Patricia Ferguson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2025 · Welfare Reform · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my colleagues on the Front Bench for listening to what Back Benchers have been saying for months, and for making so many changes. However, I did not see any changes that affect young people, particularly care-experienced young people. Will the Secretary of State cast some light on what discussions are ongoing with young people about the processes involving them?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary for her statement. One of the questions running through Baroness Casey’s audit is “Why?”—not just why that type of offending has been allowed to grow unchecked in our society, but why people are driven to commit such vile crimes. Can the Home Secretary assure me that the Government will commission serious, thorough and considered research into the drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation, including looking at all the issues around ethnicity and age? Will those findings be shared with the devolved Administrations who, as we have heard, have not been exempt from these issues?

• 3 Jun 2025 · Dementia Care · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for taking so many interventions; it is very welcome. As she will be aware, health is devolved to the Scottish Government, and we Scots have a slightly different system. However, Alzheimer Scotland has called on the Scottish Government to commit to recognising that the needs of people with advanced dementia are healthcare needs and to ensure equality of access to appropriate health and nursing care that is free at the point of delivery, regardless of our geography. Does she agree that that is what we all want for our loved ones?

• 18 Mar 2025 · St Patrick’s Day: UK Bank Holiday · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 18 Mar 2025 · St Patrick’s Day: UK Bank Holiday · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for giving way, and I thank you for your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker—my apologies. The legend of St Patrick is a very famous one. We Scots like to think he was born in Kilpatrick in Scotland, but wherever he was born, the things he represents, as the hon. Member says, are things that we can all gather around. I think the fact that the celebrations around St Patrick’s day are so lively probably does have something to do with the fact that, actually, he was Scottish.

• 14 Mar 2025 · Arm’s-Length Bodies (Review) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am very much aware that the hon. Member has been a Member of this Chamber for much longer than I and many of my colleagues have, given that many of us were elected for the first time last July, but does he recall that between 1997 and 2010, the Labour Government cut the number of quangos in this country by 39.8%? That shows what Labour does in government. Wait until the end of the five years and see how many we have cut by then—I am sure he will be delighted by the number.

• 27 Feb 2025 · Church Organs: Legislative Protection · Hansard source

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  St Margaret’s, Church of Scotland, in Knightswood in my constituency is closing, much to the detriment of its congregation and the wider area. The church is home to a significant pipe organ, built by the renowned maker Henry Willis. In some countries in Europe, there are protections in law for historical instruments such as that one, to prevent them from being destroyed or abandoned when a church becomes redundant. Does my hon. Friend agree that such a scheme should be established in the UK?

• 27 Feb 2025 · Church Organs: Legislative Protection · Hansard source

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  8. Whether the Church has made an assessment of the potential merits of specific legislative protections for significant church organs.

• 17 Jan 2025 · Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill · Hansard source

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  I give way.

• 17 Jan 2025 · Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill · Hansard source

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  On that point, is my hon. Friend as saddened and surprised as I am to see not a single SNP Member here? It strikes me that if they claim to be Scotland’s party, they need to be here to talk about legislation that affects Scotland.

• 17 Jan 2025 · New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to see the Bill in the House today, but am not quite so entranced by the hon. Member’s puns, or by his making me feel completely and utterly ancient. Setting aside that niggle, on a serious point, does he agree that it is important for us to have a secure supply chain for solar panels, and that we eliminate the use of solar panels built by Uyghur people subject to forced labour in China?

• 16 Jan 2025 · Church of England: Racial Injustice · Hansard source

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  9. What steps the Church is taking to tackle racial injustice.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to talk about the heroism, frankly, of people like Dr Mamode. I recall that, when showing us a short video from his video diary, he pointed out that the noise in the background was the noise of drones. Medical staff are not exempt from these attacks, nor are civilian people who are there helping with the humanitarian effort. So, we do have to speak about that bravery. To have someone like Dr Mamode, who has experienced that horror at first hand, who has given up his own time to try to help and who clearly despairs, was something that I do not think any of us who were present will ever forget. For me, it was the cold calculation of using machines to kill children, as though it was some kind of warped video game, that was the most disturbing aspect of Professor Mamode’s presentation, and which made those statistics that I spoke about earlier mean a great deal.

• 2 Sept 2024 · Infected Blood Compensation Scheme · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement, but will he outline the categories of loss that victims can claim against the scheme, and how will this inform the size of the compensation award that they can claim?