Energy White Paper
Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Lord Sharma(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Alok Sharma
I would never describe my hon. Friend as tail-end Charlie; I think we have left the best till last. He raises an important point about skills, which a number of colleagues have talked about. We very much recognise the need to ensure that we train people up for the sunrise industries of the future, and we will look to address some of that in the refreshed industrial strategy.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)
The hon. Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset (Mr Liddell-Grainger) was not quite last, because we have an amendment to the call list, so finally, I call Siobhan Baillie.
Alok Sharma
Madam Deputy Speaker, I can now say that we definitely did leave the best till last—I hope that my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset (Mr Liddell-Grainger) is not listening. My hon. Friend raises an important point. As she knows—in fact, this is set out on page 51 of the Energy White Paper—the Government have already committed over £400 million towards new UK fusion programmes. She will also know that this month we launched the spherical tokamak for energy production—STEP—programme and published an open call for communities across the UK to apply to be the host site. I encourage her to look at that and, should her constituents or anyone in the area want to apply, they should put their details forward.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)
I am going to suspend the House for three minutes so that people can leave safely and the next cohort of Members can enter safely.
The Secretary of State’s Handling of Universal Credit
Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Lord Sharma(6 years, 4 months ago)
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Alok Sharma
I will not give way.
What did the Opposition do? They cynically voted against the regulations that allowed the £1.5 billion of support to be made available to claimants. I get that the Opposition are there to oppose, but that should not be at the cost of helping the very people they claim to represent. Opposition Members have raised individual cases of claimants who have been suffering hardship. How many of those hon. Members have looked those individual claimants in the eye and explained why they voted to deny them the help and support that they needed? [Interruption.]
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)
Order. The Minister has listened to all the questions and is now answering them, so he should not be shouted at by hon. Members on either side of the House.
Alok Sharma
Let us talk about the help that the work coaches are giving. The NAO report says:
“A survey of live service claimants found that claimant satisfaction levels were similar to those on legacy benefits and in our visits to jobcentres we observed good relationships between work coaches and claimants.”
The support is available, and it is working and helping people to get into work.