Bridget Phillipson MP: speeches 2025

629 published records · newest first.

Speeches

5 Feb 2025 · Domestic Violence Prevention Services · Hansard source
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Let me start by paying tribute to Halifax WomenCentre for its vital work in Calder Valley. I assure my hon. Friend that we will engage across Government, drawing on expertise in the sector through the development of our new violence against women and girls strategy, which will be published later this year. We have provided an increase of £30 million for domestic abuse safe accommodation services, as well as doing wider work to help local commissioners to identify needs and commission appropriate services.
5 Feb 2025 · Domestic Violence Prevention Services · Hansard source
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The hon. Lady is right to draw attention to the legacy picture painted by the National Audit Office. We are investing in a new national policing centre for VAWG public protection, and ensuring that we have a real focus on tackling high-risk offenders by intervening much earlier and taking further measures involving domestic abuse specialists. However, as the hon. Lady says, this is also about prevention. It is a responsibility for all of us across society, men and women alike, and there is an important role for education. Work is under way in the Department for Education to ensure that young people, from an early point, understand healthy relationships and what consent looks like. Of course, I am always happy to discuss that with colleagues across the UK.
5 Feb 2025 · Domestic Violence Prevention Services · Hansard source
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Because this is the first opportunity I have had to do so, may I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the right hon. Member for East Surrey (Claire Coutinho) on welcoming her new son into the world? I wish her and her family every happiness in this wonderful phase of their journey together. The Government are steadfast in their mission to halve violence against women and girls. Having run a women’s refuge before coming to this place, I know how important it is for survivors to receive effective, timely support, and we are investing more in those services.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I join my hon. Friend in commending that work. I know the Tyne Valley line very well; it is in a beautiful part of the country. It is important that the rail network is accessible for all passengers, and that is at the heart of our approach. I will ensure Ministers at the Department for Transport look into the case that he raises and provide more information about the actions that are being taken for his constituents.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend that no young person should be held back by their background or expected to work for free. We remain committed to banning unpaid internships, so that young people are paid fairly. We will set out further details in due course.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend that it is disgraceful that the attainment gap rose under the last Government, and I will not rest until we deliver for kids from communities like ours. I agree that it is not good enough that only one in five disadvantaged white British boys achieve grade 5 or above in maths and English at GCSE. We are determined to turn that around. We are investing more in our schools and in driving up school standards.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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This month we celebrate LGBT History Month. LGBT individuals have shaped Britain’s history and continue to contribute greatly to our society. We are also celebrating Race Equality Week. We are committed to raising everyone’s living standards by putting more money into people’s pockets through measures such as ethnicity pay gap reporting. These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to fostering a more equal and inclusive society in which everyone’s dignity and rights are respected.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The hon. Lady raises an important issue. We need to ensure there is diversity in representation at all levels in sport. I am happy to look further into the issues she has raised.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of the issue she identifies. I will ensure that the relevant Minister picks up on the point and ensures that electoral administrators are aware of their responsibilities.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The previous Government’s scope was narrow. We are taking action to give all providers the assurances that they need that single-sex spaces can be provided. I have met representatives from the EHRC to discuss that point and I have written to the EHRC about it. I will take no lectures from the Conservatives on single-sex spaces, when the use of mixed-sex hospital wards increased on their watch.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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We continue to keep these matters under review. We are looking carefully at the Law Commission’s report into marriage published in 2022 and we will respond in due course.
5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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We remain steadfast in our support for all LGBT people. It is essential that they are safe, included and protected from discrimination.
5 Feb 2025 · SEND Provision · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend mentions a vital area. There is an important role for youth services as part of this, but we also need to do much more around safeguarding. The provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on multi-agency child protection measures and much more besides, and the additional investment that we are putting into the system around children’s social care, will make a real difference in tackling the unacceptable exploitation that sadly blights the lives of too many children across our country.
5 Feb 2025 · SEND Provision · Hansard source
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This Government’s ambition is that all children with special educational needs receive the right support to succeed, where possible, in mainstream schools. To further support that vision, in December I announced £740 million of high-needs capital for 2025-26. The Department is working closely with experts on reforms and has recently appointed a strategic adviser for SEND, who will play a key role in engaging with practitioners, children and families as we consider the next steps in SEND reform.
