Commons
Statutory Instrument
24 June 2026
2 contributions
Draft Lifelong Learning (Fee Limits) Regulations 2026
We all knew that!
Like everyone who has spoken, I support the principle of the lifelong learning entitlement. I welcomed it in Sir Philip Augar’s review, which reported while I was at the Department for Education. I was pleased that it was brought in by my erstwhile right hon. Friends for Chichester and Harlow. It is…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 June 2026
Social Media Ban for Under-16s
I welcome this morning’s announcement. The platforms are not now off the hook: the Online Safety Act 2023 operates until the age of 18, which is the age to which the Children Act 1989 requires protection to be in place. On the announcement, what is the net effect of exempting messaging services but …
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
15 June 2026
Topical Questions
Further to the Minister’s answer to my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), will he take the opportunity of the new NPPF to make it absolutely clear that if someone wilfully ignores—not inadvertently, but deliberately and wilfully—the need for planning consent, they w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 June 2026
Milburn Review: Interim Report
This is an important piece of work from Alan Milburn, but what principles will underpin the Government’s approach? Does the Minister think that, other things being equal, if we increase the cost of employing people, then that will come at the expense of jobs? Does he think that, with slack in the la…
Commons
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
2 contributions
Contaminated Blood: Compensation
12. What recent steps he has taken to ensure that people infected and affected by contaminated blood are compensated.
I thank the Paymaster General for his personal work in this area. The increase in the unethical research award is a material improvement, and I am particularly thinking of the former pupils at Treloar’s. However, there is still some uncertainty in the community about the evidence that will be requir…
Commons
Debate
22 April 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to have heard the last few speeches, which made very important points, but even with five minutes, time is still short for me. I will speak briefly about a couple of aspects of social media and mobile phones.
On social media, let us get on with it. …
I think that would try Madam Deputy Speaker’s patience. Today is the day that we can take action on those two points.
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 April 2026
Falling School Rolls
It is true that the effects of the falling birth rate have been felt most so far in places such as Hackney, but it is coming to many more places, and the effect will be felt in a much more magnified way, particularly in small rural schools. Does the Secretary of State accept that the funding formula…
Commons
Debate
15 April 2026
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Will the Minister give way?
I think I just heard the Minister say, “We have already solved this problem.” I do not know if any other colleagues heard that. She said that she has written to every headteacher in the country, and it is absolutely the right thing to be in contact with them. Has she heard back from any headteachers…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 March 2026
12 contributions
Proposed Visitor Levy
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the proposed visitor levy in England.
It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Efford. It is also great to see the Minister in her place; we have a very highly regarded Minister to respond to the debate. She is a Ministry of Housing, Communit…
That is one of a number of worries I have about this proposal; I am grateful to the hon. Member for putting it in such a rational and straightforward way.
I was coming on to say that international inbound tourism scores even more highly because, counterintuitively, tourism into this country is an e…
+10 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
3 contributions
Student Loans
It is an honour to be the final Back-Bench speaker in this debate. I do not feel like I am at the back of the queue; I am just not at the front.
It is good to see some Liberal Democrats with us today. We know that student finance is a particularly important subject for debate in the Liberal Democra…
I will, but I will start by telling my hon. Friend about the lack of quality in some previous apprenticeships. I draw the House’s attention to the 2012 National Audit Office report on adult apprenticeships. I have time for only a couple of very short excerpts. The number of apprenticeships had incre…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
16 March 2026
Heating Oil Support
Thousands of households in East Hampshire are off grid. They face much bigger swings in energy prices, and of course when their tank happens to run out is a matter of chance. For them, the statement will be good news, but how will the Government ensure that take-up is maximised among vulnerable and …
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 March 2026
4 contributions
Local Government Reorganisation: South-east
It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Vickers. I commend the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton) for bringing this important subject to the House today. It is great to see MPs from across the House here in Westminster Hall, although with 400-odd Labour MPs and quite a few in the…
Yeah!
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
6 contributions
Youth Unemployment
Will the Minister give way?
