Speeches by Farnsworth.

“In terms of use of drugs in prisons, Babafemi, you have prisoners serving long sentences, and, Rob, you have people coming and going. I would be interested to hear whether you think there are any trends with longer-serving prisoners and the use of drugs or the desire and demand for drugs. Likewise, how does it model in…”

“I was really interested in what you were saying about the demand for drugs and the ingress of drugs having increased, as well as the availability. We have heard loud and clear from a number of witnesses, both today and previously, that a lack of purposeful work or being stuck in the cells for too long, for various reas…”

“Hello, I am Linsey Farnsworth, Member of Parliament for Amber Valley. I am a non-practising solicitor formerly of the Crown Prosecution Service. I am a member of various trade unions and I am the mission delivery champion nationally for the safer streets mission.”

“That is really interesting. Thank you. The availability on the outside and the higher drug use on the outside is impacting prison use. Do you think that that is happening generally across the country or is there a specific problem locally, close to prisons? Are the organised crime groups, for example, targeting specifi…”

“T8. The RAC recently reported that potholes in Derbyshire are the worst in the country, but rather than welcoming over £75 million of funding for the east midlands, the Conservatives at Derbyshire county council claim that this is not new money and that it is bound up in red tape. Does the Minister agree that these are…”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to bring forward this debate. I know that the Labour Government have inherited a broken system of special educational needs and disabilities provision—broken by 14 years of Tory under-investment, mismanagement and chaos. Even knowing this, I was shocked by the number of Amber Valley pa…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention on a matter that I know is close to his heart. He is absolutely right. The delays are a real concern, and diagnosis at an early stage is important, but that is not what we are seeing in Derbyshire. That is the worry.”

“I agree that we need more consistency. One of the concerns in the Ofsted report just for Derbyshire was that there is no consistency, because of the lack of a clearly defined joint strategy. The support is described by parents as a postcode lottery—we have that problem just within Derbyshire itself. Teachers are workin…”

“I agree. Crisis—a word that I have already used in this debate—is what we are facing right across the country. I am very concerned about that. In Derbyshire we face that very challenge, as well as all the additional challenges of the systemic problems in the county council. As high as the legal costs for families can b…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The Government need to grip this issue across the country. Unfortunately, we understand his plight only too well in Derbyshire. Parents and carers talk about barriers at every stage of the process and about how they are “ignored” by an “unresponsive” council. A big part of our ch…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. I think that every Derbyshire MP will testify to the same thing: that phones are not answered and emails go un-responded to. It is not sustainable for this to be the status quo. So many people in Amber Valley wanted to talk to me about their experience. What was planned as a smal…”

“First, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) for securing this important and timely debate. I echo his comments about our hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame Morris) for his work championing our coalfield communities, which, until this Government were elected, had be…”

“Briefly on that point, is there any suggestion, information or evidence to suggest that that has a negative impact on mental health? I would think that it has a knock-on effect with rehabilitation. Would you say that is fair?”

“If you—”

“What does that look like in reality? Have you got any examples of good purposeful activity being offered anywhere?”

“That’s interesting. Would you say that at the moment it is adequate for IPP prisoners, or not? It is not necessarily adequate for the people who are in other categories that have a long time left, because the IPP prisoners are getting priority, if you like, but it is not adequate for them in any event.”

“Forgive me if I am misunderstanding, but I have heard the word “inconsistency”, and you, Pia, were originally talking about thinking skills and looking at why people acted as they have, and what led them there; but I also hear that there is not always a programme available in a particular prison. For example, domestic …”

“That nicely moves on to purposeful activity, as well—getting activity in place that will help with that in the future. We talk a lot here in Parliament about purposeful activity, but would one of you outline what it means in practice?”

“You mean not just IPP prisoners but others will get missed.”

“You mentioned that open prisons tend to be where purposeful activity is drilled down and there are some good examples, but, if we look at the other end of the spectrum and prisoners on IPP sentences, clearly they need to show they have made progress. When we went to Buckley Hall and HMP Brixton they had special units d…”