UK-EU Relations

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. At least the Leader of the Opposition was candid about the chaotic decision making under the previous Government. Together with our friends and neighbours in the EU, we have over £800 billion-worth of trade. It is clearly in our national interest to lower trade barriers pragmatically in that space.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

I am pleased that this Government are moving away from the ideological fantasies of the Conservative Government and taking a pragmatic approach to EU-UK relations. Passive divergence—doing nothing when regulations move forward in the EU—is increasingly a concern for British businesses. It leads to huge trade barriers in emissions trading, for example, which is badly hurting the UK economy. What does the Paymaster General propose to do about passive divergence?

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

We are not doing nothing. There are areas where this Government will be in a world-leading space. Let us look, for example, at what we are doing on employment rights and product safety. As I indicated earlier to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Alex Burghart), the Government believe in a race to the top on standards, not a race to the bottom.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

Let me start by paying tribute to Halifax WomenCentre for its vital work in Calder Valley. I assure my hon. Friend that we will engage across Government, drawing on expertise in the sector through the development of our new violence against women and girls strategy, which will be published later this year. We have provided an increase of £30 million for domestic abuse safe accommodation services, as well as doing wider work to help local commissioners to identify needs and commission appropriate services.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Organisations such as Voices and the Southside project in Bath provide a wonderful and important service for victims of abuse, but they need the long-term certainty of funding. Does the Minister agree that we need to give them that certainty?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for mentioning the excellent organisations in her constituency and the work that they do to support survivors. We are investing more in provision, but I understand her point about the need for security of long-term funding, and we will consider that as part of our VAWG strategy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I wish my hon. Friend a speedy recovery from his recent treatment, and I thank the doctors and nurses who treated him. Under the previous Government, there was no progress made in diagnosing cancer at stage 1 and 2 between 2013 and 2021. That is an appalling inheritance. We are spending £1.5 billion on new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners to ensure cancer patients get the care they need.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Eating disorders are the mental health disorder with the highest mortality rate, and we have at least 1.2 million sufferers. Some are being told that they are now too ill to be treated, yet eating disorders are entirely treatable. Today the all-party parliamentary group on eating disorders is publishing its report on how to make eating disorder services fit for purpose. May I ask the Prime Minister to pay very close attention to that report?

[The Prime Minister]

Let me start by recognising the hon. Lady’s dedicated work and campaigning on this issue for many years. NHS England is expanding eating disorder treatment services, including crisis care and intensive home treatment, and, as she knows, the Online Safety Act 2023 will prevent children from encountering harmful content that promotes eating disorders to services. Obviously, we will look very carefully at the report and consider its recommendations.

G20 and COP29 Summits

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 21st November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. I raised food security at the G20 summit earlier this week. My hon. Friend also refers to floods. For anybody who is sceptical about COP, there was a very powerful set of interventions by the Spanish Prime Minister about the impact that climate has had recently, with the terrible flooding in Spain. That is a material reminder of why we must never let up, and why we should not be divided, on the important issue of climate change.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

A breakthrough moment at COP28, the previous COP, was the creation of the loss and damage fund, but the financial contributions from each individual country were miserable, including that of the UK. Supporting communities and climate-vulnerable countries is in all our interests, because it prevents large-scale migration when land becomes uninhabitable. Will the Prime Minister commit to an increased financial contribution to the loss and damage fund?

[The Prime Minister]

I am not going to set out financial contributions here. The focus that we brought to COP was on the future action and resilience planning that are needed and being absolutely determined to work with partners to make the transition, for example, to clean energy across so many other countries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Wednesday 13th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

The simple answer is yes, I do agree. As somebody who has written and delivered such programmes in schools, I know that brilliant work is going on across the country in local authorities, multi-academy trusts and more widely, with voluntary sector organisations doing a lot of the work. I would be glad to explore with officials the best way to learn from those who work with children and young people, because we have to work out what will work in our schools and then make sure that we put it out everywhere.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

In the last Parliament, we Back Benchers tried and failed several times to make misogyny a hate crime. Legislation can be a powerful game changer. Is it not time we made misogyny a hate crime?

[Jess Phillips]

The Government are absolutely committed to tackling misogyny, both before it starts and when it exists. Hate crime reviews are being undertaken, and I am more than happy to meet the hon. Lady. I have met her many times to discuss this subject.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

My hon. Friend is entirely right: the last Government presided over appalling falling standards, which is why the Prime Minister is insisting that this is a Government of service to the public. The Labour party manifesto committed the Government to giving the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests the powers to initiate investigations of misconduct, but also to ensuring that the adviser has access to the evidence that he or she needs, and those changes will be introduced in due course.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

17. What steps he is taking to protect whistleblowers in the civil service.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Georgia Gould)]

The Cabinet Office provides a framework to support Departments and employees, which includes signposts on how to raise a concern, channels enabling that to be done safely, and practical support for whistleblowers. The Cabinet Office is working to capture whistleblowers’ experience and ways in which to improve it, and, as was mentioned in the King’s Speech, we will be introducing a duty of candour Bill which will improve transparency and accountability.

[Wera Hobhouse]

Good whistleblowing is good for government. Last year the National Audit Office published a report saying that the Government must do more to address governmental failures, and, even more worrying, that 50% of civil servants feel that it is not safe to challenge the way in which things are being done, and feel that their concerns are not being listened to or, indeed, that they will face negative consequences if they speak out. Will the Government establish a new office of whistleblowers to create new legal rights, and also to promote greater public awareness of whistleblowers’ rights?

[Georgia Gould]

As you say, whistleblowing is critical. We have had a discussion today about fraud and about the problems that emerge when we do not have protections in place. We are absolutely committed to supporting whistleblowers, and we are looking into the statistics that you mentioned and what is causing those problems. We will continue to do that, because it is very high on our agenda.