Priti Patel: ...statement on the United Kingdom’s approach to the global migration challenge. The United Kingdom has a long and proud history of offering sanctuary to refugees. In recent years alone, we have welcomed more than 185,000 people through safe and legal routes, including from Syria, Hong Kong, Afghanistan and, more recently, Ukraine. In addition, we have welcomed more than 40,000 people in...
Lee Rowley: ...work that British industry and businesses do every day throughout the year. The ability to talk about that even for a few minutes is a great opportunity to celebrate their fantastic work. I congratulate the APPG and my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby, who chairs it, on the work done under his chairmanship and under the chairmanship of the much-missed former Member for Stirling, who we all...
Paul McLennan: I am delighted to speak in this afternoon’s debate. I thank the clerks and other members of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee for their work, and I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests—I am a serving councillor on East Lothian Council, at least for the next two weeks. I have been a councillor in East Lothian for the past 15 years. Planning...
Alex Burghart: ...for employment. We are delivering the Lifetime Skills Guarantee to allow adults to upskill and reskill at different points in their life. Provision for adults is available to learners across the country through a range of providers, including further education colleges and independent learning providers. The department invests in education and skills training for adults through the adult...
Fleur Anderson: I very much thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I ask him please to join the campaign; we have a petition he can sign. He is not alone in being incredulous about how this could be allowed to go ahead. We had a public meeting about this last week, and I hope that Fulham football club will see the opposition from so many different clubs, and from the boat race itself. I hope...
Clive Betts: I beg to move, That this House has considered the future funding of urban transport. This is an important subject, Mr Sharma, and there is an awful lot to say about it. Looking around the Chamber, it looks like I have about an hour to say it in, although I will not take that amount of time. I have been interested in the subject for an awfully long time. I will cover buses and light rail, in...
Layla Moran: I beg to move, That this House has considered the impact of long covid on the UK workforce. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing us to hold this updated debate on long covid. I also thank my co-sponsors, some of whom, I am sad to say, are at home ill with covid and very much wanted to be here today. Also the fact that the debate has moved weeks has not helped. For those...
Ivan McKee: Scotland is a proud trading nation. For centuries, we have exported goods and services around the globe. Today, our food and drink, higher education and science and technology exports, to name but a few, are renowned the world over. In Scotland, we recognise that international trade is a force for good. However, it can present us with difficult challenges—from how we respond to world events...
Cherilyn Mackrory: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) on securing this important debate. The provision for affordable housing and access to good healthcare are among the top issues raised with me by constituents in Truro and Falmouth in Cornwall. Those issues must be tackled in conjunction. I thank all...
Elizabeth Truss: ...the NLAWs and now the Starstreaks, are having a real impact in Ukraine. Those weapons are produced across the United Kingdom—the NLAWs, for instance, are produced in Belfast—so this is contributing to jobs and growth across the UK, and represents a very important export for us. As for what more we can do, the Defence Secretary has already held a donor conference to encourage other...
Lyn Brown: ...that persists in the UK and across our world. TB is deadly: in 2020, it killed 1.5 million people. However, TB is both preventable and curable. The UK, with international partners, has rightly committed to the achievable goal of finally ending the epidemic by 2030. I hope the Government will join the Labour party not only in recommitting to that goal, but in committing the resources...
Baroness Barran: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I beg to move that this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments 1 and 2 en bloc. I will speak also to Amendments 3 to 6, 15 and 16 and associated Motions. I am delighted to be back in the Chamber to discuss the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill. It is the Government’s belief—which I know is shared by your Lordships—that the skills...
Tom Arthur: I am pleased to announce the publication of our retail strategy for Scotland today. The strategy recognises the importance of retail to Scotland’s communities, society, environment and economy, and it has been developed in collaboration with business, trade unions, academia and the public sector. I am thankful for the contribution of each person who has been involved. Our shops often...
Kit Malthouse: The various points that the hon. Lady raised in the first half of her remarks will be addressed by Her Majesty’s inspectorate as it looks at vetting procedures across the whole country. The purpose of the investigation commissioned by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary was to show the leadership that she is looking for and to expose what we now know to be the systematic failings of the...
Rishi Sunak: ...feel for their suffering, and the admiration for their bravery, is only matched by the gratitude we feel for the security in which we live—and what underpins that security is the strength of our economy. It gives us the ability to fund the armed forces we need to maintain our liberty, the resources we need to support our allies, the power to impose sanctions which cause severe economic...
David Simmonds: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I add my congratulations to the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) on securing the debate. Like her, I have had the opportunity over many years in the world of local government, to see the transformative benefits that social workers can bring to the lives of many of our most vulnerable people. Those are...
Sadiq Khan: The Youth Recovery Board (YRB) brings together young people from various advisory groups, including the Mayor’s Peer Outreach Team and London Youth Assembly. It meets regularly with the Recovery Programme Team and mission leads, providing feedback and challenge to the planning and delivery of the missions and wider recovery programme. The YRB sends two members to the London Recovery Board...
Lord Alton of Liverpool: My Lords, underlining the point about the dire situation that the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, described, will the Minister respond to reports that, according to the United Nations, the number of people who have now fled their homes in Ukraine totals 10 million—a quarter of the population—that mass deportations and abductions from Mariupol into locations deep inside Russia have been...
Ben Lake: ...management and administration of the money allocated to Wales via the Shared Prosperity Fund to the Welsh Government. Ahead of the spring statement tomorrow, surging energy bills and increasing costs of living are rightly making us nervous. We are at a critical juncture not only in overcoming the legacy of the covid-19 pandemic and the devastating consequences of the war in Ukraine, but in...
Ciara Ferguson: I will speak on the Final Stage of the Support for Mortgage Interest etc (Security for Loans) Bill. First, I convey my thanks to both the Minister and our Committee Chair for outlining the purpose and progress of this short Bill. On a personal note, Áine, Aisling and I, as Sinn Féin members, would like to wish the Chair and her family all the best for the future. We really appreciated the...