Business of the House

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing attention to the fact that the Youth Parliament will sit in this Chamber on that date, and my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House will be representing the Government. If the sitting is anything like last year’s, it will be a fantastic success. I agree with her on the importance of engaging young people in the political process. I think it would be worth while to have a debate, and she can either apply for one in Westminster Hall or catch the eye of the Chairman of the Backbench Business Committee at one of her Wednesday sittings.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that it is estimated that there will be 1,000 job losses in every university in this country if we have the predicted cuts in university budgets? Is it not about time we had a serious debate on this essential element of our prosperity in this country?

[Sir George Young]

The Government will be spending some £90 million on universities and student support this year. The hon. Gentleman will know that this was not a protected area for the outgoing Labour Government; they had pencilled in cuts of some 20% for that budget, and we need to bear that in mind. He will have to await the outcome of the comprehensive spending review to see the resources that we are making available to the universities in the next three years.[Official Report, 2 November 2010, Vol. 517, c. 10MC.]