Speeches by Olney.

“My hon. Friend mentioned drones, which I know can provide really spectacular sound and light shows, but I would be slightly nervous about endorsing the use of drones instead of fireworks. Richmond Park has some of the most contested airspace of anywhere in the country. We are very used to the impact of noise from aircr…”

“It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. You were not here at the beginning, so you will not have seen that this was the most crowded Westminster Hall debate I have ever attended. It is a bit of a blast from the past to see Labour Members sitting on this side of the Chamber; we have not seen …”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella) for securing this debate and for her excellent opening speech, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for giving us the time to debate this important topic. Small businesses and self-employed people played a vital role in sustaining com…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I wanted to reflect the value of the self-employed to our economy, and to reflect on how, as we learn the lessons from covid, that group of workers can be supported more broadly. That is a pressing issue for now, but I accept that we are debating what happened six years ago. The extreme…”

“The hon. Lady is making an excellent speech; I am grateful that she has secured this debate. Airports are imposing drop-off charges primarily to increase profits, despite their stated claims of environmental benefits. On the point about transparency, when I inquired of Heathrow how many cars are using its drop-off poin…”

“I want to speak to amendments 42 to 47. The Bill fails to recognise the specific way in which family businesses are different from businesses whose shares can be traded. The tax changes announced at the 2024 Budget treat family businesses as though they are a liquid asset or as if their underlying value is expressed in…”

“Q2. The period after Christmas can be a challenging time for many people, and consequently the month of January consistently sees higher rates of suicide than other times of the year, but suicide is preventable and lives can be saved. Education, raising awareness and targeting vulnerable groups are all effective suicid…”

“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I asked the Secretary of State a direct question about his former statements and how they conflict with current Government policy. Would you agree that the Secretary of State should have directly answered me?”

“Mr Speaker, “We owe it to future generations not just to have good environmental principles but to act on them. That is why I will be voting against the third runway at Heathrow”— not my words, but the words of the Secretary of State in 2018. Given that Heathrow is already the biggest single source of carbon emissions …”

“My hon. Friend is giving an excellent speech on a topic that is very close to every Liberal Democrat heart. Thames Water is in £17 billion of debt, yet the company continues to progress with the Teddington direct river abstraction in my constituency, with a plant that would be operational for just six weeks a year at a…”

“I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. Last year, two important reports were produced: “Mental health inpatient settings: overarching report of investigations directed by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care” and “Improving support for people with complex mental health difficulties”. T…”

“Matthew, we have obviously talked about what has gone wrong in the past, but we clearly need to look forward and think about what we are going to do now—or what you are going to do now. Currently, according to the Report, there is not “a complete and agreed integrated plan that informs the Programme end date”. Can you …”

“So are the options looking at how to bring that date forward to make sure it is within the 2028 end date?”

“That is fair.”

“Thank you, but to come back to you, Matthew, you mentioned commercial realignment and talked about higher headcount. That all suggests to me increased cost.”

“I understand that. Dax, do you have a sense? Might it be material?”

“Are you confident that you will find a solution to bring the date back within the original scope of the 2028 date?”

“In answer to the opening questions you talked about the challenges with procurement and with recruitment of the right skills. Are you confident that those problems have now been solved, and that there will not be renewed challenges further down the line?”

“As I understand it, what you are saying is that Treasury financial control is it saying, “This is the budget; you have to deliver within this budget.” But if the plan comes out at higher than that budget, you are then saying that they must stick to the budget, even if that then threatens delivery?”

“That was going to be my next question to James. There is a fixed budget and yet we are not yet sure of how we are going to deliver the outcome. How do those things reconcile?”