Ann Davies MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I have had the pleasure today of hosting the Royal Welsh show rural leadership participants in Parliament; they are in the Gallery. We met in Committee Room 12, which, for those who do not know, was the very place where the Royal Welsh show was formed in February 1904, 121 years ago. Will the Leader of the House congratulate the Royal Welsh show on its continued success, and wish its participants from all over Wales well in their endeavours to keep rural Wales the vibrant food-producing community that we all want it to continue to be? I thank them all for their work—diolch yn fawr iawn i chi gyd.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Energy Infrastructure: Pylons · Hansard source

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  4. Whether she has had recent discussions with the Welsh Government on the replacement of overhead pylons with underground cabling.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Energy Infrastructure: Pylons · Hansard source

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  My constituency is the location of two major infrastructure projects—a network of pylons of 97 km and 60 km, alongside 248 wind turbines that are 230 metres tall. The cumulative impact of these projects is significant, occupying land that could support other development, and it remains unclear whether they will lower electricity bills or improve electricity connectivity for local households or businesses. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with the Welsh Government to ensure that those projects deliver genuine benefits for our communities?

• 27 Oct 2025 · Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. The UK’s statutory paternity leave offer is one of the least generous and lowest in Europe, at £187 per week. In fact, the TUC reports that half of families struggle financially when a parent takes paternity leave—as does research from Pregnant Then Screwed. Research showed that 70% of fathers did not take their leave due to the cost. Statutory maternity pay is also provided at the same rate after the first six weeks, an amount significantly less than the national living wage of around £488 per week. If someone is self-employed and a man, they get nothing. My constituent Tamara Morris is currently preparing to go off on maternity leave. The amount that Tamara expects to receive will not even cover her half of the household bills. She is really worried about how her family are going to cope. The UK Government could have rectified that during the Employment Rights Bill. I pay respect to my Plaid Cymru colleague, Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, for her efforts in the other place, pushing to increase the rate of statutory parental pay. If child poverty is really a priority for this Government, then they must consider the impact of poor parental pay on the first few months of a child’s life. I call on the UK Government to address the issues we have set out today, and finally put them right.

• 23 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  In 2020, my constituent Dorien Williams submitted a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman service about the professional conduct of his former legal representatives. It took the ombudsman four years to find in his favour. The delay took Mr Williams over the six-year limitation period, denying him the opportunity for legal recourse. Does the Leader of the House agree that the ombudsman’s defence that other customers experienced similar delays is totally unacceptable? Will he allow a debate in the House to provide accountability?

• 23 Oct 2025 · Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund · Hansard source

