Jake Richards MP: speeches

Speeches

• 28 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Third sitting) · Hansard source

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  Yes, sorry, I meant that, in terms of—

• 28 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Third sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q Apart from capacity, which I appreciate, are there any other problems that you see with clause 12 on judicial oversight? Apart from capacity, is there any benefit that you see from the Spanish model? Alex, you similarly criticised the current judicial provision. You say in your very helpful written evidence at paragraph 10 that perhaps we need to consider a multidisciplinary approach. Sir Nicholas Mostyn: Can I just answer before he does?

• 21 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  I will not speak for long. I merely echo what my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland Central said: this is not an arms race. It is not about who can get more experts with different views; it is about trying to get a wide-ranging and broad sense of different aspects of the Bill. The list that my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley has produced does that. I made suggestions that are not on it, by the way, but as the hon. Member for Solihull West and Shirley says, we cannot let perfection be the enemy of the good. I want to push back briefly on some things that have been said about the lawyers and legal experts. I do not accept what the hon. Member for East Wiltshire says about whether they are for or against, and I am not sure that his numbers tally with my reading of their views. That goes to the subjectivity of this issue. It is not black and white; lots of people have complex views on it. I am not sure whether amendment (g) was moved, but in any event the notion that issues such as ECHR compatibility cannot be handled by Lord Sumption, Lord Neuberger and Baroness Hale—three former Supreme Court judges and potentially the best legal minds of their generation—is frankly absurd. We all have roles and responsibilities, as members of this Committee and as Members of Parliament, to challenge their evidence and to push different cases. I have no doubt that we are all qualified and able enough to do so without hearing from a junior barrister and a junior lecturer. That is not in any way to belittle their expertise, because I have read endless commentary from both the suggested witnesses that is very valuable and could be put to the three former Supreme Court justices, who grappled with such cases time and again.

• 21 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  Well, we have had lots of lists, but Lord Sumption and Lord Neuberger are giving evidence, I believe; Lord Sumption is, anyway. These things can be tested and challenged, so the notion that we need to have others is slightly absurd. We have the law lecturer from Cambridge University as well.

• 14 Jan 2025 · Emily Damari · Hansard source

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  6. What steps his Department is taking to help secure the release of Emily Damari.

• 14 Jan 2025 · Emily Damari · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Foreign Secretary for his answer. Last month I had the privilege of meeting Mandy, Emily’s mother, to discuss her family’s plight and their campaign and efforts to secure Emily’s release. I know that the Foreign Secretary met Mandy yesterday in Israel; I spoke to her afterwards, and she was very grateful for that meeting. What steps are the Government taking to secure humanitarian access to the hostages before release, which Hamas are disgracefully avoiding, and what pressures are being put on Qatar and Egypt in that regard?

• 14 Jan 2025 · Drones: High-security Prisons · Hansard source

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  This is a long-standing problem, and the previous Government did not do anywhere near enough to deal with it. What they did do, when former Prime Minister Liz Truss was Lord Chancellor, was arrange for more dogs to bark at drones around prisons, which they assured us would work. Has the Ministry of Justice done an assessment on how effective that policy was?

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I would be very grateful.

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  This Bill provides us with an important moment. For many decades, children’s social care has been overlooked—an afterthought for Government. Over the past 30 years, politicians of all colours have too often failed the most vulnerable children in this country—the children who are unable to be looked after by their own family. I am delighted that this Education Secretary and her team have put those children at the heart of this legislation. It is testament to her personal commitment to social justice and fairness. The statistics on outcomes for children in care and the risks of exploitation are well known. They represent 1% of the child population, but 37% of those in youth justice. Just 15% of those looked-after children receive GCSEs from C to A*, compared with the national average of 55%. However, I wish to focus on the child placement estate. It is a drier topic, but if we do not provide sufficient and safe accommodation for these children, then the rest is broadly redundant. I have personal experience of this area. Before being elected as an MP, I was a barrister often working in child protection law. Many Friday afternoons would be spent in court, seeking orders on an urgent basis for removal of children from their primary carer before the weekend. My work would be done once judgment had been given and I had drafted the order, but for my social work team, their work had only just begun. They would have to collect the children, often relying on the police to assist, and then, often late in the evening, the arduous task of attempting to find suitable accommodation for these children would begin. They would make calls late into the night, pleading with reluctant foster carers, or residential units, to take in these young people, who would often sit obediently at the local authority offices waiting for their fate to be decided. I have known of times when children slept on the floors of such offices while searches were being undertaken. The lack of sufficient accommodation in this country is a complete disgrace. The previous Government cannot say that they were not warned about this. In 2020, the High Court took the unusual step of sending a judgment to the relevant Ministers, raising the issue of the lack of appropriate accommodation for such children—I am just trying to find the right place in my speech.

