Speeches by Smith.

“The rail Minister has expressed the view that enabling those of us from the south-west to connect to the midlands and Birmingham would be one mitigation, but does the hon. Member agree that that is not a good enough result for the overground services? Frankly, we need connections into London, because we can already get…”

“On fares, there is a bit we have not asked about yet. Obviously, there is a market for ticket splitting on current routes, but my understanding is that at the moment you basically don’t get to benefit from those. For example, on CrossCountry, going up the west coast, you can split the fares and get a reasonable discoun…”

“I absolutely welcome the hon. Member’s comments about the success of the Exeter-Okehampton line; the figures speak for themselves. Does he agree that the success of that line highlights why the cost of keeping the Tavistock-Plymouth line going, as set out in its business case, is a really small ask—only 1% of the cost …”

“What have you done about increasing capacity on the lines that will close, so that in the last few days when people need to travel there will potentially be enough space? I am sure that we have all been on trains at Christmas where it is standing room only. You have that team meeting twice a week: is increasing capacit…”

“I welcome what the Minister is saying. On a point of interest, it would perhaps be worth looking at the numbers on a Thursday. In line with most of the country, Thursday is the new Friday, and I am sure that most of my colleagues in the room will testify to the challenge of getting a train out of London on a Thursday, …”

“It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard, and I am delighted to follow my colleagues from across Devon; I know that some others will be speaking shortly. Hon. Members who listened to my maiden speech will have noticed that I have committed to fighting for railway and transport in the south-west,…”

“I suppose it is linked, but looking more at the enhancements pipeline, this is a fairly straightforward question: do the Government intend to produce a long-term rail enhancements pipeline as well as the strategy?”

“In a way this should probably be our last question because it is about Christmas, and that tends to be how we head out of the door, but we don’t want to miss it, as it is important. We have had disruption with the weather, which we cannot do much about, but, historically, rail services at Christmas are massively disrup…”

“In the previous Parliament, the GBR transition team was preparing a long-term strategy for rail. What became of that, and when do the Government plan to publish the strategy they want GBR to work to?”

“We talked a little bit indirectly about the role of railway infrastructure and growth. Lord Hendy, I know we talked a bit about this in a previous meeting. How will that strategy look at some of what was being done before, whether it is under the same title or not, such as the restoring Britain’s railways programme, pa…”

“With rural communities as well.”

“Thank you, Chair. It is just on the infrastructure piece and which things are going to get funded and which are not. I completely appreciate the fact that there were a lot of unfunded things in the past, but my understanding of how politics works and Government works in the long term is that you find the money when you…”

“Recently, Truro Crown court, which serves my constituency of South West Devon, has been forced to shut one day a week due to recent budget cuts and the judicial sitting day reductions. Some cases have already been postponed until late 2025, including lengthy cases that involve victims of violence, and it is prompting t…”

“13. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the backlog of court cases on victims of crime.”

“1. What progress the mission delivery boards have made.”

“How will the Prime Minister’s five mission boards learn from the clear lack of join-up between the Treasury and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs over the family farm tax and the family business tax to ensure that they do not become five mission silos?”

“Yes. Do you have that drilled down as well?”

“Loveday, you addressed the question we asked earlier about regional variations in test availability. You talked about the Wales and Scotland illustration. What we meant was the south-west, south-east, midlands, and so on.”

“Coming back to what you said, Camilla, and what was just discussed in terms of the availability, the age and the challenge for younger people, it struck me that we are the Transport Committee, and we look at other transport challenges. Do you have data looking at regional variation, particularly between urban and rural…”

“A major housing association serving not only Plympton, Plymstock and Ivybridge in my constituency but the rest of Plymouth and other parts of Devon and Cornwall will have to shoulder three quarters of a million pounds in increased national insurance contributions. That is money that could have been spent on new homes f…”