North about one-to-one attention and careful risk management—the careful assessment of risks taken in play. All of those are arguments for having the right ratios. They are also arguments for having better trained staff and for making sure that we reward investment in the professionalisation of childcare, professional development and pathways for progression in early years settings.

    I was looking, as my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) mentioned—there is a Select Committee election under way—at some of the past reports by the Education Committee. In its report on tackling disadvantage in early years it discussed a lack of clarity on progression routes and apprenticeships for the sector, and challenged the Government to do more in that space. It talked about the lack of a workforce strategy for early years. I recognise that the Government have invested more in professional development for early years since the report was published, but there is more that can be done and we need to continue to look at that.

    I know from speaking to early years professionals in my constituency—there are some brilliant people who work in that space, including Alice Bennett, who runs the Worcester Early Years Centre and started off in a fantastic farm-based early years setting just outside my patch in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin)—that they have a passion for driving continuous improvement in their workforce. As we have heard, in an environment in which early years has to compete with local supermarkets raising wages and becoming more competitive by offering flexible hours, retaining those great professionals is a key challenge, and we must make sure that we can reward the early years workforce appropriately. That is vital.

    We have heard a lot about different ratios in different countries. I accept part of the argument made by the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North that we should not compare apples with pears. It is important to compare people with similar qualification levels. I remember attending the international summit on the teaching profession and being grilled by many international colleagues about the ratios in England compared with other countries. The general consensus of Education Ministers from other countries was that ours were on the low end. It is important that we do the research to look at the qualification levels that are required and how we get this right.

    Part of the Labour Government’s original idea for devolution was that we should be able to experiment with different approaches in different parts of the UK, and we should be able to learn from that. I take the point that if Scotland does this with greater assurance and higher qualification levels, we need to look at that before we change the numbers. We should learn from what takes place in devolved parts of the United Kingdom. We should also learn from the approaches taken by our fellow English-speaking countries such as Ireland, Australia and others. We should look at the evidence from those countries.

    The Government have invested more in childcare overall, which is welcome. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested that spending on three hours of childcare has doubled since 2009, rising from £1.7 billion to £3.5 billion in real terms. That spending and investment is welcome, but I am concerned about the extent to which that reaches the people who need it most. Responding to the Education Committee’s report in April 2019, the Government said that 72% of eligible two-year-olds were taking up the two-year-old offer, and that that proportion had risen from 58%. That is welcome, but it still means that 28% of the eligible cohort—some of the people most in need of extra support—are not getting it.

    There is a disjunction between our two-year-old offer, which is designed to support people most in need of catching up, and the offer for three-year-olds and four-year-olds, which is designed to support people so that they have the best chance of entering the workplace. I understand the history of how that came about and the fact that those initiatives were introduced for different reasons, but if we were starting from scratch we would not design a system with that disjunction. We would design a system to support children and parents with the challenges of childcare. It is important that we take a long, hard look at that, and I hope that, whoever wins the race to become Chair of the Education Committee, it will look at those issues.

    Again, it is timely that the Select Committee should look at the wider issue of childcare. I certainly look forward to responding to the letter from my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester. He made a good point about the lack of socialisation of children in lockdown. I know this from my own daughter, who lived at home with us throughout lockdown. After her first day of nursery, she came back and said, “Mummy, daddy, I don’t like children”. It suddenly occurred to us that she literally had not engaged with any children her own age for a year at the age of two; that is extraordinary. It took her a bit of time, but I am glad to report that she now gets on very well with her peers at school. But this is an area where extra support is needed.

    One of my concerns—this is something that I have heard constantly from primary school heads and teachers—is about the speech and language capabilities of children entering primary school. I note that the National Deaf Children’s Society and Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists have recently called for more investment in the specialist early years workforce to ensure that we get the right support for those children.

    As the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North mentioned, it is particularly important to identify children who have special needs and ensure that they get that early support. The education system as a whole would save enormously from identifying need and making sure that the right supports and therapies are there at the earliest stage. That proper early intervention, which many Members have spoken about over time, makes a difference.

    I wholly agree with the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (David Simmonds) about an inverted pyramid of funding in the education system. The amount that we spend goes up as children go through the education system, but the returns on that investment are actually greater the earlier the investment is made. We need to keep looking at that when we look at the funding formula, to ensure that it works properly. I do not entirely share my hon. Friend’s views on the area cost adjustment, because I come from a part of the country that tends to lose out as a result of such formula adjustments, but I recognise his point.

    We need to look at the pay of early years professionals to ensure we reward their increasing levels of qualifications. We must also take a long, hard look at what we are trying to do through the tax-free childcare offer. In theory, this is a great offer. It is a huge amount of money that is potentially available to people, but they are not taking it up. They have consistently not taken it up in sufficient numbers to justify it. I sometimes worry that this is a great wheeze for the Treasury. If there is a large amount of money going into childcare but it is not spent, that does not benefit either the system, the childcare advisers or the parents for whom it is intended. The figures I have from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, which were picked up in a recent report from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, were that less than 22% of eligible families are taking up the tax-free childcare for which they are eligible. I hope that the new Minister, who is a great thinker and will do a brilliant job in this role, is able to challenge her friends at the Treasury on that, to ensure that the money does flow through into the childcare sector.

