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12,832 spoken contributions under 12 words (interjections such as “Will the hon. Member give way?”) are hidden. Show them
In Dorset, we have lost 44 dentists in the last five years, and there has not been a single new contract for 10 years. Is my hon. Friend suggesting that his new plan would reverse that by enabling us to see exactly where the gaps are in the system?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. The Liberal Democrats support this statutory instrument. The principle here is inherently good. The Government already hold the information needed to identify households in difficulty, and letting that information reach the people who can act on it, with proper safeguards, is exactly what the Digital Economy Act was meant to enable. We have seen in open banking what happens when consumers’ interests are put at the heart of responsible data sharing. There is real potential to apply the same thinking more widely, such as with property data. I hope the Minister sees the regulations as a template rather than a one-off. Households across the country, including in Harpenden, Berkhamsted and Tring, are still carrying debt, much of which was built up during the energy crisis through no fault of their own. That debt is a drag on everything else in their lives. That is only set to worsen as the energy price cap rises. If the debt relief scheme—although not part of these regulations—can support those in need, it should happen as quickly as possible. We must also tackle the root causes of energy prices. We should look at Lib Dem policies on, for example, the link between electricity and gas prices to make sure that cost is tackled. I have a few questions for the Minister. I am pleased to hear about privacy and protection of the data being at the heart of this, but I would love to hear more about holding suppliers to account to ensure that they are using the data for the purposes, and being protected accordingly. She addressed the question about the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, but I would also like to ask what mechanisms there are to share what is learnt and about what is working with other Departments running fuel poverty and vulnerability schemes. We should be looking at the possibility of using smart data to deliver to our communities.
Despite swift action from Dacorum council to tackle a 6-acre unauthorised development in the Chilterns landscape, it had to choose between occupation and restoration, as tackling both would potentially have dragged the case out for years. What are the Government doing to help councils with powers to ensure that these cases can be tackled sooner?
I absolutely share the shock and anger of councillors and council officers at the announcement. At the heart of this are councillors who are working so hard to deliver frontline services, whether that is education, housing or social care. It is they who are battling this change. I am still uncertain about what will happen in May, so will the Secretary of State please reassure the people of Hertfordshire, and say what they will be voting for in May? Will councils be reimbursed for the money and time spent, so that the money can go to the services that are desperately needed?
My hon. Friend talks about co-ordinated campaigns and harassment. Over the weekend, I, like many people, saw the manhandling of a female protestor at the Reform conference and the horrendous comments made about that individual on social media. Does she agree that that was completely unacceptable, that we should condemn it and that it is shameful that Members from some other political parties are not here to talk about violence against women and girls and misogyny is all its forms?
I would like to put on the record some fantastic youth organisations, such as Harrogate Youth Council in my constituency, that do their bit to engage young people in democracy. My office manager will attest that I also do my bit by having an endless stream of work experience students through the office door—much to her frustration given the number of people who are interested. One of those students, Benjy, told me recently that he is really excited that in future young people will be able to vote, but he said that there was an unequal opportunity in education when it comes to accessing social media for young people. One way that young people will get information about voting will be through social media. What steps is the Minister taking with other Departments to ensure that young people can find information online?
The Chief Secretary talks about £150 million for investment in the north. How much of that funding is actual new capital expenditure from this Government, or is it simply a repackaged, reannounced sum of money for the north?
I would like to start by welcoming the commitment from the Minister at the Dispatch Box to bring forward a maternity commissioner, and by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for her tireless campaigning on this issue. When I worked for her many years ago, I was all too aware of the scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, after sitting in on surgeries with her. Indeed, in my own constituency of Harrogate and Knaresborough, I have ended up with tireless campaigners coming to me when they face maternity issues at Leeds hospital. I turn to the amendments tabled in my name. The first is new clause 36, which would require the Government to bring forward a formal transition strategy and to report back to Parliament on what happens when NHS England is abolished. I have tabled the new clause out of concern for families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys mental health trust. They have said time and again that they are concerned about the delayed appointment of a chair to the inquiry. They are really worried about that as we see the largest changes to the health service in a generation, and they do not want the inquiry to be lost. I press the Minister on whether she might be able to push that forward or get her colleagues to do so. New clause 43 would reduce inequalities in access to clinical research funding and trials. I have been working closely with Yorkshire Cancer Research, based in Hornbeam Park in my constituency. We know that funding for clinical research and trials across Yorkshire is about a quarter of what is received in London. If areas outside London and the south-east are getting less research funding, the logic follows that we will struggle to close inequalities in those areas.
