Vikki Slade MP: speeches

Speeches

• 12 Mar 2025 · Housing Development Planning: Water Companies · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Lewell-Buck. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for securing this important debate. It was deeply disappointing to hear this week about the bodies being removed as statutory consultees. I completely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord). Although it is deeply regrettable that we are taking away rights from organisations like Sport England, I hope that will make space for the water companies. We have been calling for them to be statutory consultees for a long time. Although water companies have a statutory duty to connect all new homes to the sewerage system, it seems quite ridiculous that, apart from us, nobody seems able to speak up in our communities to say that there is no capacity left in the system. If water companies are not allowed to say no, how can we make sure that there is enough space? I have been working with the local water company, Wessex Water, and a fantastic campaigner, Bill Burridge, to deal with a problem in the village of Merley. The community was built predominantly in the ’70s and ’80s, and the sewerage system is already at bursting point—literally. Most of the homes were built at a time when the surface water was allowed to go into the sewerage system. As a result, whenever it rains a brown sludge washes across the Stour Valley way, which is a well-used leisure route, and directly into the nature park and the River Stour, exactly where the local rowing club trains and the Wimborne angling club fishes. It is beyond ridiculous—you can see the two side by side. Six hundred new homes are about to be built at the location, between the existing homes and the river, which will increase the capacity the community needs by 25%. Although some section 106 obligations are in place, there appears to be little enforcement. When we told the people at the sewerage company that some of the houses were already occupied, they said, “Oh, we will get a project team down there to see whether things need to be upgraded.” It really was laughable. If the Government are serious about getting homes occupied, the water companies need to be required to act before the homes are ready to go, so that we do not end up with situations in which homes are waiting for connections and for sewerage systems to be upgraded. There is another problem that affects not only people moving into new homes but the people already living there. As water companies are being forced to repair the sewers and reduce the spills, the surface water that has been flowing through the systems, often for decades, is now backing up in people’s gardens. The houses were built long ago, the concrete has been laid and there is absolutely nowhere for all this excess water to go. There is water from the ground and water from the surface. Homes in Broadstone, including in the Springdale area, are finding their gardens unusable, and houses slightly further down the hill are using sandbags to prevent the water from flooding into their homes and gardens, despite the fact they are around 5 miles from the nearest river. The water companies say it is not their problem because they are fixing their drains and sewers, and the councils say it is not their problem because it is not public land. Whose responsibility is it? Homeowners cannot be suddenly faced with gardens that are underwater. Like the homes my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire mentioned, homes in Broadstone have seen sewage bubbling up, sometimes in their living rooms. The only reason the water companies have given us is that they are the oldest homes in the area and are closer to the water treatment plant, and therefore when all the new homes are connected they have to face the consequences of inadequate systems. The water companies have absolutely no answer. Individual homeowners are expected to put up with it, and the only new investment is where the new homes are. What is the Minister doing to ensure that the water companies and developers are providing for the homes that are already in communities?

• 12 Mar 2025 · Rural Communities: Government Support · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that many children in rural areas such as mine rely on the school bus? When the previous Government increased the age of participation from 16 to 18, they failed to also increase the age up to which children who live in rural communities get free transport to school, creating costs of up to £1,000 per family per child. Does she agree that that needs to be resolved?

• 12 Mar 2025 · Sustainable Farming Incentive · Hansard source

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  I was contacted by members of the Great Big Dorset Hedge initiative three weeks ago, who told me that capital grants under SFI had already been frozen. Can the Minister confirm when the decision to close was actually made, whether applications submitted will be granted and how long applicants will have to wait? As farmers are already obliged to improve hedges with more than 10% gaps under their agreements, how will they access funding to do so to enable their existing funding to be maintained?