There are many ways that we can express it, but none of them are good: youth unemployment is at 15.9%; it is up 10%; it is up 1.5 percentage points; it is up over 100,000 in the last year; it is at a 10-year high—higher than in the covid era.
Let us be clear: this is not economic inactivity we are …
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
2 contributions
Local Government Reorganisation: Referendums
It is a great pleasure to see you presiding over these proceedings today, Ms McVey. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford) on securing this important debate; it is good to have an opportunity to discuss these issues openly.
It is also a great pleasure to follow…
I am grateful. I was talking about housing development and planning, which in Hampshire is decided by East Hampshire district council, not by Hampshire county council.
There is also the question of identity. Counties and parishes are anciently formed areas. Districts are quite often not; they are m…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
Dementia Support: Hampshire
In a similar vein to the hon. Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers), it is important that families know where to access these voluntary sector services. The East Hampshire dementia services directory is a great initiative, as are voluntary groups such as Dementia Friendly Petersfield and Dementia-frie…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
The evidence will never be perfect on this subject, because this is an effect that is happening right around the world at the same time—there is no control group. Countries are now acting—it is not only Australia; other countries are moving in this direction as well—and I welcome today’s announcemen…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
2 contributions
Local House Building Targets: Affordability Assessment
1. If he will review the methodology for assessing housing affordability used to set local house building targets.
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his response. The housing formula has resulted in huge increases for parts of rural England, including a doubling of the number in my East Hampshire constituency, and it should be reviewed overall. However, this question is about one specific aspect, where…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 December 2025
6 contributions
Housing Development: Cumulative Impacts
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the cumulative impacts of housing development.
It is good to see you presiding once again, Mr Twigg. Let me start with the obvious statement that in this country, and in all of our localities, we need more housing. There has been population growth, and…
I know the hon. Gentleman’s constituency quite well—he is my mother-in-law’s MP. I know what a fantastic and beautiful area it is, as well as some of the challenges with the local economy. He makes a very good point.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
As with business rates and the Budget, it might take a few days for it to be absolutely clear what is in today’s announcement, although I hope that it will not take quite as long as it did with the Budget. I think it possible that some things will be welcome, given what the Minister said about densi…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
8 December 2025
2 contributions
Skills England
9. What recent progress Skills England has made on its priorities.
It really is not ideal to have the body responsible for upholding standards in qualifications inside a Department that will be judged on how many people it gets through to passing those qualifications. It was not ideal when it was at the Department for Education; it is even less ideal now that it is…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
4 contributions
Digital ID
In the previous year, 100,000 people were claiming asylum. The Labour Government were talking about ID cards to tackle illegal immigration, but they soon started talking about using them to tackle all sorts of other things as well. In time, it became apparent that there was a huge amount of disagree…
I will add that 4,000 of my constituents have signed this petition. I have also heard directly from hundreds of them by email in response to my own petition. We should listen to all these voices.
A lot has changed since 2003, but not my opposition to digital ID. The Government say that it would be …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
Topical Questions
There is nowhere in the DFE budget from which £6 billion could possibly come other than the core schools budget, so either SEN funding is being cut, the core schools budget is being cut—that implies 5% per head—or the Secretary of State has an explicit agreement with the Chancellor for the money to …
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
2 contributions
Curriculum and Assessment Review: Progress 8
21. What discussions she has had with the chair of the curriculum and assessment review on her proposals to change the progress 8 measure.
Professor Francis was clear that the EBacc grouping should be kept in the progress 8 measure under the heading “Academic Breadth”. The Government have overruled the review, which is quite a big thing to do. The Secretary of State herself used to be a student of modern languages. Have they learned no…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 December 2025
7 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
It is a great pleasure to see you presiding, Ms Barker. This has been a good debate, and very good points have been made by hon. Members on all sides, including the hon. Member for Beckenham and Penge (Liam Conlon), who has just spoken. This is a rare and important opportunity to talk about the vita…
I am coming very close to the end of my speech, and I think Ms Barker would want me to continue to allow for more speakers.
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 November 2025
1994 RAF Chinook Crash
Did the Minister just say that all of these documents would be FOI-able and would then be released, albeit in redacted form, presumably in the usual way, with personal details being blacked out?