Holiday Pricing

My understanding was that it was 10 days.

I think that is wrong.

My hon. Friend may be right, but that has been changed anyway.

There is also the issue of t...

I apologise for not being able to stay for the entire debate, but I wanted to support my hon. Fri...

I thank my hon. Friend for that comment. As I talk about specific examples, we will see that diff...

Does the hon. Gentleman also recognise the particular problems faced by members of the armed forc...

I thank the hon. Lady for making that excellent point. I would happily have made it myself, but I...

I draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention to the situation of my constituent Amanda Wooding, who is a...

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point. The issue is all about considering individual cases....

Thank you, Mr Turner, for calling me to speak in this important debate. I also thank my colleague...

Has a teacher or head teacher approached the hon. Lady on this topic, and, in this particular cas...

Absolutely, and the case is ongoing. I was citing it as an example of using a massive hammer to c...

I agree with many of the points the hon. Lady is making, but I have a concern about putting the o...

That is an excellent point. I know the hon. Lady has a background in education, and she is absolu...

I think I agree with my hon. Friend, but does she agree with me that the problem is that there ar...

Order. Before you continue, can I ask that you face my direction in future?

Sorry.

I absolutely agree. Our problem at the moment is that we have one national policy that is suppose...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. As an MP who represents a constitue...

As a representative for Bournemouth East, my default position is to support the tourism industry....

Like Bournemouth, which is a fantastic place to go on holiday, my hon. Friend’s intervention was ...

I am grateful to the hon. Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson)for giving way and to the ho...

Derbyshire is also a fantastic place to go on holiday. Let us champion every constituency. I thin...

I am following closely what the hon. Gentleman is saying. Once a child has been away on holiday f...

That applies to general discretion. There is a plus and a negative with any suggestion, which is ...

rose—

Order. I call Damian Green. I am sorry: I meant Damian Hinds.

5.7 pm

I am grateful for the elevation implicit in your introduction, Mr Turner. It is a pleasure to see...

It’s your fault.

Yes, it is my fault. I worked mostly in the hotel business, but the same principle applies to air...

I want to draw on the hon. Gentleman’s expertise. I accept that there is supply and demand and th...

The hon. Lady is correct that the rises coincide with school holidays. To some extent, the existe...

I fully appreciate my hon. Friend’s argument that the rich seasons help airlines and the tourist ...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. The short answer is that such a measure would be welcomed by t...

My hon. Friend makes an important point on the responsibility of the tourism industry as a whole ...

My hon. Friend is correct in identifying price gouging as a problem. From a regulatory perspectiv...

The Fylde coast, for example.

Yes, indeed. The big thing we are talking about is varying holidays, which is intrinsically attra...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming) on securing this debate, bu...

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I hope my hon. Friend is not going to defend Bognor Regis.

I agree that the regulations that the Government created to place fines on parents have exacerbat...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. A tremendous amount is being lost, but it is because of the D...

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I will catch the hon. Lady’s eye in a moment, if I may. My wife is a head teacher and has been a ...

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rose—

I said that I would give way to the hon. Lady.

I thank both hon. Gentlemen for letting me intervene. We are all here because we know that the pu...

I would not challenge the last part, but I still think that we would leave the regulators with a ...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I want to flag with him another sort of case that h...

I will answer my hon. Friend when I come on to the DFE. I was thanking the people who have signed...

I am slightly conflicted over the whole issue. The hon. Gentleman made the point about people nee...

That is an important point.

One of the things that has come from this e-petition is a reque...

indicated assent.

I see you nodding, Mr Turner. It could get worse than that, because both parents could be fined, ...

I thank my constituency next-door neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (J...

The hon. Lady makes an important point about consultation, and I should be interested to hear whe...

I should be delighted to do that. There is a large element of the Asian diaspora based in my cons...

I hope to mention the issue of the 10 days in my speech, but the hon. Lady will recognise that th...

What is “special” and what is “exceptional” is a semantic point. I remind the House of what the h...

Does the hon. Lady accept that there is discretion for head teachers to define what counts as spe...

I do, indeed, and I do not think that anyone is better qualified than the head teacher to make th...

It is a great pleasure to contribute to this debate. I had not planned to do so at 4.30 pm, but h...

The hon. Lady makes an important point. Notwithstanding the principle, part of the problem with m...

I do not profess to be an expert on parliamentary procedure or on why certain bits of legislation...

Does my hon. Friend agree, as she probably does, that a funeral would be a valid use of exception...

I am not aware that Ofsted is applying that particular pressure. I agree on one aspect, however. ...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr McCrea. You have only just joined us; I ass...

rose—

There may shortly be a plug for having party conferences in Bournemouth.

The hon. Gentleman has made my point for me: Bournemouth is better suited for party conferences.<...

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on repeating my suggestion.

It is usual during winding-up...

Is the hon. Gentleman saying that there is something in the operation of some elements of the tra...

That is a valid question. A broader study would provide better information to establish whether t...

I apologise to my hon. Friend for missing the beginning of his speech, but I had a previous engag...

My hon. Friend makes the important point, exactly as one might expect of a Member of Parliament f...

As everyone has today, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hem...

Given that the issue is about supply and demand, the regulations that the Government introduced a...

I shall come back to the point about the schools regulations if my hon. Friend will bear with me....

The Minister describes the pressures on the market, and we have heard that there was no impact as...

I cannot comment on the impact assessment done by the Department for Education, but I will come b...

Obviously, it is difficult being a Minister in a different Department. Will the Minister ask the ...

I am happy to ask colleagues to write to my hon. Friend, because clearly I haven’t got a clue abo...

Could the Minister ask the relevant Education Minister to tell the people who have attended the d...

When we contact colleagues in the Department for Education, I am sure that we can send them a cop...

A number of participants in the debate think that head teachers are making the wrong decisions. I...

My figures on the number of parents who took their children out of school are slightly different ...

The discrepancy between the Minister’s figures and mine may rest on the fact that mine deal with ...

That may well be the case, but it does not undermine the argument that we must ensure that parent...

Is the Minister saying that she agrees with that proposal? I gave the example of Kent, Yorkshire ...

The staggering of school holiday periods may well lengthen the period of peak demand and help to ...

I raised that point. I accept that schools can lead locally, but the reason why the system works ...

It is clear that such a decision will have to be made across a local authority area, or more broa...

I am sorry to press the matter, but I think it is an important takeaway from the debate. As my ho...

As I have said, free schools, academies and some church schools can set their own dates. There is...

On that point, schedule 14 to the Deregulation Bill will give schools the power to set term and h...

I cannot really comment on what the Education Committee should or should not look at, but I am su...

I just want to make the Minister aware that not everyone present wants Parliament, the Education ...

I must confess that as an MP representing a Welsh constituency, I benefited significantly last we...

I absolutely agree with the Minister, but although we know that school attendance is important, w...

I completely disagree with the hon. Gentleman. The Government are actually ensuring that head tea...

I thank you, Dr McCrea, for your chairmanship, Mr Turner for his able work, and all the contribut...