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend’s review, which he drew up before being elected to this place, contained some of the provisions that are now in this legislation, so he should be praised for that work. As I was saying, the High Court raised this issue in 2020. It took the unusual step of sending a judgment to the relevant Minister setting out the “nationwide problem” of demand outstripping supply in accommodation for children in care. The facts of that case show the human cost of a lack of investment and strategy. A 15-year-old girl, from a family unable to care for her, had had 14 different placements in 12 months. None was suitable. She had repeatedly fled unregulated accommodation units and was deemed to be at serious risk of self-harm and sexual exploitation. Those who have raised the important issue of child sexual exploitation but have shown no interest in children’s care services should hang their head in shame for trying to make political capital out of this very, very important issue. This Bill takes important steps in this regard. My hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister) has already raised the important matter of regional co-operation, which will certainly add capacity. As has been mentioned, there is also the financial backdrop. I have no doubt that Ministers will be making representations to the Chancellor about the estimated £6.2 billion funding gap for local authorities in social care, but this is not just about money. Although capacity is undoubtedly required, the system also needs national and local leadership, and a national and local strategy. There remains, despite this very welcome Bill, a lack of a comprehensive and national plan for care placements. There is a lack of an overarching assessment of how this market will fulfil the functions necessary in the years and decades ahead. Bluntly, we will still not know what is needed and where across the nation. And we know from experience that the market will not do it for us; we have learned that lesson already. We must have an accurate assessment of the need in the sector—the types of placement, and the number and location of care settings across the country. There also needs to be a funding strategy. My private Member’s Bill, the Looked After Children (Distance Placements) Bill, provides for a modest change in this area, simply requiring all local authorities to think ahead, to have a plan for the types of placement that they are able to offer, and a strategy for where they will need based on an assessment of the demand. Although there is a requirement in the guidance, there now needs to be a statutory responsibility for local authorities to think ahead in this area. At the moment, the issue is about not merely capacity, but where the accommodation is. More than a fifth of children in care live more than 20 miles from their home. There is one account of a child being placed over 500 miles from her community. These are young lives being separated from their community, their brothers, sisters, friends and teachers, with all the associated damage to their relationships and education. And this problem has increased by over 50% since 2019. I hope the Government will properly consider the modest suggestion that local authorities should simply have a sufficiency plan for where to place these children. I will briefly touch on one final aspect, which is the identifier of children. This is a useful and important step to safeguard children. I hope Ministers will have discussions on a cross-departmental basis with the Home Office as well as the Department of Health and Social Care about the development of digital identification and patient passports in those areas as well.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Residents in Maltby are furious about new plans for the old Maltby pit. I am joining them to campaign ferociously against the plans, because the environmental risk is too great and the amount of lorries going through the village would be hugely damaging to the community. Will the Government provide time for Parliament to look into this issue properly and to ensure that we can all stand up for Maltby?

