Natalie Don: COP26 was a significant point with regard to our planet’s future. However, although much positive progress was made, we still have a long way to go. As we have heard today, COP26 succeeded in the ambition of keeping 1.5 alive and in sight, and its importance is no longer questioned, but it will be delivered only through immediate global efforts. Here in Scotland, we have some of the most...
Trudy Harrison: I thank the hon. Member for that comment. I do not personally own a car, and it is perhaps not a car club that I have with my husband, who does own our car. However, when I think about my personal circumstances—we drive a seven-seater, primarily because I have four daughters, although nowadays it is more about the pub run than the school run—I ask: do I always want to drive a...
Lord Callanan: ...to work with industry to create the skilled workforce needed to deliver our net-zero targets. This includes green apprenticeships and retraining boot camps. The Government are establishing a green jobs delivery group, co-chaired by a government Minister and an industry representative, where government, industry and other key stakeholders will work together to deliver the skills needed for...
Robert Halfon: I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this important debate. I particularly thank the members of the Education Committee, including the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Kim Johnson) for co-sponsoring the debate, and my hon. Friend the Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Miriam Cates). My hon. Friend is a brilliant Committee member and I appreciate all the work that...
John Healey: ...Defence Secretary and his team for the way they have kept Members in all parts of the House updated and informed, and I thank him for his statement this afternoon. President Zelensky spoke for his country when he told us yesterday: “We will not give up, and we will not lose.”—[Official Report, 8 March 2022; Vol. 710, c. 304.] His address, like his leadership, was deeply moving and...
Trudy Harrison: ...points and hopefully address the hon. Gentleman’s queries. As has been said, the national bus strategy will be critical; we believe it is the biggest shake-up in a generation. We are absolutely committed to delivering the transformational changes that have been called for this morning, which passengers throughout the country deserve. Our strategy explains how we will make buses more...
Seema Malhotra: I will come on to that, but I think we need legislation. We hope that will be announced in the next Queen’s Speech, but I will come back to that. There seems to be broad consensus for providing the regulators, including the CMA and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, with more powers to protect consumers and hold companies accountable if they are not found to be playing by the rules. That is a...
Alex Burghart: The department works with The Careers & Enterprise Company to support schools and colleges to embed best practice so that young people are aware of the full range of careers, including technical theatre roles, and have access to meaningful encounters with a range of employers and workplaces. The department funds Careers Hubs which lead partnerships of secondary schools, colleges, employers,...
Christine Grahame: ...reminds us of women’s resilience and determination in the worst of circumstances. Although what I will describe is by no means on the same scale, I hope to illustrate how far we, as women, have come over the short period of three generations in my family, through the resilience and determination of my grandmother and mother. However, of course, there is still a long road ahead in...
Colm Gildernew: Is mór an onóir domh bheith anseo anocht ar an Bhille seo. I am extremely pleased to be here tonight, debating this Bill. I welcome the Final Stage of the Autism (Amendment) Bill. I thank the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, Pam Cameron MLA, for introducing it. I also thank the all-party group on autism and Autism NI for their support in bringing this legislation forward. I acknowledge...
Nigel Mills: It is a pleasure to speak in this debate and to follow the right hon. Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge), whom I join in welcoming this long-delayed Bill. I think I have co-chaired the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax for nearly seven years; as she says, we were promised this measure six years ago. The irony is that at the time the Government were...
Simon Hart: I am delighted that the hon. Lady is delighted that we have been able to put £30 million into that project. That shows what levelling up is capable of and it shows that collaboration and co-operation—all the things that apparently do not happen—are happening in her constituency. I cannot tell her exactly when, but I will find somebody who can put her out of her misery. Her reference to...
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: I shall speak to Amendment 82 in the name of my noble friend Lady Bennett of Manor Castle. I attended Second Reading and made my views felt then, but I have not been able to join the deliberations on the Bill since then because of the pressure of other Bills in your Lordships’ House. Even I, as someone who does not know very much about medicine, know that the most urgent challenge currently...
Julia Lopez: The Creative Industries Clusters Programme is currently delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of UKRI’s Audience of the Future Challenge and has made some remarkable progress over the last four years of its operation. As of September 2021, the programme has identified that over 3,475 jobs had been created and safeguarded, over £176m of private co-investment has been...
Sarah Boyack: ...—music, sport and drama, the BBC World Service—as well as the importance of campaigning to stop the privatisation of Channel 4, which would massively disrupt a hugely successful model of commissioning that delivers high-quality and diverse programmes. Scottish Labour will not support the Tory amendment as it calls for us to support “all possible funding options”. We are keen to...
Alexander Stafford: Can my hon. Friend the Minister set out some of the potential benefits for the UK, and especially for Rother Valley, of a trade deal with the Gulf Co-operation Council, particularly around jobs and investment?
Tom Hunt: ...Member for Peterborough (Paul Bristow) had the great privilege of visiting Bangladesh last month with the Al-Tazid Foundation, where we had the opportunity to meet not only His Excellency the High Commissioner, who is doing such a fantastic job, but the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister. We also took part in the business side. Bangladesh’s economy is growing at great pace; it is an...
Paul Sweeney: I hear the member’s point, but I do not agree with her perception or assertion. Even the Treasury Committee in the House of Commons said as much in its report on the funds, which questioned why one of the centrepieces of the Government’s levelling up ambitions was to be reduced to such an extent. The idea that there will be a complete offsetting is simply not correct. It is not just the...
Kate Forbes: On Daniel Johnson’s point about entrepreneurialism, he mentioned the importance of scaling up versus new start-ups. That policy is backed up by the analytical paper, which I strongly recommend that he reads, if he has not already done so. The strategy that has been published is the tip of the iceberg. Underpinning it is a comprehensive structural analysis of the Scottish economy, which...
Earl Howe: My Lords, this has been a very fruitful discussion and I am most grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken. I especially thank my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham, the noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley, Lady Thornton and Lady Hollins, the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, in his absence, the King’s Fund and the Health Foundation for their contributions, both inside...