It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire (Charlotte Cane) for raising this important topic.
As we have heard, if we want to improve employment opportunities for neurodivergent people, we must start in schools.…
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for raising this important issue and for highlighting that every day in the United Kingdom, people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and do not survive, when they might have …
CommonsOral QuestionsBusiness and Trade17 July 20252 contributions
14. What recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of operating costs for SMEs.
In my constituency and across Scotland, small and medium-sized businesses have taken blow after blow. The Conservatives bungled Brexit, increasing import costs, and energy costs are soaring. Most recently, the hike in national insurance contributions is decimating job opportunities in small and medi…
I thank the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for bringing such an important debate. I feel strongly about this matter, having trained as a dietician, and I understand the implications that a poor diet in early life can have for a child’s future. From health outcomes to educational outcomes, poor nu…
I thank the hon. Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) for championing the cause of WASPI women, who have been utterly failed by successive Governments. I will not repeat what others have said, but it is clear that the Government should act on the ombudsman’s report after the maladministration of…
T9. Following the Pensions Minister’s response to me about pensioner living standards, what specific measures announced in the Government’s pensions reforms will support pre-1997 defined benefit pensioners, who currently receive a minimal or no annual uplift?
CommonsWestminster Hall25 June 20253 contributions
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for South West Hertfordshire (Mr Mohindra) for securing this important debate.
I begin by acknowledging that my constituency does not fall within the boundaries of Hertfordshire; it is slightly further north. Howev…
I thank the right hon. Member for making a good point for the Minister to consider.
The closure of branches and their replacement with only 350 hubs represents nothing more than big banks trying to increase their profits further at the expense of their customers. That is not just a mild inconvenien…
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers, and I thank the hon. Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford) for securing this important debate.
Small and medium-sized enterprises are not just crucial to our economy; they are its lifeblood, driving innovation, employment and local…
People in Gaza are starving. Those people are children, the sick and the elderly. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is unworkable and its operations are insufficient. Will the Government not just press for but develop an alternative plan for taking aid into the strip through a humanitarian corridor s…
CommonsOral QuestionsCabinet Office5 June 20252 contributions
9. What steps he is taking to improve national resilience against cyber-security threats.
I thank the Minister for his answer. As has been mentioned, we have recently seen attacks against private institutions, with groups such as Marks & Spencer being targeted. I would be very interested to learn about the approach that has been taken by the statutory organisations and those in the m…
15. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of rehabilitative programmes in prisons.
In my constituency of Mid Dunbartonshire, the community justice team are having some success in preventing reoffending by working with offenders in a trauma-informed way. Given the success of that trauma-informed approach to rehabilitation, what discussions has the Minister had regarding the differi…
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of Inheritance Tax on family-owned businesses.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John, and a privilege to lead this debate on a matter of real consequence to our economy. I begin by paying tribute to the extraordinary contr…
I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue; I completely agree.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research found that nine out of every 10 privately owned businesses in the UK are family owned, and that they provide employment for nearly 16 million people and contribute more than £200 bi…
I thank the hon. Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) for bringing forward this important debate.
In my constituency and across Scotland, families are desperately struggling to access NHS dental treatment. Public Health Scotland figures show that while 87% of children are register…
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Maureen Burke) for securing this important debate and for her very moving speech. It is clear that she is committed to her constituents.
We need to break the cycle of inequality. As we heard, …
That is not my experience in my constituency of Mid Dunbartonshire. We did a survey recently that showed that there was quite a lot of difficulty in finding an NHS dentist, and that many people who were with NHS dentists found that they were moving to private practice. In fact, I know of many consti…
In my constituency there is an ageing population in need of local healthcare services. Will the Secretary of State meet his Scottish counterpart to discuss the need for increased access to community healthcare, and specifically the need for a new health and care centre within my constituency?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) for securing this debate.
Across conflict lines from Gaza to South Sudan, the Congo, Syria and Ukraine, people wearing nothing more than a hi-vis vest risk, and too often lose, …