• 9 Dec 2024 · Fireworks: Sale and Use · Hansard source

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  I held a public meeting in my constituency of Rother Valley and we discussed a lot of the regulations that my hon. Friend and others have mentioned in this debate. However, does he agree that we can do more as a community? Perhaps in local villages such as Harthill, Kiveton Park, Dinnington and Maltby in my constituency, we could set aside weekends where we encourage people to enjoy fireworks, but the rest of the month could be set aside for those who perhaps do not enjoy fireworks.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  That point has been made over and over again in interventions, and the Health Secretary has been very clear that funding allocations for primary care services and other services will be set out in due course. As a result of this Labour Government’s actions, there will be more money available than there would have been. This debate shows the Opposition to be mere opportunists who are incapable, or perhaps unwilling, to face up to the difficult decisions that we face as a country. We have seen the path that takes us down, and we cannot do that again.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  The new intake of youngish—I use that description carefully—Members on this side of the House might be forgiven for having shorter memories than other, more long-suffering Members, but this is not the first time a Labour Chancellor has made difficult decisions on tax to invest in the future of public services, particularly our NHS. Twenty-two years ago, a Labour Chancellor told this House that the NHS was in need of reform and modernisation, and that investment was needed not only to deliver better services but to, in the inimitable style of Gordon Brown, “define the character of our country.” —[ Official Report , 17 April 2002; Vol. 383, c. 589.] That decision to raise national insurance contributions, combined with far-sighted reforms, delivered the shortest waiting times, and the highest public satisfaction with the NHS, in our country’s history. Now, after 14 years of Tory Government, history has repeated itself. Once again, a Labour Government are fixing the mess made by the Tories, and our NHS is facing questions over its future and quality. Indeed, the choices are more stark today. The challenge before us is not simply to improve standards and resources in the NHS, but to save the very idea itself. Back in 2002, the Tories opposed making difficult decisions on tax to support our NHS. Their then leader, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), used precisely the same slogans as the current Leader of the Opposition—the politics of protest, not government. A year later, he was out of his job; his own party lacked confidence in him and got rid of him. We are not able to gamble on political events, but what are the odds of history repeating itself here, too? The Opposition crow about the Budget, but what is their alternative? Do they oppose the £22 billion investment in our NHS? From which magic money tree will they fund their ever-spiralling spending commitments? Fixing our public finances, without compromising our belief in a strong NHS, is at the heart of this Government’s agenda. That is so important, because I have had countless conversations with constituents who face agonising waits over years for basic operations, and with those who dread the 8 am rush to book an appointment at the local GP, knowing full well that they will often be disappointed. They know that the NHS needs urgent investment, but they also know that the NHS must change. That is why the investment by this Government has been said to be a down payment on reform. We must transform the way in which our NHS operates; otherwise, the investment will be wasted. The NHS serves a wholly different population in a wholly different context from when the Labour party created it in 1947. We are living longer, our health issues are more structural, technology can transform our interactions with healthcare provision, and patients can feel more empowered, but we need to get funding into the NHS now. The Tories want all the benefits of investment, but they have no idea how they would pay for it. We can look to history again to tell us what happens when Conservatives make promises without a clue about how they would fund them. Look at the 40 hospitals that have not been built. Look at the £6 billion black hole in our asylum system. Look at the mini-Budget.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Children of Prisoners · Hansard source

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  I praise the right hon. Gentleman for securing this Westminster Hall debate and raising this issue so powerfully. He is right about the focus on young people, which has to be part of the commitment, but this is also about the whole family and making sure that contact between parents, children, the wider family and prisons works for the children as well. Does he agree that that will help everyone and also help to tackle reoffending?

• 29 Nov 2024 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I welcome the contributions to this debate from all sides of the House. This is Parliament at its best. I support the Bill and am proud to co-sponsor it. We have all received emails from constituents with harrowing stories of the agonising final days and weeks suffered by loved ones. I have no doubt that those stories will weigh heavily on each of us, however we vote today. Fundamentally, I believe that if we are able to safely offer peace and empowerment to those at the end of their life, then we have a moral imperative to do so. We are lawmakers, and I also fundamentally support this change because our current legal framework is simply not fit for purpose. Our criminal law is a mess. Four former Directors of Public Prosecutions have told us that change is needed. It is pretty unprecedented for four former Directors of Public Prosecutions, the sole people who make decisions about prosecutions in such cases, to urge Parliament to take action. In the 2014 Nicklinson judgment, the Supreme Court urged Parliament to take action because the law was not working in this area. The law is chaotic, particularly in how it relates to the argument around coercion. If we vote against this legislation today and it falls, do not think that vulnerable people at the end of their lives will not be subject to coercion this weekend and over the coming weeks. The police will investigate, a coroner will undertake an inquest into the circumstances of any suicide and a prosecution may begin, but all these processes will occur after the individual has died. This Bill would shift the emphasis of such inquiries to before the event, which is more logical, more rational and more humane. Let me quickly deal with the procedural argument. As the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) mentioned, private Members’ Bills were sufficient to reform our abortion laws, abolish the death penalty and change our divorce regime, and a private Member’s Bill was good enough when the issue was last before the House in 2015. I have read every single word of that debate, and there was not a single word of opposition to a private Member’s Bill being the mechanism for such change. Since 2015, there have been Select Committee reports and more evidence from around the world, as other jurisdictions move in the direction of assisted dying. One begins to wonder whether opponents to change are grasping at procedural straws, rather than taking on the principle, as we should at Second Reading. I appreciate that the decision is difficult for colleagues and I respect views on all sides of the debate, but these moments do not come around often. I urge colleagues to seize the moment, shape the world around us and provide for compassion.

• 29 Nov 2024 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend makes her case powerfully. Can I ask her to comment on the current situation whereby people ask themselves the question she just asked today? What safeguards are there for those people? What inquiry is made before those people pass away, often having taken the most drastic and horrific action to do so?

