Speeches by Cane.

“I thank the hon. Member for those points; I agree entirely. We need to help employers to help these people into work and help them to thrive in work. Will the Minister set out the Government’s position on a wide roll-out of specialist apprenticeships and planned actions to encourage it? The Buckland review recommended …”

“That is absolutely true, and I have seen people trying to deal with filling in the forms. These people are likely to be dyslexic or have similar conditions, so they will inevitably have real trouble with those forms. A scheme designed to grow inclusion and increase support should really do better than that. I hope the …”

“Absolutely. It needs to be much faster in doing the assessments and delivering the payments. One of Mona’s staff experienced a traumatic event that made it difficult to manage work without more regular therapy, so they applied to Access to Work. They were told that they could not be supported because they were already …”

“I will make some progress. Think of the challenges that neurodivergent people can face in everyday life: knowing they are different from others; being unable to read social situations in the same way as others; being uncomfortable travelling on public transport; and, commonly, experiencing anxiety after years of bullyi…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and I agree that we must provide these people with much more guidance and support, and also give them fair access to work and a career. In addition to the problems that autistic people encounter in finding and staying in employment, the raw pay gaps for people with autism an…”

“It is great to hear that example. One thing I am calling for is proper structured apprenticeships.”

“I do agree and will speak about that. Local businesses have described employing people with learning disabilities to me as like a game of bureaucratic hopscotch. They can see the end goal but they need to hop from square to square, assessment to assessment, with a lack of resources to dedicate to training staff. Sadly,…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of supporting neurodivergent people into employment. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I am pleased to have secured this debate on an important topic and I want to acknowledge that neurodiversity has a huge range of impacts. Many neurodive…”

“I do not know about self-employment being “better”, but it is certainly important, because different things will work best for different people. Neurodivergent people need the same full choice as non-neurodivergent people.”

“I agree with the hon. Member that helping people to stay and flourish in employment, once they are in employment, is hugely important.”

“Last Sunday I visited the River Snail, a chalk stream in my constituency, and was horrified to see not a river but a dried and cracked river bed. Our chalk streams, which are a really important part of our biodiversity, are under increasing threat from climate change. Could the Leader of the House make Government time …”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett) on securing this debate and for an excellent and heartfelt speech. I want to share the story of my constituent Lisa—I thank her for allowing me to do so—who adopted her children when they were four and six years old. After that, they were able to …”

“The Leader of the House, when she came here, set out that she thought the principle in paragraph 9.1 was clear, but she highlighted the fact that there is some subjectivity in the wording. You also touched on that, in your earlier statements. So what is your understanding of the phrase “in session”?”

“So you are saying that, to some extent, it is in her hands to clarify to the House what her understanding is of those ambiguous—”

“From what you have already said, I suspect that you do not think the spirit of the principle is adhered to if announcements are made to the media first—at weekends or on a Monday morning—and then a statement is made to the House on Monday afternoon.”

“You have given us some ideas about how the judgment over “most important” could be reached. Do you think urgent questions provide an effective remedy when the Government has decided that the announcement was not of sufficient importance, but the House wants an oral statement?”

“The principle uses the word “should”. Do you think that that effectively makes it feel optional to follow?”

“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, which states that I am a sitting member of East Cambridgeshire district council. We can surely all agree that power should be devolved as close to communities as possible, because they know what is best for their areas far better tha…”

“So a new senior role can be created without the board seeing the full justification.”

“But you would have had to have that justification regardless if you were having a recruitment process, would you not? Are you saying there was not a full justification package done?”