• 11 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. The Government’s statistics on women in the criminal justice system show that women are more often prosecuted for much more minor offences and suffer from short prison sentences, which have huge social and emotional effects on their children and increase their likelihood of being taken into care. What steps is the Department taking to continue delivering the female offender strategy delivery plan for 2022 to 2025 and to reach beyond it, thinking about the negative impacts on the children of offenders?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Social Housing · Hansard source

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  Every day, another family contact my office because they are homeless, and they are placed in a hostel, with no functioning kitchen and no private bathroom, miles away from their children’s schools. I am sure that other hon. Members can say the same. What is worse is that the placements cost councils at least three times as much as permanent social homes. So-called affordable homes are of no use to these families at all. At the same time, new homes are being rejected by registered housing providers because the standards are not high enough. What are the Government doing to progress the future homes standard, so that the homes being built are not rejected by registered home providers, who say that the homes are not good enough for them, and will have to be retrofitted?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Homelessness stats published last week show that rough sleeping has increased for the third year in a row and is now 91% higher than in 2021, yet the Vagrancy Act 1824 has not been repealed and rough sleeping is still a criminal offence. In July 2024, the Minister was asked for a progress report and advised that consideration of relevant legislation was needed, but it is now more than three years since Parliament voted to repeal the Act. Will she now give us a date when that will come into force?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Government’s commitment to increasing defence spending, but I am troubled by it being done entirely on the back of the overseas development aid budget. I hope that the Prime Minister will keep an open mind on alternatives. It was reassuring to see the uplift in air missiles explicitly linked to British jobs in Northern Ireland. What assurance can the Prime Minister give that defence spending on new equipment—be it weapons, kit or tech like drones and IT—will be focused on UK manufacturing and innovation, so boosting British growth?

