Debate on the Address

Sarah Edwards Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Edwards (Tamworth) (Lab)]

It is wonderful to be here following the first King’s Speech under a Labour Government since 1950. When Labour was elected to form this country’s next Government, it was on the promise of change. Today’s King’s Speech wastes no time in doing just that. The package of legislation announced today places growth at its heart, with an ambitious plan to raise living standards for working people.

I welcome the announcement of a crime and policing Bill. I know how important it is to my constituents in Tamworth that they feel safe, but under the Conservatives Tamworth’s police front desk was shut down. The very notion of community policing was developed by former Tamworth MP and Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, so it is with great irony that local residents are currently without a public police station. I have written to the Home Secretary since her appointment and look forward to working with her to make that a reality.

I visited the Central England Co-op in my constituency to speak to staff and USDAW––Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers—officials about the abuse they face on a daily basis, the consistent threat of violence from shoplifting, and that, as a business, the Co-op lost more than £70 million due to shoplifting last year. I am therefore pleased that the Prime Minister has wasted no time in delivering a Bill that will establish a new criminal offence of assaulting shopworkers.

In Tamworth, the Holiday Inn has been used for asylum purposes for years and the simple reality is that residents want their hotel back. Tamworth benefits from local tourism and, as I have said before in this Chamber, the Holiday Inn should be for holidays. I therefore welcome today’s announcement that the border security, asylum and immigration Bill includes plans to end asylum hotel use. It was great to host the then shadow Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley (Yvette Cooper), in Tamworth earlier this month to brief her on the situation. I look forward to working with her in the coming weeks to discuss the issue in greater detail.

My constituency of Tamworth and its villages is at high-risk when it comes to flooding incidents, but amidst chronic underfunding of the Environment Agency we remain fundamentally unprepared to tackle it. Labour has set out plans for a flood resilience taskforce and I look forward to presenting it with the findings of the flooding summit I hosted in March this year. The summit, which was well-attended, explored new ways of working and key strategic approaches by local, regional and national stakeholders.

All around us we can see that the NHS is struggling. Over a decade of austerity and consistent de-prioritisation by Conservative Governments have seen local people hit hardest. I have had too many conversations with constituents waiting months for appointments or cancer screenings, or in mental health crises and unable to get support. In my own constituency of Tamworth, the closure of the George Bryan Centre means my constituents need to travel many miles to access mental health support. Many constituents will also welcome the children’s wellbeing Bill, which promises to raise standards in education, and requires schools to co-operate with local authorities on special educational needs and disabilities inclusion. It is great to see, on day 13 of a Labour Government, that we are already addressing this important issue.

Many people in Tamworth have had to endure the cost of living crisis that they did not ask for, nor do they deserve. While Tamworth’s incredible network of community groups has gone above and beyond to fill the gap in support, the reality is that the Conservative Government’s mismanagement of the economy hit the most vulnerable people in my constituency the hardest.

We must take action to address soaring rent prices. During the last few weeks, my team has still been supporting people who have been made homeless or who are at risk of being made homeless. It is fantastic to see the Prime Minister put forward a renters’ rights Bill that gives greater rights and protections for millions of people who are renting and unable to afford their own home, and that it includes proposals to abolish section 21 no-fault evictions. That should have been done a long time ago.

It was great to open the Business Commission West Midlands event in Parliament last week, along with the chamber of commerce. I will be working alongside businesses, just as I have been over the past eight months, to spearhead investment and the strategic priorities to support the town centre economy and local businesses. Tamworth has a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and it also has huge untapped potential. The Prime Minister’s new English devolution Bill will see towns and cities given enhanced powers and duties in respect of strategic planning, local transport networks, skills, and employment support, enabling them to create jobs and improve living standards. That is important to me, because, Madam Deputy Speaker, Tam-worth it!

Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned.—(Gerald Jones.)

Debate to be resumed tomorrow.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Edwards Excerpts

Thursday 29th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

13. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of procurement fraud during the covid-19 pandemic.

[Sarah Edwards (Tamworth) (Lab)]

15. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of procurement fraud during the covid-19 pandemic.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

The Government’s “Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Annual Report 2022” includes data from the first year of the Government’s response to the pandemic. The report suggests that in 2020-21, Government Departments and arm’s length bodies reported a total of £124.6 million of detected procurement fraud. The same report showed that at the end of March 2021, some £88.2 million of fraud and error had been recovered within covid-19 schemes. Since then, crucially, further funds have been recovered and the Government will continue to update the House as fresh data becomes available.

[Alex Burghart]

This Government take PPE fraud extremely seriously. To remind the House of the figures, 1.8% of expenditure on PPE was lost to fraud at a time when there was the most extraordinary public crisis in several generations and we were competing in an extremely overheated international market. To date, we have recovered more than a quarter of that 1.8% and the fight to recover more continues. PPE procurement is subject to ongoing contract management controls, active dispute resolution and recovery action. The law is on our side and we are using it.

[Sarah Edwards]

The covid procurement scandal upset many people, and rightly so. I spoke with a fantastic local business in Tamworth, Wearwell (UK), which was manufacturing PPE as part of the regional procurement but was cut out of the process during the pandemic. The UK must be prepared in the event of another pandemic, and British manufacturing offers a greater response time and a more stable supply chain. When will we return to regional procurement to ensure that local businesses are prioritised when providing PPE for the nation?

[Alex Burghart]

I welcome the hon. Lady to what I think are her first Cabinet Office questions. She is right to draw attention to the fantastic textile manufacturing that exists in the region in which her constituency sits. She will have heard me talk about the Procurement Act 2023, which was passed last year and will make sure that small and medium-sized enterprises, which by their nature are often local enterprises, will have a bigger share of public procurement.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Edwards Excerpts

Wednesday 7th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to the Patient Safety Commissioner and her team for their work on this important issue—one that I know my right hon. Friend has spoken about in the past. Of course, first and foremost, our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate. We are focused on improving the system and how it listens to patients, and it is right that the Government carefully consider the report’s recommendations. The Department of Health and Social Care will respond to the report in due course, and the Health Secretary will keep the House updated on a regular basis.

[Sarah Edwards (Tamworth) (Lab)]

Q14. Many of my constituents, such as local mum Jessica, have contacted me about special educational needs and disability support. Jessica’s son has waited years for an autism diagnosis, and he is not expected to have an education, health and care plan in place by the time he goes to secondary school. Will the Prime Minister confirm that students who need an EHCP will get one so that they can thrive in school?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, we want to see every child thrive at school, which is why we have tripled the amount going into special educational needs for capital places and put more money into support ECHPs. I am sorry to hear about the case that the hon. Lady mentions. I will ensure that we continue to look at this matter in particular, because, as she said, we want every child to thrive at school.