Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the shadow Minister.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) and I have asked numerous written questions about the shocking 461% increase in the number of personal independence payment claims disallowed for the non-return of the AR1 review form between 2017 and 2021. The Minister, sadly, has no idea why the increase has happened, or by extension whether vulnerable people are being left struggling to manage, as the Department does not collect information on the reasons for the non-return of the AR1 form. So I ask the Minister again today: when will he take action to investigate this issue?

[Tom Pursglove]

There may be many and varied reasons why individuals choose not to return the forms. [Interruption.] If the hon. Lady will allow me to answer the question, that would really benefit the House. The bottom line here is that there may be many and varied reasons why people do not return the forms, including their circumstances changing materially, but I am very happy to take the point away and look at it further.

Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Friday 3rd March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

It is a genuine pleasure to respond to this debate from the Opposition Front Bench. I thank and congratulate the hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Sally-Ann Hart) on bringing this important Bill to the House and on all her hard work in this area. We fully support the Bill and see it as a welcome step in the right direction. Like colleagues before me, I pay tribute to the many organisations who work tirelessly to support victims of domestic abuse and who have campaigned on this issue, particularly Refuge, Gingerbread and Surviving Economic Abuse.

As we have heard, the Bill—which I know is fully supported by the Government—will make important changes to legislation to allow the Child Maintenance Service to collect and make payments on behalf of victims of domestic abuse without the consent of the ex-partner. This will, I am absolutely sure, come as a huge relief to many.

However, the Opposition remain concerned that there is still outstanding work to be done. On Second Reading and in Committee, Opposition colleagues including my hon. Friends the Members for Reading East (Matt Rodda) and for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips) pressed the Department on the 4% charge payable by the receiving parent where collect and pay is used, and the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Anthony Browne) has also raised that issue. In Committee, the Minister confirmed that the Government are

“willing to consider…where exemptions may be appropriate”.––[Official Report, Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Public Bill Committee, 14 December 2022; c. 9.]

That is encouraging, but I again stress our view that victims of domestic abuse should be exempt from paying the 4% fee. I am aware that they are exempt from paying the £20 application fee, which is absolutely right, but they are then effectively penalised every month simply for using a service that stops them having to have contact with their abusive ex-partner. I hope we can all agree that that is grossly unfair.

Colleagues have mentioned the evidence requirements, which will be set out in secondary legislation. In Committee, the hon. Member for Hastings and Rye stated:

“The aim is to produce evidence requirements that are sensitive to the needs of domestic abuse victims and that have been carefully evaluated and tested.”

She went on to state that she had received assurances that the Department will work with colleagues in the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and others

“to ensure that the definition of domestic abuse is consistent…across Government.”––[Official Report, Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Public Bill Committee, 14 December 2022; c. 4.]

I take this opportunity to stress, as we have at all stages of the Bill, that it is vital for Ministers to get the evidence requirement right, as the effectiveness of the Bill hinges on it.

More widely, I call on the Government to ensure that victims of domestic abuse feel as safe as possible when using the CMS. Organisations such as Gingerbread and Surviving Economic Abuse have called for statutory guidance to set out the training CMS staff receive on domestic abuse, and in Committee my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley pushed the training point. The Minister responded with robust promises that CMS processes and procedures have been strengthened substantially and that caseworkers are equipped with a toolkit to support customers experiencing abuse. I am sure we have all dealt with domestic abuse cases in the course of our constituency casework and seen at first hand how difficult it can be for victims to leave. The Government must do all they can to equip them with the tools they need to move forward with their lives, including on the vital issue of financial stability.

I will finish on a quick point about enforcement. Currently, very little appears to be done in cases where the paying parent does not meet their obligations. In cases of domestic abuse, that may leave already vulnerable victims and their families destitute. Although that falls slightly outside the direct scope of the Bill, I would be grateful for reassurances from the Minister in this area.

Despite those continuing concerns, I very much welcome the Bill and congratulate the hon. Member for Hastings and Rye wholeheartedly on getting it through to this stage. I hope the Government will continue to build on this legislation and, more widely, the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, to deliver a strong, co-ordinated cross-Government approach to domestic abuse.

--- Later in debate ---

[Vicky Foxcroft]

I thank the Minister for her commitment to look into the issue and that it will be done in future. Can I press her further to give us some idea of when that might be?

[Mims Davies]

The hon. Lady should expect it to be early 2024, but I am keen to get on with it. I hope that is a timetable that we can stick to, but we will do our best to bring it about sooner.