I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman. My hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), who is not here, is campaigning tirelessly on radiotherapy and radiography. The point I was making about those health inequalities is that regions such as Yorkshire have a high incidence of cancer and of poorer outcomes, so we need to close that funding gap to close those inequalities. New clauses 61 and 93, both in my name, pertain to NHS dentistry, and I have also added my name to and support many other new clauses. New clause 61 would have made sure that there is adequate provision of dental appointments in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Over the last two years in my constituency and across North Yorkshire as a whole, the number of people with access to an NHS dentist appointment is down from 50% to just 37%. When this arises in casework and at surgeries, the issue is often precipitated by those who work in A&E telling me traumatic stories of people reaching A&E as a result of emergency dental care or the lack of it. In particular, we have heard some harrowing stories from local children about their inability to focus in school. New clause 93 would require the Secretary of State to publish before Parliament a regular report on the state of NHS dentistry, including that unmet need, and also to pay particular attention to workforce capacity and distribution.
I agree with my hon. Friend that we need to see that, and I tabled new clause 93 to get the answers to some of those questions that not just constituents in my patch but those in hers are asking us as Members of Parliament. It is particularly frustrating that we are in the third year of this Labour Government, and although talk of dental contract reform kept cropping up at the outset, we have seen little progress since, so I would press the Minister on what more can be done to make sure those gaps are filled. On new clause 121, I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for diabetes, and we have some fantastic care and world-leading practice for diabetes, as was mentioned by the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales). This new clause would maintain existing national diabetes prevention, treatment and audit programmes, and would mean we see an explanation from the Government with regular reports in Parliament about how those are being continued. Overall, Members across the House have tabled a fantastic number of amendments. I hope the Minister will pay attention to them and can provide us with some responses.
The average house price in my constituency is 12 times average household incomes, so the desperate need for more social housing is plain for everyone to see. Westmorland and Furness Council does now have a housing revenue account, inherited from the previous Barrow borough council, but it is unlikely to spend any of that money—unlikely to build council houses—while the right to buy remains unfettered. If council houses are built in the lakes and the dales, they will be sold, and they will become Airbnbs and second homes before the year is out. What will the Government do to encourage the likes of my local authority to build with confidence that people can have affordable homes that they can guarantee will remain so?
Will the Secretary of State confirm that the mayoral election in Cumbria will go ahead as planned and that the planned combined authority will be introduced without further hindrance, disruption or uncertainty? Will she also take this opportunity to review the other mistake that this Government have made on devolution in the last couple of years: the errors when it comes to what is referred to, wrongly, as “fairer funding”? Westmorland and Furness is the most rural unitary authority in England, and for that crime it has borne the penalty of a 31% cut in its funding from the Government, meaning that devolution no longer looks like devolution of power and instead looks more like a delegation of cuts for the people of Cumbria.
The current proposals for Devon were the brainchild of Exeter and Plymouth and were endorsed by the Conservative leader of Torbay council, and they resulted in a rural rump for Devon. Will the Secretary of State assure us that the rural rump of Devon will not rear its ugly head again?
North Norfolk has more than 2,000 people waiting for housing, a coastline that we are trying to prevent falling into the North sea and endless challenges from being an underfunded rural authority. Now it has been made to waste £600,000 on a local government reorganisation programme that the Secretary of State demanded and has now gone back on. One question will be about the future of devolution for Norfolk, but what people in North Norfolk will be thinking first is, “We want our money back.” Will she give it to us?
The Government talk a lot about how they will create economic growth. There is no way for them just to legislate their way to growth; there are, however, plenty of ways to legislate against it, as small rural businesses in North Norfolk know only too well. Will the Minister tell those rural businesses what she is doing to help them grow? More importantly, what things that get in their way will she stop doing?
Amendment 19 closes a dangerous gap in the Bill and commands the support of Members from across the House. It is right that clause 4 calls for the Health Secretary to reduce inequality of access to health services, but the Bill must explicitly cover rural and coastal health inequalities, or else less densely populated communities will always lose. At face value, it makes sense to measure success by the greatest number helped; however, in the long run, that is a false economy, as delayed diagnosis and treatment ultimately cost the NHS more. It is a little bit like access to high-speed broadband—we rolled out the first phase to the places where the most people could be connected, which rewarded the Government and providers with some impressive-sounding numbers while disguising failure in the margins. Rural and coastal communities are literally and politically at the end of the line, and are therefore reached last.
