Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an estimate of the number of households that have been involuntarily fitted with pre-payment meters since October 2022.
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an estimate of the number of households that have (a) had pre-payment meters removed and (b) received compensation due to the involuntary installation of pre-payment meters since February 2023.
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much funding has been allocated to clean energy research, development and demonstration projects from the Ayrton Fund as of 8 November 2023.
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to her Department's published guidance on the Ayrton Fund, how much funding was allocated to each of the 23 RD&D projects that that fund supported in its first two years.
Jeff Smith: The suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza is intolerable. The siege must end, the bombing must end and we need an end to hostilities. Does the Minister share my worry that the way the war on Hamas is being prosecuted—the constant bombing, the scale of the loss of life and suffering—runs the risk of radicalising people and driving them into the arms of Hamas and other terrorist...
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Powering Up Britain: Energy Security Plan, published in March 2023, when she plans to consult on options for a new approach to consumer protection.
Jeff Smith: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Richard Fuller), who made an interesting speech. He talked about the progress in primary care in his area. Sadly, I do not see such progress in south Manchester, where patients and GPs are in despair at the state of primary care after 13 years of Conservative-led Governments. We desperately need real change and new...
Jeff Smith: Does the Minister agree with the Home Secretary that “senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters”?
Jeff Smith: It is a real pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dame Angela. I congratulate the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) on securing the debate, and thank him and other hon. Members who have made such interesting contributions. The contracts for difference scheme has been an important way of incentivising investment in renewable energy, and has played a key role in making renewable energy the...
Jeff Smith: We have all been horrified and devastated by the Hamas attacks on innocent Israeli civilians and by the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians facing an unfolding humanitarian crisis. We urgently need the release of the Israeli hostages and we need the opening of viable and sufficient humanitarian and medical relief corridors. Like a number of Members, I have constituents stranded in...
Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2023 to Question 198639 on Childcare, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure the adequacy of (a) trained staff, (b) safe premises and (c) registered places in Manchester Withington constituency by the start of September 2025 to offer eligible children aged nine months and above to access 30 hours a...
Jeff Smith: What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Crown Prosecution Service in ensuring access to justice for victims of crime.
Jeff Smith: There are victims of crime in our country who have had to wait years for their cases to come to court, who have bravely given testimony to ensure that the criminals who robbed or attacked them are convicted, and who, this week, will have to watch those criminals be bailed rather than jailed, because the prisons are too full to pass sentence against them. What message would the Attorney...
Jeff Smith: It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Cummins. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb) on securing the debate and on a very good speech; I agree with most of what he said. It was also good to hear about the consensus and the joint work on the Celtic freeport from my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock), and about his ambition...
Jeff Smith: What steps he is taking to improve waiting times for cancer treatment.
Jeff Smith: The Minister has again been referring to “pre-pandemic levels”. Ministers have a tendency to blame covid for increased waiting times, including in respect of cancer. I presume they are aware that the number of cancer patients not getting care on time rose in every year since the Conservatives came to power before the pandemic. How can the Government defend that dreadful record?
Jeff Smith: Building HS2 was a long-term decision for the future—investment for decades to come—not just to improve transport but to drive the economy of the north, which is why my south Manchester constituents once again feel let down by this Government. We now have the worst possible outcomes: £45 billion spent on half a job, without those long-term benefits for the north. That is not a long-term...
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.