Speeches by Smith.

“It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I am pleased to contribute to the debate, because the petition speaks to the level of anxiety and concern that many parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are currently carrying. That is why I am please…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this much-needed debate. We have seen 44,000 children being treated for malnutrition, 2,146 people killed while seeking aid, 131 children killed by a …”

“I get a reasonable number of casework enquiries about the disabled facilities grant and the challenges of accessing it for lots of different reasons. I want to hear, possibly from Michael initially, what reforms to the design and implementation of the disabled facilities grant would help to ensure that those with a dis…”

“I am Sarah Smith, Labour MP for Hyndburn.”

“Just to confirm—I am sure you will say yes to this—do you agree with the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report recommendation that the Government should immediately implement the adoption of part M4(2) of the building regulations? If so, what benefits would this have?”

“I believe that in the IHE’s report you have outlined that to bring all the homes across the United Kingdom up to standards of energy efficiency and to tackle the issues of cold homes, you need investment of about £74.5 billion, but the Government have currently committed £13.2 billion to their warm home plan. I am inte…”

“Just for the record, what is the estimate of the uplifting cost associated with meeting those standards, versus the cost of retrofitting if you were trying to do it after the event?”

“Diego Garcia is not just another military facility; it is the cornerstone of Britain’s national security and our most important contribution to the UK-US security relationship. From tracking terrorist networks to ensuring freedom of navigation and global trade, the base has saved lives and safeguarded our people. Let u…”

“You are suggesting that more opportunities for better support and guidance are coming forward. Are there further ways you would like to see the Building Safety Regulator clarify the application requirements for developers? Are there any more specifics you could talk about?”

“How much control will you and your board be able to exercise over the strategic and operational decision making and the establishment of a single construction regulator?”

“Moving on to the single construction regulator, at this stage there is some lack of clarity as to what that will look like. Given the expertise and capacity currently within the Building Safety Regulator, is it reasonable to think that the BSR will be able to exercise the functions of a single construction regulator?”

“To what extent do you think the gateway 2 guidance that was published by the Construction Leadership Council will clarify the Building Safety Regulator’s expectations and bring the lower-quality developer applications to an end?”

“I am Sarah Smith, MP for Hyndburn.”

“T7. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement yesterday and the Government’s commitment to recognising the state of Palestine later this month, but with the attacks on the Nasser hospital last week and over 119 children now having died due to starvation, what further steps are we taking to evacuate the most vulnerabl…”

“Can you clarify, first, by when you think you will be able to give us that greater reassurance or clarity around the numbers you expect to deliver within this Parliament and when that work will be done, so that when you come back to us we can revisit this? Secondly, could you at least give some sense of how much of the…”

“Moving forward now to the decent homes standard and the work going on there, it has been made public that this might not be enforceable until 2035 or 2037. We have had 72 children die due to their living conditions between 2019 and 2024. Why would there be this delay? Why are we not pushing as quickly as possible to ma…”

“I am Sarah Smith, the MP for Hyndburn.”

“To move on to another one of the potential barriers to achieving the target, aside from the reforms, the other big challenge would be skills and making sure that there are enough people with the necessary skills to be able to deliver on a much higher demand on the sector. It takes time to develop the trades and skills …”

“Perhaps not within a year, but to be waiting 10 years seems extreme, given the money that is being made in this sector and the responsibility every single landlord should have to provide a home with running water, free from damp and mould, and free from rat infestations. Surely there could be greater urgency than 2035.”

“In the context that we know there are over 150,000 children currently living in temporary accommodation in this country, we welcome the ambition to deliver 300,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years, but, for the families who are currently waiting for that to be delivered tomorrow, how many of these do you expect …”