I'm a Celebrity contestant Matt Hancock MP is right about dyslexia – Brian Wilson

It’s not exactly fashionable to say anything good about Matt Hancock (though, in the odd way these things work, it is less unfashionable than it was a fortnight ago).

Conservative MP Matt Hancock caused controversy after becoming a contestant on reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

My word of praise is for the Dyslexia Screening and Teacher Training Bill that the former Health Secretary introduced at the Westminster parliament. It aims to ensure every primary pupil is screened for dyslexia and every teacher is trained to identify the condition.

A campaign called “A Dyslexic Life” has been launched in Scotland to seek similar legislation at Holyrood. I commend that to MSPs on a cross-party basis since it is difficult to see how anyone could have an ideological difficulty with these modest aims.

In fact, I find it depressing that this is still an issue. From my own days as an MP, I recall being struck by the number of parents who came to surgeries in despair about official failure to recognise their child’s problem.

There may have been some progress but statistics suggest that much depends on each local authority. A Hancock-style Bill would address that.

Dyslexia affects about one in ten of the population. There is massive evidence of the damage done to life prospects by the failure to identify it early in the education process. Half the prison population is to some extent dyslexic. It could be sorted.

I hope Mr Hancock keeps at it when he comes out of the I’m a Celebrity jungle and is likely to have more time on his hands.