Sarah Coombes MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 Jun 2026 · Schools Funding · Hansard source

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  Eaton Valley primary school in West Bromwich has enthusiastically embraced net zero, and the Government have supported it by putting solar panels on the roof, providing a battery to store the power, and installing electric vehicle charge points in the car park. Those measures are already saving the school hundreds of pounds in energy bills every week. Will the Government look to roll out similar schemes, which reduce carbon emissions and allow more money to be invested directly into teachers and pupils, across further schools in the Black Country?

• 9 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. The situation we inherited at the election, with one in eight young people not in education or employment, is a national scandal and I am glad that this Government will put it right. In West Brom, there are lots of opportunities in the manufacturing sector, but lots of young people often think of a different reality when they think of factories. In fact, many of the jobs are high quality, well paid and involve modern machinery and robotics, and are not the back-breaking work that many think it is. What are the Government doing to ensure that jobcentres connect young people with the opportunities in all different sectors, particularly in manufacturing?

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

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  I agree that exciting pilots are going on. I am sure Kettering and many other parts of the country could benefit. Wayve is an example of a company leading the way in helping the UK to become a global leader in this technology. Although the company was founded out of the University of Cambridge and is now based in King’s Cross, there is an unmissable opportunity for industry up and down the country. My own region of the west midlands is an automotive manufacturing heartland. Jaguar Land Rover produces the Jaguar I-PACE, the vehicle used by Waymo robotaxis. Some of the factories in my constituency make parts for Nissan, which has announced a partnership with Wayve for new AI driver software.

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

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  We have heard about all the different parts of this issue today: sharing the benefits of the future autonomous revolution UK-wide; the importance of public trust and uptake; accessibility and independence; and security and safety. We need the benefits to be shared nationwide—in Strangford, Weston-super-Mare, Kettering and beyond. The hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) made the good point that we need to look at regulation for autonomous vehicles beyond just that for road-based ones. My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) made important comments about his university’s contribution in this space and the fact that we are often behind the curve on many of these things. On public trust and uptake, although I do not agree with the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) about how nice the roar of a diesel engine is, I absolutely agree that people are unsure about this development in the future. We need to address public trust issues and bring people with us on this journey. My hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer) made a very good point about making buses sexy for the public, and this issue is definitely part of that, and a way to increase uptake. The Lib Dem spokesperson, the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), talked about demand-responsive transport, which is very interesting in the area of autonomous vehicles. On accessibility, my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) spoke movingly about his wife and the experience of sight loss, about how autonomous vehicles can improve independence and be transformational and about how APS will knit together the network for the future. On security and safety, I am glad to have found a kindred spirit in the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton), who spoke about the importance of the humble number plate in this country and all the deficiencies of the system. The 10,000 cloning incidents he mentioned show how much we need change in the system. On insurance, the point was made that, ideally, if safety went up, costs and insurance premiums would go down. The Motor Insurers’ Bureau thinks that connected vehicles, which would mean that we could have a new system to detect whether cars are insured, could be helpful on that. There is also the issue of the number of cars with no registered keeper on our roads shooting up. That is driving up all our insurance premiums, because no one can work out who owes the money. In summation, I appreciate the Minister’s comments and the hope and opportunity we have in front of us. The Conservative spokesperson, the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), is right that the previous Government laid good groundwork here. We need to build on it. We need to fix ghost plates and things like that in the current system. The UK is a leader in AI. We have always been leaders in automotive. Let’s embrace that, bring the two together and lead in the self-driving future. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered connected and automated vehicles.