← LEADERSHIP TERMINAL

UK PARLIAMENT · SITTING

Luke Taylor

MP for Sutton and Cheam · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

I visited Croydon Crown court a few weeks ago with the Bar Council and listened to some of its members. It was clearer than ever that the demands of jury trials are not what is leaving victims waiting years for justice.

JURY TRIALS · 2026-07-09 · READ IN HANSARD

The Iranian regime is abhorrent. It has oppressed its people for decades, murdering protesters and activists, and it is no friend of ours. Its attacks on civilian shipping risk a global crisis, yet Donald Trump’s escalation and the US’s poorly targeted attacks have put civilians and our friends in the Gulf at huge risk, with the risk of a…

IRAN CONFLICT: CEASEFIRE · 2026-07-09 · READ IN HANSARD

May I take this opportunity to congratulate the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who last week took the decision to take her Department and herself off Twitter—or X, or whatever it is called these days?

FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN UK POLITICS · 2026-07-06 · READ IN HANSARD

The report finds structural issues within police forces, with fragmented and inconsistent systems that do not make the most of our police talent. If an officer sees cronyism, nepotism and abuse of power around them, they will not have their future career at the top of their mind or trying to break through that system.

POLICE LEADERSHIP COMMISSION REPORT · 2026-07-06 · READ IN HANSARD

Q10. On Monday, with colleagues, I wrote to the Health Minister following the news that women’s health and maternity services may be relocated away from St Helier hospital due to building safety concerns.

ENGAGEMENTS · 2026-07-01 · READ IN HANSARD

Will the Prime Minister arrange for the Health Secretary to visit St Helier hospital with me to see its condition and hopefully agree to bring forward the build of the new Sutton specialist emergency care hospital—build it today, not in 2034—to ensure safe and modern healthcare and maternity facilities for my constituents?

ENGAGEMENTS · 2026-07-01 · READ IN HANSARD

The complete record

Every one of 604 lines we hold for Luke Taylor, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 13.

  1. I warmly welcome this plan and the ambition that the Government are showing, and I will try to dispel some of the official Opposition’s misconceptions. I am sure we have all been out knocking on doors in our constituency. When I was doing so in Worcester Park last week, a lady came to the door in a big jacket, and I moved to let her pass, because I thought she was on her way out. However, she was not going out; she was in her home in a jacket because she did not have the heating on. I am sure we have all experienced that. We know how the cost of living crisis is hitting our residents, whether through their grocery bills, their rent or their energy costs. Can the Secretary of State give a bit more detail on how we will address energy costs and insulation issues in the short term?

    WARM HOMES PLAN · 2026-01-21 · READ IN HANSARD

  2. After China’s proven record of unlawful espionage against MPs and British institutions, does the Minister agree that this is a catastrophic misjudgment, and that we have no hope of our laws being observed by the Chinese Communist party?

    CHINESE EMBASSY · 2026-01-20 · READ IN HANSARD

  3. Hongkongers and other Chinese dissidents in the UK will be rightly concerned about this news. I want to make it completely clear that the Liberal Democrats have serious concerns that this project will enhance China’s ability to conduct transnational repression against Britons and Hongkongers on British soil. What is the timeline for closing the seven existing Chinese consulate buildings, once Royal Mint Court is opened? Will the Government publish the 2018 note verbale confirming that the embassy was contingent on planning approval, ensuring that the Government did not prejudge the application? Finally, paragraph 62 of the Secretary of State’s permission letter states that “lawful embassy use of the site” would give no cause for worry about interference with the sensitive cabling that runs adjacent to the secret basement rooms.

    CHINESE EMBASSY · 2026-01-20 · READ IN HANSARD

  4. Eight years later, we are now being told that consent was somehow conditional on planning permission, based on a secret note verbale from May 2018 that has not been published. Will the Government release that note verbale, which is the only evidence that diplomatic status was provided conditional on planning permission and, therefore, that the application was not prejudged by the Government?

