Caroline Voaden MP: speeches

Speeches

• 19 Jan 2026 · Teacher Retention · Hansard source

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  A speech about teacher retention that I made in Westminster Hall recently has been seen by more than 135,000 people on Instagram, and there have been hundreds of comments from teachers. They speak of pay not rewarding experience and far too much time being spent on administration and tests, but it is also clear that safeguarding incidents and poor pupil behaviour are driving teachers out of the profession. We know that both those improve radically when pupils spend less time on social media, so will the Secretary of State commit herself to looking carefully at the Liberal Democrat proposal to introduce film-style age ratings for all social media platforms, not just to help our teachers but to protect our children?

• 19 Jan 2026 · Arctic Security · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement and her commitment to Greenland, which is not for sale. President Trump’s threat of tariffs is an alarming escalation and strange behaviour from someone who the Foreign Secretary describes as a close ally. France and Germany have suggested imposing retaliatory tariffs, but our Prime Minister has dismissed this. He says that he does not want to start a trade war with the US. Could the Foreign Secretary tell the House which side the UK will be on, if our European friends and neighbours decide to pursue this retaliatory course of action?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  As his constituency neighbours mine, my hon. Friend may be aware that three much-loved venues—Wild Artichokes, the Old Warehouse and the Old Bakery—closed in the town of Kingsbridge last week. The owner of one of those venues told us that part of the problem was the cumulation of challenges faced by the hospitality industry—not just the lack of people coming through the door and spending money because of the cost of living crisis, as my hon. Friend just said, but the rises in business rates and employer national insurance contributions, which have made it impossible for businesses to continue. Does he agree that it is a tragedy that such venues are closing every day, and that something must change before the hospitality industry is devastated?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Secretary of State’s clarity about these disgusting and illegal images on X. I have chosen my side—I deleted X from my phone on Saturday. Can the Secretary of State guarantee that Ofcom will have the powers, the teeth and the funding it needs to keep up with the tech bros as they invent new and innovative ways to degrade women?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  Following the initial decision to introduce new APR and BPR rates, farmers across the country rallied their tractors outside this place to get their voices heard. Other family-owned businesses have gone through the same agony over the last 14 months, but without the tractors and with perhaps less of a voice, fearing for the future of businesses that have been built up over generations—businesses that form the bedrock of local communities and economies, employing local people and supporting local suppliers. As one constituent business owner told me, even with the recent lifting of the threshold, the reforms to BPR could still lead to family businesses such as his having to break up their underlying assets just to survive. The resulting loss to the Treasury in economic activity will far outweigh the amount of tax raised. This attack on family-run businesses is particularly damaging in a constituency such as South Devon, where the family-run hotels and holiday parks are the foundation stones of the local economy. Passed down from generation to generation, they are more than just businesses. They are woven into the fabric of our communities. The director of one popular holiday park has been left questioning the long-term viability of their business due to the inheritance tax that will be due. This family-run business was founded over 65 years ago and employs over 180 staff in the summer season, which is a large number in a constituency such as mine that has few large employers. It uses an abundance of local suppliers and makes a significant contribution to the local economy. But I am told that when the 81-year-old majority shareholder passes away, it is likely that the family will have to sell up completely, after at least five generations of ownership, to pay an inheritance tax liability of approximately £2.5 million. The business cannot just chop off a section of the holiday camp, sell it to pay the tax and be left with a viable business—it just does not work like that. That illustrates perfectly how this tax is not merely a financial burden; it threatens the very survival of these businesses, and the ripples will spread out across the pond with scores of people losing their jobs, which will have knock-on effects on the local economy, the community and the mental health of all those people left high and dry. Examples such as that are why my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I support amendment 42, which would maintain 100% business relief where the property has been owned by the transferor for at least 10 years as part of a business that is actively operated by the transferor or a member of their family. That is the least that this Government could do given the plethora of financial challenges these family-run businesses already face. Whatever loophole the Government were looking to close with this business property relief, they have gone way beyond that, and the implications will be an economic and personal tragedy for so many. I could not speak today without again mentioning our family farms. I am pleased that the Government have finally listened and made the adjustment to the threshold, which will end the agony for many farmers. However, I am concerned that in areas where land prices are particularly high, such as the South Hams, the £2.5 million threshold will still be too low. There are also a significant number of farms owned by a single person rather than a couple, meaning they will not benefit from the spousal allowance. When APR was originally introduced, I surveyed all the farmers in the South Devon constituency, of which there are many hundreds: 85% of them said that they would be affected. Of those who responded, 44% said that they would have a bill of at least £300,000. The average bill was going to be £637,000 across my constituency, and the highest inheritance tax expected by one of my farms is £3 million. I therefore support amendment 48, which would make the resulting inheritance tax liability chargeable only if agricultural land is sold or ceases to be used for farming within 10 years of the relevant transfer. I urge the Government to support new clause 7 to ensure the relief allowance is uprated annually according to the change in the value of agricultural land. I also urge the Government, as many of my colleagues have, to consider extending the spousal allowance to siblings who co-own a farm so that they too can benefit from this relief. Why should one family be penalised because a brother and sister own a farm compared with another family where it is a husband and wife? It is incredibly old fashioned to design a policy that benefits people who are married but not people who co-own within the same family. I hope the Government will now provide meaningful support for farmers, who have been through so much over the last 14 months, starting with a £1 billion increase in the farming budget as promised by the Liberal Democrats if we were sitting on the Government Benches. If we undermine British farming, we undermine our ability to feed the nation and, in turn, compete in an increasingly uncertain world. Our farmers have been through an agonising 14 months. They should never have been subjected to this fear and stress. It is a disgrace that the Government took more seriously a prospective revolt from their own Back Benchers than the committed, desperate and passionate campaigning of farmers, countryside organisations and rural communities right across the country for the last 14 months. This policy still retains huge unfairness, as colleagues have explained so clearly, and I urge the Government to pause and think again while a proper impact assessment of even the new APR is carried out.

