Novus prison education strike

That this House notes that the University and College Union (UCU) is involved in a protracted dispute with prison education provider Novus over inadequate covid-safety measures with members at 49 prisons and young offenders institutions taking strike action starting on Tuesday 11 May 2021; is alarmed by reports of intimidation of health and safety representatives by Novus, covert recordings of private union meetings and fake social media accounts set up to discredit UCU; believes that the root cause of the dispute is the confrontational attitude adopted by Novus towards UCU, which stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by other prison education providers throughout the covid-19 outbreak; and calls for Government pressure on Novus to drop its hostility to UCU and to enter into good-faith negotiations to resolve the dispute as a matter of urgency.