Alison Hume MP: speeches

Speeches

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  The shadow Minister is speaking quite eloquently about the failings, as he sees them, of the Labour Government, who have been in power for 10 months. Does he not accept that the communities that many hon. Members have talked about are disadvantaged because of the profound failure of the past 14 years?

• 22 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Secretary of State’s words; it is great to hear words such as “cherish” and “champion” in this House. I acknowledge that there is no opt-out in the Bill, but the Secretary of State mentioned the consultation that was launched alongside it, which adjoins these very issues. Will my right hon. Friend confirm once and for all that the Government’s preferred opt-out for reserving copyright is now abandoned?

• 19 May 2025 · Armed Forces Housing · Hansard source

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  In December, the Defence Committee found that two thirds of service family homes “need extensive refurbishment or rebuilding” to meet modern standards. We know that poor-quality housing impacts children’s ability to learn and to attend school, as well as their physical health. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that the 3,500 children from service families who attend school in North Yorkshire live in adequate accommodation?

• 19 May 2025 · Armed Forces Housing · Hansard source

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  11. What steps he is taking to improve armed forces housing for military families.

• 19 May 2025 · Mental Health Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Recently, I met grandparents in my constituency who are caring for their grandchild, who was recently diagnosed with autism. Their grandchild is suffering from poor mental health and is unable to attend school, and the family is struggling to access support. I welcome the Government’s work so far in this area, including the pledge to have a specialist mental health professional in every school, but does my hon. Friend agree that a three-year wait for an appointment with CAMHS, as my constituents are facing, is completely unacceptable?

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making some important points. As Lord Brennan said recently, this Bill is an opportunity to regulate AI: “This Bill, this bus, is an opportunity that the Government should be getting on rather than waiting for another bus several years down the road”. —[ Official Report, House of Lords, 12 May 2025; Vol. 845, c. 1932.] This bus is leaving now, along with the opportunity to protect our creative rights. Does the hon. Member agree with me and share my concern that the Government are going to miss the bus?

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  The Minister mentioned the consultation. Could he confirm that the Government no longer consider an opt-out model to be their preferred approach to copyright and AI, and if so, what alternative approach is now being actively pursued or developed with the sector?

• 14 May 2025 · Future of Public Libraries · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) on securing this important debate. Public libraries are at the heart of our communities, and we urgently need a national strategy to protect and strengthen them. In 2016, North Yorkshire council faced the devastating prospect of closing 31 libraries. Instead, communities were given the chance to step in—and they did. In Scarborough, we are really fortunate that the Newby and Scalby library was one of the lucky few, and that local volunteers formed a charity to keep it open. Today, it is thriving. It has 60 volunteers, including trustees, gardeners, cleaners and 40 library assistants. In 2024 alone, those volunteers gave over 11,000 hours. Their dedication has led to 42,000 visits and 550 events for 6,000 attendees, and has helped 1,500 people with individual IT assistance, bus passes, passport applications and how to use a mobile phone. They also run a home library service. That is not just a library; it is vital social infrastructure. Earlier this year, I was honoured to attend the celebrations as the Newby and Scalby volunteers received the King’s award for voluntary service. Although we must champion our community libraries, volunteers cannot be expected to keep them open indefinitely, especially as funding continues to shrink. According to the University of Warwick, library funding has fallen by more than half since 2010. Libraries are looking to the Government for a long-term plan that includes a sustainable funding model. I would be grateful if the Minister could address when the Government intend to implement the recommendations of the 2023 Sanderson review, including the establishment of a libraries laureate. The title “libraries laureate” conjures up a Pied Piper figure, leading a trail of word-hungry children into the book corner, but it is, of course, nothing of the kind. They would be a high-profile, distinct voice who could advocate on behalf of libraries, and raise awareness of what books can provide and, as we have heard from many Members today, what libraries can provide beyond books. Libraries provide human contact in a world in which loneliness and the company of a smartphone are on the rise. In the old days, people were fined when they had an overdue library book, but these days they can steal a library book and use it to write another book, or anything else. Library book borrowers cannot do that, of course, but if someone is the owner of an AI company, they can use books uploaded to the internet to train AI models. We must protect the rights of authors, otherwise we face a future short on not only libraries, but the creative working people who write the books that fill the shelves.

