Speeches by Atkinson.

“Can I drill down on this? Is the issue the numbers that have arrived, or is it the potential scale of the recourse to public funds as a result of the numbers?”

“There is a set of communities that would say, “We never came seeking public funds,” and that decoupling recourse to public funds and settled status—for example, by linking it to citizenship rather than settled status—would be an option that would increase integration and manage the recourse to the public purse. Is that…”

“When you call the police, they should come. When you report a crime, it should be properly investigated. But too many constituents of mine, and I am sure many others, do not feel that that is currently the case. Recognising that you have set out a longer implementation period for macro change, what can constituents of …”

“Will that be coming in more quickly? In the next year or two, will people be able to start seeing those standards?”

“So would you say that when migrants lose their sponsor through no fault of their own at the moment the support is sufficient? Does the system work for those people?”

“Professor Green, do you have any view on sector specific sponsorship as opposed to employer?”

“Thank you. I will come back to the impact on workers and, Peter, perhaps you first. On the implications for workers if they have to maintain a sponsored visa for 15 years or longer and I think you alluded before and I have also heard some stories of sponsoring employers using sponsor status as a lever in a pretty unscr…”

“There has been some suggestion and the Home Office consultation talks about a potential mixture of different options including extending the no recourse to public funds conditions. There has been some suggestion that there could be a retention of the current route to settlement, the five-year path of ILR but an extensi…”

“I will come back on worker protections in a minute, if I may, Peter. On the wider point around transitional protections not necessarily for specific groups but for people existing in the UK who came to the UK on the promise of a five-year route to ILR and Mr Percival and Professor Green, do you have a view on transitio…”

“Let us move on. Clearly the proposal as it stands would apply to people already in the UK and we have talked a bit about that already. Even if the Government were to make these changes for future migrants do you think there should be transitional protections for people who are already in the UK and if so what do you th…”

“I will come on to transitional protections and the impact on workers but if I can just ask a very quick follow-up on the thing about salary thresholds. Do you think there is a differential regional impact on this? I am thinking of parts of the country such as mine, Sunderland, that I represent clearly has a relatively …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for the speech he is making. Does he agree that although the Government seek through their proposals to increase integration, by limiting ILR to those who stay beyond 10 years we are actually going to reduce integration in exactly the sort of instance that he has outlined? That risks undermining …”

“Ms Hunt, by way of introduction, can you briefly explain employers’ current legal obligations to carry out right-to-work checks?”

“Thank you. In what circumstances does the Home Office have oversight of whether employers have carried out those checks?”

“I welcome the 15% off business rates for pubs in Sunderland. As we are a music city—live music is core to our identity and regeneration—I particularly welcome the steps that the Minister has announced for live music venues, and his engagement with me and the Music Venue Trust. Could he say a little bit about the method…”

“There is some merit in the hon. Gentleman’s proposal, not just for medical training but across the clinical workforce. As Members have acknowledged, we pay significant sums of public money training clinical staff, but the graduates incur significant student debt. If a UK-trained undergraduate student decides to work ab…”

“I welcome the Government bringing forward this legislation, and not just in response to the significant concerns that doctors currently have about access to training places, but as an important part of a reset, with a longer-term approach, to ensure that we have an NHS workforce that is fit for the future. I am going t…”

“I welcome the Home Secretary’s statement. My constituents expect the everyday policing response to improve, but they know the value of more specialist public order capabilities, because in August 2024 the brave officers of Northumbria police put on their public order gear to protect our citizens against disgraceful vio…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and his Committee for their work on this really important matter. I would like to ask about the recommendations regarding substance misuse treatment commissioning. Does he agree with me and Collective Voice, the umbrella organisation for drug treatment providers, that drug treatment services are …”

“As someone who supports modernising and digitising the state, but who spoke against mandatory digital ID, I welcome the Minister’s sensible approach and his engagement over recent months. My constituents are really concerned about illegal working. Does he agree that the current and largely paper-based system of right-t…”