Speeches by Kirkham.

“It is that big change.”

“I have about two minutes. I was going to ask about resilience standards, a potential resilience framework and what that would look like in the context of the communities as well as the assets that are in the ground. Just picking my constituency, we have had repeated water outages. We have an issue at the moment with th…”

“That was my next question.”

“Some water companies do not even know where they are.”

“As a Committee, we suggested that bill revenue should be enough to cover day-to-day maintenance with the capital expenditure being left to the equity and the debt. Is that something you would agree with? There is a lot that needs to be done. There is a lot of maintenance and repair that needs to be caught up on.”

“I was not expecting to be called first, but thank you very much, Dr Huq. Each year, Cornwall, which has a population of 650,000, welcomes around 4 million visitors, drawn by our beautiful beaches and coastline. Tourism is a key part of our economy and provides a livelihood for many, but the downside is the pressure on …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) for securing this debate, which is really important, particularly to the people of Cornwall. Cornwall’s unique geography gives us an advantage in a range of industries, and space is no exception, thanks to o…”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the Leader of the House grant a debate in Government time on a more robust range of censure and sanction options for serious breaches of the local government members’ code of conduct, including suspension and removal of councillors? I know of recent incidents in which, despite egregious behav…”

“Falmouth is a town of young people which juts out into the Atlantic on a finger-like peninsula, so it is vital that people there learn how to swim, yet statistics from a primary school in Falmouth show that the percentage of young children who are unable to swim 25 metres has shot up dramatically, from less than 10% to…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I welcome the transport investment, which is needed in those city regions and spreads the wealth out. Cornwall also has ambitious transport plans, but does not have a large city region for 175 miles. It is very difficult to get public transport to our airport or a direct bus to our one …”

“On the question of barriers to opportunity, the potential for growth in some areas is high, but access to funding and education—particularly further education—can be difficult, as it is in Cornwall. Does my hon. Friend agree that, as a result, the people who live in an area cannot always take advantage of that growth p…”

“Does the Secretary of State agree that it comes to something when the Opposition seem to be suggesting that Thames Water should maybe not be sanctioned, because that may put its preferred bidder at risk, when it had rejected others? Jon Cunliffe suggested stronger regulation, not weaker. Is it not clear that the direct…”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for a report on the potential merits of appointing a commissioner to consider, investigate and make recommendations to address welfare issues faced by personnel serving in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and their families. This year marks the 120th anni…”

“Last year, Dr Mohammed Mohsen was offered a position in the acute medicine department at Royal Cornwall hospital in my constituency. He was due to start that role last year, but due to the ongoing conflict and travel restrictions in Gaza, he has been unable to travel to the UK. Would the Minister meet me to consider hi…”

“It is more about it being let off penalties as well, to make itself more saleable.”

“Helena may have covered this when I was out, but we were struck by the fact that only one preferred bidder, KKR, has been accepted by Thames Water, and that it seems to have been trying to negotiate with Ofwat to reduce some of the penalties that it may face for some of the breaches of the rules. Is this acceptable?”

“My question was just very quickly on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Natural England is going to have responsibility for writing and delivering environmental delivery plans. I was going to ask about the resource within Natural England to be able to cope with that. Can it cope with that? Where will the extra resou…”

“We looked at this and trust has been damaged with the farmers because of this very swift closure. How will the Department rebuild that trust going forward?”

“This is just a quick point about the fishing and coastal growth fund. That works out, I think, as £30 million a year over the 12 years, which is great. In Cornwall, for example, our shell fishers all down the Fal and across Cornwall have gone bust, basically. They have gone out of business because of this. Will this fu…”

“I was going to start with the SFI scheme. When the current scheme was closed, there was an error. It was a computer error, it seems. A message was sent to people when they saved their draft to say that they would have six weeks before the scheme was shut and they would be warned, and they were not. That scheme has now …”