Speeches by Morello.

“Many West Dorset constituents have written to me with deep anxiety about the assessment for personal independence payments, and especially the use of remote assessments. One constituent, despite previously being awarded enhanced PIP, has endured months of repeated phone assessments, which have triggered severe panic at…”

“The closure of Prax Lindsey oil refinery is deeply troubling, with up to 1,000 jobs at risk across the supply chain. It is a devastating blow to workers, their families and the communities that rely on the refinery. We need a clear strategy to support those whose livelihood is in jeopardy. That means practical help wit…”

“The hon. Member is right to highlight the 25 million Sudanese people living in food insecurity. As she knows, Sudan is protected from the cuts to overseas development aid, but a further 600,000 Sudanese people live displaced in places such as Chad; those other countries in the region are not protected from the cuts to …”

“Many GPs say that their buildings are not fit for purpose and lack digital infrastructure. Without fully integrated electronic patient records and better systems, including the electronic prescription service across all hospitals and community trusts, we risk wasting time and money while increasing pressure on frontlin…”

“The right hon. Member raises a very important point: the Government may be cutting funding for farming, but they are very much pursuing climate change goals. Farming is facing periods of extreme weather—we have just had some of the driest and wettest months on record. One of the great successes of gene editing was dwar…”

“The headteacher of the Thomas Hardye school in West Dorset previously worked in a London school. He told me that in London he received nearly £10,000 per pupil, but in West Dorset nearly £5,000—yet the challenges of rural education are no less complex, not least in the recruitment of teachers. What steps is the Secreta…”

“Will the hon. Lady give way on that point?”

“I thank the hon. Lady for securing this important debate. She raised the problem of applying for blue badges online. When the condition is unnamed or unrecognised, that receives an automatic no. The brother of my brilliant parliamentary researcher is in full receipt of accessibility benefit. He represents England as a …”

“I am grateful for the Minister stressing the importance of support for children with SEND. At Dorset studio school in West Dorset, 52% of children have SEND—children who would struggle in mainstream education. Funding for improvements to its site was agreed in 2023, but has still not been released. Could the Minister s…”

“rose—”

“The hon. Member mentioned two points relating to staffing that are extremely important. Often, further education colleges, such as Kingston Maurward college in my constituency, also provide higher education qualifications, but pay for staff, especially specialist staff, tends to be higher in higher education institutio…”

“I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this important debate. She has mentioned financial burdens a couple of times. The average credit union has fewer than seven employees, and is run nearly entirely by volunteers. Smaller credit unions are under the same dual regulatory burden as larger ones, and have to report to …”

“I want to go back a little bit to the point you were making about the relevance of the UN, and how what the UN does reflects the geopolitics of the day but also tends to reflect the leadership of the UN, especially the Secretary-General. We are coming to the end of the present Secretary-General’s term; I think he has a…”

“Is that line of communication always via London, or does it exist directly between country teams and the team in New York as well?”

“On that broader conversation of where staff are, we had the Perm Sec and Foreign Secretary come and give evidence to the Committee fairly recently and both talked about decisions ahead on staffing as a result of the budget that the FCDO is looking at, going forward. They also both expressed a desire to have more people…”

“The Perm Sec was talking about the cuts to director level and below. Do you envisage a headcount reduction in New York as a result of these overall departmental staffing cuts?”

“We received some written evidence to this inquiry that raised concerns about whether or not there was a lack of coherence between the team in New York and FCDO country-level teams—with the suggestion that that can result in a lack of joined-up working on things such as conflict resolution and stabilisation. My first qu…”

“My hon. Friend will know—I have said this several times in this Chamber—that the overwhelming majority of businesses in West Dorset are microbusinesses, many of them in hospitality. Does he agree that EPR represents yet another attack on the hospitality sector, alongside increases in business rates and national insuran…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and colleague from Dorset for giving way. He has talked about the issues outside his constituency of Bournemouth East, and he does not have to look far to see some of the inequalities that are in play—only to West Dorset. He will know from our beautiful part of the countryside that delivering ser…”

“I agree 100%. I will come on to the campaign that the Liberal Democrats have been running to make water companies statutory consultees, and the importance of their involvement. In West Dorset, we need genuinely affordable social housing, affordable homes for key workers and smaller homes for older people who want to do…”