I absolutely agree. In order to achieve genuine equality of access, the Government must go outside-in; in other words, they must design provision around the hardest places to serve—my hon. Friend gives a great example—and then work inwards from there. “If Australia can effectively serve communities living in the remote outback, we can meet the needs of people living in rural and coastal England.” Those are the words of the right hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) when he was Health Secretary. Not only do I agree with him, but I challenge the current Health Secretary to turn her Government’s own words into law. We got it wrong with broadband; we cannot afford to get it wrong with people’s health. In North Norfolk, I see the struggle for health access and outcomes at first hand. People living on the coast start with half the access that those in inland areas have. Conventional service models assume that people can access healthcare from any direction, but for our coastal communities, half of the area is the sea. The sea may be beautiful, but it does not run a bus service, staff a clinic, or provide a patient catchment. Coastal communities, which may have sparse populations and poor transport, need more local points of care, not fewer. On top of that, the services we do have are burdened by exceptionally long waits. We are not unique in this; some of the poorest healthcare access and outcomes can be found in communities like mine. We know the challenges for health and wellbeing in these areas from the excellent work of Professor Sir Chris Whitty. He spelled out that we suffer from shorter life expectancy and higher rates of major chronic illness, higher rates of alcohol and drug-related harm, and more cardiovascular and chronic lung conditions. These are very serious problems, and they cannot remain an afterthought in national health policy. National systems must not mistake population density for severity of need. Besides, when problems are caught earlier and treated faster, it leads to better outcomes. That is one of the reasons why I was so frustrated to be told by the Government before recess that they have “no plans” to provide an urgent treatment centre at Cromer hospital in my constituency, although it would transform access to urgent care across North Norfolk. I am putting the Department on notice today: my constituents and I will continue pressing the case until Ministers reconsider. Let me tell the House what these inequalities mean in human terms. They mean that constituents like Kelly, who has been waiting more than 70 weeks for a hip replacement, are living every day in pain. Another constituent, Samantha, told me that she waited 30 weeks to see a gynaecologist. The NHS standard is 18 weeks. Appallingly, our wait times made a young woman so unwell that she was forced to sacrifice her education; during the wait, her symptoms worsened to the point that she had to step back from the degree that she was studying for. I heard from Ian, who has metastatic prostate cancer and requires treatment at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital. It is a half-day trip for him by car to get the essential treatment that he needs. He told me that he considered using a local bus service, but that it would be an hour just to get there. He lives with a damaged bladder, due to his condition, and he told me that it makes life “very unpleasant”. I would go further and say that it is undignified and dehumanising.
I could not agree more. That is one of many respects in which rural and coastal communities around the country have much more in common with each other than with their inland neighbours just a few miles away. Theoretically available treatment becomes practically inaccessible if it requires a journey to be made without reliable toilet access, as in Ian’s case, and in cases where access to private transport is more limited, as in the cases that the right hon. Gentleman raises. Kelly, Samantha, Ian and so many more are entitled to the same access to good treatment and the same chance of good health as people living in urban and inland communities. It is absolutely right for the Government to pursue this Bill, and I support their aim wholeheartedly, but I challenge them to assess the Bill based on who is left behind, not just who can be helped. Accept this amendment, or explain why rural and coastal communities do not merit explicit protection.
The Chancellor promised growth in every postcode, which must include rural communities such as Glastonbury and Somerton, and not just our cities and towns, yet rural England’s productivity sits at just 69% of the non-rural rate, costing our economy billions in lost revenue every year. That is not just a rural problem but a national one. What is the Chief Secretary doing to create opportunity in the countryside and unleash the full potential of rural Britain?
As my hon. Friend will know, the chief medical officer’s rural health report is due later this year. Rural health cannot be seen as an afterthought. That is why I tabled new clause 120, which would create a farmer-friendly general practice scheme, similar to the veteran-friendly accreditation scheme; it would recognise GPs who proactively reach out to isolated farming communities. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government must treat the rural health report’s recommendations as a genuine test of action, and not just warm words?
Devon is one of 14 areas where local government reorganisation is being reviewed and paused, and I am grateful to the Secretary of State for having listened to Liberal Democrats in Devon and perhaps also to her legal advisers. When the rapid review takes place, will the Secretary of State please consider the greater costs associated with delivering in the countryside, such as rural Devon?
