FOLLOWING the recent visit to Porton Down by the Secretary of State, I paid tribute in the chamber to the ongoing work at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) - established 100 years ago to deal with nerve gas attacks during the Somme and now tackling the growing threats that face our country today in the face of Daesh.

Early this week, I also had the opportunity to visit the Schools Minister with Stuart Smallwood, the headmaster of Bishop Wordsworth’s, to challenge the unfairness of the funding formula.

It is good to know that the government is aggressively addressing this historic anomaly and I hope that the necessary changes can be made as soon as possible so that all Wiltshire schools, which are currently the seventh worst funded in the country, can start to benefit from an increase in their per pupil base funding.

Of course, we must also recognise the part played by additional funding streams, particularly the pupil premium element, rightly targeted at schools with the biggest cohorts of needy or vulnerable pupils.

I also had a conversation with the Secretary of State for Health to express concern about the way our hospitals are evaluated after Salisbury District Hospital, which is known to be a well-run hospital with one of the highest rates of staff satisfaction in the country, was judged as “requiring improvement” during a routine inspection.

I think issues which impact directly on clinical outcomes and patient safety need to be clearly distinguished from adherence to arbitrary quotas to ensure consistent and effectiveassessment across the board.

This Friday, I look forward to my first visit to the new Greentrees Junior School and to a catch-up at the Diocesan Education Centre.