On the Northern Ireland amendments, I reiterate that it is important for the measure to cover the whole United Kingdom. I thank all hon. Members and assure them that the Child Maintenance Service is fit for purpose and fully committed to supporting all parents to ensure that they have safe and agreeable arrangements that work for them. I pay huge credit to my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye for bringing the Bill forward and navigating its safe passage. I am pleased to reiterate the Government’s support for the Bill. We will continue to support and guide it as it moves through Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 5th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

Many disabled people are having to make unimaginable sacrifices to keep life-saving equipment running in the face of huge energy bills. For instance, Carolynne Hunter’s 12-year-old daughter Freya requires oxygen for chronic breathing problems, and the bills that she had to pay to keep her daughter alive rose to £17,000. Thankfully, Kate Winslet stepped in and donated the full amount after being “absolutely destroyed” by the family’s story, but disabled people should not have to rely on celebrities to swoop in and save the day. When will the Government finally ensure that all disabled people are receiving the support they so desperately need?

[Tom Pursglove]

I thank the shadow Minister for raising the issue of Carolynne’s situation. I am, of course, under no illusions about how challenging many people are finding the current circumstances and climate. We are providing the package of support that I have already described—which is the right thing to do—in addition to the discretionary help that is there to address particularly pressing needs in individual cases. As the hon. Lady will know, the Chancellor announced in the autumn statement that as part of ongoing future work we would be considering, for instance, social tariffs, and I also want to look into what more we can do in the longer term to help families deal with continuing significant costs.

Draft Biocidal Products (Health and Safety) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2022 General Committees

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Mr Robertson. I thank the Minister for presenting the statutory instrument. We do not consider it controversial, but I have a few questions for her.

This is one of the many statutory instruments being introduced by the Government as part of the return of powers from the European Union. This particular instrument aims to

“extend the legal deadlines in place for processing biocidal product authorisation applications by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) acting as competent authority.”

Importantly, the regulations will ensure that there is sufficient time to process applications and that biocidal products can remain legally on the market in Great Britain, as intended by the legislative framework. They will ultimately ensure business as usual—something the Labour party will always back. I do, however, have questions for the Minister.

What would the Minister say to businesses and the general public about the need for this SI? As I, the Minister and many Members here will know, following EU exit we no longer have access to the vital databases storing historical EU reports. These reports contain information concerning the evaluations that EU member states carried out to inform decisions on the approval of biocidal active substances and the authorisation of biocidal products. Although some of that information has been published, some aspects are confidential and not published at all. Many will worry that the consequences of EU exit have simply not been planned properly. How could the Government not prepare for this or see it coming? The scale of potential disruption caused by our exit from the EU sits firmly with successive Tory Governments.

I hope the Minister can also provide clarification on the extra workload. The Minister will know that the transitional arrangements requiring the resubmission of applications to the HSE have resulted in a one-off influx of simultaneous applications around transitional deadlines, and this has caused a temporary backlog of applications. One of the main reasons for this SI, as the Minister outlined, is that the HSE will not be able to meet the legal deadlines for processing authorisations set out in GB BPR. Why is the Minister asking the HSE to do more with less? In 2010, Government funding to the HSE stood at £231 million; 12 years later, it stands at £178 million. That is a cut of £53 million. It is simply baffling to ask the HSE to take on more following the EU exit. Will the Minister clarify what extra support is being put in place to support the increased workload?

I hope the Minister will remember that this SI covers material that must be handled with care. The HSE deserves the proper support to manage the increased workload. Not doing so would leave the public at risk, and that is something I am sure we can agree no one wants. I appreciate the Minister laying this SI before Parliament. As I said, it is one that we will support, but it would be helpful if the Minister could answer a few of those questions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 31st October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

Too many disabled people have been disproportionately hit by the cost of living crisis, with extra costs of over £600 a year. Sadly, we have seen too many unable to cope with this. The Information Commissioner ruled that the DWP unlawfully prevented the release of over 20 reports into the deaths of benefit claimants. We must be able to scrutinise whether the actions taken by the DWP were sufficient or timely enough to prevent the harms identified from happening again. So will the new Secretary of State agree to publish these and all other secret reports—and a yes or no would actually suffice?