Local councils across South Cambridgeshire spent time and money in good faith preparing for local government reorganisation according to the Government’s criteria and timelines. Businesses in one of the fastest growing areas of the country welcome the prospect of certainty with a final decision, yet further delay leaves them all in limbo. Does the Secretary of State agree that chaos is not good for local democracy and not good for investment? Will she meet me and local council leaders to understand the implications of this decision for Cambridgeshire?
Some constituents are facing exorbitant service charges for retirement properties inherited from a family member that are proving impossible to sell. One of my constituents is paying £770 a month in service charges for an empty one-bedroom flat, after inheriting the home from their late mother. What steps will the Government take to regulate the sector and stop these companies ripping people off?
7. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of planning policy on green-belt land in Esher and Walton constituency.
The Government changes to planning rules are of considerable concern to my constituents and are leading to speculative applications everywhere. Theoretically, the changes could mean that the whole of my constituency, which is 50% green belt and has seven stations, will be concreted over. My constituents are certainly not opposed to growth or house building, but they do not want to be ignored. The long-standing right of councillors to call in applications has been removed, which runs counter to the new Prime Minister’s values on devolution. That is why I wrote to the Secretary of State on 28 July. I have not had a reply to my question, so will she meet me to answer these questions directly?
My constituents in Esher and Walton, in Surrey, are left wondering whether they have been thrown under the bus by a Government who failed to be secure in the legal advice and the costs from the very beginning. This is incompetent. Will the Government release the legal advice? What are the legal implications for Surrey? What extra support will she give Surrey regarding the cost implications, given the gross underestimation of how much LGR would cost and the significant debt that Conservative Surrey has amassed in the two years that this has been going on under the unfair funding formula?
I was not in favour of the decision announced by the right hon. Lady’s predecessor before the summer break for a single unitary Gloucestershire. I would have preferred something more Cheltenham-centric. However, that decision seems to reflect the political consensus across the parties in Gloucestershire, so I have to ask the Secretary of State: is she in the business of overturning the political consensus across party locally in Gloucestershire? If not, will she just let us get on with it so that the councils can get on with doing the things that my residents want, including ensuring that there are no unwanted cuts to fire services because of cuts from Westminster to our budgets, that the town centre in Cheltenham is fixed up and that we get a tip reopened for Cheltenham? Those are the things my residents want. They are not so bothered about boundaries, even if they are concerned about Cheltenham losing its historic voice.
How is that far-right thugs in balaclavas were able to close Britain’s busiest port without the police receiving any prior intelligence? How is it that an apparently separate group with some commonalities was then able to blockade another site the next evening? Will the Minister tell the House whether she will review why the police were caught off guard? More shockingly still—or perhaps just as shockingly—no arrests have been reported. People have drawn comparisons this weekend with the hundreds of sign-holding protesters who have been arrested since July 2025 on other protests. Can the Minister understand why people are confused by the difference in approach? Can she also answer questions from Portsmouth Liberal Democrat council leader Steve Pitt about the lack of local consultation on identifying appropriate landing sites? That is a key question that needs answering, because it clearly caused problems in Portsmouth. Britain’s transport infrastructure cannot be left vulnerable to far-right mobs. It is a disgrace that this weekend, Reform MPs took to social media to fan the flames alongside people like Musk and Robinson. It is a disgrace that Members of this House support such vigilante action. It was the decision to leave the European Union, championed by those Reform Members and their allies in the Conservative party, that created the small boats crisis in the first place. We will only get a safe and controlled asylum system in line with British values if we join the EU migration and asylum pacts. That will also save taxpayers’ money. The Government are paying at least £500 million for a three-year agreement with France. More money will follow when the agreement is struck with Belgium. The UK’s contribution to join that pact, which would bring order and safety to the asylum system, would be significantly less than what we are currently pledging to pay in those agreements. Joining the pact must be top of the agenda when the Prime Minister meets EU leaders later this year.
12. For what reason the local government reorganisation model in Devon was selected.
I congratulate the Secretary of State on her return to her place in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I welcome her team, too. I thank her for her upcoming statement and the review that she has just started, which address my question and that of my colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden), about the Devon local government reorganisation, which had been described as bonkers. Next time around, will the Government include the local MPs in the process? Will the local councils be refunded the costs incurred this time around?
