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1. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   My hon. Friend is right that a disproportionate amount of the prison estate is taken up by those who have been in care. It goes to the heart of the debate about how we confront reoffending. We know that reoffending makes up such a large degree of the criminality that we see on our streets. When people come into contact with the criminal justice system, they too often leave it more likely to commit crimes, and we have got to tackle that. It is an issue not only of capacity, but of investment in probation. In fact, just earlier today, the Leader of the Opposition said that she wants to support dealing with reoffending. That was a sensible, grown-up intervention by her, and I was surprised to read it. I look forward to working with her on those issues in the months ahead.

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2. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   The hon. Member has raised that point on a number of occasions when we have had the opportunity to debate this issue. He is right that we need to look at how we can fast-track planning infrastructure projects of real national importance, such as prisons, and I know that the Prisons Minister and the Justice Secretary are keeping a close eye on that. I just gently push back that some of the hon. Member’s colleagues on the Conservative Benches spend a lot of their time opposing the building of prisons in their constituencies. The hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (Neil O’Brien), who has apologised for the Conservatives’ record on criminal justice, spends a lot of time opposing the building of the prison in his constituency.

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3. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   My hon. Friend is right, and I can set out clearly what we are doing. By the end of this Parliament, there will be more criminals behind bars than ever before under a Labour Government. That is because this Government are spending three times more on prison building than the Conservatives ever did. The Conservative Government closed 23 prisons; we are building 14,000 places. That is the difference between a Labour Government and a Conservative Government.

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4. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   I am happy to ensure that the hon. Member has the appropriate information needed about the case that he raises, and we will be able to look into that case individually. Prison capacity more generally is still a challenge. Although 4,000 places may be available today, there are different categories of prisons and there is geographical need. It is not quite as simple as just being a numbers game; the picture is a bit more complicated than that. I am proud that this Government have increased the deportation of foreign national offenders by 40%. We will continue to deport more foreign national offenders when the new early release scheme comes into effect early next year, and I look forward to Members from across the House supporting the Government in our efforts.

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5. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   My hon. Friend rightly comes to the heart of this debate, which is how we can confront reoffending. We are working with local employers and we have regional councils to try to ensure that people have opportunities for work and housing. It is a challenge—it has been a challenge for decades—that ex-offenders often do not have the right support when they leave prison. That is why we are investing in the Probation Service and working with local authorities at pace to ensure that when ex-offenders leave prison they are given the opportunities to build a stake in society and not commit offences again.

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6. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   I do not accept the right hon. Lady’s characterisation of the Probation Service. There are great challenges, however. The prisons and probation Minister is today at a conference with probation colleagues, meeting them, listening to them and working with them, because we need the Probation Service to work with us on the challenges we face. I gently say again that this Government have invested £750 million in probation, which is the biggest investment in probation for a generation. We have introduced new technology, such as Justice Transcribe. That app helps probation officers save a huge amount of time on paperwork and builds their capacity. We accept that there are challenges ahead, but we are meeting colleagues and we will work with them to meet those challenges.

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7. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   My hon. Friend is right. I can confirm, as the Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary have at this Dispatch Box, that rapists will not be subject to the new regime. My hon. Friend is also right that constituents like his and mine expect us to meet this challenge by building more prison places. That is why we are investing in 14,000 new prison places by 2031. There will be more criminals behind bars at the end of this Parliament under a Labour Government.

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8. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   We hear this a lot—Conservative Members saying, “Well, we didn’t do anything for 14 years, we didn’t spend much money, and then in the final few months we thought, gosh, we have a prison capacity crisis, we had better start planning, and then we called an election.” It is absolutely hopeless. What we are doing constitutes the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian era, with 14,000 places by 2031. The Conservatives’ policy chief has apologised for their record on criminal justice, as has the Leader of the Opposition. Will the hon. Gentleman do so?

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9. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

   Prisoner Early Release Scheme

   There is indeed a challenge. Alongside our prison building programme, the biggest since the Victorian era, is the need to recruit people to staff those prisons. However, we are implementing a range of new recruitment initiatives to ensure that we have enough prison officers to make them safe and workable.

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10. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    That absolutely should not be the case and it is very worrying, so I will ensure that the appropriate Minister meets the hon. Lady to discuss those individual cases. As I have said, we have invested in community safeguarding measures and there is a further £18 million for victim support, but I entirely appreciate that victims want reassurances about their safety rather than just warm words, and that is what this Government are committed to providing.

