Rachael Maskell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this debate. When I read the transcript from the International Development Committee, I was struck by the contribution from Liz Ditchburn, who said that the Government’s approach to this was not sufficiently structured and that there needed to be focus and strategy. Does he agree that we need to convene such focus and strategy in this place in order to have a comprehensive response?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Official Development Assistance Reductions · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) on securing the debate. I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests: I have recently met Unite representatives who work for development agencies. They set out the challenges that they face, professionally and personally, from the cuts to the aid budget. As they face job losses here and around the world, their greater concern is the impact of the cuts, not least given that $44 billion of development funding has been cut this year alone. That is a scandal, given that the UN highlights that for every $1 invested in peacebuilding and development initiatives, $16 are saved, and that for every $1 invested to stimulate economic growth and stability, $103 can be saved by averting future instability. The World Health Organisation warns that the cuts will mean 38 million essential immunisations not being delivered to children, and that we will see regression in TB, AIDS, malaria and many other programmes. The UN World Food Programme will be starved of vital funds, and the loss of education will deny too many, especially girls, a future. This is a false choice between development, defence and diplomacy, which are now out of balance with one other, causing instability to grow. I urge the Government to rethink and restore our 0.7% commitment, and to look to raise it to 1%, as we are now learning of the real climate devastation that is causing so much unrest around the world. The last Labour Government built global respect as we modelled our investment approach on building resilience and enabling local providers to sustain services for themselves, multiplying their impact. The erosion we have witnessed since we lost office—the shutting of the Department for International Development, the removal of a Cabinet member and the diversion of funds to pay for the asylum hotels scandal—has been stark. We need to reset our strategy and focus. Climate and geopolitical challenges are unabating, so the UK approach is needed more than ever to de-risk and build stability in the system. Get this wrong and demands on defence will rise; cut too deep and diplomacy will lose impact. Scaling down funding will have a particular cost for women and girls—it is gendered. Yet fund them, and their empowerment and resilience is unparalleled. Cutting our aid presence gives countries such as China and Russia further space to intervene, as we have heard. Their interests are far removed from ours: while we seek independence, they drive dependence. Their economic models are self-serving; they seek power, control and extraction, and escalate risk for recipients and for us. We have been such pioneers in providing leadership. Staff have excelled globally. Now they are fighting for others, so today I am fighting for them. The Minister knows the arguments all too well, and I trust that her powerful voice will echo around the Treasury over the coming days so that we can avoid this futile cut, which will cause such harm, cost lives, and cut hope and opportunity. We cannot afford to look away now, when the world is looking to us to step up and lead again.

• 3 Nov 2025 · Care Leavers · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a fantastic speech. Tomorrow I will be hosting York’s director of children’s services here in Parliament to talk about York’s care journey, which has been phenomenal. It has enabled care leavers to co-produce services and to chair many committees. Does she agree that that is an exemplar that can enable young people not only to gain confidence and experience but to direct their future?

• 3 Nov 2025 · Huntingdon Train Attack · Hansard source

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  With LNER headquartered in my constituency, I have written to David Horne, the managing director, to offer my support to him and pass on my best wishes to his crew. I put on record my thanks to the signallers, also based in my constituency, who made it possible to shift the train on to the other line. Last summer, I sought to amend the Crime and Policing Bill with an amendment to provide greater protections for transport staff in the light of the increased risks they face. With the Bill about to enter Committee in the House of Lords, will the Home Secretary look again at my amendments and ensure that we provide those protections for transport staff?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Connected and Automated Vehicles · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for looking into this subject. It is something we all have to learn a lot about. The University of York has the Institute for Safe Autonomy, which is really interested in how the Government will monitor the initial pilots of this scheme, and how lessons will be learned and then, of course, fed into the regulator. Does she believe that we need to have a proper framework for how we do that data collection before the roll-out of such a programme?

• 27 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Giving sick and disabled people agency and drawing on lived experience sets the only path to getting policy right, so that they can access work appointments and get out of their homes, avoiding worklessness, health decline and isolation, with their mobility support needs recognised through PIP. Further to the Minister’s previous answer, will he ensure that any policy reforms to PIP mobility payments are fully co-produced with sick and disabled people?

• 27 Oct 2025 · Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay · Hansard source

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  I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for his speech. Will he ensure that there is a matrix over the Government’s objective that measures inequality in family life and ensures that we close the inequality gap so that parents experiencing the greatest deprivation benefit the most from the policy?