5 Feb 2025 · SEND Provision · Hansard source
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I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s interest in this area, and the interest of Members from right across the House in the urgent need to reform the SEND system. However, I gently observe that we inherited the funding mechanism from the previous Government, and that the last Conservative Education Secretary said that the SEND system they have left behind is “lose, lose, lose”. We are determined to fix it, to build up parents’ confidence, and to make sure that all children get the education and support that they need.
27 Jan 2025 · Early Learning Goals · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right to raise that issue on behalf of his constituents. I would be more than happy to meet him to discuss it further. We are working rapidly through the whole free schools pipeline to ensure that we are creating places where they are required—that includes specialist provision—and that there is a strong case and good value for the taxpayer.
27 Jan 2025 · Early Learning Goals · Hansard source
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Children growing up in our country deserve the best start in life—nothing less. Through our plan for change, Labour will get a record share of children school-ready. We will make that a reality through opening new school-based nurseries, rolling out childcare, earlier intervention, speech and language support, help for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities, and wider SEND reform. That is rightly ambitious, and we are determined to deliver it.
27 Jan 2025 · Artificial Intelligence: Research and Development · Hansard source
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The Labour Government are at the forefront of change and, as I said to the Bett conference last week, we are determined to ensure that “AI will be a positive, radical, modernising force for good in the lives of working people.” The Department for Education is a member of the AI working group collaborating across Government to share thinking and expertise as we develop future policy.
27 Jan 2025 · Artificial Intelligence: Research and Development · Hansard source
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I appreciate the hon. Lady’s interest in this area. She will know that the proposed exascale supercomputer is one programme that the Government are considering. We are currently assessing the best way to take this forward. The previous programme was announced under the last Government, for which full funding was not allocated. We are committed to developing a strategy setting out a 10-year plan for our country’s needs. That plan will be published in the coming months alongside the spending review, but I will ensure that officials in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology pick up her concern and that she receives a full response.
27 Jan 2025 · Child Safeguarding · Hansard source
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The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is the single biggest piece of child protection legislation in a generation. It will stop more children falling through the cracks through landmarks reforms—no more empty words but real action to keep children safe. It is a shame that the Conservative Opposition have played silly games on this subject.
27 Jan 2025 · Child Safeguarding · Hansard source
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Parents who choose to home educate their children are within their rights to do so. Those who provide a safe, loving environment and a good standard of education have nothing to be concerned about in the legislation. We are concerned about the growing number of children of whom we simply have no visibility. The Bill will ensure that where there are serious concerns about child protection and safeguarding, such as where a section 47 investigation is under way, the local authority must consent to home education. I am staggered that the hon. Gentleman finds those straightforward measures to keep children safe such an outrage. They are about protecting children.
27 Jan 2025 · Child Safeguarding · Hansard source
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Opposition Members might not like it, but that is what the Leader of the Opposition said. The Conservatives had 14 years to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks. Now is the time for action—no more empty words or lessons learned. Labour has brought forward the single biggest piece of child protection legislation in a generation, but the Conservatives refuse to back it. To label the measures a distraction is a new low. I encourage the shadow Secretary of State to distance herself from those shocking remarks.
27 Jan 2025 · Free Speech · Hansard source
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I have had the privilege of visiting hundreds of schools across our country, and I can tell Members that children in the schools I visit are usually never backward in coming forward with their opinions; I would hope that is the case in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, too. Of course, schools have a duty to promote fundamental British values and are subject to long-standing legal duties that prohibit them from promoting partisan political views.
27 Jan 2025 · Free Speech · Hansard source
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It was a Labour Government who first enshrined freedom of expression in law, and Labour is to this day committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom. That is why we are pressing ahead with a robust, rigorous and workable Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, and taking common-sense decisions in the national interest.
27 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend brings real expertise to this matter from her experience in education. We are reviewing the relationship, sex and health education guidance to ensure that schools are able to teach what children need to know in the modern world. Our school staff have a crucial role to play in tackling this issue as well.

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