Speeches by Turner.

“We are in the rapid-fire part of the panel. We have already heard from Mr Lawrie and other witnesses that enforcement is an issue with the triple lock. Please do not respond if you feel that you have covered this question already, but are there other areas where you would like to see the operation of the triple lock im…”

“We have talked almost exclusively about the workforce in terms of drivers. Does anybody want to comment about non-drivers who are involved in the trade, such as dispatch operators and local authority officers, and any wellbeing or pain conditions issues that you wish to draw to our attention?”

“I have some follow-up questions for Mr Pattison. The first is about financing. You said that you are not allowed to make a profit but any surplus, as I understand it, goes into a reserve account, which in 2023 stood at £2 million. Presumably, that counts towards the authority’s overall balance sheet. Is there some adva…”

“I understand that point, but for absolute clarity, when the authority’s annual statement of accounts is published, is that reserve funding counted towards the net balance sum?”

“I wonder if I might bring in Mr O’Hearn to respond as a GMB representative.”

“You said that you were proud of Wolverhampton’s standards. Would you accept, though, that where there are discretionary standards to be set, because Wolverhampton is now such a dominant licensing authority, other local authorities feel that they cannot go above Wolverhampton’s standards? I will give a practical example…”

“There was a question earlier about the Supreme Court judgment in respect of Uber, which has been covered. What is the situation for other operators in terms of employee-worker status? It would be interesting to hear particularly about small operators.”

“If I may press you on this, as I am sure you will understand, MPs—those of us who are local to the region, and others across the country—come across Wolverhampton licensing issues frequently. Looking at some published statistics, 100% of taxis licenced by Wolverhampton are wheelchair accessible. For private hire vehicl…”

“I am glad you used the term “equal footing”, because this is a question for you all. Do you think local authorities should have equivalent powers to cap the number of private hire vehicles as exist for hackney carriages?”

“I thank the Foreign Secretary for her statement and for her recent decision, when she was Home Secretary, about the Ukraine permission extension scheme. Does she agree that when Putin probes weakness we must respond by demonstrating strength? Does she further agree that the post-war development of Ukraine’s significant…”

“I warmly welcome the £20 million pride in place funding for the Hawkesley estate in my constituency. It stands in stark contrast to the hopes and expectations that were allowed to be built under the last Government for £11 million for Northfield’s high street in the second-round bid for the levelling-up fund, which wer…”

“That is helpful; thank you.”

“Yes, and what it does or doesn’t do, particularly where investment may or may not go ahead, depending on the wording. That is potentially quite important. We also heard that there is a discontinuity between freight and non-freight forecasts. Has any work been done on whether non-freight can be taken into account?”

“On port freight demand forecasts, we have been told that within the investment decision-making structures of the various private entities that operate in the sector, the forecast may actually prove to be a limitation because of how they are assessed. The way I took it was that people up the chain were perhaps taking th…”

“Thank you. On the other side of the equation, we have heard concerns that community engagement in the planning of port developments may prove to be a tick-box exercise. How are you ensuring that that will not be the case?”

“And if it proves not to be the case as the new energy CNP status is introduced, the Department may look at it again—I think that is what we take from that contribution.”

“A secondary argument was made to us in the previous session that CNP status would not just help to get new development through; it would also help to resist some of the encroachment issues that have already been raised in this session. Do you think that is accurate?”

“Good afternoon. We had a lengthy discussion with the last panel about critical national priority status, and a number of respondents have made the argument that ports should have the same critical national priority status for planning applications as that afforded to low-carbon energy infrastructure. Are you sympatheti…”

“My right hon. Friend is rightly talking about the contributions made in the debate by hon. Members of various parties. I am always reluctant to criticise individual Members who may not attend a debate, because they often have good reasons, but there has now become a pattern: at no point in the Bill’s passage has any Re…”

“I am grateful for being able to contribute to this debate. It is a privilege to follow so many powerful speeches, and the speech delivered by my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) was the most powerful I have heard in this place. Her words rose to the moment; mine are inadequate by comparison. I can on…”