Speeches by Kirkham.

“It is really good to see the Government prioritising people in distress in rural and coastal areas. My question is slightly separate. It is about listed buildings and conservation area properties, and how those people struggle to insulate their homes because of planning rules. Does the Department have any plans to do s…”

“Soul Farm, which delivers organic and sustainable food, is an example of a co-operative business in my constituency that benefits its community. I also have the “Save the Stag” campaign in Ponsanooth, which is trying to take over and run the local pub, as has already been done at the Ship Inn at Portloe. Setting up or …”

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

“I understand the hon. Member’s point, and I know that his constituency was the worst affected, with people losing their water as well as their power. I agree that we must learn the lessons from Goretti. Utility teams worked around the clock with local authorities, engineers and emergency responders to restore essential…”

“The hon. Member feels my pain. Yes, of course we need a strategic plan for our rail in the south-west. That is fundamental, and I will come on to it later.”

“As my hon. Friend’s constituency is next to mine, he will know that we have exactly the same problems in Truro and Falmouth, and I will move on to that next. I have had wash-up meetings across my constituency since the storm, and we have been talking to Ministers. I welcome the suggestion that Cornwall could serve as a…”

“Yes, a great deal of work will have to be done in future, because this will not get better; it will get worse. Businesses that rely on electricity and broadband are paralysed by outages during extreme weather events, and hospitals risk losing power or water. Heavy rainfall has even led to overflowing septic tanks and s…”

“That is why a satellite link across villages might be something to consider. On broadband, Openreach and service providers do not have a good system of fault notification. During Goretti, they were unaware of faults, and the notification of faults solely through third-party providers did not work well, as residents str…”

“That sounds like an interesting proposal. Our local resilience centre was in Exeter, and I think that is why the category 1 responders did not declare a major incident; Exeter is a long way away from us, so I understand the hon. Gentleman’s idea of having a flood control centre. When Goretti hit, the Cabinet Office act…”

“Yes, I agree. One of the most profound lessons that we must learn from Storm Goretti is to increase communications infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. Many of our constituents were left without power or broadband in areas that have weak or no mobile phone signal, so they struggled to get help. Although we are …”

“Of course, the EA has struggled with funding for the past 10 years, after it had been cut so badly.”

“And that is the difference.”

“Do you have any thoughts on the decision not to take forward the Lyons review recommendation to make serious offences fall solely under civilian jurisdiction?”

“That is actually different from what would happen in a civil court—we are debating those today in the main Chamber—in which a victim would not have any say at all over where or how the case was heard. But they would under this system. That is quite interesting.”

“In your written evidence you quote statistics that the conviction rate in 2024 for rape-flagged offences in service courts was 29%, compared with 23.1% in civilian courts. That is quite interesting because it is a bit higher than in the civilian courts, but obviously still low.”

“That is exactly what we need more of. In an emergency, we need a camping stove, water, a battery-powered radio—BBC Radio Cornwall was fantastic during Storm Goretti—torches, spare batteries, power banks and so on. Storm Goretti highlighted to all of us how essential it is to improve our resilience in the face of extrem…”

“Do you think there is anything in the Bill that will help with that low conviction rate?”

“I do. Second homes are a whole other debate. Every parish should be able to identify a community hub that residents can go to in an emergency. It should have a generator, battery packs, blankets, food, and a pre-registered list of volunteers. I know that parishes in Cornwall are considering that, but it could be encour…”

“Can you talk us through why that is? We all know lots of reasons why, but why is the conviction rate so low for these offences, and why do you think there is a discrepancy between civilian and service courts?”

“Really quickly.”