Amanda Hack MP: speeches

Speeches

• 9 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I recently met my constituent Dean, who is in his 60s and wants to return to full-time work after a bit of ill health. With more than 15 years’ experience in human resources, he is struggling to get over the line and get that next job. He feels he is being turned away not just because of his age, but because of his medical condition, which means he needs a cane to walk. What is the Minister doing to support people with health conditions, such as Dean, back into work?

• 9 Mar 2026 · Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. I thank John, Lyla’s father, for starting the petition. It was signed by 227 of my constituents in North West Leicestershire, and I would like to share as many of their experiences as I can in the time available. Throughout these stories, I heard over and over again the four Ts —“toilet”, “thirsty”, “tired” and “thinning”. In all the emails I have received on the matter, the one consistency has been families having to advocate for their children to get the care that they so obviously needed. Jade, mum of Harry, said: “Harry is not your ordinary child, he has a long list of disabilities, and he is nonverbal autistic. Harry could not tell me how he was feeling…but he lost so much weight.” After weeks of trying to see a GP, she finally managed to get a doctor to take his blood sugar levels. Harry’s blood sugar was at 30 millimoles and he was in DKA, with ketones so high that he was on the verge of cardiac arrest. Jade said that day will haunt her forever. Mark’s story with his daughter Katrina is similar. Katrina was diagnosed at two and a half years old. Although, unlike Harry, she did not suffer from DKA, it was a traumatic experience. Katrina was a healthy child, and when she started having night terrors, waking up drenched in sweat with heavy nappies and craving pasta at 11 pm, they knew that something was desperately wrong. The nurse recommended a urine test, and Mark got a phone call while his daughter was in nursery asking him to take her to the hospital immediately. She was admitted for 10 days in hospital. A third constituent shared that her son was diagnosed with type 1 in May last year, just weeks before his seventh birthday. Fortunately, he was diagnosed early, and it was a non-emergency situation. It should not be a life-threatening situation just to get a diagnosis. Too often, healthcare professionals miss the key symptoms. When symptoms are missed, sadly, children like Lyla have their lives cut short. Screening for type 1 is crucial in infants so that we can help save lives.

• 5 Mar 2026 · World Book Day · Hansard source

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  I want to celebrate our local libraries and how much they give to our communities. Castle Donington library hosts not only a uniform swap but a dress-up swap, which is so important for affordability. Libraries are also working hard to tackle the literacy crisis that we face, as just one in three children aged eight to 18 say that they enjoy reading in their spare time. Will my hon. Friend join me in thanking libraries in North West Leicestershire, many of which are run by volunteers, for their dedication and the abundance of good that they give back to our communities, not just on World Book Day but week in, week out?

• 5 Mar 2026 · Energy Markets · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. Households, businesses and charities in North West Leicestershire have highlighted some immediate pressures on the cost of heating oil and fuel costs in recent days. Does the Secretary of State agree that energy security across our country is vital and that cheap, clean power is key to delivering that security, so will he a share what additional work he will be doing to secure that for families and businesses in North West Leicestershire and beyond?

