Alison Hume MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 13 Feb 2025 · LGBT+ History Month · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in this important debate marking LGBT+ History Month. It is an honour to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham East (Nadia Whittome). One of my predecessors as MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Paul Latham, who was the MP from 1931 to 1941, was imprisoned for two years after being arrested for “improper behaviour” while serving in the Royal Artillery during the second world war. His story is a case study of how so often LGBT+ people have been hidden from history as they faced prejudice, persecution and, in the case of men who were gay, prosecution. Paul Latham’s arrest drove him to try to end his life, which resulted only in a charge of attempted suicide being added to that of indecent conduct—a very sad story, but hardly exceptional. The post-war period saw a sharp rise in the number of prosecutions in Britain for homosexual acts, with the fine for a first offence being the equivalent of £700 today and second offences punishable by a sentence of one to five years on average. Thankfully, in 1967, the then Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins provided parliamentary time for Leo Abse’s ten-minute rule Bill to decriminalise homosexuality through the Sexual Offences Act 1967. Of course, there was still a long way to go to full equality. Even as fairly recently as 1980, Scarborough town council refused permission for the Campaign for Homosexual Equality to hold a conference in the town—something that damaged not only Scarborough’s reputation at the time, but its tourist trade. The success of today’s Scarborough Pride is therefore all the more welcome and is cause for celebration. Of course, there are other Pride events in nearby York and Leeds, but it is important for the community in Scarborough to be visible, which it is at Pride, with over 3,000 people taking part since it restarted in 2023. I have taken part in both joyous parades, joining the Scarborough and Whitby Labour party carrying its splendid LGBTQ+ banner, along with my dog Tarka, resplendent in her rainbow neckerchief. The parade winds its way cheerfully through the town centre and along Foreshore Road towards Scarborough Spa where the festivities continue with fabulous performances, stalls and delicious food—of course, Tarka particularly appreciates the latter. Local businesses along the route decorate their shops and windows, putting pride flags out to show their support, with the whole town getting into the spirit of the event. It is a fun day, but it also helps combat the feelings of isolation that LGBT+ residents feel, and it has an educational value, breaking down barriers through family-friendly entertainment, so that future generations of the community will not have to experience the prejudice that older members have. McCain Foods, a major local employer, has gone above and beyond to support the event, but—as is the case for so many other charities—funding has been a struggle for the organisers, who all give their time for free. I pay tribute to those wonderful volunteers. I know that Scarborough Pride would welcome offers of support for this year’s Pride, which takes place on 13 September, celebrating inclusivity, diversity and love on the Yorkshire coast. Of course, further up the coast in Whitby, we enjoy a massive outpouring of love and acceptance twice a year as hordes of splendidly costumed goths visit the town in April and October. However, as we have heard in the House today and as we know from our own experiences, the LGBT+ community continue to suffer from abuse and discrimination. A brilliant exhibition of photos from last year’s Scarborough Pride is running at Scarborough Art Gallery as part of LGBT+ History Month, but sadly, the comments section of a Yorkshire Post article about that exhibition has had to be switched off because of the vile nature of many of the posts. We have seen so much progress, including legislation to introduce civil partnerships and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, the equalisation of the age of consent and the repeal of section 28, all under the last Labour Government. That was followed by the right of same-sex couples to marry under the coalition Government, and I am so pleased to see this Government taking action to right a historic wrong and compensate LGBT+ veterans who were dismissed from the armed services because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Defence Secretary has called this “a moral stain on our nation.” —[ Official Report , 12 December 2024; Vol. 758, c. 1103.] An honest look at history means confronting the prejudice and often brutal treatment that LGBT+ people have suffered in the past and continue to experience. It means facing the fact that progress has not been smoothly linear, but a case of stops and starts, in which each step forward has had to be fought for bravely so that people can be who they really are without fear. As the Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby and a proud ally of the LGBT+ community, I am committed to playing my part in the push towards progress—towards a future in which our children can live their lives free from judgment and discrimination, and can be their best, brightest and authentic selves.

