Kevin Bonavia MP: speeches

Speeches

• 7 Apr 2025 · Road Maintenance · Hansard source

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  I am glad to have this opportunity to address a problem that comes up in almost every street when I am out door-knocking in Stevenage and our villages: ever more potholes and the general disrepair of our roads. When I made a point to someone recently about the importance of tackling potholes, they dismissed it as a trivial matter. I happen to think that it is very serious. It is very serious when I am told by a parent of a low-income family, just about getting by, that the pothole she had reported to her Conservative county councillor time and again had not been fixed and ended up causing hundreds of pounds of damage to her vehicle. It is simply not an option for her to pay for it, so the family has to take significant time out of their week to make a claim. Then there was the young teacher on her bike who hit a pothole, tumbled over and sustained serious injuries, which caused her to miss several weeks of school. The worst thing is that this should all be preventable. Statistics from the online retailer Blackcircles.com show that Hertfordshire had the highest average payout for pothole-related claims in the UK, with an average of £367 per claim in 2023. That amount is significantly higher than the national average of £261 per claim. I can tell you why that is. Our Conservative-run county council in Hertfordshire has totally failed on road repairs, leaving our roads in Stevenage and the villages of Knebworth, Codicote, Datchworth and Aston in a state of total disrepair. The first reason it has failed is bottom-up. Conservative councillors generally are not proactive in our community, so council officers and the highways team are not getting the quality of reporting on where the issues are and what the priorities should be from the ground up. The second issue is top-down. Fourteen years of funding cuts from successive Conservative Governments to local councils in an era of austerity was cheer-led by Conservative county councillors in Hertfordshire, while their budgets declined and outcomes got worse. Stevenage Conservatives recently claimed that Hertfordshire was the best-run county council in the country. I gently suggest that when 14 years of austerity devastate a council’s budget and local Conservatives are in charge of allocating what is left, we end up with a council ranked by The Times last year as the 172nd best performing in the country, with very little left for the road repairs. There is, believe it or not, a third issue: this is the existential one. The Conservative cabinet member for highways at Hertfordshire county council, also a Stevenage councillor, does not even understand what a pothole is. In 2023, he proudly claimed that outstanding road repairs in Hertfordshire were lower than the national average, with only 4% of B and C roads requiring outstanding repairs compared with 6% nationally, which all sounds fairly positive—until it is revealed that we are not comparing like for like. Hertfordshire classifies a pothole as being at least 300 mm wide and 50 mm deep, while just next door in Essex, they only have to be 100 mm across, and, further away in Trafford, just 40 mm deep. A road user may think they have hit a pothole in Hertfordshire, but, according to the council, it must just be their imagination. All the while, the council would rather change the definition of a pothole or wait for people to claim for damages, costing the council more than it would to fix potholes for the future in the first place. Thankfully, we are turning a corner. This new Labour Government are on the side of road users in their cars, on the buses and on their bicycles, and they take the issue of fixing potholes as seriously as residents expect them to. That is why our county has received £9.3 million for road repairs to fix as many potholes as possible—a marked change from 14 years of Tory austerity. While this extra funding is welcome, the public deserve to know how their councils will use that funding to improve their local roads, so I am pleased the Government are requiring councils to show progress or risk losing 25% of the funding boost. The question on all my residents’ lips now is: can we really trust the failing Conservative-run Hertfordshire county council and the unseen and unbothered Conservative county councillors to use this money properly? We have a new Labour Government facilitating change through these measures, but we also need effective councillors to deliver that change in every street, community, town and village across Hertfordshire and the wider country. Where councillors like those in Tory-run Hertfordshire fail to deliver that change, our residents can and should choose new ones who can.

