First elected: 6th May 2010
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Grahame Morris, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Grahame Morris has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Grahame Morris has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
A Bill to establish a duty on Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and private prison operators to minimise violence in prisons; and for connected purposes.
A Bill to amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to apply its provisions to private healthcare companies and other bodies seeking health service contracts; and for connected purposes.
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to apply to private healthcare companies; and for connected purposes.
State Pension Age (Compensation) Bill 2023-24
Sponsor - Alan Brown (SNP)
Consumer Protection (Double Charging) Bill 2021-22
Sponsor - Huw Merriman (Con)
Workers (Definition and Rights) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Chris Stephens (SNP)
Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Act 2021
Sponsor - Mike Amesbury (Lab)
Problem Drug Use Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Tommy Sheppard (SNP)
Disabled Facilities Grants (Review) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Liz Twist (Lab)
Assaults on Retail Workers (Offences) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Alex Norris (LAB)
National Minimum Wage Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Paula Barker (Lab)
Workers (Definition and Rights) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Chris Stephens (SNP)
Universal Credit Sanctions (Zero Hours Contracts) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Chris Stephens (SNP)
Trade Union (Access to Workplaces) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Faisal Rashid (Lab)
Bus Drivers (Working Hours on Local Routes) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Matt Western (Lab)
Food Insecurity Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Emma Lewell-Buck (Lab)
Youth (Services and Provisions) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Lloyd Russell-Moyle (LAB)
Private Landlords (Registration) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Phil Wilson (Lab)
Voyeurism (Offences) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Wera Hobhouse (LD)
Government Services (Telecommunication Charges) Bill 2016-17
Sponsor - Chris Stephens (SNP)
The Government recognises the sacrifices made by so many veterans and the huge debt of gratitude owed to those who have served their country.
The current pattern of UK bank holidays is well established and accepted. Whilst an additional bank holiday may benefit some sectors, the cost to the economy of an additional bank holiday remains considerable. The latest analysis estimates the cost to the UK economy for a one-off bank holiday to be around £2bn.
There is no surplus sharing arrangement within the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme. Work is already underway to initiate our manifesto commitment regarding the Mineworker’s Pension Scheme.
The government welcomes the CMA’s work to investigate fuel prices and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.
Work has already started across Government to deliver on our manifesto commitments. I will be meeting the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme Trustees shortly to discuss the best way to deliver our commitments.
The safety and wellbeing of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. National Governing Bodies are responsible for the regulation of their sports and for ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to protect participants from harm.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) worked with relevant stakeholders to develop the first ever set of shared concussion guidelines for grassroots sport across the UK, which were published in April 2023, marking a significant step forward for safety in sport.
DCMS also provides funding to Sport England, its Arm's-Length Body for grassroots sport. Sport England provides support to the sport and physical activity sector around safeguarding, including funding the Ann Craft Trust and the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit. This totalled £330,917 and £527,525 respectively in 2024/25.
This government has not made a formal assessment of the cost of providing free school meals to all primary school children.
The department is separately committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school to ensure children are set-up for the day and ready to learn.
The department is committed to working in partnership with local government to support children in care, whether they are being looked after by their community of wider kinship care, foster carers and adoptive parents, or being cared for in children’s homes, if this is the best place for them to be. The department recognises many challenges kinship cares experience, including the financial challenges that many kinship carers face. The government is considering how to most effectively transform the children’s social care system so that it can deliver better support and outcomes for children and families. This will include considering how best to support kinship carers and children in kinship care.
The department is committed to working in partnership with local government to support children in care, whether they are being looked after by their community of wider kinship care, foster carers and adoptive parents, or being cared for in children’s homes, if this is the best place for them to be. The department recognises many challenges kinship cares experience, including the financial challenges that many kinship carers face. The government is considering how to most effectively transform the children’s social care system so that it can deliver better support and outcomes for children and families. This will include considering how best to support kinship carers and children in kinship care.
There have been 198 recorded incidents of passengers being injured through electric shocks on trains in the last five years. The breakdown per year is provided below:
Year | Reported electric shocks to passengers on board trains resulting in injury |
2019 | 30 |
2020 | 16 |
2021 | 37 |
2022 | 57 |
2023 | 35 |
2024 (incomplete year) | 23 |
During this period, there were zero passenger fatalities on trains as a direct result of electric shocks.
a) In line with corporate governance best practice Network Rail (NR) appoints an independent company to undertake regular reviews of the effectiveness of the Board. A review is currently in progress. The Secretary of State and Rail Minister will meet regularly with the Acting Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Network Rail to discuss the performance of the company.
b) DfT and Network Rail have a Framework Agreement in place setting out how the Department and Network Rail interact in terms of corporate governance and financial management. DfT and Network Rail will be reviewing the Framework Agreement to ensure that the governance arrangements will be fit for purpose as the rail industry is reformed.
The Rail Enhancements Portfolio has been managed in line with the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline policy since 2018. As part of this Government’s refreshed approach to capital investment in the transport network, we expect to consider all aspects of our spending plans and principles to ensure that they deliver a unified system for railways; bringing together infrastructure with services for the benefit of passengers and the taxpayer.
Rail North Partnership (RNP), through which the department jointly manages Northern Trains’ contract with Transport for the North, monitors operators’ planned train deployment to ensure this falls within the requirement on them to match capacity to demand. While we have no evidence passengers’ safety is being compromised, RNP will discuss the loading on Durham Coast services with Northern and ensure it takes the actions open to it to meet its targets
Rail North Partnership (RNP), through which the department jointly manages Northern Trains’ contract with Transport for the North, monitors operators’ planned train deployment to ensure this falls within the requirement on them to match capacity to demand. While we have no evidence passengers’ safety is being compromised, RNP will discuss the loading on Durham Coast services with Northern and ensure it takes the actions open to it to meet its targets
Data on the number of cancer patients that have had access to minimally invasive cancer therapies in the last year by integrated care board (ICB), is not collected. The adoption of new treatments, including increasing the number and availability of minimally invasive cancer treatments, into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and commissioner decisions. Both NHS England and the ICBs are required to put access in place for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by the NICE.
