Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 22nd June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

I pay tribute to Godfrey and all those who served in that programme. I recognise the frustration with this process. It has taken 60 years to get to this point. I want to see those medals on chests on Remembrance Day, and getting these things through Government and so on is not easy. I have made it very clear to officials, and I make it very clear to them again today, that I expect those medals to be on veterans’ chests on Remembrance Sunday this year. I will strain every sinew in Government to make sure that happens.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State (Oliver Dowden)]

We continue to strengthen the country’s overall resilience, which is why last week we published a new biological security strategy that will help to protect us from a whole host of threats, from diseases to bio-weapons and antimicrobial resistance. The strategy includes a new bio-threats radar to monitor hazards as and when they emerge.

This week I will travel to Indonesia and Singapore to strengthen our partnerships on cyber-security and data protection, and to build on the UK’s leadership on one of the most important issues of our time: artificial intelligence.

[Liz Twist]

We know from answers to previous questions that the taxpayer is still being billed £700,000 a day, which is £5 million a week or £21.4 million a month, to store personal protective equipment, much of which is of too poor quality to be used. What will the Secretary of State do to make sure such reckless procurement never happens again?

[Oliver Dowden]

I do not recall a time during the covid crisis when the Labour party said we should not be purchasing PPE but, on wider procurement, that is precisely why we are taking the Procurement Bill through this House, which seizes the opportunities of Brexit to ensure we have an efficient procurement system.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 7th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

There is a range of views, as we have seen in the newspapers, but the Government are united in our determination to have very high-quality guidance for schools. This guidance has been drafted and it is in a very good state. It is ready for publication, and it will be published shortly. There will then be a full public consultation to make sure that all the views expressed in the newspapers, by the hon. Lady and by right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House, can be taken into account as we finalise this important guidance for schools.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

4. If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of Government communications during the covid-19 pandemic for people with disabilities.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

Throughout the pandemic, the Government took their responsibilities to people with disabilities extremely seriously. We all remember the daily press conferences, which almost always had signers present, but that was just one element of a much broader communications strategy that ensured guidance and information were provided in easy-read, large text, audio and many other formats.

[Liz Twist]

Many people with disabilities would disagree with the Minister’s assessment of the communications and feel that, throughout the pandemic, the Government often failed to provide specific communications to disabled people about their rights and access to support. What steps is he taking to ensure that public health announcements, public health information and daily briefings are accessible to and are reaching people with disabilities, particularly those with a learning disability?

[Alex Burghart]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. On covid, I understand that this is something the inquiry will be considering. On her broader point, she will know that the NHS and publicly funded social care in this country have a duty, under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, to ensure that patients and people in care receive information in formats appropriate for them. I know the NHS takes that responsibility extremely seriously.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

Across Scotland, just like in my constituency, the cost of living crisis continues to make life difficult for so many families. Inflation is now at 10.4%, with the British Retail Consortium reporting that food inflation is above 15%, and interest rates have been increased for the 11th consecutive time. The Chancellor’s Budget was yet another missed opportunity for the Government to take the action needed to tackle the cost of living. Does the Minister agree with me that the Government should have implemented a proper windfall tax and used the money raised to help struggling families?

[John Lamont]

No, I do not agree. This Government have taken the measures necessary to support households, families and businesses across Scotland and in all parts of the United Kingdom, and the additional windfall tax that the hon. Member proposes is not something that we support.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 16th March 2023 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure suppliers follow the UK’s sanctions regimes for public procurement.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Jeremy Quin)]

The UK and its international partners stand shoulder to shoulder in implementing sanctions against malignant actors on the international stage. This includes the most severe sanctions ever against Russia, which represents over £18 billion in assets frozen and reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. Contracting authorities must comply with our sanctions, which have legal force.

[Liz Twist]

On the question of procurement more widely, the British Chamber of Commerce found that, in 2021, small and medium-sized enterprises were receiving a relatively small amount of direct Government procurement money compared with five years ago. Can the Minister explain why SMEs are being increasingly sidelined from access to public procurement under his Government?