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

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  I say to all Members of this House that people have to see these measures in the round. This Budget will support all our businesses in the long run. Are the Opposition now opposed to protecting the triple lock, increasing carer’s allowance, freezing fuel duty, paying workers properly and supporting local councils? Are they opposed to boosting education funding by £6.7 billion and hiring 6,500 extra teachers, who our children desperately need to secure their future? If they are opposed to those things, they are not listening to the British public who, in my constituency of Stevenage and in hundreds of other seats, voted at the last election for a change from years of Conservative chaos. Change with Labour will bring a decade of national renewal to fix our public services from the ground up. Businesses can only have the confidence to invest in the UK if we bring stability to the economy, put money into the pockets of customers and develop thriving public services for the workforce that will in turn improve productivity for businesses. Business confidence was demonstrated by the record-breaking £63 billion in investment secured for the UK economy at the international investment summit. Under Labour, Britain is open for business. Today, the Conservative Opposition are asking us to pretend that we can grow our economy and rebuild our public services without saying how it would all be paid for. This Tory Opposition, with their motion today, show that they have learned nothing from 14 years of Tory fantasy economics. The shadow Chancellor brought up fantasy economics, and his party delivered that for 14 years in government. Today we have a Labour Government. The country voted against fantasy economics in July, and today I will vote against it too.

• 2 Dec 2024 · Children and Bereavement · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree, and I commend John and others who have used their experience to help other people. There is nothing better than a person’s own experience for reaching out and supporting people. Every day, an average of 111 children in the UK lose a parent. After charities, schools, local authorities and family members and friends have stepped in, how many of those children fall through the net and have no one to talk to or cope with? Our job is to level the playing field. Not everyone has a fantastic teacher who goes the extra mile, working within parameters of the curriculum, which could allow the teaching of bereavement through links to other topics, such as the family. Not everyone attends a school that has a bereavement policy or a pastoral support team that identifies and supports bereaved children. Not everyone has access to a phenomenal organisation such as Winston’s Wish or Stand-by-me in my constituency of Stevenage—a local childhood bereavement service that launched a “Contact-me” bereavement programme, which offers a whole-school approach to supporting bereaved students. Stand-by-me now has children who have experienced bereavement as young ambassadors. For example, Evie received support from the charity and has helped three other children in her class with similar experiences. There is nothing like the peer-to-peer support of a person who helps somebody they know who feels the same way as them. I thank Evie and the many other children like her who support others in the same situation, but not everyone has a network of family and friends who can step up and find out how to get the right help. Let us stop the postcode lottery and bring grief education into the school curriculum. That will guarantee that at least one effort is made with every child across the country to break the stigma of bereavement. It will foster healthy discussions about what has happened and what is to come, and make those affected feel that they have a network of support they can access safely. I do not believe bereavement education would add a burden to already pressurised schools and staff, because as I have learned in the past few weeks, resources from all the organisations I have spoken with on the petition are ready to do the job. We must be proactive, not reactive. We should not take the risk that a single child in 10 years’ time will tell a story like Mark or John’s. I ask the Government, what is the latest guidance following a recent curriculum review? Can bereavement education be included if that is not already the case? The previous Government left the matter up for review, stating that it could be taught in school if schools wanted that. No more “could”; let us move to “should”, or even “must”. I want to end where I started. The matters in the two petitions are inherently linked, one perfectly complementing the other. With a register for who needs support, alongside the guarantee of intervention in our schools, we will be making an active choice to see all the invisible bereaved children in the UK today. Let us turn isolation into embrace, and do whatever is possible to enshrine both petitions in law and practice as best as we can.