• 7 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I am delighted to be called to speak on Report of the Data (Use and Access) Bill. I draw Members’ attention to my membership of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. Before I entered this place, I worked as a freelance screenwriter, creating dramas for adults and children. I might add that children are the hardest audience to please—it used to be that we had five minutes to hook them, but now it is more like five seconds. Speed is the subject of my contribution today. I warmly welcome the Minister’s engagement on how best to protect our peerless creative industries. In that spirit, I am pleased to see new clauses 16 and 17 and the commitment to addressing the fundamental issue of transparency. At the moment, AI companies do not have to tell anyone what they are stealing from the internet, from whom they are stealing and why they are stealing it. Although I appreciate the Government’s position that they want more time, I worry that in the gap between this Bill becoming law and a new Bill that addresses transparency and copyright coming forward, everything that can be scraped will be scraped. Twelve months is a long time, and plenty of time for AI companies to continue crawling over original copyrighted material without a care in the world. For some parts of the creative industries, 12 months will be 12 months too long. Necessity is the mother of invention, and without a legal instruction for AI companies to reveal what they are using free of charge, there is surely no incentive for the AI industry to come up with the solutions to make it simple for original creators and collecting societies to assert their rights. New clauses 2 to 6 include calls for the operators of web crawlers and AI models to legally disclose what they are doing right now. Although I understand why the Government may not support the new clauses, will the Minister at least commit to placing a clear power to regulate in the Bill? The creative industries are nervous, spooked by the previously stated preference for an opt-out model, and such a move would calm nerves and indicate that the Government understand the pace at which the situation is developing and recognise the need for action. Recently, here in Westminster, Björn from ABBA spoke in favour of clear transparency. Perhaps the saddest ABBA song is “The Winner Takes It All”, inspired by break-ups in the band between the As and the Bs. We must ensure that this is not a divorce of two industries that leads to the creative partner being left with the equivalent of the coffee table and the dog. The tech industry needs us more than we need it, so it should be honest, tell us what it is doing behind our backs and pay up. When all is said and done, this Government need to send a message now that we have the backs of our creative industries and that legal protections are our absolute priority.

• 30 Apr 2025 · UK Airstrike: Houthi Military Facility · Hansard source

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  I thank the Defence Secretary for his statement and pay tribute to all those involved in the successful strike. Does he agree that this Government will always put personnel at the heart of our defence plans?

• 23 Apr 2025 · Intellectual Property: Artificial Intelligence · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Frith) on securing this timely and important debate. I would like to draw Members’ attention to my membership of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. I hope Members had a restful Easter break. Many writers particularly look forward to Easter every year, not least because of the eggs, but towards the end of March we see the payment from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society land in our bank accounts. For writers who depend on payments for secondary uses of their work, that money is a vital income stream in what is a harsh freelance existence. I love seeing where my television dramas that I wrote many years ago have been shown; this year I learned that Swedish children had watched my UK-based science fiction series set in a world without adults. Creativity knows no boundaries but neither, it seems, does generative AI. Collection societies such as the ALCS and those representing other creative working people ensure that we receive fair payment, and that our rights are respected. The ALCS has paid out £700 million to writers since 1977. The point that I rise to make is that many scripts end up on the internet, along with novels, books and other published work. The Government have proposed the introduction of a text and data mining copyright exception that would allow AI developers to use copyrighted works without explicit prior consent. One of the arguments put forward for that exception is that we need it because licensing does not work—but licensing does work. Rights-holders have been licensing their works to commercial users for over a century, adapting to emerging technologies and meeting the demand for multi-territorial licensing. Moreover, licensing is proven to provide commercial users with the legal certainty required for investment, while also protecting creators and rights-holders from unauthorised exploitation. We cannot allow a lifetime of human creative endeavour to be gobbled up for free by the bots. This is the opportunity for the UK Government to lead from the front by ensuring that the Data (Use and Access) Bill includes granular transparency requirements so that AI companies must disclose what they use for free, and to put a stop to the unregulated scraping of creative content online. Freelancers are looking to this Labour Government to ensure that they are fairly rewarded for their work. We must protect our creative working people and ensure that their work pays, too.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Sewage · Hansard source

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  I welcome the rapid action that this Government have taken to hold failing water companies to account. Does the Secretary of State share my view that it is simply disgraceful that water company CEOs such as Yorkshire Water’s Nicola Shaw—who paid herself a £371,000 bonus —were able to pay themselves multimillion-pound bonuses while overseeing record levels of sewage spills?