• 6 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Happy new year, Mr Speaker. This weekend, 4,600 properties in my constituency had their gas supply cut off, on the coldest weekend of the year. I commend Wales & West Utilities, which worked tirelessly to get people reconnected, but its efforts have been hampered by the inability to communicate effectively with residents, as it does not have a direct relationship with its customers. It has had to rely on social media, which is not great in an area with lots of elderly people. We have also been hampered by the high number of second homes, as engineers have not been able to gain access to those properties. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how providers such as Wales & West Utilities can communicate with households—

• 5 Jan 2026 · Middle East and North Africa · Hansard source

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  It is quite difficult to know what to focus on in this wide-ranging statement—the rights of women and girls in Iran or the awful situation in Yemen—but I would like to focus on Israel banning 37 international aid organisations, such as Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam, from Gaza. The Minister used passive language in his statement. He said: “Too much aid is still stuck at Gaza’s borders”. This might be the ex-Reuters editor in me, but I think that is wrong. The aid is not “stuck” at Gaza’s border; it is being deliberately held there in an act of cruelty by the Israeli Government, who do not want the aid to help the people of Gaza. Will the Minister tell the House exactly what the UK Government are doing to restore access? What leverage are they using to force the Israeli Government to reverse this cruel decision, and when will they work with EU allies to bring in much wider sanctions? Perhaps it is time for trade, sport and cultural sanctions against Israel so that it will really listen, rather than just a passive statement that is clearly making no impact on the Israeli Government’s actions.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Length of the School Week · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse, and I wish you a very happy new year. I thank the hon. Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) for opening the debate. He obviously has a lot of experience in the classroom and has taken the themes behind the petition very seriously. I start by sending out heartfelt thanks to teachers up and down the country; I hope they have all had a lovely Christmas break and I recognise how hard they are working, in increasingly challenging circumstances. Having looked into the reasons behind the petition, it seems that one of the sentiments was that we need to do what we can to keep our teachers in the profession. Teachers are the most important asset in our education system, and with every year of experience gained they become more valuable. We want to see world-class teachers in our classrooms, with the appropriate training and support to deliver the best education to all our children. However, we currently face a serious teacher retention problem. Heavy workloads created by unnecessary bureaucracy and increasingly challenging pupil behaviour are driving teachers to leave the profession. Although new teachers keep coming in, we are trying to fill a leaky bucket as more experienced teachers leave in droves. The most recent Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders survey found that 68% of teachers and school leaders did not think they had an acceptable workload and 55% felt they did not have sufficient control over their workload. In the same survey, more than six in 10 teachers who responded said that they felt at least half their working time was spent on tasks other than teaching. Those findings highlight teachers’ growing frustration with an increasingly unmanageable workload, being swamped by administrative work when they just want to get on with actually teaching the kids. The Education Select Committee, on which I sit, heard recently about the dire situation we are now in with teacher retention. We were told that 9% leave the profession within a year, a quarter leave within three years and a third within five years. Those figures are far too high and are deeply worrying. It is clear that unless we tackle the reasons for teachers leaving, we will not have a stable, effective and consistent workforce. It does not matter how many teachers we recruit, if we cannot hold on to them after just a few years. It is therefore important to address the issue of retention, and to note that it is exacerbated in schools in deprived areas. The Public Accounts Committee found that “34% of teachers in the most disadvantaged schools had less than five years of experience, compared to 20% in the least disadvantaged”, a figure that highlights how it is even harder to keep teachers in disadvantaged schools, something that has a knock-on effect on the future life chances of students in those schools, who risk “being locked out of particular careers due to a lack of trained teachers”. For example, “31% of schools in the most disadvantaged areas do not offer Computer Science A-level (compared to 11% in the least disadvantaged areas)”. Those are imbalances that we absolutely must iron out. On the proposal made in the petition, the Liberal Democrats do not believe that switching to a four-day school week is the answer to the recruitment and retention problem. Reducing the school week would create additional challenges for families, as has already been mentioned, but particularly in relation to—and I apologise to the hon. Member for Lichfield—childcare. It would be not only logistically challenging, but financially punishing: parents would need to find extra childcare or reduce their working hours, which would make it harder for them to pay household bills and create even more pressure in a relentless cost of living crisis, and would have a damaging effect on the wider economy. The impact of a four-day week on children’s mental health