Caroline Lucas: ...any scrutiny of their climate record and instead relying on a past record, because while the UK may indeed be the first major economy to cut its territorial emissions by half since 1990, we are not on track to achieve our 2030 targets, and if we factor in consumption emissions, the UK has cut emissions by only 23%. So let’s have a little less complacency from the Minister. He will know...
Martin Docherty: ...me take this opportunity to thank the UK Mortgage Prisoners campaign group, which has assisted me in bringing this Bill to the Floor of the House—specifically, Rachel Neale and Jill Hulme, who are in the Special Gallery. I am very grateful to them and to their team. An estimated 200,000 people across the UK, including 40,000 Scots, are deemed to be mortgage prisoners, thought to be at...
Caroline Lucas: ...why the Labour party appears to be supporting the freezing of fuel duty. We know that the cost of freezing fuel duty since 2010 is a staggering £90 billion and that climate emissions since 2010 are 7% higher than they would have been had that policy not been in effect. Precisely because she wants more money to go into public services, can she explain why Labour is supporting this...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 14837 on Absent Voting, how are postal ballot sweeps are undertaken; and what guidance is provided to Returning Officers.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the barriers to people in Gaza who are seeking to join their family members in the UK reaching their closest visa application centre in Egypt.
Caroline Lucas: In response to my many written questions, the Government continue to say that they are keeping arms export licences under review, including with regard to international humanitarian law, and they confirm that Ministers are able to amend, suspend or revoke licences as circumstances require. One of the licences currently in place allows L3Harris in my constituency to manufacture components for...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent staff are assessing nominations for funding under the Access for All programme.
Sammy Wilson: ...and again during the debate, we will require oil and gas for decades—and it may as well be British oil and gas, because that means jobs in Britain, tax revenue, and reducing our imports. If we are to continue to use oil, there are very good reasons why we should give licences for its production. I find some of the arguments made today very strange. Passionate speeches have been made...
Caroline Lucas: ...to her oral contribution during the Second Reading of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill on 22 January 2024, Official Report, columns 42-43, on what evidential basis she stated that 200,000 jobs are supported by the oil and gas sector in the UK; and if she will publish a breakdown of (a) the calculations supporting this figure and (b) those jobs by sector.
Caroline Lucas: ..., pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2024 to Question 7540 on Gaza: Humanitarian Aid and the Answer of 26 January 2024 to Question 9495 on Gaza: Humanitarian Aid, how many truckloads of UK aid are in Gaza; what recent progress his Department has made on helping to tackle constraints on the number of trucks entering Gaza each day; and what recent estimate he has made of the average daily...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason his Department’s criteria for faux fur replacement for the (a) King’s Guard’s bearskin and (b) Royal Horse Artillery's busby caps are different.
Alex Burghart: I congratulate the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) on gaining this Adjournment debate, and echo in part what the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said: although we do not agree on everything, we appreciate that she is to some extent the conscience of the House on these matters, and is always there to encourage Government and everyone else to go further. I am...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for Paxlovid to include people who are full-time carers to mitigate the risk of long covid.
Graham Stuart: The measures will make no difference to our consumption and no difference to world consumption because we are net importers. We are not spilling our product on to global markets. Our oil, for instance, which the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) often mentions, is refined at European refineries. It is then turned into product that we can use here. It contributes directly to...
Caroline Lucas: ...such as asthma, heart disease and cancer, and has been shown to have an impact on our mental health too, leading to an increased risk of schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. Its impacts are not equally felt, however, with those on low incomes and from black and ethnic minority backgrounds far more likely to live in polluted areas. It is children’s health that is affected most of all. A...
Caroline Lucas: Mr Speaker, “Until the UK Government calls for an immediate ceasefire, it is complicit in the horrors…in Gaza.” Those are not my words but those of the head of Oxfam who, like every single agency trying to operate on the ground, is clear that aid cannot be effectively delivered while fighting continues. More UK aid is of course welcome but even when it does get through, it can result in...
Caroline Lucas: ...as chair of that committee, the Government still have not announced a replacement, despite 60 applications for the role having been submitted and several people already having been interviewed. Are the Government scared of having their record scrutinised, or are they simply determined to destroy any last shred of the UK’s climate leadership? Will the Minister tell us now when the...
Caroline Lucas: The Minister says that his thoughts and sympathies are with all those affected but, frankly, his words ring hollow. Not only are the Government are failing to protect existing properties—an estimated 4,000 flood defences were in poor or very poor condition in 2022—but worse, Ministers are actively planning to pursue energy policies that will make extreme weather events worse. We are about...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2023 to Question 5417 on Israel: Military Aid, whether any licences are in place that allow UK manufactured (a) military equipment and (b) components for military equipment to be sent to Israel.
Caroline Lucas: This year is the 75th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights. What an irony, and what a shameful indictment of Ministers, that our Government are marking it by putting in front of Parliament a Bill to wave aside our human rights obligations and the judgment of the highest domestic court in the land. This insulting and dangerous legislation attacks both human rights and our...