• 26 Nov 2024 · Online Safety: Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) on securing this debate. Her daughter was born just a few months before mine, when we were both mere parliamentary candidates trying to juggle our election campaigns and family life, and failing. Just last night in the voting Lobby, we swapped notes on how it is going now that we are Members of Parliament, and I think we are both failing on that as well, but we are trying our hardest. Having spoken to her in depth about this issue, I know that she is keen to champion it and that she will be successful in doing so. My daughter is just 15 months old, and when I look at the online world around us, I have deep concern and worries for her and children growing up across the country. The issue of online safety must be grasped urgently, and I hope that this Parliament will finally seize the initiative. Many of the hundreds of new MPs come to this issue afresh. It is great to see new colleagues and friends here today. This is a generation who have, to some extent, grown up online, are aware of the huge benefits that technology and social media have offered and are adept, to some extent at least, at using those networks—I am still not wholly sure how TikTok works—but who have also seen the increasingly toxic results for young people as technology has developed, and that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. I have been in numerous schools across my constituency of Rother Valley to speak with students, teachers and teaching staff, and the pupils I meet are impeccably behaved and interesting and interested in my role as their MP, but when I have a cup of tea with the teachers afterwards, they so often tell me about the negative effect of smartphone apps, online bullying and the frankly shocking content that youngsters are exposed to. I speak to parents across Rother Valley who are deeply concerned about the content available to children, whether it be sexual or of an addictive or exploitative nature. Many feel that they are losing parental control, to some extent at least, to the magnet of online activity. I have run an online survey for constituents about the issue of smartphones and online safety for children over the last few months and have been inundated with these worries. This is an epidemic, which is why this debate and this subject are so important. There is good work happening to combat the worries. Recently I met a group in my constituency that is run by Sara Cunningham and works in schools across the country in combating misogyny, online violence and pornography. That incredible organisation is doing brilliant work, but it cannot be left to the third sector to regulate this issue or pick up the mess. It is surely time for Government and regulation to take a greater role. I hope that that can be done on a cross-party basis, because this issue crosses the political divide. I would like personally to praise former Prime Minister Theresa May for at least beginning to champion the issue. I hope that, now, this Government and the Minister who is present today can take the issue forward.

• 25 Nov 2024 · Public Confidence in Policing · Hansard source

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  Earlier this month I held a community meeting in Dinnington about the regeneration project on the high street. It was well attended, and people are optimistic, but they are also worried about the lack of police in the area and the crime that continues to blight their town. Can the Home Secretary reassure the residents of Dinnington that this Government will rebuild community policing, which was utterly let down over 14 years of Conservative Government?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Public Confidence in Policing · Hansard source

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  10. What steps her Department is taking to increase public trust and confidence in policing.

• 25 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. Two brave women from Maltby came to my most recent surgery. Each told me about the horrific physical and emotional abuse that they had suffered at the hands of their ex-partners. They also told me that the police had ignored non-molestation orders, which—as I know from my professional experience before I was called to the Bar—is far from uncommon. What steps will the Government take to ensure that any relevant court orders are given due force?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Children’s Social Care · Hansard source

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  It is brilliant to see a Secretary of State take this issue so seriously and get a grip on it so early on in her time in government. Figures published last week show that the number of children placed far from home increased by 51% over the last decade between 2014 and 2024. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is about not only capacity, quality and cost, but the geography of the placements, to ensure that when children are placed away from their families, they can stay in touch?

• 5 Nov 2024 · Education and Training for Prisoners · Hansard source

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  I join the right hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Holden) in calling for the Government to consider the children of prisoners. I met the children’s Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby), just last week, and I know it is very much on her radar. However, this is an urgent issue. This week, I have been told about a child who had been living alone for months because the authorities simply did not know that their parent was in prison—

• 31 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Last week, I had the privilege of visiting Wales primary school in my constituency and meeting its year 6 class, who are making sure that their school is an eco-school. They are taking part in a number of initiatives in their community, such as litter picking and recycling, and they even told me off for not recycling sufficiently—I have taken steps to make up for that. Will the Leader of the House join me in praising the year 6 students at Wales primary school? Will there be time in the House to debate how we can encourage sustainability across our education sector?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Income tax (charge) · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend has mentioned the policies, or lack thereof, that have come out of the Tory leadership contest. Unfortunately, I spent an evening watching the GB News debate between the Tory leadership contenders, and the one policy that one of the contenders said she would put in place on day one as Prime Minister was a tax cut for private schools. That is the priority of the modern Conservative party: opposing the investment in this Budget while offering tax cuts for the very richest.