Speeches by Voaden.

“Q What impact do you think broadening the potential pool of prosecutors will have on the backlog in the court system? Sarah Hammond: It will enable us to recruit more. As I have said, it is quite a competitive market out there. There will be more people eligible to become Crown prosecutors. That will include people who…”

“Q Which areas of the Bill, if any, do you think will pose challenges for the Crown Prosecution Service? Sarah Hammond: As always, there is a collective challenge when a Bill becomes law just to work out how things will work in practice and how implementation will work. Take the restriction on parental responsibility. I…”

“Q If the four years is reduced on appeal, would that measure still stand? Alex Davies-Jones: I would have to come back to you to clarify that point, but I am happy to do so.”

“Q One more question on that: why did you settle on four years? Alex Davies-Jones: Because there are sadly quite a lot of sex offenders in this country, so extending the measure to any sex offender could bring waves of people into scope. We are not saying that that is not appropriate, but this is a novel approach and th…”

“I recently visited Modbury pharmacy, where owner Phil Dawes highlighted the challenges facing small rural pharmacies. He explained how the current funding model does not take into account the lower footfall and limited referral rates that are common in rural areas. We know that if a pharmacy in a small market town clos…”

“Q Rebecca, you talked about situations in which there is a complex mixture of housing and mental health issues, and possibly drugs and alcohol, and the housing association or local authority struggles to move the person on because it is not clear where they would go. Do you think the agencies involved have the tools an…”

“Q It sounds like quite a lot of work to do behind the scenes to make this function properly. Genna Telfer: Yes, absolutely.”

“2. What steps he is taking to support rural pharmacies.”

“It is key that if we are going to demand higher standards here, we must apply the same standards to food that we import. If the Minister truly believes that food security is national security, that needs to be backed up with real investment—not empty slogans or cuts on a spreadsheet, but real support for our farmers. I…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank the Petitions Committee for calling this important debate and the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for introducing it. The call to end the cage age of animal farming is clear. It comes not just from Parliament and politician…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“I take issue with some of the language being used. We have heard the words “murder”, “killing” and “suicide”. Twenty-three years ago next week, my husband died of terminal cancer. He was in extreme pain and was given morphine to relieve it. As the pain got worse, he was given more morphine so that he could die gently a…”

“Like my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers), I welcome the increased investment, and the attention that the new Government are giving to the NHS. I would like to turn our attention to dentistry. My constituency of South Devon is a dental desert. I welcome the announcement of 700,000 extra dental appoint…”

“I thank the hon. Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) and for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) and my hon. Friend the Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) for securing the debate. I declare an interest: in September 2011, I had a humanist wedding. We chose a beautiful setting in the countryside and …”

“Recently imposed general product safety regulations have added yet another layer of cost and complexity to exports to the European Union. That is particularly hitting entrepreneurs and microbusinesses, many of which have had to end exports to their EU customers. Did the Department have any discussions with its EU count…”

“My hon. Friend is making a powerful argument about the mental health benefits of outdoor education, which I wholeheartedly support. Does he agree with me that if we are to inspire the next generation to appreciate, understand and love nature and promote nature recovery, we need to introduce them to nature? In that spir…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that it is much more expensive to provide services in rural areas than in urban areas? An example is the pharmacy funding model, which relies on footfall. On a recent visit to Modbury pharmacy, staff told me that they are really struggling to stay afloat because they do not have enough footfal…”

“I don’t know who would like to respond to this, but do you think we have over-complicated the system? Do you think that if the funding was there for a group of schools, say five or 10 schools, to have an educational psychologist, lots more teaching assistants, training in things like neurodivergence and how to make an …”

“As MPs, we hear from parents all the time about the difficulty of getting an EHCP, and the Committee has heard concerns that despite clear entitlement set out in the Children and Families Act 2024, local authorities are not consistently meeting their legal duties to children and young people with SEND. I will start wit…”