Commons
Oral Questions
28 April 2026
Topical Questions
T3. At a recent meeting with members of Wantage chamber of commerce, local businesses were united in their concerns about business rates and unconvinced by recent Government tweaks that Ministers have just alluded to. Page 31 of Labour’s manifesto states:“The current business rates system disincenti…
Commons
Westminster Hall
27 April 2026
Animal Testing
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for her passionate introduction of the topic. I also thank the 238 of my constituents who signed the petition, the many who have written to me about it, and those who I hav…
Commons
Debate
23 April 2026
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) for securing a debate on this important topic, and the Backbench Business Committee for choosing it.
We have heard from many hon. Members the important reasons the DVLA needs to improve. I do not have time to mention all…
Commons
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
2 contributions
Ministerial Code
1. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the ministerial code.
I was reading the ministerial code just yesterday evening. Paragraph 2.1 states:
“The Prime Minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards.”
That provides clarity on how Ministers can be held to ac…
Commons
Debate
22 April 2026
6 contributions
Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy
In the United Kingdom, more than 600,000 people—one in a 100—live with epilepsy and every day around 80 people are diagnosed. Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, abbreviated as SUDEP, is the term used when a person with epilepsy dies suddenly and unexpectedly. At least 21 people die every week in t…
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention and pay tribute to his constituent and their family. I am going to be talking quite a lot about what we can do to prevent such occurrences in the future.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 April 2026
2 contributions
Mountain Rescue
I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) for her passionate, articulate exposition of the great work that mountain rescue does in her constituency. We also heard the passion for mountain rescue and the great outdoors from the hon. Members for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), for …
The hon. Gentleman’s ask is entirely legitimate and justified. We hope that the current Scottish Government will, in the first instance, build on the wonderful achievement of the Scottish Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition in 2003 of introducing a Scottish Mountain Rescue grant.
In terms of our asks…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 April 2026
Hammersmith Bridge
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship on consecutive days, Sir Alec. I commend the proposer, the hon. Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson), for articulately outlining the long-running saga of the closure of Hammersmith bridge, and a saga it is: the closure of this bridge has outlasted a pa…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 April 2026
Maternity Commissioner
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. I thank the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for introducing this important and sensitive debate with his customary eloquence.
I thank the 464 of my constituents who signed the e-petition, placing my constituen…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 April 2026
2 contributions
NHS Federated Data Platform
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. I commend the determined and forensic work on this topic by my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley). The key reason I am attending and speaking today is because we love our national health service. For all its challen…
I very much agree with my hon. Friend that accountability to this House is always a critical consideration.
The second concern is Palantir’s track record and motivations. I shall not repeat too much of what others have said, but its close ties with the US Government and US Immigration and Customs E…
Commons
Oral Questions
26 March 2026
Topical Questions
An October 2024 Active Travel England analysis of case studies found that walking and cycling schemes typically generate a benefit-cost ratio of between 3.5:1 and 19:1. Given the plans for significant devolution of transport funding, how will the Government ensure that local authorities deliver cons…
Commons
Oral Questions
26 March 2026
Pothole Repairs: Government Funding
Road Emulsion Association research has found that 57% of UK drivers experience fewer and less severe potholes on Europe’s motorways compared with ours. That was confirmed by Office of Rail and Road benchmarking, which identified that the Netherlands’ strategic road network had double the high standa…
Commons
Petition
25 March 2026
Flooding in Ladygrove, Didcot
I wish to present a petition, signed by 65 residents of Derwent Avenue, Thurne View and Eden Court in Didcot, relating to years of flooding on their street, and the perennial risk of flooding to their properties. I hope that Thames Water and the Government will take note.
The petition states:
“The…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 March 2026
2 contributions
Rural Roads
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson) for introducing this very important topic. He made some important points in his speech, and he was on to a strong one when he talked about the importance of remoteness and rura…
Councils certainly can do more to better spend the community infrastructure levy, but that partly takes account of the wildly complicated planning system and the negotiations that are needed with developers for both that and section 106.
