Julian Smith MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 14 Sept 2026 · SEND Training: Autism · Hansard source

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  9. If she will include different autism profiles as part of SEND training for school staff.

• 14 Sept 2026 · SEND Training: Autism · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her answer and for all the work she is doing on this. Following on from the question from the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell), the issue of differing profiles is really important; pupils with a pathological demand avoidance profile of autism will require a totally different strategy from staff at the reception desk and teachers to get them into school and get them engaged with education. Will she keep pressing the Department on teacher training to really focus on these different profiles and the responses to them, and can she confirm that she is also working with the Department of Health and Social Care on the independent prevalence review, as all that amazing work by mental health experts across the UK should be feeding into this work?

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I welcome the right hon. Lady to her place, and I am sure that she will be very effective at this job. On the issue of wildfires, may I urge her to talk to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which is putting further constraints on moorland owners? Moorland owners have traditionally undertaken controlled burning, and they are really worried at the moment that this change in DEFRA policy will make moorland areas such as the one I represent more vulnerable to wildfires in the future?

• 15 Jul 2026 · National Energy System Operator: Blackout Risk · Hansard source

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  I am really worried about this urgent question. We sat here last night and talked about requiring honesty from public servants, and we voted on the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, but as we have heard from my right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State and the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice), serious questions have not been answered. The chair of NESO is paid the equivalent of £230,000 a year. Has the Minister met him recently? May I ask about the whistleblowers, who were apparently told by the chief executive yesterday that they had let down the company? On the question that my right hon. Friend asked about record keeping, what discussions has he had with NESO about whether she is correct?

• 14 Jul 2026 · Points of Order · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Now that the new Prime Minister’s special advisers have removed by diktat the opportunity for the Opposition to hold a debate about allowing him to be scrutinised on Monday, can you provide the House with clarity on what other routes might be available for us to hear from the new Prime Minister, from whom we will not otherwise hear for over 50 days?

• 14 Jul 2026 · Health of Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  One of the best ways to improve the health of neurodiverse young people is high-quality attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism assessments. The Government are proposing to cut substantially the amount paid to providers. Will the Health Secretary speak to providers in this area, because this cut could have significant implications for the standard and quality of autism and ADHD assessments?

• 14 Jul 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The Leader of the House had nothing to do with this decision on the business. He knows that, even at the height of Brexit, once an Opposition day debate was agreed, it was agreed. My constituents want to know what the new Prime Minister will do on defence, for small businesses, and on energy, and the decision to not allow the House the opportunity to question the right hon. Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) is thwarting that desire. Can I urge the Leader of the House to remind the new No. 10 that there will be a point during this summer when the new Prime Minister will wish he had sought consent from this House, and will totally regret the decision that has been made today?

• 2 Jul 2026 · Historical Forced Adoption · Hansard source

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  May I thank the Prime Minister for the incredibly powerful statement? I was lucky enough to bring forward legislation for victims of institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland. As part of that legislation, there was an apology. Those people, like the victims in this case, waited decades for people in important positions to properly listen to them, and I think what the Prime Minister has done today is a massive step forward. Even when the apology took place in Northern Ireland, though, the churches could not bring themselves to move away from the script provided by their lawyers, so I urge every institution that has been involved in these horrendous crimes to properly say sorry. We have heard about the processes that will follow this statement, but may I urge the Prime Minister to use the considerable power that he will have as a former Prime Minister to stay involved in this issue?

• 25 Jun 2026 · Steel Trade Measure · Hansard source

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  The Minister spoke about monitoring this policy from day one, but there will not be a review for 12 months. What will the monitoring comprise, and what happens if that monitoring reveals problems very early on? Will he have to wait until the review after 12 months, or will he be able to implement impacts and analysis from the monitoring?

• 9 Jun 2026 · Water Safety · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Southampton Itchen (Darren Paffey) for his very thoughtful words. One of the young women he talked about, Palwasha Akbar, was 13, from the Bronte Girls’ secondary school in Bradford, and she died in Burnsall in my constituency. I pay tribute to her family and friends, who have spoken so eloquently about her. She died in more or less the same spot as Azaz Mohmed Chanda from Blackburn in 2024; I also put on record my thoughts for his family. In that case, there was an investigation and a coroner’s report, and it was a case of misadventure. I support all the hon. Member’s comments about education, and the specific warnings he gave to people who are swimming in open water. The “Lonely Water” campaign of the early 1970s was very effective. I have certainly had constituents write in to ask me to represent that campaign and the stark truths it laid out. I want to talk briefly about public bodies. The Minister has been given a series of asks by the hon. Member. I represent a large part of the Yorkshire Dales national park, which has been responsible for, rightly, promoting the countryside to ethnic minorities in Bradford and the surrounding area, and has received quite a lot of money to do so. Following the death last week, I have become increasingly concerned about an issue that has been coming up in quite a lot of the recent Government reports of grey areas between public bodies. Public bodies not meeting their responsibilities or duties is very present with national parks. They have a duty to promote themselves, but also to protect local communities, and they have duties on safety. What came out regarding the last bank holiday weekend and Eid was that, at an operational level, the Yorkshire Dales national park had not thought about the deployment of personnel in hotspots such as Burnsall in any way that I could see, and had not really thought through its responsibility for safety. That responsibility for safety is obviously as an access authority—they are often not landowners. For the Minister’s awareness, at the weekend I looked through almost all the recent minutes, chief executive reports and risk registers, and never has any issue of water safety come up in any of those writings or meetings that I could see. When there have been two of these deaths at the same spot in the last two years, that cannot be right. I urge the Minister to listen to the hon. Member for Southampton Itchen, but I also urge her to use whatever powers she has to speak to national parks that have large amounts of water and ask them to fulfil their duties on the safety of communities. We have heard that there are huge volumes of cars and people at peak times. National parks must now take responsibility for the volume of people they have promoted their area to and encouraged to come and visit, and must look at their duties on safety.

