Richard Foord MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Jun 2025 · Businesses in Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Western. In eastern and mid Devon, we have many ordinary medium-sized and small businesses, but they are facing extraordinary barriers, including being held back by a lack of reliable broadband in rural areas. I appreciate that that is not in the Minister’s brief, but I urge him to lobby and talk to his colleagues in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to try to get some movement on the issue. Under the recent spending review, the 99% target for national coverage moved from 2030 to 2032, which was deeply disappointing. According to Ofcom’s “Connected Nations” update in January, only 56% of premises in mid Devon have access to full-fibre broadband, which is way below the national average. Daniel Lennox lives in Sidbury with his family. He works remotely and he runs a home-based business called Stagely, a digital platform that helps people to discover regional theatre productions. The business sets out to showcase local productions, and it is backed by Innovate UK. It is exactly the kind of enterprise that we want to be encouraging. It is creative, based in the community and part of the future digital economy. However, it cannot run properly, given the lack of a decent internet connection to Daniel’s property, which has been left with a part-copper line that is unreliable, slow and not sufficient for a digital business. Daniel’s case is far from unique, and while I welcome the Government’s £5 billion investment in Project Gigabit, the delivery is falling behind. We must ensure that rural businesses such as Daniel’s on the edge of villages succeed, and that they do not fail because of unreliable or unavailable broadband.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  While the hon. Lady is talking about the south-west of England, I would hate for her to forget Axminster, which still has a flourishing carpet maker, but it does not have quite the same level of employment that it did in its heyday. Does she agree that Government can help by investing in superfast broadband, given that Axminster is in the 10% of places in the country with the least superfast broadband?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  People in East Devon have been told that they must now travel to Exeter for audiology services that they previously received at their local community hospital. What steps are the Government taking to encourage new providers to restore accessible audiology services?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Iran-Israel Conflict · Hansard source

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  I support the Foreign Secretary in his call for de-escalation. In April last year, the RAF participated in the shooting down of drones that Iran fired at Israel. Will the Foreign Secretary comment on why the UK acted to defend Israel from drone attack at that time, but did not do so at the weekend?

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

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  At one of my surgeries, I heard from a civil servant who had gathered evidence for the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse across the whole of England. They described themselves as being “left emotionally and physically drained” after collecting evidence, only for the Government not to act on it. I welcome this Government’s acceptance of the 12 Casey review findings, but will the Secretary of State assure my constituent and other civil servants that there will be no delay in implementing the findings of the IICSA?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Covid: Fifth Anniversary · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the hon. Member for West Ham and Beckton (James Asser) for securing the debate, which takes place five years after covid-19 swept across the country. It is right that we take a moment to reflect not only on what we have lost, but the duty we have to those who continue to carry the burden of the pandemic. Today I speak for some of the families who caught covid and never recovered. For them, the pandemic is not history, a chapter from their past; it is still very much with them today. I speak particularly for those in my constituency who did the right thing, followed the rules, took the vaccine and were harmed. In particular, I want to share the story of Adam Bounds, who came from Axminster. He was 41 years old. He was a devoted father, a hard-working man and deeply loved by his family. On 20 May 2021, he received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and 11 days later he died of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombo- cytopenia, which is a rare but now medically recognised side effect—essentially, blood clots. My constituent—Adam’s father Leslie—has fought a dignified and determined campaign to get compensation for Adam’s son, his grandson, through the vaccine damage payment scheme. It has taken two years and considerable stress and anxiety. The family has now received the £120,000 payment, and Leslie has dealt with it all, causing him an enormous amount of trauma, frankly—two years of form filling, chasing departments and reliving that awful historic period. If we want people to have faith in vaccines, and I do, we must ensure that we have a proper, functioning compensation system that is swift, supportive and responsive to the needs of grieving families. Justice is about not only those who died, but those who live with the aftershocks. In Devon, 20,000 people are reported to have long covid.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Covid: Fifth Anniversary · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. A covid register makes good sense. She mentioned symptoms, and those can also include tiredness, struggling for breath, memory problems and heart palpitations. We should remember that many of the people affected by long covid are the very people who took the brave decision to expose themselves right at the beginning. They are the people we pay tribute to, such as care workers, shop assistants, health staff and teachers—those who kept society going while others were isolating. Last month, I was speaking with residents in Sidmouth and met a constituent who shared the impact that long covid continues to have on his daughter. She was somebody who was hard-working and determined but now finds that her energy has almost vanished. She is unable to work and is often confined to her bed, and her social life has disappeared. Like thousands of others across the UK, she faces the potential hammer blow of the Government’s proposed welfare reforms. Most people with fluctuating invisible conditions like long covid or ME will not be eligible, as we understand, for personal independence payments under the new assessment. According to the Office for National Statistics, 3.6% of adults say they have experienced long covid at some point. If we want a society that is prepared for the next crisis, we must learn the lessons of the last one. We owe it to Leslie Bounds and others in Sidmouth and to everyone across the country who suffered from covid.

