Speeches by Brewer.

“T4. Children in receipt of funds from the adoption and special guardianship support fund often have significant mental health, wellbeing and educational needs. For many of these children, their individual therapy is the single biggest factor enabling them to continue at school. What assessment has the Minister made of …”

“18. What steps he is taking to help reduce household energy bills.”

“Almost 10% of people in my North East Hampshire constituency live in fuel poverty. I agree with the Minister that investing in renewable energy would help to tackle that, so how is she working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to empower local authorities to develop renewable energy generat…”

“In Hampshire, we have a super-ageing population, so pension and post-retirement financial concerns are frequently raised in my North East Hampshire constituency casework. One of my constituents wrote to me to say: “I want my pension to be put to work delivering sustainable, long-term growth and prosperity that allows e…”

“We have heard in this Committee that one of the structural inequalities, particularly in the tech space, is that investors like to invest in fast-growing businesses, and that women are more likely to invest in businesses that are a bit less boom and bust and have slower growth but have better returns overall. We have a…”

“Okay, thank you. How do you ensure that viable female-led businesses have equal access to support and investment in male-dominated sectors like tech, AI, and financial services?”

“I am just wondering why it is not 50%.”

“Is that 40% ringfenced, or is it just where it happens to sit at the moment?”

“Minister Thomas, what targeted support are the Government providing to female entrepreneurs in sectors where women are more likely to lead businesses, such as femtech, beauty or education?”

“This is a slightly different follow-up question to the one I was going to ask. It is more of a comment on the structural inequalities that women face. We have heard so much in this inquiry about those and have met female entrepreneurs who will very readily share the structural inequalities including, for instance, the …”

“It seems to me that money is a great incentive for behaviour change, and if you mandate, say, one woman on every committee as a bare minimum, you will very quickly accelerate the number of women on those committees because if they want the money, that is a condition. There is no shortage of talented women out there, so…”

“Coming back to the investment committees, and forgive me for labouring the point, but I just want to push back again on this point of not having any targets for the number of women on those committees. At the moment, what is the average size of a committee that is applying for funding?”

“What specific skills and experience can you draw on to inform your approach as equality law regulator and enforcer?”

“Do you think that the EHRC has it right at the moment or that its approach to equality law enforcement could change? If so, how?”

“The EHRC warned in 2023 that the UK needed to do a lot more to ensure that disabled people are treated with, “dignity, respect and fairness”. How will you use the equality framework and the commission’s powers to achieve this?”

“Just to follow up on that, we know that obviously there are many barriers for disabled people. People with learning disabilities seem to be very much at the bottom of the pile. We know, for example, that only 6% are in any kind of paid employment, despite many more wanting to be, and that this figure has not changed in…”

“I welcome the Government’s investment in supporting veterans, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) mentioned recently in the House, female veterans are about 10% less likely to be employed after service than male veterans. What specific steps are the Government taking to address th…”

“18. What steps he is taking to ensure that veterans receive adequate support after leaving the armed forces.”

“Yes, there is no critical analysis in that situation. What impact is the normalisation and accessibility of cosmetic procedures having on the prevalence of BDD, given that there is an absence of data?”

“More across the board, thank you. Do you think there is currently adequate support for people suffering with BDD? If someone presents to your clinic, where would you refer them to?”