• 26 Feb 2025 · High Street Rental Auctions · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I congratulate my neighbour, the hon. Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale), on securing this important debate. It is great to see four new Members from Dorset here this afternoon, which shows what a fantastic place it is to visit. I agree with the hon. Member for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton) that high streets are, of course, the beating heart and the identity of a place, but they also hold—as the hon. Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) mentioned—the communal memory of the people who live in, work in and visit a place. I remember the high street of my youth, in a little town in Edenbridge, Kent. I used to visit the independent chemist, which doubled as a gift shop, to buy presents for my mum—I am sure she never liked them—and I would go to the big town for summer holiday shopping with stores like C&A and Chelsea Girl, and department stores like Allders and Debenhams. But those high streets were symptoms of their time, and I am sure that our grandparents would have been shocked by the identikit towns that we have had over so many years. It might be right and proper that some of those brands have succumbed to what is going on now—there is the negativity around online buying but also the trend toward second-hand and vintage shopping, which is actually quite a positive move. Almost 13,000 retailers shut their shops last year, and according to a recent report, retail institutes warned that a “perfect storm” of higher costs and red tape means that one in 10 shop-floor jobs are expected to disappear by 2028. We need to make these moves with that as a background. But many places are bucking the trend and I hate to be negative about places, so even Bournemouth—which has had so much negativity—has had increase in footfall of 12.5% year on year. We need to congratulate those amazing businesses that are making the difference. We must also think about what the high street means for us now: a combination of shopping, entertainment, living, working, playing, studying and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) says, post offices. We Lib Dems welcome all the ideas to shape and support our high streets and town centres. Of course, local and national governments have a vital role to play, but the issue is not rent; it is business rates. Landlords say that rates are now higher than the rents that they can command in many cases, so a scheme that addressed that would be the most welcome. I am sure that the Minister will tell us about the new lower rate for retail, hospitality and leisure, but we need something substantially different from the current model. I entered politics a long time ago on a local level to reform business rates, so it is great that I have finally made it to this position, and can hopefully make an impact. Lib Dems want to see business rates replaced with a commercial landowner levy to create a more level playing field, shifting the responsibility from tenant to landlord, and also ensuring that high streets can compete against businesses that do not have the same overheads. In abolishing the broken business rates system, we would look to tax the land value of commercial sites, not productive investment, because that is the problem—at the moment, we tax business investment, which impacts productivity and wages. The biggest impact would be on small businesses in deprived areas. They would then be a part of the regeneration of a space through wider community development, which can work alongside rental auctions. We welcome the current discussion paper on business rates reform. Can the Minister update us on when we can expect that to move forward? On the rental auction initiative, the Lib Dems are concerned about the potential costs of the scheme for local authorities. Although the programme has funding allocated to it, it is not clear whether local authorities would be able to use this to take on leases to help them to enable business growth and start-ups to take off. There is no doubt about the financial burden on councils at the moment, and I am deeply concerned about whether there is the capacity and desire in some places to deliver something on the scale that is needed. The industry also has doubts about the new auction system and whether it will have the desired effect. I agree with the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (Jo White) about hospitality fit-outs. Someone can spend £30,000 just like that on a small independent café, and that money is not going to come from just anywhere, particularly in the limited amount of time that these auction leases will be arranged for. The funding available to create vacancy lists is welcome. Economic development teams have an amazing opportunity to drive the vision for their area forward; I am concerned that landlords may not understand the other innovative uses for their buildings, whereas a local authority has the ability to go out and scout for other businesses that might want to come into an area. There is an opportunity through the scheme if the funding can be used in a more flexible way. I am interested to know how councils can use the funding if they do not have property that they can put forward and auction now, but want to get ahead of the game. Any building sitting empty for more than 12 months is a long time, and the rot will already be setting in, so getting ahead of the game would be really useful. A local council also shared that the high street rental auction is a big stick with which to beat up landlords who are not willing to engage. I read in The Business Times of a business lawyer who said: “The question however remains: are we genuinely operating within a market of idle landlords who require this intervention? If the regulations only offer a solution for the minority and do not tackle the root cause of a greater economic issue around demand and affordability…these detailed provisions may not be the ‘breath of new life’ the government envisages.” I am also concerned that the power will not do very much in small towns. It is understandable that the big towns such as Mansfield and Bournemouth might well see some benefit from this, but smaller places such as Broadstone or Wareham, or even Swanage and Wellington, might actually be invisible to the big councils as they look to the areas with a significant problem. One or two long-standing empty buildings in those smaller towns can have just as much of an impact, but they are unlikely to be worthwhile with the moneys coming to councils to make the scheme work. My final point is on the reasons a property might be empty—there may be very good reasons. If councils are to use this power effectively, we must help landlords to bring properties into use if they simply cannot afford to do so otherwise. The high street rental auction requires landlords to bring properties up to the minimum energy efficiency standards—if they do not, they potentially face criminal prosecution. That could cripple landlords financially. What plans are there to support landlords who may wish to improve their stock but for whom doing so is not commercially viable? Across my Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, businesses have cited the huge costs associated with operating, which are affecting confidence and putting them off investing in physical property. Soaring energy costs, the increase in national insurance contributions, worries about the impacts of some measures in the Employment Rights Bill and international insecurity mean that taking on a high street premises is probably more difficult right now than it has been for a long time. What considerations are the Government offering to businesses that want to invest but are worried about then having an immediate revaluation of their rates—as in the case of Hall and Woodhouse, which I raised last month? Without sustainable financial support for councils to eliminate the other issues around town centres, from rough sleeping to public transport initiatives and funding for police to deal with antisocial behaviour, I fear that the scheme may have a minimal effect and be counterproductive. It is a good start: I give credit to the previous Government for starting it, and I hope this Government will finish it, but I would like to know how it will be made more interesting and effective for a broader range of towns.

