Speeches by Lamb.

“Could I ask what assessment the Government have made of the reliance on external suppliers in all this?”

“I am not going to ask about future arrangements, then, but just build on the existing arrangements. I should state that I have spent 14 years as a governance committee member at my local authority overseeing this on the ground, so I have some quite strong opinions about the way Government deal with a lot of these thing…”

“I know the comment has been made that this is to enable the system to be made more readily accessible, or at least address a number of concerns currently being raised by electoral administrators. I am sure that you are aware that the Association of Electoral Administrators has already stated that its express preference…”

“With respect, Minister, that is not really what I asked. I acknowledge the short-term work that is being done now, but both you and Mr Ison have acknowledged that this is an area that needs to be addressed; that the reason it is not being addressed right now is to address the short-term fixes; and that it will take lon…”

“What is the Government’s assessment of how well postal voting performed at the general election?”

“Could you outline what those things are that you are looking at?”

“Are you considering any mechanisms other than postal voting to enable people to vote?”

“Building on that, 16,000 people were affected notionally but anecdotal evidence suggests it might well have been higher than that, to be honest, talking to some of the electoral administrators. With increasingly narrow results at general elections, we are starting to move into an area where this might affect some of th…”

“I absolutely agree. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. The Government are doing a lot to try to address this issue, but that is not to say that we cannot do more. We hear those stories of stigma, with children pretending to bring food out of their bags so that they do not miss out or so that the…”

“It has been a while since I looked at the numbers, but my understanding when I last looked was that the level of unclaimed benefits in our system is at least 10 times greater than the total value of benefit fraud. People are choosing not to access the support available by and large because of stigma or a lack of awaren…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend. I am well aware of the amount of effort that local schools are having to make directly to deal with the consequences of financial deprivation. It is important that we try to ensure that the statistics on free school meals are accurate, because it is a gateway to support. It is also how we m…”

“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. I am very grateful for my good fortune in having the chance to introduce a Bill in my first year as a Member of this House and to seek to address, in part, one of my greatest policy concerns: childhood poverty. The previous Labour Government made reducing child po…”

“As Members have said, a number of us were in Ukraine at the end of last week, and four days ago we were sat in a bomb shelter in Kyiv as the Ukrainian military worked to clear the sky of drones. Kyiv is a beautiful European city—one of the great cities of Europe—filled with a freedom-loving, well-educated population th…”

“Since April, Crawley’s urgent treatment centre has been temporarily closed overnight because of low staffing levels. What do the Government intend to do to ensure that normal services are resumed for communities such as mine?”

“I don’t believe my point is relevant any more.”

“Under the Mauritian criminal code, anyone who questions the integrity of Mauritian territories, including the Chagos archipelago, is potentially subject to 10 years’ imprisonment. Most British Chagossians have, at one time or another, effectively given that level of disconsideration to the Mauritian Government. What co…”

“I commend the Minister for his work in bringing forward the settlement to secure a fair deal for the sector, but, as many hon. Members have alluded to, the elephant in the room is temporary housing. That is in large part due to decisions taken by the last Conservative Government to freeze the housing benefit subsidy at…”

“I am well aware of many of the points the hon. Member is making. In fact, back in 2014 I was on Gatwick’s consultative forum as a community representative and I was well aware then of the impact that the trial route had, in terms of concentrated noise in some areas and the consequent storm of community feeling. However…”

“Q8. Following years of real-terms cuts to its funding, St Catherine’s hospice, which serves my constituency, has recently made a number of redundancies. Palliative care is hugely important to our communities, and I pay tribute to those who work in it. Will the Prime Minister join me in thanking St Catherine’s for its w…”

“We are going to have to disagree on that point, Mr Chair. On the matter of test and learn, Chancellor, I have been reading your very good speech while I have been in the room. I have often thought that local authorities are a very good example of this with 330-odd different models trying to address the same problems ac…”