Speeches by Ali.

“I want to sum up some of the contributions made by colleagues. I am particularly grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran, who of course opened the debate, for the points in her speech; to the Chair of the Petitions Committee, the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie St…”

“Hon. Members have raised a number of issues. That particular point is important, and I have addressed it in other debates in Parliament. I look forward to working with colleagues across parties on the subject we are debating today, as well as on the broader democracy agenda. We will get this work done well only if we w…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for introducing the debate, and I congratulate Jeremy Stone on creating the petition, which received such a large number of signatories. It is great to see so many Members join …”

“I want to address the points that have been made—including the hon. Gentleman’s points, if he will let me continue. The ombudsman will have powers to investigate complaints, to make determinations, including requiring compensation to be paid, and to help to set expectations of scheme members around standards of conduct…”

“I hope that I have already addressed some of those points in my remarks. We are of course looking closely at what further improvements can be made to building regulations. We recognise that the industry needs access to materials that are safe and of sufficient quality. We are setting clear directions for growth for the…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) on securing the debate, and other Members on their excellent contributions. There is a great deal of consensus about the challenges that Members of Parliament face when they are t…”

“You are right, and local government has suffered from funding challenges. This Government have already increased the funding available to local authorities and we will also look closely at what else is needed. We are very conscious, of course, of the pressures and challenges that local councils have faced. In the wider…”

“We have made a commitment in our manifesto to make sure that foreign money has no place in UK politics. It is vital to protect our democracy from actors who seek to interfere in our elections. You give that example, and there are threats and there are risks of interference in our democracy. There is quite a lot of work…”

“I will turn to Stuart; it is his favourite topic.”

“We have committed in our manifesto to taking action on this. You are right that at the moment the rules are not tight enough. It is up to individual parties to do the due diligence, and some parties do that better than others. The “know your donor” approach is important. Some parties are doing that voluntarily. I know …”

“That great hurdle; that is right. We are focusing on that.”

“We can maybe come back to you, but the important thing is that, to your point about stress testing, resilience and emerging challenges, there is a whole series of issues that we need to take into account—registration and much else. This is an opportunity to get those ideas and inputs now. Perhaps we can come back to yo…”

“Chair, you raise a very important point about the scale of challenge faced by electoral administrators in delivering the general election, but also other elections. We are conscious of the pressures on them. There are also recruitment challenges that vary across the country, and we want to and will work with the sector…”

“We will look at these issues in the round. You are right that the current system needs improvement, and we need to tackle some of the underlying issues that you point to. We are very much looking at those issues, working with the Electoral Commission and other relevant parties. We need to draw on the expertise of those…”

“There are a number of discussions across Government about the use and importance of data, as you say, and linked data, in terms of policymaking. I mentioned DVLA, but there are other opportunities to look at how we can use government data in relation to voter registration, and we are having discussions. The Defending D…”

“I appreciate the point of the question, and we recognise that the current system of election law is complex. I know that in some quarters there have been calls to consolidate election law. We appreciate the strong sentiments around that, but simple consolidation would deny the opportunity for us to fix immediate proble…”

“The Electoral Commission has an important role to play and we are keen to see that happen even more. This is a great opportunity. Of course, other institutions that can play a part in that are going to be important. As I say, it is an exciting agenda. I spent a great deal of time starting up charities to support young …”

“I think we have made our position clear. The focus is about addressing the immediate issues as well as medium-term issues. The strategic review may well come back with further proposals that will take longer but, as Stuart has said, that is a much longer-term piece of work. It is important that we take action now and a…”

“We are looking into it. I do not know if you want to come in on the specifics.”

“As I mentioned earlier, the role that Government Departments play together, particularly the Department for Education and DCMS, is crucial. Youth Parliaments are important—Mr Speaker hosted the annual event here—as is the engagement of representatives in encouraging young people. More importantly, we are very intereste…”