Paulette Hamilton: It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms McVey. I thank the hon. Member for Keighley (Robbie Moore) for securing this important debate. For many of my constituents, the sad reality of living in Tory Britain is that antisocial behaviour is increasing in our town centres, and there has been a loss of confidence in the police. The Government have hollowed out neighbourhood policing,...
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will have discussions with (a) Uber and (b) other private hire operators on their practices for deactivating drivers’ accounts.
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the number of (a) occasions that schools in Birmingham, Erdington constituency have screened pupils using metal detectors and (b) weapons that have been recovered as a result of screening pupils in each of the last five years.
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many instances of knife crime have been recorded in (a) the West Midlands, (b) Birmingham and (c) the Birmingham, Erdington constituency, in each of the last five years.
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to educate (a) workers and (b) businesses on ways to reduce negative health impacts of night-time work.
Paulette Hamilton: I am the daughter of immigrants. My parents’ generation faced injustice through the mistakes made by the Windrush scheme, which are taking years to unravel. Last year set a record high for small boat crossings, with 46,000 arrivals. Why on earth should our constituents trust the Conservative Government, when under them, small boat crossings are going up rather than coming down?
Paulette Hamilton: What steps he is taking to improve patient access to primary care.
Paulette Hamilton: Under the Tories, the number of qualified GPs has fallen to a record low, which is hitting local communities across the UK very hard. In January, in Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale, more than 2,000 people had to wait more than a month for a GP appointment. Is it not the case that the longer the Tories are in power, the longer patients will have to wait?
Paulette Hamilton: I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow (Kate Osborne) on securing this debate. I worked in the NHS as a nurse for 25 years. I know at first hand how soul destroying it can be to work long hours with inadequate staffing and funding. I am also a mom, a sister, a wife and a grandmother. I know how worrying it can be when someone is ill and how helpless long waiting times can...
Paulette Hamilton: My hon. Friend raises a valuable point. I am passionate about mental health, but at the moment we have no plan. The 10-year plan for mental health services and the way forward was abolished and nothing has been put in its place. Does my hon. Friend feel that that has contributed to the fact that we are seeing so many issues in our young people and elderly, and anxiety in our teenagers?
Paulette Hamilton: What recent steps his Department has taken to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene for women and girls across the world.
Paulette Hamilton: I refer the House to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. A third of women around the world do not have access to clean water. In December, I visited Ghana and saw how water, sanitation and hygiene projects funded by UK aid can be life-changing for women and girls. The Government’s international development strategy commits to “empowering women and girls”...
Paulette Hamilton: Erdington High Street has seven betting shops, and I am campaigning to oppose the latest planning application for yet another one. Birmingham City Council did the right thing by rejecting the application last July, but the gambling bosses have now made an appeal to the Government. Another bookies on our high streets is the last thing we need. After being let down by Ministers yet again when...
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) level of prevalence of long covid in the adult social care workforce and (b) impact of long covid on the provision of adult social care.
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022, Official Report, column 850, on what evidential basis the Chancellor said that 200,000 additional care packages could be delivered due to funding made available for the health and social care sector in the next two years.
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Social Care of 6 December 2022, Official Report, col 188-190, what steps he plans to take to reform the social care workforce.
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press release entitled £500 million to develop the adult social care workforce, published by his Department on 5 April 2022, and in the context of the repeal of the Health and Social Care Levy, what steps he is taking to provide funding for the improvement of (a) recruitment, (b) retention, (c) progression and...
Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to ensure that Birmingham City Council receives prompt notification of the outcome of their application for funding for Erdington High Street through the second round of the Levelling Up Fund.
Paulette Hamilton: The levelling-up round 2 funding announced last night was a kick in the teeth for my community in Erdington. Despite the attempts by the Minister who responded to Labour’s urgent question to pretend that the process was fair, we know the truth. The Prime Minister’s constituency received £19 million of funding but Erdington High Street got nothing. An urgent question is simply not enough,...
Paulette Hamilton: I was a nurse for 25 years and I returned to the frontline during the pandemic. I know at first hand that after 13 years of Tory mismanagement, our NHS is in crisis. Many health workers who have dedicated their lives to caring for others day in, day out are still living with the after effects of having worked flat out during and before the pandemic, all while trying to do the work of three or...
