Wera Hobhouse
MP for Bath · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“Q4. Community energy is a fantastic way of empowering communities and helping with both energy security and the cost of living. The Energy Security and Net Zero Committee recently published a report in which we identified that people living around a community energy project still cannot buy that electricity because of complex market regul…”
“The 20% rate cut for music venues and pubs is of course very welcome, but what my high street in Bath really needs is an overhaul of the business rates system, which the Labour Government promised.”
“First, it would help us properly understand the scale of the problem. Without consistent recording, misogyny remains largely invisible in official data, despite being a common factor in many forms of abuse. Secondly, it would improve accountability.”
“That means that misogynistic content is not just present; it is incentivised and rewarded. For victims, the impact is devastating. They are ridiculed and humiliated, they face reputational damage, and they are left fearing for their safety in public.”
“The Government’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Act to recognise misogyny as an aggravating factor in some crimes is a welcome step in the right direction, but they must go further. That means amending the Sentencing Act 2020 so that all crimes motivated by misogyny are classed as hate crimes.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Edward. I congratulate the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) on introducing the debate so thoughtfully. For months, I have been campaigning for legislation to combat the alarming trend of nightlife filming.”
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“We must do a lot more not only to support survivors but to prevent the terrible violence from occurring in the first place. We absolutely need to improve police training so that victims and survivors are properly supported. Many crimes do not even enter the criminal justice system. Over 600,000 women are sexually assaulted each year, but only one in six of those assaults is reported to the police. We must give women and girls the reassurance that their concerns are taken seriously whenever they report crimes of assault or domestic abuse. I would like to add something to the motion before us today. Supporting victims of violence and sexual abuse begins at a local level. The Government must support local authorities to perform this vital task by giving them the duty and funding to provide accommodation for survivors of abuse.”
“I want to praise the organisations in Bath that are working on tackling violence against women and girls: the Southside project, which supports families affected by domestic violence and abuse; Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support, or SARSAS, a specialist support service for women and girls who have experienced any form of sexual violence at any point in their lives; and Voices, a survivor-led charity supporting those living with and beyond domestic abuse to recover from their trauma, which redoubled its efforts during the pandemic to make sure that no one was forgotten. I was delighted to recognise Voices with the first Best of Bath award last year. But we should not leave it to charities to tackle violence against women and girls.”
“It is a real pleasure and privilege to speak in this debate. We have talked about this issue many times, and I could not agree more with the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) that the time for talking should be over and we need to see a lot more action.”
“So let us get on with it and make misogyny a hate crime. None of the steps that I have pointed to will make violence against women and girls stop overnight, but the time of inaction and making excuses is up—we owe it to all women and girls who suffer violence and harassment on a daily basis.2.48 pm”
“Yes, we discussed this at the beginning of the week, but I need to repeat what I said just two days ago: we have to get to the root causes of violence against women and girls. We must send a powerful message that negative attitudes towards women that lead to hate and lead to offences—from harassment all the way to very serious sexual assault—are not acceptable, and that is what making misogyny a hate crime would do. Hate crime legislation, as we have established, does not add to an offence, but it has made a clear difference to crimes based on racial or religious hate. Why do women not deserve the same treatment? I still cannot understand why the Government are not supporting this. Making misogyny a hate crime is not a silver bullet, but existing hate crime legislation has made a clear difference.”
“Once again, it is simply a matter of resources. Schools must be given extra resource to have specialists who guide young people into proper relationships. It will probably save us a lot of money if we get this right, but we need to spend the money in the first place. To back this up, a 2021 Ofsted report highlighted just how early sexual harassment begins, to the point where it becomes “commonplace”. According to the report, 92% of girls said that sexist name calling happens a lot or sometimes; and 80% of girls—80%—reported being put under pressure to provide sexual images of themselves. These figures speak for themselves and say that we need urgent action. It is hugely disappointing that the Government continue to rule out making misogyny a hate crime.”
“We have signed it but not ratified it. Is it really just a legal delay? I cannot understand it. We have been asking for this for about two years and we keep being fobbed off. Can the Minister please explain why there is this delay?”
“I welcome the Government’s intention to take violence against women and girls seriously at last. I put on record my disappointment that yesterday the Government did not agree to the Lords amendment to make misogyny a hate crime, but there we go. Further to the question asked by the hon. Member for Loughborough (Jane Hunt), will the Minister support my private Member’s Bill coming before Parliament next week? My Bill would establish an independent review of rape conviction rates and the effect on victims of rape, and it would make sure that the Government act on the review’s requirements.”
