Westminster Hall

Thursday 12th December 2024 Westminster Hall

Thursday 12 December 2024

[Sir Mark Hendrick in the Chair]

Backbench Business

Thursday 12th December 2024 Westminster Hall

Disability History Month

Thursday 12th December 2024 Westminster Hall

13:30

[Jen Craft (Thurrock) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Disability History Month.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark, and I am grateful to the members of the Backbench Business Committee for allowing time for this important and timely debate.

As a disabled woman and mother to a disabled daughter, I feel real personal pride in leading this debate, and I am grateful to other hon. Members who have turned up to take part. It is an opportunity to reflect on the important place that disability and disabled people have in our history, to raise awareness of the ongoing challenges that people living with a disability face, and to look forward to continuing to build a truly inclusive society.

Disability History Month is a chance to celebrate our achievements to make the UK more inclusive to disabled people. A huge amount has already been achieved since the end of world war two, when over 300,000 servicemen and women came home disabled. That homecoming exposed huge numbers of people in Britain to the realities of life with a disability, acting as a catalyst for an important change in attitudes towards disabled people. The country saw changes to the law to improve disabled people’s standards of living and work. The Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 promised sheltered employment, reserved occupations and employment quotas for disabled people. Initiatives to restore the fitness and morale of disabled servicemen and women spread to the rest of the disabled population. The NHS extended rehabilitation services to workers disabled by industrial accidents, for example.

Many disability rights charities formed in the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1951 a new social movement was started by a silent reproach march of 800 disabled ex-servicemen walking to Downing Street. The civil rights movement in America inspired disabled groups to take direct action against discrimination, poor access and inequality. A social, rather than medical, model of disability emerged.

In the years since, we have seen increased understanding of disabled people’s experiences: the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970—the first in the world to recognise and give rights to disabled people—created support services and specialist educational facilities for disabled people, and introduced the blue badge scheme; 1995 saw the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act, which made it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in employment, the provision of goods or services, education, and transport; and the Equality Act 2010, passed under the last Labour Government, made disability a protected characteristic in law, strengthening the measures in the 1995 Act, and safeguarding disabled people from direct and indirect discrimination.

Disabled campaigners who refused to accept a status quo where their experiences and lives were valued less than others in society were at the heart of those changes, as they are at the heart of calls for change today. I want to mention just one of these campaigners. Ruth Bashall, who passed away earlier this year, co-founded the Campaign for Accessible Transport in 1989, taking part in direct action protests that saw wheelchair users block central London streets. Ruth also set up Stay Safe East, a user-led organisation dedicated to tackling abuse against disabled people from diverse communities. Today the group provides advice and advocacy for victims of violence and harassment while working to improve the knowledge and practices of the police, health professionals and others as they interact with disabled people.

If we are to honour that work, we must listen to organisations like Stay Safe East when they tell us what changes are needed to ensure that disabled people can access the opportunities for self-empowerment and self-agency that we all want. We must also listen to the new generation of activists, including the young people I met last week at an event in Parliament organised by Scope, who were sharing the challenges they have faced. Storytellers like them will be a key part of the journey to equality—because it is a journey, and it is one that we are still on.

On average, one in three disabled people say that the UK is a worse place to live now than it was a decade ago. Discrimination and stigma have not gone away, with three out of four disabled people having experienced negative attitudes or behaviour in the past five years. Disabled children are too frequently deprived of the life chances that they deserve, with a special educational needs and disabilities system that is broken after 14 years of neglect.

The theme of this year’s Disability History Month is livelihood and employment, an area that sadly illustrates those ongoing barriers well. The disability employment gap has sat stubbornly at around 30% for over a decade, and behind every statistic is an individual denied the independence and security that comes with a job. According to research by Scope, more than a million disabled people want to work, but poor employer attitudes, insufficient employment support programmes and a lack of flexibility and adjustments at work make it impossible. Two thirds of disabled people said that the most common issue when applying for jobs was a fear of disclosing disability. Disabled people who are supported into work are more likely to find themselves in lower-paid roles or on a zero-hours contract.

The disability pay gap stands at around 17%, which equates to a disabled person working on average unpaid for 54 days a year. This exclusion and discrimination in employment has devastating knock-on effects for a disabled person’s livelihood and wellbeing. We know the benefits that good employment brings—better incomes, financial stability, security and a greater sense of purpose—whereas disabled people who are out of employment suffer from high levels of anxiety and lower rates of personal wellbeing. The bottom line is the financial impact, as disabled households need on average an additional £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households.

All that is against the backdrop of the number of vacancies in the UK, which stands at around 831,000. By failing to recruit disabled people and support disabled employees to stay in their jobs, employers are missing out on a wealth of talent and the benefits of a diverse workforce. I will look at some of the causes of that gap, because this is an untenable situation.

In 2023, the all-party group on eye health and visual impairment commissioned YouGov to carry out polling to look at employer attitudes towards partially sighted or blind people. The polling found that 48% of employers said that they did not have accessible recruitment processes and, more shockingly, around a quarter said that they would not be willing to make workplace adjustments to employ someone who was blind or partially sighted. One of the recommendations that the APPG published as part of its report following the poll was that the Government should review the Equality Act to ensure that it is fit for the modern labour market and that employers comply with their existing obligations under the Act. I would welcome the Minister’s views on how he can work to make that happen, taking into account the views and voices of disabled people.

With proper support, disabled people can thrive in the workplace. Organisations across the country demonstrate that, doing fantastic work to support disabled people to fulfil their career ambitions and potential. Last week, I met Charlie, who has experienced sight loss since birth and found employment through Scope’s support to work service. He spoke about how the employment adviser encouraged him to talk about his disability as a positive factor at interview, building his confidence to apply for jobs. He has now been in work for five years.

The WorkFit scheme run by the Down’s Syndrome Association promotes the skills and abilities of people who have Down’s syndrome, focusing on the positive contribution that they can make in the workplace. It is guided by the belief that in the right job and with the right support, everyone is able to work. By engaging directly with employers and candidates to provide training and advice, the scheme has supported 1,000 candidates into employment with more than 750 employers. The scheme has created lasting change, with nine out of 10 people in paid work through WorkFit retaining their job.

In my constituency, Thurrock Lifestyle Solutions is an excellent example of good practice in helping disabled people to enter and stay in the workplace. It is particularly successful because it embodies the maxim, “Nothing about us without us”; it is run, led and designed by disabled people themselves. That maxim must guide Government policy on disability.

For too long, disabled people have been sidelined in the policymaking process. They have been denied a voice while successive policy agendas on areas such as employment, education and transport have ignored their needs and left them to suffer the consequences as a result. I am encouraged by the steps that this Labour Government are taking to put disabled voices at the heart of decision making. I know that the Minister is deeply engaged with these issues, and I thank him for his commitment.

The creation of a disability lead in every Department is a very welcome step. This recognises the need to look at the experiences of disabled people through a cross-Government approach to truly understand the full societal impact of living with a disability. Can the Minister confirm whether the Government will continue engaging and working alongside disabled individuals, campaigners and charities as they seek to drive reform? And is he able to give further details on the roles and responsibilities of the departmental disability leads?

I also welcome the Government’s White Paper, “Getting Britain Working”, and particularly the pledge to put disabled people at the heart of design and delivery. I look forward to the review of the role of employers in promoting health and inclusive workplaces, to support the recruitment and retention of those with a disability.

There is an important recognition in the White Paper that the current system focuses on assessing capacity to work, rather than helping people to adapt to their health condition. The White Paper also acknowledges that too many people who would like to work are held back by the fear of losing social security payments, if they end up needing them again in the future. I hope the Minister will assure me today that that will not be forgotten. Disabled people need to know that support will be there when they need it, and that if, for whatever reason, having tried employment they find that a particular workplace does not work out, they will not lose their financial benefits as a result.

Will the Minister reassure me that the Green Paper, due to be published next spring, will not see a return to punitive measures or an assessment system so restrictive that it is, in fact, punitive? To truly deliver the huge shift necessary to see more disabled people in secure employment, we must look at these issues in the round. That starts with fixing the broken SEND system for our children, and it will take a sustained, long-term focus on the experiences of disabled children and their families to deliver an education system that meets the needs of every child. The extra £740 million of investment to increase places for pupils with SEND in mainstream schools is a significant step, because in education, employment and across Government, policy that gets it right for disabled people gets it right for everyone.

Progress has been made, and we should celebrate that and reflect with gratitude on the work of disabled campaigners who have brought us so far. However, there is still so much to be done, not only in the realms of employment and livelihood, but in accessible transport, accessible public, social and sports spaces, and ensuring that there is no place in society that disabled people are not able to rightly play their part. I have one final question to the Minister: when he chairs the meetings of the Government’s disability leads, will he work to ensure that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Transport, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Office for Equality and Opportunity are all working together to speed up progress in order to make the UK a truly inclusive place for the millions of disabled people who live here?

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

I remind Members that they need to bob, as some of you are, if they wish to be called in the debate.

13:35

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for setting the scene so well on a subject that we all engage with every day in our constituencies. I believe, as I think we all do, that we should encourage those who wish to work, and might not have had the opportunity, to do so. This debate is an opportunity to highlight this issue, raise awareness and encourage my constituents back home. I always try to give a Northern Ireland perspective to debates relating to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is that sort of debate and hopefully the Minister will answer some of our questions.

The most recent census was in 2021—indeed, this is the season to talk about the census after all. It showed that one person in four in Northern Ireland——24.3%, or some 463,000 people—had a limiting long-term health problem or disability. Forty per cent of those, or some 185,300 people, were aged 65 or over. Statistics and figures sometimes go over our heads, but if we think of those 185,300 people, that is also 185,300 families, and that impact on a population of 1.9 million in Northern Ireland is great.

It was also interesting to note that the number of people with a limiting long-term health problem or disability increased from the 2011 census to the 2021 census. Unfortunately, this shows a worrying trend. The 23.6% increase from 374,600 people in 2011 to 463,000 people in 2021 is notable and the response to it must be, too. I will ask a question to the Minister that I always ask: has he had an opportunity yet—he is in a new role as Minister—to discuss these matters with the appropriate Minister back home in the Northern Ireland Assembly? We need to ensure that we co-operate better and that our policies, strategy and response are co-ordinated right across the whole United Kingdom.

Ards and North Down borough council in my local area recently had a motion to ensure that signage was visible in council facilities to remind people that not every disability is visible. I have seen on the tube whenever I travel here that, as well as seats for disabled people, there is always a wee poster that says, “Not every disability is visible”. In this age when everybody is hustling and bustling and rushing, it is interesting to see how many times people will give up their seat maybe unknowingly to someone who has a disability. Their pride sometimes prevents them from taking the seat, but the fact is that people are kind. In this fast world we live in, it is always good to remind ourselves that people do reach out and help. It is important that we do so.

I thank my local council for its motion and for ensuring that awareness is raised. I believe that has, in its own small way, had a real impact and changed the conversation around disability. The hon. Member for Thurrock is right that we need a change in the conversation. We want people to think and talk about this issue, so she deserves a lot of credit for bringing this matter forward. We must try to teach people to understand that while a person may seem healthy at first glance, they may also be someone who needs a little more help or assistance. Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder crops up across my constituency all the time. Understanding that will help us to understand why the numbers are not what we expect. We need to ensure that every disability is acknowledged, and we must do all we can to ensure that every disabled person is heard.

This debate was in my mind during a debate we had the other day that was not specifically about this issue. We need to think about our veterans, some of whom have lost limbs, whether legs or arms, or have had terrific internal injuries. Through the Invictus games and the Paralympics, those with disabilities have been able to shine, and that should inspire us all. It should probably also humble us when we think of what those people can do with their disability. For me and for others in the House, the Invictus games and the Paralympics have become something we want to see even more, with great respect to those who are able-bodied. It is really important that we see the achievements they can reach.

