Commons
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Classroom Disruption: Smartphones
20. What steps she is taking to support schools that plan to ban smartphones.
Last Thursday, I felt the fear in a hall full of parents of primary school children in Totnes as they listened to campaigners going through the evidence of the impact of smartphones on kids at secondary school. There is a clear safeguarding issue around kids seeing videos of hardcore pornography and…
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
Welfare Spending
Poverty robs children of their future: it limits their life chances; impacts their long-term health; and reduces their ability to participate in the bits of childhood that widen their experience, build resilience and teach new skills.
We may live in a beautiful part of the world, but the children i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 July 2025
Future of the Post Office
Since the election, three post offices in my constituency have closed—in Churchstow, Aveton Gifford and Dittisham—through the resignation of postmasters and, in one case, the death of the local postmaster. Each time, the Post Office says that it is carrying out a review, and each time it quickly dec…
Commons
Proceedings
9 July 2025
Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions
I share the concern about delays in justice—no rape victims should ever have to wait five years for their day in court—but I am seriously concerned about the limiting of trial by jury and how it could dent confidence. As the Minister considers these reforms over the summer, will she please give some…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Early Years Providers: Government Support
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I thank the hon. Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) for securing this important debate. High-quality early years education is one of the most important investments we can make in not just children’s development but the future …
My hon. Friend is talking about the provision in rural areas. We have a wonderful nursery called Rainbow nursery in Totnes, which serves not only the town but the wider area. There are very few, if any, village nurseries, so lots of people come into the town to use the nursery provision. It is absol…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
I welcome the Minister’s statement, and it is good that Devon made it on to the map—just. Many on the Liberal Democrat Benches and others across the House travel from Paddington down to the far south-west, and we have spoken with your Department about the effects of the Old Oak Common works on that …
Commons
Debate
8 July 2025
Government Resilience Action Plan
One of the vulnerabilities that we saw in the pandemic, after the invasion of Ukraine and even during the “beast from the east” winter storm was to food supplies, but I did not hear the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster refer to food in his statement. Finland’s national food supply can sustain th…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
Does the hon. Member agree that there is an opportunity here to do something transformational for our local communities by enabling funds, particularly local government pension funds, to invest in much-needed infrastructure like care homes, special schools or even our high streets, which would provi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
I really welcome this 10-year plan, especially the shift from hospital to community. I am excited by the digital transformation, and I hope it works in the broadband blackspots of South Devon. I will ask the Secretary of State about the shift from sickness to prevention. Will he tell the House what …
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
Does my hon. Friend agree that these changes risk devastating consequences for people living with complex mental health conditions? They may not score four points on a single activity, but experience persistent moderate challenges across many areas, and this could in fact lead to financial hardship …
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
Topical Questions
Devon and Torbay combined county authority will receive just £40 million between 2026 and 2030 in local transport grant funding—less than half the amount awarded to York and North Yorkshire and a fraction of the billions given to the city regions, despite Devon having the longest road network in the…
Commons
Proceedings
25 June 2025
Nuclear-certified Aircraft Procurement
I feel like a lone voice, but in an increasingly unstable world I personally find it quite harrowing that the British Air Force might be flying planes that can drop nuclear bombs and where that might lead. Can the Minister tell us whether, under this agreement, tactical nuclear weapons will be store…
Commons
Oral Questions
Science, Innovation and Technology
25 June 2025
2 contributions
Rural Mobile Coverage
3. What steps he is taking to improve rural mobile coverage.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I was going to say that having looked at the villages in my constituency on the mobile map, which was supposed to be updated this month, it is not up to date; it is good to hear that it will be. Many of my constituents have to rely on the 3G network, which is bei…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
We talk weekly in this place about Russia’s illegal bombing of Ukraine. Russia may not be a close ally like the US, but presumably if international law applies to that, the US bombing of Iran would likewise be illegal under international law. If not, can the Foreign Secretary explain why internation…
Commons
Debate
19 June 2025
Water Safety Education
Does the hon. Member agree that there is more to this than just teaching children to swim? Hope Cove Life Boat in my constituency saves about 60 people from drowning every year, and many of them have been swept out to sea because of wind and tides. Understanding the nature of the sea and how dangero…
Commons
Oral Questions
19 June 2025
2 contributions
Water Company Fines: Water Restoration Fund
5. If he will make it his policy to redistribute fines levied against water companies since November 2023 to the water restoration fund.
