Craig Tracey: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Mims Davies) on securing this important debate. I am delighted to speak today as chair of the all-party group on women and enterprise. I really enjoy that role, although I have to admit that when I was first asked whether I would carry it out, I was worried that someone had misread my name and put it back to front. Thankfully, that was...
Craig Tracey: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It was good that she raised that point in Prime Minister’s Question Time last week. There is overwhelming evidence that harnessing female entrepreneurship can only be positive for our economy. Indeed, a report that was published in 2013 calculated that boosting female entrepreneurship could deliver approximately £60 billion extra to the UK economy. We...
Craig Tracey: What steps he plans to take to ensure that rural communities have access to regular bus services.
Craig Tracey: Will the Minister agree to look into the provision of buses in the rural part of my constituency for local students travelling to school compared with national averages, and advise on how we can improve that?
Craig Tracey: What steps he has taken to promote regional growth in the Midlands.
Craig Tracey: In national apprenticeship week, we can all welcome the creation of over 2.6 million apprenticeships since May 2010, including 500,000 in the midlands and 5,140 in my constituency of North Warwickshire. Will the Secretary of State join me in welcoming a report published today by Universities UK? It shows the potential for new degree apprenticeships to help to meet the needs of employers in my...
Craig Tracey: Like many in the House, I welcome the Chancellor’s moves to develop a northern powerhouse, but my constituents are also interested in the Secretary of State’s work to drive forward the midlands engine. Will he assure me that tomorrow’s Budget will contain welcome news for my constituents and people across the west midlands?
Craig Tracey: I rise to speak to the new clauses in my name and to put the case of my constituents in North Warwickshire, which is arguably the most blighted part of the HS2 route, outside of London. I would like to use the short time available to make a final case to the Government to adopt vital protections for local communities such as Kingsbury, Water Orton, Coleshill, Middleton, Lea Marston and...
Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure provision of sustainable and long-term funding for (a) children's hospice sector and (b) other voluntary sector end-of-life care services.
Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy for palliative care funding to provide universal access to bereavement services for bereaved families of children and young people.
Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to require health commissioners to make publicly available information on how they commission palliative care for children and young people across their locality.
Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that all health and social care staff involved in providing care to children and young people with life-shortening conditions receive specialist training.
Craig Tracey: The Government need to keep up with the digital revolution, and I applaud the Minister’s efforts to ensure that that is being done. Does
Craig Tracey: What recent assessment he has made of the extent of radicalisation in the Palestinian Territories.
Craig Tracey: Last week, the Fatah party in Palestine described the terrorist who killed 26 people and wounded more than 80 in a shooting attack at a Israel’s main airport in 1972 as a “hero” and said it was “proud of every fighter who has joined our mighty revolution” against Israel. Does the Minister agree that the success of the two-state solution that we all want rests upon the Palestinian...
Craig Tracey: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Many of the measures in the Gracious Speech will bring benefits to North Warwickshire and Bedworth, but, in the short time available to me today, I wish to focus on the digital economy Bill. The Bill is vital, not just in my constituency, where there are large pockets of rural communities, but across the whole of the UK, if we are to maintain our position as...
Craig Tracey: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Chope. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on securing this debate. I shall focus on the EU emissions trading system policy, which has already been highlighted but is of particular concern to Wienerberger, a brick manufacturer based in Kingsbury in my constituency. Like my hon. Friend the Member...
Craig Tracey: My hon. Friend pre-empted part of my speech. She is absolutely right that we need more houses, and that it makes absolute sense for the bricks for those houses to come from local businesses in the UK. The loss of the free allocation I have described will, when combined with an escalating market price for carbon allowances, significantly increase the cost of production. Meanwhile, competing...
Craig Tracey: I cannot say much more than that my hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is the nub of the problem. It is about investment as much as anything else. Given the Government’s commitment to delivering 400,000 affordable housing starts by 2021, and the Construction 2025 strategy, which seeks to achieve a 50% reduction in the trade gap between total exports and imports of construction products...
Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure people who smoke have access to (a) heat-not-burn tobacco and e-cigarettes and (b) other smoking cessation products.