This week in Westminster I had a number of meetings.
I raised the issue of overseas student visas at Home Office questions. Overseas students contribute a lot of money to the country and extend British influence abroad. My concern was regarding how students who come to this country for more than a year are officially classed as immigration, and suggested that, given concerns and measures being taken to reduce levels of immigration into this country, it may be better to provide a different classification to those students.
I also attended meetings of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the 1922 committee, in addition to co-chairing a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nigeria.
During the week I also attended the liaison committee, as Chair of the NI Affairs Select Committee, where the Prime Minister was present to answer questions. After this I co-chaired a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Racing & Bloodstock. We heard from two speakers from the British Racing School and Northern Racing College, who discussed the challenges of funding and possible ways to address this issue. We also chose a charity for our racing dinner fundraiser, which will be "New Beginnings."
On Wednesday I chaired a session of the Northern Ireland Committee where we discussed tourism and air passenger duty. I also met with the Royal British Legion to hear about the work they are doing with veterans in the region.