Speeches by Ellis.

“How do you make sure that you do not fall back into grant funding and that those local growth plans do not just become another application into a national pot for innovation funding, for example, that people have to bid on based on how good their local growth plan is?”

“My question is building on that. Where is your current thinking? Taking innovation funding for example, I think that there are lots of people who would argue that, historically, in the last 10 years a lot of the innovation funding has gone directly to the combined authorities because it is a bit of a shortcut and an ea…”

“Given that 70% of youth services investment has been slashed since 2010, does my hon. and learned Friend agree that we need to provide opportunities, aside from school, where children can interact before taking away one of the few places that they have to spend time with their peers?”

“From the conversations that you have had—you mentioned speaking to chief execs—is there planning for that? What steps are those more affluent areas looking at taking to deliver that?”

“To build on that, is the way local government funding is allocated at the moment reflective of needs or of deprivation, and does it provide support according to need?”

“To build on that question of what is appropriate, and again touching on rural areas, many rural councils face significantly higher costs for home-to-school transport. Could you talk a little bit about how that pressure could be better alleviated?”

“My constituency is Ribble Valley, in Lancashire. It is a very rural area, and it can take me about an hour to drive from one side to the other. That raises logistical issues for local services. What do you make of this year’s settlement, particularly in light of the discontinuing of the rural services delivery grant? D…”

“Just to stress-test that a bit, in rural areas the cost of home-to-school transport is around £93 per pupil, which is about 10 times the average in urban city areas. Following the logic, in a means-tested situation, there would be cases in rural areas where the funding would need to be much higher to support some of th…”

“If changes are made around allocating more towards deprivation, what will be the challenges for more affluent areas?”

“I am Maya Ellis, MP for Ribble Valley.”

“To build on that, in terms of those local ecosystems and that potential redistribution of responsibilities, is there anything else that is missing there? I am thinking about the type of talent that we attract to local government or to those kinds of services, for example. Where we do not have lots of money, what is sto…”

“2. What steps she is taking to help increase prosecution rates for cases involving violence against women and girls.”

“As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on babies (pregnancy to age 2), I have had the privilege over the past few months to meet leaders from across society who have incredible passion and energy for Government policy that relates to babies from pregnancy to age two. Will the Leader of the House consider a d…”

“The national conviction rate for domestic abuse cases is woefully low, standing at 4.5%, but the picture is even worse in rural constituencies such as Ribble Valley, where the overall conviction rate is only 3%. What does the Solicitor General regard as the unique challenges in rural areas, and what steps is she taking…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for bravely sharing the devastating story of her friend. I also have a wonderful friend, Sarah, whose daughter was a month old when the covid lockdown hit. She was so worried about breaking lockdown rules that she did not lean on friends and family and ended up having a mental breakdown. Does my …”

“As pointed out earlier council elections take up a greater proportion of the time. Does the prospect of unitarisation of district and county councils across the country carry risks in your opinion for democratic legitimacy?”

“Maya Ellis, Ribble Valley.”

“This Government are committed to introducing legislation to lower the voting age to 16; Dr Patel, I believe you have recently released a report very much in support of that, saying that it would build a norm of democratic participation. A question to all of you: what would the main impacts and opportunities be of lower…”

“Can I ask one follow-up on that? Where do you think the discussion needs to sit on what we need to do alongside that? Whether it is education, whether it is community engagement, what needs to sit alongside that to make that a success in terms of voter engagement and participation at that age?”

“It is interesting that we have gone from size to resources and I just wanted to ask for your thoughts on whether there is another angle on this: that it does not matter how big or small; some places are great at engagement and consultation, and some places are not. I just wanted thoughts on that.”