Speeches by Slade.

“I welcome the commitment to police funding reform. Dorset is the second worst funded police force in the country and has a much higher proportion of local funding, with 50% funded by the precept. Dorset MPs and the police and crime commissioner wrote to the Home Secretary in November, and we want to push for a reply. W…”

“Samee is a charity working in Dorset to support disabled young adults into self-employment. It has celebrated 10 years and supported 2,700 people, and it has what it tells me is the world’s only supported self-employed internship. Young people who have learning disabilities have great skills for self-employment. Howeve…”

“I thank the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett) for securing this fantastic debate. My inbox is regularly more full of animal welfare issues than anything else. I have been contacted by residents such as Becky Wood, who invited me to her home to visit her rehomed donkeys and chickens and taste her vegan…”

“I have to say that that makes me feel a little queasy, but perhaps I will push my own boundaries. Living on the edge of the countryside, seeing cows and sheep is an everyday occurrence that helps us to understand where our food comes from, and we are all used to mammals in our homes. Fish and sea creatures, however, do…”

“I particularly welcome the investment in low-cost loans for solar panels, which will really boost jobs. However, the grid is not currently resilient enough to cope when our electric vehicle cars are providing microgeneration and, as the rays become more efficient, hit the target for distribution network operator approv…”

“I think my hon. Friend would agree that the Minister needs to hear that in places such as Dorset whole conditions are being ignored. We have the same situation as Suffolk; shared care agreements for ADHD, bariatric services, eating disorders and gender dysphoria are being cancelled, and whole cohorts of people are not …”

“The irony, of course, is that we already have a board of peace, and it is called the UN, but President Trump is undermining it at every step. Five days ago, a group of 22 UN experts deemed the ban on international NGOs to be “part of a systematic assault on humanitarian operations…and another step in the deliberate dis…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Today, the headline in the Bournemouth Echo is about another case involving a carer, who stole £125,000 from an elderly person. The case I am describing is not a one-off. Louise told me about a carer who was coming into her home and who she had trusted. The basic DBS check w…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. People have to pay extra to be part of the update system. Why would anyone pay extra to put themselves under additional scrutiny? Why is that not automatic? The other option, which has been suggested by some, is that the Government could consider a right to ask/right to know process …”

“My British-Iranian residents are deeply worried about their families. The Minister has said that he hopes the embassy will reopen soon, but time is not on the side of the Iranian people. When is “soon” likely to be? How quickly should we expect the proscription of the IRGC?”

“President Trump questioned the Danish right of ownership of Greenland, saying: “There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago”. Although Trump may today be challenging Greenland, on that basis, what assurance can the Foreign Secretary give that our overseas territories and tho…”

“Will people have to go through some of the umbrella agencies, which can charge a lot of money? Will there be a cost differential for those individuals?”

“My hon. Friend makes a great point, and it is exactly the situation that Tabitha from Wimborne told me about. She said: “I am desperate to work…this is a big problem for not only my life and finances but also for others who are surely out there…who are like me, waiting for more than three months… I have been a TA (teac…”

“There are 7.2 million checks done a year, and I am sure that means multiple checks for individuals. I used to foster, and I obviously had very enhanced DBS checks for my fostering, but I then had to get a separate DBS check to undertake my work as a school governor. Frankly, that seems crazy. As a foster carer, I was b…”

“I am pleased to have secured this debate on the Disclosure and Barring Service. It is my hope that I can shine a light on some of the shortcomings of the current system and that the Minister will consider my proposed improvements so we can help families protect their loved ones, reduce the burden on voluntary groups, a…”

“The hon. Gentleman is exactly right: assumptions are being made around the country. As the mother of four children, I assumed, as I dropped off my children, that everybody had to be DBS checked. The idea that that is not strictly the case fills me with dread. When I talked to the people from the Campaign for Gigi this …”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing forward this debate and his Bill. Does he agree that it is not just about bridleways? Forestry England has recently introduced quite substantial fees for carriages, which are used by a lot of disabled people, to use their paths, and complex paperwork more akin to that for pe…”

“Final question, then: if you were handed your 4,000 magistrates tomorrow and this came in, would the magistrates system be able to cope? We know that there is a modest increase in the number of legal advisers coming through, but with everything else we know, do you think this change could work, if it came in, with all …”

“Can I seek some clarity before you move on? During the last session, our witnesses made it very clear that these changes would not apply retrospectively, and therefore they would have absolutely no impact on the backlog and would not start to make any difference until 2029. I may have missed that being said previously,…”

“If you are going to take a case that would have a sentence of potentially two years, it presumably is going to be a trial over multiple days. If you are dealing with people who are volunteers and who are potentially volunteering for only a small number of days during the year, what do you think the impact on working pa…”