I thank the Minister for her answer on the water restoration fund, but it would be good to know when it will come back into action. A Liberal Democrat freedom of information request found that Ofwat has failed to force water companies to pay any fines for sewage discharge cases since 2021, despite s…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Businesses in Rural Areas
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. As we know, rural businesses are the backbone of our communities, but they are being asked to compete with one hand tied behind their back. Across South Devon, local entrepreneurs—farmers, shopkeepers, tradespeople, producers and publica…
In fact, in the spending review, the whole of rural England was given a seventh of the money for transport plans that was given to urban areas. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is not sufficient to sustain and improve the rural bus transport network as much as we need?
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Pharmacies
2. What steps he is taking to support rural pharmacies.
I recently visited Modbury pharmacy, where owner Phil Dawes highlighted the challenges facing small rural pharmacies. He explained how the current funding model does not take into account the lower footfall and limited referral rates that are common in rural areas. We know that if a pharmacy in a sm…
Commons
Committee Stage
17 June 2025
6 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill (Second sitting)
Q To follow up on the previous question, there are long-standing concerns about staffing levels in the Probation Service. As the Bill will bring more victims under the auspices of the victim contact scheme, more victims might use it. You sound pretty confident that you will be able to manage that, b…
Q Are you confident that you have the resources and capacity to give the officers involved in the victim contact scheme the training they require in domestic abuse, abuse and traumatic sexual violence and their particular effects on the victims they will deal with through this helpline?
Chris Jenni…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
17 June 2025
9 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill (First sitting)
Q Which areas of the Bill, if any, do you think will pose challenges for the Crown Prosecution Service?
Sarah Hammond: As always, there is a collective challenge when a Bill becomes law just to work out how things will work in practice and how implementation will work. Take the restriction on paren…
Q What impact do you think broadening the potential pool of prosecutors will have on the backlog in the court system?
Sarah Hammond: It will enable us to recruit more. As I have said, it is quite a competitive market out there. There will be more people eligible to become Crown prosecutors. That wi…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 June 2025
2 contributions
Farmed Animals: Cages and Crates
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank the Petitions Committee for calling this important debate and the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for introducing it.
The call to end the cage age of animal farming is clear. It comes not just from Parl…
It is key that if we are going to demand higher standards here, we must apply the same standards to food that we import.
If the Minister truly believes that food security is national security, that needs to be backed up with real investment—not empty slogans or cuts on a spreadsheet, but real suppo…
Commons
Debate
13 June 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
I take issue with some of the language being used. We have heard the words “murder”, “killing” and “suicide”. Twenty-three years ago next week, my husband died of terminal cancer. He was in extreme pain and was given morphine to relieve it. As the pain got worse, he was given more morphine so that h…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
12 June 2025
Spending Review: Health and Social Care
Like my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers), I welcome the increased investment, and the attention that the new Government are giving to the NHS. I would like to turn our attention to dentistry. My constituency of South Devon is a dental desert. I welcome the announcement of 700,000 …
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
12 June 2025
Support for Entrepreneurs
Recently imposed general product safety regulations have added yet another layer of cost and complexity to exports to the European Union. That is particularly hitting entrepreneurs and microbusinesses, many of which have had to end exports to their EU customers. Did the Department have any discussio…
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 June 2025
Humanist Marriage
I thank the hon. Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) and for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) and my hon. Friend the Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) for securing the debate.
I declare an interest: in September 2011, I had a humanist wedding. We chose a beautiful setting in…