Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-06-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: The Eden Project North has been five years of my parliamentary life. We have gone through three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors and a plethora of Ministers, but we have now got to a point where the levelling-up bid is going in very shortly. We have a shovel-ready plan and full planning permission. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that it is money worth spending in Morecambe?; Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. [Laughter.] Mr Speaker, my sincere apologies.There are, Mr Speaker, great opportunities to create exciting new jobs in low-carbon energy along the East Anglian coast, and East Coast College is up for the challenge of providing local people with the necessary skills. However, it and other colleges are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain teachers in such work as fabrication, engineering and construction. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that the Government come up with a cross-departmental strategy to address this staffing crisis in our further education colleges, which could undermine the levelling-up agenda?; Having spoken to Lord Ahmad yesterday, I thank the Government for listening and now allowing high-risk British Council contractors still in Afghanistan to be processed immediately on their application to the citizen resettlement scheme, rather than having to wait a further two months until the application window closes. With taxation at a 40-year high, when will the Government be bolder in cutting taxes, given that all the evidence the world over shows that lower taxes increase prosperity, raise living standards and better enable the Government to help the less fortunate—even if such a policy means cutting spending such as HS2?; As Tory MSP Murdo Fraser points out, Scotland has a third of Britain’s land mass, half its territorial waters, over 60% of UK fishing zones, 98% of oil reserves, 63% of natural gas, a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind resources, and 90% of the UK’s fresh water. Will the Deputy Prime Minister explain whether his opposition to Scottish independence is because he fears the loss of those invaluable resources?; The Deputy Prime Minister will be aware that in North East Hertfordshire we have some of the best farmland in the country. At a time when there are concerns about food production and food security, and when the Government are considering rural land use, is it time to ensure that our productive farmland is not covered in solar plants, and that those are instead positioned on brownfield sites, buildings, and low-grade agricultural land?; So far this year, 52 women have been killed in the UK. Our rights to free speech, safe spaces, fairness in sport, and even the words we use to describe our own bodies, are all under threat. Will the Deputy Prime Minister send a clear signal, as some of his Cabinet colleagues have done this week, that Britain respects the rights of women? Will he accept the cross-party amendment to the Bill of Rights Bill, which would enshrine in law a woman’s right to choose?; In February 2019, the House passed my excellent Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019, mandating the Government to extend civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples, enabling marriage records to include mothers’ details and requiring the Justice Secretary to produce a report empowering coroners to investigate stillbirths. The first two have come into force successfully, but, two and a half years on, despite further shocking revelations about deaths of babies at several hospitals, no report has yet been published; nor are there regulations to give coroners the powers they need. Why not?; Threatened, terrified and alone. That is how survivors of sexual violence told me they felt when they were pressured into signing non-disclosure agreements and gagging clauses by their universities. No victim of sexual assault or harassment should ever be coerced into silence by the very institutions that are meant to protect them—not at university, not at work, not anywhere. Will the Government back my Non-Disclosure Agreements Bill to ban the use of NDAs in cases of sexual harassment, bullying and misconduct? Will the Deputy Prime Minister consider meeting me in his role as Justice Secretary to discuss how we will put a stop to this deplorable practice once and for all?; This year, we are investing nearly £190 billion in the NHS, and yet many of us see disturbing deficiencies within NHS management, no more so than in the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. In 2018, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne) and I secured £312 million for a major A&E modernisation in our local hospital trust, but, four years on, construction has still not started. What message can the Deputy Prime Minister give to the people of Shrewsbury as to how the Government can intervene to break the gridlock and finally allow the £312 million that we secured to be used to benefit the people of Shropshire and mid-Wales?; When the Deputy Prime Minister announced his Bill of Rights last week, he said that it would strengthen our UK “tradition of freedom” Freedom? That is shameless from a Government whose contempt for the rule of law and devolution can be judged in equal measure. They are scrapping Welsh law against our will and denying Scotland the right to choose its own future. That is not freedom. Will he prove me wrong by enshrining self-determination in his Bill of Rights?; Derriford Hospital in my constituency is part of the new hospital building programme announced by this Government; work on the new emergency department starts this year. That is a significant investment for the amazing staff there and the brilliant chief executive, Ann James, who works so hard. Given the incredible pressures on real estate in Derriford, will my right hon. Friend consider prioritising capital investment in that part of the UK to ensure that we can accelerate these plans—particularly in digital—so that people in Plymouth get the world-class healthcare they deserve?;   The victims of black cab rapist John Worboys were able to challenge the police’s failure to investigate his appalling crimes only because of the Human Rights Act. They would not have been able to do so under the Deputy Prime Minister’s new so-called Bill of Rights. Why does he want to stop women like the victims of John Worboys from making sure that police protect them from rape and sexual assault, and getting the justice they deserve?;   My constituent Joel Lindop has suffered the abduction of his young children to Poland. His is one of many families in the UK who go through a similar experience every year. Despite repeated judgments in his favour in the courts in Poland, he has been unable to persuade the Polish authorities to fulfil their obligations under international law and return those children to their family. Will my right hon. Friend intercede so that my constituent, and the many other families who face this challenge, can ensure that their children are returned safely and in a timely fashion in the future?
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): I cannot imagine how appalling that situation must be for any parent to find themselves in. My hon. Friend will know that we are committed to the 1980 Hague convention on child abduction, which provides a mechanism. He is right that that has to be driven through the courts. That is not something that we can directly interfere in, but I will speak to the Foreign Office and see whether there is anything further that Ministers can properly do to support my hon. Friend’s constituent.