Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Electronic Patient Record Systems
Many GPs say that their buildings are not fit for purpose and lack digital infrastructure. Without fully integrated electronic patient records and better systems, including the electronic prescription service across all hospitals and community trusts, we risk wasting time and money while increasing …
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 July 2025
Humanitarian Situation in Sudan
The hon. Member is right to highlight the 25 million Sudanese people living in food insecurity. As she knows, Sudan is protected from the cuts to overseas development aid, but a further 600,000 Sudanese people live displaced in places such as Chad; those other countries in the region are not protect…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 July 2025
Gene Editing
The right hon. Member raises a very important point: the Government may be cutting funding for farming, but they are very much pursuing climate change goals. Farming is facing periods of extreme weather—we have just had some of the driest and wettest months on record. One of the great successes of g…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Teacher Recruitment
The headteacher of the Thomas Hardye school in West Dorset previously worked in a London school. He told me that in London he received nearly £10,000 per pupil, but in West Dorset nearly £5,000—yet the challenges of rural education are no less complex, not least in the recruitment of teachers. What …
Commons
Debate
16 July 2025
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
I am grateful for the Minister stressing the importance of support for children with SEND. At Dorset studio school in West Dorset, 52% of children have SEND—children who would struggle in mainstream education. Funding for improvements to its site was agreed in 2023, but has still not been released. …
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 July 2025
Credit Unions
I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this important debate. She has mentioned financial burdens a couple of times. The average credit union has fewer than seven employees, and is run nearly entirely by volunteers. Smaller credit unions are under the same dual regulatory burden as larger ones, an…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 July 2025
3 contributions
Further Education Institutions
Will the hon. Lady give way on that point?
rose—
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 July 2025
Blue Badge Eligibility
I thank the hon. Lady for securing this important debate. She raised the problem of applying for blue badges online. When the condition is unnamed or unrecognised, that receives an automatic no. The brother of my brilliant parliamentary researcher is in full receipt of accessibility benefit. He repr…
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
Welfare Spending
I thank my hon. Friend and colleague from Dorset for giving way. He has talked about the issues outside his constituency of Bournemouth East, and he does not have to look far to see some of the inequalities that are in play—only to West Dorset. He will know from our beautiful part of the countryside…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2025
Beer Duty
My hon. Friend will know—I have said this several times in this Chamber—that the overwhelming majority of businesses in West Dorset are microbusinesses, many of them in hospitality. Does he agree that EPR represents yet another attack on the hospitality sector, alongside increases in business rates …
Commons
Debate
9 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
My hon. Friend and neighbour’s constituency, like mine, is extremely rural; he will know that the cost of delivering services in rural areas is four to five times higher than it is in urban areas. PIP allows people to live independently. Both my hon. Friend and I see integrated care boards that are …
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
Early Years Providers: Government Support
Over the weekend, I was at a village fête. I will not name the primary school, but I was approached by the head, who told me that with the expansion of the number of hours and the rate that they are being paid, the school will close within 18 months. Even though, by the standards of its sector, it h…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
4 contributions
Neighbourhood Plans: Planning Decisions
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) on securing this important debate.
I have been struck when listening to all the speeches so far by the fact that so often when we talk about planning, we speak in terms of b…
I agree 100%. I will come on to the campaign that the Liberal Democrats have been running to make water companies statutory consultees, and the importance of their involvement.
In West Dorset, we need genuinely affordable social housing, affordable homes for key workers and smaller homes for older …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Hospitality Sector
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I congratulate the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) on securing this debate. It is unusually cruelly timed, as I feel that I have not stopped sweating in about three days and quite frankly I can think of no…
I would struggle to think of a policy that would be worse for microbusinesses.
Meanwhile, transport and parking infrastructure across rural West Dorset is stretched to breaking point, something made worse by the 42% surge in population during peak season. If visitors cannot reach our businesses or …
Commons
Westminster Hall
30 June 2025
Driven Grouse Shooting
The hon. Gentleman has red kites in his constituency, but we have sea eagles on the south coast. They have recently been reintroduced but sadly there have been cases of them being poisoned. Given its rural nature, I was somewhat surprised that my constituency of West Dorset had one of the highest nu…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 June 2025
English Wine Production
I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this debate during English Wine Week. I could not allow her to list the places where we produce wine without mentioning beautiful West Dorset, which has 11 small wine producers, many of whom have been in touch with me about what this Parliament can do to help…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 June 2025
GP Funding: South-west England
The Minister mentions the ageing demographic of the south-west. I do not know if it is actually a fact, but one of my favourite things that I have ever been told about the population of West Dorset is that if we were a country, we would have an older population than Japan—we would be the oldest coun…
Commons
Debate
24 June 2025
Department for Education
The future of our country is being shaped every day in our classrooms, yet we are failing too many children, too many families and too many schools in places like West Dorset because the Government funding formula relies too heavily on deprivation as a metric, and fails to recognise the very real ch…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
24 June 2025
China Audit
On page 39, the “National Security Strategy 2025” states:
“Instances of China’s espionage, interference in our democracy and the undermining of our economic security have increased in recent years.”
Just three pages later, it talks about the importance of
“creating the basis for a reciprocal and …
Commons
Proceedings
24 June 2025
National Security Strategy
The national security strategy document outlines an expanded meaning of national security to include areas such as food security. If food security is national security—I certainly agree it is—we need to increase domestic production instead of cutting support for farmers and increasing our reliance o…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
2 contributions
Security Action for Europe Initiative
2. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the UK’s involvement in the Security Action for Europe initiative.
In an increasingly unstable world, working with our European allies on defence and weapons production is vital for our security and our economy. If investment is needed, providing it should not stand in the way of the opportunity to support UK defence manufacturers, enable joint research and develop…
Commons
Proceedings
23 June 2025
Pride Month
I did not plan on intervening, but we had a hustings during the election, and one of the questions was about the upcoming Sherborne Pride. Unfortunately, I was amazed that even in this day and age there was not unanimous support for a Sherborne Pride. My first act as an MP was to go to the inaugural…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
The Foreign Secretary has confirmed that Britain was not involved in the strikes on Iran. Will he also confirm whether the US Administration sought permission to use Diego Garcia as the launch point for the strikes? If permission was sought and denied, on what basis did the Prime Minister deny permi…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
23 June 2025
Topical Questions
T4. Some 40% of people in West Dorset who are in receipt of a personal independence payment receive the highest level of support. Many are extremely anxious about PIP assessments being carried out over the phone rather than in person, particularly those with complex or fluctuating conditions. Will t…
Commons
Debate
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I rise to speak to new clause 156 in my name, which I bring forward because of Isabella, a 14-year-old girl who lives in my constituency. In May of this year, Isabella was hanging out with friends in Lyme Regis when she was lured to the cemetery. A group of young people were waiting. One of them had…
I agree with the hon. Gentleman; we do not fully understand the lasting psychological damage, especially as this is a growing problem.
I have received further letters from other people, who have told me about similar incidents in other schools, other towns and other playgrounds. Nationally, the pro…