• 4 Mar 2026 · Healthcare in Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) for giving us the opportunity to talk about how living in a rural area can impact our access to healthcare. As time is short, I will focus on two things. When I became an MP, one of the first things I was contacted about was the experience of getting a service on a Sunday. A resident of Ashby was given an appointment at an out-of-hours service in Leicester city. The taxi just one way cost about 40 quid. That is just one example of how the rural penalty is creating real problems in healthcare. I am glad to see the Minister in his place, because I want to focus specifically on pharmacy and that is his area of responsibility. I have met many of my local pharmacists over the time that I have been a Member of Parliament. Our community pharmacies are often our lifelines, yet access to them is not equal, and certainly not simple, for many of my constituents. North West Leicestershire is not just a semi-rural constituency, but a proud post-industrial one with a strong coalmining past. However, that means that we have our own unique health issues, particularly respiratory ones. For example, 8% of my constituents are living with asthma—higher than the average for the east midlands and the whole of England. Many residents rely on regular inhalers, medication reviews and preventive advice delivered via their local pharmacy, which is a vital service. If the local pharmacy is facing a shortage, or a rural pharmacy does not open as frequently, that can have detrimental impacts. In a city, people can pop along the road to the next nearest pharmacy. Castle Donington, which has the highest rate of asthma in my constituency, has just one pharmacy. It does an amazing job for my constituents, but the next nearest pharmacy is more than 5 miles away. With 62% of our bus services cut under the previous Government, it is not easy to just hop on the bus to the nearest town. The isolation of our pharmacies has a detrimental impact in a rural area, because there is simply nowhere else to go. When patients cannot access their medicines promptly, their conditions can worsen. They will turn to a GP for urgent appointments or to their nearest A&E. Pharmacy provision can provide us with an invaluable capacity for our entire healthcare system, the rural services of which have been hit the hardest.

• 24 Feb 2026 · Banking Hubs: Rural and Post-Industrial Communities · Hansard source

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  My constituency, including the main town of Coalville, has a strong industrial past. Coalville is not entirely rural, so it does not qualify for a banking hub. Lloyds is abandoning my community and will close a branch in Coalville in June, despite how busy and well used that branch, on a main high street, is. Does she agree that we need to ensure that gaps in bank provision are filled as soon as possible with banking hubs, and that banking hub assessment should include access to business banking, because that is what we really lose when a main high street bank goes off the high street?

• 24 Feb 2026 · Local Transport: Planning Developments · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) for giving me the opportunity to talk about one of my favourite topics—public transport, or the lack thereof. As other rural MPs in the room will know, improving local transport links is a never-ending discussion, particularly in a constituency such as North West Leicestershire that only has a bus service to rely on. We have no passenger rail at all, so everybody needs to travel by road. Off the back off 14 years of austerity forced upon us by the coalition and then the previous Conservative Government, we need to consider the context that our community has been growing throughout that time. Alongside the destruction of our public services, libraries, Sure Starts and day services, our public transport was cut by 62%. Planning developments and local transport are about understanding the population we have, as well as the future population. When talking about planning, we have to consider the impact, particularly in my constituency, of huge shed expansion in the industrial sector. I speak to local residents in Heather regularly, a village in North West Leicestershire. They are just a stone’s throw away from Ibstock, a developing town. Many have told me that when they first moved to Heather, they did not need to use public transport regularly, but knowing they could get a bus meant they had a service they could rely on. Now, as they are getting older, their needs have changed, but the public transport in Heather is long gone. Demand fluctuates, but we are not evaluating that quickly enough or planning for the long term, so when the demography of a town or an estate changes, we are reliant on the community fighting for themselves to get services in place, rather than bus services reflecting the needs of that changing community. When we talk about connecting new housing developments to leisure, jobs, education, medical and other services, the context is that we have so many fewer services than we had 15 years ago. Context is important in these transport conversations. Planning for change and growth is at the very core of what we are discussing. In fact, planning a new housing estate feels so much more straightforward when the numbers needed to create a new school or doctor’s surgery are taken into consideration. It might not be easy, but we understand the maths that sits behind it. However, when it comes to public transport, it is much less cohesive. It seems a complete waste that public transport is lagging behind in a much more piecemeal discussion. We are not planning for change; we are responding to it, and that is very frustrating for our local communities. We had a newish development in my community that already involved the enhancement of a new school and the opportunity to extend the doctor’s surgery. As part of the planning conditions, residents were given a six-month bus pass, but it is of little use: there are no buses, so what is the point? We are not getting true, seamless connection between our new developments and our towns. Our towns need those new communities to survive and thrive. Any building in existing town centres does not create good connectivity and extra footfall. It actually means an impairment to growth. Quite often, the bus network does not serve newer estates that sit just outside our town centres, which means that residents are cut off from the town centre, and the town centre is cut off from them. They simply never visit. Therefore, the opportunity to help our town centres is lost. I was proud to sit on the Bus Services Bill Committee, and the Government’s commitment to get more money to local authorities for public transport is clear. However, the difficult part of that is trying to ensure that the money is actually being best utilised, as we are not planning for change; we are reacting to it. There needs to be a better link between where people live and where services are required. We are never going to be able to plan for everything, but I would like to hear the Minister’s view on how bus services in the long term can be a vehicle for growth and create clearer community connections.

