Wera Hobhouse MP: speeches 2025

233 published records · newest first.

Speeches

4 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source
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May I express my sympathy? No woman in this place will not feel deeply horrified and touched by what we have just heard. I will not invite the Leader of the House to visit Portals paper mill in my constituency, although she should because it is an amazing company that is 300 years old and manufactures security-grade paper. It produces passports for countries across the world, but absurdly not our own, which are produced by a French company abroad. May we have a statement from the Home Office on the security implications if future contracts do not require primary production and personalisation of UK passports to take place here in the UK?
3 Sept 2025 · Living Standards: East of England · Hansard source
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I will call Clive Lewis to move the motion, and I will then call the Minister to respond. I remind other Members that they may make a speech only with prior permission from the Member in charge of the debate and the Minister. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention for 30-minute debates. A Liberal Democrat Member has just requested to make a speech. I am happy with that. Minister, are you happy with that as well?
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Before I call the Minister, I ask her to leave a couple of minutes for the Member in charge to respond. I thank everyone because we got everybody in today.
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Order. May I remind Members that we have very little time? Can we keep interventions short?
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Before I call the Member in charge, let me say that 21 Members want to speak, which will mean two to two and a half minutes for each speech. There are also a lot of people who wish to intervene. I am letting the Member in charge know that in order to give him an idea of when he might want to finish his speech—I suggest that he takes no longer than 20 minutes.
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Before I call Patrick Hurley, let me say that there are two Members who want to speak but are not on the list. I want everybody’s voice to be heard, so I will give them two minutes each at the end.
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Order. Interventions should be short, as so many Members want to speak.
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Order. We have been disrupted by a Division. I am expecting everybody to be back here in 15 minutes, at 3.20 pm. When we come back, the hon. Lady will have half a minute.
3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source
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Order. As I have indicated, a lot of people wish to speak. I will start with a formal time limit on speeches of two and a half minutes, but we might have to reduce that further.
3 Sept 2025 · Pavement Parking · Hansard source
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I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate. There are many more people than I have on my list. We are trying to accommodate for that, but the first people on my list get priority. I will try to get everybody in, but now, looking at the numbers, the time limit is one minute and a half.
3 Sept 2025 · Pavement Parking · Hansard source
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Order.
3 Sept 2025 · Pavement Parking · Hansard source
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Order. I must now call the Front Benchers.
2 Sept 2025 · Eating Disorders: Prevention of Deaths · Hansard source
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I have been the chair of the eating disorders all-party parliamentary group for six years and, frustratingly, things have become worse, not better. We set up the APPG six years ago to make eating disorder services better. I had hoped this Government would finally confront the crisis in eating disorder services after years of Conservative neglect, but in the entire 10-year health plan eating disorders were not mentioned once—not a single word. Other mental health disorders were rightly highlighted, but the one with the highest mortality rate was overlooked. Screening data from England shows that the proportion of adults with a likely eating disorder rose from around 6% in 2007 to 16% in 2019. This is a national emergency hiding in plain sight. In the APPG’s most recent report, “The Right to Health”, we highlighted significant barriers to accessing treatment: insufficient training for healthcare providers, fragmented care pathways and a lack of standardised data for research. Each death caused by an eating disorder must read like one, yet death certificates routinely list organ failure, cardiac arrest and other conditions rather than the disorder that primarily contributed to the person’s death. By masking the true cause, we underestimate the scale of the crisis and fail to target lifesaving resources. In the debate here in April on eating disorder awareness, the Minister for Care said that he did care. I hope that this is the one thing that the Minister will look at.
2 Sept 2025 · Eating Disorders: Prevention of Deaths · Hansard source
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As I said, I have been the chair of the APPG for six years, and nothing has changed and got better. I really trust that this Government will make a difference—I hope they will. This is about culture change, but eating disorders are a very complex illness. The APPG has therefore called repeatedly for a dedicated strategy on eating disorders. Will the Minister please look at that?