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11. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    My hon. Friend has raised that particular issue, and indeed the issue more generally, with me on numerous occasions. To the extent that I am allowed to make such promises at the Dispatch Box, I will ensure that he has the right meeting with the appropriate Minister.

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12. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    As I have said, the Leader of the Opposition has apologised for the Conservatives’ record, but some of them have not got the message. As for the use of space, the hon. Member is right to say that we need to maximise the prison estate. The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, from this Dispatch Box, made it clear that he was looking at how we could maximise all parts of the estate. However, as I said earlier, it is not quite as straightforward as a simple numbers game, because there are different categories of prison and different geographical demands. One in seven of the prison population are on recall and many are on remand, so they need to be near the appropriate courts. It is not quite as straightforward as the hon. Member would like to suggest, but of course we are determined to use every single space that we can.

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13. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    Any attempt to interfere with tagging is very serious and will be treated in the toughest possible way. Concerns have been raised about the tagging regime, by the National Audit Office and others, and the Government will respond in due course. Performance has improved since the interim report was published a few months ago. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point out that at the heart of this is the question of how we tackle reoffending and bolster our Probation Service, which we have invested in. Challenges that have been raised and we accept them, but I will not take lessons on the Probation Service from the Conservatives after their failed privatisation under the now Lord Grayling, which was one of the biggest failed experiments in public service reform over the past 40 years.

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14. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    The Government appreciate that there are concerns— understandable concerns—among victims’ groups and victims themselves. The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary accepted that at the Dispatch Box, and we have invested more in our victim liaison work in order to do a better job in reaching out to victims, ensuring that they are heard and also listening to them so that we can put into effect safety measures that will help them. We are talking to the police regularly and investing in them as well to ensure that, as much as possible, we keep communities safe during this period.

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15. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    There have been question marks, to put it mildly, over the performance of the companies that undertake the contracts. We are working closely with Serco, and there has been an improvement in the implementation of tagging since March. However, I would suggest that although there is a presumption that every person who is released should be tagged, ultimately it is an operational decision and a decision for the Probation Service, as is the case in respect of the 4,500 prisoners who are released every month as per normal.

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16. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jake Richards

    Prisoner Early Release Scheme

    I had thought that there was going to be a session without a question from the hon. Member, so it is reassuring to hear one. We know, for example, that one in seven of the prison population are on recall. There are recall provisions in operation, and that is right. If people are released from prison and then break their licence conditions, or indeed commit a further offence, they should be brought back to prison. That is the system working. We want to bring the number down, because we want to tackle reoffending and ensure that when people do leave prison they do not turn to crime again, and that constitutes much of the work that we are doing with the Probation Service and local authorities.

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17. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jack Abbott

    Youth Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Support

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Wishart, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for bringing forward this debate. Seeing how many colleagues have attended is a real reminder that no constituency or community is safe from the devastating impact of suicide, or from the very particular kind of grief that comes with the death of a young person. In Suffolk, we lost 65 people to suicide in 2024, 10 of whom lived in Ipswich. To each of their families, I want to say sorry: sorry that the help they needed was not there, sorry that the signs were not spotted sooner and sorry that they were so badly let down. However, I also want to highlight and thank the local charities that are doing incredible work in protecting our young people. Suffolk Mind, for example, offers a wide range of courses for children and young people, to empower them with the tools they need to look after their own mental health and to help them become more resilient, emotionally aware and well-resourced adults. I am really pleased that the Government’s Pride in Place funding is going towards helping it open a new centre in Ipswich town centre. We are also very lucky to have a local Samaritans branch—I am sure many colleagues here will attest to that—which has supported our community for over half a century. In a typical year, its team of more than 100 volunteers listens to 20,000 phone calls and spends 4,000 hours on the phone with people who need that support. However, I want to be clear that charities cannot and should not be expected to carry this burden alone. At the moment, someone experiencing a mental health crisis locally may have to go through a busy A&E department and then wait for specialist support to become available. I am therefore pleased that the Woodlands unit at Ipswich hospital is getting dedicated emergency mental health provision as part of a national roll-out backed by £350 million. We owe it to every young person in Ipswich, in Suffolk and across the country to give them the support they need, when they need it.