• 24 Feb 2026 · Local Transport: Planning Developments · Hansard source

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  I am a neighbouring constituency MP, and one of the things that has always been a huge frustration is that Leicestershire is in the top ten of held-on-to 106 money. There definitely needs to be a conversation about how we get that 106 money spent—and spent quickly.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We need to improve the infrastructure surrounding new developments and existing developments while ensuring that highways in local government, which felt the full impact of austerity, have the resources to deliver. What conversations has the Minister had about expanding capacity in local government to ensure that highways have the appropriate resources to deliver the infrastructure that we need?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Independent Water Commission: Final Report · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy, and I thank the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) for giving us this opportunity to speak about water today. My constituents have written to me pretty consistently since I came to this place about the water industry with concerns about sewage discharges, bonuses paid to water bosses, flooding and their bills. I do feel that their concerns—in emails and conversations through casework, surgeries and a specific roundtable—have been heard and fed into this this consultation. Our White Paper, published as a response to the Independent Water Commission’s final report, will tackle some of these issues head-on, by bringing forward, strengthening and streamlining regulation. I will focus my speech on sewage discharges and flooding, and the impact they have on my constituency. Leicestershire has again had significant rainfall, and a flood warning is still in place today on the northern edge of my constituency. Coupled with that, sewage has poured into our waterways in North West Leicestershire for 15,000 hours. That is not just physically, but mentally challenging for my constituents. I have spoken about residents in Whitwick before, but today I will speak about another set of residents who were flooded just before Christmas. The desperation that people experience when sewage water enters their property is really difficult for them to bear; indeed, it is visible on their faces. We must do better for them, and the water industry really needs to clean up its act. I visited Mary, who has a smallholding in Donington le Heath. She became so frustrated by the outflow release on her smallholding that she collected a bag of sewer debris from a recent release and popped it on the table during a meeting we had with representatives from Severn Trent Water. They were left with no doubt about her feeling that the company consistently drops sewage on to her land. Such is the frustration of local people. Sir Jon Cunliffe’s report recommends a review into key legislation about urban waste water treatment, reducing pollutants and tackling sewage releases that went unaddressed for 15 long years under the previous Government. My constituents will be reassured that our White Paper will set out ambitions to tackle sewage misuse, prevent sewer blockages, help maximise sewer capacity, and reduce pollution incidents and therefore sewage flooding. That is a core example of constituents raising concerns, a direct report being commissioned to find solutions, and a Government listening to people. On a separate note, it is encouraging to see water companies finally investing in ageing infrastructure. However, constituents are often frustrated by their water bills going up and about how, for example, the long-awaited improvements in Coalville, which could address the issue in Donington le Heath, are still four years away. I would welcome the Minister firmly reassuring my constituents that they will see improvements, and the necessary re-establishing of trust between consumers and water companies off the back of the final report. Since being elected, I have engaged whenever and wherever possible with efforts to strengthen the water sector, and I was proud to sit on the Water (Special Measures) Bill Committee. Building on our work here in Parliament, I was pleased to see the Environment Secretary confirm that the water White Paper will be followed by a transition plan and a water reform Bill, and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s remarks on that. I also thank Sir Jon Cunliffe. I do not think anybody could be as passionate about the water sector as he is. It is quite clear from the things he has said, and from the way that he has addressed this real problem for the UK, that he has a passion and indeed a vision for change, which matches our Government’s ambition. I will just take this opportunity to thank Sir Jon for his work.

