Speeches by Hobhouse.

“Can I just understand the sequence? If you already have local people involved in local energy planning, I understand there is a concern that it is too much led from the top or from the region with DNOs. You would fix that to involve local people more in the local area energy plans and then back that up with a supplemen…”

“Very quickly, why can community energy groups not be directly involved in the local area planning?”

“We must also not forget that there is so much pleasure from reading, when we can read. Not to take away from attainment, but people receive a whole world of pleasure from reading and we should not forget that.”

“There are certainly many questions—particularly for those who deliberately set out to destroy the BBC—but I want to ask the Secretary of State this one. In the absence of the ability to remove certain members from the board, will she make a commitment that all future appointments should be conducted through a transpare…”

“T4. Following on from that, still less than 3% of rape cases result in a charge. It takes 400 days for resolution—painful delays for the victims. We have talked about this for so long, so often. What are the barriers to change?”

“Is it not the case that people just become better at bluffing and finding coping strategies? But that does not really deal with the dyslexia.”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Butler, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) and the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell) on securing this important debate. On a conservative estimate, there are on average three children with dyslexia in every classroom, includi…”

“The UK was instrumental in the creation of the ECHR. The Council of Europe now says that it is ready for reform. Is it not time for us to shape the future of human rights legislation in Europe, and absolutely the wrong time to abandon our place at the table?”

“As a university city, Bath has an increasing number of HMOs, not only but mainly because of increasing numbers of students. As we have heard, constituents living around HMOs face increasing pressure on parking, noise issues and waste collection issues. Meanwhile, more and more valuable family homes are snapped up by de…”

“One change that would encourage significant investment is UK participation in the EU’s internal electricity market. Energy trading with our closest neighbour is currently hugely inefficient, which only adds to the burden of energy costs that our businesses face. Will the Government put real pressure behind the negotiat…”

“I called for teledermatology on another occasion because it absolutely works. Does the Minister have any figures on how many GPs are using that as the basis of their diagnosis? My husband recently went to our GP and he was still referred to the hospital, so I am not confident that a lot of GPs are making use of it.”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) on securing this important debate—I call him a friend, because we are working on quite a lot of issues together. He told the courageous story of Zoe, her family and their courageous campaign s…”

“In Bath we are so lucky to have three independent bookshops: Topping & Company, Persephone Books and Mr B’s. Proposed changes to maximum payment terms risk devastating the independent book industry, forcing it to be much more cautious and less willing to take on debut authors. May we have a debate on the proposed c…”

“If it is the responsibility of the oil and gas sector and employers to prepare their workforce for the jobs of the future, would only 15 workers have gone to work in the offshore wind or renewables industry? What is it? Who should be reskilling? You have just said that, yes, it should be the employer.”

“We were hearing about projects in the previous panel through contracts for difference. We are getting many more offshore wind projects going. What prevents workers from the oil and gas industry from working in the supply chain to help ensure that new energy projects are constructed? What stops them? I am still not gett…”

“But who should then be responsible? The oil and gas industry has lately cut 250 jobs at Harbour Energy, although it makes quite a lot of profit and has also given out quite a lot of dividends to its shareholders. Who should be responsible for the reskilling and transition that we are talking about, and making sure that…”

“You admit, you acknowledge, that we need the transition—”

“Jobs supported by the UK’s oil and gas industry have significantly declined for a decade at least, long before there was a windfall tax and despite hundreds of new licences being issued. You are claiming that current Government policy is creating these concerning situations in the North Sea but is that not because it i…”

“Are you particularly talking about a hydrogen market, for example, which you know is currently very low? Is that something where you could play an important role?”

“Fair enough. It was a question of how it would ultimately work if we were to follow the EU carbon border adjustment mechanisms. My question is about how the UK producing less crude oil and gas has impacted you, but you have already answered quite a lot of questions on that. It is ultimately a global market, and imports…”