    I am inclined to agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud that it is right that the Government should ask the question about ratios, but we have heard in this debate that there is pretty heavy evidence that the answer may not be changing ratios. It may be looking at other ways to support the sector and to make it more affordable, and at the role that the Government can play in that. I say to the Minister: ask the question but listen to the evidence. Listen to the evidence from the professionals and the people working in early years. Let us make this work for the whole country, for our economy and, most of all, for the children.

  • Robin Walker – 2022 Question on Asylum Seekers Being Housed in Worcester

    Robin Walker – 2022 Question on Asylum Seekers Being Housed in Worcester

    The question made by Robin Walker, the Conservative MP for Worcester, in the House of Commons on 7 November 2022.

    One of the locations hosting migrants in my constituency is the Fownes Hotel, and notwithstanding the fact that I expressed concerns about its suitability, I was particularly concerned to hear from my council about a number of children being taken into care from that location. My right hon. Friend mentioned an incentive package for councils. I was told that such practice is putting an additional burden on an already overburdened children’s care system. Will he discuss with officials how to ensure that even when the children were not supposed to be at a particular location, support flows through to councils? The impression I have been left with by Worcestershire is that it is trying to do the right thing, but either was not aware of or was not receiving that support.

    Robert Jenrick

    I will certainly ensure that local authorities are better communicated with about the location of children to their area and the support that the Government are making available. I am holding a teleconference later this week with all local authority chief executives and leaders to listen to their views and to advise them of our steps. On the back of that, if we need to make changes to our processes, I will certainly try my best to do so.

  • Robin Walker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Robin Walker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2015-10-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the Government’s credit union expansion programme; and what assessment he has made of the feasibility of extending that programme.

    Justin Tomlinson

    DWP’s contract with the Association of British Credit Unions Ltd to deliver the Credit Union Expansion Project began in May 2013. It wasis due to end in April 20156 but we are currently considering a request for an further extension. The Department has plans to review effectiveness at the end of the Project.

    “

  • Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made about human rights and the humanitarian situation in Kashmir in the last year.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We are aware of allegations of human rights abuses on both sides of the Line of Control in Kashmir. We are clear that such allegations of human rights abuses must be investigated thoroughly, promptly and transparently. We regularly raise our concerns through our High Commissions in Islamabad and Delhi as appropriate.

  • Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what joint trade missions have been undertaken by the UK and the Republic of Ireland since 2010; and what steps he is taking to increase collaboration with the Republic of Ireland on trade and exports.

    Michael Fallon

    The UK and Ireland have embarked on a wide programme of cooperation following the visit of HM the Queen to Ireland in 2011. Led by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach, this programme is designed to develop and strengthen the relationship between the UK and Ireland over the next decade across a range of policy areas.

    The UK and Ireland delivered the first ever joint trade mission between the two countries to the Singapore Airshow during the week commencing 10 February 2014. The UK-Ireland mission delegation consisted of 25 companies, 16 from the UK (including 9 from Northern Ireland) and 9 from the Republic of Ireland. Delivering a joint trade mission was one of the key deliverables for the 2014 PM/Taoiseach Summit.

    UK Trade & Investment is committed to maintaining its work programme with Enterprise Ireland to further develop cooperation on trade promotion in support of UK and Irish business.

  • Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on co-ordinating efforts to secure the release from prison of Meriam Ibrahim.

    Mark Simmonds

    Through our Embassy in Khartoum, the UK has been coordinating international efforts, including EU, Troika and others, to secure the release of Meriam Ibrahim from prison. We are also working with EU partners in Brussels to ensure an effective EU response.

    My Ministerial colleagues and I will continue to lobby forcefully, bilaterally and with other partners, for Meriam’s release.

  • Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Robin Walker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps are being taken to promote UK trade with Latin America in connection with the 2014 Football World Cup taking place in Brazil.

    Michael Fallon

    During the 2014 Football World Cup, the UK Trade and Investment network in Brazil will host a series of events to promote the UK as a destination for business, investment, education and tourism. The programme includes 20 events focussed on our prosperity campaigns to promote British expertise and partnership in priority areas that includes culture, energy, infrastructure, inward investment and legacy opportunities associated to the 2012 London Olympic games.

    Events will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Manaus and Belo Horizonte, the cities hosting the England team which will be supported by Prince Harry, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and my Hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Equalities.

    One of the highlights of the UK programme isthe GREAT Britain House in Sao Paulo. Specially developed for the agenda of events, the venue will be set up at the British Consulate in Sao Paulo to present the best the UK has to offer.