Contributions
184 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD English Devolution and Local GovernmentConservative-led Gloucestershire county council has a dreadful record. The Care Quality Commission says that adult social services require improvement, children’s services are…05 Feb 2025HANSARDApprenticeshipsIt is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) for securing this important debate. Apprenticeships…04 Feb 2025HANSARDApprenticeshipsI agree entirely. SMEs are the backbone of our business community. I recently met the Federation of Small Businesses in the south-west to discuss the opportunities in small and…04 Feb 2025HANSARD School Accountability and InterventionParents of SEND children in Gloucester will welcome today’s statement and the words of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on SEND and inclusion in our schools. Will the…03 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren’s Social Media AccountsThe hon. Member is entirely correct that, in the days before social media, bullying was confined behind the school gates and in most cases, though sadly not all, the home was a…13 Jan 2025HANSARDChildren’s Social Media AccountsIt is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland Central (Lewis Atkinson) for introducing this important debate on…13 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)I refer the Committee to my membership of the GMB and Community unions. The shadow Minister is keen for us all to stress our trade union membership, and we do so at the start of…09 Jan 2025HANSARDDomestic Abuse (Safe Leave)I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for an entitlement to paid safe leave for victims of domestic abuse; and for connected purposes. Domestic…07 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Fourteenth sitting)I refer to my membership of the Community and GMB unions. In the break, the shadow Minister challenged me, saying that I had been very quiet this morning—I was feeling festive,…17 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Twelfth sitting)I refer the Committee to my membership of the GMB and Community unions. I have two short questions for the shadow Minister. First, if the changes are so positive for employees,…12 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Tenth sitting)I will, if the hon. Gentleman wants to correct the record.10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Ninth sitting)rose—10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Ninth sitting)I am afraid the shadow Minister does not know the definition under the Equality Act. If he did, he would know that the conduct is required to either violate someone’s dignity or…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Ninth sitting)I refer to my membership of the GMB union and the Community trade union. I shall come on to some of the nonsense we are hearing around free speech. I ask a direct question, seeing…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Ninth sitting)I think the shadow Minister has already answered this question. What protected characteristic were any of those jokes related to? This is the point. It is not to stop people being…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Ninth sitting)Is the hon. Gentleman aware that, in the example that the hon. Member for West Suffolk just cited, IPSO found that there was no harassment, and therefore there was a finding under…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Tenth sitting)It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship this afternoon, Mr Stringer. I welcome the Bill, and this clause is a really important part of it. We are introducing the clause to…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Tenth sitting)I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but the fact is that in these circumstances, the definition in the Equality Act is clear. There is already an abundance of case law…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Tenth sitting)If the hon. Gentleman is inviting me to agree that there should be a two-tier system, whereby employees at small businesses are entitled to be harassed by third parties but…10 Dec 2024HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Tenth sitting)Well, a great deal of things are protected under law. Employees who work for businesses of all sizes are entitled to protection from harassment under the law, and I do not think…10 Dec 2024