Speeches by Foy.

“I speak on behalf of the hundreds of desperate people in Durham and beyond, as well as the dozens of organisations, who have contacted me with concerns about the Bill. I am sure that many Members across the House, not least those of us in areas that have been decimated over the last three decades, will agree that there…”

“Highway safety is something that I have been working on for a number of years, particularly with the communities of the A167 in Durham, Lowes Barn Bank, Toll House Road and Neville’s Cross. In particular, Shincliffe has 40% of all fatalities and road accidents in City of Durham. People have been told again and again th…”

“rose—”

“I rise to speak in support of new clause 25, in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter). It seeks to repeal the unnecessary and arbitrary police powers introduced via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which introduced new powers to seize the homes of Gypsy an…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I welcome the actions that the Minister has announced today, but we can no longer allow starving men, women and children to be murdered in cold blood while scrambling for food or visiting cemeteries at Eid, or to be burned alive in their houses. Will the Minister please be bolder, listen to the voices here tonight and …”

“I rise to speak to my amendment 134, which seeks to address a long-standing and deeply entrenched failure in our planning system: the chronic undersupply of Gypsy and Traveller sites across England. My amendment seeks to increase fairness in the system and to enable, rather than hinder, the provision of adequate, cultu…”

“Thank you for answering the questions and for trying to improve things. If there were one aspect of the PQ system that you would like to change, what would it be?”

“Will my right hon. Friend join me in commending the work and dedication of Mel Metcalfe and the entire Durham Pride team—supported by the Queen of Durham, Tess Tickle and her Dragettes—in aiming to make this year’s event the biggest and greatest celebration of the LGBT+ community in the county yet? Can we have a debate…”

“Ministers will recall the horrific attack on prison staff at HMP Frankland in Durham last month. While I was grateful for the Minister for Prisons’ reply to my correspondence, I noted the lack of commitment around the issuing of stab-proof vests on the high-security estate. That is a key ask from the Prison Officers As…”

“Recent analysis by Health Equity North shows that more than £13 million will be stripped out of the local economy in the City of Durham every year due to PIP changes. That comes on top of the already worsened health conditions for people in the north-east due to Tory austerity. Would it not be more constructive for the…”

“My question has probably been answered. I wanted to know what steps you had taken since the election in July to try to improve answers to questions. Is there anything you want to add on that?”

“No, we have moved on. The pass readers remain, but say the House moved to a fully electronic system, which is one of the things that we have been looking at.”

“I do not know how that would work if it did go fully electronic. What role would the Tellers have? How would they do it if you were not physically going through?”

“So it is actually not physical voting that is at stake here; it is what else happens in the voting Lobbies?”

“Yes—the fully electronic system, where you can do remote voting if you are anywhere on the estate. That has been touched on by the Modernisation Committee.”

“No, we have moved on. The pass readers remain, but say the House moved to a fully electronic system, which is one of the things that we have been looking at.”

“But for new people, it was all normal; it was all normal for us. Moving on from that, these measures were put in place during the pandemic. In the Division Lobbies, we had the pass readers, which of course we have kept. It is the Tellers’ count that provides the result to the House, but if the House were to move to a f…”

“I remember the lines as well, when we went back into social distancing—”

“I want to go back to the arrangements during the pandemic. But before that, I want to say in my defence that I was one of the intake who came in in 2019, so we had about 12 weeks of what seemed like normality and then it was changed to being online. I gave my maiden speech and then the next day, or the next week, it wa…”