Munira Wilson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2025 · Welfare Reform · Hansard source

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  My constituent Steve had been a fit, active working person until about a year ago. Since then, he has been debilitated by ME, which has left him able to get out of the house for only about an hour every fortnight. Even getting dressed leaves him needing a lie down. PIP is already difficult for people like Steve to access. He told me that he would rather have lost both his legs than have got ME. Could the Secretary of State tell Steve why, if he had got ME two to three years later, he almost certainly would not have been eligible for any PIP at all?

• 7 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 7 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Secretary of State give way?

• 7 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I agree with all the points the shadow Minister is making about keeping our children safe online, so why does new clause 19 only commit to a review of the digital age of data consent and raising the age from 13 to 16 for when parental consent is no longer required? Why does he not support the Liberal Democrats’ new clause 1 that would start to implement this change? We can still, through implementation, do all the things the hon. Gentleman proposes to do, so why the delay?

• 7 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 28 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Last year the Secretary of State said: “There can be no goal more important and more urgent than extending opportunities to our most vulnerable children”. —[ Official Report , 24 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 700.] Actions speak louder than words, so will she commit to reversing her 40% cut to the grants available through the adoption and special guardianship support fund so that vulnerable children are not made to pay the price for the Conservatives’ financial mess?

• 1 Apr 2025 · Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for granting this urgent question; I thank you especially on behalf of the thousands of vulnerable children, their adoptive parents and kinship carers who rely on the adoption and special guardianship support fund. I declare an interest as vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on kinship care and co-chair of the APPG on children. I welcome the Minister’s announcement, which none of us were expecting, because many Members on all sides of the Chamber have spent the last few months asking question after question only to be being batted away time after time and told that answers would be forthcoming. This vital fund is there to help the most vulnerable children who have experienced the deepest trauma. Those who have been looking to renew applications for this coming financial year, like the constituent I mentioned in my question to the Prime Minister last week, have been left hanging in limbo. While I am grateful for today’s announcement, has the Minister considered what impact there has been on those families? In the case I mentioned of my constituent Sarah, she said that her daughter has started to regress in the period between finishing her last lot of therapy and being able to secure the next lot of therapy. Another woman contacted me to tell me that she is special guardian for a child who at the age of just two witnessed her mother being murdered by her father, and she has been unable to access the right level of support. The Minister mentioned the impact on providers. The Purple Elephant Project in my constituency of Twickenham is desperately fundraising to continue providing support, while others are taking their support elsewhere. Therefore, there are concerns about whether there will be sufficient provision. While I am grateful for the announcement, can the Minister confirm how long the £50 million will last, and whether Ministers are considering expanding the eligibility criteria for the support fund to include all kinship carers, not just special guardians? It is the least we can do for these most vulnerable children.

• 1 Apr 2025 · Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund · Hansard source

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  (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State to make a statement on whether the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund will continue.

• 1 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The seven-year-old adopted daughter of my constituent Sarah suffered immense trauma in her early years. Thanks to support from the adoption and special guardianship support fund, she has been able to access much-needed therapy that has helped her to progress. However, she and thousands of others do not know whether they will be able to get more help, because in just five days that fund ends, and Ministers have repeatedly refused to confirm whether it will continue. Can the Prime Minister give a cast-iron guarantee to vulnerable children, adoptive parents and kinship carers that he will not cut that fund, so that Sarah—in her own words—can give her daughter “the absolute best second chance in life she deserves”?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill (changed to Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers) Bill) · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend tells me it was 60%. I cannot do the maths quickly enough—clearly, I need to do maths to 18—

• 18 Mar 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I am shocked, because I was about to come to that as a possible solution to staying within the price cap. Apparently that will not be allowed either—

• 18 Mar 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  Yes, we have been in touch with the Clerks, who have corrected the amendment online. The printed version is incorrect, but in the online version amendment 1 amends clause 24 instead of clause 23.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Thirteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I will press both new clauses 31 and 67 to a vote later.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I wish to press the new clause to a vote. Question put , That the clause be read a Second time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I beg to ask leave to withdraw the clause. Clause, by leave, withdrawn. New Clause 36 Establishment of a National Body for SEND “(1) The Secretary of State must, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, establish a National Body for SEND. (2) The functions of the National Body for SEND will include, but not be limited to— (a) national coordination of SEND provision; (b) supporting the delivery of SEND support for children with very high needs; (c) advising on funding needed by local authorities for SEND provision. (3) Any mechanism used by the National Body for SEND in advising on funding under subsection (2)(c) should be based on current need and may disregard historic spend.”— (Munira Wilson.) This new clause would establish a National Body for SEND to support the delivery of SEND provision. Brought up, and read the First time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Will he give us a timeline for that? This commitment has been made repeatedly, but we have heard nothing about when the services will be expanded.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I wish to press the new clause. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I beg to ask leave to withdraw the clause. Clause, by leave, withdrawn .

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I am still at a loss to understand why, if the Government support the recommendations, they are not using this legislative opportunity. I will therefore press the new clause to a vote. Question put , That the clause be read a Second time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I shall disappoint the Minister: I would like to press the new clause to a vote. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Ninth sitting) · Hansard source

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  The National Association of Special Schools is concerned that schools seeking to make material changes sometimes face undue bureaucratic delays that mean some students end up losing out on suitable provision. Will the Minister assure the association that service level agreements will be put in place so that requests can be expedited?