Speeches by MacAlister.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for securing a debate on this important subject, and for her powerful and heartfelt speech. We are here today because of Maya Chappell, a two-year-old girl whose life was cruelly taken far…”

“Of course I will. All of us in this room agree that keeping children safe is a top priority. To quote my hon. Friend, the lives of the children we have been talking about were still important, still cherished and still worth protecting. To do that effectively, we need to share data, provide intensive help to families w…”

“People across Cumbria will warmly welcome the decision made by the Secretary of State about the dualling of the Pennine section of the A66, which will benefit the whole county. However, I wonder whether she might also say something about another scheme that is not yet at the same level of development, which is the Cumb…”

“The energy coast rail line in Cumbria is in desperate need of upgrading. It has Victorian-era signalling, and parts of the track suffer from coastal erosion. Upgrading the line would be of huge benefit to passengers, improving the reliability and speed of journeys, and to critical freight for the nuclear decommissionin…”

“4. What steps she is taking to help improve passenger rail performance in Cumbria.”

“T5. When the under-25 universal credit rate was first introduced, the justification for it was that young people were more likely to be living at home, but there is a group—care-experienced young people—for whom that is often not the case. A transformational decision by this Government would be to build on and go furth…”

“Today’s announcement of the expansion of the warm home discount is extremely welcome and will benefit many people across west Cumbria. One of the first meetings I had with Ministers after the election was with my hon. Friend. Could she set out more detail about how the really welcome warm homes plan will build on this …”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker, and happy birthday; you were born only a few months after the opening of Calder Hall, the world’s first civil nuclear power plant, so you share that. The Secretary of State has made the major decision, which is incredibly welcome in west Cumbria, to unlock up to 200 acres of land at Moorside for …”

“I am working with local business and political leaders across Cumbria to make the case for much-needed investment in upgrading the Cumbria coast, or energy coast, rail line. This line is essential for two national endeavours: the Barrow shipyard and the nuclear decommissioning work at Sellafield. We need to improve bot…”

“It is humbling to contribute to a debate with contributions like that from the hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom). I pay tribute to him for sharing Declan’s story in this place, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for her very personal contribution. I warmly welcome the f…”

“I thank my constituency neighbour for suggesting the types of solutions that we should look at. Some areas of the country have much higher rates of suicide than others, and we know far too little about why those areas have those trends. Around half of children in care are expected to have some sort of mental health dis…”

“Absolutely. We need to support young carers and young people in care. One of the common challenges facing both of those populations is that services sometimes fail to look at what support can be provided to the whole family unit, so I take my hon. Friend’s point. Finally, I will say a few words about a sensitive issue …”

“Yes, in a number of schools we have seen a growing number of ADHD and mild autism diagnoses that do not come with any form of treatment. That is in a system where there is an expectation that education, health and care plans will be filled and met by multiple agencies, and the families are often left battling the syste…”

“I thank the Minister for her answer. Workington suffers from some really poor health outcomes and has an incredibly fragmented health system. I have worked with local leaders in my constituency to pull together a plan for a new neighbourhood health centre called the Workington health zone, based around multidisciplinar…”

“11. What steps his Department is taking to implement neighbourhood health centres.”

“T6. West Cumbria, like many parts of the UK, is a dental desert. In some communities, urgent dental access centres have proved to be a real success at building up dental services, so will the Minister support my campaign to introduce an urgent dental access centre in west Cumbria?”

“Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Kielland disaster off the coast of Norway in the North sea, which took the lives of 123 men. Twenty-two of them were British, including Michael Fleming, Keith Hunter, Brian Graham, John Grady and Colin Lamb from Cleator Moor in my constituency. Many questions remain unanswered fo…”

“In my constituency, we have hundreds of acres of land that is perfect for new nuclear power to be built. As a country, we have not completed a nuclear power station in over 30 years, and part of the reason for that is the state of our planning system. Does my hon. Friend agree that by making the changes in this Bill, w…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the changes made to the winter fuel payment to secure it for those most in need actually save £1 billion net, with the extra costs of the rise in those claiming pension credit? Does she also agree that the Government’s choices across the board mean that we are able to make the decision to…”

“18. What steps her Department is taking to support care leavers into employment.”