Where treatments are approved by the NICE through the Technology Appraisals programme, the NHS is required to make them available within agreed timescales, which vary by technology. Implementation of any NICE approvals will be supported by the service readiness assessment, and the development of additional capacity where necessary.
During 2024/25, NHS England will continue to support all ICBs in integrating the planning and commissioning of suitable specialised services with their wider population-level commissioning responsibilities, in line with their individual timeline for delegation. All systems are asked to make progress in transforming pathways of care in their priority areas.
Data on the number of cancer patients that have had access to minimally invasive cancer therapies in the last year by integrated care board (ICB), is not collected. The adoption of new treatments, including increasing the number and availability of minimally invasive cancer treatments, into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and commissioner decisions. Both NHS England and the ICBs are required to put access in place for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by the NICE.
Where treatments are approved by the NICE through the Technology Appraisals programme, the NHS is required to make them available within agreed timescales, which vary by technology. Implementation of any NICE approvals will be supported by the service readiness assessment, and the development of additional capacity where necessary.
During 2024/25, NHS England will continue to support all ICBs in integrating the planning and commissioning of suitable specialised services with their wider population-level commissioning responsibilities, in line with their individual timeline for delegation. All systems are asked to make progress in transforming pathways of care in their priority areas.
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Professor Lord Darzi of Denham to conduct an immediate and independent investigation of the National Health Service. Professor Lord Darzi will be considering data and intelligence across a broad range of measures, assessing patient access to healthcare, the quality of healthcare being provided, and the overall performance of the health system. Full Terms of Reference for the review can be found on GOV.UK website.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) was due to review screening for dental disease in children under nine years old in 2022/23. However, a number of reviews, including this one, were delayed due to staff depletion and delays to recruitment, following the UK NSC secretariat function moving into the Department, and the Committee’s remit expanding. Staffing levels have now been resolved, and the UK NSC is addressing the outstanding reviews in their planned three-year programme of work.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) was due to review screening for dental disease in children under nine years old in 2022/23. However, a number of reviews, including this one, were delayed due to staff depletion and delays to recruitment, following the UK NSC secretariat function moving into the Department, and the Committee’s remit expanding. Staffing levels have now been resolved, and the UK NSC is addressing the outstanding reviews in their planned three-year programme of work.
The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, sets out the National Health Service’s key ambitions on cancer. The plan sets out the NHS ambition to increase the number of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 to 75% by 2028, and to increase the number of people surviving cancer for five years by 55,000 as a result.
Professor Lord Darzi is currently undertaking an independent investigation into the state of the NHS, the findings of which will feed into the Government’s 10-year plan to build a health service that is fit for the future. The Government will set out any further priorities on cancer and health in due course.
Since April 2022 the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health Service for 2022 to 2025, and the latest Capital Planning Guidance.
There are no plans to reintroduce school dental screenings in England. The UK National Screening Committee does not recommend population screening for dental disease in children aged six to nine years old. Further information is available at the following link:
https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/dental-disease/
Additional rate taxpayers do not currently benefit from the personal allowance as it is tapered away when a person has income over £100,000 and is fully removed for those paying the additional rate. Therefore this would have no exchequer impact.
In 2024-2025, the income limit for personal allowance is £100,000. For every £2 of additional income above the limit, the personal allowance decreases by £1, and reaches £0 at an income level of £125,140. The additional rate of income tax is paid on income over £125,140. All income tax rates and allowances are provided in the following publication: Income Tax rates and allowances for current and previous tax years - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Home Secretary announced that she would commission the Migration Advisory Committee to review the financial immigration requirements on the Family Immigration Rules. We expect the review to take approximately 9 months which will include a call for evidence to ensure sufficient stakeholder engagement.
The Government is committed to ensuring fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work. Overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.87 billion in 2024/25. Standalone FRAs will see an increase in core spending power of £95.4m in 2024/25. This is an increase of 5.6 per cent in cash terms compared to 2023/24.
Decisions on how fire and rescue services are run, and how their resources and crewing number, are for the local Chief Fire Officers and their democratically elected fire and rescue authority. They are responsible for ensuring the needs and demands of their local community are met and are able to direct their resources where they are needed most.
All Fire and Rescue Authorities have a statutory duty to produce a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) in which they set out the key challenges and risks facing their communities and how they intend to meet and reduce them. This is in line with the Fire and Rescue National Framework, which is the document by which the Home Office sets strategic requirements for the fire and rescue service.
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets.
The Government will give police the powers they need to take illegal, dangerous and antisocial bikes off the streets for good, so that they will be able to quickly destroy the bikes that they seize from offenders. We will set out more information in due course.
We keep all policies under review. Any changes will be announced to Parliament in the normal way.
The Government is committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and we will work with councils and housing associations to achieve this. More announcements will be made in due course.
Affordable housing is defined for planning purposes in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Government will be publishing a consultation on national planning policy before the end of July.
We are committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. New development will allow us to deliver thousands of affordable homes, including more for Social Rent. We will work with councils and housing associations to build capacity and ensure we build the homes people need.
The Ministry of Justice is committed to working in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to ensure that continuity of care is in place for individuals leaving prison under the ECSL scheme and who have an ongoing drug and or alcohol treatment need.