Business of the House Debate

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Department: Leader of the House

Business of the House

Josh Newbury Excerpts
Thursday 19th June 2025

(1 day, 18 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lucy Powell Portrait Lucy Powell
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My hon. Friend is a great champion for his area, and I am incredibly sorry to hear that his Conservative local authority has decided to close this valuable local garden centre, which does so much for his community. We have given local authorities one of the biggest boosts in local funding that they have had for some time, so they really have no excuse.

Josh Newbury Portrait Josh Newbury (Cannock Chase) (Lab)
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Across the UK, volunteers give their time, energy and care to support our communities, and we could not do without them. One such champion is my constituent Doug Smith, who founded Volunteers Count, a campaign asking organisations to record volunteer hours so that we can finally put a number and a value on the enormous contribution of volunteers. Will the Leader of the House join me in supporting the Volunteers Count campaign, and make time for a debate on the value of volunteering to our country?

Lucy Powell Portrait Lucy Powell
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What a great initiative by Doug Smith to set up Volunteers Count; I am sure we all recognise that it is a really good and important way of collecting this data and information. The subject of volunteering gets raised with me every week, and I am sure that a debate, probably on the Floor of the House, to celebrate our volunteers would be very well attended.