• 23 Apr 2025 · Pension Funds · Hansard source

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  A female constituent of mine who has worked for HSBC UK for over 35 years has seen her pension reduced by approximately £850 a year because of a clawback clause that she was never properly informed about when she joined the bank’s defined-benefit scheme. Does the hon. Member agree that HSBC needs to engage properly with the affected employees?

• 23 Apr 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q12. Proposed changes to personal independence payments mean that people who require various levels of support due to lifelong conditions such as learning disabilities will not meet the new eligibility criteria. However, the Green Paper introduces a group of people with lifelong conditions who will not be subject to reassessment. Can the Prime Minister confirm that people with a learning disability—a lifelong condition that will not change—will be included in the group of claimants who will not be subjected to repeated reassessments?

• 8 Apr 2025 · Blair Mayne: Posthumous Victoria Cross · Hansard source

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  Let first draw Members’ attention to my membership of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. I am delighted to have been called to speak in this debate about the merits of awarding a posthumous Victoria Cross to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair Mayne, best known as Paddy Mayne. I know that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) feels passionately about this issue, and he spoke about it very eloquently. I am a member of the Backbench Business Committee, which hears applications from Back Benchers for debates on all kind of topics, and I have to say that this application caught my particular attention. I was a television screenwriter before I was proudly elected to this place, and I am a huge fan of the hit television drama “SAS: Rogue Heroes”, created and written by Steven Knight. It is a vivid retelling of the story of the formation and achievements of Britain’s Special Air Service, which was formed by David Stirling as the ultimate military disrupter. In the second world war, the SAS changed the nature of the fight against the Nazis in Africa and beyond. The drama is among the best illustrations of why the United Kingdom is a powerhouse of the creative industries. The writer, cast and crew of “SAS: Rogue Heroes”, working for the production company Kudos, created a hit show that captured the irreverence, humour and bravery of the SAS, and retold the story of those brave men for a new generation. I am sure that as I make this speech, bots will be crawling over Steven’s fantastic script to train artificial intelligence models, just as they have crawled over my scripts and those of thousands, indeed millions, of other screenwriters. They will be stealing copyrighted material, hard written and hard won by real humans, scraping it from under our noses, without permission, to make money for their AI companies. If only we had the AI equivalent of “SAS: Rogue Heroes” and the likes of Paddy Mayne to protect us! We will just have to rely on something that is a little more tame but still has teeth, and that is good legislation. Paddy Mayne is unforgettably played in the series by Jack O’Connell, who brings the character to vivid life. The producer of the show, Stephen Smallwood, told me that shooting in the Sahara desert in July at 50° made O’Connell and the other actors think that they were just as hardcore as the SAS—until they were reminded that they had an air-conditioned hotel and a cold beer to return to that night. The conditions in which Paddy Mayne and his colleagues operated were truly beyond anything that we can imagine now. The raids that Paddy led in Libya were followed by legendary outings in Italy and Sicily, before he demonstrated outstanding courage by rescuing wounded men trapped in a Nazi ambush, clearing a machine-gun position and clearing a path for the allied advance. That is truly the stuff of legend. That outstanding bravery earned him a citation for a Victoria Cross, but it was downgraded to a Distinguished Service Order—his fourth—which has caused puzzlement ever since. Although Lieutenant Colonel Mayne was one of the very few recipients of a rare third bar to the DSO, my hon. Friend the Member for Strangford is not alone in thinking that that is not enough, and that he should be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. I understand, however, that it is a key tenet of the British honours and awards system that such honours are not granted retrospectively, so that decisions made by peers and commanders at the time are respected. How and why the citation was overturned may never be fully understood, but let me say to the hon. Member for Strangford that although the pen strokes of a bureaucrat may be lost in the mists of time, Paddy Mayne’s legacy lives on in the democracy and the values that we now take for granted, but which were won by the sacrifices of Mayne’s fallen colleagues and the wider armed forces. His legacy lives on in the celebrations next month, when we will mark the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe, VE Day, and then in August, when we will mark the 80th anniversary of victory in Japan, VJ Day, commemorating the end of the second world war. I am sure that if he were alive today, Paddy Mayne would be looking to us in this place to do right by the men and women who serve and risk their lives for this country. I am proud to be part of a Government who are committed to strengthening support for our veterans and armed forces community by putting the armed forces covenant fully into law and ensuring that veterans have secure homes. Millions of people around the world have now learned about Paddy Mayne’s courage and leadership through the TV show. Seventy years after his untimely death, Paddy Mayne has officially passed into legend, and his phenomenal bravery will live on forever in the motto of the SAS: “Who dares wins.”