    PROPOSED CHINESE EMBASSY · 2026-01-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  5. The Liberal Democrats have made it clear from the beginning of this saga that the approval of China’s super-embassy would be a terrible betrayal of Hongkongers who moved to the UK to escape the very repression that the Government are now inviting to their doorstep. The Government must halt the application and summon the Chinese ambassador to make it clear that we will not accept Beijing’s efforts to spy on our Parliament or to intimidate and harass Hongkongers in our community. On the specifics of the application, in a 2018 letter the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson granted diplomatic status to Royal Mint Court. That letter made no mention of a condition relating to planning permission and, under section 1 of the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, represents a fulfilment of the condition to provide express consent.

    PROPOSED CHINESE EMBASSY · 2026-01-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  6. Diplomacy relies on rational actors, yet even in the last fortnight we have seen Donald Trump declare that he is not bound by international law, only by his “own morality”. He has deployed paramilitary forces against his own people, and he speaks of cancelling elections. How apt! We have also seen the unilateral kidnapping of the President of an independent country. We are not dealing with a rational man; he responds only to shiny baubles, as we have seen with the incredible saga of the Nobel peace prize. I agree with the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) and ask the following question: will the Government consider removing the King’s visit to the United States and boycotting the world cup? The only thing to which Donald Trump responds is his own pride.

    ARCTIC SECURITY · 2026-01-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  7. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) being prevented from going into Hong Kong, and sanctions being placed on other MPs. If a hostile state is rewarded for all these actions with permission to expand and increase its capabilities for surveillance, espionage and repression in our capital city, what hope can any of us have that the Government will stand up against hostile states for Britain and Britons in an increasingly hostile and dangerous world?

    CHINESE EMBASSY · 2026-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  8. I thank the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) for submitting her application, and Mr Speaker for granting another urgent question on this issue. Although we are not yet happy with the answers, we have at least been given repeated chances to scrutinise the issue as it has progressed. I am here on behalf of Hongkongers in Sutton and Cheam and across London who are aghast at the prospect of this project being given permission. We have seen the persecution and conviction of Jimmy Lai; transnational repression of Hongkongers in the UK through, among other things, the withholding of their mandatory provident fund savings that allow them to survive here; bounties placed on activists; and action taken against MPs, such as my hon.

    CHINESE EMBASSY · 2026-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  9. I thank the Minister for what is a clear Lib Dem win. I repeat the question from my Front-Bench colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton), on the need for a transparent assessment of the potential economic growth benefits of a customs deal. In three years, we will all be seeking a new mandate, and if we can really understand the potential economic benefits at that point, our residents and citizens will be able to make an informed decision. Can I please encourage the Minister to give a second thought to that study?

    UK-EU COMMON UNDERSTANDING NEGOTIATIONS · 2025-12-17 · READ IN HANSARD

  10. Will the Minister ensure that Thursday’s announcement will provide full details of the funding for the programmes in the plan, and ensure full funding in the police settlement next year, so that we do not see further erosion in police numbers, especially in the Met police?

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS STRATEGY · 2025-12-15 · READ IN HANSARD

  11. I thank the Minister for coming to the Chamber to clear up concerns following the statements by the Home Secretary yesterday. The Met police are expected by March 2026 to have 2,508 fewer officers than they had at the time of the May 2024 election. Fewer officers means more space for men to commit crimes against women and girls and fewer police liaison officers in schools. We see the lack of confidence on our streets, where Sutton’s high street team has been cut from 11 to four officers. Part of the response for that is by Reclaim Sutton’s Streets—a group set up to stand up for women’s rights in the area. My question is about funding.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS STRATEGY · 2025-12-15 · READ IN HANSARD

  12. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Sebastien Lai, whom I and a number of colleagues met earlier, and who has shown courage and fortitude throughout this process. Ever since the verdict was announced I have been inundated with the concerns of Hongkongers in my constituency about what this might means for their safety under the programme of transnational repression and persecution being conducted by the Chinese. They say that diplomacy works until it doesn’t, and now we can see that it has not worked, so there must be consequences. May I press again for an answer on why China has not been placed in the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme? I understand that, as Home Secretary, the right hon. Lady submitted evidence to the Housing Secretary regarding the security implications of the super-embassy.