“A considerable number of the 650,000 refugees from Ukraine will try to make it to the UK. I welcome the support that the Government have announced and the compassionate words that the Home Secretary has used today, but I worry that under the current provisions of the Nationality and Borders Bill, those Ukrainians would be criminalised, because they would be passing through another country to get here. I sincerely hope that the Government will look at the provisions of the Bill again and look at supporting the Lords amendment to remove clause 11. My question is this: I have a constituent with adult stepchildren and grandchildren in Ukraine who we hope to bring over, so can the Home Secretary confirm that the scheme she has announced today will include stepchildren and grandchildren?”
“Can the Secretary of State confirm that any new legislation will make the beneficial ownership of all assets in the UK openly available for view and scrutiny, in a similar way to the Land Registry?”
“The amendment to the hate legislation does not create a new offence, and the Minister will be aware of that. I had a long discussion with the Law Commission last week, and it admits that not all women’s rights organisations agree with its view. Many organisations, such as the Fawcett Society and the Young Women’s Trust, support this amendment.”
“Perhaps I can help out and say that, although no legislation is a silver bullet, this measure would make powerful progress and take a powerful stance against certain attitudes that are so prevalent and stare us in the face. We should send a signal that such attitudes are unacceptable, in the same way that we have done with other hate crime legislation.”
“Nottinghamshire police have led the way to enabling cases of abuse and harassment to be recorded as misogyny; Avon and Somerset police are following suit. I commend all police forces that are doing so, but it should not be a postcode lottery. Making misogyny a hate crime would send a powerful signal. We need a culture change, and we in this House have a duty to lead it. I have listened carefully to this evening’s debate, in which the Government have said that making misogyny a hate crime could lead to unintended consequences, possibly making it harder to prosecute the most serious cases of sexual violence. Of course we need to protect those women who are exposed to the most serious cases of sexual violence, but Lords amendment 72 especially sets out to avoid any such consequences.”
“I rise to speak in support of Lords amendment 72. Existing hate crime legislation must be extended to include misogyny, and the police must be required to record hate crimes as misogynistic. The amendment has the backing of such powerful organisations as the Fawcett Society, Refuge, the Young Women’s Trust and many more, as well as the police. Last year was a terrible year for women and girls, with two high-profile cases of young women murdered on our streets by vile sexual predators, peaceful women’s protesters pinned to the ground by serving police officers, thousands of women being subjected to spiking, including in my Bath constituency, and countless other horrific crimes against women and girls. There is growing and very obvious evidence that misogyny is at the centre of violence against women and girls.”
“I will not, because of time. We should start sending a very strong signal today. Hate crime legislation has made a difference to religious and racial hate crime, so why should women not have the same right? Let us listen carefully to what is being said and make sure that we make progress. It would not be an entire answer, but making misogyny a hate crime would send such a powerful signal that certain attitudes that lead to harassment and later to more serious crimes are not okay, and they are not lawful.”
“An unspeakable human tragedy is unfolding in front of our eyes. We must stand with the people of Ukraine. Colleagues in the other place have scrapped tomorrow’s business to give a full day’s debate on the urgent business of Ukraine. May I reflect views from across the House and insist that, to unleash the UK’s most punitive sanctions on Russia, the Leader of the House immediately announces a special sitting of Parliament tomorrow to accelerate legislation against the Russian regime? That legislation must include the register of beneficial ownership Bill, which we know is ready to go, and sanction measures that enable us to go after all of Putin’s associates as well as disrupt all business currently benefiting the Putin regime.”
“Today’s announcement could severely undermine the creative courses in higher education. The Government’s figures on this are always skewed, because they do not reflect graduates who become self-employed. We know that 47% of those who go into the creative industries are self-employed. What will the Secretary of State do to protect the creative courses that lead to high-value jobs in the creative industries? If he is in listening mode, will he listen to the vice-chancellor of Bath Spa University, who has been raising her concerns about this for a long time?”
“To deliver the Government’s ambitious roll-out of renewables such as solar—but also nuclear electricity, if that is what the Government want—we need to proactively develop grid capacity. Why have the Government still not reformed the remit of Ofgem, which is a real barrier to increasing grid capacity?”
“I absolutely agree with the hon. Member that we need to have a civilised discussion about this issue, but given the difficulties and given that it is clear that the Act as it stands creates huge problems for transgender people, does he agree that we need reform of the Act?”
“In many ways the hon. Gentleman has already answered my question. Nearly 100 hate crimes against transgender people were recorded by Avon and Somerset police, and the number in London is probably threefold, but we do not even know what the actual numbers are. Given the enormous discrimination that transgender people face, does he agree that at least making the recognition process easier would be a good step forward?”