• 27 Oct 2025 · Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Hobhouse, and I congratulate the Petitions Committee and all the petitioners on bringing this issue forward for debate. I will home in on the specific issue of self-employed adopters. There is real inequality built into the system, where self-employed adopters are not able to access the pay or even the allowances that parents can. When someone takes a new child into their home through adoption, there are significant challenges, and it is important that they can build stability, attachment and security for that child. But without the resources to do that, many adopters have made the positive choice not to adopt a second child, and others in the process are not able to embark further on the journey. That is denying children access to a family, when we have so many children—over 80,000—in care at the moment. It is absolutely vital that we change the system to ensure that we give those parents, at least, equivalent and sufficient adoption pay. Therefore, I ask that the Government engage with and listen to the work done on this issue by organisations such as Adoption UK and Home for Good. They have identified that although there are voluntary arrangements at the moment, they are simply not working, and we need statutory arrangements for adopters. Only 10% of adopters had their social workers tell them about the voluntary arrangements to access resources from a local authority, which are given on a discretionary basis. In fact, we found that 34% of local authorities did not even have a policy for how they would give that pay to adoptive parents. It is not for local authorities; we need statutory provision in place, and I trust that the Minister will take on that cause.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Trade Union Workplace Access · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend not only for his incredible work to advance employment rights, but for securing today’s debate; I refer to my entry in the register of interests, having spent many an hour on street corners trying to get information to workers about trade unions. Does my hon. Friend agree that digital access needs to be directly with the worker—not via the employer, who could oversee it—and that any reciprocal communication with the union needs to be free from the scrutiny of employers?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Mental Health and Hoarding · Hansard source

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  I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for securing tonight’s debate. I have met York’s Community Bees, who have developed strategies for supporting people in the community. They dearly need money, because they are not only addressing mental health needs but de-risking a situation. Hoarding risks infection, infestations, fire and structural damage to homes, so they play a really crucial role.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Mental Health and Hoarding · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is being incredibly generous with her time. Community Bees in York has helped 600 people over the past seven years. It has a lot of expertise, not just in how to sensitively support people in decluttering, but in upcycling; it makes a positive contribution by selling things on. It has sold 7,000 books, and collected 5,323 items from landfill and passed them on. That not only helps people who have hoarded, but contributes to the future. Does she agree that that should be part of the holistic model?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Mental Health and Hoarding · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. From listening to, meeting and engaging with those from York Community Bees, I know that their big cry is for funding. These people are specialists in the work that they do to support my residents, but they need funding. Will the Minister send a message to commissioners to ensure that they commission these support services?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The public did not vote for this, and the country cannot afford it. When we look at the Government’s stated purpose, there is also no evidence behind it. If we are looking to scrutinise the grey economy, employers are ignoring the documentation whether it is digital or paper. Of course, we have to come down on employers that exploit labour and do not pay their taxes, but this scheme will simply not achieve the aims that have been presented. When I meet digital experts and academics in my constituency who deal with encryption and the risk of data leakage, they say that 12,400 data breaches have happened in the last year—those figures are from the Information Commissioner’s Office. We know that there is no security. One thing the scheme has achieved is to unite my constituents. I am glad that the Government will consult, but this is not the way forward.

• 21 Oct 2025 · NHS Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  Likewise, in York, children and adolescent mental health services are just not working for children, who are left on waiting lists often with no management or treatment. In order really to achieve reorganisation in our NHS, would our Government look at local authorities commissioning mental health services, to deliver such services and to meet the holistic needs of young children’s development and mental health wellbeing?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Ending Homelessness · Hansard source

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  It was Rowntree’s work on poverty in York that gave rise to the 1919 Housing Act, which addressed homelessness. It is in this rich tradition of social reform in York, and in order to reduce poverty and inequality, that executive member, Councillor Michael Pavlovic, with his vast experience, dedication and determination, and Labour’s City of York council are today leading the way, along with academic Nicholas Pleace, who leads on housing first, and looking at how to integrate a person-centred, trauma-informed pathway delivered by multidisciplinary, multi-agency approaches. This is pragmatic, but we also need the supply, including of one-bed flats, to ensure that social housing is available, so that services such as mental health and substance dependency services can be integrated. We also need to recognise the complex and varied causes of homelessness. Wrapping services around somebody in their own home not only provides a practical pathway out of homelessness, but builds resilience, independence and dignity. Wider support can also ensure that people have new levels of security. Barriers to accessing health and social care can contribute to high numbers of preventable deaths. Involving partners in ensuring wellbeing and physical health, which the Salvation Army has done in setting up a new boxing gym in the city, will improve people’s holistic outcomes. As many have highlighted today, focusing on the causes, but also on the opportunities to support women and children out of homelessness, must be a first step. The governance arrangements being introduced in York will ensure that city partners hold the authority to account through multi-agencies. With York on a new cutting-edge path from homelessness to hope—one rooted in evidence and best-practice approaches—I invite the Minister to meet the team in York, the university partners and clients too.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Creative Copyright · Hansard source

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  Daisy May Johnson is an exceptionally talented author of children’s books in York, but her work has been scraped and reproduced by generative artificial intelligence. She has not given permission and has not received a penny, but she has lost thousands of pounds. The same can be said about artists, musicians, writers and other creatives. When the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 was going through this House, we were given a commitment that the Government would do more, so could the Minister set out what progress has been made and ensure that there is legislation on this in the next Session?

