Tom Blenkinsop: Does my hon. Friend agree that a lot of these cuts have come from fiscal pressures? If the Government really were a defender of state education, they would review those fiscal pressures and the needs of state education above those of private education. At the moment, private schools, due to their charity trustee status, are exempt from taxation, to the detriment of state schools, which now...
Tom Blenkinsop: My hon. Friends the Members for Redcar (Anna Turley), for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin), for Newport East (Jessica Morden), for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami), for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Angela Smith), for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) and for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) are all proven champions for their local steel communities. Does the Prime Minister agree that their ongoing presence...
Tom Blenkinsop: Attention has rightly been focused on the attacks in Westminster last Wednesday, but Members of the House will not forget the fact that police officers could have been murdered in Strabane; nor will they forget the attack and murder in Carrickfergus in recent weeks. What plans does the Secretary of State have to ensure that funding for the Police Service of Northern Ireland continues,...
Tom Blenkinsop: Will the Minister for Digital and Culture recuse himself from decisions on Government media policy, given his close relationship to the new editor of the London Evening Standard?
Tom Blenkinsop: On 16 February, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Defence in relation to ammunition technicians and ammunition technical officers serving in Northern Ireland and assisting the Police Service of Northern Ireland, by dealing with bomb scares, for example. The Army wanted to award these soldiers—our troops—General Service Medals for their part in Operation Helvetic. May we have a...
Tom Blenkinsop: What plans he has to retain the benefits of membership of the single market and customs union for the manufacturing sector after the UK has left the EU.
Tom Blenkinsop: The post-Brexit fall in the pound has led to a boost in manufacturing exports, with 45% of north-east manufacturers expecting orders to rise over the coming year, but it has also led to an increase in import costs. These costs will only increase if customs checks are required at borders. What is the Secretary of State planning to do for north-east manufacturers to make sure that costs at...
Tom Blenkinsop: I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this really good debate. Of course, north Yorkshire, the Esk valley and East Cleveland had ironstone and alum mines. Part of the Coast to Coast route includes historic sites such as Kildale and Rosedale. It also goes through my constituency from Guisborough all the way to Eston. Westminster also has a local link, because, of course, the ironstone...
Tom Blenkinsop: What steps she is taking to increase recruitment and retention of prison officers.
Tom Blenkinsop: I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Research by the Community union found that the main barrier to retention was not pay but safety. Prison officers in both private and public prisons feel unprepared, isolated, and undermined. Will the Government conduct a complete review of the training, support, and development given to prison officers and act on...
Tom Blenkinsop: The Minister is correct that the industry is looking at polyhalite overtaking potash as the main product to sell to the market. Polyhalite is an incredibly hard material and is much more difficult than potash to mine. Extra help to market the product is therefore needed as the industry adapts to it. Has the Minister taken on board my comments about how polyhalite can be incorporated into the...
Tom Blenkinsop: We cannot go into detail on the cases because they need to be taken through the official legal channels before we can speak about them in any way. My main concern is that, due to the pending legal action, the sick pay period ran out for the miners involved in these cases and they felt forced to go back to work in order to have an income. My worry is that some of those miners may have been in...
Tom Blenkinsop: It is appropriate on this day, the 117th birthday of the Labour party, that we debate mining, miners’ welfare, health and safety and the issues around the Boulby potash mine in my constituency—a constituency, of course, that has a proud heritage of mining in East Cleveland, primarily around the ironstone mines and villages such as Guisborough, Slapewath, Skelton, Boosbeck, Loftus and...
Tom Blenkinsop: What recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
Tom Blenkinsop: Russian aggression in the east of Ukraine has resulted in the internal displacement of 1.6 million Ukrainians. Russian aggression is now heightening in the east of Ukraine. Apart from seeking a resumption of the ceasefire in the east of Ukraine, will the Government commit to providing additional support to the Ukrainian Government to deal with such numbers of internally displaced people?
Tom Blenkinsop: Can we have a debate on property acquired by companies such as G4S in relation to the dispersal of asylum seekers? In my constituency an independent councillor, Mary Lanigan, has used that as an opportunity to spread hatred and to divide the community along the lines of race and religion by repeatedly using inaccurate phrases such as “illegal asylum seeker”. Her contact details have...
Tom Blenkinsop: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the disclosure, consideration and approval of proposals for onshore electricity power stations of 50MW or less; to require the application of Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) terms and conditions in certain circumstances; to require sector-specific collective national workforce agreements in other...
Tom Blenkinsop: I understand the hon. Gentleman’s frustration, but I see what we are doing as investment. Renewables, whether photovoltaic or wind-generated energy, have the capacity to be used, for example, in the creation of hydrogen gas. There is a future in which we could create gas at zero cost, with surplus renewable electricity for the consumer. In transport network terms, the ability to spread that...
Tom Blenkinsop: I congratulate the hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Philip Boswell) on securing this debate. His contribution was really good, technically sound and showed his background in the subject. First, let me state that carbon capture and storage is an absolutely necessary component of the solution to our energy trilemma. It offers the opportunity to meet our emissions targets,...
Tom Blenkinsop: I warmly welcome the Government’s new industrial strategy Green Paper, although it implicitly admits that the past six and a half years without an industrial strategy have been wasted. Having said that, the Materials Processing Institute has made a bid to be a metals catapult, and there is no mention of carbon capture and storage. Those issues are critical to the ability of any...