    JIMMY LAI CONVICTION · 2025-12-15 · READ IN HANSARD

  13. It is a pleasure to contribute to this debate. Together, the 100 smallest carbon-emitting countries represent more carbon emissions than China on its own, so if all those smaller-emitting countries make their own contribution it can make a bigger contribution to cuts than China. Does the right hon. Member not agree that those small measures add up to a huge difference globally?

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  14. They are locked into the pursuit of an ideological purity that sees those companies and producers solely as the problem and not as part of the solution. Reform’s static, stagnant and staggering belief that net zero is either bound to hurt working people or just bad in and of itself, only gives them the self-satisfied and smug smile of someone who thinks they know all the answers, but that could not be further from the truth.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  15. Local production creates jobs, improves resilience, reduces import dependence and stabilises prices, but without efficient resource allocation and strategic investment, future refinery closures could create severe supply bottlenecks and undermine our energy independence. It is equal parts encouraging that there is consensus among the serious political parties in this country about the need for transition and energy security, and concerning that from different ends of the spectrum, the Greens and Reform are either wilfully ignorant or unwilling to accept that supporting the oil refining industry to transition is critical. The Greens seem willing to turn their back on any of the major technologies involved in the just transition of our fossil fuel infrastructure.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  16. Complexity, departmental misalignment and a lack of pragmatism in public policy are holding back the existing and future fuels sector. The Government have the power to solve those things. I hope that today we can suggest and agree some constructive next steps. Earlier this year, Liberal Democrat colleagues and I recognised the importance of the Government’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill. Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, will be one of the main enablers of aviation’s transition from polluting liquid fossil fuels to a future of hydrogen, battery and hybrid zero emission power plants. As part of that transition, SAF has a huge role to play in creating new green jobs and delivering on our energy security goals.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  17. We have seen before what happens when there is a major industrial shift and we fail to support jobs and the communities they help to keep alive—from the closure of the pits to the ongoing crisis of British Steel. We must learn lessons from past deindustrialisations to avoid similar damage to communities today. All policy makers should dedicate themselves to avoiding the traumatic manifestations of necessary—or, at the very least, foreseeable—moments. It is vital that any job losses in this sector are mitigated by reskilling and retraining with new green investment. However, right now in 2025, we are losing our traditional refining, chemicals and existing biofuel production capability and home-grown expertise.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  18. We must secure our energy supply so that we can withstand an ever more uncertain future, and transform our late-industrial malaise into a green, prosperous and abundant economy through a truly just transition. Data from the oil and gas industry shows that it directly supports around 26,000 jobs across the UK and indirectly supports 95,000 more. These are largely jobs in offshore drilling, rigging, catering, scaffolding, onshore fabrication yards, anchor manufacturing and vessel maintenance, and there are more. It is also estimated that there are another 84,000 jobs among the hospitality workers, taxi drivers and others who serve industrial communities and are supported by them in turn.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  19. That is certainly a popular approach among historians, but I think it misses something: the often pivotal role of engineers—and I say that not just because I am one myself, or was. It is not necessary to subscribe to an entirely materialistic view of history to recognise that engineers, no matter who they work for or where they work, are often at the vanguard of the kind of technological change that enables our wider political or social ambitions to be achieved. That was true at the cusp of the industrial revolution; it was true when the white heat of technology exploded the middle class in the ’50s; and it is true now, perhaps more than ever, as we embark on the mission to undo the damage to our environment that previous technological shifts have wrought.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  20. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Western. I thank the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) for securing this important debate, and all the Members who have spoken for their contributions. I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the future of aviation, travel and aerospace—we have done a lot of work on sustainable aviation fuel—and that I met representatives of Exolum, the International Air Transport Association, LanzaJet and the Tank Storage Association in preparation for this debate. At times of great upheaval and change, it is tempting to look to political leaders, artists or other major cultural figures to get a sense of where the world is headed.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  21. I convey to the Minister the ask from industry that the DFT and DESNZ should be urgently working together to ensure interconnectivity with hydrogen policy and SAF policy, so that SAF producers are not penalised for using domestic industry?

