Speeches by Darling.

“I welcome that reassurance from the Minister, which we will take onboard.”

“I can add very little to what the shadow Minister said. Again, I am broadly sympathetic on the need to have these safeguards in the legislation, and on not knowing what the practice notes are. We are very much in the dark, so that does give us cause for concern.”

“The Minister referred to a review process; it would be really helpful if the Committee could be aware of how long that process is likely to take.”

“I concur about the safeguarding of individuals. While there may be an independent reviewer or chair, the challenge, for me, is who appoints them. If it ends up being the Minister who appoints the chair, how independent will they be? Given what we are seeing elsewhere in the world, how do we ensure that we build a struc…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Lewell-Buck. I am pleased that you already see that we will become the official Opposition by the next general election, as long as the right hon. Member for North West Essex (Mrs Badenoch) continues. The Liberal Democrats would like to state clearly that fraud is …”

“Perhaps the word that the shadow Minister used most was “reasonableness”. In our strange political world in recent months, the question of what is reasonable in our society has changed significantly following the change of President in the United States. What normal society would expect is “reasonable” of an elected of…”

“I will not take up all that time because I know that time is pressing. First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers) on obtaining this extremely important debate. The issue has been well debated so far. I will focus on antisocial behaviour and its impact, with communities feeling unsafe to go o…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I concur with what the hon. Member for Gordon and Buchan, my colleague to my right—in more ways than one—shared just now.”

“I will cover both areas in one hit because I know we are really limited for time, but thank you so much for giving up your time so generously today, all of you. First of all, one of my favourite hobby horses is trauma informed, and from written evidence, there is clearly an unpicking of trauma informed at a policy leve…”

“I will just put out the three areas that I want to explore. Given that the true scale of death and serious harm, including suicide, is not clear for those who engage with the Department, who are of working age and who claim benefit, how could you better collect that data? I would welcome your thoughts, Minister, on whe…”

“Health authorities in Devon are set to trial the relocation of a vital coronary service from Torbay to Exeter, which is 24 miles away. Will the Minister meet me and fellow south Devon MPs who have grave concerns about the impact on patient safety?”

“Please accept my sincere apologies for being late, Madam Deputy Speaker. Things moved on at pace this afternoon. I will take what you said seriously into account. The Liberal Democrats had such proposals in our manifesto, so we welcome the regulations. Some 34,000 people—equivalent to the population of Yate—are set to …”

“Great, thank you very much. Back on to the script now. Apologies, Chair, but I was just keen to unpick that, as it was triggered by the discussion earlier. We have already heard about asbestos and the world around that area. RAAC and the impact of that on our workplaces is quite a significant issue when we have looked …”

“Do you have adequate powers, as you have stronger powers around asbestos? Would you welcome stronger powers from the Government to be able to do more work around RAAC or are you just so stretched it is one bridge too far?”

“Good.”

“I want to reflect on the fact that an academic survey in 2015 identified almost 600 suicides relating to people’s relationship with the Department for Work and Pensions. Can you explain why you have never explored that dynamic as part of the Health and Safety Executive, that impact on claimants in that survey just over…”

“Thank you.”

“But the buck still stops with you today.”

“I have a couple of follow-up questions in light of the discussion so far. Some ambulance services in the United Kingdom have identified a 10% increase in assaults on their workers. In light of this, what changes have you worked on with the ambulance service to protect those men and women who are going out to help peopl…”

“What tangible changes would you suggest have occurred because of your intervention? The “so what?” question.”