Speeches by Russell.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) so much for securing this important debate. Other hon. Members have already outlined some fantastic initiatives to encourage women and girls in STEM. Such initiatives are so impo…”

“The statistics in this report and everything they reflect are completely shocking. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) for bringing it forward on behalf of the Committee. Records at Leighton, my local hospital, show that work has been done on improving experiences and outcomes…”

“My local women’s prison is HMP Styal, and my hon. Friend will be aware of the Clink Charity, which does work in developing people’s skills in hospitality. Its ability to operate in HMP Styal collapsed completely because, as there was such a shortage of prison officers, the women were locked up for so much of the time t…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend; in fact, that is a matter I will come on to. The distress I see within this system is staggering. I see parents making decisions about taking their children to school, when they suspect that the school place might be damaging for their child, but they also strongly suspect that not taking t…”

“I thank the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for opening this important debate, as well as everyone who signed the petition and those who filled in my survey on SEND matters this summer. The level of distress that the current system is causing to both children and their parents is difficult to overstate. The…”

“I was quite tempted to stand up this afternoon and just say the word “pothole” over and over again for three solid minutes, as the peculiarity of such an approach might really bring home to the Minister, who I know has been doing his best on these matters, quite how strongly my constituents feel about the state of thei…”

“I thank the Solicitor General for that answer. The courts system and all the associated IT have been left in the most catastrophic state by the previous Conservative Government. It is shocking that £2 billion was spent on a civil courts IT system that cannot even handle litigation where there is more than one claimant …”

“3. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help improve efficiency in the criminal justice system through the use of technology. [R]”

“The media scrutiny of the authorities’ response to a major incident is often very intense, as you have already alluded to. The work of the Standing Advocate may well come under some scrutiny and potentially some criticism, including from victims’ groups. How do you anticipate that you might respond to this challenge?”

“My key concern for you is actually not conventional media. There is also now the behemoth that is social media, which is obviously significantly less regulated, can amplify people’s voices, treat people appallingly and provide all kinds of misery, as my colleagues and I all know, unfortunately. How do you think you wil…”

“No, I can see that.”

“I am Sarah Russell, the Member for Congleton in Cheshire. My interests are as declared on the register. I am a solicitor—I do have a practising certificate, but I am not currently practising—and a member of some trade unions.”

“You mentioned having cleared your diary, which is phenomenal. From what I initially saw, this job was first advertised in September, 12 months ago. I wondered what timescale you had been expecting the appointment to take. Obviously, you have cleared your diary, but we have not appointed you yet—although you are very im…”

“Ms Butts, you said that there was a £500,000 figure somewhere. Where does that—”

“Okay. At the moment, you are not aware of any specific budget at all. You do have three staff, though.”

“Has anything been said to indicate that there will be any capital budget, and anything beyond the three staff?”

“I understand that. Thank you very much; that was really helpful.”

“5. What steps she is taking to reduce the number of children in poverty in Congleton constituency.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. I am very sad to report that there are no Changing Places toilets in my constituency on the website—not a single one. I believe that, actually, Congleton leisure centre does have a Changing Places toilet, and I believe that Ruby’s Fund also has a very extensive disabled-facilitate…”

“That is fantastic, but could the Minister please think about how we can address this issue for those of us with predominantly rural communities that have smaller towns that are unlikely to have very large buildings?”