I believe this is the main drive behind Disability History Month. We see where we started off, by removing the workhouses and those institutions. As the hon. Member for Thurrock said, we saw soldiers returning from war who could do more with more help. We acknowledged that there was a functioning place in society for these individuals, and the real discovery was that our society is the better for inclusivity.

I want to mention one last point about children. I have six grandchildren. Three of them have speech issues and require therapy. One of them is non-verbal, which is another disability in our children. The hon. Member for Thurrock referred to children, and it is important that we have the institutions in place, although this is a debate about disabilities, not SEND education, so I will focus on disabilities. As I say, one of my grandchildren is non-verbal, but he and children like him still have a smile and an interest in what happens around them. Education is very important to help those children to achieve their goals in life.

I have seen at first hand how many steps can be taken forward under the expert help and support that is available. The question for us in this place is this: is there enough help and support available for the massive spectrum of disability? My wife is obviously a very wise lady and a very sensible lady, given that she married me; she has been even more sensible to stay with me. She refers to disability as “difability”—a different kind of ability.

We can do more to support parents and help them to unlock their children’s potential; to ensure that mainstream schools have the capacity and finance to be a safe and engaging place to learn, with no child left behind; to help people into the workforce by supporting them and helping workplaces to afford the changes they need to make to become “difability” friendly; and to ensure that families can afford what they need and can grow. Lastly, we can do more with our ageing population, to ensure that they have the enhanced support and care required to remain at home for as long as they wish.

13:51

[Sarah Coombes (West Bromwich) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this debate, during which we can reflect on the treatment of disabled people in the past and on how we can learn from the experiences of our constituents to shape a better future.

As we focus on this year’s theme of disability, livelihood and employment, the optimists among us like to think that the arc of history tends towards progress. We have heard about the important 1944 and 1970 Acts, and the fact that 2010 was a landmark year in disability history, with the introduction of the Equality Act. Prohibiting discrimination against disabled people, the Equality Act is still one of the most progressive and long-standing legacies of the previous Labour Government.

Unfortunately, in 2024, after 14 years of Conservative Government, it feels like we are going backwards. In March this year, the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found that we have a system that “devalues” disabled people and that which results in

“hate speech and hostility”

towards them. A fragmented and inaccessible system that undermines human dignity is not one that this Labour Government stand for.

Today the disability employment gap—the difference in the employment rates for disabled people and non-disabled people—stands at around 25 percentage points in West Bromwich. That is slightly less than the national average, but it is still far too large, which is why I am pleased that the Government are addressing this disparity and listening to disabled people regarding how to do that.

It is clear that the employment support system for disabled people is not working properly, which is why the Government’s recent White Paper has a focus on enabling disabled people to find long-term work and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock said, well-paid work that they can thrive in. I am glad that the Government are investing £115 million next year to deliver Connect to Work, a new supported employment programme to match disabled people with job vacancies. It is hoped that from 2026 onwards the programme will support nearly 100,000 people a year. I can think of many very qualified disabled people in my constituency who do not have the jobs that they deserve and would do well in.

In the Budget, the Government also addressed an issue that affects many disabled people: the carer’s allowance. The previous cap was trapping people in poverty and penalising them like criminals for earning just a few pounds over the threshold. We have raised the earning limit on carer’s allowance, meaning that it is easier for people who are caring for loved ones, many of whom are disabled, to go out and work. We should be clear, though, about the scale of the challenge that many disabled people come up against when looking for work, or just going about their daily lives, whether it is the social barriers presented by other people’s perceptions of their disability or the physical barriers presented by public transport, as my hon. Friend mentioned.

Disabled people are more likely to rely on buses to get around, but unfortunately our bus system is just not good enough. The new Government are doing something about that, and I hope the Minister will say more about that in his response to the debate. Unfortunately, the 45 bus service from West Brom to Walsall, which I campaigned to save, is still so unreliable that it often leaves passengers stranded or forces them to abandon their journeys; the loss of the 46 bus means that elderly and disabled people on Old Walsall Road now have to navigate an enormous hill; and the fact that there are no direct buses to the train station from Oakham means that many residents find it hard to work further afield, go shopping in the city centre or take part in sport.

I will touch on sport, as other Members have, because it is worth mentioning areas where progress has been made. Of course, we have a long way to go to make sure that all sport is accessible, but I will pay tribute to a few people in my area. In West Brom, we are proud that our local football club is famous up and down the land, but there is one part of the club that is not so widely known. West Bromwich Albion are the reigning champions of at least one league—the national league premiership for powerchair football. Their goalkeeper and player-manager Chris Gordon, who has spinal muscular atrophy, has a career and livelihood that is centred on sport—not despite his disability but because of it.

Another local champion of sporting opportunities for people with disabilities and learning disabilities was Norma Hyde from neighbouring Halesowen. In 1983 she set up Special Olympics Sandwell, for which this year she was rightly recognised in the King’s birthday honours list.

Finally, Blind Dave Heeley—as he calls himself—is a local legend in West Brom. Having lost his sight at a young age, he committed himself to fundraising through sport. He recently cycled 1,000 km along the western front in Europe, and once did seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, becoming the first and only blind person in the world to achieve this. In the process, he raised millions of pounds.

Of course, not every disabled person needs to be inspiring, run marathons or be at the top of the league to deserve fulfilling employment, a decent livelihood and access to transport. As parliamentarians, we must put the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of what we do and work towards a future that is truly inclusive for everyone.

13:56

[Alison Griffiths (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark, and to contribute to this important debate, which I thank the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing. She made many important points, some of which I will also mention.

As has already been said, the theme of this year’s UK Disability History Month is disability, livelihood and employment. My interest in this issue has its foundations in losing 70% of my hearing from bacterial meningitis when I was aged 19. Ironically, being the Member of Parliament for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton is the first job in which I feel my disability has been a positive advantage, giving me a platform from which to advocate for others. My niece was born with spinal muscular atrophy, giving me a window into the experience of more acute disability in the workplace and the challenges she faces on a daily basis.

In 1995 it was a Conservative Government, under John Major, who delivered the first UK legislation to protect disabled people from various forms of discrimination. In the last 30 years, new protections have improved the work situation of disabled people. A good example is the Access to Work programme, which, if implemented and understood properly by business, can remove some of the barriers that employers may perceive in taking on a disabled employee.

Many disabled people are eager to work and contribute, but face significant barriers in understanding which opportunities are truly accessible to them. While there is a lot of emphasis on getting disabled people into further education, that same support is not prevalent beyond university. Many disabled people want to work, contribute to society, pay taxes and have a work routine that makes them feel valued. Time should be taken to understand not only what is possible but what an individual aspires to achieve.

Managing a disability can feel like a full-time job in itself. To enable disabled people to contribute to our society through work, we need systems that offer flexibility, and that safeguard benefits and allow individuals to take on work without jeopardising their health or their financial stability. A manager saying, “Tell me what you need and I will do it” is a great start, but the reality is that in a new job there are so many unknowns. For those with additional access needs, what is needed can be hard to define at the outset, without prior knowledge of exactly what the job entails. People’s needs can vary widely, depending on the disability.

There is an opportunity to create transformational change quickly. If we increase the prevalence of access co-ordinators, they can provide an interface between businesses, line managers and disabled employees and jobseekers. Their role is to implement best practice from other organisations and identify the help that is available. By supporting a disabled employee’s career progression—which can be even more challenging with geographic and access constraints—they can help to deliver the autonomy and flexibility that works for both employer and employee, ultimately ensuring that disabled employees have access to a career, not just a job.

14:00

[Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate. Derby has the largest number of deaf people outside of London, which I am sure is in no small part because we are privileged to have the Royal School for the Deaf Derby. This specialist school was founded in 1894 by Dr William Roe, after he witnessed a young deaf man being bullied and called “Dumb Jack”. Dr Roe was struck by the social and educational exclusion of deaf people, and this Disability History Month I pay tribute to him and the school that he created.

There is no doubt that attitudes across society towards people who are deaf or have hearing loss have come a long way. The country was mesmerised when Rose Ayling-Ellis waltzed her way to lifting the glitterball trophy on “Strictly Come Dancing”, providing an overdue weekly prime-time lesson on deaf awareness and deaf culture for the nation. Films such as “The Silent Child” and “CODA” have not just showcased the rich talent that exists within the deaf community, but used stories and humour to give wider society an insight into the deaf existence and the barriers that people face on a daily basis.

The media representation of the deaf community has certainly, and rightfully, grown in recent years, whether through deaf participation in “Love Island”, “Bake Off”, or “Married at First Sight”, or simple acts of inclusion in everyday interactions, but people who are deaf or have hearing loss are still marginalised in society, and there is still so much to do to provide the community with the life chances they deserve.

Children and young people from across our country attend the Royal School for the Deaf Derby, which offers both day and residential specialist education. Last week, the Ofsted inspection on its residential provision was published, grading it as outstanding in all areas; I invite the Minister, if I may, to join me in congratulating the school. The school is also the largest employer in the midlands for deaf BSL users, who are incredible role models for their pupils, and provides training and development to partner agencies in Derbyshire and Derby. One example mentioned in the Ofsted report was a firefighter that the school had trained, who was able to use sign language in an emergency, providing support and reassurance to an individual involved in a road traffic collision.

I have seen art by the school’s pupils that was shown an exhibition alongside work by renowned deaf photographer Stephen Iliffe at the Artcore gallery in Derby, celebrating the achievements of the deaf community, highlighting the diverse experiences in careers of deaf people, and demonstrating that, with the right support, there are no limits to what they can accomplish.

However, we know that our wider education system across the country far too frequently fails our children and young people. The attainment gap facing deaf pupils is equivalent to 12 months of learning by the end of primary school, and, at GCSE, deaf students perform more than a whole grade worse than their non-deaf peers in both English and maths. People who are deaf or have hearing loss are also penalised in the labour market. Less than four in 10 working-age people who use BSL as their first language are in employment. A third of that group are classified as long-term economically inactive—a total waste of their talents and ability. That point was made powerfully by my hon. Friends the Members for Thurrock and for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes).

Sadly, there are also far too many examples where the NHS is not doing enough to provide appropriate access. Two in three people who use BSL as their first language have no accessible method of contacting their GP, and four in five patients who are deaf or have hearing loss reported having an appointment at which their communication needs were unmet. Deaf people also suffer worse outcomes for physical and mental health than their peers. These are public policy failures, and as MPs and decision makers in Westminster, we need to take action to fix them.

There are many brilliant charities providing evidence and expertise to feed into that work. We recently had four of them—the British Deaf Association, the National Deaf Children’s Society, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and SignHealth—in Parliament, at an event that I hosted and at which we were honoured to have the Minister attend and speak. Charities can act as a bridge to their communities, helping to facilitate policy- makers to learn directly from the lived experience of the communities themselves.

The work that we need to do in Westminster to support the deaf community cuts across Government, and we need action from all Government Departments—Health, Education, Transport, the Home Office, Business and Trade, Work and Pensions and others. I thank the Minister for and congratulate him on the positive step forward that we have seen with the appointment of lead Ministers in each Department to champion disability inclusion and accessibility. In his cross-Government role, I am sure that he will passionately drive the policies that we need to see in the lives of deaf and disabled people, so that they can thrive and we can all benefit from the full use of their talents and skills.

14:07

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

May I begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing the debate and leading it with such a wealth of knowledge and experience? I think we all benefited greatly from her presentation. This is a slightly unusual debate, because it is the first one that I can recall in recent times when the splendid hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) was the first Back Bencher to be called; that is a little bit of an in-joke, but most people familiar with his wonderful but very frequent contributions will understand what I mean.