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. It is deeply troubling that we remain so reliant on the foreign gas markets and that, as a result, vulnerable people in this country will see an increase in their bills. I completely welcome the proposals to expand the warm home discount. No one should have to choose between heating and eating—we all know that. However, the reality is that we have to get beyond that issue and reduce consumption, instead of just handing public money to our energy giants. The Lib Dems have been calling for a 10-year emergency home insulation plan for a long time, and it was disappointing that the amendment tabled to the Great British Energy Bill by my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings) was not taken up, so I would be grateful if that could be looked at again in any other scope. What timeline can we expect for the upgrade of building standards for new homes and the decent homes standard for existing properties, so that people are not having to consume as much electricity and gas? Until all homes are properly insulated, what progress has been made on requiring all energy companies to sign up to a single social tariff, paying particular attention to the pensioners left cold after the removal of the winter fuel allowance? I was contacted by Michael from H2-ecO, a company that does lots of retrofitting, who told me about the home upgrade grant, affectionately known as HUG, which is ending in March, when it is due to be replaced immediately, with continuity, by the warm homes local grant. The company was told on Friday that it will not be continued, and that there will be a pause—five weeks before the scheme ends. People have been told that they would be able to pre-register, but now they are told that there will be a pause. They asked me to tell you that they are concerned that they will lose their contractors [ Interruption. ] Sorry—not you, Madam Deputy Speaker, but the Minister. I apologise.

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I absolutely will, Madam Deputy Speaker. They asked me to ask you—sorry, they asked me to ask the Minister what guarantee can be offered that the scheme will open immediately, and not be slowed by reviews, and when will you set out your long-term plans before 2026?

• 24 Feb 2025 · Drug Dealing: Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  7. What steps she is taking to help tackle drug dealing in rural communities.

• 24 Feb 2025 · Drug Dealing: Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  It is well known that rural and seaside areas are targeted by drug gangs. Escapeline has assessed that up to 70,000 young people, some as young as six, are being trafficked. In my constituency, I have recently dealt with young girls who have been provided with drugs by trusted adults in dance schools, where no action is taken, because those adults are not seen as requiring a Disclosure and Barring Service check, and with vulnerable adults who are being controlled in their homes, where there has been no response at all from local police, because my small towns are simply not seen to be a priority and resources are directed elsewhere. How can I offer reassurance to my communities that their small towns are not being forgotten?

• 11 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T10. Some 44,066 children—one in six—are waiting more than a year for medical treatment, compared with one in 100 adults. Waits are at their worst in community medicine. In Dorset, there are waits of up to two years in child development, and delays of a year are normal for child and adolescent mental health services. Fifty-three per cent of all community health referrals take more than a year. Will the Minister confirm whether the 18-week target will apply to community referrals and not just hospitals? If not, when can we expect a target, so that children are not badly affected?

• 10 Feb 2025 · Inheritance Tax Relief: Farms · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. Last week, I was invited to Goodens farm in Stoborough in my constituency. Phil Randall is a third-generation farmer, and he hosted us with other Purbeck dairy, beef and arable farmers. I saw the investment he has made in his equipment, buildings and livestock. I was really impressed with the innovations he has already put in place to protect him and his business from the steep increases in fertiliser costs after the invasion of Ukraine, as well as the investment he has made in the care of his dairy and beef cows to improve their welfare and his yield. I was so excited to meet his newest calf, which was born by caesarean section and nurtured through its early days by Phil and his children. I was shocked when Phil told me that his farm is run entirely by him, his wife, his children and two members of staff, which gives me the impression that there is no money left to pay anybody else on the farm. It was really clear that Phil and the other Purbeck farmers, including Ian, Chris, Nicki and Catherine, care deeply about their farms. However, they also care about the wider sector, protecting the countryside, ensuring food security and making sure that they have a sustainable business. One farmer shared with me that the margins on his farm are just 1%. I can think of no other industry in which a business would carry on with a profit margin of 1%. The farmers are deeply angry about what happened last year, but they have now come to the conclusion that it is unlikely the Chancellor is going to make a U-turn, so they asked me to convey their ideas of what they want from the Government. They want a consultation with them about how these changes can be modified. They recognise that there are people buying up land in the countryside who are not producing food and are not supporting the environmental aims of the Government to mitigate climate change. The farmers support the introduction of a family farm tax, as proposed by the Liberal Democrats, and the transfer of the inheritance tax liability to the point of sale of assets, not inheritance. They want a temporary relief to create time for estate planning, not just for elderly farmers, but for anyone who dies unexpectedly in the next three to four years, as they noted that farming is an incredibly dangerous profession at any age. They want to see institutional investors forced to be more transparent, having raised concerns about wealth being hidden in their land. They want APR and BPR to be separated and to have separate thresholds.