• 7 Apr 2025 · Road Maintenance · Hansard source

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  In my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby, the views take your breath away. Sadly, so do the potholes when your car hits one—not just when it happens, but when the repair bill arrives. According to the RAC, the cost of pothole damage to vehicles is around £600 on average, with more severe repairs costing considerably more. Potholes do not just damage cars; they damage people. One constituent has told me that when his disabled father is driven to the doctors or to hospital appointments, it is almost inevitable that they hit a pothole on the way, which causes him pain. Another Scarborough constituent told me that the journey she needed to take to York hospital to attend the pain clinic was too painful because of the quality of the roads, and that she therefore stopped making it, despite being in a huge amount of pain. The Conservative-run North Yorkshire council says that keeping our roads in the best condition for the money it has is one of the biggest challenges it faces, and that is why it is brilliant that the York and North Yorkshire combined authority will soon be receiving its share of the Labour Government’s record £1.6 billion road maintenance funding. This is the biggest one-off road maintenance funding settlement that councils have ever been given. For Mayor Skaith in York and North Yorkshire, it is £62.1 million, an increase of £16.6 million. Of course, I have spoken to the Mayor about the importance of ensuring the quality of repairs in my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby. Maple Drive in Scarborough is home to Northstead community primary school. It is a very busy road and it is littered with potholes, which are regularly reported to the council using its online tool. Workmen duly arrive to fill the potholes, but my constituents report that they soon reappear, bigger than before, leaving Maple Drive looking like a patchwork quilt—but, it has to be said, not a particularly attractive one. It is vital that we abandon the patch-and-run approach and focus on permanent and innovative repairs, especially given the cold and increasingly wet winters we encounter on the coast. I welcome the caveat attached to the money, which means that the combined authority will need to publish annual progress reports and prove to the public that the work is being done to a high standard. After years of Conservative neglect, drivers in Scarborough, Whitby and the villages can, thanks to this Labour Government, look forward to smoother, safer local roads.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a powerful contribution. Vaping is not a safe alternative for children. According to last year’s “Growing Up in North Yorkshire” survey, 25% of year 8 students and 49% of year 10 students have tried vapes, with 9% vaping regularly. Does she agree that the Bill will put an end to vapes deliberately being branded in ways that appeal to children?

• 20 Mar 2025 · British Sign Language Week · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate. In 2023-24, 26 children in north Yorkshire were registered with special educational needs due to a hearing impairment, yet support remains inadequate. To show my support for them and for the other children here today, I will now sign my name in BSL . [In British Sign Language: Alison.] Does my hon. Friend agree that deaf children need access to fluent signers as teachers?

• 20 Mar 2025 · British Sign Language Week · Hansard source

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  My big takeaway from the training session that was provided here was that the language is a visual language. Does my hon. Friend agree that we are therefore excluding many of our constituents without realising?

• 20 Mar 2025 · Coastal Communities · Hansard source

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  Fishing is far more than an industry; it is part of our identity in coastal communities. Does the hon. Member agree that a sustainable inshore fishing industry is vital to our economic growth?

