Catherine Atkinson MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 16 Dec 2025 · Planning Reform · Hansard source

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  Under the previous Conservative Government, there was significant building in Mickleover in Derby, yet the GP surgery that was promised alongside that development never materialised. Can the Minister outline how the Government’s new clearer planning policies, particularly on where development should take place, will ensure that future growth is genuinely sustainable and properly linked to the delivery of GP provision and other essential services and infrastructure?

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

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  I put on record my thanks to Mr Speaker for hosting a fantastic celebration of deaf talent and achievement in Speaker’s House last month, with deaf role models including Tasha Ghouri. It was an honour to help organise it when I was chair of the all-party parliamentary group on deafness, supported by charities including the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and SignHealth. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was last week, but every single day must be an opportunity to break down barriers. Does the Leader of the House agree that deafness should never be a barrier to a successful career, and can we have a debate on widening opportunity for disabled people across every sector?

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  The Railways Bill represents a promise made and a promise delivered to set up Great British Railways, with its headquarters in Derby. Will the Secretary of State tell us more about how GBR will work together with our UK rail supply chain to ensure that we have the jobs, skills and growth needed to deliver a railway fit for Britain’s future?

• 9 Dec 2025 · Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Home Secretary’s focus on victims and survivors, and her commitment that they will remain at the forefront of the inquiry’s approach. Will she also ensure that the findings and recommendations of previous inquiries and investigations are implemented so that the voices of victims who have already shared their horrific stories are never forgotten?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Criminal Court Reform · Hansard source

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  Victims are waiting for years for their cases to go to trial. Christmas after Christmas, they are unable to heal or move on. The backlog of cases is now a record 78,000, and it was growing under the Conservative Government before the covid pandemic. Does the Secretary of State find the hypocrisy and faux outrage of the Conservative Opposition as galling as I do, given that reform is needed to clear up the mess that they made of our criminal justice system?

• 25 Nov 2025 · G20 and Ukraine · Hansard source

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  Trains, planes and submarines—the Prime Minister put the pride of Derby manufacturing front and centre at this G20. Millions saw him halfway around the world in Johannesburg on a train made in Derby, showing the world what our city is famous for. Will he tell us more about what the deals he has secured mean for my constituents who work at Rolls-Royce and in the rail sector? Will he continue his focus on winning international deals for more high-productivity, high-skills and high-wage jobs?

• 17 Nov 2025 · Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Power Station: Wylfa · Hansard source

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  There will be good, well-paying jobs at Rolls-Royce in Derby to get these reactors built. That will not just benefit those doing those jobs, but power up the local economy, putting money in the tills of shops, restaurants and pubs. There is huge pride in knowing the crucial roles being played in powering Britain with clean energy. Will the Minister tell us more about the work being done to maximise the extra jobs and prosperity that will be delivered in Derby, Warrington, Wylfa and other sites as a result of this Labour Government’s investment in this historic project?

• 13 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I was pleased to attend the opening of new mental health facilities at Kingsway hospital in Derby. It marks a huge step forward in the care available for local people, and gives patients greater dignity, privacy, and the support of the surroundings that they need on their journey to recovery. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating all those involved in delivering that fantastic project, and will he find time for a debate on how we can continue to improve mental health provision across the country, particularly for adults requiring acute care?

• 13 Nov 2025 · Littering · Hansard source

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  In Derby, we are lucky to have fantastic community groups who take real pride in keeping our city clean, such as Friends of Littleover Parks, the New Zealand Community Association, and the Ashbourne Road Methodist church A2C kids club, where even our youngest residents do their bit. But their great work is too often undermined by those who dump waste illegally on our streets, on private land and on our green spaces. Will the Minister outline what the Government are doing to tackle waste crime, so that my constituents can continue to enjoy clean and tidy neighbourhoods?

• 13 Nov 2025 · Littering · Hansard source

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  4. What steps she has taken to help tackle littering.

• 11 Nov 2025 · Remembrance Day: Armed Forces · Hansard source

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  Support for our veterans is essential. I am proud that the Royal British Legion is growing in Derby. Will the Minister join me in wishing good luck to those who have set up a new branch in Mackworth? Does he agree that this Government’s veterans strategy, including the £13.8 million to address homelessness, shows that we are marching in step with those who campaign for veterans?