I was encouraged to take part in this debate by the fine example of the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova), who chairs the APPG on eye health and visual impairment. I know she is very disappointed that she cannot be here today, but I understand that there is a visitation in her constituency of the sort that no MP can refuse to attend. I should like to record my gratitude to her pleasant and dedicated team for supplying me with some very helpful information, which I now intend to deploy. According to the charity Scope, there are well over 16,000 people living with a disability in my constituency of New Forest East, and I should like to say a few words to honour their efforts to work and live well despite the challenges that they face.

Disability History Month is now an annual event celebrating the history, contributions and struggles of disabled people. A motion that marked the first Disability History Month was tabled in the Commons in November 2010, signed by 79 hon. and right hon. Members, including the former Father of the House, Sir Peter Bottomley, and my late, great friend, Sir David Amess. Among other things, the motion called upon schools, colleges, universities, local authorities, employers, the public and the media to recognise and celebrate UK Disability History Month, and encouraged them to campaign to improve the then—and still, sadly—unequal position of disabled people in society by working towards greater equality and inclusion.

That cause has certainly been taken up by a good number of people and organisations. I am particularly lucky to have in my constituency the Minstead Trust, which works to support people with learning disabilities. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a jewel in the crown of the New Forest. I was very interested in some earlier comments by hon. Members about the importance of the work ethic for disabled people, because the Minstead Trust has acquired the wonderful Hanger Farm Arts Centre, which is a terrific facility with a tremendous programme of visiting artists and performers. It also gives work experience opportunities to the people who benefit directly from the trust, and is an outlet for some of the goods that they manufacture under the auspices of the trust. It is a terrific facility for the community as well, so there are big wins all around from that wonderful project—long may it continue.

The Minstead Trust also encourages workplaces to be inclusive in their recruitment practices, so that they can enjoy the benefits that people with learning disabilities can bring to the businesses that take them on. That is important because, as we have heard, this year’s UK Disability History Month theme is indeed livelihood and employment. We know that there are all types of benefits to working, including social benefits. Doing something that one enjoys can quell loneliness, create important social bonds and give one a sense of purpose. The benefits of including disabled people in our workplaces really are enormous.

There are many other realms, however, where inclusion could be better. The former Minister of State for the Department for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies), understood this. She led the disability champions work across Government, where each Department of State had one Minister who was a disability champion, with a personal commitment to championing accessibility and opportunity for disabled people within their Department’s policies. The ministerial disability champions met regularly to discuss plans, such as the disability action plan, as well as the impact of the high cost of living on disabled people. I am certainly pleased that the new Government are continuing in the same vein with their disability leads in each Department.

The same former Minister also recognised that some disabled people have significant extra costs relating to expensive equipment, home adaptations and so forth that they need in order to get by. The previous Conservative Government provided a substantial cost of living support package. Nevertheless, according to the charity Scope, the disability price tag—the extra money needed by a disabled household to have the same standard of living as a non-disabled household—in my constituency is well over £900.

We all know that it is not just extra financial costs that disabled people face. Almost three quarters of disabled people in my constituency are estimated to have experienced negative attitudes. Although a great many people in local schools, health providers, businesses and community centres are knowledgeable and respectful of the challenges facing the disabled community, it is also true that when we look at the national picture, outdated attitudes towards disabled people sometimes spill over into harassment and abuse. Disabled people are more likely to be the victims of crime and are twice as likely to experience harassment than non-disabled people. Disabled women are more than three times as likely to experience domestic abuse. I am sure that all hon. and right hon. Members are united on the need to end that, and I look forward to seeing what the Minister will do to work with his colleagues to ensure that the police and other services take a comprehensive and informed view when tackling abuse against disabled people.

It is not a simple subject. Victims of disability hate crime, discrimination, or sexual violence can have their experiences compounded by the double or triple discrimination that they face as women, as people of colour or for some other identifying factor, but there are charities led by disabled people who can provide expert advice and information about how better to support disabled people who are at risk of harm. I hope the Minister will say something about how his Government will work with such specialist charities.

I would like to pay personal tribute to those Members of Parliament who are living with disabilities. It was significant to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) explain the extra burden, in addition to the normal burdens of being an assiduous Member of Parliament, her hearing loss has caused. I said at the beginning that I was encouraged to take part in this debate by the hon. Member for Battersea, who I regard as a personal friend. I find the way that she copes with her eye disability absolutely inspiring.

I speak from a little personal knowledge, because when I was an undergraduate I lost 18 months after a severe allergic reaction to some eyedrops, which prevented my being able to read. When one is a student at university that is a bit of a problem—

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

Order. We are running over and need to get other speakers in.

[Sir Julian Lewis]

Sorry. I remember once, before I knew it would come right—as it finally did—walking past the Palace of Westminster and thinking ruefully, “To think I thought I would ever get to be a Member of Parliament!” I got over that problem, and I did get to be a Member of Parliament. I take off my hat to those MPs with far worse disabilities—permanent disabilities—who nevertheless have joined this place and contribute so much to its proceedings.

14:17

[Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. As many people know, I am an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, with a special interest in hearing loss and ear diseases. That has been my life’s work, so I declare a big interest in this subject.

Deafness and hearing loss are invisible disabilities, but they are common—very common. They affect 70% of people over the age of 70, and 40% of people over the age of 40. Hearing aids are free on the NHS, but millions of people who could benefit from them do not have one, and many people who do have one simply do not use it—perhaps up to 5 million people. Perhaps a million of our fellow citizens cannot hear conversational speech, with many unable to contact their GP or use health services. Many deaf people do not work because the adjustments that could and should be made for them are not made. Deaf awareness among employers is insufficient.

I will talk a little about earwax. Occluding earwax, which causes hearing loss and is also caused by hearing aid moulds, is a huge issue for deaf people. The services in this country to remove it are very patchy. Before I became an MP, I was the chair of a deaf association in East Anglia, a charity that helped thousands of deaf people and had contracts from the NHS to provide ear care and hearing aids. I believe that charity is a model of community-based, not-for-profit NHS ear care to the population that could be widely copied. The charity has mobile services for rural locations and can provide ear care in residential settings with one-stop provision of wax removal, audiology and hearing aids, keeping people communicating, connected and able to work.

I also commend the work of many excellent larger charities set up to help people with hearing loss, some of which were here in Parliament this week. The RNID estimates that the cost of hearing loss to the economy is £30 billion a year due to loss of earnings, reduced quality of life and increased social care costs. The solution to much of the problem is obvious: hearing aids must be just about the most useful disability aid ever invented. Let us do what we can in this Parliament to support our NHS audiology and hearing aid services. After all, most of us will need them one day.

Let us not ignore deafness when we talk about disability. I read about a young person with hearing loss who said:

“One of the worst things is when people say something I miss…they say ‘oh it doesn’t matter’. It probably didn’t matter to them at the time, but it makes me feel I don’t matter.”

I think that matters to all of us.

14:21

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark.

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing the debate. Her speech covered a lot of ground, and she paid warm tribute to campaigners in her constituency and beyond. She told the story, with great eloquence, of the journey that is still in progress on disability rights. I remember her speaking with passion about the subject in her maiden speech, too.

The hon. Lady also spoke of the need to promote equality of access, and cited examples of how positive change in the workplace can be achieved through the right supportive schemes. She and other Members also mentioned the importance of the links with education and transport, reminding us that this issue cuts across all aspects of government and society. She was right to call on the Government to focus on support and positive action rather than sanctions and punishment.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) talked about the importance of supporting and encouraging people into work and gave the Northern Ireland context. He rightly reminded us that not all disabilities are visible. The hon. Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) spoke of the importance of support for carers and of high-quality transport to enable people to access society equally.

The hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) was right to cite the then Conservative Government’s contribution in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Hopefully we can all work together across the House to continue to reduce, and ultimately end, discrimination against disabled people, including in the workplace.

We must do far more to tackle barriers to work, including by providing more support for employers to change the way they view disability. In the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto, we committed to make the benefits system work better for disabled people by giving them, and organisations that represent them, a stronger voice in the design of benefit policies and processes. We would like work capability assessments to be brought in-house and personal independence payment assessments to be reformed to make the process more transparent and stop unnecessary reassessments and the use of informal assessments. We would also like to empower more people to enter the job market, including parents, carers and disabled people themselves, by making more use of technology and new ways of working.

We welcome the Government’s long-term ambition to achieve an 80% employment rate, and a number of measures in their “Get Britain Working” White Paper published last month. Under the Conservative Government, the UK was the only economy to see its employment rate fall over the past five years, and they undermined apprenticeships, left mental health services not fit for purpose and ran our NHS into the ground.

We welcome the Government’s proposed steps to improve access to skills, training and education and to reduce shockingly high mental health care waiting lists. However, we call on them to go further. We would like to see regular mental health check-ups made available and new mental health hubs in all communities. We would like to see more done on providing better flexible working, given that 52% of carers who apply for it have their application refused. The Government should guarantee that apprentices are paid at least the national minimum wage by scrapping the lower apprentice rate. I also note that disability charities such as Disability Rights UK have some concern about the balance between positive, supportive measures, and potential sanctions and punishment, in forthcoming legislation.

We have heard from many hon. Members about the importance of local charities and about particular constituency circumstances. More than 12,000 households in my Oxfordshire constituency of Didcot and Wantage include at least one disabled person, which represents nearly 28% of all households in the constituency. Thankfully, local authorities and charities work together to help provide assistance. Oxfordshire county council runs a community support service—hosted in the towns of Wantage and Wallingford—with activities and services to help people stay healthy, independent and engaged. As the years have moved on, the service in Wantage has adapted to meet the changing social care needs of the area. Wantage market garden was created in the green space behind the service and is now looked after by the community action group Sustainable Wantage, in partnership with care provider Style Acre and the county council. Services like these are vital for the inclusion and support of disabled people.

We know that on average, disabled people take far fewer trips per year than non-disabled people, which is why, in addition to improving bus and rail services, community transport services such as Vale Community Impact, Cholsey Volunteers, Didcot Volunteer Drivers and Wallingford Volunteer Drivers, are such an important lifeline. I am proud that Oxfordshire county council has awarded over £100,000 of grants to those organisations. Most railway stations in my constituency have seen accessibility improvements in recent times, but Cholsey is the busiest that currently lacks them. I call on Network Rail, Great Western Railway and the Government to support an accessibility scheme at that station.

We have heard from the hon. Members for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) about the importance of helping and supporting people with hearing loss. At the risk of oversharing, I am also afflicted by occasional earwax problems, so can certainly recognise that point. Perhaps I shall turn to the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket for advice on how to deal with that vexing problem.

In conclusion, we must do more to support those with additional needs. I hear regularly from my constituents that accessing the support they need through personal independence applications is challenging to say the least. We must support employers to make reasonable adjustments for employees through schemes like Access to Work and, as the hon. Member for Strangford said, support children with special educational needs so that they can thrive in their education. We must also provide more funding for CAMHS, the child and adolescent mental health services. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say.

14:28

[Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I congratulate the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate during Disability History Month. As someone with a disability herself, she will likely know that everyday life can be so much harder for those with a disability than for those of us fortunate to be able to take our health more or less for granted.

Before I was elected to Parliament, I had an inspirational colleague who had suffered a spinal injury that left her unable to walk. Our jobs were demanding—a 70-hour week was not uncommon—and somehow my colleague managed to do the work, and do it brilliantly, despite all the extra challenges of life in a wheelchair, including the difficulty of getting to and from work and navigating inaccessible buildings, and all the extra effort it takes to do the everyday things that so many of us do without thinking, like getting dressed or taking a shower. Working alongside her made me realise the importance of the things that we have done to help disabled people over the years, like making buildings and transport more accessible.

I also saw the consequences of people failing to give any thought to those needs: for example, by using disabled toilets as storage cupboards, or leaving them locked so that people have to go on a mission to find the key—a mission that is doubly hard for someone in a wheelchair. My colleague’s disability was obvious, but we should be sure to remember people whose disabilities are hidden and not to underestimate the difficulty that such disabilities can add to life. For instance, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) said with great insight that in this job it is the first time her hearing loss has felt like an advantage as she uses her platform as an MP to advocate for others. She argued powerfully for disabled people to be able to access not just a job but a career.