• 4 Jun 2026 · Home-to-School Transport · Hansard source

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  As I have said to those on the Front Bench, I am unable to stay until the end of the debate, for which I apologise to you, Mr Twigg, and to colleagues. I commend the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) for securing the debate. I am delighted that we have such an influential member of the Labour party here on the Front Bench—the Minister for School Standards, the hon. Member for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale (Georgia Gould)—because we cannot have this debate without mentioning the context of what this Labour Government are doing to rural areas. We have had the family farm tax, intolerable rate increases on pubs and hospitality businesses, and the Employment Rights Act 2025 hammering the ability of businesses, particularly those in rural areas, to take on young people. We have had the business inheritance tax issue, which causes huge problems for the continued success of many family businesses in rural areas, including in North Yorkshire. We are seeing policies of micro- managing moorland from Whitehall, rather than allowing long-term landowners to care for it as they have for generations. In North Yorkshire, we have a particular issue with the Labour mayor, who is looking to impose an overnight tourism tax, which will cause businesses more problems. He is also taking a greater portion than the Government wanted to give him for roads in York rather than across North Yorkshire. The context is that Labour is hitting rural areas incredibly hard. I know the Minister is a fair person—she is on a very short journey to greater and more senior things in this Government. Though I disagree with them, the Government need to be a success. I urge her: please start thinking about rural areas across policies. We heard about the work that my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak)—the former Prime Minister, Chancellor and Minister for Local Government—did to protect rural areas with the rural services grant. That has been taken away, as has the fairer funding formula. North Yorkshire council is running a £42.5 million recurring deficit. That is the context out of which many of the things raised in this debate are coming. North Yorkshire council has been forced to move to a policy of nearest local school, rather than the much more generous policy that it had before. We are one of the most rural parts—if not, the most rural part—of England, but in order to be fair to other taxpayers and the services it looks after, this was the only position it could take. On a lightly political point, the Lib-Dem-led Westmorland and Furness council is having to look at this, as is Oxfordshire county council—everybody is facing these challenges. I will not talk about SEND travel today, but a big issue in my inbox—as in that of the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough—is from parents who accept that things have to change, but who have seen anomalies impacting their kids and their ability to get their kids to school. For example, in Skipton and Ripon, there are selective and comprehensive schools either on the same road or very near one another. If kids are at the wrong end of town, they can be selected for one of those schools, particularly the selective schools, but are then unable to get free school transport because of the designated nearest school policy. In Settle and Upper Wharfedale, and other schools in the heart of the dales, feeder schools are needed to keep their numbers up. They have historical links with primary schools in Bentham, Ingleton and other parts of my constituency, but those kids are now being sent outwith North Yorkshire, into Lancashire and other counties.

• 4 Jun 2026 · Home-to-School Transport · Hansard source

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  I completely agree with my right hon. Friend. We have talked about Settle college, which is threatened by kids going outwith the constituency and is worried about its numbers, but in the upper dales, too—we heard about the Thomases and others in Oughtershaw—children have to go over the top into Richmondshire or to Settle college, which is much further away than Upper Wharfedale school. The impact is that historical links between communities and villages, and between primaries and secondaries, are being broken, and these schools are vulnerable to tiny changes in rolls from year to year. I urge the Minister to reflect on the fact that many of us have fought to keep some of these schools open, and this policy really is having a negative effect. There are issues with the siblings policy, whereby the school attended by a sibling is no longer taken into account. I hope that this and other examples will be considered as North Yorkshire completes its review and considers its post-implementation procedures. We heard the proposal from the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough to look again at the definition of a local school and at the rural services grant. I think we need an emergency brake to ensure that Settle, Upper Wharfedale and other vulnerable schools are protected, and that one policy—in North Yorkshire or other counties—does not undermine schools. Parents also want to understand the opportunities for voluntary contributions. That interacts with commercial bus services; what are the options there? Above all, there is a need to look at the appeals process. Is the Department for Transport allowed to look at cases? In the case of Oughtershaw, it is just impossible to get over to the recommended school in winter; the Department had not really done an assessment of that.

