Liz Twist
MP for Blaydon and Consett · Labour · United Kingdom
“I thank my hon. Friend for this report on redress schemes, which certainly reflects the experiences of my constituents who have been involved in some of those campaigns.”
“As the Leader of the House said, today is World Suicide Prevention Day, and I thank him for his comments. In the UK, someone takes their own life every 90 minutes—the length of a football match.”
“These standards, which cover both community and urgent care, must be developed in consultation with the chief medical officer. Crucially, the new clause mandates the Secretary of State to report performance against those waiting times, alongside mental health expenditure, to Parliament every year.”
“I certainly agree with my hon. Friend’s concerns about the need for action on autism. She may be pleased to hear that the all-party groups on suicide and self-harm prevention and on autism will be doing joint work on the matter in the near future.”
“The right hon. Gentleman touches on another angle, namely the world of the internet, which provides such a challenge. The work of Ripple is important in preventing that harm, but there is so much more to do. I congratulate Ripple on its award.”
“I welcome the Bill, and was pleased to be a member of the Bill Committee. I also welcome the Government’s new clauses, about which the Minister has spoken today. New clause 159, to which I have added my name, seeks to address a long-standing legislative omission in our health service. I thank my hon.”
The complete record
Every one of 601 lines we hold for Liz Twist, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 13.
“The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We first need to get the basics right by adopting this definition of Islamophobia. We are committed to taking further steps to ensure that Islamophobia is stamped out. Tell MAMA has documented how this racism dehumanises Muslims, sometimes drawing on conspiracy theories to do so. It targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness, whether real or imagined, and in doing so reduces diverse communities of people to a group identity. The power of the APPG definition is that it recognises this. Just like the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, the APPG’s definition is not legally binding. Instead, it is intended to serve as a workable yardstick for action against Islamophobia.”
“Will she and her colleagues work with the police to ensure that victims of Islamophobic abuse feel able to report incidents and that they are supported and kept in the loop throughout the process? What steps will she take in her own Department to understand household and neighbourhood-related cases of Islamophobic abuse and to work with local authorities and Muslim communities to ensure that such cases are handled sensitively? Finally, what efforts are the Government making to understand and tackle Islamophobia in educational institutions and to eradicate ethnicity pay gaps? We owe it to Muslim communities to tackle Islamophobia in our party and in wider society—on the streets of our country and online. We have committed to doing so, and I hope the Government will do the same.”
“At our party conference in 2021, Labour passed a new independent complaints process to make it fairer and easier for people to bring forward cases of discrimination. We have adopted new codes of conduct on Islamophobia, and we have invested in training staff and publishing a handbook that will illustrate how our party can challenge Islamophobia directly. We have committed, when in government, to tackle structural racial inequalities with a landmark race equality Act. We owe it to our Muslim communities and to communities of all faiths to do more to protect them from these forms of hate. The first step in tackling that hate is to identify it, so will the Minister commit today to adopting the APPG definition of Islamophobia? Will she also encourage Conservative-run local authorities to adopt it?”
“I thank the hon. Member for that comment, and I did indeed hear those comments. What I would say is that, within the Labour party, we are seeking to address any issues that relate to Islamophobia. We must remember that we have a choice in this House: to empower communities or to seek to divide them. Our words have consequences beyond this Chamber. It is deeply worrying that the normalisation of extremist language from the Conservative party has directly coincided with a rise in offences being reported. As political parties, we must, as I said, take responsibility for identifying and tackling Islamophobia in our own ranks. When people ask, “Well, what’s Labour doing about it?”, the answer is that that is what we are doing: we have changed our party, and we are ready to change the country.”
“They fear going into the workplace, particularly when returning to work after experiencing or witnessing violent behaviour towards them or their colleagues.”
