Kevin Hollinrake: It is a pleasure to speak with you in the Chair, Mrs Miller. I wish to speak about neurofibromatosis, which for obvious reasons is more commonly known as NF1. As far as rare diseases go, it is pretty common. It affects one in 2,700 people born today, and it is more common than cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular atrophy and Huntingdon’s disease put together. I particularly want to echo the...
Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the increase in (a) temporary closures and (b) part-time opening of post offices on communities and community access to essential services across the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Kevin Hollinrake: What steps his Department is taking to increase renewable energy production.
Kevin Hollinrake: I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The first thing to say is that I agree with many of the comments that have been made. It simply cannot be right that leaseholders are faced with bills of tens of thousands of pounds. Nevertheless, I cannot support the amendment because I do not think it is effective, for a number of reasons. First,...
Kevin Hollinrake: I do not think I should, because of the timescales, but as my hon. Friend is an author of the amendment, I will.
Kevin Hollinrake: After the previous debate, I offered my hon. Friend the opportunity to sit down and look at an amendment that might work, in concert with the Government. The other difficulty with the amendment is that it would put the onus back on a building’s freeholders. Many people would say that that is fine—that it is better than the leaseholders having that responsibility—but I do not think it...
Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether indoor play centres and other children’s activities in venues for that purpose can commence from 12 April 2021 as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Kevin Hollinrake: The Minister is doing a fantastic job on this issue, which is one of the biggest issues that faces us. If this is not going to be a blank cheque for the taxpayer or for the recipient of the care, does the Minister agree, as I think the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) did, that there has to be a pooled solution, perhaps like the German-style system of social...
Kevin Hollinrake: I agree with virtually everything the hon. Lady has said. A funding solution is key, because in order to expand capacity there has to be more money. Does she have a funding solution for that? Would she consider a German-style system, which has cross-party support, or would she at least be willing to sit down with a number of people who support that system to engage with the idea?
Kevin Hollinrake: I am delighted to be so. It is a pleasure to speak in the debate with you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I am going to speak, not for the first time, in favour of a German-style adult social care premium. All the speakers today have made good points about the need to resolve the problem, but we must address it with money. The need can be supported only by a financial solution. There are three elements...
Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to extend the Digital Services Tax to goods provided directly from Amazon.
Kevin Hollinrake: I welcome my hon. Friend the Minister to his place on the Front Bench. He has made a great start. Will my hon. Friend confirm that the levelling-up fund will welcome applications from rural areas, such as Ryedale in my constituency, which may look prosperous from the outside but whose average earnings are below the regional average, partly because of a past lack of infrastructure investment?...
Kevin Hollinrake: I would like to speak to new clause 1. First, I am grateful to the Financial Secretary for putting the record straight. It was a reflection of the fact that there was no Opposition Minister on duty. It is suboptimal to have an Opposition Minister speaking by video link: Members have no opportunity to challenge some of his statements, many of which I thought were absolutely out of order. You...
Kevin Hollinrake: Accounts mean accountability. Every set of accounts needs contingency lines—sometimes quite annoyingly, in my experience—but this crisis has shown the importance of having a contingency fund. I agree with my right hon. Friend the Minister: the Government have acted swiftly, decisively and with a great deal of flexibility in respect of the schemes they have rolled out. Almost every...
Kevin Hollinrake: Every 1% increase will cost the taxpayer £750 million, but I did not hear the shadow Health Secretary say by how much he would increase pay or indeed which taxes he would increase to pay for that. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree that one way to increase resources for health and social care and remuneration for our care workers is by means of a German-style social care premium?
Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of UK whistleblowing legislation to (a) ensure that it keeps pace with international developments and (b) maintain the UK’s position on worker rights.
Kevin Hollinrake: I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. As a northern businessperson, I was very pleased with the Budget statement—it was pro-business and pro-north. It was also an honest assessment of where we are today. I was quite astounded—perhaps I should not have been—by the response from the Leader of the Opposition, which reminded me of what...
Kevin Hollinrake: rose—
Kevin Hollinrake: I am very grateful to you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to raise this very important issue. Could we have a debate in Government time on the future of faith schools? Ampleforth school in my constituency has had problems in the past, it is fair to say, but those are now behind it. Yet there are some in the education system who are using some relatively minor issues more recently as a pretext...
Kevin Hollinrake: The Minister mentions the time that this will take. Whatever money is put forward, it will take five or 10 years to remediate many buildings. Insurance costs have quadrupled for many residents. There is a solution on the table, provided by the Association of Residential Managing Agents, in which the Government take a top-sliced risk, which would put those premiums back down. Will he look at...