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18. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Ian Lavery

    Police Funding: North-east England

    As ever, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Wishart. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Luke Akehurst) for securing this really important debate. First of all, I pay tribute to PC Matthew Blades, PC Tom Clough and PC Jess Turnbull, three police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Jess Turnbull, who was killed only two or three miles from where I live, was 18 years of age when she lost her life. She had her life ahead of her. She joined the police force because she wanted to change the world and help people and she died at the age of 18 on 8 June. We should always remember the dangers that individual police officers and members of the police force put themselves in in the normal course of their duty. Previous speakers have set out in detail the scale of the cuts faced by police forces across the north-east, so I do not intend to repeat those precise and excellent facts and figures. But it is fair to say that the years of Conservative austerity had a devastating impact on policing in our region—absolutely devastating. It should not be forgotten that it went far beyond cuts to police budgets. Austerity reached into every corner of public life. The Crown Prosecution Service, prisons, the Probation Service, mental health services, education and countless other services were cut to the very bone. As those services weakened, police officers were increasingly left to pick up the pieces, facing growing demand with ever-dwindling resources. At the same time, crime itself has evolved. The digital revolution has brought enormous opportunities, but the criminals have adapted just as well too. Police forces have been expected to tackle sophisticated online crime, combat the spread of misinformation, and manage an ever-growing burden of statutory checks and administrative tasks, all without the resources required to meet those challenges. It is all about resources and financing. Again, I want to place on record my sincere thanks to the police officers serving my Blyth and Ashington constituency. Just for the record, my constituency is based in Northumberland, which, for those who are not aware, is cradled between the Scottish border and North Tyneside. It is the political no man’s land. I think Ministers generally forget where we are and have not really adapted the financing required for the police service that we desperately need. I feel sorry for some of these police officers, who go to work day in, day out, facing the problems they have in Ashington, Blyth, Bedlington, Newbiggin and Choppington, because of the lack of financial resource, with resources in general facing an uphill battle. I want to mention Inspector Dawn Sykes and Inspector Wayne Daniels, who serve our communities with great professionalism and dedication in the most unbelievable circumstances. I thank Northumbria’s police and crime commissioner, Susan Dungworth, who has worked tirelessly to ensure that the priorities of local people remain at the heart of policing. I want to focus the rest of my remarks on what budget constraints have meant for the communities I represent. South-east Northumberland contains three of the county’s four largest towns, yet two of them have no police station at all, so members of the public cannot simply walk into one and speak to an officer. That is a direct consequence of funding pressures. Two of the largest towns in Northumberland have no manned police stations—the police stations are still there, but there is nobody in them. The situation gets worse. The police station change has an immense impact on the people of south-east Northumberland. I will give a simple example. A constituent noticed that his neighbour’s porch light had been on continuously for several days. Concerned for their welfare, he phoned 101 to request a welfare check. After waiting almost an hour for his call to be answered, he gave up and went to Ashington police station, in the centre of the town, in person. When he arrived, he found a sign stating that the station was closed to the public, with an arrow directing him to a telephone on the wall so he could ring 101 again. That is unreal, but it is something that has happened right throughout the country, by the way: the closure of major police stations in major towns, right across the UK. We rightly pride ourselves on a system of policing by consent, but we also rely on the good will and public spirit of people such as my constituent. After an experience like that, I suspect he might think again about taking similar action. Earlier this year, the custody suite in Bedlington closed, with the police citing funding constraints. That was another blow to local policing. Officers who make arrests in my patch must now transport detainees to Newcastle for processing, taking valuable police time and resources off the streets at critical times. We see that in my patch all too often. An already stretched police force is routinely called upon to respond to threats, the likes of—

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19. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Ian Lavery

    Police Funding: North-east England

    Thank you very much, Mr Wishart. We see lots of things occurring due to lack of resourcing in my patch. We have masked motorbike riders, shoplifting, antisocial behaviour, county line drug dealing—it goes on and on. The police need the resources required to tackle not just those types of crimes but basic crimes as well.

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20. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Graeme Downie

    Pensions Triple Lock

    As one of the people on the Labour Benches to call six months ago for a look at an adjustment of the triple lock, I can confirm that many of the people who approached me after I wrote about that were from the Opposition, saying that they wished their own party had had the courage to say the same thing. I thank the Secretary of State for his statement today, and for the bravery to tackle those tough problems that he rightly speaks about. When he talks about a new settlement for older people on how to future fund and reduce pensioner poverty at the same time, which is absolutely to be welcomed, will he also update us on the suggestion for a new settlement for younger people to ensure that they have the opportunities they deserve, so that they can benefit from the current system and indeed pay into it as well?