[Jeremy Quin]

Far from sidelining SMEs, the Government are absolutely focused on ensuring that they get a fairer share of the Government procurement pie. I am delighted that the Procurement Bill will put an obligation on contracting authorities to have regard to what their tenders will do for SMEs. That will ensure that, right at the early stages of the process, as well as displaying a long pipeline notice, contracting authorities think through how they can make certain that those tenders are best adaptable to SMEs and their requirements.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Tuesday 10th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend has raised the issue with me a number of times, and I respect his view. Of course, we have repealed the IPP legislation, but we are dealing retrospectively with the backlog of cases. I can understand some of the issues that he has raised; I think the right way to approach them is to ensure that offenders who can be released safely get the support, training and rehabilitation that they need to convince decision makers that releasing them is safe. That is the approach that we take, but I am very mindful of the issue and am continually looking at what more we can do.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

Too many women and girls are victims of violent crime, yet the Government have still not delivered the long-promised victims Bill. They have also failed to appoint a Victims’ Commissioner since last September. Victims need support and the Government are letting them down. Why do the Government not prioritise victims?

[Dominic Raab]

I hope I can reassure the hon. Lady: we are funding victims to the tune of quadruple the level under the last Labour Government; we will appoint a new Victims’ Commissioner shortly; and the victims Bill will be coming forward as soon as parliamentary time allows. I hope the hon. Lady will also recognise the 24/7 rape support line, the increase to more than 1,000 independent sexual and domestic violence advisers, the roll-out of section 28 and the work that we are doing through Operation Soteria.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

It is quite clear that the hon. Lady did not hear any of the answers that I have given, because she has asked something that I have answered multiple times. I refer her to the answers I gave to all those hon. Members.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

5. Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health on a timetable for the publication of a health disparities White Paper.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

The Department continues to review how health disparities can be addressed. In relation to the health disparities White Paper, further information will be available in due course.

[Liz Twist]

There is a 20-year gap in healthy life expectancy between those who live in the most deprived areas of the country and those who live in the least. In Gateshead, my local authority, healthy life expectancy is 57.9 years for men and 58.5 years for women compared with a national average of over 63 years. The Conservative party promised in its 2019 manifesto to increase

“healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.”

Will the Minister come clean and admit that, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the Government are not on track to hit that?

[Maria Caulfield]

This is the first Government to want to tackle health disparities, which have been in place for generations. It is true that a woman born in Blackpool can expect to live eight fewer years than someone in Wokingham, but that is why the levelling up White Paper included a levelling up health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy between local areas by 2030. I refer the hon. Lady to the Core20PLUS5 work done by NHS England that is tackling the five single health indicators that are most expanding health disparities in the 20% most deprived communities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister, Liz Twist.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

When the Prime Minister was anointed, he stood in Downing Street and said he would put integrity at the heart of his Government. That was just three short weeks ago. Since then, one of his key Ministers has had to resign for threatening to slit someone’s throat; his Home Secretary is clinging on to her job—the one she resigned from a week before being reappointed; his predecessor has appointed his old mates and cronies to the House of Lords; and the old but newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister has been outed as a bully. Does the Under-Secretary think that speaks to integrity at the heart of Government?

[John Lamont]

The Prime Minister has been crystal clear about the need to put integrity at the heart of his Government. It is also certain that the people of Scotland can trust this United Kingdom Government to deliver for Scotland, whether through the covid-19 vaccines or the record £41 billion budget for the Scottish Government. This is what really matters to my constituents in the Scottish Borders and to people across Scotland.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Climate (Graham Stuart)]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. We are absolutely committed to having zero-emission vehicles and I am pleased to say that we have led on that, with our 2030 and 2035 targets now, I notice, being copied by our European neighbours. We remain committed under the Prime Minister to continuing our leadership. We have reduced our emissions by more than any other major economy and we will continue to do so.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

T8. Shell and BP have announced bumper profits while they have also benefited from a loophole put in place by the now Prime Minister which means they secure taxpayer support for drilling oil in our North sea. Does the Minister think that that is a good decision or a bad decision ahead of the COP27 summit?