“It is about ensuring that employers, police and politicians are aware of the scale of the problem of violence and abuse against our retail workforce and do something about it. From an MP’s perspective, it is about listening to shop workers, recognising their concerns and looking at what we can do to support them. From my visit, it was obvious to me that we are simply not doing enough. The shop workers I spoke to told me about the growing frequency of theft, which is an issue right across the country; figures from the British Retail Consortium show that there was a 26% rise in incidents last year. But the shop workers also wanted to emphasise that the kind of incidents has changed—not only are there more incidents of theft, but they are increasingly violent in nature. Shop workers are feeling intimidated and threatened.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of violence and abuse towards the retail workforce. It is a pleasure to present this debate and to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I applied for the debate following a visit to a Tesco supermarket in Rowlands Gill in my constituency of Blaydon—other brands are available, of course. I also visited my local Co-op more recently to talk to the staff there. That visit took place to mark Respect for Shopworkers Week, the yearly campaign led by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers in the run-up to the busy Christmas shopping period. The campaign has several aims. First and foremost, it is about making it clear that the abuse of shop workers is not a part of their job and is not acceptable.”
“I most certainly do agree. My hon. Friend’s experience of visiting shop workers has clearly been the same as mine. She has heard the same stories, so we must do something to make such violence a specific offence.”
“Retail offers fantastic opportunities for young people to get into employment and it is shameful that they might be deterred from doing so because of the abuse that might be inflicted on them. Many workers also have caring responsibilities that they fit around their shift patterns. It is unconscionable that they are experiencing such fear in their daily working lives. I encountered these stories in my own constituency, but the figures suggest that this local picture is representative of national trends. In March this year, the British Retail Consortium published a report on the scale of the abuse and violence towards shop workers. It found that incidents including abuse, physical assault and threats with weapons had risen from 450 per day in 2019-20 to around 850 per day in 2021-22.”
“They have made threats on my life and talked of getting me jumped.” Another said: “There are homophobic insults, intimidating words and being spoken down to.” Yet another said: “I have been pushed over, punched in the head and jostled by a large group.” I am sure that MPs across the House will agree that no one deserves to suffer such abuse simply for doing their job, and that is true whether someone has been working in a shop for 20 days or 20 years. We should also highlight the fact that retail has a young workforce. More than one in four retail workers is under the age of 24 and more than 60% of new starters in retail are in that age bracket. Indeed, a small but significant proportion of retail workers are aged just 16 or 17.”
“I thank the hon. Member, who is right to remind us that the issue is about not only supermarkets, but small shopkeepers; I think of some of the villages in my constituency. I want to talk about some of the comments from shop workers in the north-east given in response to USDAW’s survey. I thank USDAW for sharing them with me. These are quotations. One person said: “I have had name-calling, threats of being hit with bottles, needles and actual assault.” Another person said: “Shoplifters swing crutches, punches and bags.”
“Friend the Member for Harrow West (Gareth Thomas) has said. There is a widespread feeling within the retail sector that theft has been effectively decriminalised over the past 13 years of Conservative Governments.”
“As I said, the Westminster Hall debate in 2021 was prompted by a petition asking the Government to enact legislation that would create a specific offence of abusing, threatening or assaulting a retail worker. As I also said, it reached over 100,000 signatures, but still the epidemic of violence continued. Therefore, this year, another petition has started—it is still in force—calling for the same measure to be taken. There is a strong, consistent public demand for change. From speaking to them, I know that shop workers in my constituency—and store managers, in fact—feel strongly that the creation of a specific offence is the right path to follow. They believe that that would not only recognise the scale of the problem but encourage police attendance, which they feel is lacking, as my hon.”
“USDAW’s survey of retail staff in 2023 found that two thirds of its members who work in retail suffer abuse from customers, 42% had been threatened by a customer and 5% had been assaulted. We are talking about being spat or coughed at, being slapped, punched or kicked, or being attacked with weapons. Shockingly, the executive chairman of Iceland has revealed that three Iceland workers are now HIV-positive as a result of needle attacks on staff. Last year, USDAW’s figures showed that four in 10 retail workers experienced anxiety about work and three in 10 were considering changing jobs as a result. That is why we are continuing to see them speak up about the conditions that they are working in.”