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  Some 90% of our fishing fleet in Wales are small, under-10 metre boats. The Seafish “Economics of the UK Fishing Fleet” report for the last year found that while Scotland and England saw strong fishing income growth, profits in Wales fell by nearly 10%, despite more active days at sea. Does the Minister agree that funding based on what the sector and the fishing communities need in Wales would be far more fair and effective than the outdated Barnett formula?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  I thank everybody for contributing today. I am delighted to see my fellow Welsh MPs here, across the parties. I am delighted that, for the vast majority of the debate, we have had consensus that we do not want to send our men, women and young people back down to the pits and the life they had 50 or 60 years ago. The way is forward. I am terribly disappointed with the shadow Minister— [Interruption.] No, I really am, because this is not the way forward. Sending people back down to extract coal is not the way forward for us in Wales. The subject of this debate was coal tips and extraction licences, and I am sorry to say that we heard very little from the hon. Gentleman on that matter. But I thank the Minister for his response, and I look forward to moving forward together. Diolch. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered coal tip safety and the prohibition of new coal extraction licences.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  We all know that the hon. Member for Clacton supports coalmining companies that have left our communities vulnerable, in the same way that he supports privatising our precious national health service. We will continue to campaign to make all coal tips safe and ensure that Westminster rights the wrongs of the past by paying in full to do so. The failure to replace coalmining with an economic alternative has left communities in decline. Many people are now without hope and are angry at Governments in both London and Cardiff for not listening or caring. Other parties want to blame these problems on others in society, rather than on the politicians and private companies that have caused them. This debate is about justice and dignity. It is about ensuring that the people of Wales are not left to carry the cost, financial or emotional, of decisions made generations ago. Let us act now, not when the next storm hits or when the next landslide slips. Let us act because it is right and just, and because our communities deserve nothing less. This Government must revisit their approach to coal tip safety in Wales to fully support the communities who, after decades since the last coal was hewn from our valleys, still bear the burden of its legacy. Diolch, Gadeirydd.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  Absolutely, but we need £600 million to make these tips safe. The Government responded to my written question in June that the Labour Welsh Government had not asked for the full amount of the estimated £600 million needed to make all tips in Wales safe. Plaid Cymru believes it is a grave injustice to the people of the valleys that the full cost is not covered by Westminster. I reiterate our call on the Government to fully fund remediation work to make coal tips safe in Wales. Without full funding from Westminster, it leaves the door open to a new generation of mining companies waiting to mine these coal tips under the guise of remediation. That is because the new Welsh Disused Tips Authority will require landowners to make the coal tips safe, and they will likely seek to avoid that extra cost. There is a real risk that mining companies will offer to carry out remediation work on behalf of landowners for free, in return for the commercial rights of any coal that they extract. These companies have proven to us that they cannot be trusted with the stewardship of our environment. The local authority area of Carmarthenshire has 170 coal tips. My constituency borders some of the largest tips in Wales, one of which is the waste from the East Pit open-cast coalmine, a prime example of where a company has betrayed the trust of the community. In that instance, the company, Celtic Energy, continued to mine coal from the site beyond the expiry of its planning permission. It then failed to restore the coalmine and remediate the local coal tip, abandoning the site and the community with the task incomplete. We cannot allow this to become a pattern by letting the coalmining industry of Wales’s past return to carve open our countryside once again. Making coal tips safe for our communities should be the priority, whether that is through flattening, removing or reprofiling them. The UK Government have pledged to ban new coalmining licences, but they have confirmed their belief that re-mining coal from the tips does not require a licence, meaning that such activity falls outside the scope of the proposed ban. Although the Welsh Government believe that their own planning policies will prevent re-mining, a loophole allowing coal extraction in “wholly exceptional circumstances” has raised concern among campaigners such as the Coal Action Network. I thank Anthony, who is here today, for his help in preparing for this debate. I also congratulate him on his wedding anniversary—when he should be home, he has come to support us here. The loophole can be resolved by amending the Coal Industry Act 1994 to require licensing for the re-mining of coal tips, and ensuring that that is included in a UK-wide ban. We must prevent a new industry of commercial coal tip mining from taking root and perpetuating fossil fuel pollution. I urge the Government to extend their coal licence ban to cover the re-mining of coal tips. Tomorrow is the Senedd by-election in Caerphilly—a local authority area with 207 coal tips, 56 of which are deemed a clear threat to public safety. As we know, voters will get to choose between two different visions for the future of Caerphilly. The vision of Reform and the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) is one of reopening the coalmines in Wales. He wants to send our people back down underground to slave away in the dark for hours, developing pneumoconiosis from inhaling toxic dust—all to exploit the people of Wales yet again.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  Not at all; I would just like some clarification. The Government announced their intention in November 2024—nearly a year ago now—to introduce a Bill to ban new coalmining licences. Can the Minister tell us exactly when the Government will bring that legislation forward in Parliament?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. This is an issue for the whole of the United Kingdom. The disaster brought about the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, which came into force to improve coal tips’ stability and safety. However, it did not go far enough. Aberfan should have been a moment to address the dangerous legacy of all coal tips once and for all, but the job remains unfinished. Now, because of increasingly violent storms caused by climate change, we have experienced further coal tip slips. There was a major landslide above Tylorstown in Rhondda Fach in 2020, and then in November 2024, in Cwmtillery, a slip was caused by heavy rainfall from Storm Bert. That led to a slurry and debris slide that forced the evacuation of homes. Plaid Cymru has long warned that the safety of our coal tips is not a matter for tomorrow; it must be addressed urgently. No family should go to bed fearing a landslide on the hillside above them. No community should be left to foot the bill for the negligence of past Governments. The Senedd recently passed the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Act 2025, which will establish the Disused Tips Authority for Wales, the powers of which will include requiring landowners to ensure that coal tips located on their land are stable. We must, however, not forget that the issue of coal tips predates the dawn of devolution. It is an historic injustice that the cost of making these tips safe has not been fully funded by Westminster, and that the people of Wales are now expected to foot a large part of this bill.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  That is true. It is ironic that the two incidents happened on exactly the same date—a few years apart, but on 21 October. We must never forget either.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 22 Oct 2025 · Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered coal tip safety and the prohibition of new coal extraction licences. Diolch yn fawr, Gadeirydd. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. Just as coal ran in rich veins beneath the Welsh valleys and mountains, it also runs deep through the history of the people of Wales. Around this industry, thriving and vibrant communities developed all across the south Wales valleys. Miners’ institutes, public libraries, trade unions and public healthcare all bloomed in the Welsh coalfields. Those institutions were founded and funded by miners, laying the foundation for the modern welfare state. Despite this dynamism, we should not forget that those communities were exploited, with vast amounts of wealth from coal profiting Westminster, not Wales. Mining was also dangerous work and took a terrible toll on the health of far too many men and young boys. When Margaret Thatcher began closing the mines in the 1980s without replacing those jobs, she destroyed livelihoods and left communities that once powered the world bearing economic and social scars that would pass on through generations. Thatcher’s decision to kick-start deindustrialisation in Wales—and the acceptance of this decline by both Labour and Conservative Governments—means that west Wales and the valleys are now among the poorest parts of Europe. The economic legacy is compounded by a physical one, too. The valleys are now littered with coal tips—black monuments from the past that cast long shadows over the present. Also known as spoil tips or slag heaps, these are the waste materials removed from the mines and left abandoned above ground. Today, over 50% of all coal tips in the UK are in Wales, despite our nation making up just 8.5% of the UK’s total land mass. Of the 2,590 coal tips, many are considered dangerous to the public. There is a risk that a significant number may collapse due to increasingly extreme weather, and that is not hypothetical, as history has shown us. Today’s debate is taking place just a day after the 59th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, which involved the collapse of a colliery spoil tip in 1966, killing 28 adults and 116 children.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Electricity Infrastructure: Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  In my constituency, pylon proposals are causing huge distress among our rural communities. They will not bring any real benefit to those communities. In fact, developers often bypass the rights of landowners, and the proposed developments will ruin our beautiful landscape. Does the hon. Member agree that electricity infrastructure anywhere must be done with communities, not to them?