• 10 Feb 2026 · Household Energy Bills · Hansard source

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  My constituents in North West Leicestershire will soon benefit from an average £150 cut per household to energy bills, and a number will be able to access energy efficiency schemes. Can the Secretary of State outline in more detail the expected changes to the fixed elements of our bills, such as the standing charges, which impact those in fuel poverty so much more than the rest of us?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Sherwood Forest: Tourism · Hansard source

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  Our green space is vital, not just for our environment and mental health but for the economic benefits that it brings to our communities. Having rail access to our communities is very important. My constituency of North West Leicestershire is not far away from Sherwood Forest. It is home to the national forest. It is easily accessible, like Sherwood, to about 10 million people. Does my hon. Friend agree that the east midlands must capitalise on the tourism potential of all its forests, including in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Place-based Employment Support Programmes · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Southport (Patrick Hurley) for giving us the opportunity to speak in this debate. In my career before being elected, I was involved in a number of successful place-based employment schemes, including having direct responsibility for delivering some of this work within a housing association. I am therefore a strong advocate for the approach, and I will come on to that later in my speech. As a member of the Work and Pensions Committee, I visited Durham last week to speak to participants and employers on the Connect to Work programme run by DurhamEnable and Triage. It offers voluntary supported employment initiatives designed to help people with learning disabilities, autism, health conditions and complex barriers to employment to find and sustain meaningful work. Such programmes offer a great example of why and how place-based employment really works. Durham uses the supported employment model, “place, train, maintain”, which focuses on finding the right job first, and then offering training and ongoing support, and I will break that down a little further. Stage one is place: finding the right job for an individual and emphasising that employers are key to delivery and engaging with future employees. Working with the person, as well as the local job market, to discover who they are is a key principle. Stage two is training. DurhamEnable ensures that future employees are benefiting from the right support. It was also clear that that support inspired confidence. One person we spoke to had recently been made redundant from a long-term job. DurhamEnable had helped them to navigate the more complicated process nowadays of job applications that they had never needed to do before. Stage three is maintain, which includes offering ongoing support to participants and employers to navigate reasonable adjustments in the workplace while applying for such things as Access to Work. I will briefly mention JobsPlus, which has already been mentioned, and information from the Learning and Work Institute. The latter found that in 2003, social housing tenants were nearly twice as likely to be out of work and more than twice as likely to be disabled. When in work, social housing tenants are twice as likely to be in lower skilled work on average and are paid a third less than people who live in other housing tenures. JobsPlus, which is being piloted in 10 sites across England, is a key initiative. It brings together tenants, landlords and key agencies to provide targeted support to those who need it. It works because of that joint commitment and the targeted support that is provided. In fact, it is the simplicity of the scheme that works overall. The non-reliance on system-based referrals sets JobsPlus apart from most other employment programmes. All the programme needs to know is where somebody lives, and then it simply helps them. It will be no surprise to Members that as a long-standing housing professional, I advocate the work done by housing associations. East Midlands Housing, based in North West Leicestershire, is not only a great local employer, but part of the Placeshapers initiative, which is about creating place. That is another important part of employer-based support, because it means putting support right at the centre of the community. Above all, it is the community that knows how best to boost engagement and to support one another. I conclude by emphasising that the key point to take away from today is that we do not need to reinvent the wheel to be successful; we just need to look at what is being done already. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Southport about limited contracting. My experience over two decades is that we have great schemes, but they are often reinvented, which means we then lack consistency. Consistency develops our communities and the long-term commitment from employers that we need to see real change in place-based support. When schemes come and go, momentum is lost. Can the Minister tell us how we will breed that consistency to ensure that place-based schemes have a seat at the employment support table for the long term, and not just the short term?