• 2 Dec 2024 · Children and Bereavement · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petitions 636718 and 624185 relating to children and bereavement. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. This is my first time opening a debate as a new member of the Petitions Committee; I am delighted to speak to the two incredibly important petitions. Before I begin, I want to thank the House of Commons staff for enabling me to engage proactively with the petitioners, charities, advocates, representatives and supporters involved in both petitions. I feel privileged to stand here today as an advocate for the campaigners who have worked tirelessly for years to get results on these vital matters. This debate takes place during National Grief Awareness week, which is run by the Good Grief Trust, who chose this year’s theme: shine a light. That is exactly what I hope to do today in this debate. First, I would like to set out the two matters at hand before I make the case for each. Crucial in all of this is that both petitions go hand in hand in with the same diagnosis and cure, which I will describe. I will delve into it further towards the end of my speech. I want to start with the petition entitled, “Record the number of bereaved children to ensure they are supported”. That might not be something we would consider every day, but currently we do not know how many bereaved children there are in the UK right now. The petition argues: “If we don’t know the true scale of childhood bereavement, the services that exist to help are unable to proactively offer the support that children and their families need to cope with their grief. Without support, unresolved grief in young people can lead to an increased risk of youth offending, family breakdown, underachievement in education and employment and long-term mental health conditions.” I want to thank Winston’s Wish and its inspiring ambassador, Mark Lemon, for the work that they have done submitting the petition and campaigning for it over the years. One of the fundamental reasons why I am in favour of it is Mark’s own personal story, which I am deeply grateful to be able to share on his behalf today. At age 12, Mark experienced the horrific murder of his father. With nothing registered and no real support around at the time, Mark received no help to cope with that traumatic incident or adjust to the massive impact that the loss had on his life until his 20s. Mark is here today, and he argues that recording the number of children in the household when a death is registered could help thousands of bereaved children and ensure that services can better plan, reach out to families and offer much-needed support. Mark is working hard to make sure that no child faces the isolation he did after such devastation, which is hard for any of us to fathom even as adults. Setting aside the emotional aspect of the argument, I support the practicalities of the proposal. From service delivery to charities, local councils and schools, how can anybody work to tackle the consequences of childhood bereavement if no one knows where it is occurring in the first place?

• 2 Dec 2024 · Children and Bereavement · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. Obviously, there are things that can be done through law. There are things that are done through good practice and guidelines, and I am sure we will hear from my hon. Friend the Minister in due course as to what can be done. If it needs legislation I am sure she will consider that, but we should do all that we can to encourage the Government to take whatever steps they can to help achieve the aims of the petitions. On the first petition about collecting data, a simple change would be to support registrars to collect the data when a death is registered while protecting the anonymity and data of the family. That seems achievable without being overly invasive. After all, it would simply be an option, and it would indicate where bodies need to target their support. Winston’s Wish, the child bereavement charity, has regular get-togethers with young people so they can share their stories of grief with one another. Imagine how that data could transform where it allocates its resources, time and effort. It could be transformational for our kids. From speaking to colleagues across the House, including the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine), who brought a debate on this subject to Westminster Hall earlier this year, it is clear that such a move could attract cross-party consensus. I therefore ask my hon. Friend the Minister what legislation would be needed to enact the change permitting registrars to collect data on the number of bereaved children at the point of registering the death. If enacted, what support and training could be given to registrars so they can direct families who register bereaved children towards charities and bodies that can help? The previous Government essentially said, “We won’t do this, because it is not the done thing,” and pointed people towards the support that schools and charities can give. Let us make it the done thing, because it would help schools and charities to do their jobs in the first place. The second, and equally important, petition argues that we should add content on death, dying and bereavement to the national curriculum. It states that, under compulsory relationships education, schools should be required to provide age-appropriate education to help children understand death as a part of life: “Talking about death can be helpful for children and issues of bereavement should be compulsory learning for children in preparation for life as an adult. Children are taught how life begins through the national curriculum and similarly we should not hide from equipping children with the skills to comprehend death. Children must be provided with the skills to comprehend loss and to prepare for the emotions and feelings that accompany a bereavement which at some point, we all have to face.” I commend the research, testimony and briefings from the childhood bereavement network and the National Children’s Bureau, which have compelled me, emotionally and logically, to support these changes. I also want to highlight the work of the petition creator, John Adams, past president of the National Association of Funeral Directors, whose membership includes more than 4,000 funeral homes. He has used his story of grief as a young child as a motivator to call for these changes, which will help all other children in need.

• 23 Oct 2024 · Promoting Business and Growth · Hansard source

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  It is good to hear from the Minister about the work being done to close the skills gap. Can she provide further examples of that work and lay out her intentions for the future?