2 Sept 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source
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It might surprise the hon. Member for Northampton South (Mike Reader), but in my constituency people want good local councillors —particularly the Liberal Democrat ones, who are working hard. We Liberal Democrats passionately believe that power belongs in local communities, not concentrated in Whitehall. Although we welcome the drive for further devolution, the Bill sidelines local councils by handing yet more authority to regional mayors. Bath council knows all too well the frustration of having a regional mayor who does not listen to all the local authorities they represent. For years, Bath council wanted to bring buses under local control, but we were stuck with a Labour mayor who refused to listen and spent millions on a birthday bus vanity project, rather than delivering the change my constituents were crying out for. The Bill will enable mayors of strategic authorities to nominate up to seven unelected commissioners to deliver policy, accountable only to the mayor. These unelected officials add a layer of unaccountable bureaucracy that communities do not want and councils do not need. Real devolution means local communities at the heart of decision making, working collaboratively with the mayor. Clauses 21 and 22 do not even clarify on which “relevant local matters” mayors must convene with local partners—surely that cannot be right. Also absent from the Bill are visitor levy powers for local authorities. Bath council has long been advocating for the ability to introduce a modest visitor levy. We in Bath are proud of the role we play in supporting the visitor economy, but the system needs to be fairer, recognising the costs as well as the benefits of such high levels of tourism. The Government should give local authorities these powers through the Bill, to safeguard our hugely important and valuable tourism industry. Also missing from the Bill is the introduction of public accounts committees to oversee and hold mayoral strategic authorities accountable, much like the Public Accounts Committee does with Government expenditure. Robust local scrutiny would reduce the dependence on upward accountability to central Government and represent real progress in the existing local council and mayoral scrutiny arrangements. If the Government do support the principle of local public accounts committees, the Bill should provide a timescale for their implementation. We Liberal Democrats support the aims of the Bill, but it clearly falls short of real devolution. What we have is a Bill that misunderstands the whole point of devolution—namely, decision making from the bottom up, not the top down.
22 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I was really disappointed that there was not one mention of eating disorders in the NHS 10-year plan, which is particularly troubling given that some of the proposed measures to reduce obesity may inadvertently harm those affected by eating disorders. When will the Government finally commit to an eating disorder strategy, as recommended by the eating disorders all-party parliamentary group?
21 Jul 2025 · Primary School Assessment · Hansard source
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It is so well known how damaging formal assessment can be for some children; their wellbeing should be at the forefront of our minds. I know that from primary school teachers in my Bath constituency. Is it not time that we completely scrapped SATs?
17 Jul 2025 · Global Plastics Treaty · Hansard source
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I warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) on securing this important debate, and I thank all Members who have contributed. Rarely do I have the privilege of being part of a debate in which there is such consensus, though we have not heard from the Conservative Front Benchers yet. I assume that there is broad consensus. That should give the Government a strong hand, allowing it to be a tough negotiator in the global plastics treaty talks. Global plastic production and waste have doubled in the last 20 years—most of what I am saying has already been said; that is the beauty of winding-up speeches. According to my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean), the figure stands at 12 million tonnes of plastic. I have another statistic for him: in 2023, the BBC reported that there are more than 170 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the world’s oceans. That is no way to treat our precious planet. Indeed, it puts countless species at risk of extinction. The global plastics treaty offers a unique opportunity for a global, United Nations-led treaty, through which all countries are held to a high common standard on plastic consumption. The treaty would create a level playing field, incentivise and support international action, and forge a clear path toward a future free from plastic pollution. We Liberal Democrats have been instrumental in the campaign to finalise the treaty, and are looking towards next month’s negotiations in Geneva, in which we will, I hope, reach a breakthrough. It is not just in this Chamber that there is great consensus on this issue. The majority of the UK public, the majority of member state Governments, the business community and civil society are all pushing in the same direction. More than 100 countries support a legally binding global target to cut plastic production. The UK must retain its ambition on this key issue. I am one of 90 MPs who have signed Greenpeace’s pledge, which states: “I support a strong global target to cut plastic production”. Last year, a quarter of a million people took part in the big plastic count, an initiative run by Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic to count each piece of plastic and show the scale of the crisis in the UK. We have heard from many Members about how concerned the public are about this issue, and about their constituents taking part in clean-up actions. Greenpeace is rightly concerned that, in each further round of talks, more fossil fuel lobbyists seek to derail negotiations and prevent any limits to plastic production from being agreed. The Government should look closely at precedents for how to prevent the influence of lobbyists over international agreements. The framework convention on tobacco control, for example, recognised the lobbying tactics of the tobacco industry and required parties to “act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests”. Governments