“The response promised to address the roots of the problem and provide support to victims. In 2022, an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was enacted, meaning that if a victim of one of a range of specified offences had been providing services, goods or facilities to the public at the time of the offence, that would be considered as an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes. The Government have said that they consider the existing law sufficient to protect retail workers. That leads me to this question: which retail workers have the Government been asking? I say that because, having spoken to workers on the ground, it is clear to me that the protections already in place are insufficient. Despite the debates and the consultation, incidents of violence and intimidation are still rising.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for that comment. I hesitate to venture into other police areas, but we find this issue across a number of regions and I will come on to the issue of antisocial behaviour. Dedicated police teams can be very helpful, so I hope that the Minister will listen to that plea from my hon. Friend. I am not the first person to bring this matter to the attention of the House; in fact, two Westminster Hall debates have considered similar motions in just the last five years, and one of them came from the Petitions Committee. Clearly, our constituents care enough about the subject to have signed a public petition that has secured over 100,000 signatures. In 2020, the Government produced their response to a Home Office consultation, which had begun in April 2019, on violence and abuse towards shop staff.”
“Sadly, they have become common practice and although so many across the industry are calling for something to be done, their calls are going unanswered. To put it simply, we need to do more to protect the retail workforce. No one should have to go to work in fear of being verbally abused, assaulted or victimised just for doing their job. I hope that the Minister will reconsider the seriousness of the situation and make this abuse a crime in its own right. That is what those people I spoke to in my constituency want. It is what the sector wants and what our retail workforce deserve.”
“There is also work to be done nationally. Labour will create a new specific offence of assault against retail workers. That has been called for by the likes of the chief executive officer of Tesco, Jason Tarry, who said: “We want our colleagues to be safe at work. Creating a standalone offence not only sends a strong message to the small but violent group of people who abuse and attack shopworkers, but also makes it clear to shopworkers that as a nation we take protecting them seriously.” Labour would go further, scrapping the £200 rule that stops shoplifting from being investigated and putting guaranteed neighbourhood patrols back into town centres, with 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers. When it comes to the abuse and crime that affect our shop workers, the numbers do not lie.”
“That is another area in which the Government’s promise to address the root causes of retail crime rings completely hollow. It is astonishing that, despite those statistics, the debate, the personal examples and the outcry from businesses and staff alike, workers still feel afraid of their place of work and are worried that, just by showing up for their shift, they will be putting themselves in harm’s way. The sector has long been calling out for more to be done on the issue, and I am proud that Labour is a party willing to listen to that call. On a local level, I am pleased that our police and crime commissioner, Kim McGuinness, has been getting heads together within the retail sector and local police forces to identify what has been working and what has not—listening to our retail workers, so that they feel recognised and supported.”
“Across my constituency and the country, people are concerned about the antisocial behaviour taking place in their own communities. When my submission for this debate was accepted, it sparked a conversation in my office about times that, as customers, we have seen those acts of aggression play out. In the winter months, with the nights getting dark ever earlier, the worry of bad behaviour in shops will create not just a fearful situation for the staff but one that risks turning away customers. Strikingly, USDAW’s most recent survey suggests that an estimated two thirds of abusive incidents are linked with addiction, yet we see nothing in the Government’s announcement of the Pegasus programme acknowledging that relationship or exploring the role that drug and alcohol treatment services have to play in tackling this issue.”
“The British Retail Consortium notes that there has been a decline in reporting of such incidents to 32%, as workers have increasingly lost faith that the police will take action. The commitments made in the retail crime action plan, which tells police to prioritise incidents involving violence, are welcome, but we must ensure that local police forces are encouraged and supported to implement that approach on the ground. We must also ensure that they have the resources to respond. In my area, Northumbria police are still 400 police officers down from 2010, and it is the same in other parts of the north-east. Retail workers find themselves at the frontline of antisocial behavioural issues, but the problem goes beyond shop floors.”
“I certainly agree that the Government have failed to go far enough. They had the opportunity last year when they introduced the aggravating-factor legislation, but we need to go much further than that. As I said, there is a widespread feeling within the sector that theft has been effectively decriminalised. In the same vein, another policy being criticised is the practice of issuing fixed penalty notices for shop thefts under £200. The failure to investigate those thefts leaves workers feeling as though the crimes that they have experienced, often involving abusive behaviour towards them, are not taken seriously by the police or the Government. The lack of confidence in our institutions has been reflected by a drop in the reporting of incidents of violence and abuse.”