“I agree with everything that the hon. Gentleman says, but is it not also important to listen to the fear of women? I am not one who will stoke the fear of women, but is it not important to give that space to women at least to express what they fear?”
“We Liberal Democrats support the Government’s introduction of this sanctions legislation, but believe that they should go even further and root out dirty money now. The Registration of Overseas Entities Bill will do just that, and it is ready to go. Does the Leader of the House agree that we do not need to wait until the next parliamentary Session, because we can get on with that now?”
“Whenever we talk to disability groups, what they want is employment; helping these groups into employment should be at the core of this Bill. Although I will support the Bill on Third Reading, I am disappointed that the opportunity to transform further education has been so entirely missed.”
“Over a quarter of all 16 to 18-year-olds in further education have a learning difficulty or a disability, and I pay tribute to Project SEARCH, a partnership run by Bath and North East Somerset Council, Bath College and Virgin Care. Nationally, too, many disabled people face huge difficulties in accessing employment after leaving school. Our disability employment gap stands at 30%.I therefore add my support to amendment 16, which would require local skills improvement plans to list specific strategies to help into employment those learners who have or have had an education, health and care plan. Again, this seems to be another missed opportunity to help those in society who face the biggest disadvantages to access employment, which is what they want.”
“A new offshore training scheme is needed to facilitate cross-sector recognition of core skills and training in the offshore energy sector and to provide a retraining guarantee for oil and gas workers who wish to transition to careers in the green energy sector. What a missed opportunity it would be if we did not help people working in such industries, which will soon no longer be in place, to transition to a career in industries such as the renewables sector. The Government say this Bill will transform opportunities for all, so why have they reversed changes that could significantly improve the accessibility and flexibility of qualifications—we have heard some powerful contributions on this—especially those aimed at learners with special educational needs and disabilities?”
“There is a key opportunity for further education in our effort to reach net zero, but less than 1% of college students are on a course with broad coverage of climate education. I commend the work of the excellent Bath College, which is already making strides to embed climate education in its curriculum, but the Government should step up, too. We all know how important it is to manage the transition to net zero, which brings me to new clauses 14 and 15 and amendment 11 tabled by the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas). The offshore training regime is a barrier to offshore oil and gas workers transitioning their skills into the renewables sector.”
“Further education should be about creating a workforce that meets the needs of our national and local economies. It should be about lifelong learning that gives everyone the power to follow the path that best suits them. It should especially be at the front and centre of our covid recovery and, last but not least, it should help us with the transition to net zero. There was plenty of room to improve this Bill when it was introduced, and there still is. I regret that, so far, the Government seem to be missing this opportunity, but it is never too late. I favour new clause 4, which would require the Secretary of State to introduce a green skills strategy for higher, further and technical education.”
“Let us not turn our backs on the principles on which our NHS is based. Oral health is as much a matter of access and equality as the rest of NHS care. To the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Richard Fuller), we Liberal Democrats absolutely understand the importance of being prudent with the public purse, but equality should never be sacrificed on the altar of balancing the books.”
“The Minister has committed to reforming the system. This is welcome, but the pace of change is too slow and practices cannot increase the number of patients they are seeing on promises alone. Not only must the Government reform the current contract; it must do so urgently. The bottom line is funding. The Government must provide adequate resources as a matter of urgency to reverse the alarming decline of NHS dentistry and guarantee its long-term sustainability. The current situation is nothing short of a scandal and simply unacceptable. Healthy teeth should not be a privilege only for those who can afford to pay for private dental care. More than 70 years ago, the founding fathers of the welfare state envisaged a country where the gross injustices between rich and poor would be eliminated for good.”
“I know that there is a problem with the distribution of dentistry, but the biggest problem is that, increasingly, dentists do not want to work for the NHS. The current crisis will not improve unless we make it viable for dentists to provide NHS treatments and make NHS dentistry a place where people want to work. Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG has lost 9% of its NHS dentists in the last year alone—the highest proportion in the south-west and over twice as high as the national average. Dentists in my constituency have told me that they want to provide NHS treatment but just cannot make it viable under the current conditions. They are hugely worried about the increase in the percentage of the pre-pandemic treatment levels that they are now expected to meet, and the mental health toll on our dentists is enormous.”
“The single biggest problem with dentistry in the UK is that it has become privatised over decades. I do not want to accuse any particular party of this. It has been going on for a long time, and that privatisation has started to take over. There are around 12,500 dental practices in the UK, of which 30% are private, 15% are mostly private, and 15% are evenly mixed. That means that just 40% are NHS practices, but many of these have elements of private provision. Fewer than 40% of adults in Bath and North East Somerset have seen an NHS dentist in the two years leading up to June 2021. Those who cannot afford private dental care often do not go until it is too late, and they end up needing emergency care. It is not that there are not any dentists in the UK.”