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point, and it is crucial that the Government take that into account at the end of the consultation.

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for his reassurances. I know that creatives are worried because the scraping is happening now and will carry on until we have a solution. We must protect the creative industries. They grew by over a third between 2010 and 2023 in terms of gross value added, far outpacing growth in the UK economy as a whole. They are worth more to the economy than life sciences, car manufacturing, aerospace and the oil and gas sectors combined. They are a glorious British success story. They make us proud. They make us feel good. They shape the nation’s identity. They make us, well, us. They are represented in every corner of the UK, with 2.4 million workers, 70% of whom live outside London. They are writers, musicians, photographers, artists—all manner of wonderful creative folk, powering one of our greatest success stories and one of our best engines for growth. In my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby, I have been entreated by individual creatives and small and medium-sized enterprises to ask the Government to look after their rights and to protect their income. Recently, I proudly served on the Employment Rights Bill Committee—a Bill that will see the biggest improvements for working people in a generation. Creatives are working people, too. Creative work is work. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has talked about her determination to take the brakes off the creative industries and turbocharge growth. If the creative industries are a fast car, the creative is the driver. Without us, it is the equivalent of a driverless car—fine, maybe, to get from A to B—but if we are to produce the kind of quality scripts behind the superb television dramas that entertain, comfort, inspire and, as recently shown in the case of “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”, effect meaningful change, we need a human being at the wheel. To have a human there, we need to ensure that they are paid for doing what they do best: being original. We should inspire the rest of the world to adopt high standards, lead from the front and amplify our influence on the global stage. Britain’s creative industries deserve a dynamic licensing market that protects copyright and drives growth and innovation in both the creative and tech sectors. I look forward to the outcome of the consultation on AI and copyright and to working with the Secretary of State and the Minister to find a future-proofed solution, which protects original work and the ability to earn an income from it. The Labour party was founded on the principle of a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. Being in government is our opportunity to fulfil that principle for UK creatives.