• 10 Feb 2025 · Inheritance Tax Relief: Farms · Hansard source

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  That is not really for me to say, but I hope that they are listening. The important thing is that there is time. We have until April next year, and that is why the consultation and listening to all these people is so important. I saw just how much was being invested in tractors, muck-spreaders, equipment to cut and bale the grass, milking equipment and water storage systems. If we want our farms to be more efficient and more profitable, it is ridiculous to tax farmers on investments in making their farms work better. So I implore the Minister—this tax is going to harm the countryside and food security, and if we end up increasing imports it will also have negative impacts on climate change and animal welfare. It is so important that the Minister hears our message—that of Opposition Members, and the people in the Gallery and in the tractors outside—and I hope that the Minister takes this opportunity to at least reform if not scrap this tax.

• 5 Feb 2025 · English Devolution and Local Government · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for advanced sight of her speech, but I am disappointed that we read the list of cancelled elections on social media, well before it was made available to Parliament. How was that allowed to happen? A key pillar of our democracy is the right to vote, with people making a mark for the person they want to represent them. The Conservative councils that asked for and have been granted the right to cancel their elections have created crises in special educational needs and have let their residents down. The Conservatives should have been kicked out of county halls last May, as they were kicked out of government last summer, but now those councils have been given the right to help design the new authorities. The plan, which also signals the end of district councils, is completely undemocratic. We welcome the move to mayoral authorities—it is in train and, as a former council leader, I know councils were already working on it—but there is no democratic mandate for the cancelling of councils in ancient cities such as Colchester and Winchester, the previous capital of England. That was not in the Labour manifesto. What active role will those districts have in the co-production of the new unitary authorities? When will those district councils cease to exist? For priority areas such as Surrey and Hampshire, what assurance will the Secretary of State give that the elections will not take place after May 2026? For places that have had their own authority for hundreds or even thousands of years, what support will be provided to develop meaningful town councils with statutory powers, so that the identity of places such as Winchester can be maintained forever?

• 4 Feb 2025 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source

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  I hope the Minister will join me in thanking the team at Dorset cancer centre in Poole, who enabled my step-mum, Sally Walls, to ring the bell this morning following the end of her radiotherapy treatment. Her treatment has been exceptional and swift, but the situation is inconsistent. Nikki from Horton was told that she needed a two-week appointment for gynaecological problems. When she called, she was told that it would be six weeks. She could not bear to wait, so she borrowed £650 to find out that she was all clear. Can the Minister offer reassurance that he will end the postcode lottery?

• 4 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T9. In the village of Shapwick in my constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole, 20% of properties have been lying empty because their owners, Aster housing association and the National Trust, cannot afford to bring them up to standard. National Trust homes are typically solid-wall, thatched, not on mains gas, and listed. What plans are there to support the owners in achieving energy efficiency, so that we can get those properties occupied?

• 3 Feb 2025 · School Accountability and Intervention · Hansard source

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  One of the most common areas of casework in Mid Dorset and North Poole involves children with special needs. Parents often cite awful experiences of children being manipulated out of school by those schools being made truly hostile places for them and by failures, often at a trust level, to provide even low-cost or no-cost changes, with parents completely ignored in the process. I am interested in understanding why the Minister has not included full accountability and judgments at multi-academy trust level in the reforms, because parents simply have nowhere to go when they need to complain and the problem is with the trust.