“We are on income support and cannot afford the private fees that are quoted to us.” Another constituent told me that they could not find a dentist in Bath that could take their child. The closest practice they could find was a 40-minute car journey away. When another constituent needed fillings, she was given two temporary ones and told that anything more would incur private fees. She told me she was afraid to eat. This is the extent of my constituents’ misery. According to a Healthwatch survey carried out in November, no NHS dentists in Bath and North East Somerset reported that they were taking on NHS patients. No practices reported that they were able to take on children under 18, and no practice reported that it would be able to take on new patients in the next three months. What is happening in Bath is happening across the country.”
“Problems accessing NHS dental services are on an unprecedented scale in every community. Morale among NHS dentists is at an all-time low, and 40 million NHS dental appointments have been lost since the start of the pandemic. All this has been made worse by the pandemic, but the dental crisis in our country far predates covid. It is a result of chronic underfunding and an unsustainable target-based dental contract. My constituents have been contacting me about access to NHS dental services since I became elected. The biggest concern is that they simply cannot find an NHS dentist. One constituent told me: “My disabled partner and I have been told that our dental practice will no longer do NHS dentistry for us after 35 years.”
“I congratulate the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) on securing this debate. He is almost an hon. Friend: we work on many cross-party issues together, so even though we are on different sides, I call him my friend. It is important to say that this is not a debate to criticise dentists. It is about criticising a system that does not work. I want to pay tribute to all the dentists in my constituency, who have worked very hard, particularly during the pandemic, to keep the oral health of my constituency in as good shape as possible, but they have really struggled. Oral health is an essential component of everybody’s health and wellbeing. Dentists play a crucial role in the early detection of a number of diseases, as we have heard, including mouth cancer.”
“For the purpose of giving everybody a voice, would it not be most collegiate if we actually acknowledged that the dental contract was introduced under a Labour Government? It is important to address that, but it is also important to address the fact that the bottom line is public funding for a good service.”
“I welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his new role. I look forward to his attempts to lower the temperature in these sessions and am waiting for the moment when he tells me to “Calm down, dear”—I assure him that I will probably do the opposite. I welcome yesterday’s announcement that cyber-flashing will become a specific offence in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. I congratulate Bumble and the End Violence Against Women Coalition on that victory. Will the Leader of the House please ensure that we see a timeline, via a statement in the House, for how the Government are going to take the change forward?”
“Granting new oil and gas exploration in the North sea flies in the face of the Government’s net zero commitment. Closer to home, the Tory-controlled Surrey County Council is defending in court a decision to approve four oil wells in Horse Hill, Surrey. Why are the Government getting behind Surrey County Council’s defending in court the destruction of green land and the introduction of massive new CO 2 pollution, in direct conflict with their own net zero ambition?”
“The mental health disorders with the highest mortality rate are eating disorders. What the hon. Member says is particularly true for eating disorders: the longer somebody waits for treatment, the longer the disorder persists, which makes it worse. We really need to look at prevention and early intervention in all our services. Does the hon. Member agree that instead of saving money at the wrong end, it makes absolute sense to put money into early intervention and, better still, prevention?”
“I have raised that worrying statistic with the Minister before, and I urge her to listen. We must make sure that every penny that the Government make available actually gets to the frontline.”
“Moving forward, we must recognise the importance of prevention and early intervention, which dramatically improve the chances of recovery. School counselling is an ideal form of early intervention. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have statutory school counselling services. England does not. Meanwhile, community services and the voluntary sector face a backlog of people desperate for urgent help. Our voluntary sector, such as the regional eating disorders charities network, has taken on the lion’s share of school counselling and shouldered the burden of addressing the mental health of our children. We must recognise the invaluable work that they are doing and make sure that they get more funding. Some £11 million has been allocated to improve eating disorder services, but only £1.1 million has been spent on the frontline.”
“Recovery from an eating disorder takes on average three times as long as having the disorder itself. The fact that eating disorders all too often go undiagnosed—we have heard again and again about how long waiting times are—and that people are waiting so long to get treatment adds to the problem. Eating Disorders Awareness Week is fast approaching. This year’s focus will be on training doctors to recognise these disorders. A 2017 report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman identified a ‘serious lack of training’ about eating disorders, which received just a few hours of attention on medical courses. That means that children, who often cannot adequately express their needs or condition, have been left on their own with these complex and debilitating conditions. Three years on, very little has changed.”