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I would like to draw the attention of the House to my membership of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. I rise to contribute to today’s debate on the Data (Use and Access) Bill as a creative who worked as a screenwriter before I entered this place. To write a good script takes discipline, focus, sweat and tears—I have found that tea and biscuits help, too. Us mere mortals cannot create something out of nothing. Creativity is an act of synthesis: pulling together the flotsam and jetsam of our experiences and observations and applying them in an original way. We pour our life experiences into our work, creating the humanity behind the lines, which lifts characters from the pages and into the public’s consciousness. If the public want to hang out by watching the shows that we create, we have on our hands the rarest of commodities—a hit. Many years ago, I worked on the hit show “New Tricks”. It was a cold case cop drama that ran to 12 series on the BBC, created by Nigel McCrery, who died this week. “New Tricks” was, and remains, a very popular show. Twice a year, I receive the royalties collected for me by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. I am paid fairly for my original work when it is rebroadcast around the world, or on digital platforms. This week, I discovered that the subtitles from one of my episodes for “New Tricks” have been scraped and are being used to create learning materials for artificial intelligence. Along with thousands of other films and television shows, my original work is being used by generative AI to write scripts, which one day may replace versions produced by mere humans like me. This is theft and it is happening on an industrial scale. As the law stands, AI companies do not have to be transparent about what they are stealing. I therefore welcome the principle of the amendments in the Bill before us today, which address this issue. The amendments require generative artificial intelligence firms to be transparent about the content used to train their models, allowing creators to know when our work has been used. Another amendment expands the existing copyright regime, which is completely clear that the unlicensed use of creative content to train AI models is theft, to cover all GAI models marketed in the UK. Over in the United States, Thomson Reuters has just received a summary judgment on its infringement claim. It is the first pure AI training case decided in the US, and the judge has said that AI training is not fair use. I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and his listening mode, but the creative industries worry that the Government’s preferred position of creators of original material opting out of having work scraped is not workable because no such model currently exists anywhere in the world. We are worried because creators build our industries. The creative industries are at the heart of our industrial strategy.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Rail Services: Open Access Operators · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. She makes an important point about time. Time is of the essence as we strive to deliver better rail services. Perhaps we need a little of the spirit of the 19th century’s rail pioneers to fully connect coastal communities at last.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Rail Services: Open Access Operators · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Lewell-Buck. I congratulate the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) on securing this important debate on open access operators. Rail transport in the north has suffered long-term neglect, with new plans left to gather dust. From George Osborne’s northern powerhouse speech in 2014 onwards, they have essentially been an unfunded wish list passed from one Government to the other. But under our new Government we have Great British Railways on the table, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister about how we will incorporate open access operators into our plans, because the north-south divide is real. Total Treasury spending on rail in Yorkshire and the Humber last year was £1.25 billion, compared with £9.3 billion for London and £3.1 billion for the south-east. The current funding structure for transforming regional transport also makes it very difficult for areas such as the one that I represent in Scarborough and Whitby, incorporated into the York and North Yorkshire combined authority, to address the desperate lack of connectivity that exists. The main funding scheme that the Government inherited is the city region sustainable transport funding settlement, but combined authorities like ours do not qualify as they are not a city region. That funding gap has left York and North Yorkshire struggling to even plan a transport strategy. I hope that the Government will address that in the spending review. Open access operators could step in to help. Coastal communities such as Scarborough have suffered for too long from poor rail services, and that has had a major impact on our economies. I have been campaigning for a half-hourly service between Scarborough and York, which would be taken for granted in other areas, but it seems an impossibility. The line was opened in July 1845. It took just one year and three days to complete the 45-mile route, but TransPennine Express, which now runs services on the line, today appears to have little of that urgency about it. Scarborough is, of course, our first coastal seaside resort and is beautiful. We also have the North York Moors national park on our doorstep. The growth of staycations and holidays means there is real potential for visitors, as well as for the residents who are crying out for a better service. With the creation of Great British Railways, we have the chance to have one body responsible for the strategic direction of our railways, ensuring, as the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham said, that infrastructure and services work together and drive regional growth. I urge the Government to look at open access operators, because although they currently account for only 0.6% of total passenger journeys, they have massive potential to open up new routes, such as the Scarborough to London via York route. Look at the success of Hull Trains: in 1999 there was only one train a day between Hull and London, and now there are seven each weekday and six at weekends. As the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham said, new direct services are being approved and opened all the time. I appreciate that there is a question whether open access services put extra pressure on network capacity and I look forward to the Minister’s response. However, unless we look at how we serve coastal communities such as mine, given the poor connections we will not move forward. If any operators are listening, I would love to see a direct service between Scarborough and London.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  I would like to give my time to somebody else. I have intervened on the subjects I wish to speak about.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point about independent businesses. Surely he agrees that they need somewhere to pay in their takings at the end of the day? In Whitby, our Halifax branch is due to close, meaning that people will have to travel 19 miles to Scarborough. There is a plan to open an adult gaming centre in place of the branch. I know that residents want somewhere to deposit and withdraw their money, including local businesses, rather than somewhere to put their coins in slot machines. Would he agree that, for high streets to survive and thrive, it is essential that we have the banks and services that local residents want?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  On banking hubs, it has not come up in this debate that we are losing banking services that are open five days a week for a banking hub that, in the case of Whitby, is only open one day a week for a few hours. Does the hon. Member agree that that is a big reduction?