• 24 Jan 2025 · Climate and Nature Bill · Hansard source

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  As a Poole Member, I recognise those places. Will the right hon. Gentleman join me in congratulating Dorset on being one of the only places in the country that has turned around the depletion of nature? Thanks to people like Mark and Mo Constantine, we are restoring ospreys and other birds of prey to our wonderful county.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Holocaust Memorial Day · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to speak in this debate, and it is humbling to follow the hon. Member for Hendon (David Pinto-Duschinsky); I thank him for his incredible testimony about his family. I pay tribute to Mr Speaker and his office for the moving parliamentary ceremony yesterday, especially the testimony of Yisrael and Alf, who both survived the Nazi Holocaust. To mark this event in the same week as the fragile ceasefire in the middle east and the release of Emily Damari and two other hostages makes it even more poignant. When my son Isaac was nine, his school, Springdale First, held a world war two tea. Children were invited to bring a grandparent to share their memories of living through the war, but he came home distressed because my parents—his grandparents—were not born until several years after its end. Being an ingenious child, he knocked on the door of our neighbour Margaret and asked her to be his adoptive grandmother for the day, so that she could share her memories with his classmates and enjoy the wartime entertainment, which included his singing of “We’ll Meet Again”. I tell this story because, as the living memory of the Holocaust reduces, it is more important than ever that each of us keeps it alive through our own annual acts of remembrance and in calling out antisemitism and all acts of discrimination and hate against groups because of their faith, nationality or identity. Twelve years ago, I visited Israel and Palestine as part of a Liberal Democrat delegation, during which we made a trip to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. The experience stays with me for many reasons, but the thing that struck me hardest was what came well before the death camps like Auschwitz: a decade of dehumanising a whole community; of families being rewarded with crates of beer for betraying their neighbours; of the boycotting of Jewish businesses, the burning of Jewish authored books and, most strikingly, the sale of ashtrays depicting so-called Jewish faces on them, so that people could stub out cigarettes on their faces, helping to foster the feeling that Jews were not really people at all. Last Sunday, I attended a Holocaust memorial event in Wimborne Minster in my constituency. The service, which can be seen on the minster’s YouTube page, was based around the book “Violins of Hope” and accompanied by the haunting playing of pieces of music reminiscent of that time by classical violinist Emma-Marie Kabanova, herself a refugee from Ukraine. As well as the accounts of those whose music continued to be played in the camps, maintaining hope and retaining their humanity, some of the testimony we heard shared more about what came before the war—how Jewish people were forced to leave their homes and their businesses, how they fled in boats from European shores to reach Palestine but were refused landing or, worse, died at sea. I closed my eyes to listen to the simplicity of the violin played in the minster, as the words of those who lived through that horror were shared with us all. The contrast between the evil perpetrated in the name of power and ideology and the selflessness of those condemned to death for something they could not control was incredibly moving. By the end of the Holocaust, as we know, 6 million Jewish men, women and children had been murdered in ghettos, mass shootings, concentration camps and death camps. In addition, and often forgotten, were the other groups targeted by the Nazis for extermination, among them Romani Gypsies, those with disabilities, gay and bisexual men and black people. This year carries a special significance, as we mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Next Sunday I will be attending the Poole Lighthouse Holocaust memorial event, as I do every year, at which candles are lit for the victims of not only the Nazi Holocaust but later genocides, all of which unbelievably occurred within my lifetime, in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. That is what Holocaust Memorial Day is for: looking backwards to look forwards. The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day this year is “For a better future”, so I return to my son, Isaac. At the age of 12, he joined his fellow Broadstone scouts on a European adventure focused on world war two. They travelled across several countries, alternating light-hearted activity days with visits to the Colditz castle prisoner of war camp, to Auschwitz and, on their return, to the Menin Gate to see the war graves and witness the last post at sunset. We thought carefully about whether he was too young for such a trip and whether he could really understand what he was seeing, but I have seen the positive impact of that trip on him. The relationship that we all build with history and truth goes some way to structuring our perspectives in adulthood and preventing our susceptibility to dangerous narratives. The work of the Holocaust Educational Trust in training and supporting hundreds of teachers each year to help us all learn from the past and work towards a more united future, and of the Antisemitism Policy Trust in training decision makers like us, should be commended and supported. As my party’s spokesperson for housing, communities and local government, it should not be surprising that I will say there is a role for our communities to play too. At a time of rising antisemitism and Islamophobia, many UK communities are feeling vulnerable, with hostility and suspicion of others rising. The Home Office’s own statistics revealed that the number of religious hate crimes recorded in the year to March 2024 had rocketed, which it has directly attributed to a spike in anti-Jewish hate. We have also seen inconsistent responses from the police to language and behaviours that may well be antisemitic or viewed as hate crimes. I call on the Government to ensure that the police have the resources and, most importantly, the training they need to respond effectively and swiftly to antisemitic hate crimes, and to provide funding for security organisations such as the Community Security Trust. We must speak up against Holocaust and genocide denial and distortion. We must challenge prejudice. We were told by Holocaust survivor Alf Garwood in Mr Speaker’s service yesterday: “When my parents were coming to terms with their trauma after the war, I saw what their hate towards those who had destroyed our lives did to them. Hate only poisoned them.” We must all continue to remember, and to work for peace and understanding at a time when the world feels fragile, and we in this place must lead that work together for a better future.