across the globe must address the influence of fossil fuels in politics, and put the interests of people before polluters. We must also address funding. A sustainable treaty that is built to last for generations must include a strong, dedicated, multilateral fund. Without a substantial financial package, the treaty will impose obligations on countries, particularly those in the global south, with which they will struggle to comply. The reality of the climate crisis globally means that countries will have to find money to clean up the mess that polluters have created. The Government should look for ways to place that financial burden mainly on the plastics industry, which has made billions in profits. I recognise that it is important to work with industries, but this is ultimately about the “polluter pays” principle—though, of course, we need to bring industry with us, to create practical and workable solutions that do not flop. I will touch on one issue that has not been mentioned, but which a constituent has raised with me: plastic pollution from chewing gum. I was alerted to it by Keir Carnie, one of my Bath constituents, the founder of plant-based chewing gum company Nuud Gum. Many of us are completely unaware that chewing gum is, in fact, a single-use plastic. It commonly contains synthetic polymers—plastic materials derived from fossil fuels, and found in products such as carrier bags, glue and car tyres. In the UK, over 4 billion pieces of plastic gum are consumed annually, the majority of which end up as non- biodegradable plastic pollution. That gum breaks down into microplastics, contaminating soil, waterways and wildlife. Gum pollution is also one of the UK’s most pervasive types of litter, and costs local councils over £60 million per year in removal efforts. I am sure that every one of us remembers an annoying moment when we had to pick off a piece of gum from under our shoe. Despite its similarities to other banned single-use plastics such as straws and cotton buds, chewing gum has evaded regulation. As with single-use vapes, the UK has a great opportunity to lead again in environmental and public health protection. I urge the Government to look into this issue, and I am happy to put them in contact with my constituent, who could provide evidence and support on what can be done. We are at a pivotal moment. The scale and urgency of the plastic pollution crisis demands bold, co-ordinated global action. The treaty must be not only ambitious but fair, with proper funding and protections against vested interests. The UK must show leadership in the upcoming talks, championing a strong new global treaty that tackles plastic pollution at every stage of its lifecycle, so that future generations can enjoy the beautiful planet that we still enjoy—just about—today.
17 Jul 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source
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I had to talk about cricket the other day and could not quite remember what bowling is, so instead I said, “throw a ball”! One of my young constituents has had virtually no meaningful education since year 1. Now nearly at the end of his primary education, he cannot cope with being at school at all, as he is traumatised by repeated failures in the special educational needs and disabilities system. I know that the Government are planning long-term transformation of the SEND system and early intervention —that is all very welcome—but the crisis is now. The Leader of the House knows, as I do, that long-term transformation takes years to take hold, and people need help now. Can we have a statement from the Government on how they are dealing with the immediate crisis so that the people who are immediately facing all these difficulties can get immediate answers?
17 Jul 2025 · Support for Cycle Manufacturers · Hansard source
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1. What steps he is taking to support small and medium cycle manufacturers.
17 Jul 2025 · Support for Cycle Manufacturers · Hansard source
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I, too, wish Robert a happy next new adventure, Mr Speaker, and I wish Her Majesty the Queen a happy birthday. The removal of anti-dumping duties on e-bikes from China has raised serious concerns for UK cycle manufacturers, which are mainly small and medium-sized businesses. With similar duties on standard bikes and parts now under review, many UK manufacturers are worried about navigating the complex trade investigation process. Will the Minister meet industry representatives to ensure that the voices of our small and medium-sized British cycling manufacturers are heard?
15 Jul 2025 · Green Industries: Supply Chain Jobs · Hansard source
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Despite the growing need for green jobs—obviously, we are all in favour of making sure we have green jobs—fewer than one in 10 employees receive any dedicated green skills training, according to an OVO Energy survey. What can we do to support businesses, and what can the Government do to accelerate that important training programme in all businesses where we need green jobs?
15 Jul 2025 · Beer Duty · Hansard source
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Pubs such as The Grapes free house in Bath provide so much more than just being somewhere to drink or meet. They host cultural events and all sorts of things that otherwise could not take place, and that would be a loss to our community and cultural life. Does my hon. Friend agree that the small loss in beer duty would be far exceeded by the benefits we get from having these places open and running?
15 Jul 2025 · Beer Duty · Hansard source
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Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, although beer duty seems to target large brewers, it quickly trickles down and hits the much smaller venues and brewers disproportionately hard?
14 Jul 2025 · Council Tax Revenue: Student Accommodation · Hansard source
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In 2013, my Bath council received £31 million through the revenue support grant. This year, it is just around £1 million. Students, who are exempt from council tax, are not being counted. Will the Minister ensure that, through the fair funding review, the issue is urgently addressed, and that councils such as Bath and North East Somerset are not missing out entirely on central Government support?

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