March 2026

I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of waste crime in Knowsley. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I am really pleased to have secured this debate on waste crime in Knowsley. I know this is something that my hon. Friend the Minister cares deeply about; she has met me to discuss this issue many times, and I am grateful for her genuine and meaningful engagement with finding solutions. As the Minister knows, waste crime is a national scandal, and it i

I welcome that comment, and I agree with my hon. Friend. The countless victims and survivors who I have spoken to talk about the need to have those remarks in writing and how valuable a court transcript would be in helping them to recover and process. Let me say at the Dispatch Box that the Government share the ambition to go further and to provide transcripts, but we need to do that in a workable, sustainable and effective way, so that no victim is let down by a process that is not ready or is

I am grateful for the opportunity to once again be speaking on the Victims and Courts Bill as it returns to this House. This is fundamentally a Bill for victims. At its core, the measures seek to ensure that victims are treated with dignity, compassion and respect throughout the entire justice process. The Bill will ensure that offenders are held to account by giving judges the power to impose prison sanctions on offenders who refuse to attend their own sentencing hearings—something that the fam

I beg to move, That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 1.

Q Thank you for being here. You have already looked at the impact that delays are having on officers, including the impact of managing a larger caseload. How are officers managing the sense that victims feel that they are exposed for such a long time before their case gets to trial? I imagine that the management work that you need to do is quite difficult. How are you dealing with it? Chief Constable Hatchett: A lot of it falls to the witness care units. Those are the individuals who are at the

Q Thank you for sharing your experiences. It has been incredibly powerful. Jade Blue, you said that change is not optional—we need to reduce the suffering. That has resonated with me. We need to create a system that is bearable. As victims—and you have obviously experienced trials at different places in the system—do you feel that these reforms would have made the system bearable? Is there anything specific in the reforms that you could point to? Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott: I guess there is

My hon. Friend has outlined clearly the issues caused at Simonswood in my constituency, which my constituents are also really concerned about. Constituents on the other side of my constituency are also dealing with a very similar problem at the St Joseph’s college site. Would my hon. Friend agree that, if the Environment Agency cannot or does not act promptly and robustly when we have these problems, it leads to a significant erosion of trust in the Environment Agency—and, actually, in Governmen

I rise very deliberately today, on 25 March, as it is the UN’s International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and the very day on which a UN resolution formally declaring that slave trade is a crime against humanity is being debated. It is yet to be confirmed whether the UK will support that resolution. Further to the online petition of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, which has received almost 2,000 signatures, I present a

I absolutely do, and my hon. Friend moves me on to my next point. Before I come to it, though, let me emphasise that we are acting on the 10-year health plan by developing a national plan for physical activity. That plan will set out how the Government are working across sectors, from health to sport to transport, to enable everyone, and particularly the least active, to access physical activity and benefit from social connection and improved wellbeing. My hon. Friend rightly raises the importan

Parliamentary appearance by Sir Keir Starmer

Tomorrow, he will be splashing. He invited me to drop into Peterborough as I pass by on my way home to Scunthorpe, but unfortunately I am not sure that I will be able to do that. Lidos are not only a vital part of our culture; they offer a great contribution to our health and wellbeing, too. We heard about the restoration of Worthing lido to its former glory. We heard about the value of Brockwell lido, which my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) talked about at gre

It is a pleasure to serve in this debate with you in the Chair, Mr Efford. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) on securing such an important debate. Sadly, the reality is that more than 1,200 swimming pools have been closed since 2010, a net loss of around 500 due to the austerity imposed by the coalition Government and subsequent Conservative Governments. In Stockport, not only have we lost Reddish baths, but we have serious issues at the Grand Central swimm

Parliamentary appearance by Jon Trickett

Parliamentary appearance by Sir James Cleverly

Parliamentary appearance by Claire Hanna

I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. As always, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) on securing the debate and speaking so wisely, enthusiastically and knowledgeably about the sector in his opening remarks; to the relief of everybody, that means that I will not speak as long as I originally thought I would. I have to start with a basic question t

My hon. Friend’s energy and willingness to work with Crook Community Leisure speaks for itself, but I will certainly take away that question and share it with the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley South (Stephanie Peacock). She was meant to respond to the debate, but unfortunately, due to the change in the voting pattern, she needed to get the last train to Cornwall at 7 pm, so she sends her apologies to hon. Members. She is disappointe

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I am pleased to respond to this lively and informative debate, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) on securing it and such good attendance, too. I thank all hon. Members for their contributions; I think I have collected invitations to Peterborough, Carlisle, Worthing, Stockport, Matlock and the as-yet-to-be-built sea pool on the Isle of Wight.

Parliamentary appearance by Ben Goldsborough

Parliamentary appearance by Freddie van Mierlo