[Mims Davies]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question, and I understand the Opposition have an interest in such reports. However, my role at the DWP is about people—helping people up and down the land—and that is what we are doing for people with disabilities. With the extra costs part of the disability payment, about 6 million will be helped by the extra one-off payment of £150, ensuring that we all across the DWP are focused on the most vulnerable.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister, Vicky Foxcroft.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

The Government-commissioned National Centre for Social Research report confirms that many disabled people live in poverty. Ministers claim that work is a route out of poverty, yet the disability employment gap remains stubbornly at 28%. We have a bureaucratic Access to Work scheme, with an ineffective spending cap, which, ironically, is not available in all accessible formats. A mere £128 million is spent on it, compared with £64 billion on disability benefits. What does the Minister say to those disabled people who want to work, but who are faced with a system that, frankly, is not fit for purpose?

[Chloe Smith]

I think the hon. Member is wrong to say that the disability employment gap is static at 28%. It is moving in the right direction, which is important to acknowledge. While we have made progress, we need to be able to make more. It is important to recognise what has gone on, in that we have more disabled people in work and the disability employment gap is reducing. We need Access to Work to be a strong part of the solution. There is a great deal of work going on to transform Access to Work to make it even more effective in helping disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work. Those will all be continued priorities of this Government and this Department.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 6th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the shadow Minister, Vicky Foxcroft.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

Thousands of disabled people are due to lose £150 because the Government are removing their eligibility for the warm home discount. The Chancellor has announced that they will receive an additional £150 in his cost of living emergency package, but robbing Peter to pay Paul merely puts disabled people back where they started. How does the Minister think this does anything to address their cost of living crisis?

[Chloe Smith]

The shadow Minister needs to look at this in the round, because we have a set of cost of living payments designed to support the households with the lowest incomes. That is the right approach, as I have cited from the Resolution Foundation, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation also says that this is a very welcome way of doing it because it targets support to where it is most needed. In addition, we are recognising how disabled people do have further costs, and that is why we are also putting in place the £150 that is targeted on those with the means-tested lowest incomes.

[Vicky Foxcroft]

I am really not sure that the Minister heard my question; maybe she has been rather distracted. Some disabled people will not be better off. The Government’s disability strategy was declared unlawful by the High Court, and NatCen Social Research’s report on health and disability benefits clearly showed the poverty that many disabled people are living in. Does the Minister not think it is time to finally start listening to disabled people and addressing their cost of living crisis?

[Chloe Smith]

We are. It is unfortunate that the hon. Lady cannot engage with the wider point that I am making around the nature of means-tested benefits—for example, the many on unemployment and support allowance or universal credit who are also disabled and who will benefit from the approach we are taking.

Carer’s Allowance

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Westminster Hall

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Bardell.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) on securing this extremely important debate. Sadly, carers—especially unpaid carers—seem to have been long forgotten by this Government, so I genuinely commend him for raising their plight, particularly around carer’s allowance. I hope that Ministers will respond positively to the many important points that my hon. Friend made, in particular about his constituents the Spamers and the positive impact of the increase in the national minimum wage. Unfortunately, there has been a negative impact on carer’s allowance, which we had all hoped was an oversight. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case, but this situation can be rectified if Ministers decide to do so.

As many hon. Members have said today, carers make a vital contribution to society. They do fantastic work, but we really do not thank them enough. According to Carers UK, 6.5 million people are carers—a figure that rose to 13.6 million during covid. Those people supported a loved one who is older, disabled or seriously ill. That is one in eight adults who are unpaid carers for family and friends. Every day 6,000 people become carers, and many do not know how or where to get help, which can be frightening and lonely.

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) for setting up a carers group and for listening to unpaid carers, who are the experts on the subject; that is so important. As he rightly said, carers do not ask for anything, apart from to be able to get by. As my hon. Friend the Member for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey) highlighted, unpaid carers are the backbone of our society.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi) for sharing her personal experience of how tough it is for carers, even if their financial situation is okay, and for saying how much tougher it is when their financial situation is not okay.

We all know heartbreaking stories from our constituencies. In my constituency of Lewisham, Deptford, I have an ongoing case of a single mother who is a full-time carer for her six-year-old disabled son, who uses a wheelchair. She supports him while suffering from depression herself. She is on universal credit and has been sanctioned for missing an appointment because she was caring for her disabled child. Instead of offering compassion and support, this hostile Government decided that it was more appropriate to reduce her benefits. Having heard stories such as this time and again, we must all ask ourselves: are we doing enough to support carers? I am sorry to say that I do not think we are, especially this Government.

All Labour Members who spoke today said that carer’s allowance simply is not enough. The Government’s primary support is a measly £67.60 a week through the carer’s allowance, and that is only if someone provides care for at least 35 hours a week. Carers organisations have long argued that the amount of carer’s allowance payable to carers is insufficient to meet its stated purpose of providing a replacement income for those who give up work to look after another person.