“The problem is that if cases are not taken through to court for prosecution, that aggravating factor does not come into play. I think that what all of us here are arguing is that the assault itself against a shop worker should be seen as a particular offence.”
“I thank the Minister. Will he address the issue that I raised about the resourcing of the police? In my local Northumbria police area, we are still 400 police officers down. That is irrespective of whatever the picture is nationally, and the situation is the same across the north-east. Clearly, that affects the response of the police. What can he say about that? Can he commit to increasing the numbers in Northumbria?”
“With regard to the Minister’s explanation of the differences and the choices that local police forces have made, I am sure he will know that the impact of increasing the precept and the value of housing in our local communities mean that authorities such as mine suffer disproportionately because of the way the precept is worked out. Choices there may be, but they are choices within the funding envelope.”
“This has been an interesting debate, and a very important one to our retail workforce who are suffering violence and abuse, both verbal and physical. Clearly I am disappointed that the Minister has not gone a step further and agreed that violence and abuse towards the retail workforce should be a crime in its own right. I know that the shopworkers and retail staff in my constituency would very much welcome that recognition. Although there are other assault offences that can be used, this is a very specific one that needs to be addressed. I regret that the Minister has not made that change. Retail staff and I will continue to push for it to be recognised as a specific crime. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the matter of violence and abuse towards the retail workforce.”
“T3. As we know, there are strong links between financial difficulties, mental health and suicide. The poorest 10% are twice as likely to die from suicide than the wealthiest 10%. With so many people struggling to make ends meet, how is the Minister going to ensure that those seeking financial support get access to mental health support, and that those seeking mental health support get access to help with their finances?”
“T9. Over the past year, the north-east has seen a dramatic collapse in the number of homes being upgraded through the Government’s sustainable warmth and eco schemes. That poor record is costing households in my constituency dearly. What is the Minister going to do to put it right?”
“What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that Access to Work schemes will be readily available, funded and put in place much more quickly than they are now?”
“Sadly, as we have heard, we did not see any new proposals for evidence-based preventive programmes, and I am particularly disappointed that we did not see the continuation of the vital funding to support local suicide prevention plans that is set to run out this year. As we have also heard, the cost of retaining that vital service is very small. The need for a public health approach to mental health has never been greater, and we need the Government to assess and show an understanding of the traumas that people have experienced, rather than creating new ones. Finally, I want to say a little about childcare. Having spoken to staff at a nursery in my constituency, I know there is a real fear that the Government’s plans are not meeting the costs that are needed to provide high-quality childcare, and something must be done about that.”
“We need a holistic approach that covers the impact of the colossal NHS waiting lists—in particular those for mental health treatment, which are preventing many people from being able to work. We cannot ignore that fact when considering this issue. We need to consider the impact of young people’s experiences of education and living in poverty, and how they accumulate to exclude them from access to good jobs. Along with mental health charities, I welcome the extension of the NHS individual placement and support scheme to provide intensive employment support for people with severe mental health problems, but I hope that the Government will consider the merits of that approach for more common mental health conditions, as well as taking a broader view of the factors that impede employment among people with poor mental health.”
“For others, particularly those with mental health problems, there is a risk that being pushed into homeworking will only serve to compound their social isolation and their difficulty in paying bills. We must be clear about the fact that while we need to provide better access to remote working, it cannot be a substitute for access to good-quality, hands-on support. I want to say something about sanctions, because there is a well-established link between losing benefits, facing serious hardship and experiencing a deterioration in mental health, sometimes causing hospital admission. Previous research has established that people who are sanctioned also take longer to move into paid work, and that when they do, their earnings are lower.”
“Insecure, demanding and low-paid work can be as bad for a person’s mental health as unemployment. Last week, during a television interview, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said that disabled people must “do their duty” and work from home, but figures from the Office for National Statistics show that only 16% of adults currently work exclusively from home in any given week, and that people are more likely to be able to work from home if they are in the highest income band and educated to degree level or above—groups to which people who suffer severely from mental illness, for example, are statistically less likely to belong. I fear that disabled people competing for a small pool of fully remote jobs will find themselves pushed even further into poor-quality and insecure work.”