• 20 Mar 2025 · Coastal Communities · Hansard source

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  My constituency of Scarborough and Whitby includes some of the most beautiful towns and villages in the country, but it also has some of the worst health outcomes. We have talked a lot about older people in this debate, and I will use my time to talk about younger people. I am excited by the opportunities that the advent of renewable energy offers young people in my constituency. Scarborough university technical college is already training the engineers of the future, who will work on the wind farms off our coast. The Construction Skills Village in Eastfield is training apprentices in bricklaying, plastering and other trades to help build Labour’s 1.5 million new homes. However, we must deliver year-round, non-graduate careers for our coastal kids and ensure that funding is funnelled not into cities and universities, but into coastal communities. Only by doing this will we deliver on our mission to break down the barriers to opportunity.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Shipyards: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker) on securing this debate. For centuries, shipbuilding has been a pillar of British industry, contributing not only to our maritime heritage but to the economic prosperity of our coastal communities. In the 1790s, Whitby was the second largest shipbuilding port in England. Indeed, a certain Captain James Cook learned his seafaring skills in the town, and his marvellous ship, the Endeavour, was also built there. Hon. Members can find out more about our proud shipbuilding history by visiting the Captain Cook memorial museum or Whitby museum. Today, Parkol Marine Engineering at Eskside wharf in Whitby has a workforce of more than 70. In 2017, it opened a second yard in Middlesbrough. Parkol has customers from across the UK and Europe, for whom it builds fishing trawlers as well as fully custom designs. Recently, it won two public tenders, which it wants to capitalise on to obtain more work in the workboat industry. This is important, because in a town where low-paid and seasonal jobs in tourism and retail predominate, Parkol offers young people in Whitby much-needed skills and opportunities, as well as apprenticeships in manufacturing, engineering, fabrication and business. That all significantly contributes to our local economy. Parkol told me that a lot of the necessary skills have been lost or are carried out by workers towards the end of their careers, so it strives to promote reintroduction of those skills via in-house apprenticeships. Beyond direct employment, shipyards provide contracts for steelmakers, electrical engineers, software developers and countless other businesses. It is crucial that we recognise that broader economic impact and ensure that shipyards receive the backing they need to thrive. As Members have referenced, shipyards are more than just workplaces; they are engines of economic growth and cornerstones of national security. We must give them the best possible chance to grow. Parkol’s location on the east coast positions it well for carrying out maintenance work on crew transfer vessels and workboats employed on wind farms or offshore projects in the North sea. It has a floating dry dock, but it was built in the 1990s and now it has outgrown it, which means that larger vessels have to use slipways in Scotland and Holland. It is looking at how to increase its capacity, but has struggled to identify suitable funding or grant streams. I am pleased that the Government have made clear their commitment to supporting job creation and long-term growth in the shipbuilding sector. I ask the Minister to commit to a bold vision for our shipyards, big or small, ensuring that they continue to serve as a source of national pride and economic prosperity for communities such as mine for generations to come.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  It is important that as a Labour Government we recognise the impact on people, including my constituents, of the DWP’s failure to communicate the change effectively. I urge the Minister to look again at giving compensation that will, in some way, acknowledge that WASPI women have lost out on so much more than money.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) on her powerful opening remarks. According to the latest figures, there are 7,160 women in Scarborough and Whitby affected by the various Acts that made changes to women’s state pension age. As a candidate standing in Scarborough and Whitby, I pledged to support WASPI women, and as an MP, I rise today to speak for them. I sympathise with their anger and frustration. In her statement to the House in December, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said that most women knew that their state pension age was increasing. That may well have been the case—I have no way of telling—but I have been contacted by so many constituents who have told me that they were not aware of the changes to their state pension age, and the reasons are ones that I think we can all understand. My constituent Kirsty was living in Spain when the letters were sent from the DWP, so was totally unaware of the pension age increase. Another of my constituents told me that she only heard about the changes through a friend while looking after her dad, who was suffering from dementia.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  As always, the hon. Member makes a powerful point for his constituents, and I support his wider call for the Government to think again. Returning to my constituent who was looking after her father who suffered from dementia, had she been aware of the changes she would have increased her personal pension contribution and saved more money to enable her to retire sooner to look after her dad, who has since passed away. The carer’s allowance was simply not enough to live on and pay for food and other essential bills. Her experience caring for an elderly parent is very common among women in their 50s and 60s; I have been there myself. It is extremely likely that many other women in that situation will have been preoccupied with coping with the day-to-day challenges that carers face and will not have known about the change to their state pension age. Another constituent of mine had to sell her home of 36 years after she lost her husband, as she had planned for the future under the impression that she would receive her state pension at 60. Obviously, she acknowledges that even without the changes there is no guarantee that she could have remained in her home, but all the calculations that she and her husband did indicated that she would be all right. Many others had to work longer than they had anticipated or dip into their life savings and change their retirement plans after years of working hard and looking forward to life beyond work. I acknowledge the action that the Government are taking to tackle the long-standing problems with carer’s allowance, which previous Governments failed to address. The increase in the state pension this April will make a tangible difference to the lives of many women in Scarborough and Whitby. I also acknowledge that the previous Government failed to set aside a single penny for compensation, and left behind a black hole in the public finances, which I appreciate constrains the ability of this Government to offer compensation.