On that very point, does my hon. Friend agree that the recent NHS cost-benefit analysis showing that the Palantir project will cost £1.1 billion and deliver benefits of £800 million—a net loss of £300 million for the NHS—underlines the fact that we need to get rid of it now?
On interpreting statistics, does the hon. Gentleman agree that when it comes to data, GP confidentiality—in respect of the Palantir federated data platform, for example—is critical, certainly when we come to the single patient record, and that the Bill should not reduce confidentiality or data privacy to achieve the single patient record?
Does the hon. Member agree that it is a fundamental principle of anything like the SPR that it must have privacy by design at the centre of it, and that therefore a firm such as Palantir—which has a US, slightly cavalier and somewhat casual attitude to how data privacy should be controlled—should not be allowed anywhere near it?
Does my hon. Friend agree that that element of trust is even more important when we get the single patient record, and critical to enabling GPs and medical professionals everywhere to use it, and patients to trust it?
The hon. Gentleman makes a really important point about certainty of funding. Some of the organisations that I have spoken to in my Chelmsford constituency that deal with victims of domestic abuse point out to me that often the funding is project-based. It is not about what they have tried before, have proven to work and want to continue with; they find that people say, “Oh, yes, but we’re starting this new project now, so we’re only accepting bids for new projects and things that haven’t been done before,” and all the great work that has been done before is forgotten. Does he agree that we are always going to be chasing our tails in that way, and nobody will be well served by it, and that we need certainty of funding for things that are proven to work as well as for trialling new stuff?
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Edward. I thank those across the country who signed this petition to ensure that we had this really important debate. Violence against women and girls is a national emergency. As others have said before me, it is really important that we underline that: it is an emergency. This is affecting a whole generation, and I am terrified of what that means for society if we do not deal with it. Liberal Democrats have long called for misogyny to be made a hate crime so, while we very much welcome the Government’s amendment to extend the list of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation to cover sex or presumed sex, and while I was proud to sponsor the amendment that extended that to LGBT people and disabled people in the last parliamentary Session, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I agree with the petitioners that Ministers should go further and amend the Sentencing Act to ensure that all crimes motivated by misogyny are classed as hate crimes. I also want to highlight that the extension of aggravated offences to cover sex, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity has not yet been brought into force, so I hope to hear a timeline from the Minister on when that will be brought forward by the required secondary legislation. Hatred is just as unacceptable no matter its type; that means that there must be zero tolerance for misogyny. As the petitioners noted, misogyny can fuel crimes including sexual violence. The need to make misogyny a hate crime and the importance of tackling it early on is borne out by the data: studies have confirmed what women, from our own experiences and those of our friends, know to be true: that the majority of us have, at some point, encountered some form of abuse in outdoor spaces, and that this is so commonplace that very few ever bother to report such incidents to the police. That is why, in a similarly themed Westminster Hall debate at the start of this year, I pressed the Government to accept and begin implementing all 13 recommendations of part 2 of the Angiolini inquiry, set up after Sarah Everard’s murder. That has not happened, I am sad to say. One recommendation yet to be taken up was to “immediately” improve national data collection and sharing on sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. The inquiry found that data is fragmented and inconsistently documented across police forces. Given that making misogyny an aggravated offence under hate crime legislation should allow for greater information gathering, I ask the Minister here today how she anticipates making use of that if data on more serious sexual violence is not being effectively collected right now. The petitioners also called on the Government to act on anti-feminist hate groups and the harassment and online abuse that they perpetrate. I am sure that many of us are aware of the abbreviation IRL, meaning “in real life”, which differentiates between the online space and in-person, so-called real spaces. However, there is increasingly less distinction with what is happening IRL and, instead, a blurring of boundaries between our digital and in-person experiences. Both cross over into the other’s realms with relative ease. That is why it is as important as ever to take decisive action to tackle misogyny wherever it originates, including online, as other Members have said. From cyber-flashing to sharing intimate images without consent, or the more recent development of AI-generated sexual images, it is crucial that the Government do all they can to keep pace with the rapid technological changes that pose particular harm to women and girls. We need legislation that tackles that in advance of it happening. It is important that we are a bit more prescient as to what might come next, rather than constantly playing catch-up, because when we are playing catch-up, the harm has already been done. For example, 98% of deepfake intimate images reported to the revenge porn helpline are of women. As organisations such as Internet Matters have underlined, given that not every case that I have mentioned reaches the hate crime threshold, taking strong measures against them is crucial to ensure that misogynistic attitudes are