Oral Answers to Questions

Claire Young Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

For far too long, crimes such as shoplifting have been written off as “low level.” That is wrong; such crimes are devastating. The Conservative party left us with rising crime and effectively told the police to ignore shoplifting of under £200-worth of goods. We have got rid of that shoplifters’ charter, and we are working hard to ensure that we take a grip where they lost control.

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

Q7. Following the earlier question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey), I want to raise an equally troubling case. My constituent retired from the police force to care for his wife, working a part-time job to help pay the bills. As his earnings were not consistent, there were times when he was above the carer’s allowance threshold, causing later payments to be withheld. He is now owed thousands of pounds, and recently he was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma, which has made the situation even more serious. Will the Prime Minister agree to look at the situation and ensure that the Department for Work and Pensions supports rather than penalises carers?

[The Prime Minister]

Again, we have obviously set up the independent review into exactly what happened in those cases, which was the right thing to do. We will look at individual circumstances, so if the hon. Member is willing to pass the details to me, we will look at them.

Storm Darragh

Claire Young Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

I have been very concerned about this issue, particularly as part of our work on resilience looking at who may be affected, including vulnerable people and those who may become vulnerable as a result of extreme weather. Local resilience forums have also been looking into this issue. We are working closely with Welsh local authorities and the Welsh Government on how these issues can be addressed.

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

Storm Darragh is the second serious storm to hit my Thornbury and Yate constituency in recent weeks; it came soon after Storm Bert, which caused serious flooding disruption. I thank everyone involved in the response. These storms are not going away; owing to the impacts of climate change, they are likely to get worse. We need a clear framework for local authorities, so that they know when they will get support and what that support will be. Can the Minister please provide some clarity on that?

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

We work very closely with the devolved Administrations, local resilience authorities and emergency responders regularly on how we can address this issue. The UK Resilience Academy will be launched in April next year, and it will be a great way for us to look at the lessons learned and at how we can strengthen our responses to such issues.