March 2026

In Hemlington in my constituency, the ward councillors Nicky Walker and Tom Mohan have been trying to push the social housing provider Thirteen to deal with the set of empty properties around Ellis Gardens and Fonteyn Court, which have been sitting abandoned for months, perhaps even years. Does the Leader of the House agree that Thirteen needs to pull its finger out, stop leaving properties to rot and support people to get into those properties?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Co-operatives create a really important sense of connection at a time when people feel disconnected, but co-ops and mutuals are also more resilient and more productive. That is why we have made the commitment she references. Our call for evidence has closed, and we are working on the proposals that will flow out of that. I really welcome the news this morning that the John Lewis bonus is returning and congratulate it on its results.

Parliamentary appearance by Frank McNally

Fuel duty is currently frozen. The key thing we can do to make sure we deal with this instability in energy prices is de-escalate in the region. I remind the hon. Member that his party has been calling for us to join the war.

I discussed the prioritisation of parcels with Ofcom yesterday. It had previously investigated the matter, and it is fair to say that it has heard the widespread concern around the House. If Ofcom continues to be concerned, it will not hesitate to investigate again.

Parliamentary appearance by Blair McDougall

Since 2004, the limit on relief for small employers at which they can reclaim statutory maternity pay has been set at £45,000. Small and medium-sized enterprises want to support working parents, but they need our help to do so. Will the Minister confirm whether that will be looked at as part of the parental leave review?

9. What recent progress he has made on improving parental rights at work.

Parliamentary appearance by Blair McDougall

My hon. Friend is correct to highlight that the service quality issues are linked directly to workers’ terms and conditions. It is precisely because we take that connection so seriously that the Secretary of State convened the meeting between the unions and the owners of Royal Mail. Ofcom made it clear in our meeting yesterday that it expects the plan for improvements in quality of service to be in place within days of an agreement being reached with the unions, and we will certainly hold Royal

With up to £8.2 billion of private investment, the Lanarkshire AI growth zone delivered by this Labour Government represents one of the largest industrial investments in the history of Scotland. At its heart is a partnership between Lanarkshire’s own DataVita and the American cloud computing company CoreWeave. Such partnerships are critical to supporting the industries of the future, so what further steps can my hon. Friend take to promote Scottish companies overseas to secure such high-quality

6. What steps he is taking to help start-ups and scale-ups access new markets.

British fashion is recognised globally for its creativity. At the London Fashion Week just gone, designers such as Erdem, Tolu Coker and Simone Rocha showcased the very best of British talent. With international buyers up by 17%, we showed that we have not only the raw talent here, but the business minds to commercialise it internationally. What steps is the Department taking to help emerging British fashion brands translate that creativity into export growth and scale internationally?

3. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to promote Scottish industry abroad.

It was worth waiting for. We are clear that Royal Mail’s service performance has not been good enough. I met the sector’s independent regulator Ofcom yesterday to stress the widespread concerns among hon. Members about service standards. My hon. Friend has deep experience in this area, and I welcome his engagement with the main delivery office in Corby, where Royal Mail tells me that it is recruiting nine new postal workers to support the timeliness and quality of its postal services.

Parliamentary appearance by Rosie Wrighting

Parliamentary appearance by Tom Rutland

Parliamentary appearance by Seema Malhotra

I bring to the House this week a matter that I have raised with the Leader of the House before: fraud. As he knows, fraud is a devastating crime that can destroy people’s life savings and plunge them into debt, and it is now the most frequently experienced crime in Britain. On Monday, the Government released their fraud strategy, but anybody would be forgiven for not noticing, because no Minister came to the Dispatch Box to speak about it, and there was hardly any media coverage. Given how preva

Parliamentary appearance by Hannah Spencer