• 16 Oct 2025 · Creative Copyright · Hansard source

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  2. What steps she is taking to help protect creative copyright, in the context of further advances in AI.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  York is a kind and welcoming city. Following the recent wave of intimidation, racism and violence perpetrated by a few which has rocked our city, I have launched the York Unity campaign with the hashtag, #ourthreewords, to ask people across York to provide three values that define our city. Mine are inclusion, community and caring. What support can the Leader of the House bring to our campaign, and may we have a debate on inclusion in our cities and communities?

• 15 Oct 2025 · Educational Assessment System Reform · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) on securing today’s debate. The assessment system is so broken that it is breaking our young people. It shows that those who can pass exams do well and those who cannot do not do so well. It assesses what people cannot recall or pull together as opposed to emphasising their strengths and building on their knowledge base, skills and talents. I have long researched this issue and believe it is time for the Government to be bold and welcome this review. The level of mental health issues, stress, trauma and anxiety among our young people is unsustainable. We have to change course. That is why I support the recommendation to scrap the SATs assessments, which place such pressure on our young people. There are other forms of assessment that can continue to map a child’s journey. Assessment should be a continual process for educators, to stretch their pupils and ensure that students can move on to the next stage of their learning. That is what we should do: enable teachers to use their professional skills to maximise a child’s learning journey, stretch their creativity and give them a hunger to explore curiosity and critical thinking—the skills that are so needed in our economy today and which employers often say are so lacking among new starters. Every child learns differently so the way they are assessed should reflect that diversity so that the fullness of their learning journey can be reflected in the assessments. I hope that we adopt a much more comprehensive form of assessment, in which we look at the diversity of how children express themselves. That should also be ongoing: people who can cram for exams have an advantage over those who process information and apply skills in very different ways. I say again in this Chamber that I recommend listening to the work of Sir Ken Robinson, which highlights how the education and assessment system must change. Scrap the SATs. We do not need them in our education system. It is not right that young children should be so stressed. I have a challenge for the Government around GCSEs, given that children do not leave school any more. We need to think about how we prepare our young people for the next stages of life, showing that they have proficiency in their learning and encouraging children to stay with and enjoy their learning. If we are to prepare people for the rest of their lives, when they will not continue to sit exams, let us think about portfolios of assignments—learning journals and project work that reflects the reality of the society that we live in. Let us enable people to have those portfolios that they can use as evidence. That would involve the skills needed and mean we could assess better through a modulated system.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Educational Assessment System Reform · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister look at how young people can develop a portfolio around their learning as you would with professional development as an adult and in employment, so that they can map that journey and use it as part of the assessment portfolio that they could gather as they move through their education?

• 15 Oct 2025 · Educational Assessment System Reform · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for what the hon. Member is saying. As well as widening inequality through the current assessment system, which we know occurs, does he not agree that it also stifles social mobility, holding many young people back from the opportunities they could have?

• 14 Oct 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I thank the Prime Minister for his statement today and also for this peace—may it be long lasting. Over 1,700 health workers have lost their lives in Gaza, and many more have been physically and psychologically traumatised by the conflict. There are not the health workers now to provide the healthcare that is urgently needed at this time. Will he ensure that the UK plays its part in providing healthcare to Gaza, and with the decimation of all the universities in Gaza, can we also play a part in training the healthcare workers of the future?

• 14 Oct 2025 · Postural Tachycardia Syndrome · Hansard source

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  I am really grateful for this debate. Dr Gupta is a leading specialist in PoTS but, although he knows the physiological changes that take place and he knows how to treat it, he has been stopped in his practice because we do not have the clinical guidelines in place. The Government must now ensure that that happens, so that he can continue his practice, which he knows has an impact on patients—indeed, they recover well.

• 14 Oct 2025 · Postural Tachycardia Syndrome · Hansard source

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  There are very few PoTS specialists across the country. Will the Minister meet those specialists to hear why they are facing barriers, and work with them to ensure that they can practise the medicine they know works?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Glasgow Safer Drug Consumption Facility · Hansard source

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  I thank the Select Committee for its report. I have been following the international evidence on taking a public health approach. Could my hon. Friend set out how the centre is developing a harm reduction model and how it will evaluate that? I am thinking particularly of engagement with clinicians. It is so important that people get the right support in the right way when they enter such a centre.