Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Seema Malhotra and Lindsay Hoyle

Wednesday 18th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra]

Yes.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Seema Malhotra]

The hon. Gentleman has raised an important point, and I will ensure that he has a meeting with the relevant Minister to discuss it.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Claire Coutinho (East Surrey) (Con)]

The Minister for Women and Equalities has said that background should be no barrier to success, but what message does it send to our young people when they are told that there are some job opportunities they cannot apply for solely based on the colour of their skin? Equality in this country must mean equality of opportunity, not putting some people in society on a pedestal above others, so will the Minister write to all public bodies to make it crystal clear that the state should not be sanctioning race-based hiring policies?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Seema Malhotra and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

My constituent Dr Lubna Hadoura is an NHS consultant who desperately wants to be able to care for her 80-year-old mother, a refugee displaced from Gaza earlier this year who is now alone in Egypt and unable to care for herself. Will the Minister assure me that her application for an adult dependent relative visa will be carefully, humanely and properly considered?

[Mr Speaker]

I am not quite sure that that is actually about the resettlement scheme, but okay.

[Seema Malhotra]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question. The death and destruction in Gaza are intolerable, and I assure her that that application is being looked at very closely and she should be receiving an update very soon.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Seema Malhotra and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra]

I commend my hon. Friend for raising this issue. It is true that the steps we are taking owe much to the work of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, the Co-op, the British Retail Consortium and the Association of Convenience Stores. Everyone has a right to feel safe at work, but the March statistics show a 30% increase in shoplifting offences, many of which are violent, over 12 months. We welcome the operational commitments made by the police in the retail crime action plan. I know that the Minister of State, Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham (Dame Diana Johnson) has heard my hon. Friend’s request and that she will be happy to visit Ipswich with him.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)]

As a Back Bencher and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on retail, I campaigned alongside retailers and the likes of USDAW to up the ante on protecting retail workers. I know that retail workers welcomed my party’s action on the retail crime action plan, particularly the use of tagging and facial recognition technology. Can the Minister assure us that there will be no let-up in the use of facial recognition and tagging to clamp down on this and other crimes?