has been mentioned—but, while many younger people would love an extra day in bed, would it not be better for us to look at the mental health of our young people in a much broader sense? How can we design schools and the curriculum to improve, rather than harm, the mental health of our young people? How can we have more variety, less pressure, and more creativity, music and sport? We could even look at draconian uniform policies and their impact on children’s mental health. Let us design a system that is so great that children want to be there five days a week, not less than they already are. Although it might sound as though a four-day week for teachers would resolve the retention crisis in our schools, it is not a practical solution for the economy at large. Instead, the Liberal Democrats believe the Government should consider offering greater access to flexible working arrangements for teachers while maintaining the five-day school week. We should follow a balanced approach that seeks to reduce teacher workload and improve retention, while ensuring that pupils continue to receive a complete and varied education. Giving teachers the support they need in the classroom, with enough teaching assistants, has to be part of that too. The Public Accounts Committee found that, disappointingly, the Department for Education does not seem to understand the root causes of “why and where workload is high”, despite workload being the top reason for teachers leaving. We are calling on the Government to take a serious look at teachers’ working conditions, ensuring that they fully understand teacher workload, better to address the issue of teacher retention. Furthermore, while the only real action from the Government on this issue has been to pledge 6,500 additional teachers over the course of this Parliament, the Public Accounts Committee found that it is unclear how that pledge will be delivered or how progress measured, or “what achieving it will mean for existing and forecast teacher shortages.” The Department for Education could not give the Committee a clear explanation of how the pledge was calculated or how it will fill existing gaps, with an estimated need for up to 12,500 more teachers in colleges alone by 2028. Considering that the last teacher recruitment and retention strategy was published in 2019 by a failing Conservative Government, the Liberal Democrats are calling for a comprehensive teacher workforce strategy to properly address teacher recruitment and retention. Such a strategy would include reforming the School Teachers Review Body to make it genuinely independent of Government and able to recommend fair pay rises for teachers, fully funded every year, with the aim of ensuring that every secondary school child is taught by a specialist teacher in their subject. We would also ensure that teacher training is properly funded so that all trainee posts in school are paid. Finally, we would introduce a clear and properly funded programme of high-quality professional development for all teachers, including training on effective parental engagement. By focusing on retention, flexibility and proper support for the profession, we believe we can create the conditions teachers deserve and need to thrive, not only for their benefit, but for pupils and families as well.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  Happy new year, Madam Deputy Speaker. For 14 months, I have stood here alongside my colleagues and asked various Ministers to reconsider this policy. For 14 months, farming organisations up and down the country have campaigned relentlessly against the policy. Why did it take the Government so long to listen to them? Would it not be nice if someone was able to stand at the Dispatch Box and simply say, “We’re sorry—we got this wrong. We commit now to consult with farming and rural communities on any further changes to tax reliefs affecting them”?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls Strategy · Hansard source

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  I welcome the strategy, and I commend the Minister for her tireless work supporting victims and trying to reduce violence against women and girls. I welcome the cross-governmental approach and the focus on prevention and public health promotion. We know that boys as young as nine or 10 are being spoon-fed hardcore violent pornography on social media, even when they are not looking for it. Access to that type of content leads to violent sexual acts being normalised and the way that they view relationships with women becoming warped. The head of a boys’ school that has completely banned mobile phones from its estate has spoken powerfully to me about the effect of being able to have conversations with boys before they start seeing that content online. While schools are a part of the answer, asking teachers to combat the tidal wave of indoctrination, radicalisation and normalisation that these algorithms are causing is unrealistic: those misogynistic, violent attitudes must be stopped at source. As part of this work, what action will the Government take to ensure that social media companies comply with the Online Safety Act 2023, to make Ofcom guidance statutory, and to push her colleagues across Government to legislate to get smart phones and their misogynistic content out of our schools?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  I welcome the multi-year settlement, but I am deeply concerned that the statement made no reference to the particular pressures facing rural areas. Devon has the longest road network in England, so everything costs more—SEND, care, bus services and bin collections—and Dartmouth library is now facing a cut in hours because of funding cuts. Using deprivation as a way to calculate the funding formula does not take account of the older population, and my concern is that hidden pockets of deep deprivation, in an otherwise wealthy area, will not be recognised. Can the Minister reassure me that hidden pockets of deprivation will be recognised by the formula?

