Speeches by Paul.

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me the opportunity to speak in this incredibly important debate. I very much welcome the Government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade, and I hope everyone in this place will work together to ensure success, because if we do not, it is…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention, and I completely concur. The fact that our laws have not been extended in this way demonstrates that they have not kept up with our ever-changing world. I therefore call on the Government to ensure that online pornographic content is held to the same standards as offl…”

“Thank you for that. It would be good for you to talk to us about all the different things that you are looking to do on this. What is the custody limit at the moment for a defendant on remand?”

“I completely support the Chair on that. It would be good to have a breakdown of the cases that are over two years—in fact, I would say over six months, to be honest. You have set out that it is quite rare and there are other factors going on, but if we could see the data behind that it might give us some reassurance, o…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his response. However, universities, which are at the heart of the UK’s research ecosystem, face an additional £372 million in annual costs due to the rise in employer national insurance. That threatens their ability to fund cutting-edge research, recruit top talent and support early …”

“5. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of increases in employer national insurance contributions on the science and technology sectors.”

“The previous Government committed to a parent-first approach to guidance. As part of the Government’s review of the statutory relationships, sex and health education guidance, will the Minister make it clear that parents should be involved in decisions that affect their children, including if their children are gender-…”

“ Thank you. Following up from that, what assurance can you give us that you are getting value for money with the various initiatives that you are doing, in order to tackle tax evasion?”

“ I would just like to disclose, before I start, that I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Sir Jim Harra, why do you not know how much tax evasion HMRC is stopping?”

“ You do have a number broken down for tax evasion, then. We have a number for tax evasion that HMRC has stopped with its various initiatives.”

“ Would it be possible for us to have some more information after this on those numbers? That is not coming through in the report that we have.”

“ We are going to move on to electronic sale suppression now. In 2016, I believe you identified a form of ESS that was resulting in significant tax losses, and then you looked again in 2019 and found that the loss was much more than you thought. It was £450 million per year. A strategy then came…”

“ It is reassuring to hear about the arrests. When do you anticipate starting to use those civil powers more routinely?”

“ I can see that one of the strategies you have been using is to identify groups of businesses and send a letter out to them if you think their revenue is looking too low. How effective has that been, in your view, in terms of recouping tax losses?”

“ It is now spring 2025; thank you. Moving on, HMRC has reduced its use of prosecutions. The number of prosecutions resulting from HMRC’s criminal investigations has reduced from 749 in 2018-19 to 344 in 2023-24. I am interested, Ms Ciniewicz, in your perspective on the impact on deterrent …”

“ You planned to update the estimate of the tax loss from ESS this month. Do you now have those new estimates? When can we expect to see those?”

“The Government have announced that housing targets for Reigate and Banstead will increase significantly. We will move from an advisory target of 644 houses per year to a mandatory and completely unrealistic target of 1,264—a 96% increase. A large proportion of my constituency is green belt. If all areas must play their…”

“5. What steps he is taking to support the hospitality sector.”

“In Reigate, Redhill, Banstead and our villages, we have many amazing pubs that contribute hugely to the economy, such as the Garibaldi community pub in Redhill. For those businesses to thrive, reform of the unfair business rates system by 2026 is critical. Will the Minister commit to the proposed 20p reduction to the s…”

“I welcome the statement and commend the Secretary of State for putting the safety and wellbeing of children first. The use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria is—I will not mince my words—nothing short of a medical scandal, in my view, so I very much welcome his approach. He said that it is important that you…”