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  22. Hydrogen storage is critical, but hydrogen production and usage are also critical to our future renewable goals and to providing the supply of SAF that will be required to decarbonise aviation. DFT rules state that, to make compliant SAF in the UK, hydrogen must be green hydrogen—rightly—and cannot be supported by the hydrogen production business model, a scheme established by DESNZ to get UK hydrogen production off the ground. That alone is not controversial. However, there is no green hydrogen available in the UK that will not be supported by the HPBM, which means that a portion of SAF using these renewable molecules will be uncompliant and, essentially, very expensive fossil jet fuel, despite it actually being green.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  23. Under the SAF mandate rules, however, bioethanol readily produced in the UK—sustainable enough for a car engine—has been deemed not sustainable enough for a jet engine. Will the Minister consider the request of industry to support the UK’s bioethanol industry to continue operations and simultaneously support SAF production by allowing bioethanol use under the SAF mandate? The upcoming call for evidence on the role of crops under the UK SAF mandate should be released urgently, and a pragmatic approach taken. Similarly, opening hydrogen storage subsidies to include liquid fuel infrastructure would ensure that existing assets could play a role in the hydrogen economy.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  24. We should be working with industry on delivering that, but industry leaders tell me that on the critical steps that the Government should be taking, they are going ignored or unheard. Let us take bioethanol, for example. At the start of 2025, the UK bioethanol sector provided 895 million litres of renewable fuel production capacity and thousands of direct and indirect jobs. It was also a significant market for British agriculture and providing critical co-products such as carbon dioxide for the NHS, and for the food and drink sector. As of December 2025, the industry has been halved, following the US-UK trade deal. An immediate solution would be to transition that bioethanol to SAF, as the alcohol-to-jet technology being developed in the UK can convert it into jet fuel.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  25. I completely agree. That is why we are talking about a transition. It may well bring shivers to the hon. Member’s spine to talk about transitions, but it is critical that we talk about them in a reasonable and sensible way, and about how we look forward to the future rather than to the past. Reform’s approach is equally dogmatic and damaging as that of the Green party and has already been found wanting in practice in local government. We can only make the transition a reality if we grasp the opportunity to utilise our existing oil refining infrastructure to turn to the chemistry of the future, with a diverse set of feedstocks from a wide range of supply points.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  26. The Government must work with industry because striving for theoretical perfection, rather than ambitious but deliverable policy, risks choking the sector and neutering this revolution. Our engineers and industry stand ready to deliver, as they have done time and again, the greener economy that we need and that communities up and down the country deserve.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  27. It is in our blood and our tradition as a country to grapple with these big technological questions, so it should be up to us to show what real leadership on the just transition looks like—not just because great feats of engineering are impressive in their own right, which they are, but because a whole generation of people whose lives and careers have been shaped by our oil refineries and wider energy sector, and future generations, are counting on that leadership. In recent years, the Conservatives abandoned it. We urgently need to get it back and provide stability for the communities most affected. Home-grown, local renewable energy and fuels can be clean, cheap and popular, and they embed resilience.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  28. How will the Minister ensure that policy and investment frameworks can support storage and distribution infrastructure, thereby enabling the development of a future-ready energy system, capable of responding to evolving market conditions and minimising supply chain risks? The Liberal Democrats urge the Government fully to grasp the opportunities that our industrial capacity and workforce capability offer our country, to lead the world in a transition to next-generation fuels and energy.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  29. At present, most support for fuel infrastructure is directed towards large-scale production projects. Conversely, investment in storage and distribution infrastructure is increasingly undertaken at an operator’s own risk and often ahead of immediate market need. That imbalance is amplified by a business rates system that can disincentivise new investments and high-end capital projects—including energy transition initiatives—especially when the investment is by overseas companies likely to be looking for more cost-effective placement of funding in countries with more generous and strategic policies.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  30. Pipelines, storage and distribution networks are essential for connecting supply and demand, especially as the market shifts towards sustainable fuels and as we look to improve our energy security. For example, Exolum, which runs a 2,000 km onshore pipeline network that delivers 40% to 50% of the aviation fuel used for UK flights each year, is transforming its aviation fuel pipeline network to supply SAF. To unlock further investment in the infrastructure and ensure a just transition, industry is calling for long-term policy signals, such as extending and increasing renewable fuel mandates; targeted incentives like business rates relief and payment holidays for new infrastructure; inclusive subsidy schemes for hydrogen storage; and fast-tracking obligations for renewable liquid heating fuels.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  31. I know that the hon. Member has a lot of knowledge on this issue. I think that looking at all the options that maintain capability is critical. What might come out of this is an ask for this Minister— or potentially the aviation Minister, the hon. Member for Selby (Keir Mather)—to sit down with our APPG, in which there is a lot of expertise, to talk about some of the ways that we can maintain capability but also achieve our transition and net zero goals. A pragmatic approach could be not to apply the rules to smaller users of hydrogen—for example, where hydrogen accounts for less than 5% of feedstock—while a longer time is taken to consider the impacts for large-scale hydrogen users. I now turn to our wider ecosystem of logistics infrastructure.