That does not even begin to unpack the injustice of not properly supporting unpaid carers—people who save the state an incredibly huge amount of money, but receive nothing back. As the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) and others pointed out, charging them for lateral flow tests to keep their loved ones safe is outrageous. Will the Minister look into scrapping that?

As my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Beth Winter) said, carers should not have to fight for recognition and then beg for money. She highlighted some excellent work that is taking place in Wales but, as she said, there is always more that we can and should be doing.

All Members cited the excellent work of Carers UK. Carers UK and 78 other charities, including Z2K, Carers Trust, Age UK and many disabled people’s organisations, wrote an open letter to the Chancellor ahead of the spring statement last week. The letter references recent research by Carers UK that paints a bleak picture of the coming months as the cost of living crisis deepens. Among other things, the research found that 42% of respondents feared that they will not be able to heat their home to a safe level, and 32% were worried that they will have to use a food bank.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) put it so eloquently, carers are paying many extra costs, including for electrical ventilators, transport and extra heating. As my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mick Whitley) said, the Government had the chance to address that in the spring statement, but they did nothing.

Last week, during questions to the Department for Work and Pensions, I raised the issue, pleading with DWP Ministers to lobby the Chancellor for proper support for disabled people. Disabled people, including those who are carers and who have carers, have to make impossible choices between heating their homes and affording to power life-saving medical equipment in order to survive. This is a worrying time for many hundreds of thousands of carers up and down the country.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East for bringing this forgotten-about group back before Ministers. I commend paid and unpaid carers for their selfless work, helping people up and down this country. The Government must act and support carers with a more generous support package—a measly £67.60 a week for carers will not cut it. If the Minister will not listen to me, she should listen to the many paid and unpaid carers, disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, charities and other civil society organisations pleading with this Government to act with compassion and to support carers properly.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chloe Smith)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair today, Ms Bardell.

I thank the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) for securing this important debate and for forgoing the chance to speak in the main Chamber, as he had competing interests. On behalf of his constituents, he has given us an important opportunity to discuss carer’s allowance and the vital role that unpaid carers play. I will leave him some minutes to speak again at the end of the debate.

We have heard a number of thoughtful contributions, including the deep personal experience of the hon. Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi); I thank her for sharing that. I thank the hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Beth Winter) for mentioning our former colleague, Hywel Francis, and I am grateful to the two Front Benchers, the hon. Members for Glasgow East (David Linden) and for Lewisham, Deptford (Vicky Foxcroft), for their contributions.

Let me begin by taking up the point made by the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford about a carer who was apparently sanctioned for non-attendance while caring. That sounds like a misunderstanding of some kind. A sanction should not be applied where there is good cause for non-attendance and the Department is notified, so I am happy to take up that case after the debate, unless the hon. Lady can clarify the position now.

[Vicky Foxcroft]

I appreciate the Minister taking up that case afterwards and thank her for doing so, but this happens all the time. I am sure that many other Members present will know of such cases, so I do not think it is an isolated incident.

[Chloe Smith]

I will turn to the other detailed points raised in the debate shortly, but like other hon. Members who have spoken, I also want to pay tribute to the millions of unpaid carers in this country. The Government certainly recognise and value the vital contributions made by carers every single day in providing care and continuity of support to family and friends, including pensioners and those with disabilities. More than six out of 10 of us may become a carer at some point during our lives and as many as 13 million people may be doing some unpaid care. That has never been more important than during the covid-19 pandemic, when unpaid carers played a vital role in supporting the most vulnerable in our society. I will come to some of the points made in respect of that in a moment.

Like other hon. Members, I see so much of the work that carers do through my own constituency post bag, such as the experiences that a Mr W recently shared with me, as well as through disabled people’s networks. Carers are fortunate enough to have some wonderful advocates, including their MPs and organisations such as Carers UK, which has been mentioned a number of times today. When I met Carers UK earlier this month, I was able to talk about some of the help that the Government provide to unpaid carers.

We recognise that people, including carers, are facing pressures with the cost of living, including higher fuel bills. That is why we are providing support with the cost of living worth £22 billion across this financial year and next. We have also promised to legislate so that employees will be entitled to five days of unpaid care leave per year, and, as hon. Members will know, we are reforming health and adult social care. I am working closely with the Minister for Care and Mental Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Gillian Keegan), on that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

Monday 21st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

Disability benefits are being cut in real terms. Charities such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Scope, Leonard Cheshire and the MS Society have been pressing the Government to do more to ensure that disabled people are not pressured into using food banks, not washing their clothes or leaving the heating off in order to prioritise keeping life-saving medical equipment running. Let me just repeat that, Mr Speaker: in order to prioritise keeping life-saving medical equipment running. What extra support are Ministers pushing the Chancellor to deliver in Wednesday’s spring statement to help disabled people to survive this cost of living crisis?

