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…”

“Is it not the truth that once the projects have been built, the energy is free? There is no commodity concentration, because the wind and sunlight cost nothing; there is very little cost apart from the installation.”

“I am interested in hearing what he has to say about cutting bills. Does he not recognise that the cost of letting climate change go on unmitigated is a vast one for every household in this country?”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Is it not the truth that the reason energy bills are still so high is because we still produce a lot of electricity by burning gas? Burning gas, which is sold on the global market, keeps energy prices high. That is the main problem. We need to decouple electricity from gas prices, and particularly to get away from gas.”

“Drug dealing is absolutely rampant on social media. The Minister might be aware of the campaign I lead, together with the University of Bath, against spice-spiked vapes in school and the terrible harm they are causing. We are increasingly frustrated that Ofcom does not use its power under the Online Safety Act to hold …”

“6. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 in tackling drug dealing on social media.”

“From everything we are hearing, it is to give it a statutory footing, isn’t it?”

“This is developing the theme. Local people can obviously be very much involved, and we know the benefits of local people being involved in local area energy plans. Can you spell out for me the real benefits of having local people involved in that energy 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…”

“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…”

“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.”

“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…”

“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…”