Speeches by Evans.

“It is an honour to stand at the Dispatch Box for the first time, although I have to admit that it is not how I pictured it. I will do my best not to be a pain in your neck, Mr Speaker. In a nutshell, the creative industries are worried that the Government will essentially give away their intellectual property. I am ple…”

“Cafés are so important to rural communities in Hinckley and Bosworth and North West Leicestershire. I ran a favourite café competition, and a thousand constituents nominated cafés. In joint third place were JAFFLES@No3 and What the Fork; in second place was Liberteas; and the winner was Epicurean Lounge. Will the Leade…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“When I was a clinician, people did not even realise that they could be labelled as carers and could apply to be carers, and were unaware of the gateway that that would provide. Might the Government consider doing some work to make more people aware that they are undertaking caring responsibilities, so that they can the…”

“I was a member of that Committee and helped to author that report. One of the key things that we want to see from the clinical perspective is the ability to join up the IT side, so having a place to share technology is really important. For example, every GP practice suffers with the question of how to set up its appoi…”

“One of the keys to delivery is the GP partnership model, which is the mechanism by which they are set up. The Secretary of State, who is now in his place, said in 2023 that he wanted to phase out the GP partnership model, although he later reneged on that position. It would be interesting to hear what the Government no…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“The Prime Minister has said he has been transparent, broken no rules and followed all ordinances, yet he has paid back £6,000 out of that £100,000. Can the Minister tell us why he has chosen to do that, which rules he was following, which guidance he means and which other member of the Cabinet will also be paying back …”

“Thank you, Mr Dowd, for allowing me to take off my neck brace to speak. I congratulate the hon. Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) on speaking so powerfully on this topic. I was a doctor before I came to this House, so for me the topic is important. There is a clear distinction when we debate this topic between mental w…”

“Can we have a debate on the hospital review programme? The Leicestershire and Rutland hospitals are now in its scope. We were due to have two hospitals, a midwifery unit and a car park. The proposals were in phase 3, and work had already begun on the plans. I have set up a petition, which is also being shared by fellow…”

“Does the Minister believe that cancel culture and no-platforming are a problem? Does she believe they are getting worse? She has mentioned that this is important; why, then, will she not set out a concrete timetable for the introduction of this new legislation?”

“In Hinckley, we have one of the most bashed bridges in Britain; it gets hit every two weeks on average. It is on the A5, which also has some black spots for accidents and pinch points. Will the Secretary of State arrange for a meeting between me and the Roads Minister, the hon. Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Green…”

“I want to raise an issue as the Minister is the Minister responsible for prevention. One of the biggest and most shocking things we saw during the pandemic was the increase in eating disorders, which is a very difficult topic for any Government around the world to try to break down. We know that the impact of eating di…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely spot on. The cliff edges that exist in the NHS—and education and social services—cause a real problem, particularly for families, because at 18 someone does not just lose their diagnosis. It is important to pool those areas because it allows us to stratify the way that we use our limited re…”

“The former Member for Doncaster, who is now sadly not in this House, was a significant champion for men’s and boys’ health—suicide in particular, which has been mentioned here, is such a problem. My hon. Friend stated the case for mental health being a pan-Government policy area—does he believe that strengthens the arg…”

“Not quite yet.”

“I was also interested to hear that another major Scottish city—Glasgow—has been successful in getting the Commonwealth games. I believe the hon. Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh moved to Edinburgh from his home town of Glasgow. It is great to see that success in both those cities is supporting the UK as a cult…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your stewardship, Mr Efford. I hope you do not mind that I have taken off my collar to allow a bit of movement. If my head starts to wobble, please do intervene. Congratulations to the hon. Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) on securing this debate. It is fantastic …”

“On petrol prices, for the past 11 years the Government froze fuel duty; they cut it in 2002 and then froze it again. The Government instructed the Competition and Markets Authority to carry out a review, and we came up with the pumpwatch scheme. A consultation was undertaken in January, but when I wrote to the Governme…”