• 20 Oct 2025 · Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy · Hansard source

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  The Education Secretary’s focus today is on the new vocational qualification training, which will be welcome for students in England. In Wales, however, where her party has led the Government for the past 25 years, the apprenticeship budget has been cut by 14%. Will she be lobbying the Chancellor ahead of the Budget to ensure that Wales has a fair funding settlement that would support apprenticeships?

• 14 Oct 2025 · COP30: Food System Transformation · Hansard source

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  COP30, as with past COPs, requires us to be more sustainable, and that includes food production, as the hon. Member said. In Caerfyrddin, we have a public farm producing vegetables for schools and residential homes, so public land is being used for public benefit. Why can all local authorities not follow suit, supported as we were by shared prosperity fund funding, and use public funds and public land for the public plate?

• 14 Oct 2025 · COP30: Food System Transformation · Hansard source

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  No, it is not a speech. Thank you, Mrs Harris; I appreciate your guidance. Does the hon. Member agree with that sustainable and seasonal way of reducing food miles by using public land?

• 14 Oct 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  The images of ceasefire and families reunited are deeply heartening and a moment of relief and celebration amid such immense suffering, yet this fragile peace remains vulnerable, particularly to the corrosive effects of misinformation. True and lasting peace must be built on openness, transparency and the free flow of information. What steps is the Prime Minister taking to press Israel to grant journalists access to Gaza as part of a broader commitment to truth, accountability and a just peace?

• 4 Sept 2025 · Future of Terrestrial Television · Hansard source

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  Diolch yn fawr; it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. As the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) has set out, the future of terrestrial TV is uncertain once current licences expire in the 2030s. While some industry figureheads advocate for switch-off, I call on the UK Government to ensure that terrestrial TV retains its place as part of a hybrid approach that places the needs of our communities first, rather than business profits and that all-important bottom line. That is because switching to a digital-only model will not be easy for many people in our communities, including older people, as the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Maureen Burke) said. In Wales, more than a fifth of our population is over 65. As it stands, 21% of those over 65 have no internet access at home, and 23% of Welsh homes rely solely on terrestrial to watch TV, lacking any other means to do so. Let us not forget why people watch television in the first place. Beyond its importance in providing trusted news and information, 75% of people in the UK say that the availability of free-to-air terrestrial TV helps to reduce loneliness or isolation, which is a significant challenge in older, more rural areas such as my constituency. That rurality does make a difference. I was quite jealous when the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) said that 99.3% of his area had digital; I think we are at 49% in my constituency. According to Ofcom’s 2024 “Connected Nations” report, full-fibre broadband was available to 71% of all urban premises, but only 52% of rural premises and 48% of rural premises in Wales. As of January 2025, the figure is only 49% in Caerfyrddin. We do not have that digital connectivity, and many are unable to get decent broadband at all. Storm Darragh at the end of last year made our vulnerability crystal clear, when 745,000 homes were impacted across south and west Wales. Thousands were without power and water for a whole week. Communication issues in the storm’s aftermath were particularly shocking. Constituents had difficulty using alerting systems and receiving news and information that would have historically been provided by local radio stations, since turned digital. That drilled home the importance of non-digital infrastructure when things go wrong, including critical national infrastructure such masts. With numerous sites in Caerfyrddin alone, including Carmel, which serves 72,000 homes in my constituency, the terrestrial TV network has become a vital link for critical services such as emergency communications and utilities. The economic operational viability of this infrastructure should not be put at stake. Terrestrial TV should be made part of future emergency planning. I reiterate the calls made in this debate and ask for the UK Government to provide concrete certainty for terrestrial TV beyond 2034. It is clear that a hybrid TV model remains the best option, and one that works for everybody.