• 30 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T3. The UK has the world’s largest deposits of polyhalite, which is used as a low-carbon fertiliser but is not on the Government’s list of critical minerals. The extraction of polyhalite is being developed at the Woodsmith mine near Whitby, employing over 1,000 people. Will the Minister meet me to discuss polyhalite’s inclusion on the critical minerals list, given the potential of the deposits at Woodsmith to cut carbon emissions, boost exports and create skilled jobs?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Growing the UK Economy · Hansard source

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  The manufacturer Alexander Dennis proudly builds innovative British electric buses in Scarborough—I think this might be a case of a “build, baby, build British buses.” Does the Chief Secretary agree that British manufacturing and buying British goods are key to our economic growth?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Residents in Grosmont in my constituency have had a van parked in the street processing raw sewage, with a pipe left open in the street, for months between the processing of the sewage and the holding tank being emptied. Does my hon. Friend agree that disgusting incidents such as these illustrate our crumbling water infrastructure and the importance of the Bill, which will ringfence funding for vital infrastructure?

• 27 Jan 2025 · Creative Industries · Hansard source

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  The creative industries are rightly a priority for our Government, and I warmly welcome the Minister’s speech, as will our creatives in the coastal communities of Scarborough and Whitby. Having been a screenwriter by trade, I declare my membership of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. This has been a fascinating debate, and I rise to ask whether, in our headlong rush to embrace the white heat of scientific revolution, we are at risk of extinguishing the spark of original human creativity. Sparks were indeed flying in the 1982 cult sci-fi film “Blade Runner”; Ridley Scott drew upon the landscape where he grew up—the flaring oil stacks of the refineries in the north-east, sending up big fireballs of gas—to create a dystopian future world where humans battle synthetic humans known as replicants. As we move into a future where artificial intelligence is no longer the stuff of sci-fi films but the tool that will revolutionise our lives, we should pause to ensure that we safeguard our original content creators, because unless we tighten copyright laws around intellectual property to protect creators, AI data mining will stem the flow of creative content. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) mentioned, the AI systems that mine content to gain artificial intelligence could run out of new material in the next few years—this is known as model collapse—and generative AI models could start training on their own low-quality outputs. To return to “Blade Runner”, the replicants would be breeding with the replicants. To enjoy a future that protects human creativity, we should reform the UK text and data mining regime to place the onus on GAI firms to seek permission from rights holders to use their original published work. Amendments tabled by Baroness Kidron to the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which will be discussed shortly in the other place, offer meaningful transparency provisions that would make the UK’s gold-standard copyright regime enforceable and counter the widespread theft of intellectual copyright by AI companies. The amendments chime with public opinion, and I ask the Minister to reflect on whether the Government will support them. I finish with dialogue from “Blade Runner”—words spoken by the replicant Roy Batty: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” We must act to protect our creative talent in the UK—the screenwriters who wrote those unforgettable lines, and all future writers. In the fight to win the battle for intellectual copyright, surely we must be on the side of the human, not the replicant.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Education, Health and Care Plans · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I congratulate the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) on securing this debate. In my constituency, more than 100 children and young people classified as in elective home education, which includes 30 with EHCPs. We know there are many more who are unaccounted for. There must be a question mark as to whether home education is a genuine choice, or is due to the child not getting the support they need. One family in Scarborough reluctantly withdrew their child from a mainstream school as their needs were not being met, despite their having an EHCP. The child’s mother had to give up work to home school, which took a toll on her health and the family finances. I warmly welcome the Government’s commitment to address the SEND crisis, but I would like to encourage the Minister to use the register of children and young people not in school, proposed in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to gather the evidence we need to understand why those children and young people are not in school.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Child Arrangements: Presumption of Parental Involvement · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. I pay tribute to the incredible campaigning work of Claire Throssell MBE in the face of unimaginable grief. My hon. Friend mentioned the Ministry of Justice report, which highlighted that the culture of the family courts and professionals involved in cases showed a systematic disbelief of abuse and the acceptance of counter-allegations—for example, parental alienation—without robust scrutiny. Does she agree that the report, which was left to gather dust, must be dusted down and put into immediate effect?

• 21 Jan 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  The bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis builds innovative electric buses, employing 800 people in Scarborough. The Chancellor has spoken about the need for public procurement to take better account of employment and environmental standards. As bus services are brought back into the control of mayors and local authorities, will the Government use public procurement to back British companies such as Alexander Dennis to boost economic growth?