Alongside talking about the challenges, this Disability History Month is a chance to reflect on pivotal moments of progress for disabled people and to celebrate the individual heroes who picked up the cause and made the running—metaphorically and sometimes in practice. If we cast our minds back, for instance, to summer 2012, right here in London the international bar was raised and a new standard was set for what disabled people could imagine achieving.

More than 4,000 para-athletes from 164 countries competed with everything they had in front of a physical audience of 2.7 million people. It was watched on 3.8 billion television screens around the world, with record- breaking audiences, including a record number of young people growing up with a disability who were waking up each day and thinking, “If I put my mind to it, that could be me.” We in this country made a leap forward at that moment, and as we did so, we led the world. The message is repeated at every Paralympic games: never underestimate what someone with a disability can do.

That brings me to disability employment. The Government should recognise the challenges that disabled people face, but must not dissuade anyone of their ability to overcome them. On the contrary, the Government must lean into the barriers to employment and help to knock them aside. On that my party has a strong track record. As a new Back Bencher, I remember being encouraged by a passionate disabilities Minister at the time, Justin Tomlinson, to get involved in our Disability Confident programme to get employers across the country to think differently about disabilities.

In 2017 we set a target to get a million more disabled people into work by 2027, and we met that target five years early; there are now 5.5 million disabled people in work. We took practical steps to achieve that, including working with employers, as I mentioned; funding Access to Work, which helped more than 67,000 people in 2023-24; launching universal support to give personalised support to long-term sick and disabled people to find and stay in work; and providing supported internships for people with special educational needs. Those are just a few examples.

I am a firm believer that work is the best way to improve our standard of living, as well as giving us the satisfaction of a job well done—a view that I am sure is shared by many, if not all, hon. Members present, and also argued for compellingly by my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) in his extremely well-informed speech. The question is not whether someone can work, but what work they can do and how. If a person with disabilities needs help to work, where does that help come from? Often it comes from family, community, charities—as hon. Members have referred to today, which often have deep expertise—volunteers who give their time and compassion, and, as I have set out, the Government.

The Government’s resources must be targeted. Since the pandemic, we all know that the number of people who are economically inactive due to ill health has surged, reaching 2.8 million people. Apart from the cost, that is a waste of talent and potential. That is why, when the Conservatives were in government, we embarked on reforms to help people to stay in work or get back to work—reforms to fit notes, the launch of WorkWell, the launch of universal support, and our work with employers. We reformed welfare to make sure that financial incentives did not get in the way of work.

I welcome the Government taking forward many of those reforms, but I believe they have made a grave error in kicking the can down the road on the accompanying benefit reforms. Every day that someone who could work is getting money from benefits instead is money that could help a disabled person to live their life to the full.

As I conclude I will return to history, given the topic of the debate. The Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944, which was introduced in response to the second world war, as the hon. Member for Thurrock said, laid the path for disability legislation and protections for the next 80 years. We live in a different era, but our welfare system is built on the vision of our predecessors who were determined to make sure that soldiers who were wounded defending our freedom would be supported on their return home. When the Conservatives were in government, we put our shoulder to the wheel to make our welfare system fit for the 21st century. We made progress, but there is much more to do. Every hon. Member who has spoken today has made important suggestions.

This Disability History Month is a chance to send an emphatic message of encouragement to people with disabilities across the whole United Kingdom. We know how hard every day can be, but let there be no limits to what they can achieve.

14:35

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)]

I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on initiating this debate and on her speech. We have been reminded that Disability History Month was inaugurated by an early-day motion in this House in 2010, of which our former colleague, Dame Anne Begg, herself a wheelchair user, was the lead signatory. This is an opportunity for us to reflect on the progress made and the challenges we still face, and listen to the voices rightly calling for a more inclusive society. We want to celebrate the achievements of disabled people throughout history. We recognise the barriers that they have overcome, including those that persist.

I agree with the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) that the examples of those with a disability who have served in this House, past and present, are inspiring. I did not know that he had a period at university without sight. I am familiar with some of his university activities, but not with that one, so it was very interesting to hear that.

Understanding history helps us to learn and grow as a society. In this month, in honouring the pioneers of disability rights and listening to the experiences of disabled people, we commit to working together for a more inclusive future. I will set out the Government’s actions for delivering access and inclusion to all disabled people through our missions and our plans for a decade of national renewal.

My hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock highlighted the stubborn disability employment gap, which, as she said, has been stuck at 30 percentage points across the country for the past 30 years. I was pleased to hear that in West Bromwich it is slightly less, but it is still much too high, so we need to make progress on it. We want to provide better support to enable disabled people who are able and want to work to move into and progress in employment.

I am grateful for what hon. Members have said about our “Get Britain Working” White Paper, published a couple of weeks ago, which announced some important reforms. We are changing the outcomes against which we measure success. We are focusing not just on getting somebody into a job, but on achieving higher engagement with everyone, on the employment being sustained and on whether it leads to pay progression.

We will overhaul jobcentres and deliver a new youth guarantee to ensure that nobody is left on the scrapheap when they are young. We want local Get Britain Working plans to be drawn up in every area in England, bringing together jobcentres, colleges, skills providers, the NHS, employers and local charities to tackle economic inactivity. Importantly, the White Paper announced a disability employment panel, with which we will work to ensure the voices of disabled people are at the heart of the reforms we introduce.

I was very interested to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock about WorkFit, which she has mentioned to me previously. I am keen to find out more about it. It was also good to hear from the right hon. Member for New Forest East about the Minstead Trust and Hanger Farm. We need such models to address the chronically low rate of employment among people with learning disabilities.

My hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) rightly spoke about public transport and access to work. I have spoken to a number of disabled people about the barriers to employment, and public transport accessibility is right at the top of many of their lists. I am pleased that the Bus Services Bill will include measures to improve the accessibility of bus and coach stops and introduce powers to create statutory guidance on inclusive design. I am also pleased that the Department for Transport is working closely with disability advocacy groups, including the Department’s own Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, but we certainly need to make a lot of progress in that area.

We fully recognise that some people, through ill health or disability, are not working. We are determined to ensure that they also have the support that they need. We know that many of those who are out of work through ill health or disability would love to be in a job, but at the moment, they face insuperable barriers that prevent them from working. Those barriers include features of the benefits system.

At the moment, the standard rate in the benefits system is at its lowest level, in real terms, in 40 years, which makes it hard for people who receive it to support their families. If they can convince my Department that they are too sick to work, they receive additional cash but no help at all to return to work. That means that the benefits system is driving people with health problems into inactivity.

We are committed to reforming the system so that health and disability benefits support disabled people into work and to live independently. Alongside “Get Britain Working”, we will be setting out reform proposals in the spring in a Green Paper, to be followed by a full 12-week consultation. That is because we want to think about it properly and take account of everybody’s views so we can get it right.

In introducing the debate, as well as mentioning the disability employment gap, my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock also rightly mentioned the disability pay gap, and we are working on that as well. We are developing the equality (race and disability) Bill to deliver our manifesto commitment on disability pay gap reporting for larger employers, and to place on the statute book the full right to equal pay for disabled people. That work needs to be informed by the views of disabled people and of the employers that will implement the new requirements. We will launch a public consultation early in the new year, when we will want to hear from disabled people, their representative organisations and employers to help to shape the legislation.

Since July, I have been meeting regularly with a range of disability groups and organisations, and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing so. In the past week, I have met the Disabled People’s Organisations Forum England, which is made up of more than 40 organisations led by disabled people. I have also met the Disability Charities Consortium, comprising nine of the largest disability charities. The first of those meetings was online; the second one was face to face. Also online, I have met our regional stakeholder network, which is made up of representatives from nine networks across the UK of members of the public who are committed to using their own experience to improve the lives of other disabled people locally. I also work with the Government’s disability and access ambassadors, who are senior business leaders from 12 sectors, from advertising to universities. They provide personal leadership to help deliver good-quality services for disabled people, and to encourage improvements to accessibility.

Hearing impairment has been a significant feature in the debate, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) on the event she hosted in the Attlee Suite. Was that yesterday?

[Catherine Atkinson]

indicated assent.

[Sir Stephen Timms]

It was a very good event. I made some rather poor efforts to address the group in British Sign Language—my first attempt. I know that she will be pleased—I am sure the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) will be as well—to know that we are committed to supporting the British Sign Language advisory board, which was set up in the wake of Rosie Cooper’s British Sign Language Act 2022. It is the UK Government’s first dual-language board focusing on key issues that affect deaf people. We are committed to promoting and supporting British Sign Language and we will shortly be publishing the 2023-24 British Sign Language annual report.

I am pleased to join my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North in congratulating the Royal School for the Deaf Derby on the accolades that it has received from Ofsted, and I very much agree with the important points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) about the importance of what is being provided to ensure that people’s hearing is well looked after and supported.

I need to work closely with ministerial colleagues and with other Departments right across Government to ensure that disabled people get the support they need to overcome the daily barriers that they face. The commitment that I am setting out today on behalf of the Government needs to be a whole of Government endeavour, so I was very pleased about and grateful for what Members said in the debate about my announcement last week of a lead Minister for disability in every Department to represent the interests of disabled people and to champion disability inclusion and accessibility in their Department. I will chair regular meetings with the members of that group and encourage them to engage directly with disabled people and their representative organisations as they work on their departmental priorities. I am looking forward to the group’s first meeting next week, and I can give my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock the assurance that she is looking for about our shared aims and what that group will be working towards.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

It is fantastic to hear about all that the Government are doing on disability. My right hon. Friend the Minister will know that many disabled people rely on family and friends to provide care and support to enable them to have a full life—to participate in work, school and other things that they enjoy—so will he reassure me and others that, in taking a cross-departmental approach to disability, he will be considering the important role of family carers?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her point and can certainly give her the assurance that she seeks. As she knows, in the Budget we made an important improvement to the arrangements for carer’s allowance through the commitment that the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance will be increased to 16 hours a week at the national living wage rate. That will be a permanent link with the national living wage and, we hope, will overcome the problem that a lot of carers have run into over the last few years, whereby they get a bit of a pay rise that tips them above the threshold and therefore inadvertently receive an overpayment of carer’s allowance. We hope that the change will help, and we know that the increase itself will bring about 60,000 more family carers into eligibility for carer’s allowance.

As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer said in the Budget, we will also be looking at the possibility of a new taper arrangement for carer’s allowance, in order to move away from the current cliff edge, which has always been there. That will require quite substantial IT development; it will not be ready overnight, but I think that my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) will agree that it is quite a promising idea to improve support for unpaid carers in the future.

My focus is primarily on domestic disability policy, but I also oversee UK implementation of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and represent domestic disability-related policy on international platforms, so in October I attended the first ever G7 disability inclusion summit, which was hosted by the Italian presidency and held just outside Assisi, where I and my G7 counterparts and Ministers from several other countries all signed up to the Solfagnano charter. That sets out a collective agreement to advance work in eight key areas, among which is:

“Inclusion as a priority issue in the political agenda of all countries”.

It is a useful document, focusing specifically on disability inclusion all the way through. We have also worked to extend the UN convention to a number of UK overseas territories. We recently extended the treaty to Bermuda—the first British overseas territory to which it has been extended. I can confirm that we are committed to protecting and promoting the rights of disabled people around the world as well as in the UK.