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21. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Gordon McKee

    Youth Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Support

    My hon. Friend is making a powerful and important speech on something she has campaigned very hard on. Does she agree that we ought to learn from countries such as the Netherlands, where they have a much more integrated system to help young people with their mental health, physical health and employment opportunities, all of which contribute to the overall mental health picture?

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22. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Gordon McKee

    Iran: Threats to British Interests

    Just this morning, the chief of MI5 warned about the implications of artificial intelligence reducing the barrier to advance terror and cyber-attacks on the United Kingdom, so what work have the Minister and his colleagues done to assess how Iran is using this technology and how we can defend ourselves?

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23. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Gordon McKee

    Pensions Triple Lock

    The fundamental problems with social care that the Prime Minister outlined so powerfully in his conference speech are exactly the same fundamental problems with social care that my constituents in Glasgow experience, and indeed that my own family experienced when my grandparents had dementia. Does the Minister agree that, rather than playing politics, the Scottish and Welsh Governments should work with the Prime Minister to help to design a national care service that works for every corner of Britain?

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24. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Gill German

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    I thank my right hon. Friend for securing this important debate. The nature of firefighters’ work is changing all the time. Does he agree that, as it changes, it is essential that firefighters have access to modern, fit-for-purpose training facilities? Does he share my concern that training facilities in north Wales have not been substantially modernised since the 1990s?

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25. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Frank McNally

    Youth Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Support

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Wishart, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist). In my local authority of North Lanarkshire, we have suicide rates above the Scottish national average, and we know that young people face particular challenges. During 2024, 735 young people registered with the online mental health charity Kooth in North Lanarkshire alone, with 68% of logins outside normal working hours, demonstrating the importance of ensuring that support is available when young people actually need it. I commend the tremendous work undertaken in North Lanarkshire to confront that challenge. The community partners there have made suicide prevention a priority and are working to ensure early intervention. Just last week, 150 young people at Ravenscraig regional sports centre took part in a netball and football tournament to raise awareness of suicide prevention. These types of community partnerships can genuinely save lives, but local authorities and voluntary organisations cannot tackle this challenge alone, and often face difficult financial settlements. I encourage the Government and the Scottish Government to provide additional support to local authorities and third-sector organisations to ensure they have long-term certainty and can deliver the support needed as early as possible—long before young people reach that desperate stage.

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26. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I start by thanking my right hon. Friend the Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds) for securing this important debate. Wildfires have had a profound impact on communities in Wales and across the UK this year. The scale of the challenge this summer was stark. More than 1,300 wildfires have been recorded across England, and I know that Wales was similarly impacted, resulting in the deployment of around 200 military personnel to south Wales to support the committed frontline crews protecting their communities. At the height of the activity, 11 major incidents were declared in a day across the UK, and some incidents lasted for more than 30 days. That put immense strain on frontline services that were also dealing with other emergencies. We owe immense gratitude to the firefighters, military personnel, local responders, land managers, volunteers and others who worked in difficult and dangerous conditions to protect people, homes, businesses and the natural environment.

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27. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    My hon. Friend raises an important point that demonstrates that wildfires cannot be responded to by emergency services alone: it takes the community, the people, voluntary organisations and a number of charities working together to respond. It is important that we have in place an action plan that includes cross-border and cross-Government work on responses.

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28. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    I will come on to that point, but I agree with my right hon. Friend. One of the reasons that the Prime Minister is calling the summit is to address that issue and to consider the national capability to respond. We want to make sure that we do not have a situation where we have more wildfires.

