Speeches by Akehurst.

“No matter what unit they served in, veterans in North Durham are particularly concerned about the impact of the new legislation on those who served in the special forces. Can the Secretary of State reassure me that he has met the Special Air Service Regimental Association and is responding to its specific concerns?”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to enable local authorities to allocate for temporary use by charities, community organisations and small businesses any vacant commercial properties during the period of their vacancy; to provide for certain obligations on landlords of commercial property in connec…”

“Will the Minister explain to the House the importance of exercises like Pegasus, and outline how Pegasus has supported this Government’s efforts to improve our national resilience for future pandemics?”

“18. What steps he is taking to consult the public on his Department’s policies on national resilience.”

“If the right hon. Gentleman were to look at the Budget book, he would see that the graph that shows the progressiveness of this Budget shows that, in every decile, it is redistributive. He might be correct about the impact of the specific measures he has spoken about, but the overall impact of the Budget is that the po…”

“The right hon. Gentleman mentions taxpayers in his Hertsmere communities, which I have visited and know. Does he accept that among his constituents, there will be families who receive benefits and have more than two children, and who will be positively impacted by today’s Budget? Could he at least nod in the direction …”

“Q10. Is the Prime Minister aware that, because of the decision by Reform’s Durham county council to scrap support introduced by Labour in 2013, a typical working family in Stanley will be £170 worse off? How would the Prime Minister contrast the values of this Labour Government with a Reform party dividing our country …”

“Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that it was not a U-turn, but that there were better economic statistics that meant that the hole the Chancellor was trying to fill was smaller? People on both sides of the House should welcome the numbers being better. I find it quite bizarre that anyone would attack the Chancellor fo…”

“That was looking back at what has happened already. Looking forward, what major changes to the skills requirement and headcount in this place do you anticipate over the next five years? I assume there might be drivers that would continue to push the need for more staff. There might be projections of further increased s…”

“One final question from me: when you are looking at increasing productivity and efficiency, do you go out to the people on the frontline to get their ideas? I assume that the staff in this place are most aware of what could be done better day to day, and how we could get better value for money. What kind of consultatio…”

“Sometimes we have seen business cases that involve really quite expensive capital spend—this building and organisation is quite famous for some extremely expensive capital programmes—and do not necessarily seem to look at turning that capital spend into a revenue or resource saving. This may not have been one of the on…”

“Thank you, Mr Shoreland and Mr Smith, for coming to give evidence today. A key reason that led to this inquiry was that earlier this year, when we looked at headcount across the organisation, we could see that, over a 10-year period, it has grown by over 90%. What do you think are the key drivers for that? How much of …”

“What changed with retail between pre-covid and now? Is it to do with visitor footfall, or is something else driving that?”

“One final question from me: when you are looking at increasing productivity and efficiency, do you go out to the people on the frontline to get their ideas? I assume that the staff in this place are most aware of what could be done better day to day, and how we could get better value for money. What kind of consultatio…”

“Sometimes we have seen business cases that involve really quite expensive capital spend—this building and organisation is quite famous for some extremely expensive capital programmes—and do not necessarily seem to look at turning that capital spend into a revenue or resource saving. This may not have been one of the on…”

“That was looking back at what has happened already. Looking forward, what major changes to the skills requirement and headcount in this place do you anticipate over the next five years? I assume there might be drivers that would continue to push the need for more staff. There might be projections of further increased s…”

“Thank you, Mr Shoreland and Mr Smith, for coming to give evidence today. A key reason that led to this inquiry was that earlier this year, when we looked at headcount across the organisation, we could see that, over a 10-year period, it has grown by over 90%. What do you think are the key drivers for that? How much of …”

“What changed with retail between pre-covid and now? Is it to do with visitor footfall, or is something else driving that?”

“Does the Minister agree that, in an increasingly uncertain world, ramping up our domestic critical mineral production and diversifying our supply is critical to the defence of our country?”

“I wholeheartedly welcome the measures which I believe will tackle a failure by the previous Government to maintain one of the most basic fundamental functions of government: control of our borders. My constituents are worried and angry about the proliferation of houses in multiple occupation to house asylum seekers in …”