A great perk of my job was to attend the Paralympic games in Paris in August. The hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) was right to draw attention to the huge improvement that was the London 2012 Paralympic games, which took the Paralympics movement to a new level. I visited the athletes’ village in August, and it was most interesting to see how it had been laid out to be accessible to everybody. There were ramps everywhere and electrical devices at the bottom of every slope that people could clip on to their wheelchair to help them up it. It is worth making the point that in those games, we came second in the medals table, ahead of the United States and all the other European countries and behind only China. The games attracted unprecedented support and audiences, with the venues full of enthusiastic —and, I must say, highly partisan—French audiences. It was good to hear everybody highlighting the importance of UK leadership in not just starting the games at Stoke Mandeville, but hosting the groundbreaking 2012 games. The unique contribution of Channel 4 in 2012, and ever since, has clearly been deeply appreciated around the world in the Paralympics movement.

My hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich was absolutely right to draw attention to the importance of disabled people being able to be physically active. There is a problem in the benefits system, because too often people fear that being physically active could lead to them losing their benefits. We need to address that challenge of reforming the system in our Green Paper, when it is published in the spring.

Disability History Month reminds us that progress is a shared endeavour. Working together across Government, across the House and with the wider community, we can build a society in which everyone can participate fully and equally. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) rightly raised the question of the extent to which I am working with Ministers in Northern Ireland, in Scotland and in Wales. I met Minister Lyons from Northern Ireland when he came to London, and the Minister for Transformation, my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Andrew Western), also met him on his recent visit to Northern Ireland. The hon. Member for Strangford is right to underline the importance of us working together across the United Kingdom on these priorities.

Let us honour the courage and contributions of disabled people, past and present, by reaffirming our commitment to not just a month of reflection, but a permanent springboard for lasting change and a more inclusive future.

14:53

[Jen Craft]

I thank the hon. Members who have taken part in the debate. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) who was instrumental in securing the debate, and her and her team for their help in the preparation of my speech.

I will reflect on some of the issues that have been raised by Members across the House. I thank the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) for her words about this being the first job where she feels her disability is a bonus; they ring true for a lot of us in this place. That is certainly something that we should take away as disabled Members—what it means to people outside to see us in this place and the message that we can send.

The right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) said that when he lost his sight, he could not imagine being in this place. I would say to anyone watching, “You can. We are here. We are very proud to be here, and you are welcome in this House.” There is long way to go for it to be fully accessible, but there are disabled MPs—more of us than people know—and we are growing in number.

I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for raising the issues that deaf people have with access to employment. To first language British Sign Language speakers, I would say that one of the access needs of this House is that [In British Sign Language: There is no BSL on Floor of House.] That will mean something to people who see it at home. I will apologise for doing that afterwards, rather than ask permission, Sir Mark.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for raising wider issues around transport access, which often forms barriers to employment, and also for highlighting that disabled people do not need to be inspirational to deserve the rights and access that everyone enjoys.

I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for his moving reflections on his grandchild with additional needs. Quite often, as the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately), mentioned, it is when people come into close contact with a disabled person that they find their own attitudes adjusting and realise that there is something about the art of the possible. We can all reflect on whether we are doing enough to adjust our own attitudes towards disability and what is possible.

I thank the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) for raising the issue of discrimination in the workplace and what that looks like. My own experience of employment has been mixed. To experience discrimination based on who you are in a workplace situation is quite a shocking thing. It takes a while to come back from it and to realise that the whole multifaceted thing that makes up “you” has an awful lot to offer. That is something to reflect on.

Finally, I thank the Minister for his thoughts. As I said at the start of the debate, it is incredibly encouraging to see a commitment to put disabled voices at the heart of decision making. I hope he will take that away as the Government develop their approach towards disabled people, not just on the issue of employment but across Government, and make sure that the disabled voice is right at the heart of every policy area that may have an impact on the lives of disabled people—and I would say that that is every policy area. I thank him for his reflection on his experience at the Paris Paralympics. A lot of people who have been in a space that is specifically made for disabled people find themselves thinking, “Why can’t everything be like this? How much better would the world be if access was built right into the system?” The only way to get that is by including disabled people in the design process and in decision making right from the start.

To conclude, I very much would like to be stood here next year in Disability History Month, reflecting on a year of progress. Instead of discussing some of the things we have today, I would like to be looking at how far we have come over the previous 12 months. For a long while, disabled people have been very good at adapting the way we act and at bending to society’s norms. I would throw a challenge out there: maybe it is about time that society bent to us a little bit as well.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

This this House has considered Disability History Month.

Floating Offshore Wind: Celtic Sea

Thursday 12th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Clive Efford in the Chair]

14:59

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. We are here today to talk about floating offshore wind, particularly in the Celtic sea. It is the next frontier in the UK’s clean energy transition, and is positioned to unlock up to 4 GW of power by 2035—enough to power 4 million homes. There are huge opportunities for Cornwall, the south-west of England and Wales, because the Celtic sea is all around us.

The ambition is to put floating offshore wind in the south-west, where it would complement other offshore arrays. The opportunities that arise from it for Cornwall and the region—for our supply chain, which is poised to expand, for our economy and for our people, who will benefit from skilled, good jobs—are vast. However, to be quite brutal, an ambition is pretty much all that it is so far.

The first question is, why floating offshore wind? Eighty per cent of the world’s potential offshore wind resources are in deeper waters. The Climate Change Committee estimates that the UK needs 100 GW of offshore wind by 2050, which is feasible only through the development of FLOW. FLOW is new technology, and the UK could be at the forefront of developing it for a global market, rather than relying on overseas supply chains and losing out on new investment in UK industries. The potential for jobs is vast.

Why the Celtic sea? Offshore wind has a successful history off the east coast of the UK. However, the wind blows both ways. By developing FLOW in the Celtic sea, we can maximise the energy generated and mitigate the intermittency. Previously, that was not possible due to the depth of the seabed, but new floating technology has opened up the region to development, and this could be a huge opportunity if it is done well. The current Government target is for 5 GW to be produced by FLOW by 2030. It is estimated that a 4.5 GW programme in the Celtic sea, as modelled by the Crown Estate, would lead to £1.4 billion in gross value added and 5,300 jobs in the development of port infrastructure and critical component supply across the region.

However, there are barriers. As I have said, FLOW has not got to the stage that we hoped it would be at by now. One of the barriers is the contracts for difference programme. After the failure of allocation round 5 to secure any FLOW projects at all under the last Government, the most recent funding round, under the new Government, resulted in the Green Volt project in the North sea securing CfD funding in AR 6. However, the budget for that pot was still too low for more than one of the three bidding projects to be successful. To reach the Government’s decarbonisation goals, contracts for difference will need to support multiple FLOW projects in each allocation round and the vital test and demonstration models—the stepping stone models—in the Celtic sea.

Projects in the North sea have received significantly more investment to date, and have more developed supply chains and port capabilities, enabling them to deploy FLOW at lower costs. There is no offshore oil or gas legacy in the Celtic sea; it is a greenfield site and lacks the infrastructure that it will need to scale up. It needs targeted support to reach equity with the North sea. Having had only one successful floating offshore project in previous CfD rounds across the Celtic sea has knocked investors’ confidence, so although this is a fantastic opportunity, there is a risk that investors’ interest in the region could be lost if we do not progress quickly.

To support the development of floating offshore wind, we need upgraded ports, which requires significant capital investment. However, uncertainty about the development of FLOW has led to investors holding off from developing those ports until contracts for difference have been awarded. That has led to a mismatch of timelines, as ports need investment about five years before the project is built out. The floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme has provided financial support for Port Talbot, although I understand that it has not yet been deployed. However, other ports in the region are needed to deploy floating offshore wind.

A multi-port strategy needs to be pursued in the Celtic sea to make the most of all the existing ports and specialisms. We have a port in Falmouth, which is mainly why I am here, but there are others in Appledore, Plymouth and Milford Haven, so many ports and port clusters could be got up to speed to help develop floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea. Unfortunately, France is ahead of us; it has committed €900 million to the port of Brest, so we need to catch up. The Government’s £1.8 billion for ports in the national wealth fund could really help to provide the leading investment and certainty required to kick-start the port investment, if it is done quickly and in a strategic way.

The focus of developers in the Celtic sea is currently on the stepping stone, or test and demonstration, projects, which have an important role in giving confidence to the industry and reducing the costs and risk of future commercial-scale projects. There are currently two stepping stone projects in the Celtic sea that could be eligible to bid into the next contracts for difference auction round: Erebus and White Cross. However, both projects face challenges with planning issues, bottlenecks onshore in Devon, and investment.

Hexicon’s TwinHub project is the first and only FLOW project in the Celtic sea to win a contract for difference so far in allocation round 4. It consists of two turbines in Cornwall council’s Wave Hub. However, it now faces the same rising costs as the rest of the renewable energy sector, as well as the challenge of developing a supply chain in a region that has not yet had the opportunity to do so. The contract for difference price has become less viable over time. As a more expensive, smaller test model, it was never going to be commercially viable in that way, but as a stepping stone project, it is crucial to the development of FLOW and associated supply chains in the Celtic sea.

There are options available, such as making a deal with the end user for the energy or allowing TwinHub to rebid for a lower CfD price. A proactive and creative solution needs to be found to make those test and demonstration projects viable, and to scale them up in the long run. A consistent pipeline of leasing rounds in CfDs is key to scaling up skills and supply chains ahead of commercial projects coming forward for development. They would encourage developers to commit to the region, lay down roots, and plan ahead and invest.

Annual option fees also have an impact on developers’ ability to use local supply chains that need more time to establish. That increases costs and pushes projects towards using overseas supply chains, removing the benefits for local communities and investments into the region. More could be done by the Crown Estate to support local supply chains, and once the Crown Estate Bill has become law and investment funds are set up between developers and the Crown Estate, that could change. Falmouth port is prepared to match Government funding to get up to speed to support the TwinHub project. There is a risk that the economic benefits of the project may go overseas without additional funding to help develop the supporting onshore industry.

The development of FLOW in the Celtic sea will need huge amounts of mooring line, electric cables and anchors, which the region is currently not ready to supply. A unifying strategy is needed to encourage the necessary investment to develop those capabilities, along with others across the region. The floating offshore wind taskforce has identified realisable UK value in key components for floating wind, such as installation, mooring and anchors, concrete platforms, steel platforms, operation, maintenance and development services, ports and logistics, and array cables.

At present, the national grid is a large barrier for projects. The TwinHub project has been struggling to get the full grid capacity that it needs until 2037. We need a far-sighted and co-ordinated approach from the National Energy System Operator, which has been newly nationalised. NESO is beginning a holistic network design with the Crown Estate, but that needs to happen quickly and to be scaled up. The Celtic sea is a nationally, and potentially globally, important infrastructure project, and as such, it requires a specific strategic focus from central Government.

Having a GB Energy strategy on Celtic sea FLOW, with hopefully a presence in the region—maybe in Cornwall—would support co-ordination of infrastructure, industry and workforce. However, a complex set of stakeholders is involved, including government at all levels: national, devolved, Welsh nation, and different levels of south-west councils, as well as The Great South West, which is a pan-regional economic partnership. There is also Celtic Sea Power, and the newly set up Cornwall FLOW Commission, which has already done some of the work required to co-ordinate the supply chain and work out how to produce a skilled workforce—this needs a concentrated focus. There is currently no joined-up spatial strategy for the Celtic sea. Consultation on that strategy for the ocean, with fishers, conservationists and scientists, needs to be done very soon.

Having a unified strategy would enable phased development and, crucially, would support the prioritisation of investment in infrastructure and the local supply chain. It would also help streamline planning. Current planning and consent is too slow. A project currently takes an average of 15 years to move from leasing to operation. To reach the Government’s net zero goals, we need to speed up the process. For example, the White Cross test and demonstration project in north Devon has been struggling to get planning consent for more than 18 months.

