SEND provision in Kent – Tony Vaughan.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Cat Eccles) for securing this important debate. The ECHR has delivered extraordinary victories for British people. When Jeanette Smith and Graeme Grady were discharged from the armed forces simply for being gay, the English courts rejected their challenge, but the Strasbourg Court unanimously upheld their rights. Today the armed forces...
I will conclude by saying that, on this 75th anniversary, 300 organisations—from Liberty to Mind, Shelter to Amnesty—rightly defend the convention. It is up to this Government to demonstrate to the public that we can have both border control and compassion. Let us celebrate 75 years of freedom, and 75 more.
Will the right hon. and learned Member give way?
As far as I can remember, the Attorney General told the House of Lords yesterday that 3 September was when he was informed that there were evidential difficulties with the case. The key point is that he had no power to intervene, because of the memorandum between the Attorney General’s Office and the CPS. The Attorney General does not get involved in evidential sufficiency.
When it comes to the UK’s relations with China, it is not a simple binary choice between national security and growth—national security must always be our non-negotiable red line—but subject to that, does the Foreign Secretary agree that when there are specific sectors where economic engagement with China promotes growth, we should be open to that?
I thank the Minister for his response, and I thank all Members who have taken part in the debate. It is extremely important for everyone who signed the petitions to see that we are listening, and that we are considering and debating these very important issues. I am not sure I heard anyone dispute the proposition that asylum hotels need to close. They are inappropriate for people seeking...
Does the hon. Gentleman believe that withdrawing from those conventions will actually make those things easier? There is no basis for saying so. The truth is that we need those agreements to solve the problem—the deal with France is the start of this process of having a returns agreement again.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase support for the delivery of emergency care at the William Harvey Hospital.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that child maintenance calculations reflect the needs of children in the paying parent's home.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will meet with representatives from the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium to discuss their report entitled Lost Childhoods: The consequences of flawed age assessments at the UK border, published on 4 March 2025.
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the equitability of service charge terms in TP1 documents for use by freeholders when purchasing properties from developers.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to implement stalking protection notices that would be issued by police officers pending a full application to court.
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support firefighters suffering from long-term health effects caused by their work.
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of additional powers for local authorities to instigate stronger penalties against repeat illegal parking violations.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people who come to the UK get citizenship after (a) five years and (b) ten years.
