Oral Answers to Questions

Michelle Welsh Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to implement the Government’s plan for change.

[Michelle Welsh (Sherwood Forest) (Lab)]

9. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to implement the Government’s plan for change.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Pat McFadden)]

Since we launched the plan for change last month, we have published the elective reform plan to get NHS waiting lists down and the AI opportunities plan so that the UK is a great home for AI investment and the Government make the most of this technology. The aim of the plan for change is to increase living standards, cut NHS waiting lists, boost energy security, give children the best start in life, make our streets safer, and build the houses that the country needs for the future. Just today, we have announced measures to stop repeated judicial review attempts from holding up major investment projects that are in the national interest.

[Pat McFadden]

I thank my hon. Friend and parliamentary neighbour for his question. I know his constituents well in Wolverhampton and he is right that a higher standard of living, lower NHS waiting lists, more housing and children getting a better start in life will be good for his constituents in Wolverhampton and good for constituents right around the country.

[Michelle Welsh]

Vibrant town centres are so important for the health of our local economies. Under the Conservatives, shop lifting was allowed to spiral out of control and we are still dealing with the consequences. Not too long ago, in Hucknall, a shopworker was brutally attacked. When I speak to local residents and businesses across Sherwood Forest, they tell me that this kind of antisocial behaviour has meant that they do not want to go out into town at night. Can the Minister confirm that the measures announced in the plan for change will deliver safer streets and be a boost to local economies?

[Pat McFadden]

I am very sorry to hear about the distressing attack on the shopworker in my hon. Friend’s constituency. Everyone should be free to go to work without the fear of being attacked while doing their job. I am pleased to say that, under this Government, assaulting a shopworker will be made a separate criminal offence. My hon. Friend is right to say that, on top of that, we need to do more to ensure that our town centres are safe. Restoring community policing with the additional police officers and police community support officers that we plan will enable all our constituents to visit their town centres and go about their business with peace and confidence.

Storm Darragh

Michelle Welsh Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

Engineers have been working tirelessly with National Grid’s electricity distributors and with other networks to ensure that steps are taken to reconnect vulnerable customers in particular, but if the right hon. Member writes to me, we can look into this in more detail.

[Michelle Welsh (Sherwood Forest) (Lab)]

Will the Minister join me in paying tribute to our fantastic volunteers who worked around the clock in difficult circumstances, playing a critical role in protecting people and homes? Will she visit my constituency to meet some of those volunteers, including some from Lowdham, Rainworth and Hucknall, who continue to face the threat of flooding?

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

I too thank the volunteers who have worked so hard to provide support. I always try to visit areas around the country, and if my hon. Friend writes to me, I will see whether if I can visit her constituency with the floods Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), to see the hard work that those volunteers have been doing.