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29. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    I thank the right hon. Lady for raising that important point; those are key areas. It is about making sure we have the right people across the table when the summit is held. The summit cannot just be dictated by Whitehall; we must work on the ground with the devolved nations to make sure that the key people are around the table so that we can get the best solutions going forward. Although fire and rescue policy is devolved, so each devolved Government is responsible for arrangements in their nation, the impacts and challenges of wildfires remain constant. We work in tandem as we face shared challenges. Tackling wildfires is a good example of where practical co-operation, drawing on mutual aid and specialist capability, sharing learning and co-operating on planning for complex incidents, can make a real difference. We saw the value of such co-ordination in Wales in the development of the national wildfire capability pilot earlier this year. The pilot established six specialist teams, with vehicles, equipment and expert training, that are ready to be deployed in response to significant incidents. Not only do the two teams from south Wales form part of this programme, but their expertise has been instrumental in increasing resilience across the UK. Despite the advances, the severity of this year’s incidents exposes areas where arrangements must and can improve, including cross-border co-ordination, consistent data, forecasting public warnings, and the way that operational learning is shared. Aerial firefighting is another area that we need to re-examine, including how we most effectively utilise capability across the four nations. This is vital in ensuring that firefighters on the ground get the best possible support when the terrain, scale or accessibility makes their jobs especially difficult. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Torfaen and other Members have mentioned, the Government will hold a wildfire summit this autumn in response to these challenges, bringing together fire chiefs, the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Fire Brigades Union, and other key organisations, to turn the lessons from 2026 wildfires into action. It is vital to ensure that key organisations, local constituents and Members of Parliament are involved in that summit.

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30. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    I thank the right hon. Member for that point. He may be aware that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs have established joint governance to develop a wildfire action plan. They will be working to look at the attendees. I am sure that the hon. Member will make his representations, and I will pass those on to colleagues. The Government are determined to support those on the frontline by ensuring that they have the capability, support and partnership they need to meet future challenges. We must act to reduce the risk of wildfire, improve readiness, strengthen frontline response and support communities to become more resilient. I know that Welsh colleagues will be holding their own summit later this month and we will continue to work and share insight with the Welsh Government, working together to enhance future readiness. The plan for the national wildfire summit is to look at the full risk cycle: prevention, readiness, response, recovery and adaptation. Work is already under way to improve forecasting and risk mapping, develop specialist capability and learn from this summer, ahead of future periods of heightened risk. Better emergency response is only one part of the answer; wildfire resilience also depends on what happens before a fire starts. That means better forecasting and public information, responsible behaviour, proportionate land management and strong local readiness. Land managers, fire and rescue services, local authorities and local resilience forums all have an important role to play. By working together, they can understand local risk, protect vulnerable places and plan for the recovery as well as the response. By acting on the lessons learned from this year, we can improve readiness, strengthen specialist support, and make sure that Governments and responders share learning that has practical value.

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31. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    Just to reassure my hon. Friend and others, the agenda and themes for the summit have not been decided, but I am sure we will want to ensure that hon. and right hon. Members are able to feed in. As I mentioned, MHCLG and DEFRA are working on the joint summit, and there will be many opportunities for Members to feed in and ensure that we get the right people at the summit, and work on the right areas, so that we can get the best outcome. I also want to take this opportunity to highlight the work of so many people on the ground. I thank the soldiers from the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, the South Wales fire and rescue service and firefighters up and down the country for their help getting the relentless wildfire at Blaenavon under control. At the height of the summer, an emergency alert reached 55 million phones across England and Wales, demonstrating the shared nature of the risk and the importance of ensuring that we work across Governments to make sure out nations are safe.

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32. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    I thank my right hon. Friend for highlighting that; he will know that the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Fire Brigades Union and firefighters, alongside other organisations and groups, will be at the seminar. I am sure they will make their voices and representations heard loud and clear. I also want to highlight the two constituents mentioned by my right hon. Friend, Anthony Watkins and Sara Warman, for their work and effort in making sure we continue to work in co-operation with UK Governments including the Welsh Government, looking at shared learning, resilience and ensuring that the right funding is brought forward to address these key areas. By acting on the lessons learned this year, we can improve readiness. My Department is committed to continuing to work with the Welsh Government and the Governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as fire and rescue partners and communities across the UK. In conclusion, I once again thank my right hon. Friend for securing this debate and bringing the issue to the House.

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33. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Florence Eshalomi

    Wildfires: UK-Welsh Government Co-operation

    I will take that away and write back to my right hon. Friend with further details. He will be aware that MHCLG also announced a £97 million upgrade to the national resilience assets, including equipment and national wildfire response capability pilots, with specialist firefighters, equipment and training positioned right across the UK, but I will come back to him in writing on that specific point. I pay tribute to everyone who has responded across the UK and in Wales this summer, as well as the communities impacted on the frontline. Their experience must shape what we do next, and our focus must now be on applying those lessons before the next wildfire season. Question put and agreed to.

