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497 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTopical QuestionsI launched my “Pub of the Year” award at the Goods Yard in Broadstone last week. Fifty-four pubs and two breweries in Mid Dorset and North Poole support 1,600 jobs and underpin…30 Oct 2025HANSARD Business of the HouseMany residents are writing to me to share their frustrations with long delays at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency following medical disclosures, describing it as not fit…30 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I will withdraw new clause 5 as I think the Minister has made a fair comment about the way in which elections will go. However, I cannot accept her point about the capacity of…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I believe the public would expect it to be very clear that someone was not “acting independently”, but were in fact independent, so I will push the amendment to a vote. Question…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)My resistance is because I wonder how long it is likely to be before the different stages of the Bill go through. What assurance do we have that the new clause does not disappear,…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)Can the hon. Member—not my hon. Friend anymore—explain to me why there is not a link? Proportional representation does not remove the link. It just allows people to have a…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. I will be brief. A large part of our discussion in Committee has focused on structures and the people who are going to be…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I welcome that intervention. During covid, a lovely, very elderly Conservative lady on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council decided to take her laptop into the toilet with…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)It is not a requirement of all local authorities to be a member of the Local Government Association. I speak as a vice-president and former board member of the Local Government…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)Allotments also offer an opportunity for intergenerational activity. I wonder whether the hon. Member for Broxbourne would like to spend some time at an allotment, because it does…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)We will not push new clause 41 to a Division, but my hon. Friend the Member for Bath may wish to table it again on Report. New Clause 42 Power of mayors to convene meetings with…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)I beg to move amendment 16, in clause 62, page 65, line 17, leave out from “acting” to end, and insert “who— (a) are wholly independent of the Local Audit Office, and (b) possess…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. I will speak on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon). I am sure that in doing so…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I did a little research on the national minority status introduced by the former Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury,…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Eleventh sitting)The Minister talks about existing compulsory purchase rights for local authorities, but that is very different from communities wishing to list assets of community value and then…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)Unfortunately, the two Liberal Democrats who represent Cornwall—my hon. Friends the Members for North Cornwall and for St Ives (Andrew George)—are not on this Bill Committee, but…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)No, I am not going to withdraw the new clause. If the Minister reads it, she will see that I am not conflating the issues at all. I simply gave Cornwall as an example of where it…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)Would the hon. Member like to consider why it is that the Eastleigh side of his constituency keeps on voting Liberal Democrats in year after year, to make it almost a one-party…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I refer the Minister to the fact that I gave Cornwall as an example of a place where people may want to set up a regional governance body. The new clause was tabled by my hon.…28 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Twelfth sitting)I would like to thank all the Committee staff, yourself, Dame Siobhain, and all of the other Chairs, and all the Members on the Committee. I also thank the staff in our offices,…28 Oct 2025