Holocaust Memorial Bill

John Baron Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 28th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

This short Bill serves a vital purpose. It ensures that the undertaking that this Government have given, supported by the official Opposition and all parties in this House, is honoured, and that a fitting, Government-led national memorial and learning centre to honour the 6 million who died in the holocaust is established in a suitable, prominent centre at the heart of our capital city.

I know that everyone in this House recognises that the holocaust was a unique evil. Genocide—the greatest crime that humanity can inflict on other human beings—has been a dark feature of our shared history since the dawn of time, but the holocaust stands out in scale and in horror. It was a unique desire on the part of a nation to wipe out an entire people. Mechanised cruelty executed on a scale that could never have been imagined beforehand meant that, from the Pyrenees to the Urals, the Nazi war machine was bent on the elimination of an entire race. I think all of us, whatever our views on the Bill and all of the inevitable details that follow in making sure that an appropriate memorial is sited, will share a desire to ensure that the commitment “Never again” is in all our hearts.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I fully concur with what my right hon. Friend has just said, and I am fully supportive of a national holocaust memorial, but the reason I will not be supporting the Government in the passing of this Bill this evening—if it is passed—is that there appears to have been a complete lack of public consultation. Westminster City Council was against it, and it seems to me as though this has been imposed from above by Government. That is not what we do in this country: we need a much wider consultation. That is why many prominent Jews, including Malcolm Rifkind, former rabbis and so forth, have signed the open letter arguing against the siting of the memorial in Victoria Tower gardens.

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. There has been controversy and there has been opposition to the site of the memorial, but it is only fair to say that the decision to site it in Victoria Tower gardens has followed consultation. There was extensive consultation on this project, starting with Prime Minister David Cameron’s holocaust commission in 2014, which received almost 2,500 responses. Following the announcement in January 2016 that Victoria Tower gardens had been identified as the most fitting site, an international design competition was then held to select a suitable design team.

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[Lisa Nandy]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. As I said, I do not doubt the sincerity of those who have raised concerns about the location, including the Father of the House. It is right and legitimate that we should have a debate about that, and it is right, fair and proper that they should make their concerns known. Labour Members believe that this is the right location and that it is important that we do not delay any further. We believe that it is important that the hybrid process is followed; that is the process set out for the path of the Bill. We cannot make that process any quicker, but we can remove any unnecessary obstacles and delay. We know that that is the Government’s intention and we will support them in that.

As I said a moment ago to my right hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge), the battle for progress is never won. My father and his generation were involved in fighting the race relations struggle. My dad came to this country from India in the 1950s, and dealing with racism and discrimination is something that he, I and my family have dealt with all our lives. It was one of the motivating forces for me to go into politics—seeing the impact of that on people around me and people in my community. That generation went on to deliver the Race Relations Act 1976, and helped to build the architecture of modern Britain that aims to make racism and discrimination a thing of the past. They remind me constantly that that battle is never won, and it falls to every generation to pick up the baton and fight those battles anew. That is what we are determined to do, and that is why we strongly support this memorial and its location next to the Palace of Westminster, within walking distance of the heart of our democracy and the centre of decision making, to show how important it is to us in this place that we never, ever forget.

There are many people in the other place who have worked on this matter. The Secretary of State mentioned Lord Austin, but I also think of Lord Dubs, who came to this country on the Kindertransport, has been a powerful advocate for child refugees and is someone we admire greatly. It pays tribute to the work they have done over many, many years that this House is speaking with one voice, on all sides of the House, to try to move forward.

[Mr Baron]

The speakers from the Front Bench have so far been generous in giving way. I appreciate what the hon. Lady said about the sincerity of those who are concerned about the location. We in our family have Jewish blood, and I do not think there is any doubt about the sincerity of all views on this. Would she acknowledge that, while we all agree there needs to be a national holocaust memorial, a lot of people within the Jewish community oppose the siting of the memorial that the Bill will install, if there is a vote and it passes? That should be acknowledged. They include people such as Maureen Lipman, Malcolm Rifkind, former rabbis, Jonathan Romain, Sir Richard Evans and several holocaust survivors.

