It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. As an MP who represents a constituency that relies on the tourism industry, I presume you will find this an interesting and topical debate. I pay tribute to my
hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming) for securing this debate, which has managed to attract more than 200,000 signatures on petitions. I posted about this on Facebook and had 47 separate comments and suggestions from residents, with more than 3,000 views in just 72 hours. A lot of important things that we do in Parliament do not attract quite as much interest. That shows the strength of feeling in parents throughout the country on a real, live issue.
In my mind, this matter is split into three sections. First, it is about the holiday industry, which is why the Minister was selected to respond to the debate. Some have expressed concern about such a significant increase in costs. My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley gave good examples of people going on holidays during school holidays and during term time. However, some parents said that they felt that was a bit of a red herring: it probably reflects supply and demand, because if a firm cannot sell the more expensive holidays, it would be forced to drop those prices. For example, Center Parcs relies on something like a 97% occupancy rate to be a viable business. Prices will reflect—