• 11 Nov 2025 · Prisoner Releases in Error · Hansard source

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  The Government inherited a prison system so weakened by austerity, but it was also overcrowded by a justice system that failed to look at rehabilitation as well as punishment. Will the Secretary of State redouble the Department’s efforts to match employers who want to give prisoners a chance to learn skills and the habit of work with the opportunity to do so while serving their sentences and afterwards, so that we can ensure that our communities are safer because we rehabilitate as well as punish?

• 11 Nov 2025 · Probation Service · Hansard source

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  The Probation Service plays a vital role in our justice system, and is integral to ensuring that community sentences are effective and that our communities are kept safe. The Conservatives’ part-privatisation reforms were disastrous for our Probation Service. What are this Government doing to ensure that our probation officers are properly supported in carrying out their vital jobs?

• 3 Nov 2025 · Public Office (Accountability) Bill · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the families of victims, and to the campaigners who have fought for decades, following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, for this legislation. They have fought to prevent state cover-ups such as the one that they experienced. In the years since Hillsborough, far too many other families have not only endured the grief of losing people they loved, but had their grief compounded by injustice. Instead of answers, they got obstruction and obfuscation.

• 3 Nov 2025 · Public Office (Accountability) Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. There are still so many families fighting for justice, and the persistence of families who have been fighting for justice has brought us to this moment. We all owe them our thanks and our action. I feel privileged to have so many colleagues who fought alongside them for so long. I welcome the expansion of legal aid in the Bill; after years of cuts to legal aid, it is heartening to see the extension of legal aid to all families at inquests in which public authorities are involved. As a barrister, I have represented parties in inquests, including families, and I know how difficult inquests can be for families, even when they have legal representation and get answers that help them to come to terms with what happened. For too long, families have faced an inequality of arms when they have sought to understand and navigate the coroners court, and to secure the information and documents needed, and have sought the confidence to ask questions without legal representation. Meanwhile, they see the public authorities from which they are trying to get answers being supported by their legal teams. This is not just about funding; it is about fairness. This Bill helps to correct the balance, so that families at least have representation. It gives them an advocate, a guide and a voice. That is not just compassionate, but essential to justice. I fully accept that injustice can still happen even when there are lawyers, but not having representation in those circumstances is an injustice in itself, and this Bill changes that. I also welcome the fact that the Bill introduces new statutory criminal offences. That sends such a powerful message that cover-ups will no longer be met with dismissal; they will be met with criminal sanctions. That is a vital deterrent and a long-overdue shift in accountability. Mistakes are made, and humans err in the moment, but later on, there are choices. Are the errors acknowledged, or do people attempt to double down and persist in a false narrative? If somebody acknowledges the error, they may be sacked, but if they cover it up, they will not just be sacked; they will face going to prison. This Bill empowers the frontline of our public service to say no, and to report it if they are pressured to participate in a cover-up. This Bill reflects the hard-won lessons of decades of campaigning. It will not undo the pain of the past, but it will help prevent future injustice by strengthening legal aid, empowering grieving families, and introducing meaningful criminal sanctions for cover-ups. This legislation begins to rebalance the scales. It sends a clear message that truth must come before reputation, and accountability must come before self-preservation, and it ensures that families will not be left to fight alone.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his response on work in prison. I completely agree that it makes a huge difference in enabling prisoners to stop their reoffending behaviour. When 80% of offending is reoffending, costing over £18 billion a year, it is clear that we need to enable people to turn their lives around. Does he agree that our communities will be safer when we are able to tackle reoffending rates?

• 29 Oct 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  Domestic abuse remains the deepest scar on our society, and it demands our collective action to eradicate it. Please can the Minister outline the measures in the Bill that will help tackle this invidious form of violence and enable improved support for victims during the process?