Perhaps the Minister could share what the Government are doin…
Commons
Debate
5 March 2026
Women’s Health Strategy: Endometriosis and Fibroids
I thank the hon. Member for taking time for this intervention on her passionate speech about the huge number of women who suffer from endometriosis. Given the challenges with diagnosis, and the enormous pain and suffering that she has outlined, does she agree that far more money and Government suppo…
Commons
Debate
3 March 2026
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
Even taking into account the Lords amendments, we continue to welcome steps to decarbonise our aviation industry, including investment in sustainable aviation fuels. I repeat the Liberal Democrat point from Second Reading that SAF is just one step in that direction; in the longer term, it needs to c…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Environmental Protection and Biodiversity
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I also praise the hon. Member for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) for his passion for nature and the topics we are discussing.
My constituency has seen some of the fastest housing growth in the country: 8,000 new houses added bet…
Commons
Debate
2 March 2026
Representation of the People Bill
There is much that is positive in the Bill. I want to touch briefly on one point that we have not discussed much so far, which is strengthening protections for staff who work on elections. They are critical to the safe and transparent delivery of our democracy. As hon. Members have said, what is mis…
Commons
Debate
26 February 2026
2 contributions
AEA Technology Pension Scheme
Let me start by setting out some context and background to how we got to the AEA Technology pension scheme scandal. I will set out the moral case for redress, sum up some of the independent evidence supporting the pension campaigners’ cause, and address some previous comments made on the issue by th…
I understand what the Minister is saying about pre-1997 indexation, but that is not the primary issue. The calculations by the campaigners about the difference this makes to their losses is that it is trivial—very small. I do not have the exact percentage, but it is probably a 5% difference, or some…
Commons
Oral Questions
26 February 2026
2 contributions
Arts and Culture: Local Government Support
10. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to encourage local governments to support arts and culture.
Local councils in my Oxfordshire constituency work hard to secure public arts funding through developer contributions for our growing population. However, some existing cultural venues are struggling. The much-loved Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage is having to rely on one-off grants to plug fund…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 February 2026
2 contributions
Eating Disorders Awareness Week
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for introducing the debate and for her enormous dedication and hard work on this vital issue over many years.
I would like to talk about the themes that have arisen from constituency c…
My hon. Friend again shows her wealth of knowledge and experience of this topic. Some of the cases that my team and I have supported have involved people who have been living with eating disorders for decades. I have also seen cases where the transition from support services for children and young p…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 February 2026
2 contributions
Student Loan Repayment Plans
I was not intending to intervene, but I am afraid what the hon. Member said is not correct. Tuition fees were first introduced by the Conservative Government in the early 1990s and then by the Labour Government in 1998, with top-up fees in 2004. Will he accept that and then proceed?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank the hon. Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) for introducing this debate.
I would like to use my limited time to tell the stories of two of my constituents. One of them is Rebecca, a health worker who is an NHS band 6 employee. For…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
4 contributions
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
A powerful illustration of my hon. Friend’s point is that oral questions to the Minister for Women and Equalities is compressed into just 30 minutes before Prime Minister’s questions every few weeks. Does she agree?
This motion is first and foremost about the victims of the appalling crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his many associates, as well as the importance of protecting people from abuse of power. It also has significant implications for wider political culture.
As my hon. Friend the Member for North Shrops…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 February 2026
2 contributions
Firearms Licensing
Will the hon. Member give way?
My hon. Friend makes a compelling point about the UK’s successes in controlling gun crime to date. Does he agree with the hon. Member for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson) that the August 2021 murders in Plymouth highlighted significant problems with the implementation of the current regimes around…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Topical Questions
The Government have big ambitions for active travel, but their targets in the third cycling and walking investment strategy are neither bold nor measurable. Over 40 organisations, including some Labour mayoral authorities, have called for a target of 50% of short urban journeys being walked, wheeled…