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34. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Fleur Anderson

    Rosebank Oil and Gas Field

    9. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of approval of the Rosebank oil and gas field on the UK’s ability to meet its climate change targets.

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35. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Fleur Anderson

    Rosebank Oil and Gas Field

    Many of my constituents in Putney have written to me about this. They are very concerned about Rosebank’s lifetime emissions, which are equivalent to 254 million tonnes of CO2. As many colleagues have mentioned, this summer, we had extreme weather. The London ambulance service said that it had more call-outs this summer, because of the heatwave, than it did during covid. With that background, can the Minister tell me whether approving Rosebank is compatible with the UK’s climate targets and obligations under the Paris agreement?

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36. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Fleur Anderson

    Northern Ireland Troubles Bill (Carry-over Extension)

    I am voting in favour of the carry-over motion, because we need to debate the Bill, and to have the Bill. We need to have it for the future of peace in Northern Ireland. Not only are the victims of terror attacks looking at the Bill—many are in the Public Gallery—but the eyes of the world are on us. This is an international issue. We have shown the way by bringing peace to Northern Ireland through the Good Friday agreement—one of the proudest legacies of the Labour party—and the tireless work of community activists, Members in this Chamber and those from different parties in Northern Ireland, representing a future full of peace. To have that future, however, we need to understand the past, and there are over 1,000 families who have not got answers about what happened to their loved one. For those families, that is a pain that is almost too hard to tell. They do not know what happened in the last minutes of their loved one’s life, who committed those atrocities, and in many circumstances, where they are. That pain is being passed on to future generations, who they are understandably worried about. Today I met members of the WAVE Trauma Centre community in Belfast. Sandra Peake and WAVE do an amazing job of addressing the continuing trauma. They enable us politicians to hear from some of the families. Those stories were hard to hear, but I will share some of the words spoken, because I support the carry-over motion on their behalf. One victim said: “It is important to get legacy right now or it will keep affecting our children and future generations”. They said it was important to debate the motion and have the right product set up, “so that we can move on.” Another person said, “My mum has been fighting for decades and passed it on to me, but she should have the answers before it is too late.” Someone else said, “I would really like the truth. Who was responsible.” Another said, “People need the truth.” People have been researching what happened, in some cases for 20 years or more. They know some of the names and have begun to piece some of it together. There is always the concern that there might be an investigative journalist knocking on the door with some of the answers, but with no actual investigation to back it up with and to say what really happened.

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37. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Fleur Anderson

    Northern Ireland Troubles Bill (Carry-over Extension)

    I really welcome that question. I think that the Bill will enable us to build on the work of ICRIR and that it will prove itself. If the Bill is not agreed to, investigations will not go forward at the pace that they need to, and then justice is stopped. I think that more families will come to the commission in its new and improved form, and then more families will have answers. If we do not approve this carry-over motion and pass the Bill behind it, we will not see an improvement to the commission and it will not be able to continue doing its work. Too many court cases have been stopped because of the Conservatives’ legacy Act. Too much justice has been stopped. More than 1,000 police investigations, including investigations into the deaths of over 200 members of our armed forces and civilians, were stopped. That Act failed to win the confidence of families and victims. It shut down civil claims and halted inquests. Now we need the good work of peace and reconciliation to go ahead. At the same time, the Government have rightly recognised the need to protect veterans. I pay tribute to the former Secretary of State and the current Secretary of State for their work in delivering that. The overwhelming majority of those who served during Operation Banner—several of my constituents have come to talk to me about what they did—served with courage, professionalism and distinction in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. The Bill’s protections against unnecessary repeat investigations, recognition of operational realities and safeguards for witnesses will help to ensure fairness for those who served our country honourably. More than a quarter of a century after the Good Friday agreement, Northern Ireland has made extraordinary progress, as I have seen for myself. But for far too many families, the shadow of the troubles remains. We cannot change what happened or undo the enormous suffering that was inflicted, but we can ensure that families have the best possible chance of discovering the truth. That chance will continue to wither away if there are more delays, because it will be harder to get the evidence, talk to witnesses and get to the truth. This Government have chosen not to look away; they have chosen to act. I therefore welcome the carry-over motion, the Bill that will follow and the commitment that it represents to victims, survivors, families and the whole of the Northern Irish community that there can be justice.