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

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  It is brilliant that new playgrounds are being built in Derby, including in Stockbrook Park and in Knightsbridge in Mackworth. Stockbrook Park is also home to an incredible local grassroots football club, the Stockbrook Colts, whose play has been stopped because the pitch they play on is unusable and in need of repair. They deserve a ground that matches the effort they put in. Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on grassroots football and its importance to our local communities?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  Eighty per cent of offenders are reoffenders because of the 14 years of mess that this Government are having to clear up. The real travesty of justice is that there are no prison cells available for people who are convicted. The last Government failed to build the prison places that are needed; this Government will ensure that they exist, because they will always be needed. It is as though the Conservatives left the tap running and are whining about the flood that they let happen.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  On that point, will the right hon. Lady give way?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Rape Gangs: National Statutory Inquiry · Hansard source

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  Victims must be at the heart of the grooming gangs inquiry. Does the Minister agree that getting the right chair is absolutely key to ensuring that that happens? Does she also agree that we have to avoid the scenes that we saw under the last Government, who appointed three chairs who then withdrew from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse—an inquiry that took two years to start?

• 20 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T4. I was delighted to welcome the Education Secretary to St Mary’s Catholic primary school in Derby, the greenest school in the country, where every classroom looks out on to green spaces. We are also lucky to have the stunning River Derwent flowing through our city, which children can paddle, walk and row along. What assessments have been made of the benefits to children of having access to nature as part of their education?

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. Investing in education and work is a key part of preventing reoffending. Frustratingly, without rehabilitation the alternative is a return to the easiest path—one of crime. We then see the revolving door of prison take another turn. Without intervention, one in two prison leavers reoffend within six months of release. Some 80% of offending is reoffending, and reoffending costs the UK an estimated £18.1 billion per year.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution. There is some really fantastic work being done, which I will come on to, and it is essential that we find ways of enabling even more of that, because time stuck in prisons does not improve behaviour; it makes it worse. In the last year of the Conservative Government, we saw assaults on prison staff increase by 23%. The £15 million investment in body armour and Tasers announced by the Deputy Prime Minister in recent weeks shows that he is giving prison staff the tools they need to do their jobs safely, but anything we can do to reduce the chances of violent incidents deserves our full support—that includes meaningful activities such as work in prisons—because those on the frontline in our prison system deserve our full support. Prison officers at HMP Ranby told me what a difference it made to the behaviour of prisoners when they were doing work—when their days had purpose. As well as the improved behaviour that work for prisoners leads to, nearly a fifth of the earnings of prisoners who work out of prisons on licence goes to the Prisoners’ Earnings Act levy, which supports victims of crime. We have a Government committed to investment and reform and taking a long-term view of what is needed for a justice system that works. Our Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, Lord Timpson, was a businessman who throughout his career enabled offenders to turn their lives around and break the cycle. I have sought to be candid about how bad things are in some of our prisons, but I also want to talk about some of the brilliant work already happening, which can be built on and scaled up. I praise the hundreds of employers who are pointing the way forward. In Derby, we have Pennine Healthcare, an employee-owned medical equipment manufacturer, and its successful experience of employing prisoners has led to its long-term vision for rehabilitation-focused employment opportunities, for itself and potentially across the sector. Pennine supports a release on temporary licence scheme. I was proud to welcome the former Justice Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Sir Nicholas Dakin), to its headquarters in Derby. I went with him to HMP Ranby to see where Pennine is establishing a workshop, which it calls Project Phoenix. It will operate as an extension of the Derby site, and it will also prevent manufacturing from being offshored to competitors 7,000 km away in China. It could not have been more positive about the motivation and work ethic of the prisoners working for it. That is a practical solution to meet some of the workforce challenges facing UK manufacturing, at a time when many employers share with me the difficulties that they can have in recruiting people with the skills that they need. It could create a pipeline of trained workers who can have jobs that they know how to do available to them when they leave prison. The difference that could make to offenders’ chances of avoiding another turn of the revolving door of reoffending is clear. I am the parliamentary champion for the Rebuilding Futures Alliance—the RFA—whose mission is to break the cycle of reoffending by creating smarter pathways into work, often in rail. The evidence is extraordinarily compelling in showing that employment reduces reoffending.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  It is not a bona fide Adjournment debate unless the hon. Member has intervened, so I thank him for his intervention and his insight. I fully agree with him. As well as having seen countless examples of prison having not worked, I have met former offenders who have escaped the revolving door, often through work. Many have stories like Mark’s. Mark spent 15 years in and out of prison on five separate occasions, but—with the support of a project called Jericho House in Derby—he is now clean, stable and gainfully employed.