• 21 Jan 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  23. What steps she has taken to help increase economic growth in North Yorkshire.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Foot and Mouth Disease · Hansard source

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  I welcome the urgent question, as the news is a worry to farmers in my constituency. Is the Minister able to share with the House more details about the funding available from his Department to help prevent new animal diseases?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) for securing this important debate. The title is exactly right: if we are to properly tackle water pollution, it must be from the source to the sea. I rise to talk about River Esk, the beautiful 20-mile long river that flows through my constituency to reach the North sea at Whitby. It is widely used for bathing and recreation, and the species found in it are important, ecologically and commercially. Its coastal waters are home to the European lobster and brown crab, while the tidal river is home to the freshwater pearl mussel, Atlantic salmon, sea trout and European eel. The pearl mussel is critically endangered, and the last population in Yorkshire is to be found in the River Esk. It is dependent on the salmon and trout populations in the river during its lifecycle. The Esk once teemed with Atlantic salmon, whose numbers were a key indicator for clean water—but no longer, sadly. The pearl mussel breeding project receives funding from Yorkshire Water, yet one of the key threats to it and to the salmon in the Esk comes from sewage discharges. Eighteen storm overflows discharge into the Esk. In 2023, there were 637 sewage spills from those overflows, with a combined duration of 2,757 hours. However, the infrastructure—both material and regulatory—to keep the River Esk clean is crumbling and unfit for purpose. I recently visited the Yorkshire Water treatment plant at Egton Bridge, where the bank it is on is clearly subsiding into the river, and nearby manhole covers explode due to the water pressure when there is heavy rainfall. The company responsible for all this—Yorkshire Water—has paid out dividends worth £525 million since 2018. I therefore warmly welcome the Government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will require independent monitoring and hit polluters such as Yorkshire Water where it hurts—in their bank balance. Water company profits come at the expense of communities such as mine.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  North Yorkshire is the largest rural county in the country. Behind the beauty of the villages and hamlets in my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby lies an ugly truth: on average, victims in rural areas are subject to domestic abuse for 25% longer than those in urban areas and are half as likely to report it. Can the Minister reassure the House that more funding to tackle rural domestic violence is part of the Government’s strategy to halve violence against women and girls?

• 13 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  12. What steps her Department is taking to help tackle violence against women and girls.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Hospice and Palliative Care · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in this important debate, and I thank the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) for securing it. I am grateful that the Government have recognised the immense importance of our hospices’ vital work with the recent announcement of a £100 million funding package. My constituency is served by the extraordinary work of St Catherine’s hospice. For 40 years, St Catherine’s has supported and lovingly cared for individuals with a terminal illness and their families, not only on site in Scarborough but in people’s homes in an area of North Yorkshire covering more than 1,600 square miles. St Catherine’s provides an incredible service and, like most hospices around the country, is a charitable, independent organisation largely funded through donations, fundraising and the income from its high street charity shops. I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to the wonderful staff, the army of selfless volunteers who give freely of their time, and the generosity of the local people who all ensure that hospice care is available to everyone in the constituency. St Catherine’s welcomed our recent funding announcement, but it is clear that one-off capital injections alone will not address the underlying structural funding deficit. At the heart of the issue is the lack of clarity, equity and accountability in how integrated care boards allocate funding. Currently, there is no standard formula for funding distribution, which is creating disparity across hospices. St Catherine’s receives approximately 30% of its funding from the NHS, which is insufficient to meet the growing needs of the community. Some hospices receive much more, and others slightly less. Greater transparency and a consistent framework are needed to ensure equitable funding across all providers, whether NHS or charity based. This inequity places immense pressure on charitable fundraising and limits what hospices can achieve. St Catherine’s alone must raise over £6 million annually. Surely the hospice sector needs funding models that align with service outcomes. A model similar to the mental health investment standard, mandating a minimum level of investment in palliative and end of life care, could perhaps provide the consistency and accountability that are so urgently needed. Long-term strategy is equally critical. It is my hope that a 10-year NHS plan will include detailed guidance for ICBs on commissioning hospice care, supported by a national funding strategy that reduces reliance on voluntary contributions for essential services. Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement, said: “You matter because you are you. You matter to the last moment of your life”. Our hospices strive to make every moment matter for patients and their loved ones. We must recognise hospices as integral partners within the healthcare system. By doing so, we will ensure that hospices are adequately supported to deliver extraordinary care both now and in the future.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Sixth-form College Strikes: Sussex · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for raising this issue, which also affects Scarborough sixth-form college in my constituency. There are high levels of deprivation in parts of Scarborough, and the sixth-form college is a key route to higher education or employment opportunities for young people. Will she join me in praising the dedication and hard work of staff at sixth-form colleges not just in Scarborough, but across the country, who enable students to reach their full potential?