[Lisa Nandy]

I am more than happy to acknowledge that and to restate the commitment that we on the Labour Benches do not doubt the sincerity of those engaging in this debate. We acknowledge the strength of feeling and the different views that exist within the Jewish community and across the country, as well as in this place and on the Government Benches in particular. The hybrid process provides an opportunity for those concerns to be expressed and for those debates to be had. I would say to the hon. Gentleman that, having worked with the Jewish community in this country and leaders of major Jewish organisations for a long time, I am left in no doubt about the strength of feeling among many members and leaders of the Jewish community that they support the location at this venue and that they want to see it proceed at the heart of democracy, where it matters most that we remember the past in order to shape the future.

We believe that the symbolic siting of the memorial next to this House is a demonstration that the British Government, the official Opposition, our Parliament and our nation are committed to remembering the horrors of the past and ensuring that we do not repeat them. This memorial is a vital step on that path and Labour is pleased to support the Bill today.

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[Nickie Aiken]

My right hon. Friend and I will have to agree to disagree, because this will change the nature of the park. At the moment, it is a community neighbourhood park. It has a playground at one end and a massive open space where local people, particularly children, can play, run around and take their dogs for a walk. The size of the current design will mean that the memorial completely changes the atmosphere of the park.

[Mr Baron]

May I perhaps help my hon. Friend a little? The estimate by the London Historic Parks & Gardens Trust is that up to 30% of the park will be lost, so this is a major construction. In addition to the excellent point she is making, for some of us this comes down to the essential principle about a lack of consultation about the siting. The public were consulted and Westminster City Council said no, and the Government have decided to override it. That troubles us; as I have said before, it is not how we do things in this country. Perhaps that is the central point here.

[Nickie Aiken]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I was the leader of the council when the planning application was going through, and I remind the House that we were very surprised at the lack of consultation in many parts of the application. As I have said, there were 1,000 objections to the planning application within that process. The Father of the House was right when he outlined the issues between 2015 and 2016.

Holocaust Memorial Bill: Committal

John Baron Excerpts

Committal (to a Select Committee)
Wednesday 28th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I rise in support of the Father of the House’s amendments for several reasons. No one is doubting, as I think we have all made clear in this debate, the need for a holocaust memorial. It is absolutely essential, so that we never forget the horror of the genocide and the holocaust, and a memorial would serve that purpose.

My central concern is a twofold absence, the first of which is the absence of a proper consultation as to the memorial’s location. There was a consultation, which went through the normal planning procedure of Westminster City Council, but we will remember perhaps that the Secretary of State called it in. Since then, there seems to have been a process—almost a locomotive in action—that is determined that the following of a proper process is secondary to the decision that has already been made to site the memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. Proper process has been sadly lacking. After all, we are only having this debate because those pushing for the siting of the memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens were informed by a High Court judge that they could not ride roughshod over an Act of Parliament that said that Victoria Tower Gardens should be preserved for permanent use as a public park. We should not forget that.

[Sir Peter Bottomley]

rose—

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Baron]

The Father of the House caught my eye first.

[Sir Peter Bottomley]

My hon. Friend has reminded me that the Government now say that admission to the memorial will be free in perpetuity. The same words—“in perpetuity”—are used in the London Act that protects the park from this kind of building. Who do we trust?

[Mr Baron]

I agree with the Father of the House: we are dealing with serious issues of trust here, and the public trusting what we say in this place.

[Stephen Crabb]

My hon. Friend said that he was going to speak in support of the Father of the House’s amendments, but I am afraid that the points he is making belong to the debate that we had on Second Reading about the principles behind the Bill. It is quite wrong for him to try to return to the arguments that we made earlier this afternoon, when there was strong support from both sides of the House for passing the Bill.

