Speeches by Perteghella.

“We have heard that the strategy does not offer any concrete action to reduce poverty for children with no recourse to public funds, who often live in very deep poverty, so what steps are the Government taking to improve support for this group of children?”

“Obviously, it is really important, because estimates showed that 1.7 million children living in poverty in 2023-24 had no recourse to public funds. Many of those children are born in Britain but have parents who are foreign-born. I am just a bit worried about how you are engaging with the Home Office, because, again, w…”

“Looking at the Government’s child poverty reduction estimates, projections suggest that progress on child poverty will stall in around 2029 and then increase by just 0.2 percentage points between 2030 and 2031. Why do you expect progress to stall?”

“We have heard that “the Home Office is consistently designing policy that is driving up child poverty and destitution”. How do your Departments work with the Home Office to ensure that its policies are aligned, and not in conflict, with the child poverty strategy?”

“You talk about a whole-Government approach to reducing child poverty and you mentioned the interministerial group. Is the Home Office represented in that group?”

“I am glad to hear that the voices of these families were heard. How will you continue to engage with them?”

“Despite the whole-of-Government effort to tackle the climate and nature crisis, I fear that there is still a misalignment of policies across Departments, as we have seen with the dilution of environmental protections in the revisions to the national planning policy framework. Can the Minister therefore ensure that ther…”

“Intimate image abuse is increasingly being used to threaten, control and exploit women and girls after relationships break down, yet the police have no power to require the deletion of those images if they were obtained consensually. What steps is the Minister taking to close that gap and better protect victims?”

“I want to focus on the international collaboration, which I am assuming underpins the preparation of such security assessments. Minister, what level of co-operation is there between intelligence communities and organisations on the security threat from global biodiversity loss, compared to co-operation on security thre…”

“—whether this will be a priority for the presidency?”

“Biodiversity loss is a threat not just to the UK, and obviously preparation with other countries might allow us to be more prepared on the threats that are coming, including invasive species, pathogens and so on. How collaborative was the report in an international sense, or can you not tell us about that?”

“Lastly, is the biodiversity loss national security risk assessment a topic that the UK might consider prioritising during its G20 presidency?”

“On the back of your assessment, are the Government now pushing for biodiversity loss to be framed more clearly and explicitly as a security issue and resilience issue in different fora, including, for example, in meetings and discussions with NATO? Also, are you taking this opportunity to incorporate these really impor…”

“So you cannot tell us—”

“What impact are AI and EdTech having on inclusion in education, for example, for vulnerable learners and for learners from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds?”

“A clear theme that is emerging from the written evidence to the Committee is the importance of AI literacy as part of a wider digital fluency. How can AI literacy be better integrated into the curriculum and the assessment system so that pupils and students can learn to use AI safely, effectively and, above all, critic…”

“To follow from Mark’s question, the Government have announced plans to expand AI tutoring tools to deliver personalised one-to-one support. How might the growing use of AI and EdTech, including these tutoring tools, affect the nature of the teacher-pupil relationship? Is there a risk that technology may displace some o…”

“A clear theme that is emerging from the written evidence to the Committee is the importance of AI literacy as part of a wider digital fluency. How can AI literacy be better integrated into the curriculum and the assessment system so that pupils and students can learn to use AI safely, effectively and, above all, critic…”

“AI would be another of the things contributing to this perfect storm.”

“To follow from Mark’s question, the Government have announced plans to expand AI tutoring tools to deliver personalised one-to-one support. How might the growing use of AI and EdTech, including these tutoring tools, affect the nature of the teacher-pupil relationship? Is there a risk that technology may displace some o…”