    OIL REFINING SECTOR · 2025-12-11 · READ IN HANSARD

  32. They are often subjected to surveillance and oppression by Chinese authorities while in Hong Kong, and have needed the time in the UK to prepare adequate evidence to present to the Home Office. These are political refugees fleeing persecution in Hong Kong at the hands of the CCP. Imposing a 40-year wait for settlement on brave young dissidents would be wholly disproportionate. In refusing to consider Hongkongers for this type of exemption, we do not simply adjust a policy; we threaten the humanitarian corridor that has long connected two nations through history, culture and a shared belief in freedom.

    IMMIGRATION REFORMS: HUMANITARIAN VISA ROUTES · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  33. Thirdly, on the 20-year route protection, I am extremely concerned that the combination of the new 20-year baseline for refugees on the core protection routes and the suggested additional 20-year extension for anyone who entered as a visitor will apply to Hong Kong political exiles who have no access to the BNO visa scheme. Many young activists, particularly those born after 1997 or whose parents never registered for BNO status, have no safe and legal route to the UK. They are compelled to travel to the UK as visa-free visitors and only claim asylum once inside the country. They fear that declaring an asylum intention at the border would lead to detention or being refused entry and returned to Hong Kong.

    IMMIGRATION REFORMS: HUMANITARIAN VISA ROUTES · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  34. Earning less does not mean contributing less; their contribution might not always show on a payslip. The second concern relates to the English language requirement. Will the new English language requirement of B2 be applicable to BNO visa holders? For many families, that will be a huge and unexpected hurdle. Tens of thousands of BNO visa holders will reach the five-year point and become eligible for settlement in 2026. A sudden increase to B2 level without adequate notice or transition would throw many vulnerable residents off balance and deny permanent status to people who have lived, worked and put down roots in Britain for half a decade.

    IMMIGRATION REFORMS: HUMANITARIAN VISA ROUTES · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  35. Although I welcome the Government’s decision, my inbox and social media have been flooded with messages from BNO holders who are rightly demanding further clarity. I therefore call on the Minister to answer their three most pressing concerns. The first relates to the new requirement for earnings. Will the new earnings requirement for settlement status above £12,570 be applicable to BNO visa holders? Many Hongkongers are retired, studying full time or caring for children or loved ones. That requirement will cut directly against the humanitarian intent of the BNO visa. Any new sustained and measurable economic contribution test or minimum income rule risks permanently excluding those entirely legitimate residents. Those Hongkongers are already fully integrated in their communities and contribute to British society in non-financial ways.

