Speeches by Robertson.

“My local economy on the Isle of Wight is entirely reliant on ferry services for the movement of people, the delivery of products and, in the case of tourism, for customers. Will the Minister acknowledge just how important unregulated ferry services are for the entire economic wellbeing of the Isle of Wight?”

“Thank you.”

“Good morning. I have some questions on workforce. Currently, autism and ADHD assessments are delivered by a specialist workforce. What potential do you think there is to make use of a non-specialist workforce?”

“My hon. Friend talks about probation and prison places. Does he share my concern that it is all very well for the Government to announce £7 billion to deliver prison places by 2031, which is six years away, while 16,000 prisoners are walking the streets because they were released earlier by this Government? What will h…”

“My right hon. Friend talks about the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill, which is now in Committee. Does she share my concern that the franchising arrangements that that Bill offers have little attraction for small local authorities such as mine on the Isle of Wight, because if it were minded to go down the route of franchising…”

“The hon. Member talks about £100 million being available for mayoral combined authorities, but is she confident that that is genuinely new money, rather than money reallocated from other pots for mayors to distribute?”

“It sounds as if the hon. Member is placing his faith in his new Reform county council. Is that really the case?”

“The hon. Member referred to the early release scheme as temporary. Is she 100% confident that it is a temporary scheme, and that the Government will not release more prisoners over the next few years?”

“The hon. Member is making her points very well, and I congratulate her on her success in bringing this debate to the Chamber. I agree with what she has said about fair pay for social care workers—I support that as well—but does she agree that a fair pay agreement will put undue pressure on providers unless there is som…”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Roger. I rise to endorse the comments made by the shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham, and to draw further attention to an issue with new clause 22: placing duties on local authorities without money coming in. Central Government are …”

“All the comments I was going to make have already been made by the shadow Minister. He was so complete and comprehensive that he leaves no space for any additional comment. However, I will briefly give my slant on some of the points. When I rose at the beginning of this sitting, it was to talk about the costs that woul…”

“I am a serving Isle of Wight councillor.”

“I was not suggesting that it is an obligation. Plainly, franchising is an option. My point is that it is an option that is unattractive to smaller local authorities, which cannot benefit from the economies of scale of franchising bus services. It is much more attractive for city areas. Of course I want rural bus servic…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the problem with the Government’s housing policy is that they are failing to identify the right places to build the right homes? Until they do that, they will not deliver these eyewatering numbers, especially if they are relying on greenfield rural sites.”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“Earlier this week, I was unsuccessful in trying to amend the Government’s proposed new spiking law to ensure that reckless spiking is an offence. Will the Solicitor General meet me to discuss the challenges of prosecuting violent crime towards women and girls if the Government are unpersuaded to ensure that reckless sp…”

“Government have made a decision to do what we would probably call devolving down, pulling powers from planning guidance in NHS England down to ICBs. Regardless of whether people have a view on whether it is a good thing that is being done, how do we ensure that does not lead to uneven care on the ground, postcode lotte…”

“I will come on to that as a separate question. Just sticking with funding, how will you monitor how ICBs are spending money now that the ringfence has been removed? There will always be a concern—it is a natural concern—that, if you remove a ringfence, it makes that money more vulnerable to other priorities and makes i…”

“My questions are on funding and planning guidance. The Government have reduced the amount of ringfenced funding, though not necessarily the overall funding, for national service development funding for maternity services. That has been transferred to the core ICB budget. This has been justified as providing greater fle…”

“That has been very clear. Thank you.”