Iran-Israel Update

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to address that clearly. We have one of the most robust arms export licensing control regimes in the entire world. We have previously assessed that Israel is committed and capable of complying with international humanitarian law. But, as the hon. Member would expect, we regularly review our assessment. As the Foreign Secretary confirmed last week, the UK position on export licences is unchanged and, following the latest assessment, is in line with our legal advice. We will keep that position under review and act in accordance with advice. I also point out to the hon. Member that most like-minded countries have not suspended their existing arms export licences to Israel.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Ind)]

I, too, welcome the Prime Minister’s leadership in this area. In addition to the thanks given to the RAF, which undertook exemplary action this weekend, will he also thank those US service personnel based here in the United Kingdom, including many in my West Suffolk constituency, who were prepared to act as a moment’s notice to defend Israel against this attack, which has been roundly condemned?

Defending the UK and Allies

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We should be proud of our record. We have been one of the largest contributors to the effort in Ukraine, but it is also important to recognise that we have consistently been the first country to act, and that has galvanised others. That is an important role that the Ukrainians especially recognise. I went through the capabilities that was true for, but again, crucially, we were the first country out of the 30 that promised to sign a security commitment. As others follow, that will enhance and improve Ukraine’s deterrent against Russia, and that is something we should be proud of.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Ind)]

I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister is in the Chamber, opening himself up to democratic scrutiny, but I also welcome the fact that he took the decision to act—took that heavy duty and responsibility—before coming to this House. It is folly to ask for a vote in advance of action, and it is in the interests of our national security that the Prime Minister can act. That precedent goes a long way back, well before the precedents he has cited of 2015 and 2018. It is the constitutional basis on which we defend ourselves as a country.

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his support and his comments. He is right that this is not a decision I took lightly, and right to point out that publicising an action like this in advance could undermine its effectiveness and risk lives. Of course, it is Parliament’s responsibility to hold me to account for such decisions, but it is my responsibility as Prime Minister to make those decisions.

Infected Blood Inquiry Update

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Wednesday 19th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Quin]

The right hon. Lady has been a constant and incredibly effective champion for those affected and infected. It was about time, but it was this Government who instituted this inquiry. We have made a huge amount of progress in having an inquiry, and in having clear recommendations on compensation from Sir Brian. We want to act at pace and we want to act swiftly, but it is also vital that this is done properly. There is a huge amount of work. The nature of the report and the recommendations Sir Brian makes are unprecedented for an unprecedented circumstance, but that requires detailed work and detailed analysis. We will bring forward a response as soon as we can. As I say, we are focused on the inquiry’s conclusion, but that does not preclude coming forward before then if we are able to do so and we decide that that is the right course of action.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Ind)]

I add my voice to those thanking Sir Brian Langstaff and the whole team for the work they have done. We all recognise the complexities of delivering a scheme that is effective. I am grateful to the Minister for repeatedly coming to this House and for committing to come to the House again, but will he repeat from the Dispatch Box the moral case for compensation, which has effectively bound the Government to act and to follow the recommendations for compensation? Of course it takes time to put that into practice, but what is vital for people to hear today is that, in principle, the Government are going to make it happen. For many years that commitment was not there and it needs to be repeated now.

[Jeremy Quin]

My right hon. Friend speaks with a great deal of knowledge on this subject. I am very grateful—I repeat this, as did he—to Sir Brian for producing a comprehensive and thorough appraisal of what the compensation scheme should look like, but we need to go through it in detail. As my right hon. Friend would accept, it needs to be effective and it needs to work, but I am pleased that he has given me the opportunity to reiterate what I said last December in this place: we fully accept that there is a moral case for compensation in this circumstance, absolutely.

Large Solar Farms

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con)]

I very much welcome the opportunity that this evening’s debate gives me to raise the matter of large-scale solar farms. There have been previous debates on the subject in Westminster Hall, and I know that many right hon. and hon. Members have raised concerns about the loss of food production and the planning process. I note that there are one or two colleagues in the Chamber this evening who may want to chip in.

Food security and energy security are competing requirements in our economy, and we must recognise that. No doubt someone listening to this debate—it is usually some sort of blogger on some eco-site—will report that we are all anti-renewable energy, which, of course, is not what the debate is about and could not be further from the truth; it is, in fact, quite the opposite.

Let me start by saying that electricity generation from solar has been a major success, and has come a long way in the last 12 years. Last Sunday at noon, 5.74 GW out of a total of 33.1 GW delivered by the national grid was from solar. Total solar generating capacity is now about 14.6 GW, and the energy strategy objective is to increase that fivefold to 70 GW by 2035. I understand that, by the end of January 2023, there were 1,360 operational solar farms covering about 100,000 acres. It is estimated that a further 160 solar farms have been approved and there are several hundred more planning applications in the pipeline, including at least seven nationally significant infrastructure planning applications which are over 50 MW. That planning and construction pipeline could be equivalent to a further 150,000 acres of solar panels, the majority of which would be ground-mounted on farmland.