What do we need? What are the key asks to get this going? A one-size-fits-all approach for the UK has not produced the necessary investment to get floating offshore wind off the ground in the Celtic sea. By putting it in direct competition with the North sea, the Celtic sea is likely to continue to lose out and the UK will lose the opportunity to harness all the benefits FLOW can bring. AR7 could, and should, ringfence funding for floating offshore wind, along either geographical or technological lines. Geographical ringfencing would remove direct competition with the North sea. Technological ringfencing would improve the competitive position of the test and demo stepping stone projects, which are so crucial to getting commercial sites up and running and which play a critical role in maintaining investor confidence in the region.

To overcome the challenges of developing onshore supply chain capabilities to deploy FLOW in the Celtic sea, the Government could support collaborative and strategic investment in ports, rather than putting them in competition with one another as FLOWMIS did. A specific targeted wealth fund could be created to invest in infrastructure, supply chain and to lever in private investment, with particular focus on ports. In the short term, we can have logistics hubs and technologies to include temporary portside space like Tugdock in the south-west. But long term, we need to invest not only in our ports and infrastructure, but in our rail, road and digital.

A co-ordinated approach to how the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Crown Estate, GB Energy and the national wealth fund exercise their procurement and auction processes, and the use of World Trade Organisation and trade and co-operation agreement exceptions for reasons of national energy security and net zero targets, could give freedom to add clauses into contracts and leases to encourage local supply chain building and workforce training investment by developers. Some developers have expressed interest in doing that and are even setting up headquarters to co-ordinate it. The Crown Estate’s option fees and the rules around how they are used could be reconsidered, so that they could be deployed as a catalyst for greater investment in that regional supply chain. DESNZ and the Crown Estate could put supply chain social value and biodiversity net gain incentives directly into those local delivery mechanisms.

We have world-class further education colleges in Cornwall that are ready to step up and provide the specialisms and scale of the workforce we need, but we need direction, funding and a long-term career pathway. We have discussed previously a FLOWmark programme to build up those skills specifically for this industry in our region.

In summary, we need a unified national strategy for floating offshore wind and a regional masterplan for FLOW in the Celtic sea. Without the strategy, we risk losing out on the benefits of this nationally important infrastructure project, including its export potential. We risk the goal of reaching clean energy by 2030. There is a huge future in the Celtic sea, and we need to reach out and grasp it.

[Clive Efford (in the Chair)]

We have plenty of time for this debate. I remind Members to bob in their places if they intend to speak, so I have some idea of who will contribute.

15:13

[Henry Tufnell (Mid and South Pembrokeshire) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) for expressing so eloquently the challenges we face in the Celtic sea. I would point to the work that we have been doing in our all-party group for the Celtic sea to look at this issue from a regional perspective. The opportunities are so vast that this is not a situation where competing interests are trying to divvy things up, so to speak. There is sufficient food at the table for all.

We have exceptional natural resources: high average wind speeds of eight metres per second and water depths of 50 metres. These unique conditions provide the framework for us to achieve the election manifesto commitments that we, as a party, have put at the front and centre of our agenda: clean energy and economic growth.

In my constituency, in Pembrokeshire, one in four children is living in poverty, and these serious systemic issues stretch back over multiple generations. The oil and gas industry radically transformed my constituency, but over time we have gone from having four oil refineries to having just one. We have transferred into natural gas—we have liquefied natural gas—but the challenge, as a result of that decline, is to work out what the alternative is for people in my constituency. How can we ensure that the brightest and the best can remain in the county, succeed in the jobs of the future and see that just transition happen?

The opportunity is there; floating offshore wind is our opportunity—if it is not, then what is? It is our opportunity to bring back prosperity and opportunity and to give people in my constituency hope. However, my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth set out the challenges we face, and it is incumbent on us—not only as individual Members of Parliament but as a party of social justice and change—to rise to meet those challenges.

We have been partnering with the Crown Estate and looking at supply chains. We have to tackle the issue of ports. We have to look at CfD and, fundamentally, at the picture on skills. At the end of 2023, there was a total of about 230 MW net of installed floating offshore wind. There was 101 MW in Norway, 78 MW in the UK, 25 MW in Portugal, 23 MW in China, 5 MW in Japan, and 2 MW in both France and Spain. It is unusual, and incredibly exciting, that the UK can play its part in leading on a technology. Not only are we at the forefront of this transition and of combating the global challenge of climate change, but we are looking to play our part in the reindustrialisation process.

Let me turn to the Crown Estate. There have been issues, which my hon. Friend has alluded to, including annual option fees. The annual option fees placed on the leasing round will have a devastating effect on the commercial viability of developers in facilitating the conditions to take forward that reindustrialisation package, provide the new jobs and do that domestic manufacturing, such as the fabrication—anchors and cabling.

The Crown Estate produced a report saying that the first 5.5 GW would involve 5,000 jobs and require 260 turbines, 1,000 anchors and 900 km of cables. But where are those things going to be produced? Will it be in Spain or South Korea? No. I want them done in Pembrokeshire—I want to produce anchors and cabling in Pembrokeshire. I want a future for Port Talbot in providing steel for that fabrication and those substructures. The prize is there—we just have to seize it.

It simply is not good enough for the Crown Estate to sit and think about maximising its own revenue generation from the seabed. It is the Crown Estate’s time to step up. We as a Government have united with it—in terms of the legislation currently going through the House, and in allowing it to have greater borrowing power—but the time for action is now. The Crown Estate cannot sit behind WTO rules and use them as an excuse for inaction; it must seize the day and take control, and in doing so create the right conditions within the leasing round and create the pipeline that we need. Without that pipeline, there can be no security for the developers or the local supply chain. We need to have a clear route as to how we can realise the 25 GW that has been set out. This whole project cannot be about maximising the 12% for the Crown Estate—that is greed. This must go beyond basic greed—one of the seven deadly sins. The Crown Estate cannot be obsessed with maximising its revenue for the sake of greed. This is a project for the benefit of the Celtic sea and the country, and we undertake it because it is so vital.

With the supply chain, there are plenty of opportunities in terms of the numbers, as I have set out. There is exponential growth, from 4.5% to 12% to 25%, which must be set out clearly. As those numbers increase, so will the demand in the supply chain. However, the challenge for local developers, particularly those I have spoken to in my Pembrokeshire constituency, is that there is no certainty of revenue. They cannot plan those contracts, because they are not in place, and they are not in place because there is a lack of strategic planning and the conditions have not been set up. If a developer came in, bid for a seabed lease and got it, they would be hit with annual option fees, and they have had to pay through the nose to get the lease. Why would they pay a 20% uplift on an anchor in Milford Haven when they could go and get it from overseas in whichever country they chose that has the lowest common denominator on price? There is an up-front capital cost here, but the prize is in the long-term realisation of the benefit: cheaper bills, reindustrialisation and the UK once again leading as an industrial, manufacturing force. That is no small prize.

I repeat the words of my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth about the challenges facing Port Talbot in getting the money out the door from FLOWMIS, but we have equal challenges in the port of Milford Haven. We need to have confidence, and that confidence comes from Government and from setting those conditions. I have been incredibly encouraged by the words of my hon. Friend the Minister, which is absolutely fantastic, and by the national wealth fund. We now have these mechanisms from our Labour Government in place to create the foundation and confidence for the private sector to invest in ports, and that is where it will all stem from.

This is about the ports and the supply chain, but it is also about the skills. In my constituency, we have the great Pembrokeshire college, which has been doing fantastic work with the private sector to improve the facilities available to students. We recently unveiled a new facility with Shell, which has invested £1 million in Pembrokeshire college. These partnerships between the public and private sectors to upskill people and address the skills gap are so fundamental, but we must have that co-ordinated strategy. Without that, things fall apart because of how complex and difficult this issue is.

We are coming from a situation where we did not have an industrial strategy and where, under the previous Government, the market would decide. We would create the conditions, then we would go to the lowest common denominator on price, and it could be anyone’s business. That is not the way that we approach things. We have a strong lead from this Government. We create the conditions in respect of public investment, allowing and facilitating private investment. That is the way we try to have reindustrialisation and address regional inequality.

My hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth made a critical point about contracts for difference, which fall squarely in DESNZ. The issue we have had with these stepping-stone projects is that floating offshore wind is an inherently nascent industry, and it is not well suited to that competitive framework, which is driven by the lowest cost per MWh. Fixed wind did not have to contend with that when it began as an industry and a technology, so we are forcing floating offshore wind to play in an inherently competitive market to which it is totally ill suited.

On the topic of grid, capacity is a real difficulty and will be a real challenge. We have a grid connection in Pembroke coming out of RWE at the Pembroke Net Zero Centre. If we can get that pipeline, the power coming off these turbines will be phenomenal and could meet half the UK’s power needs. We have to meet that challenge, so I am glad the Labour Government are taking the bull by the horns, if that is the right expression, by attempting to change the national grid.

The key is merit: we have to prioritise these projects. It comes back to the fundamental question of delivery; the project is complex, and the crux of all of this—the crux of the Government, if I may be so bold—is delivery. It is an honour to be part of this debate, which is about pushing this agenda forward.

15:25

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) on securing this debate on floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) for his passionate words.

My hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth identified the opportunity and the challenge at hand, and I am pleased to complement the framework that she set out. I will emphasise the cross-cutting issue of skills, and the importance, right across Cornwall, of developing Falmouth port. The development of floating offshore wind technology in the Celtic sea represents not just a renewable energy opportunity, but a chance to transform Cornwall’s economy and establish the UK as a global leader in clean energy.

In terms of the share of renewables in our total energy mix, fixed offshore wind, supported by contracts for difference, which my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire mentioned, has been and will continue to be crucial, as the recent NESO report pointed out. The UK has been able to capture jobs in the development, operation and maintenance phases of the fixed offshore wind supply chain, but not in the capital phase, such as manufacturing and installation. Most of the parts the UK uses are deployed from mainland European ports, using imported components. Despite the successful roll-out of fixed offshore turbines, we can learn from these issues, as floating offshore wind represents the next generation of technology out in the Celtic sea.

In 2023, Tim Pick from the Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission published an independent report on offshore wind, in which he highlighted the case of Kincardine floating offshore wind farm. I am taking the debate from the Celtic sea up to Scotland because the report describes how the foundations for new floating offshore wind structures were made in Spain, at great expense, taken to Rotterdam for assembly, using locally sourced components to keep down costs, and finally towed to Scotland and installed. That is indicative of the offshore supply chain, and it means that fixed offshore wind has not captured as many jobs in the UK as it could do.

The Celtic sea floating offshore wind sector has the potential to create about 5,300 jobs across Cornwall, the south-west of England and, yes, Pembrokeshire in south Wales. There remains a real risk that we will not grasp the potential by building up the local workforce. We need to demonstrate that young people and skilled workers do not need to migrate from Cornwall for well-paid employment opportunities in the green economy.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire said, floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea is a relatively nascent industry, which means that its skills and workforce need to be supported, planned and nurtured. If we do not do this, the industry will not be able to recruit the staff needed for these vocational and technical skills.

A reactive, short-term approach to upskilling will be inadequate. We need to look at a long-term strategic approach to workforce development, one that focuses on clear, sustainable career pathways, such as floating platforms assembly, welding and marine licence development. Those are just a few examples of the strong pipeline of talent needed for the floating offshore wind sector and the skills required to populate the vacancies in the supply chain. I am pleased it was announced this week that the Blue Abyss facility near Newquay has received match funding from the Crown Estate’s supply chain accelerator fund.

To make this vision a reality, collaboration is key. We need a collective effort to build workforce capacity in preparation for the opportunity presented by this new sector. Every stakeholder has a role to play, from individual learners engaged in skills training to schools, further education colleges, higher education institutions, independent training providers and the private sector and future employers.

There are several examples in Cornwall, most notably the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus, which hosts the largest number of top 10 climate change scientists in the world and produces world-leading courses. There are apprenticeships at Truro and Penwith college and vocational opportunities at Falmouth marine school and Cornwall college in Camborne and Redruth, which is barely one mile away from South Crofty tin mine, which would be a major beneficiary of a development of Falmouth port.