• 5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her powerful statement. There are clearly differences in cancer treatment depending on where someone lives, whether a rural or coastal community. My semi-rural constituency sits on the edge of three hospital trusts, leading to difficulties such as those highlighted by a constituent who attended my coffee morning earlier this week. She spoke of the difficulties she faces in getting consistency in her cancer treatment, as she sees a Leicestershire GP but gets care from the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS foundation trust. Will the Minister set out more on the neighbourhood element of the treatments addressed in the national cancer plan?

• 5 Feb 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I have been working closely with driving instructors who provide tuition to learner drivers in North West Leicestershire. One of them reached out to me earlier this week to share that they had got up at 5.45 am to book a test for a student in Loughborough, but no tests were available. What work is being done to increase capacity in key test centres that serve my constituency, such as Loughborough? May we have a debate in Government time on how we hold test centres to account for some of the supply issues?

• 3 Feb 2026 · Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill · Hansard source

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  This issue is one of the things we have looked at in the Work and Pensions Committee, and the evidence is quite clear that we must remove the two-child benefit cap and enable long-term investment in our young people. Those young people in poverty suffer extraordinarily, and we need to give them better life chances.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Ivanhoe Line: Restoration · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I will come to freight in a little while; he has pre-empted my speech. The National Forest Company also shared that 99% of the over 200,000 annual visitors to Conkers, which is one of the key attractions in the national forest, travel by car. It feels counterproductive that the only option to make the most of our green spaces is driving, and there is certainly opportunity for investment along the line at Moira to assist with changing that. The reopening of the Ivanhoe line through the national forest is critical if we are serious about reducing carbon emissions in this part of the midlands. There is also a local idea of changing the name from Ivanhoe to the National Forest line; I think that has a good ring to it. Last year, I did a survey, and about 400 people in my constituency responded: 90% said they travelled by car because of poor public transport, 72% said that they were prevented from travelling to where they want to go because there were no public transport options, and 97% supported the restoration of the Ivanhoe line. My constituent Karen pointed out that there are many attractions and services in Ashby and that the rail line would be a valuable asset, bringing people to the castle, leisure facilities and the array of shops, pubs and cafes. Ashby is a pure market town. Unsurprisingly, a lot of respondents also said that the reopening of the line would help them to access job opportunities outside the area. One of my constituents told me that she is disabled and wants to work in Leicester but struggles on the buses to Ashby. Another told me how a train line would help him to see his young daughter more, connecting and putting his family back together. Another works for the management team at a homeless charity and explained on behalf of their clients that the reopening of the line would remove some of the barriers to accessing accommodation, attending appointments and securing local job opportunities. It is fantastic to hear that the Government have stressed the importance of apprenticeships and fulfilling education and job opportunities for all, but how are my younger constituents going to get there? When I meet young people like William across my constituency, they tell me that public transport is a huge barrier to getting to the training opportunities and apprenticeships they deserve. Buses are also leaving people stranded. Dave contacted me over the weekend. He went to watch a Leicester City match and got the last bus home to Ashby. However, the bus stopped in Coalville, and the passengers were told to get off and walk to another bus stop. They waited and waited for a bus that never arrived. He quite rightly says: “where a simple bus ride can’t get people home, a train line would help enormously”. North West Leicestershire also does not have a main hospital. My constituents travel to Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Burton, and having to rely on services as unreliable as the one I just described is a real problem. As one constituent said in the survey: “It’s harder to think of reasons NOT to reopen the line”. I understand that, ever since we have come into office, we have had to battle to deal with the financial mess that the previous Government left behind. On that point, I want to segue on to another rail project: HS2, which has been marred by significant delays and cost overruns. It would have literally just gone through my constituency—it would have moved a dual carriageway in my constituency, but it would not have brought us a train station. HS2 Ltd owns 74 homes in my constituency, more than in any other. I have written to the Secretary of State on this issue, and would be grateful if my constituents could get a definitive answer on how that money can be reinvested. Can constituencies with assets purchased for HS2 be allocated the appreciated asset value as well as the rental income that is coming in? Setting aside that money for rail improvements would make such a difference. HS2 was about providing capacity. For the east midlands, Ivanhoe was the only project to progress in restoring your railway, creating rail capacity for both passengers and freight. It is outstandingly different from many other rail infrastructure projects, because we already have a track in place, and therefore it is quick to deliver. I have been engaging with CRIL, Network Rail, Midlands Connect, East Midlands Railway, Siemens Mobility, the East Midlands combined county authority and the National