Commons
Oral Questions
Scotland
15 July 2026
2 contributions
Livestock
8. What recent discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on Scottish livestock numbers.
Scotland’s beef breeding herd is in trouble; it is down 373,000 in the last decade. There are also declines in dairy cattle, pigs and chickens, which show that the industry is in distress. In her response, the Minister said that food security is national security, so why do she and the Secretary of …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
13 July 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.
Given the reports in the press of yet another U-turn being forced on the Government by revolting Back Benchers, does the Home Secretary still believe that the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain should be increased from five years to 10 years?
Commons
Westminster Hall
7 July 2026
Future of British Horseracing
Like my hon. Friend, I am no expert on the racing world, but I am lucky enough to represent Fakenham racecourse. Does he recognise that the loss of a racecourse impacts not just the racing world but the community that hosts it, both in direct employment and, importantly, in the indirect employment t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
22 June 2026
2 contributions
Apprenticeships
3. What steps her Department is taking to support apprenticeships for young people.
There is no correlation between what the Minister says and what is happening on the ground. In Broadland and Fakenham, in the last year the number of apprenticeships has dropped by 20%. It has not gone up; it has gone from 150, down to 120. If the Minister thinks that more apprenticeships are a good…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
11 June 2026
2 contributions
Passenger Rail Services
Last night, the Secretary of State claimed that the arrival of the class 701s at South Western Railway was an example of what a nationalised railway could do. As she well knows, those trains were ordered back in 2017 by a private company from a private company, using private finance. Her only involv…
The Minister refers to yesterday’s vote. Last night, he and his Secretary of State ordered Labour Members to vote against the protection of rail discounts for veterans and their families. He told us that the Government have “no plans” to cancel veterans’ railcards. At the last general election, Labo…
Commons
Proceedings
11 June 2026
Compassionate Use Medicine Schemes: VAT
The Minister is responding to this urgent question because the Government have decided to charge VAT on donated medicines used for compassionate EAM schemes. The Minister says, “Well, that is not our fault—the scheme has been around for 30 years”. That may be true, but they have decided to apply the…
Commons
Debate
10 June 2026
9 contributions
Railways Bill
I note the Minister’s words about new clause 48.
This Report stage follows 16 sittings of the Public Bill Committee, when I and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), tabled well over 200 amendments, of which more than 120 were put to a Division. It…
I am grateful to the hon. Member, but he will recognise that if we look at the safety record under privatisation as a whole, compared with nationalisation previously under British Rail, safety has increased enormously and I am pleased to say that, prior to nationalisation, we operate one of the safe…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Statutory Instrument
9 June 2026
2 contributions
Draft Airports Slot Allocation (Alleviation of Usage Requirements) Regulations 2026
Thank you for chairing the Committee, Ms Lewell. I am grateful for the Minister’s explanation of what is essentially a pickle of the Government’s own making. We will not divide on the regulations because we recognise that there is a real problem that has to be solved. But rather than fiddling around…
If we could have a bit more clarity on that, I would be grateful.
The director of the Airports Council International Europe went so far as to say:
“The UK Government is effectively handing airlines a carte blanche to cut services and not deliver their schedules, leaving passengers, communities and…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
8 June 2026
Topical Questions
My constituents hate seeing organised shoplifting taking place with apparent impunity. Norfolk police recognises this and has identified suspects in more than a third of all cases, but what is the point when the Government’s assumption is that any sentence shorter than 12 months will automatically b…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
21 May 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T2. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Our economy needs access to oil. Last October, the Government announced that they were going to sanction Russian oil and jet fuel. Yesterday, they decided not to do so, on the same day that they banned new drilling in the North sea. Why do the Government support Putin’s Russian oil, but not our UK o…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
21 May 2026
2 contributions
Pubs: Broadland and Fakenham
5. What steps he is taking to support pubs in Broadland and Fakenham constituency.
Pubs in my constituency will respond to that answer with disbelief. There were 74 pubs in my constituency at the last count—that may be an inaccurate figure now; it could have dropped—employing roughly 2,000 people, and on top of that there are cafés such as the Heydon Village Tea Room. They tell me…
Commons
Debate
20 May 2026
Banking Hubs
We are talking about the rules. We know that the banks have withdrawn from our communities. My market towns of Fakenham and Aylsham have had all the banks go apart from one Nationwide. They say their answer to that is Link, and yet the rules seem to say that market towns, with that huge hinterland t…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 May 2026
High Speed 2 Reset
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement.