dealt with early and the tools that misogynists may use against women and girls are disrupted. Research by Internet Matters found that a shocking 14% of children aged between 13 and 16 had experienced some form of intimate image abuse and harassment, such as cyber-flashing or having a non-consensual image of them shared. The organisation states that “these behaviours are becoming normalised”. For those of us who grew up a few decades ago—let us not go into it too much—that was not the norm back then. Things are changing rapidly, and we must recognise that. On that note, when the violence against women and girls strategy was announced to Parliament last December, I pressed the then Minister to tackle harmful, misogynistic online content, highlighting the fact that Ofcom’s official guidance was only voluntary and that waiting until 2027 to strengthen it would be far too late. Tomorrow marks the deadline that the previous Minister set for tech companies to implement on-device safety measures to protect children from taking, receiving or viewing nude images—exactly the kind of harm that Internet Matters found children are increasingly being exposed to. I would therefore be grateful if this Minister confirmed whether the Government will uphold the previous Prime Minister’s deadline to big tech—and if not, whether and by which date they will take action on this matter. Liberal Democrats are clear that the Government’s first duty must be to tackle online harms and misogyny, not to prioritise the profits of big tech. More broadly, I and Members from across the House would very much welcome a recommitment from the Minister to the violence against women and girls strategy published at the end of last year and, in particular, the goal of halving violence against women and girls within a decade. I very much welcome that, and Members from across the House have been welcoming it, too. With data showing that more than four in 10 people arrested during the 2024 riots had previously been reported for domestic abuse, taking on violence against women and girls is not a stand-alone aim; it is inherently linked to facing down the normalisation of extremist, far-right rhetoric and policies. We cannot allow this VAWG strategy to fail where others have failed before. It must be a top priority for this Government. We must not accept a world that tells women and girls to expect violence and abuse. I thank again all those who brought forward and signed this petition. I expect the Government to consider their calls very carefully and, most of all, to recognise and indeed take confidence in the strength of feeling and breadth of public support that exists for tackling violence against women and girls.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. The Liberal Democrats are supportive of the order. Individuals should be able to have the option to verify their age digitally, but we want to make it clear that doing so must not replace the use of physical ID. The option must always be retained, thereby giving young people the freedom to choose. It is important that the protections are robust and contain adequate safeguards to prevent misuse and ensure that digital identities are genuine. Will the Minister therefore set out whether she is satisfied that sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure that the system will be enforced in the prescribed manner? Furthermore, what discussions has she had with the sector about the implementation of the system? How will the change be communicated to the public? What future measures will the Government consider to ensure that age is verified effectively under the 2003 Act when alcohol sales take place remotely? What steps are they taking to monitor compliance and accountability, and where necessary to take enforcement action against companies certified under the DVS trust framework? I thank the Minister for clarifying that the order is not about going down the route of compulsory digital IDs. I reiterate that the Liberal Democrats are clear that a mandatory digital ID system would cross a red line. It would risk eroding long-held civil liberties. Digital tools should be about giving individuals more control over their personal data, not giving the Government more control over our lives. Our concern remains that a mandatory digital ID system could deepen digital exclusion and disproportionately affect society’s most marginalised: older people, people living in poverty, and disabled people, who often have limited access to digital devices or low digital literacy. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
This sudden U-turn is greatly disappointing for my constituency, after so much work by council officials, residents, councillors and other partners, and after so much money wasted on LGR costs. Given that the two-unitary model in Warwickshire—South Warwickshire and North Warwickshire—was championed by my constituents, the majority of local council leaders and the majority of Warwickshire MPs, will the Secretary of State reassure us all regarding the timescale for this review? Above all, will she reassure us that the decision will respect the democratic input of the people of Warwickshire who contributed to the previous LGR process?
Communities like mine in Eastleigh are being denied funding opportunities because they do not yet have an elected mayor. With the timeline for local government reorganisation and elections now thrown into doubt, will the Secretary of State ensure that funding opportunities are offered to all local authorities, whether or not they have an elected mayor?
I thank the Minister for accepting our amendment on this issue. We pressed her and her colleagues over and over again—to the extent that we got a letter back that we honestly thought had been generated by AI, because the logic in it had no follow-through at all. I am delighted that she has listened. On what else does she intend to listen to us? In particular, there are amendments on the Health Services Safety Investigations Body, Healthwatch and health inequalities, which we will consider tomorrow, and, most importantly, the special needs amendment, which we are considering today. What else will she listen to us on?