Forest. I have had numerous meetings with Ministers in the Department for Transport, and have mentioned the Ivanhoe line whenever possible here and in the main Chamber. North West Leicestershire has so much potential, and we have to make it count. We sit in the heart of the UK, with great people, an ever-evolving community, tons of aspiration and an industrial past we are proud of. We have a real sense of looking forward. Significant levels of investment in UK logistics have not gone hand in hand with as much infrastructure investment as our community needs. In fact, the line would go through the golden triangle freight logistics area, which has the most intense concentration of warehousing in the country, so we should take the opportunity to improve public transport to this important employment hub. North West Leicestershire is in some ways a great set of contradictions. We have an international airport, yet poor public transport. We have the East Midlands rail freight terminal, yet no passenger rail. We have great road networks, yet local roads have been poorly invested in. We are enhancing our environment, with the National Forest planting more greenery and trees to tackle carbon emissions, but we are cancelling that out because have only the car as an option. Siemens Mobility, the train signalling company, is based in my constituency, yet none of its staff can get to work on the train. We have a line, and we have the stations reserved in the local plan. The delivery from start to finish would be very short. The biggest contradiction is that we have gone back on public transport connectivity since the ’60s while growing exponentially. The reopening of the Ivanhoe line would be beneficial to investment and growth in public transport, but I also recognise that we have to prepare for the population growth that is already contained in the local plan, quite apart from the new growth in progress. I promised my constituents that I would continue to push for the rightful restoration of the Ivanhoe line all the way from Burton to Leicester and I look forward to the Minister’s response.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Ivanhoe Line: Restoration · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. Later in my speech, I will talk about how we can connect our communities, which is really important. Lack of maintenance on the Ivanhoe line led to the gradual withdrawal of freight services, although the private section, from Bardon Hill quarry to the rail network, is still operational; in fact, the quarry has recently extended its lease. There was an opportunity to get the line up and running in the 1990s, but any hope of doing so was thwarted by the break-up of British Rail when it was privatised. Throughout all this change, there has been continuous local pressure to deliver a passenger rail service for my constituents. The most recent business case was supported under stage 1 of the restoring your railway fund, of which Lord Hendy, the Minister of State for Rail, was the chair. The project originated from a successful bid by the Campaign to Reopen the Ivanhoe Line, or CRIL, and was one of the 12 projects nationally to receive restoring your railway development funding. I want to take a moment to thank everybody from CRIL for all their hard work to get to this stage. The project, which was in phase 1 of restoring your railways, was for a partial reopening from Coalville to Burton upon Trent, with stations at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Gresley and Coalville. That would have finally reconnected two of the largest towns not connected to the rail network: Coalville and Swadlincote. Those two towns have also seen the highest growth in homes and employment in the last decade. The east midlands has grown by 8%, yet my constituency of North West Leicestershire has grown by 12% and South Derbyshire has grown by 13%.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Ivanhoe Line: Restoration · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I do not know a huge amount about his line, but that certainly seems to be good value for money, and it adds to the point about towns that need infrastructure. What does that infrastructure do? It gives those people opportunity. On that point, I ask the Minister what work has been done to assess the impact on growth and investment in large towns like mine, and those of my colleagues, that are not connected to the rail network. North West Leicestershire, alongside other parts of the east midlands, is outside the East Midlands combined authority and does not benefit from the city region allocation, which, for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, is £2 billion. Although part of the Ivanhoe travels through the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett), it ends in Burton, which is also outside the combined authority, yet the Ivanhoe line would give my constituents the opportunity to get to Derby via Burton and vice versa. The money allocated to Leicestershire is limited to public transport and some long overdue road improvements. If Leicester and Leicestershire were allocated city region funding at the same rate as the combined authority, we would have £1 billion to invest in Leicester and Leicestershire. We cannot just accept that the mayoralty alone gets the increase, when we know that the east midlands lags behind in terms of funding. Research has shown that, had the east midlands received the same funding as the UK average between 2019 and 2024, we would have had about £10 billion extra for transport. Will the Minister highlight how areas such as Leicester and Leicestershire, within the most poorly funded region for transport investment, will be supported to ensure that services can be provided? Now I want to talk about the value of the train line for our communities—the exciting and most important bit. MPs can get really competitive when it comes to who has the prettiest constituency, but mine is at the heart of the national forest, and it really does not get much better than that. The National Forest Company transformed the post-industrial landscape into a thriving success story of environmentally led regeneration in the midlands. Reopening the Ivanhoe line has the potential to create a beautiful train line travelling through the greenery of the national forest. The National Forest Company reached out to me before the debate and shared its recent research. It found: “The second highest contributor to CO2 emissions within the National Forest is resident travel, with car travel accounting for 14% of the residents’ consumption-based footprint—higher than the National Average”.