Speeches by Race.

“I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. Some hon. Members joined me and others at a recent meeting with the rail Minister Lord Hendy to discuss the impact of the works at Old Oak Common associated with HS2. I will not go into that too much in this speech, as it is a big topic. I am in favour of HS2 going ahead, a…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the future of rail services in Devon. I am delighted to have secured my first Westminster Hall debate, and it is an honour to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I welcome the Minister to his place. I will start by setting out why rail services in Devon are of the …”

“I absolutely agree that for many people in the lowest-paid jobs or who work night shifts, the lack of transport over the Christmas holidays and at regular times is a real challenge. Research commissioned by the Rail Delivery Group shows that the rail industry generated £1.1 billion in economic, environmental and social…”

“I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I agree that what we need across Devon is to look at all these shovel-ready projects from business case onwards, to work out what will deliver the most economic value for our region and to support the mission to get economic growth going. Connecting Okehampton to Tavistock…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. The point about significant rail investment elsewhere in the country, which I will come on to, has an impact on how we see it and how we should be fighting for a better railway system in Devon.”

“It is a pleasure to continue serving under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. The third reason why the Exeter-Barnstaple line would be of benefit to Exeter and Devon is that it would double the hourly service to two trains per hour between Barnstaple and Exeter, and would provide three trains per hour for Crediton. It wo…”

“I absolutely agree that we have a good working relationship across Devon on strategic issues, including dentistry, railways and pharmacies, and I hope that that continues, but we live in the world in which we live so we have to be pragmatic about what we can achieve. Acknowledging where we are starting from is importan…”

“Thank you very much for your chairmanship of the debate, Mr Pritchard. I thank the Minister for his responses. I restate my thanks to Lord Hendy for the engagement we have had from him so far and for the improvements that he appears to have delivered in the medium term, which have been communicated to us. I am grateful…”

“Like many cities, Exeter is home to a Syrian refugee community, and it is frankly delighted by the demise of Assad’s appalling regime. What efforts can the Government make to support an inclusive political settlement that includes all Syria’s ethnic and religious groups—including, of course, the Kurdish community—poten…”

“13. What progress her Department has made on ending rough sleeping.”

“T4. The Government are consulting on the future of pan-regional partnerships such as our own Great South-West, which covers Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset. Businesses I speak to value the ability of our regions to speak with one voice on economic issues to Government and to investors, which are important for our …”

“As a result of the Localism Act 2011, introduced by the Conservative party, the ringfence around homelessness funding was removed. Due to that, and despite the good work that the Government are doing on funding homelessness services, Tory-led Devon county council is consulting on cutting its entire homelessness support…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank the Minister for coming to the House to give this statement and for all the work the Government are doing to support the Sudanese people in the face of severe malnutrition and starvation. Keeping the Adre crossing open is extremely important. The Sudanese armed forces have c…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) on securing this debate to mark World AIDS Day. Colleagues have made important points about the huge progress, both medically and socially, that we have made as a nation over recent years, but of course there is always more to do. In…”

“I want to put on the record my thanks to the hundreds of Exeter and Devon families who have played host to over 500 Ukrainian families over the past 1,000 days. I also thank those Ukrainian families for bringing such life and vitality to the city and for readily sharing their culture with us. What are the Government do…”

“I thank the Secretary of State on behalf of residents in Exeter and across Devon, who will be delighted with the £11.6 million of extra funding for our bus system. As I look around the Chamber, it is very clear who takes buses seriously and who does not. Devon and Torbay have already been given the powers to franchise …”

“Turning to the Government’s future commitments, what do you think are the long-term ambitions for R&D investment? Are there any particular areas that you think need to be prioritised over the longer term?”

“I think that is a really interesting conundrum. The other aspect of this is access to private capital in the regions.”

“My region, the south-west, gets about 2.7% of all private investment in the country. The vast majority is obviously sucked up by London and the greater south-east. It would be great to hear more, maybe in the future, about what we can do as a country to get private investment into scale-ups working better for the whole…”

“I have a couple of questions to follow up. First, we are catching up on funding for Horizon as part of the current Budget. What is your view on the impact of that within the current Budget?”