David Burton-Sampson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 27 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q Again, this one is for you, Baroness Newlove. There is nothing more frustrating than having your device stolen and knowing where it is, yet the police being unable to act. Are you confident that the new powers in the Bill will give the police what they need to act in those situations where a device can be located? Baroness Newlove: I am always confident in new powers. My reservation or caveat to all of that is about using them in a sensible way. This is anecdotal, but we hear it every day, even in Parliament, being told to put our phones in our bags—that is how bad it is. It is making sure that the police use those powers properly and understand them. We are also looking into the technology that could be equipped to research these incidents and prevent them from happening in the first place. We need to protect victims from them. Unfortunately, anecdotally, I am not hearing that the police are actually doing something. That is why we must get police better training and understanding to protect victims. Victims, doing their own investigations, phone up the police and say, “I know where my phone is,” and the police do nothing. While legislation is great for professionals, we have got to see the people on the ground delivering for the victims.

• 27 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q This is obviously a meaty Bill. There is a lot of really good stuff in here, and much of it will give new powers to existing police officers, to people across the force and to local authorities. As PFCCs or PCCs, you will have a key role in helping to ensure that the Bill is implemented, assuming it passes through Parliament. How confident do you feel about making sure that happens? It is pointless passing laws if they are not implemented on the ground. Roger Hirst : This goes back to the point that was raised earlier about whether we have the resources. I welcome the Government’s commitment to the 13,000 additional people in neighbourhood policing, but the vital thing is that we have the funding to both sustain the current workforce and build the workforce in the way you would like us to. There is a real challenge there, because the police force has expanded by 20,000 over the last six years. Those police officers will all be going through the police contractual incremental pay scales. The big jump is when they hit five and six years, so there will be a big boost to police pay at that point without us recruiting any more people. To be able to do what we need to do with the Bill, we will need the resources that we have and the resources that are heading down the track towards us, we believe, which we are very grateful for. But funding the existing workforce is the real challenge, and that in itself is probably going to cost some £300 million a year. Matthew Barber: I completely agree: a lot of it comes down to the money. The only additional point that I would make is about the reliance on other partners in this area. As we awaited our session, there was a conversation about fly-tipping, which is certainly an issue that exercises the police, but at the moment the responsibility for it lies with local authorities. The Bill proposes only some guidance, rather than any duties on local authorities to clear up the waste or to investigate; currently, they have powers but they are not obliged to use them. On some of the wider antisocial behaviour provisions, as I said in response to the Minister, there is a huge reliance on local authorities to play their part, both in sharing information around reporting and in the exercise of powers. Many of the solutions to antisocial behaviour issues in our communities do not lie within the police remit. They are to do with the provision of housing from social landlords, and to do with the powers that local authorities have, so we need to work collectively. I am confident that policing, given the right resources, can deliver the things that are in this Bill, but what is key is making sure that all those other partners are able to assist in that. Many of these provisions cannot be delivered by the police on their own. Emily Spurrell: To add to that, it is not just about policing and the partners that Matthew has outlined, but about criminal justice. We know that having more officers and more PCSOs going through the system will create even more pressure on an already struggling courts and prison system. We need to be very mindful of the whole criminal justice approach.

• 5 Feb 2025 · English Devolution and Local Government · Hansard source

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  I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for her statement. I am excited that Essex, including Southend, will be part of the priority programme. I am keen that local areas should keep their local identity, so will she give us some assurances on that? With regard to opposition to local reorganisation, devolution and postponing the elections, the Tories on Essex county council are fully supportive of our programme. Will she provide assurances that delaying the elections is right for democracy and for the taxpayer, because it will save funds in areas where local authorities will not exist in several months’ time?

• 16 Dec 2024 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  According to the latest Government figures, the number of sewage dumps along my constituency’s small coastline rose from 100 in 2022 to 206 last year—a more than 100% increase. Across the country, this is the legacy of the last Conservative Government. They failed to get to grips with holding our water companies to account, and we and our constituents have suffered, with polluted waterways causing swimmers and those taking part in water sports to become ill—never mind the impact it has had on the natural environment. I am told by Anglian Water that the sewage dumping figures will be significantly lower in 2024, but we will wait to see them published. An immediate positive move by this Labour Government has been to require real-time monitoring, so that the public and the regulators have full transparency on where water spills are happening within an hour of them happening. There will be nowhere to hide. In Southend, both I and my hon. Friend the Member for Southend East and Rochford (Mr Alaba) have recommenced holding water quality summits. They are a means of bringing together stakeholders and interested members of the public to discuss current issues and challenges, from pollution and sewage dumps to regular flooding. I hope our water quality summits will serve as a good exemplar of how the proposed new customer panels could work across the country. My Conservative predecessor, the former MP for Southend West, had the right intentions when she started the local water summits during her term. However, she was restricted by the failure of her own Government to put in place sufficient regulation and consequences for the water companies to really fix this issue. In October 2021, the Conservatives voted against a Lords amendment to the Environment Bill that would have placed a legal duty on water companies to reduce sewage discharges into our rivers. In January last year, 292 Conservatives—ironically including my predecessor—voted to give water companies 15 years to clean up their act as part of the environment targets regulations. Yes, 15 years! Having run my own business and worked in senior roles in other businesses, I know the standards required to consider awarding bonuses. Underperforming on a key metric would not, and should not, be overlooked when considering the payment of bonuses. The same will now properly apply to the water industry, and so it should. I am proud of this Bill and I am proud to support it. The Labour Government have done more in our first few months to tackle this scourge than the Conservatives did in the last 14 years. This Government are serious about bringing the change that is so urgently needed to end the scandal of water pollution once and for all.

• 8 Oct 2024 · SEND Provision: East of England · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Sir Mark. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) for introducing the debate. There are 19,000 children in schools in my constituency of Southend West and Leigh, and 1,000 currently have education, health and care plans. It is a figure that has been increasing every year for the past four years. Now, over 5% of all children have a plan. Overall, including all children with special educational needs, the figure rises to 10.3% of pupils. That is over one in 10 children. In addition, there are more than 150 families currently in the system, waiting for their assessments to happen after their applications have been sanctioned. On top of that, another 266 families have requested assessments, but are waiting for approval which, in part, is due to the national shortage of educational psychologists, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft. There is also a shortage of social workers in Southend, which is above the national average. Almost one in four posts are vacant, which compounds the issue, because social workers help to assess children’s needs. I believe my constituency is not particularly unusual, and I suspect the picture is not very different in the constituencies of other hon. Members in the Chamber. Some schools, however, are not set up or equipped to support children with special educational needs. I have witnessed that as a school governor. Despite the overwhelming desire of teachers to support SEN children, often they cannot be supported in a mainstream classroom. Specialist facilities are at a premium, or a child may be awaiting their assessment, which in turn can lead to their being removed from their mainstream classroom and separated from their schoolmates while not getting the specialist support they need to develop and thrive. As my hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards has announced, the Government will take a community-wide approach to SEND provision, with a number of positive measures already announced. It is vital that we address gaps in SEND provision urgently, and the Government have moved quickly since taking office. We need to continue to press forward with this work on behalf of our constituents so that they get the critical help they deserve. We must stop letting our young people down.