Speeches by Harding.

“Given that the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the fiscal test of returning to 0.7% will not be met in this Parliament, and that there has been no equivalent uplift to the £2.5 billion that the Conservatives put to spend on in-country refugee costs, are the Minister and this Labour Government content to…”

“My constituents are well served by the fiscal stewardship of their district council of Elmbridge, and are rightly concerned that they will be forced to take on the debt of neighbouring councils such as Woking. Equally, they are looking forward to the May elections, and kicking Conservative Surrey out. Does the Minister…”

“10. What assessment he has made of the British Council’s financial sustainability.”

“Mr Speaker, may I declare another interest as the officer of the British Council all-party parliamentary group? The British Council delivers more than £1 billion-worth of global impact for the UK every year. During the pandemic, it was forced to close 18 country operations, none of which has since reopened. The then Fo…”

“Will the hon. Member go further and say that Ofcom’s implementation so far has been weak, overly cautious and fundamentally disappointing? Does he concur that it is unfair to put parents in the intolerably pressured situation of being the policemen of their children’s social media activity?”

“When the Government last announced their aid package, one area was in famine and four were on the brink. Those five areas are now in famine, another five are expected to be by the spring, and a further 17 are at risk. As the hunger crisis spirals, less than 10% of those in affected areas are getting humanitarian assist…”

“In my local authority area, 92% of burglaries went unsolved, with police failing to identify suspects—that is the worst figure for any community in the country—and in Surrey as a whole, 63% of burglaries were not even attended by police. This has contributed to a decline in confidence in local policing among my constit…”

“5. What steps she is taking to support the police to tackle burglaries.”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that it is about not only mental health harm, but inattention? I speak to many headteachers in my constituency who tell me that children are unable to concentrate any more because of hours spent on their screen. Would she agree that the Government study announced in November that seeks to expl…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts, and I thank the hon. Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) for securing this incredibly important debate, in which there have been many insightful and inspiring comments. We have heard today that women and girls disproportionately suffer the impact of th…”

“Let me starting by saying how much I welcome the Bill, as an important step in strengthening the role of education and multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, so that we can better identify and protect vulnerable children. A headteacher in my constituency reached out to me and said: “Children do disclose to teachers, p…”

“To push you on the separation between the two, has that meant a loss of focus for the development part of it? For example, is it subsumed by perhaps UK commercial interests and has that focus gone?”

“Nick, ODA has been cut again for the 2024-25 budget to £13.7 billion, which is a reduction of £1.6 billion from the total 2023 ODA spend. Where will the impact of this reduction be felt?”

“Do you know what balance that is between the in‑country refugee costs going down and GNI going up? Do you know how that is?”

“Can I also ask another question? Coming back to priorities, I noticed also that there was a decline in spend on the eradication of poverty. From what you have just said about the Minister’s priorities—and, again, we can ask her when she comes—is it your expectation that the objectives for development are going to be on…”

“I think that there was a decline from 2019 in aid to least developed countries, which went significantly down, as you would expect, in 2021, but then continued to go down into 2023.”

“Between extreme poverty and the middle income countries, yes, so there was less spend there.”

“The eradication of extreme poverty will be a continued objective under this Government.”

“Can I pick up on that point? In your highest pay quartile, the gender distribution is about 10% apart between men and women. It is not unique to you. It happens across industry and it is usually because women are leaving to have children and then not coming back into the top echelons. What are you doing to encourage th…”

“I am coming back to the point you made that your partners and in-country deliverers had digested the news that we were back down to 0.5% rather than 0.7%. My worry is, therefore, that there is no push to get back to what is a statutory target of 0.7%. Is that your feeling, too? Are we stuck at 0.5%?”