“Debra, a constituent who contacted me this weekend, has been on PIP and ESA for a long time, owing to a debilitating lifelong illness, and is now desperately worried that she will find herself in difficult circumstances as a result of the changes. There is an urgent need for the Government to clarify the details and put more flesh on the bones so that constituents like Debra are not worried sick about what will happen to them in the future. Of course people who are able to work should be provided with the right support to help them to do so, because, as my right hon. Friend said, a job can be a source of structure and self-esteem, and people with mental health problems in particular are especially sensitive to the negative effects of unemployment. Crucially, however, as we have also heard, these jobs need to be good and appropriate.”
“There is much in the autumn statement on which I could comment, but I want to focus on one area. Having heard what was said by my neighbour, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr Jones), I was tempted to say the same, for I shall be touching on very similar themes. Like many people, I hear regularly from disabled constituents who are desperately worried about their finances and their benefits. They feel that DWP assessments are designed to catch them out rather than help them, when it is appropriate, into good employment. For them, the autumn statement has been a source of great anxiety, with fears that the Government are doubling down on a culture that many have experienced as inflexible, ineffective, and even downright callous.”
“If the Minister thinks that every pound of taxpayers’ money matters, what are the Government’s plans to recover the loss of billions of pounds in flawed covid contracts?”
“Today is Carers Rights Day, when we recognise that unpaid carers have rights too and need those rights strengthened. Carers UK today published new research that shows thousands of people are having to give up work due to the stress of juggling paid work and unpaid care. At this point, I would like to thank all carers across the Blaydon constituency who do so much, and Gateshead Carers Association and Carers Trust Tyne & Wear, who support them in that work. May we have a debate in Government time on how we can better support our unpaid carers who do so much?”
“There has been a shameful increase in the level of destitution in the UK, with 1 million children not having their basic needs met. In my constituency of Blaydon, nine children in every classroom are living in poverty. Across the north-east, there has been a 12% increase in emergency food bank parcels in the past year. Does the Minister agree that his Government have completely failed the most vulnerable children in the UK?”
“It was therefore concerning to read the analysis in the NAO report, which found that the DHSC has not established an overarching programme to co-ordinate its social care reforms, and that six out of eight of its workforce projects are still in development. It also found that the Department does not have a long-term funded plan for transforming adult social care beyond the current spending review period. Once again, we are seeing sticking-plaster politics and the absence of long-term thinking from this Government. We have serious long-term issues in our mental health and adult social care systems, and we require serious long-term solutions to fix them. After 13 years of failure, the Conservatives are looking to Labour for the ideas to fix the mess that they have made. Come the general election, the country too will be looking to Labour.”
“It was noticeable that there was nothing in the King’s Speech about tackling that very real issue, and it was interesting that it came at a time when the National Audit Office was publishing its report, out last Friday, “Reforming adult social care in England”. It revealed that, of the £1.75 billion committed to reforming the adult social care system in December 2021, more than £1 billion has been diverted to other priorities, meaning that there has been a 58% fall in the budget. We already know that there are significant problems, including long waiting lists and high numbers of staff vacancies, which have increased by 173% over the last decade. Thousands of people who are medically fit to leave are stuck in hospital beds because the care in the community that they need is not there to support them.”
“I do not want to belittle those efforts, but there is a failure to reckon with the fact that, if people do not have enough money, life is really hard. Polling last year showed that the most common cause of anxiety was not being able to pay the bills. We need the Government to be assessing the impact of all their decisions, not just those being made about the health services. That includes ensuring that essential service providers and creditors have policies and procedures that underpin a compassionate response to customers experiencing financial strain. I have talked about the need to tackle the mental health crisis, but I also want to talk about adult social care.”
“Many of the projects happening at local level have already been forced to end. Meanwhile, the public health grant has plummeted by around £1 billion on a real-terms, per person basis since 2015. We desperately need the restoration of local suicide prevention funding and a cross-Government, 10-year mental health plan that creates real accountability and incentives for local structures. Many mental health organisations were concerned that the mental health strategy, which was due to be produced this year, was taken into the major conditions strategy. There is much concern about that delay. It was positive to see in the national suicide prevention strategy the beginnings of a “no wrong door” approach, including training for Department for Work and Pensions staff dealing with distressed callers.”
