Oral Answers to Questions

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I have a feeling that will be one of the gentler questions that my hon. Friend asks me over the coming months. I am a passionate public service reformer and I believe there is huge potential for technology and AI to deliver better outcomes for the people who use services and better value for taxpayers’ money. I will definitely provide her with more detail on the questions that she asked, but let me give a fantastic example from my previous role. In our jobcentres in Wales, there were big queues for work coaches who were helping people do their CVs. They used AI, and it was better for the people who used the service and freed up the work coaches to spend time with the people who most needed help. That is a small example; we have to do more, and I will absolutely commit to setting out our further plans.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

4. What steps her Department is taking to hold technology companies accountable for the content on their platforms.

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

6. What steps her Department is taking to hold technology companies accountable for the content on their platforms.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Kanishka Narayan)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Through the Online Safety Act 2023, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users from illegal content and safeguard children from harmful content. Ofcom has strong powers to hold firms to account, including fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue. Ofcom has made it clear that it will act where platforms fall short, and has already launched 12 investigations into suspected non-compliance. I assure my hon. Friends that we will continue to review this area carefully and will not hesitate to go further.

[Mohammad Yasin]

I welcome the Minister to his position.

On World Suicide Prevention Day, I welcome the Government’s action requiring online platforms to proactively protect users from illegal and harmful content, but charities like the Molly Rose Foundation remain concerned about whether major platforms are fully complying with UK regulations, especially on risk assessments. What further steps is the Minister taking to ensure that Ofcom enforces the law and responds robustly to any breaches?

[Kanishka Narayan]

I thank my hon. Friend for an important and timely question. It is important because I have been in the room with Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, and I have seen the tireless resilience with which he and the Molly Rose Foundation have campaigned to protect children online. It is a timely question because, in memory of cases like Molly Russell’s, suicide prevention must remain front and centre in our minds. That is precisely why, in the first week of this new ministerial team, the Secretary of State announced that self-harm content is now a priority offence. Ofcom has requested risk assessments from over 60 services, including smaller but high-risk platforms, and I know it is actively enforcing compliance as well.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; a strategy on violence against women and girls that did not include the online elements that she highlights, as well as others, would not be worth its salt. I commit to continue to work with DSIT colleagues on those issues.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

4. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help improve the quality of maternity care for women.

[The Minister for Care (Stephen Kinnock)]

It is unacceptable that women are experiencing poor maternity care. An investigation has been launched to understand the underlying systemic issues and develop national recommendations so that women receive the care that they deserve. We are also taking immediate action to improve accountability and better identify safety concerns. That includes rolling out a programme to tackle discrimination and racism.

[Mohammad Yasin]

Sadly, Bedford hospital’s maternity services were downgraded to “inadequate” last year, and its gold standard home birth service has recently been reduced. Will the Minister ensure that the review examines why choices for birthing services are still being cut? Will he guarantee improved outcomes in maternity and perinatal care, so that all women can access safe, personalised, high-quality care?

[Stephen Kinnock]

My hon. Friend is a strong campaigner on this issue for his constituents. The Care Quality Commission has committed to monitoring maternity services at Bedford hospitals closely, including through further inspections, to ensure that people receive safe care while improvements are implemented. The investigation will seek to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies and families experience unacceptable care. The chair is working with families to finalise the terms of reference for the investigations and those will be published shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Wednesday 19th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Highgate) (Lab)]

6. What steps she is taking to help end discrimination against ethnic minority people.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

14. What steps she is taking to help end discrimination against ethnic minority people.

[The Minister for Equalities (Seema Malhotra)]

This Government are clear that someone’s race or ethnicity should never be a barrier to success. As set out in the King’s Speech last July, we are committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers; those measures will be part of the draft equality in race and disability Bill. Yesterday we published a consultation on those proposals, and announced that we have established a new race equality engagement group, which will partner with ethnic minority communities, stakeholders and delivery partners to help shape the Government’s work on race equality. I am delighted that Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon has agreed to chair that group.

--- Later in debate ---

[Seema Malhotra]

Fair and equal treatment at work is a right, not a privilege. Companies like Deloitte, which I visited recently, are reporting voluntarily on their ethnicity pay gaps, and I have attended roundtables chaired by organisations such as Change the Race Ratio and ShareAction, which promote the benefits of ethnicity pay gap reporting. There has been progress; last week, the Parker review showed that there is an increasing number of ethnic minority board members in our FTSE companies. I agree with my hon. Friend that pay gap reporting can help employers to identify and remove barriers to progression for their workforces, and unleash talent from all our communities, thereby supporting economic growth, and I thank her for her work on this.

[Mohammad Yasin]

I was pleased to see the Government’s announcement of the newly established race equality engagement group, chaired by Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a tireless campaigner against discrimination for many decades. What steps are the Government taking to recognise caste-based discrimination in law? Will that issue be the focus of the group’s work?

[Seema Malhotra]

My hon. Friend references the race equality engagement group, which we announced yesterday. The group will strengthen the Government’s links with ethnic minority communities, enabling effective two-way dialogue on the Government’s work to tackle race equalities, and engaging on all issues. We are considering our position on caste discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, and we will update the House in due course.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

We do have a proportional tax system, and we have raised tax on the wealthiest under this Government. The hon. Lady’s advice would count for a bit more if her party’s manifesto had not been a recipe for £80 billion of extra borrowing, which would have done exactly what Liz Truss did to the economy—that would not help any of the people she is claiming to support.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

Q6. I welcome the Government’s ambitious growth plans for the Oxford-Cambridge arc, which promise to reverse years of decline and transform the eastern region by driving prosperity, creating jobs and delivering much-needed housing. Does the Prime Minister agree that the crowning achievement of these plans would be the establishment of a world-class theme park in Bedford borough, which would transform our local economy, create thousands of jobs and opportunities, and elevate Bedford as a national hub for leisure and tourism?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to raise this important project, which we are working on. It is vital that we unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor—and, of course, Bedford—by generating growth, jobs and opportunities. We are doing that by speeding up the delivery of new infrastructure projects, slashing red tape and getting Britain building.

Anniversary of 7 October Attacks: Middle East

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

No, there has been no stepping back of support for Israel. We have been absolutely robust in that support. I have expressed it many times in different places, including to the Prime Minister of Israel. We will continue to support Israel and we will continue to support Israel’s right to defend herself. The House is at its best when it speaks with once voice.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

It has been a year of profound suffering, darkness and trauma. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been killed and displaced, yet the world has learned nothing. The prospect of a two-state solution is a distant dream and the odds on all-out war in the middle east are growing by the day. The unimaginable devastation has to stop; the only hope is a diplomatic solution. Will the Prime Minister assure me that the Government are doing everything in their power to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire across the region?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, and we are not doing it alone. We are working with our allies in relation to it— last week, I spoke to G7 allies about it, and we speak constantly to the US about it—because we need to de-escalate across the region. We have seen escalation in recent days and weeks, and all sides need to pull back from the brink.