Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Peter Kyle]

I can hear encouraging sounds from the hon. Lady’s colleagues asking for that meeting. Let me say at the outset that this Department wants to engage with everyone—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] I haven’t finished yet. We want to ensure that everyone in every constituency has full access to the connectivity that they need. With that in mind, the Minister responsible for the roll-out of these services will meet officials to ensure that the hon. Lady is given the attention that her constituents deserve.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)]

People and businesses in my constituency, like many elsewhere, are plagued with patchy access. Andy from Wheathampstead has found that the only way he can move on to working from home and running a business is to have expensive satellite broadband. Will the Secretary of State commit to ensuring that every home and business has access to gigabit broadband in rural and remote communities, and will he also ensure that there are bespoke solutions so that no home or business is left out?

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[Alison Griffiths (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)]

Following the successful investment in Rolls-Royce’s technology and logistics centre, what is the Minister doing to get more investment into my Bognor Regis and Littlehampton constituency?

[Mr Speaker]

I am not sure that Rolls-Royce fits into a question on life sciences. Does the Minister have an answer?

[Feryal Clark]

I thank the hon. Member for her question. She will have seen from the investment summit earlier this week that there is huge interest from a number of companies in investing in the UK, and there is huge support from this Government for those companies that wish to invest.

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[Chris Bryant]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her place. She makes a really good point: as we take away the copper lines and move over to the new technology, which we need to do, it is absolutely essential that we ensure there is a safe transition, even if it is only for people who have telecare devices on which they rely for their own safety—I am sure we all have relatives who have one of those. I have already met all the operators, and I am determined to crack the whip on this issue.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Ayoub Khan—not here.

[Mark Ferguson (Gateshead Central and Whickham) (Lab)]

5. What steps he is taking to help improve domestic research and development capabilities.

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[Peter Kyle]

It is incredibly important for this Government that we invest across the whole country, which is why we have invested £118 million in healthcare research and partnership hubs that are outside London and across the United Kingdom. I hope that this benefits the hon. Gentleman’s area too.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

The whole House recognises—certainly, the Government’s industrial strategy does—that in order to drive growth we need innovation clusters across the country. The last Government committed to increasing R&D spend outside of the greater south-east by 40% by 2030 as part of the failed levelling-up strategy. Will the Secretary of State say whether he intends to maintain that target, and/or what steps he will take to ensure that funding is available to drive regional growth and innovation?

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[Peter Kyle]

As always, I am grateful to hear from the hon. Gentleman. I will be in touch with any specifics that I can follow up with, but we are a Government committed to Northern Ireland, which I believe he will have seen from day one of this Labour Government back in July. I can also show that there have been great advancements in investment in Northern Ireland, which is why Northern Ireland has the highest coverage rates for fast fibre-optic broadband of any part of the United Kingdom. I want to be a champion for Northern Ireland, and I visited recently to ensure that everybody in the science and technology community there realises that this is a Government who are on their side.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Saqib Bhatti (Meriden and Solihull East) (Con)]

The Secretary of State, in one of his first acts in his new role, cut £1.3 billion-worth of funding that would have been transformative for enabling cutting-edge research and development in Britain. I note that he has also ditched our ambition to turn Britain into a science and technology superpower. We set a target of £20 billion for R&D, which we met, but he has set no such target. Will he be setting a target, and can he today promise that there will be no cuts to R&D expenditure?

[Peter Kyle]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his appointment to his Front-Bench role. Let us just be honest about what this Government inherited. That £20 billion black hole affects every single Department across Government. My Department inherited a situation where the previous Government—including the former Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Jeremy Hunt), who is sitting on the Opposition Front Bench—committed at this Dispatch Box to an exascale project to which not one single penny had been committed. That was a fraud committed on the scientific community of our country by that Government, and I had to make the difficult decision to move forward—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I think we have gone on long enough on that question.

[Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to roll out Project Gigabit in the Chester South and Eddisbury constituency.