• 11 Jun 2025 · NHS Funding: South-west · Hansard source

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  What does my hon. Friend think about how ICB funding is weighted? I contend that the formula overemphasises the size of each ICB and the size of the registered population, but does not account sufficiently for age, given that older people require more funding spent on them.

• 11 Jun 2025 · NHS Funding: South-west · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories · Hansard source

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  Last October, Lord Cameron said that, as Foreign Secretary, he had been working up plans to sanction extreme right-wing Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. What took the Government so long?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Planning and Infrastructure Bill · Hansard source

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  That sounds similar to the Otter Trail in my patch, which would link Feniton to King’s School at Ottery St Mary. Does my hon. Friend agree that these new active travel paths will enable young people to get to school safely?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Planning and Infrastructure Bill · Hansard source

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  Local authorities could really do with compulsory purchase powers for cycling and walking paths. The Devon local cycling and walking infrastructure plan that came out last December said that “certain private sector development…may come forward sooner, or later, than anticipated”. Local authorities do not have any control over when they can put in walking and cycling paths. Would my hon. Friend’s amendment correct that?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Planning and Infrastructure Bill · Hansard source

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  I, too, will keep my remarks brief, but I wish to put it on the record that Devon, which is rightly celebrated across Britain for its rugged coastline, its rolling farmland, its spectacular moorlands and its ancient woodlands, is subject to the diggers of developers who are encouraged by this Government. Although we all need houses and we all need the protection that they afford, this Bill, if enacted, will only damage nature. Nature in Devon is part of who we are and we face a nature crossroads. The Devon Local Nature Partnership tells us that the loss and decline of Devon’s wildlife has accelerated rapidly over the past 50 years. The wooded valleys of the Blackdown hills and the wildflower meadows of East Devon are priceless, but once they are gone, they cannot be brought back. Yesterday in the Tea Room, we were talking about the darkening clouds of the international system and how this Government are having to deal with such grave matters of state. Somebody then pointed out that, never mind grappling with wars and conflict, we cannot even create a system where a £44 swift brick is put in a new house to encourage nature in our rural areas. Healthy natural systems underpin our economy and our communities, but unless we restore nature, we will have nothing left. Building homes does not need to come at the cost of nature. We must build in the right places with nature embedded at the heart of planning. Question put, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Nuclear Power: Investment · Hansard source

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  New jobs in clean energy are very welcome. Many of the skilled jobs at Hinkley Point C in the south-west are going to young people from beyond the area. Given the social mobility challenges in East Anglia and west Somerset, will the Secretary of State comment on investment in colleges and skills to encourage applications from the local area for those new jobs and apprenticeships?

• 9 Jun 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  I welcome the partial reinstatement of the winter fuel payment. When we met, the Minister and I discussed the cliff edge that existed last winter, which meant that people in receipt of pension credit could in some cases leapfrog the income of people in receipt of a small private pension. Can the Minister indicate whether the new means test will remove that eligibility cliff edge?

• 22 May 2025 · School Teachers’ Review Body: Recommendations · Hansard source

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  The Minister mentioned maintenance contracts and Department for Education support. Schools have seen steep increases in the cost of sustaining themselves. One school leader in Devon whom I spoke with said that the cost of maintaining grounds, bins and toilets grew by 69% over the last four years. Given that schools’ budgets have barely grown over that period, does she really expect that staff pay rises will come out of existing school budgets?

• 22 May 2025 · Mental Health Bill: Legislative Scrutiny · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Joint Committee for this report. I note the Committee’s call for “more prompt and regular reviews by the Mental Health Tribunal.” The basis for that call is compliance with the individual’s right to liberty, but does the hon. Member agree that regular reviews by the tribunal are also in the interests of the families and neighbours of mental health patients, given how disruptive and upsetting it can be for them to have patients living in the community?

• 22 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit: Policy Priorities · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee for this thorough set of proposals, and especially for the call for a greater role for Parliament. The Committee red, amber and green-rated its 20 proposals and marked as green the UK-EU security pact. Yet the Prime Minister’s spokesman admitted: “This is a first step towards UK participation in Europe’s defence investment progression” and went on to say that it merely “opens the door towards joint procurement.” Will the Committee Chair acknowledge how much more there is to do before this amounts to a shared defence industrial base?

• 22 May 2025 · Occupied Palestinian Territories: Christians · Hansard source

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  Open Doors reported earlier this year that about three quarters of houses belonging to Christians in Gaza have been damaged or totally destroyed. Given that that is true for people of all faiths in Gaza, does the hon. Lady accept that it is incumbent on the Church, the Government and all of us to support them?

• 21 May 2025 · UK Health Security Agency: Porton Down · Hansard source

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  In addition to the HSA, the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency is home to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and both do vital work on antimicrobial resistance. Does he know of any work that has been done by the Government to consider the implications for the UK’s AMR research of moving the two institutions apart?

