Kirsty Blackman: Wil the Minister give way?
Kirsty Blackman: If the Conservative Government have done all those wonderful things, how come my constituents cannot afford to eat?
Kirsty Blackman: Unfortunately, I missed the article this morning but I will be sure to read it. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the biggest issues with this scheme is the length of time it takes for decisions to be made? People are waiting a significant length of time even to get an initial contact with the vaccine damage payment scheme. Does he agree that that is one of the key things that needs...
Kirsty Blackman: In giving some thought to what I might say today, I thought that the best way I could say, “Where is the employment Bill in this Queen’s Speech?”, would be to quote the Scottish TUC, which absolutely got it right: “20 times the Tory UK Government promised to bring forward an employment bill. Absolute silence in today’s State Opening of Parliament. True to form, Tories have shafted...
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for visas for Ukrainian refugees under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Ukrainian refugees who were already matched with a sponsor when they applied for a visa under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, have received their visas.
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the equalities impact assessment undertaken by her Department in respect of The Universal Credit and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work Search and Work Availability Requirements - limitations) (Amendment) Regulations 2022.
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 8 February 2022 to Question 117880 and Question 121901, on Social Security Benefits: Disqualification, what assessment she has made of the findings of the implications for her policies of international studies, including those summarised in Griggs and Evans (2010), the National Audit Office’s 2016 report on...
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the amendments to the permitted period contained in The Universal Credit and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work Search and Work Availability Requirements - limitations) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 include an objective to support claimants to move into sustained, long-term employment.
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2022 to Question 117880, on Social Security Benefits: Disqualification, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the finding on page 73 of her Department's in-work progression randomised control trial that ran between April 2015 and March 2018 that sanctions did not appear to...
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to increase the digitisation of the process for applying for driving licences through the DVLA.
Kirsty Blackman: I absolutely do. The Government cannot hide behind agricultural being in the trade and co-operation agreement, because the TCA specifically says that agricultural subsidies can and should be excluded from subsidy control regimes. The Government still have not given a good reason for including agriculture in the subsidy control regime. It works in the EU and in the state aid regime, so it is...
Kirsty Blackman: The issue with that is that if a company is given money to run a freeport and it runs a freeport with that money, it can sack all the staff it likes at P&O and still be eligible for the subsidy. The issue is that there is a gap, which has been well highlighted by the shadow Minister.
Kirsty Blackman: The Scottish Government asked that the freeports that were going to be in Scotland had green stuff in them and fair work rules, but the UK Government said no. Now the Minister is saying, “Yes, we can totally do that. That definitely should be in it.” The UK Government refused to let us have that in the freeports planned for Scotland.
Kirsty Blackman: It is very good to be here to talk about the Subsidy Control Bill again. The Lords amendments that have been accepted and put forward by the Government do make the Bill better. The Bill is better as a result of almost all the amendments that have been introduced; I accept that that is the case. I feel sorry for the Minister because he had to argue against many of these amendments in Committee...
Kirsty Blackman: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to focus on how people actually use the internet, particularly how young people actually use the internet. I feel, as was suggested in one of the comments in questions earlier, that this Bill and some of the discussion around it misses some of the point and some of the actual ways in which particularly young people use the internet. We have not...
Kirsty Blackman: What recent progress his Department has made on NHS (a) short-term and (b) long-term workforce planning.
Kirsty Blackman: The anti-immigration, “hostile environment” rhetoric and actions of this Government are having a significant impact on our NHS workforce, both by not encouraging people to come here to work in our NHS and by discouraging current staff from staying here. The Health and Social Care Committee recommended the introduction of a national policy framework on migration to support national and...
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he has met with representatives of the (a) Scottish Government and (b) Welsh Government to discuss floating offshore wind.
Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the floating offshore wind industry on the potential economic benefits of setting a target of 15GW of floating wind by 2035.