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38. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Euan Stainbank

    UK Coach Industry

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer) for securing this debate, and I declare an interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for British buses and draw hon. Members’ attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. At the start of the debate, my hon. Friend rightly asked about the distinction between what a bus is and what a coach is. It is one that very few people think about, and I acknowledge that I did not give that much thought before becoming a Member of Parliament. Luckily, I believe that that distinction is understood by the Minister and by No. 10, if not in Bute House or, as my hon. Friend described more alarmingly, in UK law. While many companies still call themselves coachbuilders, there is no longer any full coach manufacturing taking place exclusively in the UK. However, the latent capacity is still there at Alexander Dennis and Wrightbus of Northern Ireland, with the latter having secured a deal to build the revived line of contour coaches last year. But primary coachbuilding ended last year in the United Kingdom and that should cause us alarm. However, we are part of a wider European automotive supply chain that contains countless companies that build engines, brakes, HVAC—heating, ventilation and air conditioning—and thermal systems, wheelchair lifts, destination displays, screens and battery packs. As the industry transitions to zero emission coaches, that means that Government support such as developing electrification infrastructure, funding through programmes such as DRIVE35 and subsidies for transitioning fleets becomes more important, especially as there has been less access for decarbonisation funding for the coach sector than there has been for buses. Before the Minister, off the back of the spending review, heads off to develop such a scheme for coaches—there has been one for buses—I again make the case that when we spend taxpayers’ money to help this sector, and the broader transport sector, we must ensure that operators relying on Government intervention benefit, not bash, our domestic manufacturing industry. Too often, quick decisions and poorly designed schemes have seen money sent to Chinese manufacturers, with a subsequent loss of domestic jobs and undercutting of the UK industrial capacity that could help us to bring coachbuilding back. In the coming years, we need a sustainable pipeline to deliver a successful transition to an electrified coach and bus fleet, with a focus on incentivising our manufacturers to restart coachbuilding here in the United Kingdom. There has not been access to previous dedicated decarbonisation funding for the coach sector. As my hon. Friend the Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman) pointed out, the Scottish Government spectacularly failed to do that. The primary beneficiary of their ScotZEB3 scheme was the coachbuilder Ember, who run a fantastic, comparatively affordable and fully decarbonised coach service in Scotland. However, as they have run exclusively electric buses since they started their operations in 2020, and as the largest beneficiary of that scheme as an operator, they ended up using taxpayer-funded decarbonisation schemes to scale their fleet, not to decarbonise. When the Government design any future support for the sector, rather than totally lacking a strategy like the SNP, they should found it on two principles: whether it will take more carbon out of the air than would have otherwise been there, and whether it will put more money into the pockets of British manufacturing workers or more money into the pockets of those in boardrooms in Beijing. ScotZEB3 is a cautionary tale for any future Government support. Currently, mayors are required to provide only 10% consideration of social value for new content orders when they are building up their fleets, which is simply inadequate in practice to materially change contracting authority behaviour when we are subject to the scale of Chinese dumping that we are seeing. The loss of jobs in bus manufacturing makes bringing back British-built coaches less likely. I will admit that the deal struck by the DFT last year is an improvement to the situation, but it does sit awkwardly when the Government are rightly mandating 20% social value for central major procurement decisions. I believe that the agreement the Department struck last year must be reopened in consideration of that. I also noticed that the DRIVE35 scheme sets no rules on ownership, on keeping intellectual property in the UK or on national security screening. Considering the outstanding DFT and National Cyber Security Centre investigation into Chinese buses, that is worth consideration. The only rule requires benefiting companies to be registered in the UK. If we seek to onshore jobs, bring coachbuilding back and incentivise manufacturers to grasp the opportunity, that would be worth updating. The ZEB mandate outlined—there is no separate mechanism for the coach sector—that we should be equally pragmatic with the coach and bus manufacturing sector as we consult and provide a pipeline that does not seek to undercut our manufacturing sector. Although having a clear focus on developing our own industrial supply chain with the existing funding would go a long way to supporting the UK’s industries, we could go further with measures that are coming up. As tariffs on Chinese EVs are being considered, I ask that the Minister makes representations to his colleagues in the Department for Business and Trade to make sure that any measures are inclusive of Chinese coaches and buses that would otherwise undercut our domestic market or the prospect of building one.

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39. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Euan Stainbank

    UK Coach Industry

    Will the hon. Member give way?

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40. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Euan Stainbank

    UK Coach Industry

    Will the hon. Member give way?

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