Alison Hume MP: speeches

Speeches

• 12 Jun 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  8. What progress his Department has made on developing an industrial strategy.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Long-term Medical Conditions · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend on her turn speaking from the Front Bench. DWP analysis suggests that people with long-term conditions such as arthritis are more likely than most to be affected by the changes to PIP. Does she acknowledge that taking away PIP from people with long-term conditions such as arthritis, which can fluctuate and vary, could be devastating?

• 9 Jun 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  I welcome this announcement, as will the 26,000 pensioners in my constituency, where we have particularly cold and harsh winters. Will the Minister reassure my constituents that automatic payments will be reinstated, and will there be any change to the date on which payments will be made?

• 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?

• 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?

• 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.

• 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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  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?

• 11 Mar 2025 · North Sea Vessel Collision · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister’s timely statement and would like to associate myself with his praise for the swift response of the emergency services and the RNLI volunteers. Over recent years, fishermen along the east coast of Yorkshire, including Scarborough and Whitby, have battled to keep going against the background of the effects of the crustacean die-off. They are naturally extremely concerned by reports of jet fuel possibly leaking into the sea. I do appreciate that this is a fast-moving situation, but can my hon. Friend tell the House more about the counter-pollution measures that are in place and also how predicted weather conditions will affect the ongoing operation?

• 26 Feb 2025 · High Street Bank Closures · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech. On the subject of vulnerable people, I want to say that the last two branches in Whitby have announced that they will close, and an adult gaming centre is already looking at the Halifax site. We are getting a temporary banking hub, but does my hon. Friend agree that vulnerable residents rely on having a branch, and that, somewhere along the line, the words “providing a service”, seems to have been lost to banks?

• 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.

• 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?

• 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?

• 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.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q5. Given that a significant number of Members of this place are, regardless of class, women of a certain age, does the Prime Minister agree that when a woman of a certain age—or indeed any woman, of any age and from any background—says that they have experienced sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour, they should be listened to and supported and the perpetrator dealt with?

• 29 Nov 2024 · Men’s Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  Refuges offer protection from perpetrators, time to recover from abuse and a range of support to enable survivors to rebuild their lives, yet 61% of refuge referrals in England last year had to be declined due to lack of capacity. Scarborough and Whitby has the highest rate of recorded domestic incidents in North Yorkshire, but it has no refuge. Does my hon. Friend agree that the refuge sector needs more support?

• 29 Jul 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  5. What steps her Department plans to take to tackle violence against women and girls.