We know there are structural imbalances when it comes to qualifications. According to Skills England, 38% of people in Cornwall have level 4 qualifications or above, compared with 61% in London. The new growth and skills levy, which will enable employers to access a broader range of high-quality training offers, will be fundamental if applied to this sector. Skills England will act as a vital bridge between industrial strategy, training providers and businesses.

I turn briefly to Falmouth port and the infrastructure in relation to the Celtic sea. As my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth said, we must regenerate Falmouth port to enable the roll-out of floating offshore wind. We must ensure that it becomes a key hub for operations and maintenance. To have the best opportunity to achieve economic growth and increase productivity, we need to build up our supply chain. As turbines increase in size with the proliferation of floating offshore wind, there is a need for larger-scale and better-equipped port facilities in general. That should be partnered with local manufacturing.

Floating offshore wind sub-structures alone can measure up to 80 metres across and weigh thousands of tonnes, with the turbines themselves expected to reach as high as 300 metres. Ports need adequate quays, crane capacity and lay-down space to accommodate these vast engineering structures, so where better to develop than the third-deepest natural harbour in the world at Falmouth?

To echo comments by my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth, we need the Crown Estate to lease more projects in the Celtic sea and we need to ringfence the funding for the Celtic sea at the next auction round. We must work towards building up the capacity at Falmouth port. If we are to realise a just transition, we must ensure that it delivers as much opportunity for UK businesses and communities as possible. Successive Governments have failed to deliver the benefits to communities. The Cornish Celtic tiger can drive the world-leading deployment of floating offshore wind at commercial scale and sow the seed for a cluster of expertise and experience right across the sector.

15:34

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford, and to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon), who spoke so lucidly about the challenges we face in building a home-grown supply chain and heeding the lessons of history. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this important debate and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) on securing it.

Floating offshore wind represents a truly transformative opportunity for Cornwall and the broader UK—an opportunity to bring jobs to our region while turbocharging the UK’s energy transition. Cornwall’s deep maritime heritage and strategic location uniquely positions us to be at the forefront of the floating offshore wind industry. The Celtic sea’s vast potential for renewable energy production can meet the challenges of deeper water, as my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) rightly suggested, and those challenges cannot easily be met by our traditional fixed offshore wind industry.

With 4.5 GW of flow capacity envisaged for the region, we can power millions of homes with clean energy while creating around 5,300 jobs and delivering £1.5 billion of gross value added to the local economy, with around a third of that expected to arise in Cornwall, which can play its role in championing the southern side of the Celtic sea.

In Cornwall the opportunity is not abstract: it is very much tangible. With the natural advantages of Falmouth harbour, which we have heard so much about, with its deep-water access and existing maritime infrastructure, Falmouth is truly a flagship location for our floating offshore wind Celtic sea cluster. Its impact will extend far beyond the Truro and Falmouth constituency because, for constituencies like mine—St Austell and Newquay—the ripple effects of job creation, skills development and supply chain growth can be significant.

From the industrial engineering of components to logistical support, floating offshore wind can energise industries that in many cases already exist across the spine of Cornwall. To make the vision a reality we need political leadership and co-ordination. Central Government must work hand in hand, ideally with a devolved Government in Cornwall, with floating offshore wind at the heart of their industrial strategy. They must work with the Crown Estate and developers and educational institutions to address the barriers that hold back the industry. Only through a unified strategic focus can floating offshore wind reach its potential.

Floating offshore wind requires a new generation of skilled workers in maritime engineering, fabrication and supply chain logistics. That is why I will soon meet the Skills Minister to urge Skills England to adopt a long-term perspective on the industry and its development locally. Institutions like Falmouth marine school, as we have heard, and certainly Cornwall college, which is also based in my constituency, are already laying the groundwork, but they need substantial and sustained investment to scale up the training programmes. We must ensure that young people in Cornwall have access to the skills and qualifications necessary to thrive in the sector and share in the great prosperity it can bring to our part of the world.

The scale of investment required is truly substantial. As we have heard, ports like Falmouth need to upgrade to become hubs for assembly operations and maintenance. I am working closely with the national wealth fund to ensure that Cornwall features prominently in its pipeline of prospective investments. We also need the tailored mechanisms we have heard about, such as contracts for difference that account for the higher costs and early-stage challenges of projects in this part of Britain. Without those, developers may turn elsewhere, and Cornwall in particular risks missing out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

For Cornwall to realise the full benefits of floating offshore wind, our public infrastructure must be developed alongside it and be up to the task. Improved road, rail and grid connections are essential. We need a freight line down to the Falmouth docks, we need the spine of Cornwall’s infrastructure network to be strong, and we need to ensure that Tamar crossings do not financially disadvantage local residents or businesses or the logistics supply chain associated with the industry. We must ensure the seamless movement of goods and people.

The Crown Estate has a pivotal role in championing the floating offshore wind industry and showcasing Cornwall’s strengths and potential. I welcome its recent decision to award match funding to Blue Abyss, which is in my constituency and is a world-class facility poised to become the centre of innovation for offshore wind energy and maritime technology. It is a really strong signal from the Crown Estate, but there is much more to be done. We need to continue to prioritise local supply chain development and work actively with local stakeholders to ensure that Cornwall’s potential is fully recognised and utilised.

The development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea is more than just an energy initiative. It is an economic and social catalyst with the power to revitalise our communities, tackle regional inequalities and cement Britain’s position as a global leader in renewable energy. For Cornwall, it is an opportunity for us to build our maritime heritage and to shape a sustainable future. To achieve this, we need a clear strategy that brings together Government, industry and educational institutions. We need a spatial strategy that works hand in glove with the fishing industry to make sure this is a success for every part of our community, and we need the investment in skills, infrastructure and local supply chains to get this off the ground and to ensure that local people feel the prosperity.

We need to act urgently to secure contracts, funding, investment and confidence to unlock the full potential of FLOW and Cornwall’s role in it. I urge the Government to seize this moment and commit to the co-ordinated action we need to deliver on the promise of floating offshore wind. Together, we can harness the power of the Celtic sea to light our homes, power our industries and create a legacy of sustainable prosperity for Cornwall and beyond.

15:41

[Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) for securing this important debate and for championing our fantastic Duchy of Cornwall as a green investment hub.

Offshore wind in the Celtic sea represents a huge opportunity to support the UK’s energy transition. The Liberal Democrats welcome with open arms any Government plans to invest in the sector. Not only will the turbines in the Celtic sea bring renewable energy to more than 4 million homes, but they will help to limit our dependence on fossil fuels, create jobs right across the south-west and stimulate much-needed economic growth in our coastal areas. These areas, and the offshore wind sector as a whole, were completely abandoned by the previous Conservative Government, and I am glad to see such an important industry finally getting the recognition it deserves.

The hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth rightly talked about the need for the Government to reach carbon reduction goals; obviously, the project in the Celtic sea is vital to that objective. She also emphasised the five-year minimum lead time for investment, which highlights the urgency of this issue.

The hon. Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) talked about keeping young people in his constituency in highly skilled jobs. That has been highlighted by other Cornish Members and, as a Member representing a Cornish constituency, I think that is so crucial. This project is such an enormous opportunity to do just that. The hon. Gentleman also alluded the Crown Estate’s stifling competition, which I will come to later.

The hon. Member for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle (Perran Moon) rightly pointed out that in projects of this nature the majority of turbine parts are imported from Europe. We clearly need to see a much greater volume of manufacturing here in the UK.

The hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law) talked about Cornwall’s deep maritime heritage. Like other Cornish Members, he championed the deep-water port of Falmouth. He also alluded to the need for a devolved Government in Cornwall to fully unleash the duchy’s green energy revolution. He also talked about transport infrastructure investment, citing it as an essential precursor to this revolution.

It would be remiss of me not to point out that when the Liberal Democrats ran the Department for Energy and Climate Change, we quadrupled the amount of energy generated from renewables. We recognise that the offshore wind industry can, and will, play a vital role in reducing our carbon emissions and hitting net zero targets, not to mention the benefits of increasing our energy security in this country, thus reducing our dependence on fossil fuels from Putin and other foreign despots.

Offshore wind in the Celtic sea in particular has the vast potential of becoming a powerhouse in renewable energy generation and will help to propel this country to the place of a world leader in the industry. However, we believe that much greater investment is needed in skills and training to prepare local supply chains and enable these communities to play a key role in the global build-out of floating offshore wind.

Some concerns have also been raised with me about the role of the Crown Estate, which have also been referred to by other hon. Members. The Crown Estate appears to have determined cheaper and lower-risk deep fixed foundation designs, and has been excluded from the licence bids. That, of course, narrows the pool of bidders quite significantly, whereas the key objective should be delivery. The priority should be to issue licences that can be brought into production as soon as possible to drive down the UK’s carbon emissions. Therefore, issuing licences that require projects 30 times the size of the UK’s largest operational project feels like a risky leap, and could struggle to attract investment, as well as competition between bidders. It is also important to consult and work alongside groups such as the Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation when considering a project at that scale, being careful not to impinge on the livelihoods of Cornish fishermen. Those groups are not inherently anti-offshore wind, but they urge, in their words, “sense and balance” when planning offshore developments.

As Liberal Democrats, we always emphasise the need for public engagement to ensure that communities are involved and engaged throughout the process.

15:46

[Katie Lam (Weald of Kent) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham). This is an important subject, successfully championed by the last Conservative Government, and I am glad of the chance to discuss it today. The hon. Lady’s passion and ambition for her seat, and for all of Cornwall, are clear and do her great credit. These are complex issues involving major projects, long supply chains, and many public and private sector groups, which she has clearly taken a lot of time to understand. I am sure the Minister will be grateful for her suggestions. Her points, especially on the need for co-ordination between public and private investment, and bringing in planning and skills, are well made.

The hon. Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) outlined the size of the opportunity. Floating offshore wind is a substantial potential prize, not just for the climate but for Britain’s reindustrialisation. I am sure his all-party parliamentary group for the Celtic sea much appreciates his contribution—as is the case, I am sure, for the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth. I look forward to seeing those anchors from Pembrokeshire and they are lucky to have him to champion them.

The hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) is another committed advocate for the great county of Cornwall and the fantastic economic potential of south-west England and, of course, south Wales. He is right that workforce development must be strategic, coherent and long term, and I was fascinated to hear of the outstanding university and college courses available, including in his own constituency—a “Cornish Celtic tiger” indeed.

The hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law) also discussed skills, and I hope his upcoming meeting with the Skills Minister is as fruitful as he hopes it will be. His constituents, I am sure, will be very pleased to hear of all he is doing to stand up for the infrastructure his area needs, as well as for the exciting supply chain and marine technology leadership that he describes.

I was a little surprised to hear the view of the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) that the area was neglected by the last Government. Successive Conservative Governments took renewable electricity generation from just 7% in 2010 to over half by the second quarter of this year. We made the UK the global leader in offshore wind, with more capacity installed than any other country, powering more than 7.5 million homes.

The last Conservative Government committed a £1 billion investment to green industries through the green industries growth accelerator, aimed at advancing technologies such as offshore wind. The investment aimed to leverage up to £90 billion over a decade. Will the Minister please update us on how much of that has been spent since the Labour Government took office, and how much is being directed to floating offshore wind?

This debate is, of course, about the Celtic sea, but I am conscious that in the North sea, the Chinese company Ming Yang Wind Power Group is poised to construct hundreds of floating wind turbines, if that is approved by the SNP. Ming Yang benefits from massive state subsidies in China. Will the Minister please assure us that, be it in the North sea, the Celtic sea or anywhere else, he will not allow any wind turbines to be built and controlled by hostile states, undermining both market fairness and our national security, in any of Britain’s waters?

