Speeches by Atkinson.

“I thank the Minister and the steering group for their work. Their findings that disabled people find the assessment process dehumanising and stressful reflect the conversations that my constituents have had with me. Paragraph 64 of the review finds that “the reliance on PIP has likely increased due to difficulty access…”

“The hon. Member is doing an excellent job of expressing the moral outrage shared by constituents from Herefordshire to Sunderland to Sheffield, but does she agree that if it is possible for international groups to find origin fraud relating to goods that originate from illegal settlements on the west bank, but are inco…”

“Are there any statistics for the number of relatively late appeals or new grounds for appeal being submitted late? Can you quantify the number of individuals who would be affected by the removal of those and their replacement? Can we distinguish a subset of children or others who are affected, versus how far this is co…”

“I am the MP for Sunderland Central and a member of the Home Affairs Committee. My interests are all on my declaration of interests: there is nothing particularly relevant to bring to attention today.”

“Ministers have claimed that appeals currently being lodged late in the process can further elongate timescales. Their contention is that potential changes of process in the proposed alternative body would remove some delay. Do you see that as a key issue alongside the capacity of the current first-tier tribunal?”

“I am sure you have a view, Mr Sidwick. Go on quickly, yes.”

“I will start on the policing side. We are in a situation where you have outlined that county lines and other elements of supply run across police forces and so on, and we know about regional organised crime units. How do neighbouring police forces work together at the moment where there are cross-border issues?”

“We are not having a wider conversation about police reform. We recognise people will have strong views on it. I want to ask specifically about the drug-related element of it.”

“You have no visibility of work that is going on between the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office or the Department of Health about how to deal with that?”

“Q9. Too many people are waiting too long for NHS mental health care, with over 6,000 adults waiting up to two years. In Sunderland, grassroots organisations like the wonderful Betsy Jenny café are providing support to our community, but they cannot substitute for timely, NHS-funded care. As the Government consult on th…”

“I have a couple of questions, but on the demand piece first of all, Mr Court, I think you outlined the shift in demand in substance use over time. Is there any evidence that that shift in demand is influenced by the legal regime? I particularly ask about ketamine, given that the Home Office decision on the classificati…”

“On the classification regime and changes in demand, the idea that classifying something as class A is in itself a deterrent and that will affect demand for that drug.”

“I can see Mr Court wants to come in. I am particularly interested in the proposals in the police reform White Paper, which clearly look to regionalise forces. We do not know what will happen and we do not know the potential boundaries, but in the context of, say, five forces operating together within a region and shari…”

“I understand. Clearly, this is not a session about police reform overall, but I wanted to ask the question in the context of drugs and organised crime in this element, given some of the cross-border issues that we have identified. If I can move on to—”

“That is interesting, and we will have a think about that. One area of cross-departmental collaboration that is particularly pertinent on this at the moment is with justice; I am thinking particularly around the changes to prison release. We know that a significant number of prisoners on release are prescribed opiate su…”

“Can I ask specifically about treatment and the partnership approach? As I understand it, basically, there is a police funding stream and then a separate public health grant to local authorities, which may or may not be aligned with the CDPs and is not at the level that Dame Carol Black initially was accepted by the Gov…”

“On the current Government emphasis, back to our role of scrutinising the Home Office, when the drug strategy was launched, I felt there was a real push from the Minister at the time on delivery and accountability of local CDPs up through the Home Office. What is your sense of that now?”

“I have heard that, but even where it is focused on treatment, how far does the funding model of police and public health grants being separate help or hinder the joint, good, effective partnership working? Also, I will throw in a little bit around the use of diversion schemes because I know some forces—Durham, West Mid…”

“On wider partnership issues, we mentioned earlier that the drug strategy outlined the need for local combating drugs partnerships to be in place. I am interested in your assessment of how effective those partnerships are at the moment.”

“It is 5,500, which is a record level, and the strategy said it would come down.”