British Sign Language Bill

Vicky Foxcroft Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 18th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) on all her work in this area. We heard her speak so eloquently today, on Second Reading and in the Bill Committee about her deeply personal connection with British Sign Language. As I said in Committee, she should be proud of the Bill and the progress that has been made in this area, which will support many young people who shoulder responsibilities well beyond their years.

I also place on record my thanks to the BSL Act Now! campaign and the many disabled people, disabled people’s organisations and charities involved for their tireless work and commitment to this campaign. We all know that getting a private Member’s Bill through Parliament, let alone after being No. 20 on the list, takes resourcefulness, dedication, passion and perhaps some table-thumping sometimes. We can all agree that those qualities have all been shown by my hon. Friend and all those involved. She said that she will not get an Oscar soon, but many people would say that she deserves one.

As we all know, British Sign Language is a primary form of communication for approximately 90,000 UK residents, with around 150,000 users in total. Its vocabulary and syntax do not replicate spoken English and many deaf citizens have a much lower reading age than the general population. Sadly, too many deaf people in the UK continue to face barriers to communication, which affect employment, education and access to healthcare. The Bill will begin to tackle some of those significant issues.

If the Bill becomes law, it will achieve legal status for British Sign Language as a primary language of the deaf community in the United Kingdom. Achieving legal recognition of BSL through an Act of Parliament would be a huge step forward in improving deaf people’s quality of life, their inclusion and autonomy in British society, educational and professional opportunities and even their health outcomes.

I strongly welcome the fact that the Bill also contains provisions for Government Departments and certain public service providers to publish and adhere to guidance, setting out the steps that need to be taken to meet the needs of BSL users. I believe this guidance will include the delivery of many public services and help BSL users overcome the current limitations of the Equality Act that sadly mean that many providers do not know how to make “reasonable adjustments” for them, as so eloquently put by my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire.

As I said, while I welcome the positive strides that this Bill makes, I know many of my colleagues will, like me, see it as something to build on. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire said, it is not a silver bullet for everything, so I want to retouch on a few crucial areas that I hope we can explore further in the future. I would appreciate it if the Minister outlined whether she agrees with them.

The first issue is around data. As it stands, the Government do not capture sufficient data to give us a clear picture of the deaf community. Current statistics capture people based on terms such as “difficulty in hearing” and “hearing impairment”. The use of the word “impairment” is itself unhelpful and outdated and may impact negatively on how BSL users respond. In short, the Government need to know how many deaf people use BSL. This is concerning as the Government use this data as their evidence base for making decisions about how to support BSL users—a group of people who we all know face some of the biggest barriers in society, whether in employment, education, health, wellbeing or other areas.

Secondly, I wish to focus on the non-statutory board of British Sign Language users and associated persons that will advise the Secretary of State. While I warmly welcome the commitment to consult deaf people, why is the body advising on such an important issue a non-statutory board? Does that mean Ministers do not have to listen to or act upon its recommendations? Ministers also need to be clear about how the body will be recruited. It is my sincere hope that it should be made up largely of disabled people and disabled people’s organisations. I cannot stress enough that the experts by experience must have a clear line to the Secretary of State. It is also vital that that body is fully transparent and that it communicates clearly with the deaf community. Will the minutes and recommendations of the body be made public?

Finally, I hope to see improvements in strengthening the interaction a future BSL Act will have with other legislation and Government strategies. Hon. Members will know the Government’s national disability strategy was recently found to be unlawful by the High Court, as the consultation process failed to engage correctly. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire said, we had no BSL interpretation at important press conferences, as I raised with the Prime Minister on several occasions. Sadly, at times the Government have a poor record when it comes to doing the right thing by disabled people, so it would be remiss of us not to consider strengthening Bills with adequate checks and balances.

As I have said before, when I read the draft Bill I noted with concern that clause 1(2) states:

“Subsection (1) does not affect the operation of any enactment or rule of law.”

Trust in this Government is low among disabled people and provisions such as this will not fill the deaf community with hope. Future improvements must strengthen the Act and give it more power.

In conclusion, I once again congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire and the BSL Act Now! campaign on the progression of the Bill. It is a good start, but I hope the Minister will agree that we can and should go further in the future.