• 17 Dec 2025 · UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the Erasmus agreement that the Minister has announced, which is a Christmas present for young people. Turning to the SPS agreement that he is negotiating, I hope that those negotiations will be just as successful because that is undoubtedly in the best interests of this country. Can he confirm for me and some very invested constituents of mine that bivalve molluscs, or mussels, will be included in the SPS agreement that he is currently negotiating?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member will be very familiar with my constituency, as he is my constituency neighbour. Does he agree that the Minister might have got his figures wrong? I surveyed all the farms in South Devon—there are nearly 500 small farms—and 44% of respondents said that they would be hit with an inheritance tax bill of over £300,000 when these measures come in. Does he agree that the Government simply do not understand the value of a farm, particularly in a part of the country like ours?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  One of my constituents recently spent nearly two weeks calling the DWP every day to find out why his employment and support allowance had been stopped without warning. Each time he called, he waited for over an hour, only for the line to be cut off with no reply. Will the Minister explain to my constituent—and to the thousands of others who are out there hanging on a line somewhere—what action the Department is taking to ensure that vulnerable claimants can actually speak to a human when they need to?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Restriction of Jury Trials · Hansard source

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  I think we would all agree that it is a tragedy when any rape victim withdraws from the criminal justice system, but I do not buy the faux outrage from the shadow Secretary of State. I was the chief executive of a rape crisis centre when his party was in government, and every single day I heard victims talk about the delays in the system causing them more trauma, about the police’s poor interviewing techniques and about the lack of understanding in the criminal justice system of the effects of the trauma that they had been through on that Government’s watch, and nothing was improving. We know that rape trials will not be affected by this decision on jury trials, so I believe that the Deputy Prime Minister was wrong to use that as a justification for changing the jury trial process, but have the Government given any consideration, or will they be giving any consideration, to a specialist court system to deal with rape and sexual violence offences?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Many of my constituents have raised concerns about cyber-security risks. Centralising so much information in one place creates an attractive target for hackers and hostile actors. Does the hon. Member agree that Government systems are not immune from such risks?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Exactly, and why would this be better?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 4 Dec 2025 · Camden Nursery Sexual Abuse Case · Hansard source

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  May I start by echoing the comments of the Secretary of State and all Members in saying that my thoughts are with the families affected by this awful case? There is a concerning lack of accountability once a setting shuts down, even if it is part of a chain. There is no mechanism to ensure that chain providers have corporate responsibility when harm occurs. How will the Minister address that? What assurances can she give parents that if a setting is closed down and de-registered from Ofsted, individual staff members are further checked and vetted before they go on to work elsewhere?

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

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  Last week, I attended the impressive national emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis, where 10 leading experts warned MPs about escalating risks facing the UK. The briefing was challenging and informative, but also encouraging, and it set out positive steps that we can take to mitigate the impact. Those experts have called for a televised national emergency briefing, so that the public can hear the same evidence, a call that is now supported by over 33,000 signatories of an open letter to the Prime Minister and the major broadcasters. Can we have a debate in Government time on the case for such a televised emergency briefing, so that people across the UK can understand the threats we are facing and the actions that are required?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Prior to last week’s talks with leaders of the British overseas territories, concerning reports suggested that the Government were planning to cave in to pressure from the British Virgin Islands, the epicentre of billions of pounds of tax evasion, and allow it to restrict public access to a register of company share ownership. Will the Secretary of State inform the House of the outcome of last week’s talks and reassure the British public that the Government will force British overseas territories to comply with the law and make these registers publicly available?

• 1 Dec 2025 · SEND Pupils: Suspensions and Exclusions · Hansard source

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  In July, the Secretary of State promised a better SEND system, with strengthened support, improved access and more funding, yet even a charitable interpretation of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis of the Government’s decision, announced at the Budget, to absorb SEND funding into core budgets shows several billion pounds of unfunded SEND commitments. Parents around the country are worried that the support that they have fought hard for their children to receive may now be taken away. Will she explain how she will deliver strengthened support, while seemingly having to cut billions from SEND funding through upcoming reforms? Can she guarantee that children will not lose support because of this change?

• 25 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  I am interested in this proposal, but I wonder whether it will be applicable to council areas that do not yet have a mayor and may not have a mayor for some time. Will they still have the power to impose an overnight visitor levy?