Jeff Smith: As a regular user, I recognise that the Avanti service has improved in recent months—although frankly, it would have been hard for it to get much worse—but given the sustained poor performance in the past and the August performance figures we have just heard about, this contract award feels very premature. Would it not have been better to wait and ensure that we see proven, sustained...
Jeff Smith: According to analysis by the Resolution Foundation, more than a third of British households face higher bills from the end of this month because of higher standing charges and the demise of the energy bills support scheme, and the people who use the least energy, and those in the poorest households, are disproportionately worse off. At the same time, the windfall tax has massive loopholes...
Jeff Smith: What steps she is taking to increase trade with European countries.
Jeff Smith: Here is an issue that could be discussed at that meeting: the youth group travel sector is worth £28 billion to the UK economy, but that two-way trade has collapsed since Brexit. The Prime Minister made a vague commitment in March that there would be an agreement for French school groups to visit the UK. We have heard no more details, and anyway we need a wider agreement to include other...
Jeff Smith: Yesterday, I joined my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) on the all-party parliamentary group on music for the launch of UK Music’s impressive “Manifesto for Music”. The opportunities and risks of AI are a key issue for the industry. Will the Government commit to musicians having a voice and a place at the table for the AI summit in November?
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on removing barriers to (a) school and (b) other group travel between the UK and France.
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to review the level of grant-in-aid for heritage institutions, in the context of rises in inflation.
Jeff Smith: It is a pleasure to follow my near constituency neighbour, the right hon. Member for Tatton (Esther McVey), and I join her and others in paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi) for her campaigns over the years, and of course to Marie Lyon for her many years of campaigning for justice for the families affected, including in my constituency. When...
Jeff Smith: I could not agree more, and families across the country have been affected in such a way. The Pierce family are another family in my constituency whose whole lives have been shaped by Primodos. Edward and Janet Pierce’s daughter, Louise, is now 54 years old. She was born with several different disabilities, which the families are convinced were caused by her mother having been prescribed...
Jeff Smith: What recent steps he has taken to implement the interim recommendations of the infected blood inquiry.
Jeff Smith: “Working through this” is not good enough. Several families in my constituency have lost partners or parents as a result of the infected blood scandal and they are frustrated by the delay and obfuscation. One of my constituents told me: “The lack of transparency is causing great stress and anxiety to those of us at the heart of this NHS treatment disaster who have already waited decades...
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to CPRE, the countryside charity’s report entitled Shout from the rooftops: delivering a common sense solar revolution, published in May 2023, whether he plans to ensure that the Future Homes Standard requires roof space-mounted solar arrays to be installed on new homes.
Jeff Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an equalities impact assessment of proposals for a points-based penalty regime for late submissions of tax returns.
Jeff Smith: What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of ticket office closures on rail users.
Jeff Smith: I have a lot of respect for the Minister, who I believe wants to do the right thing, but the rosy picture he portrays is not borne out by the reality. In my constituency, at Burnage station, the ticket office opening from 6.30 am to 1 pm is being replaced by a person from midday to 2 pm, at East Didsbury, where the ticket office has the same six-and-a-half hour opening, it is being replaced...
Jeff Smith: What recent progress her Department has made on reducing the use of hotels as contingency asylum accommodation.
Jeff Smith: In my constituency, I have had the same experience as my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs Hamilton), but the question I want to ask is about unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The Home Office still has not explained how it is going to find the children missing from asylum accommodation, so will it set out the plans to do that and find these vulnerable people?
Jeff Smith: What steps she is taking to increase trade with European countries.
Jeff Smith: On the subject of barriers to trade, not only is our world-leading cultural sector valuable in itself for our soft power, but it is an important part of our export trade. But our musicians face unnecessary red tape when trying to tour Europe. We need an EU-wide visa waiver for touring artists. The Secretary of State said earlier that her Department “works closely with musicians”, so what...
Jeff Smith: People who are released from prison into homelessness are much more likely to reoffend, but MOJ data shows that the community accommodation service tier 3 programme has had no meaningful impact on reducing the proportion of people leaving prison who are homeless on release or three months after release. Why does the Minister think the scheme is failing, and what will the Government do to fix it?