• 23 Jan 2025 · ECO4 and Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  I apologise to the Minister, because like the hon. Members for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) and for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), and my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon), I will raise the issue of spray foam. My constituent Matt was told that his house was unmortgageable with the nation’s largest building society, despite his paying extra for an extensive survey of his timbers to prove that there was no problem. He has since been forced to replace his roof at a cost of £21,000 just to get a chance to remortgage and perhaps one day sell his house. The roofing companies told him that the market is booming for spray foam removal by the very same people who put it in, which feels like exploitation. How will the Government address that, and why are Government sites still promoting and recommending spray foam insulation?

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Many of our professionals, including doctors, teachers and police officers, are struggling with recruitment and retention. They all serve our communities with dedication and selflessness, and we rely on them, but they are affected by the rules relating to their pensions. In the case of doctors, it is costing them money to work additional hours for the NHS. In the case of long-standing teachers and police officers, changes to their pensions partway through employment can mean that they owe money or are trapped and unable to claim pensions, due to legislative change. Will the Leader of the House agree to have a debate in Government time on public sector pensions?

• 22 Jan 2025 · Education, Health and Care Plans · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. The current system is creating a horrendous conflict environment and a depressing, stressful professional working experience for teachers and support staff. Parents are spending their lives fighting, costing their own mental health and livelihoods, and councils are on the brink of resisting because they simply cannot cope with more. Far from early diagnosis adding to the strain, we believe that more investment can save money, reassure parents and ensure that schools and councils understand better the needs of the children who come through the system. I have been contacted by so many parents, but I want to share what Rachel from Wimborne told me. She said: “As a preschooler, there is a chance to give my daughter a full education, but the Dorset Child Development Centre is drowning in referrals, with a two-year wait for speech and language referrals.” Her mum is a teacher, and she said: “The red tape around autism and other neurodivergent conditions is ridiculous. Why do they have to go to the CDC when their needs are so severe that it is obvious to other educational and health professionals?” I have sent the Minister details of an exciting pilot scheme at Broadstone middle school, and I look forward to hearing about a meeting soon. Does she agree that SEND children are entitled to the same quality of life and happy childhood as everybody else?

• 22 Jan 2025 · Russian Maritime Activity and UK Response · Hansard source

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  Last week, alongside other hon. Members and peers in the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I visited the nation’s flagship Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. The commanding officer Captain Will Blackett and his team showed us the ship’s capability, and we witnessed an incredible demonstration of how they can respond. But when we asked about how they would respond to ballistic missiles, or how this place and other institutions are protected from hostile states, it was a terrifying response. I realise the strategic defence review is ongoing and that there is a commitment to get to 2.5%, but with President Trump threatening to pull out of NATO, that is not enough. What plans does the Secretary of State have to go faster and to put our military retention and recruitment on a stronger footing, so that our country and infrastructure are properly protected?