[Mr Baron]

I disagree. If my right hon. Friend reads the amendments, they talk about the Bill removing

“the need for planning permission and all other necessary consents being obtained in the usual way for the construction, use, operation”

and “maintenance” of the memorial. This is all part and parcel of the due process that has been sadly lacking in this whole endeavour for the Government to get their way in siting the memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens, come what may. It is very apt to say that a decision has been made at the centre. It has taken far too long, by the way—we can all agree with that; this process started in 2015, and here we are in 2023 still debating it—but the fact is that due process has not been followed. There has been a lack of transparency, to the point where a High Court judge has to say that we need to debate this matter in Parliament before those pushing for the siting of the memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens can have their way. We should be worried about that.

As I said at the beginning of my speech, I think we all very much support the establishment of a national holocaust memorial. Nobody dissents from that: it is about the way in which the process has been conducted, with a lack of transparency and a lack of due process. I almost think that there has been some sort of deviousness in getting us to this point.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to all those who are part of the Save Victoria Tower Gardens campaign—all of them local people who are so desperate to ensure that this vital piece of public park remains so? Does he agree that it is so important to hear their voices continually throughout this Bill process?

[Mr Baron]

I agree with my hon. Friend. That is why, coming back to the intervention from my right hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb), the debate on this particular part of the Bill—the instruction—is very important, and it is why the Father of the House’s amendments are very relevant. The Bill is trying to say, “We are not going to consider any other alternatives. We are not going to listen at all to any further suggestions as to how we can move this forward.” That is wrong, given that the only consultation we have had so far by Westminster City Council has been called in by the Government. That is not how we do things in this country. We do depend on due process. We do depend on transparency. We do depend on the checks and balances that help make this country one of the best places to live and where the rule of law prevails. But here we have an approach that is shoddy, frankly. It lacks transparency, and the process is questionable. The one bit of consultation has been called in, and it is simply not good enough. So when the Father of the House rises to move his amendments, I hope that enough people will support him, and I will certainly be doing so.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

John Baron Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

It is the case that this Government have seen a massive uptick in solar power—I think more than 90% of the increase in solar panels and solar power generation in this country has occurred under this Government. It is also the case that this country is the world’s favourite destination for offshore wind investment. It is also the case that with our investment in carbon capture and storage and in nuclear power, as I have mentioned, we have exactly the diversity of supply required.

Could this Government do more? Could any Government do more? Yes, but it has to be paid for. I am afraid that Labour’s position, with the commitment to spend £28 billion on a green new deal, is unfunded. Not a penny has been allocated by the shadow Chancellor to pay for that. Do not just take it from me. Take it from the former shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who pointed out on Channel 4 that we have to make sure, if we are governing the economy well, that debt as a proportion of GDP reduces every year. He pointed out explicitly that the unfunded £28 billion green new deal was only going to be funded, and could only be funded, by borrowing. He explicitly pointed out that if the plan put forward by the right hon. Member for Doncaster North for unfunded, borrowing-financed investment goes ahead, he runs exactly the same risk as others have in the past of tanking the economy, pushing up interest rates and having the bond markets catch fright. It was not a voice of reaction making that point, but the man who the right hon. Gentleman thought should be Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

We should also remember that no Labour Government have left office without unemployment being higher than when they came to power. Does my right hon. Friend accept that small and medium-sized enterprises employ by far the largest number in the private sector, and that in order to help them we perhaps need to take a fresh look at the amount of regulation they have to abide by? It needs to match the complexity and size of the company in question. Perhaps we should place greater emphasis on, say, a small firms regime that actually addresses this point head-on.

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. People will know—particularly readers of the Investors’ Chronicle, in which he writes a regular column—that there are few keener students of exactly how we can make changes to the supply side in the labour market in order to drive growth. The point he makes about SMEs and, indeed, microbusinesses is one that I know the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as a former small businessman and entrepreneur himself, takes very seriously, so I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point.

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[Anthony Browne (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—and thank you, colleagues. So much to say, so little time to say it.

I agreed with the opening comments of the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband): we do have a problem with economic growth in the UK. Economic growth is incredibly important—it creates more jobs, it creates better-paid jobs, it helps with the cost of living crisis, and it helps to raise the taxes that we need to pay for public services—but it has been too slow over the 15 years that have elapsed since the financial crisis. What he failed to point out, however, is that this has been a problem across the developed world, and is not unique to the UK. The global economy has been hit by the triple whammy of the financial crisis, the covid pandemic, and the cost of living crisis that has resulted from the invasion of Ukraine. It has been like being hit by a hurricane, a tornado and an earthquake back to back, and it is not surprising that the entire world economy is feeling battered.

