Business of the House

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 8th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point. It is vital that every child is able to reach their full potential and the Government are committed to that. He will know that every local authority in England will see a minimum per-head increase of 9.8% to their total needs allocations for 2023-24 compared with the previous year. We are also investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to create new places to improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities who require alternative provision. It is an incredibly important matter. On the issue of short-term costs, I shall make sure the Secretary of State for Education has heard my hon. Friend’s comments today.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Can we have a Government statement on the asylum backlog? My constituent is from a prominent Iranian family; one brother is an international referee and another is a former Iranian politician, and both brothers are in exile. My constituent had to flee for her life, literally with the clothes on her back. Her children are still in Iran. There has been no movement on her case and she is in the backlog of asylum seekers, but we urgently need a decision. Will Leader of the House raise the matter with her colleagues in the Home Office, and can we have a statement from Government on the matter?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am sorry to hear about this case. Following business questions, I will certainly ensure that the Home Secretary is aware of such cases. If the hon. Lady passes me more details and reference numbers, I shall include those in the letter. I remind her and all Members of the House that the Home Office is running bespoke surgeries for such cases. If she has any difficulty in accessing them, please let me know and I will address that. I announced in the business a debate on 15 June in which she might also raise her issue.

Business of the House

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 18th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Can we have a debate about the switchover from copper cables to fibre for our phone networks? Concerns have been raised about vulnerable citizens—particularly the elderly and the disabled—and what might happen were there to be an outage in the fibre network. We now hear that a survey from Citizens Advice says that up to 1 million people have cancelled their broadband subscription because of the cost of living. We need to know the implications of that in terms of the fibre network, so could we have that debate, which would give Members the chance to thrash out the issues and get some concrete answers from the Government?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am sure that the issue that the hon. Lady raises is a concern to many Members in this House. I have written to several Departments on this matter. If she were to apply for a debate, I am sure it would be extremely well attended. Such issues are very timely, so I will ensure that the Secretary of State has heard what she has said.

Business of the House

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 11th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my hon. Friend not only for his remarks about me, but for his commitment to this agenda. We in the Government are grateful to him for his work on the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, a private Member’s Bill that we were pleased to support. We, too, are committed to this agenda, as is clear from the many other measures that we have taken to improve animal welfare, including the banning of conventional battery cages for laying hens, the introduction of CCTV in slaughterhouses, the mandatory microchipping of dogs, Finn’s law and Lucy’s law. I can reassure the House that we are still very much hoping to implement our manifesto commitments and the measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on myalgic encephalomyelitis, may I draw the Leader of the House’s attention to the fact that tomorrow is World ME Day? ME affects more than a quarter of a million people here in the UK, and many others are living with similar symptoms as a result of long covid. The Department of Health and Social Care has been developing a much-needed and much-anticipated ME delivery plan. May we have a Government statement on both the impact of ME on individuals and the delivery plan?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising this issue and reminding us that tomorrow is World ME Day. Indeed, next week is ME Awareness Week, which will give all Members a good opportunity to discuss ME and the care that sufferers need. This would be an excellent question to ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and, of course, Members can apply for a debate in the usual way if they wish to do so.

Business of the House

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 27th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

The hon. Lady raises a very important matter, and I will certainly make sure that the Secretary of State has heard her concerns. I have heard other Members raise it with particular regard to that provision. The hon. Lady will know how to apply for a debate in the usual way, perhaps through the auspices of the relevant all-party group.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

This week is the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster, where 1,138 garment workers in Bangladesh were killed when the factory collapsed. Union workers had to dig through the rubble to find out what labels were involved, and it was found that brands sourced in UK shops such as Primark, Mango, Matalan and Benetton were but some of them. Many countries are moving to a situation where companies have responsibility for supply chains, so may we have a debate in Government time about the need for legislation to introduce strong legal frameworks for corporate accountability?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Lady for bringing to our attention the 10th anniversary of that terrible and sad event. She will know that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has done a huge amount of work to ensure that the likelihood of such events happening again is reduced by having good practices in garment factories across countries that we work with. We have also worked with the UN to introduce a number of measures to strengthen transparency in supply chains, but she is absolutely right: there has to be accountability for that. The Foreign Secretary is sitting on the Front Bench, but I will also ensure that the Department for Business and Trade is focused on the issues that she raises.

