Oral Answers to Questions
Pamela Nash Excerpts(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Melanie Ward
My hon. Friend is a tireless advocate for the people of West Dunbartonshire, and I am delighted that it will benefit from a new youth hub opening this week. This Government’s investment in a generation of young people includes the expansion of youth hubs across the UK. There are now 12 youth hubs open in Scotland, with a further 27 planned across our nation. Each will provide a range of services to our brilliant young people, helping them to earn, learn and live the fullest possible lives.
Pamela Nash (Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Melanie Ward)
This Government are committed to supporting a competitive and sustainable steel sector across the United Kingdom, with Scotland a vital part of that. The UK’s first-ever steel strategy, published in March, sets out an ambitious long-term plan to rebuild the sector, return domestic market share to around 50%, attract new investment and position the UK as a world leader in clean, modern steel production. The significance of Scotland’s steel industry to local communities, jobs and supply chains is beyond doubt.
Pamela Nash
I congratulate the Minister on a great performance at her first Scottish questions. She will know that yet again Dalzell’s staff in Motherwell were not paid on time this month by Liberty, despite pulling out all the stops to get the plant rolling steel again. It is simply intolerable for the team to live in this situation. They have been forced to find job security elsewhere, leaving a vital and unique piece of UK infrastructure in a potentially unsalvageable position. Will the Scotland Office work with me and colleagues to ensure that our Government take action imminently to ensure that the workforce are not left in this position again next month and to secure the future of the Dalzell plate mill permanently?
Melanie Ward
My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for those she represents, and I know she discussed the situation at Dalzell works with the Prime Minister when he was in Motherwell recently. Liberty’s failure to pay its workforce on time is a huge worry to her community. It is intolerable, as she says, and we share that concern. The UK Government want to see the Dalzell site operational once more, and we are looking at the situation closely. We will continue to work with her.
Oral Answers to Questions
Pamela Nash Excerpts(3 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. Mr Doogan, we do not need an ongoing shouting match from your sedentary position.
Pamela Nash (Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke) (Lab)
By ending Tory austerity and increasing the settlement to the Scottish Government by nearly £12 billion, this UK Labour Government have provided adequate funding for the SNP to properly resource Scotland’s rural economy. Does the Minister agree it is time that Scotland’s rural industries were properly recognised and got the support they needed from the Scottish Government?
Kirsty McNeill
I could not agree with my hon. Friend more. Our farms and farmers are vital to this country as providers of food, guardians of our countryside, and significant contributors to the economy. It is time that the SNP Scottish Government recognised that fact.
Oral Answers to Questions
Pamela Nash Excerpts(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Pamela Nash (Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke) (Lab)
The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr Douglas Alexander)
Tackling child poverty is fundamental to the work of this Labour Government. In December, we published our ambitious and comprehensive UK-wide child poverty strategy. It sets out the steps we are taking to reduce child poverty in the short term, as well as putting in place the building blocks we need to create long-term change across the United Kingdom. On its own, our decision to lift the two-child cap, which came into effect just last week, will benefit 95,000 children in Scotland.
Pamela Nash
Does the Secretary of State agree that the Scottish National party has failed Scotland’s children over the past two decades, leaving thousands in poverty, including one in four in my constituency, and that it is only Labour that will prioritise our children, as we have shown by lifting the two-child cap, which is now benefiting over 13,000 children in Lanarkshire?
Mr Alexander
First, on the conduct of the Government: the Conservatives in government pushed kids into poverty; Labour in government lifts kids out of poverty. We would have hoped for a better approach from the Scottish Government, but the fact is that there are 10,000 kids in Scotland without a home to call their own. At the same time, the challenge that was set by the previous First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was to close the educational attainment gap in Scotland—of course, education, along with employment, is the best route out of poverty—but that gap has got wider rather than narrower. What a damning indictment of the Scottish Government.
Oral Answers to Questions
Pamela Nash Excerpts(1 year ago)
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Douglas McAllister (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab)
Pamela Nash (Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Kirsty McNeill)
The Scotland Office is backing Scotland’s communities with our £292 million pride in place investment. The plan will support grassroots movements that restore local people’s power, boost national pride and help people get on in life. It will revitalise our high streets, create jobs and improve safety and security. More than that, it will give expression to this Government’s core belief that communities are powerful and that in every corner of our country, we find millions of so-called ordinary people doing their best and doing their bit to transform the places they love for the people they love.
Kirsty McNeill
I commend my hon. Friend on his ambition for his seat and his sterling advocacy for it. He is right that this funding will help revitalise our high streets, create jobs and improve safety and security in Scotland. He is also right that the SNP is desperately out of touch with its squabbling over independence while services across Scotland are at breaking point.
Pamela Nash
Since the election last year when Labour came to power, our constituents in Scotland have seen their friends in England and Wales see real improvements in their communities and public services, while they look on and wonder what the SNP Government are squandering Scotland’s share on. Does the Minister agree that key to the success of the pride in place funding and projects, including the £41.5 million coming to Lanarkshire, is that we are putting power directly in the hands of people to make decisions about investments in their own communities?
Kirsty McNeill
My hon. Friend is right that both her constituents and mine look with some envy to the other side of the border where millions of extra NHS appointments have been secured while waiting lists in Scotland go up and up. Local communities are at the heart of Scottish life, which is why we are giving them control over hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to revitalise their high streets, take ownership of important local assets and build thriving and prosperous places to work, live and visit.