The previous Government set up the floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme, investing £160 million in two ports. One of these was Port Talbot, which is well placed to serve Celtic sea floating offshore wind. The investment was welcomed for supporting job creation in south Wales and the wider UK supply chain. The Crown Estate later set out its plans for a new generation of floating wind farms in the Celtic sea, with the potential to power a further 4 million homes. Will the Minister please assure us that this exciting project, and the investment secured under the last Government, will not get lost in the cost and bureaucracy of setting up GB Energy? Will he outline the impact on energy bills of the higher strike price put into auction round 5 by this Government and recommit to the Government’s manifesto promise to lower energy bills by £300? This Government inherited global leadership in offshore wind, which is something I am sure we can all be proud of. The Celtic sea presents a fantastic opportunity to build on that record.

15:50

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Efford. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) on securing this debate and for all the work she does in championing her area, and the Celtic sea more broadly. We have had a number of conversations and debates on energy-related policy and she is a real champion for her constituency.

I thank all hon. Members this afternoon for their passionate contributions to the debate. I do not know what the collective noun is for a group of Cornish Celtic tigers and one Welsh one, but they made fantastic contributions and I think that gives us a sense of how seriously new MPs are taking the future of their constituencies. We should be proud of that.

The key issues that have been raised today, of the grid, supply chains, skills, planning, and getting the balance right so that we bring communities along with us in much of this—the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) put that well—are important. It was nice to hear the hon. Gentleman speak about the coalition Government, as we do not hear enough about them these days. I encourage him to say much more about them in future debates, but I suspect that he will not.

Let me first speak about the context of the debate and I will then answer some of the specific questions. I think the “why” of our being in this race and transition is important. Why are we pushing to deliver clean power by 2030? The truth is that it is an imperative if we are going to meet our long-term goal of a net zero economy and deliver economic growth and energy security. They are intrinsically linked.

A number of hon. Members have raised the point about the potential of jobs in industry in communities that have, in many cases, been forgotten for a long time. The rates of poverty and underemployment in those communities underlines how important it is that we bring about new opportunities. I think the point about legacy raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell). This is not just a transition for the sake of a transition; the aim is to deliver good, well-paid jobs for future generations and to make it a prosperous transition for many communities.

We are in no way missing the scale of the challenge. Delivering clean power by 2030 will require us to rip up the rule book on how Governments deliver big projects and to take a radically different approach to how we deliver change at pace. It means working in lockstep with communities and with the private sector to rapidly address the barriers that hold us back, which have all been raised today, so that we can deliver unprecedented levels of new clean energy infrastructure.

The Government received the National Energy System Operator’s advice on achieving a clean power system by 2030. It shows that this is not only achievable, but can create a cheaper, more secure system. The advice will inform the Government’s clean power 2030 action plan, which will be published imminently and will set out our route to decarbonising the electricity grid with the aims of protecting billpayers from volatile gas prices, strengthening Britain’s energy security and accelerating us towards net zero.

I hope all hon. Members will agree that we are on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation transformation of our energy system, led by a Government that is determined not to be a passenger on the big questions of the day, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) put it, to drive forward radical change. The infrastructure that we deploy now and in the years ahead will set in train decades of energy security, stability, and prosperity for every part of the UK. Key to that will be the role played by offshore wind and, in particular, floating offshore wind. I will focus on that in the rest of my remarks.

Offshore wind will play a crucial role in our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and deliver clean power by 2030. At 14.8 GW of generation, we have the highest deployment in Europe and the second highest in the world. As my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth said so eloquently, the UK is a global leader. These days there are not many things in which we can still have a claim to be that, but this is one that we must ensure we maintain.

The new technology unlocks deeper areas of the seabed that can benefit from stronger and more consistent winds, helping us to secure our energy supply and to deliver on our statutory decarbonisation obligations. Our floating offshore capacity is second only to Norway. At around 25 GW, we have the largest pipeline of floating offshore projects anywhere in the world. Of course, in the Celtic sea, there is enormous potential for floating offshore wind, and we are determined to take advantage of the opportunities that that represents. Earlier this year, the floating offshore wind taskforce estimated that floating offshore wind could contribute £47 billion in GVA to the UK economy by 2050 and support up to 97,000 jobs across the country, so we are hard at work, right across Government and in the private sector, to make sure that we realise the vast potential of this opportunity.

The test and demonstration projects, which a number of hon. Members have rightly raised, total 432 MW of capacity in development in the Celtic sea. They are crucial not just for the capacity that they generate, but for helping us to understand the supply chains and the development and for building the skills in the future. We want to see many of these projects succeed, and Government are doing everything we can to support the projects.

Under the offshore wind leasing round that the Crown Estate recently launched, a further 4.5 GW of floating wind capacity in the region will have an impact of up to 5,300 new jobs and a £1.4 billion boost to the economy. We are determined that by working together with the Crown Estate on an innovative approach to this leasing round, we can ensure that there is new industry that provides social and economic opportunities for communities right across the country. It is important for us to say that this is this Government’s absolutely key priority, that we are not agnostic on the industrial future of this country and that we want to see the good, well-paid jobs here as well. My hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth rightly highlighted the example of Kincardine, and there are other projects where all the parts were manufactured abroad and towed into our waters simply to start generating. That is the part of this that we do not want to see again. We want to see the good, well-paid jobs here.

That is why the Crown Estate has launched a £50 million supply chain accelerator to fund and accelerate supply chain projects. The 13 successful organisations are set to receive funding in the initial round. Just yesterday we were able to announce more details on these. It is the case that £5 million of funding was awarded to kick-start a range of projects across Great Britain, contributing to a combined development investment of more than £9 million, with £400 million of capital investment. As has been mentioned, the partnership that Great British Energy, the first publicly owned energy company in 70 years, has with the Crown Estate is about trying to drive forward even more of those opportunities right across the country.

The issue of ports has been mentioned by a number of hon. Members. They clearly will play a vital role in the deployment and maintenance of offshore wind infrastructure. Up to £4 billion of investment is required by 2040 to support the roll-out of floating offshore wind. That is why the FLOWMIS scheme, which is providing grant funding to support the development of port infrastructure, is so important.

The shadow spokesperson, the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam), rightly referenced the importance of Port Talbot and the port of Cromarty Firth in the FLOWMIS scheme. We are moving forward due diligence on that as quickly as possible. It is one of a number of in-progress decisions that we inherited from the previous Government, on which we are moving as quickly as possible to actually deliver, so that the funding can be put to good use as quickly as possible. It goes hand in hand with the creation of the national wealth fund, which will invest at least £5.8 billion of capital in the five sectors announced in our manifesto, including port infrastructure. That comes alongside some of the work already being done by the NWF in Ardersier port, the port of Tyne and Teesworks. To understand the barriers to port infrastructure, we are working closely with the ports task and finish group, led by RenewableUK, to ensure that we are building on the work that has already been done.

On the wider point of working together, which my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth raised earlier, DESNZ has a standing invitation to the Cornwall FLOW Commission, which Cornwall council is involved in. Officials regularly engage with all councils, including Cornwall council, on this and many other issues, and we are very happy to do more.

Let me turn, finally, to the point about industry. In the spring, we will publish the Government’s industrial strategy, which is our commitment to ensuring that good, well-paid and trade-unionised jobs come to these shores to deliver the energy transition as well as to a number of other sectors. Most recently, we announced the clean industry bonus as part of the CfD scheme, which rewards fixed and floating offshore wind developers that choose to invest in the UK’s poorest communities or in cleaner manufacturing facilities. A portion of that budget is ringfenced for floating offshore wind components.

On the broader points that hon. Members raised about the next contracts for difference rounds, we will say more about auction round 7 in due course. Clearly, it is important to recognise how much the industry has moved since the abject failure under the previous Government in auction round 5, in which much of the sector was flat on its back. We have moved as quickly as possible on AR6 to get projects over the line. We want to see more of these projects succeed, and we will have more to say imminently on AR7. There will also be a consultation on that process.

I once again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth for bringing forward this debate, and I thank all hon. Members for their contributions and their real commitment to this issue. This is a Government who are determined to ensure that we realise our potential in communities right across this country and drive towards clean power by 2030. That is not as an end in itself, but because it will make energy in Britain cleaner, cheaper and more secure for our entire nation, reinvigorate long-neglected supply chains in clean energy and engineering, and return a sense of pride and prosperity to all parts of this country.

The road ahead will be challenging—no one comes into government just to tackle the easy stuff—but we are determined that together we will ensure that we achieve the most difficult task of all: by 2030, we will have a secure, cleaner energy system. The prize at the end is worth all that effort, and there is no point being in government if we are not going to tackle some of the long-term, difficult challenges. I once again thank hon. Members for participating in this debate and encourage them to keep up the challenge to Government as we ensure that we realise every single opportunity available to us in this most important sector.

[Clive Efford (in the Chair)]

We have 27 minutes remaining, but this is not an invitation to make a 27-minute speech. The hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) should take a few minutes to emphasise the key points that she wants to take away from the debate.

16:02

[Jayne Kirkham]

Thank you, Mr Efford; I certainly will not take 27 minutes. I thank the Minister and everybody who has come to this debate. I can tell by the passion how much we want this for the region, as has been set out by so many Members. We have some really deprived, post-industrial areas where we are, and, particularly in Cornwall, they have been post-industrial for a lot longer than other places. We could be a renewable gold mine. If we look at critical minerals, there is so much potential in Cornwall. It has become so desperately important that we start to realise some of those benefits, and there is enough for the whole of the region, for the south-west and for Wales. It is really important to note that this is a huge project.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) and I have taken over the APPG for the Celtic sea from the previous Member for North Devon and my predecessor in Truro and Falmouth, who did a lot of good work on it. It is brilliant to be able to take that work forward as fast as we can. The social value of this will be huge. I will emphasise again and again how important it is that we get there with the jobs and the supply chain and in bringing in some of that fabrication, if we can, such as the manufacturing, the operations and the maintenance, so that we do not have to tow things across the sea.

The clean industry bonus that the Minister spoke about is brilliant, but I want to emphasise how important the contracts for difference will be. They can be used and ringfenced to try to push forward some of the test and demo models; we will have the capacity to do that, if they are used properly to take forward the stepping stone projects. I was really pleased to hear what he said about ports. Our ports are ready to build, for so many reasons; floating offshore wind is one of them, but there are many others. The port task and finish group will be so important, as will having national and regional strategies for how our ports will work together.

On the supply chain and the workforce, I want to emphasise again the possibility of using contract clauses in the auction rounds. We are able to do that, despite World Trade Organisation rules, and perhaps we should think again about the option fees and how they could be ploughed back into areas to build the supply chain and stimulate local operations, assembly and fabrication.

I am very pleased to hear about the discussions with NESO and GB Energy, because the grid has been holding back so many projects across the country. It seems that those projects have been put in chronological order, rather than order of merit or importance. It is good that NESO is looking again at that. A completion date of 2037 for one of the projects was just crazy—we cannot be doing that. It has to change.

To finish—I certainly have not gone on for 27 minutes—I will say that we really need a unified strategy. The hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) was right about bringing people with us, including our fishers and environmentalists. There is huge space in the ocean for all of this to be done successfully, but it really needs championing and leading.

I accept the point about how politically dispersed we are in the south-west compared with regions such as Scotland, which has a national Government who can work with the UK Government. We do not have that in the south-west; we have councils and we have Wales, which is a devolved nation. It is harder to put everything together in one place, and various organisations, such as Celtic Sea Power and the new Cornwall FLOW Commission, are starting to do that, but leadership will be so crucial as we move forward. Finding out where that will come from—whether it is national leadership or regional leadership—will be a very important function of what we do going forward.

I thank you for your time, Mr Efford, and I thank all hon. Members for participating in today’s debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.

16:07

Sitting adjourned.