• 4 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Diolch yn fawr, Madam Dirprwy Lefarydd. After the insolvency of Allied Steel and Wire, money that workers paid into their pension schemes before April 1997 was not fully inflation-proofed through the financial assistance scheme. The previous Work and Pensions Committee recommended that the UK Government legislate to provide pre-1997 indexation. I have tabled two amendments to the Pension Schemes Bill to do exactly that. Can the Leader of the House allow Government time to update the House on actions to rectify that scandal and others, such as the British Coal staff superannuation scheme scandal?

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

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  Absolutely, and I will come on to that in a minute. In Wales, between 75% and 90% of farmers will be affected by the policy, according to NFU Cymru and FUW. It is clear that this Government’s APR changes will not hit tax-avoiding wealthy land hoarders. Instead, they will punish working farmers in Wales, whose income dropped by an average of 34% last year, forcing many to sell what their parents and grandparents spent lifetimes building. And it is not just farm business owners. Family Business UK estimates that the changes will cause a £15.5 million reduction in GVA in my constituency of Caerfyrddin alone, along with the loss of 282 full-time jobs. The new inheritance tax rules will be introduced amid mounting financial pressures on our farmers, from the financial implications of bluetongue restrictions and testing requirements to the effect of Wales’s hottest summer on record on crops and pasture. Our rural businesses will also suffer, with car garages, food wholesale businesses and uPVC project businesses among those in my constituency that are hard hit by this Government’s BPR changes. All employ hundreds of my constituents. We cannot afford to lose our rural businesses or our family farms. We cannot lose the knowledge, the heritage and the community—the work that sustains and feeds our nation. Ahead of the autumn Budget at the end of November, I call on the Government once again: please reverse these changes before it is too late. Diolch yn fawr.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Property Taxes · Hansard source

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  I begin by referring the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I represent a rural, agricultural community. As we look forward to a Budget for Christmas, this Labour UK Government’s last autumn Budget remains of significant concern. The wide divide between rural Wales and Westminster was made clear as day last year when the Chancellor announced plans to restrict full inheritance tax relief from April next year to the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property. Combining APR and BPR means that the asset value of the tools and the machinery necessary to operate a farming business are affected, as well as the agricultural land and property. While the Government maintain that this policy will affect only about 500 estates a year and that small family farms will not be affected, the calculations of the Farmers’ Union of Wales and NFU Cymru show otherwise. When I told the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs that 92% of one local accountancy firm’s clients would be hit, it was totally dismissed, but now even the producers of the research used by this Government to justify their plans have conceded that working farmers are more likely to suffer under the policy than the wealthy.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Data from the Israeli military shows that 83% of people killed in Gaza since October 2023 have been civilians. Killing at this mass scale for months on end is unparalleled in modern conflict. Will the Foreign Secretary act to place far more pressure on Israel to end the mass killing of civilians by suspending the UK’s current trade agreement with Israel and sanctioning those responsible for breaching international law?

• 17 Jul 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Coming from a rural background and constituency, and having visited London only a handful of times before becoming an MP, it was a massive culture shock to come here last July. Representing our constituents would not be possible without the kindness and consideration of the whole of the House, including the Speaker’s Office, the Table Office, the Vote Office, the Tea Room, the catering staff and those who ensure our offices are clean and tidy in the morning. All the staff play their part in ensuring that we are able to do our work. On behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn (Llinos Medi) and myself from Plaid Cymru, as well as all the 2024 intake, I thank them for all the help we have received over the past year. I hope that the Leader of the House will join me in thanking everybody who ensures that the cogs of this place run so efficiently. Diolch yn fawr iawn.