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Ivanhoe Line: Restoration · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention and her support during the campaign. The main thing is that large towns need the infrastructure to match. There are certainly other examples of investments in railways to connect towns that are exceeding their passenger targets, such as the Northumberland line.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Ivanhoe Line: Restoration · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered restoration of the Ivanhoe Line. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I am pleased that colleagues have joined me for what I believe is the first ever debate solely about the Ivanhoe line—a train line that would reopen a direct passenger link between Leicester and Burton upon Trent. The line has a long history. Before the 1830s, Coalville did not exist; it was known as Long Lane and included the four medieval parishes of Whitwick, Hugglescote, Snibston and Swannington. When William Stenson, the proprietor of coalmines in Whitwick, returned from a trip on the Stockton and Darlington railway, he carefully studied the land between Long Lane and Leicester. Taking into account the mines in Ibstock and Bagworth, he planned the line of a possible railway. Stenson enlisted the help of George Stephenson, “the father of railways”, who delegated the construction of the Swannington-to-Leicester railway to his son, Robert. It became the sixth steam railway in the country, linking Leicester and Long Lane so that coal could easily be transported between the two. Some estimate that around the same time the town became known as Coalville. The line traditionally transported coal before it was opened to passengers. Fast forward to the 1960s, when what was then called the Ivanhoe line was closed during the infamous Beeching cuts of 7 September 1964. Since then, there have been many campaigns to get it fully back up and running, especially as it remained open to freight traffic until only recently.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) for giving us the opportunity to speak in such an important debate for our constituents, but many of us in the room will also be speaking from personal experience and for those people who are close to us. Walking, wheeling, cycling and running are sold to us as sports that are easily accessible, particularly walking and running because there are no monthly fees and many will have the equipment accessible at home—pop your shoes on and off you go—but for women it is nowhere near as accessible as it should be. We hear the phrase, “Everyone has the same 24 hours” a lot, particularly on social media, trying to shame people for not going for a run, going to the gym or choosing to bike to work instead of taking the bus. I know many women who actively choose not to exercise at night because they feel unsafe; suddenly, those 24 hours are limited to when it is light outside. If someone works in an office or during the winter, the hours available to them to go for a run or a cycle can feel even more restricted.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. Some 58% of women say that their cycle journeys are limited because of safety concerns and the infrastructure provided. As somebody who has run fairly regularly for a number of years, being hassled has sadly been a daytime as well as a night-time experience.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. That is why this debate is so important. We should not be restricting access to exercise because we do not feel safe. It is frustrating that I have been catcalled both running on my own and with buddies. What was saddest for me was during covid. My 10-year-old daughter had just got on to her big bike and was faster than me while I was running behind her, and we had comments from a car. Thankfully, she did not really understand what had been said, so I will not repeat it here, but I can guarantee that they knew exactly what I thought of their disgusting behaviour. It changed my approach to life, however, and we did not do that again. We both went cycling together instead. This is what we have to do all the time. We are constantly compromising on what we can and cannot do, and when we can and cannot do it. Whether it was a poll on a Facebook group for Leicester and Leicestershire runners, or my running trainer trying to learn more about his female clients, the comments were inundated with women sharing their experiences. We have to start changing the way that we feel. It is no surprise that 20% of women never walk at night, and that 48% of women in the UK feel unsafe while out running according to SportsShoes. That is shameful, and we have to change it. It has been really good to see the Government take such a strong stance on violence against women and girls, but this problem is embedded in our infrastructure. As a councillor, I saw part of a bus route being cut. I then demonstrated to the bus company what they wanted us to do: to walk along an unlit path on dangerous roads, to get from where the bus would stop to the place of business where people needed to go to work. These things are baked in, and we have to change them for everybody. Footpaths and cycleways must be built with women’s safety in mind, not with cost-cutting measures putting in fewer lampposts and less lighting, or weaving cycle lanes well away from well-lit main roads because it is cheaper. Those compromises should not be taken. Too often, cost savings prohibit women. Safer streets for us to get to work and exercise on would have huge benefits. If someone cannot drive, and public transport where they live is not very reliable—as it is in North West Leicestershire—cycling can help open up more doors to work, education, and seeing family and friends. Helping us to feel safe while running, walking and wheeling would mean that women are far more likely to exercise, helping to ease some of the strain on our NHS and other services by keeping women fit and active.