• 4 Jun 2026 · Home-to-School Transport · Hansard source

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  Well, I thank the hon. Member for that point. [ Laughter. ] All I would say is that, knowing the personalities involved and their integrity, I think North Yorkshire council has been grappling with a difficult challenge. It accepts that there will have to be changes. It is key that we move forward, and a way to do that is to ask whether there can be a more empathetic approach to appeals and whether North Yorkshire can look at some of the points that the hon. Member and others have made about the fact that we are such a sparse area and need some changes. Ultimately, though, this falls on the Government. Although a small increase in home-to-school funding was earmarked in the previous local government funding settlement, it did not reach the need and the amount of money that North Yorkshire spends. We really need the Government to look at the specific needs of rural education, and to look again at how to assess sparsity and rural factors, in this and every other policy they have a part in.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. Small businesses across Yorkshire are really struggling with energy costs. We have talked about the local power plan, and the ability of communities to sell power to small businesses—the question just came up. That has to happen. We must do everything we can to lower the costs for rural and small businesses. Will the Minister make sure that that happens?

• 1 Jun 2026 · Lead Ammunition · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for the answer. According to the ammunitions industry, the upcoming ban on lead in commercial bullets is going to cause significant problems for the police and armed forces, in terms of cost and supply. Viking Arms, in my constituency, which supplies the military and the police, is deeply worried about this issue. Will he meet it and any other suppliers to hear their concerns about the problem?

• 1 Jun 2026 · Lead Ammunition · Hansard source

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  2. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of lead ammunition for defence purposes.

• 1 Jun 2026 · Child Sexual Offender Data · Hansard source

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  This issue is very real. Very close to here, a fun run organised by Tower Hamlets council did not allow women over 13 to join in. I totally agree with what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but let us be clear: it is happening, it is happening frequently and it is happening very close to where we are having this debate.

• 1 Jun 2026 · Child Sexual Offender Data · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the amazing work that my constituency neighbour has done over many years on this issue. The issue of taxi networks in the north of England, particularly those operating in Bradford and Keighley and in my area of Skipton and Ripon, is an example of the fact that analysing broader issues properly will require more funding.

• 21 May 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T3. JB Springs in Skipton has been in touch on the issue of quotas. It imports steel and is worried about the cost of steel and the future of the company. Personally, I do not have an issue with many aspects of the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill, but the quota issue is really causing problems. Is there a structure enabling colleagues to meet people from the Department, so that businesses can communicate their worries? Will the Minister keep an open mind about the quotas and review them in less than 12 months?

• 21 May 2026 · Opt-out Collective Actions Regime · Hansard source

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  8. When he plans to publish his Department’s review of and consultation on the opt-out collective actions regime.

• 21 May 2026 · Opt-out Collective Actions Regime · Hansard source

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  As the Minister says, it is really important that the collective regime continues—we have a great reputation globally for our opt-out regime. The litigation finance industry is vital to supporting claims from consumers. The Government said last year that they would proceed with a Bill to restore a legal issue following the PACCAR judgment, so does she have an update on when that Bill will come forward? It was not in the King’s Speech.

• 19 May 2026 · Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address · Hansard source

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  This is a deeply unhappy and unacceptable situation. It is completely unacceptable, after writing and raising questions informally with officials and the Minister himself, for the Chair and members of the ISC to have to come to this House to pose an urgent question. Will the Minister confirm that if there are any changes to permissions, he will come to this House and seek approval from the House for those changes?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Synthetic Chemicals · Hansard source

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  I commend the Committee Chair and the Committee on the report, and I commend the Government on the PFAS plan. I thank him and the Committee for attending the location in my constituency that has suffered from this issue. Realistically, I cannot see this Government or a future Government being able to put in the money needed. The levy idea that he refers to seems to be a key way ahead. While consideration is given to his report’s recommendations, does he agree that communities impacted by PFAS need to have confidence in statutory authorities, such as the Environment Agency and local authorities?

• 16 Apr 2026 · NHS Federated Data Platform · Hansard source

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  One of the issues that the hon. Gentleman has not discussed in his excellent speech is governance. The commissioner of the contract is the NHS, and it is also the main oversight body. He has put forward a black-and-white solution—end or maintain the contract—but is there not a case for a more robust governance structure? That could involve giving more powers to the National Data Guardian or setting up a bespoke oversight body for this contract.

• 15 Apr 2026 · Strategic Defence Review: Funding · Hansard source

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  On the key recommendation of a national conversation to build support and understanding among the population, it is all very well having debates here or in Whitehall, but what conversations are the Government having with the Departments for Education and for Culture, Media and Sport, the BBC and social media providers about the issues that are faced and about communication with the public to build support for funding and increase understanding of the challenges we face?