Town and City Centre Safety

Debate between Scott Arthur and Lola McEvoy
Tuesday 3rd February 2026

(2 days, 13 hours ago)

Westminster Hall
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Scott Arthur Portrait Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)
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In October last year, I ran a community meeting in partnership with Catriona Munro, who is Labour’s candidate for Holyrood in the Edinburgh South Western constituency. One of the key things that was brought up was the activity of food delivery companies. At the heart of this activity is what some would call a precarious business model, based on precarious work, which essentially exploits these workers and encourages them to drive illegal e-bikes in quite a reckless manner. In November last year, outside my constituency office, the police managed to impound 13 of these e-bikes. Just imagine what they could do if they were fully funded.

Lola McEvoy Portrait Lola McEvoy
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My hon. Friend is eloquently making a point about the funding given to the police to eradicate e-bike crime. Does he agree that we would be in a better position if we had more bobbies on bikes? Perhaps the Minister will talk about that in her speech.

Peter Dowd Portrait Peter Dowd (in the Chair)
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Order. We do not have very much longer. I want to get other Members in, and the Minister and the Opposition spokespeople need the opportunity to speak. I am not telling the hon. Gentleman not to take interventions, but I will end up cutting somebody out of the debate if he does.