If the right hon. Gentleman wants to pin the blame on the Conservatives, which is what he was trying to do, what matters is how the UK has performed in comparison with the rest of the world. As I have said in the Chamber before, according to the International Monetary Fund, we had the fastest-growing economy in the G7 last year and the year before, but what is our record since 2010, when the Conservatives were elected? According to the IMF, the UK economy has grown by 21% during that period, which, although too low, compares extremely well internationally. In fact, the UK has had the fastest-growing major economy in Europe. Since 2010, we have grown faster than Germany, France, Italy, Spain and almost every other euro area country apart from the fast-growing economies of eastern Europe, and we have grown far faster than Japan. We have a track record that really holds its head up, and criticisms of Conservative Government policy really do not bear examination.

[Mr Baron]

Is that not reflected in our unemployment rates, which are almost half the EU average?

[Anthony Browne]

Absolutely. Our unemployment has gone down dramatically, and has halved since 2010. This has been an astonishing performance. Given the economic troubles that we have experienced since the pandemic, it is amazing that unemployment has not risen more than it has. Our unemployment rates compare very well with those in most other countries. This illustrates dramatically the point that we keep making about the Labour party: every time it has been in power, it has left office with unemployment higher than when it arrived, whereas with us it is the other way round.

So how do we achieve economic growth? That is the key challenge. There are two main steps that we need to take. First, we need to increase the participation rate of workers and, secondly, we need to increase business investment to improve productivity. Many of the measures in the Budget, which I highly commend, will increase the participation rate of workers—notably the childcare reforms, which many others have mentioned, and the abolition of the lifetime allowance for pension contributions, which the Backbench Treasury Committee, which I chair, recommended to the Government. The allowance is clearly a hindrance that prevents a great many people in a great many sectors from continuing to work, given the punitive tax penalty that they incur when their pension pot reaches £1 million. The Labour party has tried to bring the politics of envy into play, saying that it is a tax for the rich, but about half those involved work in the public sector—they are not just doctors, but senior civil servants, senior police officers, senior military personnel, air traffic controllers, Government scientists and so forth. Are all those the unacceptable 1%? It is a very ill-informed attack from Labour. This measure also constitutes a dramatic simplification of the system, which means that many more people can understand it and gauge what is best for their pensions.

As for increased business investment, that too was proposed by our committee, although we never dreamt that the Government would be courageous enough to go the whole way. Full expensing is far the most generous tax relief for business investment in any developed country. There was a tax penalty for business investment, but it is now the other way round. I would prefer not to see corporation tax rise to 25%, but that is still the most competitive rate in the G7, and full expensing goes a long way towards reversing its effect.

Given all these different policies—and I will not go through them all—I think that this is a powerful Budget which should go a long way towards promoting economic growth, and the Office for Budget Responsibility, in its analysis, has raised its economic growth forecast as a result of it. I strongly commend it to the House.

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[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I refer Members to my declarations in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

I very much support this Budget, which has many commendable aspects: the expansion of free childcare, the extension of the energy price guarantee, the increased expenditure on defence, the continued fuel duty freeze and the extension of the 5p cut are all welcome. But I want to take the opportunity to bend the ear of Ministers on a couple of issues that may have been overlooked and may even threaten the long-term potential growth of the economy. They may not have been adequately addressed in the Budget.

The Chancellor rightly focused on five key growth areas, and one of them is financial services. The City of London generates more than 10% of the UK’s GDP, but I suggest to Ministers that that is under threat, and I am not convinced that the full scope of the Edinburgh reforms go far enough to address the problem. Many people pooh-bah the stock market, but it is only part of the Square Mile and it acts as a gateway to many other financial services, such as derivatives, trading, insurance, legal services and so on. A healthy stock market is therefore essential, but it is ailing. We just have to look at the computer chip designer Arm and the building materials giant CRH shunning the City for US listings. Those two companies in aggregate account for £80 billion of market worth.