To date, this solar expansion has received a good level of public support. In my constituency, the first applications, in 2015, were approved with the benefit of public support. They were typically 5 MW, and located near industrial estates. By 2018, 20 MW applications were coming forward, and by 2020, typical applications were just under 50 MW—the maximum under which the local planning authority was responsible for deciding the applications. Now there is public concern about the increasing number of applications, and the more than tenfold increase in the size of some of them.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Ind)]

As a supporter of solar energy, I think the central point is that, if there is no local support for projects because they are in the wrong place, that will undermine support for renewable energy. In my constituency, I have supported many solar projects and continue to support them now, but the Sunnica project goes right round villages and destroys local amenity. The consultation has been woeful, and both county and local councils are against the project, as is the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whose constituency it also covers. Is not the point that those who support solar should support it in the right place, and not get people’s backs up with terrible consultation and projects that should be sent back to the drawing board?

--- Later in debate ---

[Amanda Solloway]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his intervention; I have taken note of it and will report it back to the relevant Minister.

For NSIP projects, communities can participate in the formal examination process run by the Planning Inspectorate. That gives communities the opportunity to make their views known on and influence projects before decisions are taken.

All large solar developers must complete an environmental statement for any application—

[Matt Hancock]

Before the Minister moves on, will she give way?

[Amanda Solloway]

Of course.

[Matt Hancock]

I am grateful. Does that mean that if a solar farm project is not well designed, it will not be passed? The Sunnica proposal in my West Suffolk constituency is very badly designed. It looks completely nuts from first principles because it is all over the place and around these villages. It damages the amenity of Newmarket and its globally significant racing industry. Nobody could argue that it is well designed, so will she confirm that that should be at the forefront of the Minister’s mind when the statutory decision is taken?

[Amanda Solloway]

I thank my right hon. Friend for the question. He will understand that I do not know the “nuts” project that he is talking about, but again, I will pass that on to the relevant Minister.

All large solar developments must complete an environmental statement, as I was saying. Decision makers will consider a range of factors, such as whether the project proposal allows for continued agricultural use where relevant or encourages biodiversity improvements around the proposed site. Solar farms are temporary in nature and most solar panel components and equipment can be recycled.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

I rise to share gratitude for the life of Her late Majesty the Queen; share sadness for her family; and share sadness for the country and the world at the loss of the greatest statesman of our time. I also want to mark my personal gratitude for the advice that Her Majesty gave me, and in particular, as was mentioned by the most recent former Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), for her role in bringing the country together and giving hope in dark times during the pandemic. I also add my gratitude for her taking the rare step of going public with her health status when she declared that she had taken a vaccination, showing further leadership.

The Queen was much loved, of course, across my West Suffolk constituency, but perhaps nowhere more than in Newmarket, which she visited so often. Newmarket, of course, is the jewel in the crown of horse-racing, certainly domestically and probably across the world. On her many, many visits there she showed that she could walk with sovereigns and the general public alike. Newmarket was where I first met her, when I was lucky to be with my small daughter, who handed her a posy. It is my daughter’s first memory, and will no doubt be an abiding one for the rest of her life.

That reminds me of the many times that I have seen Her Majesty meeting the public and been impressed and inspired by her sheer ability to ensure that each person she met understood that she was focused entirely on them. She listened so well to them, knowing no doubt that, for each person she met, it was a moment that that person would remember for the rest of their life. Her fortitude in continuing to do that well into her 90s was incredible to behold.

We in Newmarket are not always known for our humility, but we do know that the reason Her Majesty loved to come to Newmarket was not we two-legged beings, but the four-legged ones. Her love of horse-racing was perhaps her greatest love outside of her duty to her family and her country. The twinkle that we have heard so much about was probably brightest, and the genuine smile that came on her face at its broadest, when she was at a racecourse, as she demonstrated on what was probably her last social public occasion at Ascot. I remember that love particularly when she visited to open the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket. She went down the line of dignitaries and she went down and met the public. She gave them her customary focus, but she was clearly doing her duty, because the museum is full of retired racehorses and it was only when she got to them that she really lit up. That was Her Majesty at her best.

We have lost a great servant. She is replaced by another great servant of our nation. God save the King.

Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to improve literacy among prisoners.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Victoria Atkins)]

If we can improve prisoners’ literacy and numeracy skills, we will increase their ability to get jobs when they are released, which, in turn, will cut crime and make our streets safer. That is why we have set our plans to achieve exactly that in the prisons strategy White Paper. We have already introduced measures of progress in English and maths to hold governors to account, and we will be establishing an innovation scheme to deliver new initiatives to improve the reading and writing of prisoners.

[Matt Hancock]

I welcome what the Minister has said on improving literacy among prisoners and what the Secretary of State said in answer to the previous question. May I just strengthen the point about governor accountability? Training in prisons is currently accountable through Ofsted and the training provider is held accountable. Until governors themselves are fully accountable for the literacy of prisoners as they leave, tied of course with the need to get prisoners into work, on which there has been excellent progress, it will always be harder than it should be to get the reading training needed, especially for those who are dyslexic.

[Victoria Atkins]

My right hon. Friend is completely right. We are putting in place a new deal for governors based on clear expectations and accountability, giving them greater autonomy over education provision in their establishments, which includes transparent key performance indicators, outcome measures and targets, including on prisoner literacy. Indeed, in Highpoint Prison in his constituency, there is a prisoner who was completely illiterate on entering prison. He had the ambition to read to his young child and is now three chapters into a book. With that sort of personal determination and encouragement from the Prison Service, we have high hopes for the chances of prisoners when they leave prison and keeping our communities safer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I will look at the various variations the hon. Lady has referred to; I will make sure to get her an answer by correspondence within the week.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

Are the Secretary of State and the Minister for prisons aware of the shocking report out this morning by Ofsted and Her Majesty’s inspectorate of prisons, which describes a terrible level of reading ability in prisons and a lack of progress over recent years? What plans do the Government have to put in place the recommendations of the 2016 Coates report and to ensure accountability, so that prison governors understand the vital nature of teaching all prisoners to read? Without that skill, there can be no serious rehabilitation.

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his attention to this issue and wider issues of education within the prison system. We absolutely understand the criticisms made in the report. I hope we have pre-empted some of the report’s observations through the “Prisons Strategy” White Paper, which shows the Government’s determination to cut reoffending through rehabilitation. The White Paper includes, for example, the development of personal learning plans for prisoners and the introduction of new prison key performance indicators in English and maths, so that we can hold prisons to account for the outcomes they achieve for prisoners.

Living with Covid-19

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Monday 21st February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The man for the rules—Matt Hancock.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Almost two years ago now this House voted unanimously on the statutory measures necessary to keep people safe during the pandemic. I agree with the Prime Minister that, thanks to the vaccines, those measures are no longer necessary and we are the first major country in the world to be past the pandemic. However, is it not extraordinary that, despite the consensus on restrictions back then, the consensus on giving people back their freedom, which is often so much harder, and on trusting in personal responsibility appears to exist only on the Government side of the House?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, and it is a great shame that the Opposition cannot find it in themselves to support what I think is a balanced and proportionate approach that recognises that covid has not gone away and that we cannot throw caution to the winds.

Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Tuesday 9th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

We think that justice must be served; punishment is important. The short sentences are often for those who have systematically flouted and breached community sentences. To cut crime, the answer is to make sure justice is served. As well as incarceration where that is required for the purposes of punishment, we work on drug rehabilitation, skills and employment so that those offenders who want to take a second chance to turn themselves around—not all of them will—have the opportunity to grasp it.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s focus on helping offenders into employment. Given estimates that more than half of offenders may be dyslexic and given the impact of dyslexia and illiteracy on the ability to work after a sentence, what is he doing to make sure that screening is available to ensure that prisoners can get the right training, especially on literacy if they are dyslexic, to help them into more successful work afterwards?

[Dominic Raab]

One issue we have discussed—I will be hosting prison governors at a roundtable shortly—is making sure that there is an immediate diagnosis within days of an offender getting into prison, so that we know two things: their numeracy and literacy levels, which will of course bring in other special educational needs, to which my right hon. Friend rightly refers; and what the next qualification is that they may—or may not—be able to achieve, so that we have a decent plan that gives them the chance to improve their skills, get into work and avoid a life of crime.

Health and Social Care

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

After a long career of listening to Liberal Democrat opportunism, I do not think that I have heard anything quite so absurd. The right hon. Gentleman calls for more funding and then attacks the Government for providing the wherewithal to do exactly what he wants. We will be spending half a billion pounds supporting carers, and there will be 700,000 more training places. The plan supports adult care. It supports everybody who needs care up and down the country; it is not just care for the elderly.

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

The reform of social care has been ducked for decades because successive Governments have put it in the too difficult box. I congratulate the Prime Minister on delivering on our commitments and his commitment. May I ask him to ensure that, as well as the money, we integrate properly the NHS with social care so that people can get the dignity that they deserve?