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[Peter Kyle]

I extend my deepest sympathies to those who have been affected by the crimes that my hon. Friend outlines. The Online Safety Act—and its measures that will soon come into force—is there to address that concern directly. I want these powers to be used as assertively as possible. Just today, I have heard about another story concerning Roblox. I expect that company to do better in protecting service users, particularly children, on its platform.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Ayoub Khan—not here.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

T2. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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[Peter Kyle]

I pay tribute to The Courier for exposing some of these issues. We must keep children and vulnerable people safe when they are online. I intend to ensure that safety is baked in from the outset. When it comes to keeping children safe in this country, everything is on the table and I am open minded about how we move forward to achieve a much safer environment. Companies releasing products into our society should see that as a privilege, not a right. I have high expectations, on behalf of this country, to ensure that safety is baked in from the start.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Feryal Clark)]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for all the work that she does to encourage more women into tech. It is great to know that the tech world is full not just of “tech bros”, but quite a lot of tech sisters as well. We are committed to building on the UK’s success as a global AI leader, and the upcoming AI action plan demonstrates that commitment to ensure the safe development of AI models by introducing binding regulation on a handful of companies developing the most powerful AI systems, fostering trust in those technologies. We will also continue—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We are now moving to Prime Minister’s questions.

The Prime Minister was asked—

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[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I do, and I know this is a concerning time for families who rely on the brilliant work of Whitby InterActive. Children with special educational needs and disabilities have been failed for too long. It comes up repeatedly in the House, with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve. We must raise the standards for every child so that they can succeed in education. We will fix the foundations and ensure that every child can achieve their potential.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Leader of the Opposition.

[Rishi Sunak (Richmond and Northallerton) (Con)]

I join the Prime Minister’s words of tribute to Alex Salmond and the Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert, and thank him for his kind words about Sir David Amess, whom we remember fondly. We are thinking of all their families at this moment.

This week, China has carried out unwarranted, aggressive and intimidatory military exercises in the Taiwan strait. Our allies are rightly concerned. After worrying reports that the Government may have intervened to stop a visit to the UK by the former Taiwanese President, will the Prime Minister confirm that the Foreign Secretary will use his meetings in Beijing this week to condemn China’s dangerous escalatory acts in the strait?

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[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question, because years of underfunding have left councils facing huge budget pressures—[Interruption.] Opposition Members yawn; they do not know the impact that it has on working people up and down the country, who rely on public services. What has happened in Thurrock is shocking. We are committed to resetting the relationship, and helping those under intervention to recover and reform. Fourteen years is a long time of destroying local services, and it is clear that it will take time to fix them. We will get councils back on their feet by providing multi-year funding settlements, but ultimately we have to grow our economy. I am surprised that the Leader of the Opposition did not welcome the £63 billion of investment that we were able to announce on Monday.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I echo the Prime Minister’s tributes to Alex Salmond, Sir David Amess and Lily Ebert.

I welcome the news that Ministers are going to review the carer’s allowance repayment scandal, after campaigns by carers organisations, The Guardian and the Liberal Democrats, culminating in our motion on the Order Paper today, but does the Prime Minister agree that the evidence needed for the review is already long established, and many of the decisions self-evident? Will he and his colleagues vote for our motion today, so that we can write off the overpayments, end the crazy cliff edge to the earnings limit now, and have a fuller review of the support that carers deserve?

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[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. The Conservative party wants to get rid of maternity pay, but keep hereditary peers. It is the same old Tories. This is an important issue that she has raised. The letters are honest, powerful and important, and I think they hold up a mirror to our country. We will deliver a Budget that drives economic growth, improves the lives of working people, fixes our public services and rebuilds our country with a decade of national renewal.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Ann Davies.

[Ann Davies (Caerfyrddin) (PC)]

Q5. Diolch, Llefarydd. My constituent Janette Crawford suffers from ME and chronic pain. The cold, damp conditions of a Welsh winter are going to mean a lot more muscle soreness and fatigue for her. She has lost her winter fuel payments due to having a very small savings pot. With 86% of pensioners in poverty, or just above that line, to miss out in Wales, will the Prime Minister establish a social energy tariff to help people like Janette?