A key problem is that the reaction after the financial crisis—and the Government were involved in this—was to encourage pension fund investors, some of the big beasts in the City, to adopt a more risk-averse approach to investment. Over the long term—and pension funds are about long-term investment—a more risk-averse approach means lower returns. Some pension funds have reduced their allocations to UK equities by up to 90%. The Government need to think outside the box to reverse that trend. They should consider tax incentives to encourage longer-term investment to foster investment in our technology companies, and ending tax penalties associated with equity financing. The Hill review, which is now two years old, has still hardly been properly addressed and it should be revisited.

We should ask ourselves why so many rising stars among our SMEs, especially in the technology sector and the green space, are banking with a Californian bank, Silicon Valley Bank, which needed rescuing over the weekend. It points to a wider issue.

My second point, in the minute left, is about investment and productivity. There is a severe risk that we will be squeezed between the US’s Inflation Reduction Act, worth £300 billion, and the EU’s green deal industrial plan, worth £200 billion. Subsidies and investment incentives do work: we need only look at our renewable energy sector. I suggest to Ministers that we need to follow this closely. I welcome the investment proposals in the Budget, and they will go a long way, but we need to monitor this continually, otherwise we risk losing our lead in so many areas in the green technology space. There is simply no room for complacency.

Draft Architects Act 1997 (Amendment) Regulations 2022

John Baron Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2022 General Committees

[Sarah Owen (Luton North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Robertson.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this specific but important change for mutual recognition agreements with counterpart regulators in other countries, while removing any remaining provisions that continued temporary alignment with the EU’s mutual recognition of professional qualifications directive, and which were laid as transitionary measures following the EU referendum result. All these years later—indeed, three Prime Ministers later—and it seems that Brexit is not quite done yet. On the face of it, these changes are needed and we are not planning to oppose these measures, but the Opposition wonder whether there are some missed opportunities and contradictions with this change and other Government policies on this sector.

As the economy shrinks, and given that the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Prime Minister have reportedly ditched mandatory housing targets, our concern is that the sector is, at best, getting mixed messages and, at worst, has little to no confidence. The Royal Institute of British Architects, or RIBA, reports that a third of architectural practices are expecting their workload to drop. The institute’s future trends survey shows that architects’ confidence continues to fall in all regions. The most pessimistic outlook is in the capital, where practices expect their schedule of work to slow down and 40% expect their workload to shrink. RIBA’s head of economic research and analysis, Adrian Malleson, explained that there is no expectation of job losses. He said:

“So far practices are, overall, seeking to keep staff.”

That is good news, but he added:

“In our post-Brexit environment, qualified, talented architectural staff are hard to recruit and retain.”

It is reassuring that RIBA has been working with the Architects Registration Board and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure that these changes work for the sector. I am sure that workforce supply and development would be key to that, but I would be grateful if, in the absence of any impact assessment, the Minister provided an estimate of the numbers of architects that are covered by existing EU law and the transitional regulations. Are those numbers likely to matched or bettered by future mutual recognition agreements with other countries? If so, does the Department have any projected figures?

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

The hon. Member is painting a very bleak picture and refers to Brexit. Does she not recognise that there is a global slowing of economies? People can bandy about figures relating to expectations but, when we compare our unemployment rate with those of our nearest European neighbours, we are well below their levels. In fact, we are about half the EU average. That is not as bad a picture as the hon. Lady paints.

[Sarah Owen]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but I am speaking about the specifics of architects and the numbers of architects. I will come on to the international picture for architects. Perhaps that will clarify why the picture is not necessarily a gloomy one, but one where we need to be prepared for the impacts and fallout of any changes we make.

The ARB has said that any new agreement will maintain high standards and safety, which is welcome. New applicants coming to the register via these mutual recognition agreements will have to undertake a test to measure their understanding of the UK-specific context of practising architecture. Considering Grenfell and the constant striving to do better, will the Government use the international MRA negotiations or future tests to build on our existing high standards, rather than just maintain them? We understand and welcome the fact that the ARB is in the early stages of negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, the US and the EU, but negotiations can often take longer than is expected or hoped. Can the Minister tell us the likely timeframe for the completion of the negotiations?