Business of the House

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 22nd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I encourage the hon. Gentleman to raise that matter with both Departments, but some of the issues that he touches on are devolved.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

The death of Mahsa Amini in Iran for allegedly breaking hijab rules was shocking, as was the Iranian authorities’ response to the subsequent protests. Can we have a statement from the Government on the support they are providing to human rights activists in Iran, including those who have to seek asylum here in the UK?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am sure that all Members of this House would want to echo the hon. Lady’s comments. It was the most barbaric and appalling act and has caused huge amounts of disquiet, and clearly repercussions are now unfurling in Iran. I shall make sure that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office responds to the hon. Lady’s concerns, and I would encourage all Members who want to put a spotlight on what is going on, and to send a message to people who are struggling against a very repressive regime, to apply for a debate in the usual way.

Business of the House

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Indeed, a former Leader of the House, the right hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame Andrea Leadsom), who is in her place, has done a huge amount of work on early years and encouraging family hubs, and he is right to campaign so hard for one in his constituency. I would be happy to help him achieve that objective. This particular council is featuring greatly in today’s business questions, so perhaps hon. Members should club together in applying for a debate, whether on denying transport to people who have special educational needs or on the blocking of family hubs.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

This week, I received a rather predictable response from the Home Office. It said, “Thank you for your further inquiry on behalf of X, about his application for Y. X’s application is under consideration and we will contact him as soon as a decision is reached.” It was predictable because I get the same response every time I contact the Home Office.

This week, the Home Office sent Members a letter saying that it will now contact our offices by telephone to update them, not by email. Call me a cynic, but with that we lose the paper trail of email updates. Can we have a Government statement on what is being done about the unacceptable delays in Home Office correspondence and applications from our constituents?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 16th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

Obviously, we have agreed an enormous number of trade agreements, including several from scratch. We have a new export strategy and more support for British business; we have a new export finance mission; we are an Association of Southeast Asian Nations dialogue partner; we have a voice back at the World Trade Organisation; we have created the Trade Remedies Authority, to help support our own economic interests; we have set our own global tariff regime; we have streamlined nearly 6,000 tariff lines, lowering costs for business, and scrapped thousands of unnecessary tariff variations; we are creating a single trade window; we will have the most effective border in the world by 2025; and Mr Speaker will be very pleased to hear that we are bringing forward measures to ensure that cat fur products are not allowed to be traded. All this is in addition to blue passports and the prospect of the crown stamp on a pint of English beer.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

T8. A recent London School of Economics report has found that between the end of 2019 and September 2021 UK-EU trade barriers led to a 6% increase in food prices in the UK. Will Ministers start being truthful and admit that the soaring prices are being caused not by the war in Ukraine but the Government’s post-Brexit trade agreement, which is causing so much hardship for my constituents in Glasgow?

[Penny Mordaunt]

The hon. Lady will know that work in government is looking at our global tariff and our tariff regime, with specific reference to ensuring that we are helping on the cost of living issues, which are really affecting our constituents. Leaving the EU has enabled us not only to make those decisions, but to treat developing nations with better preferences on tariffs, helping their economies as well as our own.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Carol Monaghan and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 17th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

My hon. Friend raises a very important issue. Let me be crystal clear: the law is absolutely clear on this. Anyone can inspect copies of the current register under supervision. The register is a public document to enable concerned citizens, such as those he refers to, to check that registers only include those who are properly eligible. I will, of course, look into the matter that he raised, because we want clarity on this very important point.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

What criteria was used by the Advisory Military Sub-Committee to inform its decision not to recommend a service medal award for British nuclear test veterans.