The Secretary of State’s comments today demonstrate not only the challenges faced in the past and the reasons that action was taken to reduce the scope of HS2, but the significant challenges ahead if it is finally to be del…
Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
Lord Mandelson Humble Address: Government Response Update
One of the glaring omissions in the first release of documentation was the Prime Minister’s response to his box notes about the proposed appointment of Peter Mandelson. The Government have now had three months to think about it. Will the Minister set out whether there is any reason why those documen…
Commons
Debate
23 April 2026
2 contributions
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
I join everyone in congratulating the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) on securing the debate and on making a very important contribution, which has been supplemented by speech after speech right across the Chamber identifying a common theme around medical cases, as well as o…
This is not a party political point, because I am sure that blame could be focused on my party as well. Given that we have 34,000 registered suppliers, does the Minister recognise that it is an impossible task for the DVLA to keep any kind of meaningful record as to whether they are in fact complian…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 April 2026
3 contributions
Mountain Rescue
Thank you for agreeing to chair this important debate, Ms Lewell. Like others, I congratulate the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) on securing it.
We have heard a huge amount of unanimity across the political divide about our support for mountain rescue and the analysis of some of the chall…
That is a reasonable point, but the key argument made by all hon. Members today is about the state getting in the way through regulatory oversight. That may be by mistake, as I think it probably is genuine oversight in this case—that is, the draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activitie…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
For the third time of asking, at the time when the Prime Minister appointed Peter Mandelson as ambassador, was he aware that Mandelson had been a director of Sistema?
Commons
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trials
6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of his proposed changes to jury trials on the criminal justice system.
The Justice Secretary has just told us that the reason he is cutting jury trials is to get the backlog down. If that is the case, why is there not a sunset clause, so that once the backlog is reduced, those jury trials can resume?
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
12 March 2026
2 contributions
Hospitality Sector
21. What steps his Department is taking to support the hospitality sector.
Six hospitality venues are closing every single day under this Government. If the Government actually asked the sector why, businesses would tell them: it is because of the jobs-killing national insurance tax rises—literally a tax on jobs—as well as the red tape and additional costs of the Employmen…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
9 March 2026
2 contributions
Unemployment
7. What assessment he has made of trends in the level of unemployment.
The Minister answered a question about unemployment by giving data about employment, so let us focus on unemployment numbers. By how much has general unemployment increased since July 2024?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
I seek clarity from the Prime Minister: given his initial refusal of permission for the use of bases by the US, is it the view of His Majesty’s Government that the initial strikes by Israel and the United States were illegal?
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
3 contributions
Local Transport: Planning Developments
Thank you, Sir Desmond, for agreeing to chair this interesting debate. I also thank the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) for securing this debate today. Any Member of Parliament with a pulse who has served more than a day here will realise how interconnected is the relati…
I am grateful for that intervention.
In her speech, the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted said that many of the services from Berkhamsted to London were not on time, so I took the opportunity to look up the frequency of those services. I gently point out that people in my constituency would…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 February 2026
3 contributions
Firearms Licensing
Thank you very much for chairing the debate, Sir Alec. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough), my constituency neighbour, on opening it in such a measured way, which I think has been noted by all of us.
I need to start by declaring my interests. I hold a firearm certifi…
My right hon. Friend is of course right. I do not have the data—I am trying to stick with data in the argument I am constructing—but the principle he mentions is a sound one. If we focus our resources in the area where the risk is greatest, we are likely to have a better beneficial impact.
[Paula B…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Rail Fare Affordability
The Government claim to be simplifying rail fares, but we are beginning to see what they mean by that. London North Eastern Railway is scrapping off-peak and super-off-peak tickets, doubling the price of some journeys; it says that that is in the name of simplification. c2c has cut a 40% off-peak di…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Driving Test Waiting Times
When these Ministers came to power, they promised that they would act to reduce the waiting time for a driving test, and not just by a little bit; they said they would get it down to seven weeks. A year later, the waiting time is now 21.9 weeks. In fact, it has gone up by three weeks since they came…