Architects are predicting a slowdown in their workload and there is also a shortage of architects, with even more indicating that, sadly, they want to leave the profession altogether. In a survey conducted by Bespoke Careers last year, nearly 1,000 architects were interviewed from the UK, the US and Australia. Bespoke Careers found that 47% of British architects surveyed planned to leave their job. That is up from 36% before the pandemic. The dissatisfaction was most pronounced in the US, where 61% planned to quit. Reasons cited included pay cuts, mental health and not being able to take all available annual leave. Concerns about job satisfaction and the retention of architects are not just a problem in the UK; they are also an issue in at least two of the countries with which we are seeking MRAs. Is the Minister or his Department working with international counterparts and international professional bodies on retention, as well as attracting future architects to the profession? With the new negotiations taking place, I hope that we seize every opportunity to do better and, crucially, to attract the best and brightest to this important profession. I thank Committee members for their time and I look forward to answers to the questions we have put to the Minister.

Local Government Responsibilities: Public Services

John Baron Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Luke Hall)]

I thank the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) for the constructive and collaborative tone she has taken in this debate. She has raised a number of very sensible and serious questions. I will do my best to answer as many as I can, and I will try to make sure the ones I cannot answer are answered in the wind-up.

I join the hon. Lady in putting on record my thanks to local authorities across the country for their wholehearted response to the coronavirus crisis and for reassuring and supporting residents. I have seen that with my local authority, and I am sure Opposition Members have seen it with their local authorities, too. I know hon. Members on both sides of the House will join me in recognising the contribution local authorities will make in the weeks and months to come as we move through this difficult time for our country.

As the Prime Minister has said, this is the worst public health crisis in a generation. We are committed to responding, and our measures are comprehensive. We are offering UK-wide support to ensure people in all four corners of the country receive the help they need. Our fiscal action will support public services, households and businesses, and whatever resources the national health service needs, it will get.

I am working closely with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and with ministerial colleagues across Government to ensure councils get the funding they need to see their residents through this crisis. Our priority response is to provide security and support for those who get sick, and for those who are unable to work, through the direct funding of public services. Of course, we stand ready to do whatever is necessary to support councils in their response to the coronavirus.

The Secretary of State addressed over 300 council leaders in England on Monday and outlined the three priority areas on which we are asking them to focus in the weeks and months ahead: social care, supporting vulnerable people and supporting local economies.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I welcome this as a nudge in the right direction. Although I appreciate the “dear colleague” letter we have all received and what the Minister has just said, there is still a vulnerable group of people who risk being overlooked by the Government’s initiatives, and that is the elderly and vulnerable who live on their own, whether or not they are ill. There is a risk that they will be inadvertently overlooked in such a scenario and in such extraordinary times. As a society, we have to reach out to them.

I urge the Minister to look at this again because, at the moment, that group does not feature in any Government initiative. The Government should be sending a clear message that they will provide whatever support it takes for local councils to reach out to those people. Many may be in rural settings, but there may be a lot in the city, too. Local councils should reach out, locate them, identify them and offer help, if necessary tying in local charitable causes or charities to help them in that assistance. The message must go out to local government to reach out, because we do not want anyone to be left behind.

[Luke Hall]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I give him my assurance that the work has already started. We are already starting to compile those lists and, of course, we are working with local resilience forums and councils, which will be the fundamental units in administering that support. We will, of course, talk more about this in the weeks ahead.

[Mr Baron]

I do not want to test the Minister’s patience, but I want clarity on this issue. This is not just about those who may be self-isolating or who may be ill; it is about people living on their own who we simply do not know about, whether or not they are healthy. We have to reach out and find out. Is that what the Minister is saying from the Dispatch Box?

[Luke Hall]

Yes. I can absolutely give my hon. Friend that assurance. Our response measures sit alongside the well-versed contingency plans and frameworks we have for times of difficulty. Everyone here will appreciate that, perhaps now more than ever, we rely on our public services, and I am confident they are up to the task.