“It is costly and time-consuming for small grassroots organisations to apply properly for those grants, and they feel that the process is too top-down to empower them to fulfil the needs of local communities. I have worked with many excellent charities in the area of suicide prevention, and one of their key strengths is their ability to be innovative. However, with NHS services struggling, they are carrying large burdens without proper funding or co-ordination from above. The £57 million allocated to local authorities for suicide prevention and bereavement services in 2019 was really important, because it helped to co-ordinate local suicide strategies and local action, but despite the publication of the national suicide prevention strategy, we have seen no reassurance that that money will be renewed or increased in line with inflation.”
“For organisations I meet through my work on suicide prevention, and for the constituents who come to my door, that is simply not a picture that speaks to their experiences. Last week I organised a conference in Newcastle on tackling young suicide, coming together with local stakeholders from the NHS, charities, universities and schools across our region. I promised them that I would take their message back to Westminster, and one of their key messages was about funding. Short-term and short-notice grants and funding mean that voluntary and statutory sector organisations are forced to lurch from one insecure position to the next, unable to plan for the future.”
“We need targeted programmes and workplace and community interventions to protect, support and sustain public mental health. I am glad that Labour has committed to providing mental health hubs in every community, which we will pay for by abolishing tax loopholes for private schools and private equity fund managers. The King’s Speech spoke of “record levels of investment” that are supposedly “transforming” mental health services, which makes me wonder who the Government are talking to. There are an estimated 1.2 million people on NHS waiting lists in England, and the proportion of 17 to 19-year-olds with a probable mental disorder has risen from one in 10 to one in four in the past five years.”
“We will remove prisons and police cells as places of safety to ensure that people in crisis are supported in an appropriate setting, and make other reforms to empower mental health patients to have more control over their own care. Reforming the Act was a manifesto commitment for the Conservatives in both 2017 and 2019. Abandoning those critical reforms shows a lack of political will at the heart of Government to tackle the current crisis. What we desperately need is a much greater focus on prevention of mental ill health. Since the cancellation of the 10-year mental health and wellbeing plan, we have seen little movement towards addressing the social determinants of mental ill health, which should be the business of every Government Department. Public mental health is an asset, and it is vital that the Government see it as such.”
“It is no exaggeration to say that we face an acute crisis in public mental health. Last week, the Government had the opportunity to announce reform of the Mental Health Act and to introduce a rights-based approach that would offer choice, protection and human dignity to people who are sectioned. Their failure to do so is really disappointing. There are many problems with the Act in its current form, from inequalities in the disproportionate use of detentions, to high levels of restraint, particularly experienced by young people, and the removal of patient autonomy. The Act is not fit for purpose and must be changed. That is why the next Labour Government will reform the legislation, putting an end to the disgraceful detention of people with learning disabilities and autism who do not have other psychiatric disorders.”
“The huge importance of local bus services to communities such as mine in Blaydon has been emphasised by a dispute between Go North East and its employees. I very much hope that a negotiated settlement can be reached quickly. Is not the reality that we need better, more streamlined franchising models to give communities a greater say on their transport offer?”
“I hope that during the passage of the Bill we can define the phrase “unreasonably refused”, or I fear that too many renters will find it to be a right in name but not in practice. The provisions in the Bill are desperately needed by my constituents and those of all hon. Members. I urge the Government to end the dithering and delay in enabling this Bill over the past five years. I also hope they will take the further steps that so many Members have identified and that are required to protect our constituents from homelessness and poor-quality housing.”
“However, at my constituent’s request, I wrote to the Department on 8 August to ask what was being done to stop private landlords leaving families in homes that are not up to standard, so he was sufficiently concerned to see this as a policy issue, not just an issue for himself. Unless councils are given greater enforcement powers to tackle a wider range of standards breaches, and the resources to deal with those in practical terms, I am concerned that renters such as my constituent will not be protected from landlords who fail to fulfil their responsibilities. My constituents have also been writing to me about pets, and it is positive that there will be a right to request to have a pet.”