• 26 Jan 2026 · Key Stage 1 Curriculum · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Barker. I thank the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for introducing this important debate. I know how important this issue is for my constituents from speaking to children, headteachers and parents. Play should not be seen as an enrichment activity; play helps us to learn. The greatest breakthroughs in scientific endeavour, including Einstein’s theory of relativity, came as a result of people being able to think creatively. Physical expressions such as dancing, creating music and making up stories are not childish things to do. For example, there is evidence that listening to music enables children to engage with patterns and sequencing, which are fundamental to the basics of maths. One of the best parts of this job is going to visit my local schools. Worthington primary school in my constituency has rolled out a free breakfast club. But it was not the breakfast that was fascinating; it was the fact that kids were sitting around playing with Lego—they were just expressing themselves without needing to conform. The headteacher said that that is improving their overall behaviour in classrooms, because they are so much more relaxed going into formal lessons. One of my local district councillors, who is a former GP and psychotherapist, shared this with me: “I was sitting in a primary school class as a School Governor some years ago. The topic was ‘materials’ and how they change. The teacher was using ice/water and melted/chilled chocolate to explain the topic. All well and good. In the corner of a classroom one of the hen’s eggs had only just hatched. A child wanted to talk about this exciting change in materials. That, I am sorry to say, was not allowed as it did not concord with the Lesson Plan.” The campaign for play-based learning is not about increasing playtime; it is about ensuring that learning is delivered in a way that aligns with how children grow, develop, think and ask questions—just as they asked why an egg had hatched but the others had not yet. One of my earliest memories as a parent is visiting a science museum. The hatchery needed to be visited several times a day, and the excitement increased more and more as the day continued. Children will direct us in how they want to learn, and we have to give them that opportunity to express themselves. Learning through play is not a new idea, but we have been rolling back on its importance. We know that we are now the outlier in the UK: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have already embedded play-based approaches into their curricula at an early school level. We are falling behind and letting our children down. It is important that we value play by recognising it in the curriculum. It would be useful to hear from the Minister on that specific point, given that play is not an added extra but an important part of component learning for our children.