“I am speaking today, as I have done before, as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on eating disorders. Eating disorders are the mental health disorders with the highest mortality rate. My hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) talked today with a breaking voice about cases in her constituency and the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips) talked about the terrible things happening to our constituents that we see and hear about; I worry about the lives of a number of young people I know and about their families, who are worried sick about losing them. That is what we are talking about today. Eating disorders are complex and potentially life-threatening, and the number of cases has increased fourfold in the last two years. They have no single cause and often start at school age.”
“Its outcomes are negligible, and the tide of public opinion has turned against it. Since our exit from the EU, animal welfare has been threatened by the current inadequacy of UK law, but I recognise that we are making our way through it, and I hope that we will make the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill as strong as possible. The Government must not water down animal rights; they must build them up—not merely through limiting biomedical testing but by banning live exports, regulating farming standards and accepting animal sentience. The moral and scientific case for tighter regulation of laboratory testing is glaringly obvious. It is time that the Government listened to increasing numbers of scientists and voters.”
“However, many people have refused the vaccine on grounds of animal testing. I understand their moral objections. For successful vaccine roll-outs now and for the future—whenever the next public health threat comes—it is important that we get as many people on board as possible, including animal lovers. Covid-19 was a huge scientific challenge. Animal testing was deemed a necessary compromise. However, there is now much evidence to suggest the contrary. Animal-tested drugs have a 90% failure rate in human trials. The polio vaccine was delayed by decades due to inadequate testing on monkeys, as was treatment for HIV, whereas, human trials on diabetes and breast cancer have led to major scientific breakthroughs. The scientific outcomes from human trials far outweigh those of animal trials. Animal testing normalises cruelty.”
“As I have said, banning laboratory experiments on those creatures is ethically and publicly favourable and is supported by scientists. The regulatory requirements that animals be used before human trials is now 75 years old. Reviewing this and removing the needless suffering of animals will finally bring scientific research into the 21st century. I recognise what the right hon. Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale) has said—that we might ban it here, but we are still dependent on other countries where this is necessary—but setting an example is always a good way to move forward and take the global community with us. This issue matters for other reasons as well. I have supported the roll-out of the covid vaccination, as everyone in this Chamber probably has, and we have supported it 100%.”
“As we have already heard, beagles are tested because they are forgiving, rabbits because they are docile and mice because they are cost effective. It is not the first time that I have been asked to attend a debate on animal welfare. What was once a minority has become a visible and audible majority, as we have heard today, with over three quarters of the public wanting an end to animal testing. The “necessary evil” justification is no longer publicly acceptable. We should put an end to this unnecessary injustice. When we were members of the EU, animal sentience was recognised in law. As we work with the Government to transfer this essential insight into UK law, we have the chance to continue, or even better, those animal welfare standards by moving towards banning laboratory experiments as quickly as possible.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Pritchard. I congratulate the many petitioners who have ensured that we are debating this important topic here in Westminster Hall. Like all those who speak in today’s debate or listen to it, I worry about the state of animal welfare. I hope this debate will help to advance scientific research without the needless suffering of sentient beings. I have been contacted by a large number of constituents in Bath who are animal lovers. So often, people see themselves through the eyes of their pets. They see a friend, capable of affection, happiness and pain. It is upsetting for all those who love animals to learn that, in laboratories around the country, man’s best friends are subject to torturous experiments under the guise of public good.”
“There we have it—words of woolly aspiration, but when it comes to the crunch the Government actively support what I would call the gradual extinction of the UK’s bee population. The long-term harmful effects of the Government’s careless attitude will be felt by all of us as it has huge implications for our food supplies. It is paramount that this Government wake up and impose much tighter restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids, rather than standing by and being complicit in the degradation of our wildlife, the quality of our environment and the long-term security of our food supplies.”
“As we have heard, the expert committee on pesticides has warned how damaging neonicotinoids are for bees and aquatic life, but the Government have chosen to ignore them. That is not acceptable. In April 2021, I asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Government encouraged the use of alternatives to neonicotinoids; the answer I received was that the Government were completely committed to reducing the use of pesticides. However, in the same debate, 10 minutes later, the Secretary of State said that until a suitable alternative to neonicotinoids was found, the Government would continue to grant dispensations for the use of them.”
“The Government originally agreed and promised that they would reintroduce them only when the scientific evidence changed. There has been no new evidence, but the use of pesticides has been allowed again. The Government should make the protection of our wildlife and the environment a priority, rather than going back on their word. The Government are using Brexit not, as they would like us to believe, to the advantage of people and the environment, but the opposite. They are reversing important decisions that were made for the protection of the environment. Many organisations and constituents in Bath have reached out to me with great concerns over this issue, and the lack of consideration behind it.”