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the Bill and the Secretary of State’s commitment to tackling the SEND crisis in our schools—a crisis that developed over more than a decade of neglect, and which will not be resolved overnight. The Bill’s proposal to introduce a duty for local authorities to keep a register of children who are not in school is causing concern among families with children who have special educational needs and disabilities in my constituency. The concern is based not on the Bill but on the battles that parents find themselves fighting in order to ensure that their child’s needs are met. As a survivor of the SEND jungle, I understand the state of perpetual worry that families live with, and I understand that they are fearful that the introduction of a register may result in increased pressure from the local authority for their child to attend school without the support they need. Last year saw a 40% increase in the number of requests for education, health and care plans in Scarborough and Whitby from the previous year, and almost 30% of decisions on EHCPs took six months or longer, leaving children without the support they needed while waiting. If a child does receive an EHCP, parents often feel that the provision offered does not correspond to their needs as there is a shortage of key professionals and funding is often pooled rather than used for the one-to-one support that they really need. In my experience, parents do not take the decision to withdraw their child from school lightly. One constituent has faced fines for her son’s non-attendance that she cannot afford to pay and problems at work because he is at home. Another constituent, Karen, who runs the marvellous charity Closer Communities in Scarborough, which supports families in this situation, has struggled to get appropriate support for her own son. Karen, who was a senior manager in the NHS, was forced to put her own career on hold, which inevitably had financial implications for her family. Withdrawing a child from school is not easy and can have a major impact on a family. Most would prefer for their child to be educated in a mainstream school, where they get the support they need. I am proud that the Government are working hard to ensure that that happens in the future with more targeted mainstream provision. I hope that the Secretary of State can reassure parents like those I have described that they have nothing to fear from the legislation. Will she consider whether the register could be used to distinguish between parents who home-school by choice and those who do so because they have no choice?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Employment Rights Bill (Sixteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Sir Christopher. I know that the shadow Minister likes us to draw attention to our union membership, so I again draw attention to my membership of Unison. I welcome clause 59 because it addresses the critical issue of protecting workers taking part in industrial action, ensuring that they are safeguarded not just against dismissal but against other forms of detriment. As my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Northfield has previously mentioned, the case of Fiona Mercer, a care worker suspended after participating in legal industrial action, highlights why the reforms are needed. Like so many care workers, Fiona dedicated her career to supporting some of the most vulnerable in our society—in Fiona’s case, adults with learning difficulties. Yet she faced suspension for standing up for fair pay and better conditions. Her case is a pertinent reminder of the vulnerabilities faced by workers in critical sectors such as social care when their legal rights are not adequately protected. Therefore, I welcome the clause’s introduction of protections against detriment, ensuring that employers cannot punish workers like Fiona for exercising their right to strike. This provision is essential to safeguard the ability of care workers and others to advocate for fair treatment without fear of suspension, demotion or other retaliatory measures. The removal of the arbitrary 12-week protected period for unfair dismissal means that workers like Fiona can continue to fight for justice without compromising on protections.