[Graham Stuart]

I have said repeatedly that it is absurd to suggest that bringing in gas from abroad, for instance, with higher emissions attached to that and paying billions of pounds for it, is sensible when we can produce it at home. That is why we incentivise investment in the North sea. It is declining, it is a managed decline, and it is compatible with net zero. It is about time that the hon. Lady backed the British economy and British jobs, and did not play politics with this issue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

One of the most critical ways of reducing domestic energy costs in Scotland is by supporting renewable energy generation and carbon reduction efforts. I have raised before at the Dispatch Box the fact that the UK Government chose to sideline the Acorn carbon capture and storage project in the north-east of Scotland. The Scottish Government have refused to provide financing either.

The Secretary of State may be interested to hear that Labour has put forward a fully costed plan to invest in Britain’s infrastructure, which includes providing the funding for the Acorn project. Will the Secretary of State encourage his Cabinet colleagues—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I must ask the hon. Lady to start the question again, because I could not hear.

[Liz Twist]

I believe the Secretary of State and the Minister may have heard the first part of the question, so I will conclude by asking the Secretary of State to encourage his Cabinet colleagues to look again at how the carbon capture and storage project can be supported to enable it to get under way as a matter of urgency.

[David Duguid]

As the hon. Lady may be aware, the Acorn cluster looms large in my own constituency, so I have nothing but the greatest support for that project. I can also assure her, and the rest of the House, that this Government have stood firmly behind it: we have invested £41 million in the project directly, and it is also the reserve cluster in the Track-1 sequence. Track-2 sequencing for carbon capture and storage across the United Kingdom is coming soon, I am told, and I look forward to that announcement with great interest.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen

Liz Twist Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I rise this evening to pay tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of myself and my constituents in Blaydon. My memories of the Queen will be shared by so many people. I remember poring over the royal photo books that my aunties had, which showed the Queen’s work during and after the war. Those books meant so much to them, with my mum just three years younger than Her Majesty and her sisters not much different. I was so pleased to hear a few weeks ago that my youngest aunt still has them.

I remember us lining the streets as schoolchildren, enthusiastically waving flags at the royal car as it drove past, and the huge anticipation of that fleeting glimpse. I remember seeing Her Majesty from a distance or on TV at those great state occasions over so many years. So many of us will have personal memories from across the 70 years of her reign.

Just recently I had the real pleasure of joining many of my constituents—young and not so young—to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee. We started the weekend with a jubilee breakfast in Kibblesworth, instructed in advance to wear red, white and blue. We lit the jubilee beacon in the rain at the Land of Oak & Iron heritage centre in Winlaton Mill. For lunch, we were waited on in the sunshine by our young carers group in Highfield, with flags and bunting. We took part in the jubilee picnic in Crawcrook in the sunshine. There were so many loyal toasts and celebrations to mark Her Majesty’s 70 incredible years and to thank her for her service.

Her Majesty was no stranger to the north-east, visiting us often, and she was always welcome. I also think of her personal connection with the Blaydon constituency through her mother—through the National Trust Gibside estate and the Bowes-Lyon family connection there.

I do not have wonderful, personal stories of Queen Elizabeth to share, but like so many of my constituents, I know the tremendous regard in which Her Majesty was held and the impact she had on the life of our communities. I know the high esteem and affection in which she was held by so many of us for her dedication and sense of duty, and for her willingness to join in and be part of our occasions, whether it was the James Bond helicopter flight at the Olympics or taking tea with Paddington for the platinum jubilee. Thank you, Your Majesty, for your steadfastness and work over 70 years. May you now rest in peace.