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

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) for securing the debate on SEND provision in the east of England. Accounts from hon. Members today show acutely that, although we aim to highlight our local situation, there are similarities in issues and themes in SEND provision both regionally and nationally. For me, this subject has been the most spoken about since I was elected Member of Parliament for Stevenage, and for a good reason. I ran an online campaign in my constituency to encourage residents to tell me their SEND provision stories, an unfiltered account of the frontline reality. I used those accounts to raise awareness of issues faced by SEND students and families in a recent Westminster Hall debate on SEND provision in Hertfordshire. I have used subsequent opportunities in the Chamber to lobby Ministers to help address the situation. Ultimately, our primary function as MPs is to elevate the voices of those who elected us to this place. As I did in the last SEND debate I participated in, I want to raise an account from the frontline, which I did not get the chance to highlight last time. A distraught mother told me: “My son was permanently excluded whilst we were awaiting the outcome of his EHCP—which left me to look after a traumatised, out-of-school, six year old, organise a new school, fight for his EHCP, look after my daughter, work my busy job and prepare practically and mentally for a tribunal. With NHS waiting lists for a diagnosis sitting at two years, I eventually funded a diagnosis 10 months later. He was deemed suitable for specialist provision but no places were available.” That family was left traumatised. Such blatant accounts tell a clear story: the diagnosis and EHCP processes are hard to navigate and too slow, and placement in a suitable school is a postcode lottery, where too many cases can easily fall through the net. The problem cannot be fixed by simply holding our local authorities’ feet to the fire. We have to recognise the position they have been put in over the last 14 years, with soaring demand, plummeting budgetary power and mass reductions in staff. I want to thank the frontline staff, who work so hard in tough conditions, to get results for children who deserve an education just as much as their fellow pupils. Their lives and their futures matter.

• 9 Sept 2024 · SEND Provision · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Secretary of State for her answer and to the Minister for School Standards for her response to last week’s Westminster Hall debate, led by my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern), on SEND provision in Hertfordshire. As the Minister will recall, there are many heartbreaking experiences faced by children and young people in Stevenage and across Hertfordshire, where waiting times are much higher than the national average. Will the Secretary of State therefore consider a fairer funding settlement for SEND provision in Hertfordshire when she is next able to do so?

• 4 Sept 2024 · SEND Provision: Hertfordshire and Central Bedfordshire · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) for securing this debate on such a vital issue for all our residents. For the last few weeks, I have been running an online campaign to encourage residents in my constituency to tell me their SEND provision stories. One constituent told me: “Despite constant concerns raised and referrals, I was left undiagnosed, unmonitored and untreated for ASC1 and ADHD for over two decades. In retrospect, I can see that many of the difficult experiences I had throughout school could’ve been so different.” A local councillor told me: “My constituent has a 10-year-old son with significant cognitive delay. He was placed in a comprehensive school with no SEND support capacity whilst stuck on a 90 child waiting list for a place at a suitable SEN school.” A mother told me: “My son with special needs was excluded before we were able to complete his EHCP application, then sent to a school an hour and a half away as the nearest option with capacity to meet his needs. Unable to cope with the daily taxis, we were then refused funding for a transition into a new school. He has been left without formal education for 5 years. I’ve been unable to make any contact to get help for years.” Those harrowing accounts tell a clear story: the diagnosis and EHCP process is hard to navigate and too slow. It is easy to see such cases as just another piece of complex casework, but they are much more than that. There is clearly a systemic problem in Hertfordshire, as the recent Ofsted and Care Quality Commission report found. Every case is about the future of a child who deserves an education, just as much as anyone else, and all children are impacted by a failure to provide SEND support to those who need it. I hope these remarks have underlined the importance of fixing the fundamental flaws in SEND services to secure a dignified future for all affected. We must do better. I am hopeful that Hertfordshire county council can turn things around. I ask the Minister to consider a fairer funding settlement for our county, so as to help deliver the support our young people need.