Speeches by Wilkinson.

“The creative industries have been very clear about their position. The shadow Minister says that he wishes to support the creative industries and that that is the position of his party, but would it be too much to suggest he might go a step further and say that he supports the opt-in position, which is the position sup…”

“To clarify, the Jools Law Bill would simply require access to the social media accounts and data of deceased children. There is no risk to those children in those circumstances because they would already be dead.”

“The Minister will be delighted to hear that there will be no Paddington references. Ministers have set out the core objectives of the Bill: growing the economy, improving public services and making people’s lives easier. No one is going to disagree with any of that. Those aims are laudable, and I support them, as do th…”

“I will attempt not to give a rerun of the speech I made during the general debate on the creative industries the other day.”

“The hon. Lady’s contribution is as right as all the others she has made during this debate and the general debate a couple of weeks ago. I will immediately move on to the point that data is an abstract term and is being used to cover all sorts of information in these debates. Yet all data is not equal and our legislati…”

“My constituent Owen was medically discharged from the Army after 17 years of service. Since then, he has been waiting for two years for a resolution of his claim under the armed forces compensation scheme. Does the Minister agree that that is too long to make a veteran wait, and what advice can he give me so that I can…”

“Absolutely. There is a role for a separate levy as well, which I will come to later, to support the horseracing industry, which needs to be viewed separately from the rest of this, as I said. The Government must also think about the broadcasters who screen games and run their own associated betting operations, because …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I congratulate the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing this important debate. As the MP for Cheltenham, I am no stranger to gambling, and as a liberal I believe in holding power to account. That includes powerful and predatory gambling compan…”

“In most cases, a financial loss to the individual who takes part. These people are unable to talk to their friends and family about the losses and their addiction. They are unable to seek help, despite the repeated suggestions from gambling companies that when the fun stops, people should stop gambling. The gambling co…”

“Of course. I started by talking about the need for liberals to hold power to account. That goes for Liberal Democrats and small-l liberals, and there are many small-l liberals in the room, I am sure. We know that power does not hold itself to account. Those in positions of power, where they have the power to literally …”

“I lost my father to lymphoma and my wife is an ovarian cancer survivor, so I warmly welcome this statement. In Gloucestershire, we are a designated regional cancer centre, but unfortunately the buildings at Cheltenham general are just not up to scratch any more. Fundraising was mentioned earlier by the hon. Member for …”

“I will move on to that, and the hon. Gentleman will find that there is a pleasing consensus between my party and his. There are positive stories around, and I will highlight an example of good practice from Cheltenham. The hon. Member for Gloucester (Alex McIntyre) mentioned Gloscol, which has one of the most influenti…”

“Of course. An alignment of skills with the jobs need for the future is key in the apprenticeship sector. Flawed policy in the past means that there has been a clear drop-off in new apprentices in recent years. Just over 736,000 apprentices participated in an apprenticeship in the last academic year, which is a slight d…”

“We could go on for hours on that.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) on securing the debate. Apprenticeships are a vital part of our education system, and the Liberal Democrats think there should be more of them. They break down barriers to opportunity and offer you…”

“5. What steps she is taking to support vulnerable people into work.”

“One of my constituents is a highly educated, high-earning civil servant who has serious care needs as a result of a bad accident about 30 years ago. His needs have been assessed as health-related, which means that the NHS pays the £81,000 cost of his care. If they were reassessed as social care needs, he would be force…”

“T8. My constituent, Charlotte Durrant, runs a plant shop called the Aroid Attic on Bath Road in Cheltenham. Before Brexit, she was able to import her plants from the Netherlands with no bureaucracy and without any import duties. Do Ministers agree that a customs union with the European Union would solve that problem? I…”

“The hon. Lady makes a very good point. That does sound like a potentially devastating blow to our nation. Britain has gifted the world the likes of Charles Dickens’s literature, the music of The Beatles and the best film of all time, “Paddington 2”. By amending our education system, protecting cultural spend locally, s…”

“Balcarras school in my constituency has calculated that if its funding for its sixth form had increased by just 2% over the past 15 years, it would now have more than £650,000 extra to keep its school running. The head warns me that the sector is now at breaking point. Do Ministers recognise what is going on in the sec…”