• 21 May 2025 · Broadband and Mobile Connectivity: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend mentions Airband. Building Digital UK wrote to me last month to say that villages and premises had been de-scoped because Airband had withdrawn from the contract. Does she share my view that BDUK ought to find alternative providers that can fill the gap left by companies such as Airband when they give up in places like Branscombe, Churchill and east Devon?

• 21 May 2025 · Ukraine: Forcibly Deported Children · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. The hon. Member is right that pulling support from the programme is not an act of impartiality; it is an act of complicity. I am sure the State Department of the United States must have done it very reluctantly, given the professionals who work there on the programme. To summarise, a short reprieve for the programme is not enough. It must be preserved and fully funded, so that we have the evidence needed in the fullness of time to prosecute these potential war crimes.

• 21 May 2025 · Ukraine: Forcibly Deported Children · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stuart. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter). Normally we would congratulate somebody on securing a debate, but on this occasion it is such an absolutely miserable subject that all I can say is that I am as sorry as she is about what is going on. It is ironic that yesterday at 2.30 pm in this Chamber we were debating kinship care and adoption in the UK and British Government support for that. When I first heard about Russia’s “adoption” of Ukrainian children, I wondered whether it was an exaggeration on the part of the people speaking about it, but then we look at the evidence provided and it is absolutely going on. Independent investigators at the Yale humanitarian research lab identified in March this year 314 individuals from Ukraine who had been placed in Russia’s programme of coerced fostering or adoption. It describes in great detail the circumstances of those 314 children, but the scale is much greater than that. Russia’s children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, has boasted that 700,000 Ukrainian children have been “accepted” into Russia since the war began. Those children are being re-educated in an effort to assimilate them into Russian society. There are at least 57 re-education camps spread across Russian-occupied Ukraine, Belarus and Russia proper. This is an attempt to eradicate the national identity of Ukrainian children. Videos show children riding around on Belarusian tanks, in body armour and holding rifles. Reports suggest that the children are subjected to psychological coercion, denied their language and indoctrinated with Russian nationalist propaganda. Belarusian President Lukashenko has personally endorsed this so-called “humanitarian project”. Of the nearly 20,000 children recorded as having been taken, little more than 1,000—just 7%—have been recovered. Maria Lvova-Belova is subject to an international arrest warrant, as is President Putin, in relation to this alleged war crime, yet she can be seen on state television describing how proud she is to have adopted a Ukrainian boy from Mariupol. While the Kremlin has been escalating these abductions, the international response has fallen somewhat short and in some cases has regressed. Just a few weeks ago, the United States Government pulled funding from the conflict observatory based at Yale University. The observatory, which was compiling evidence, had forensically identified satellite imagery and biometric data. It has tracked the identities of 30,000 Ukrainian children taken and their locations. The decision by Trump’s State Department to pull funding has rightly drawn widespread criticism.

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  We heard from Ministers over the weekend that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The Prime Minister said in his statement that the deal paves the way for access to the €150 billion defence industrial programme, SAFE—Security Action for Europe. If everything has been agreed, why does the security and defence partnership not include access to the SAFE industrial programme now?

• 20 May 2025 · Adoption and Kinship Placements · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Harris. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith) for securing this debate. About 3,000 children in England are adopted each year, and most have suffered severe abuse or neglect. Earlier this year, the Government left many adoptive families in limbo when they failed to confirm whether the adoption and special guardianship support fund would continue beyond 31 March. That was even the case right up to the end of March. I received a letter from my constituent Laura Blatherwick, the Devon lead for the Like Minds network, who wrote: “It is now the 22nd March and we still don’t have a decision from the Government on the continuation of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund… In NINE DAYS the fund is due to close....New applications and top ups to existing support take MONTHS to approve. This means that already there are families not receiving the support they desperately need, and others will have a long gap in their therapy. We are very concerned about current increases to risk and recovery disruption for some of the most vulnerable children we support.” As we have heard, in the end the fund was retained, thanks in part to pressure from the Liberal Democrats and my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson), who forced an urgent question in Parliament, but the funding available to an individual was slashed by 40% from £5,000 to £3,000. I have been in contact with two organisations in Devon that are affected by the changes: the Youth Arts and Health Trust and Family Compass. Between them, these two registered charities provide professional therapies for approximately 130 children per year. The children have experienced adoption, and their therapy has been terminated mid-process, often at very risky times in their lives. The Youth Arts and Health Trust is dipping into its limited reserves to continue to offer therapy—for free and at a cost to the charity—to some of those young people who are profoundly at risk. That therapy must continue because the young people are disclosing issues such as youth homelessness and sexual abuse and exploitation. The huge reduction in funding means that much-needed, year-long therapy is now unaffordable through good-value, trusted providers. We are likely to see other providers that we cannot be sure of moving in to fill the gap. This is not just a funding issue; it is a moral issue. In fact, it is a moral failure. A system that claims to protect children cannot simultaneously undermine the very services that support their recovery.