Speeches by Milne.

“My constituent Steve is currently being denied access to justice because he cannot afford to take action against a publicly funded body under Competition and Markets Authority legislation. His only other option is to proceed on a no win, no fee basis. Will the relevant Minister agree to meet me and Steve to discuss pos…”

“1. What steps his Department is taking to ensure adequate provision of legal aid.”

“As we discussed in the last panel, life expectancy is not improving as much as it was expected or projected to improve. In particular, there are some very sharp regional variations. What implications do you think that has for the state retirement age?”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention; I very much agree. We need to look at every measure to utilise water that is already there, in addition to reservoirs, which take up lots of space. When it comes to our groundwater bodies, 40% are already classed as over-extracted, and only 16% of England’s surface waters ar…”

“I thank the Minister for her response. I guess it is quite a challenge being a water Minister at a time when we seem to have endless droughts, but there we go—I will not blame her personally. This issue is a great big challenge for Government, because we are discussing changes that need to be made 20 or 30 years in adv…”

“Later today I will chair a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group for rural business and the rural powerhouse, which focuses on generating rural growth. If we could push rural productivity closer to western European averages, it would fix the Government’s budgetary black hole all by itself. Will the Minister agre…”

“11. What fiscal steps she is taking to help increase growth in rural areas.”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered water scarcity. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. In a country where we always complain about the rain, we have somehow contrived to have a water shortage. I am reminded of the words of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Water, water, everywhere …”

“The shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions recently stated that “millions are getting benefits for anxiety or ADHD along with a free Motability car.” That is clearly nonsense, because only 200,000 claimants—at most—would be eligible to apply in the first place, and many of them also have a physical disability,…”

“I shall speak to new clauses 8 and 13, which stand in my name, among others. With its title, the Pensions Schemes Bill, this piece of legislation was probably never destined to grab headlines—sorry, Minister, but that is the case—which is a pity, because it contains some genuinely intelligent measures, developed over y…”

“A lasting peace in Ukraine can only be achieved if we remove the incentives for war. However, President Trump’s initial peace plan—badly translated as it was from the Russian—included such measures as a dramatic cut in Ukrainian army manpower, the surrender of key fortress positions, a pledge never to join NATO, and an…”

“19. What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of US foreign policy on Ukraine.”

“Sam, perhaps if I go to you first because this partly follows on from what you were just saying. What are some practical challenges and implications of moving the skills brief to DWP? Given that it has moved quite a few times over the years—let us face it—can we learn anything from experience?”

“The Government have decided to defund level 7 apprenticeships for over 22s. I was in a conversation with the CEO of my local district council last week who was not impressed, shall we say, and thought it was going to severely impact their ability to offer places. What is your opinion? Emily, perhaps you would like to k…”

“The Government are looking to delay access to the health element in universal credit for under 22s. What kind of impact do you think that is going to have on NEET rates? In the light of the evidence you have already given about what is driving high rates, is it a fair way to go about things? Who wants to volunteer for …”

“Would you see that as perhaps a contradiction with the Government’s intentions to upskill the workforce?”

“Not as NEET. Turning to you, Sam, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has said his priority is to focus on NEETS and I guess that is the context of this change of lopping off the top years. How would you respond to it?”

“The bad news is the farmers are arriving outside.”

“I will speak to new clause 10(a) in my name. Devolution may be in the title of the Bill, but not everything in it lives up to that name. In many respects, the Bill actually takes power further away from the people back towards the centre. When I look at my constituency, which will be affected by both devolution and loc…”

“We are facing a national affordability crisis, but handing out planning permissions like confetti did not bring down prices under the last Government and there is zero reason to expect it will do any better this time. Does the Minister accept that relying on private developers to bring down prices can never work, becau…”