    IMMIGRATION REFORMS: HUMANITARIAN VISA ROUTES · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  36. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I thank the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing this important and timely debate. Like so many of my constituents, I was delighted to hear last week that Hong Kong BNO passport holders will keep their five-year route to settlement. The Liberal Democrats have fought hard for that, so I am pleased to see the Government finally respond to our campaign. Britain and Hong Kong share a special relationship, and nowhere is that clearer than in my constituency of Sutton and Cheam, and across Sutton borough. Thousands of Hongkongers have built their lives, raised families and grown thriving businesses in Sutton. They are part the very fabric of the borough that I am proud to call home.

    IMMIGRATION REFORMS: HUMANITARIAN VISA ROUTES · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  37. The vaccine against the epidemic of violence and abuse that women face in our society will be administered in our schools, our youth centres and the hubs that remain, in our homes and community groups, in the mass media, but critically, too, on social media. It will also need to be inculcated in our police stations, court rooms, hospitals and many arms of the modern state—and, indeed, here in this Palace, which sits at the heart of the state. Only then will we see the revolution in safety that is needed for women and girls in London, and put an end to the horrifying statistics and stories that we have heard today.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  38. To return to the point on which I began these remarks, just as the state often looks to society for guidance on social change and progress, so too—and perhaps more powerfully, or at least more meaningfully for those of us in this place with our hands on the levers—does society look to the state for an exemplification of the kind of society we want to live in. We have a moral obligation to lead from the front. The state will never be the active, positive player in the field that it ought to be—an ally to all those who seek to root out the misogyny that plagues us and sprouts the poison of violence against women and girls—until it is absolutely committed, acting seriously and with pace, to getting its own house in order.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  39. It is so backed up and broken that it is telling female victims of crime that they cannot seek justice through the state system because of the system’s own failings. In case anyone doubts that those failings are not serious or speak to a lack of evidence, let me tell the House about another constituent of mine who was assaulted in broad daylight on public transport during rush hour, in full view of CCTV cameras, and who is still waiting now, two years later, for the CPS to move forward with charges. The situation beggars belief. It is utterly unacceptable. I ask the Minister to outline in significant detail—and I strongly underline the word significant—what exactly the Government will do to sort this mess out.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  40. One constituent was kept waiting for two years while her abuser was released on bail, only to be told that, even though what had happened to her constituted common assault, a charge of actual bodily harm could not be pursued due to the time that had elapsed since the incident. That is despite the fact that several lawyers, during that period—while she was waiting powerlessly for the CPS to move forward—agreed that the incident met the threshold for ABH. Colleagues, I sincerely invite you to consider the scale of that Orwellian, Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare: the powerlessness, anxiety and exhaustion it wrought on my constituent, and the distance we have allowed ourselves to travel as a society from the promise of justice for all by allowing the CPS to become so gridlocked.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  41. The Crown Prosecution Service, perhaps most notably, is failing victims of violence against women and girls so frequently that it undermines the confidence of women everywhere that they can ever truly seek justice. I know this quite vividly. When I met Claire Waxman in her role as Victims’ Commissioner for London, I heard about women left waiting for months, even years, with their lives on hold while cases crawl through the CPS. I have also listened to the stories of many of my constituents who have had to retreat from seeking justice, despite the awful things that have happened to them.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  42. The uniform of the Met should be a symbol of trust, not a shield for misogyny, hatred and racism, but too many officers have broken that trust. Policing is done by consent, and trust in the police is essential for the safety of Londoners. Incidents such as the ones I have mentioned undermine that trust. The Home Secretary has a responsibility to intervene and work with the Met to tackle this behaviour, owing to their unique role in its governance. I invite the Minister to tell us in more detail what the Government are doing not only to tackle the misogyny that spurs violence against women and girls across society but, crucially, to address it closer to home—in the arms of the state directly under the purview of the Home Office. It is not just in policing that these issues rear their ugly heads, but across other arms of the state too.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  43. Four years on from the death of Sarah Everard, we are left asking whether work is really happening at the pace required to root out those men from the force. Fundamentally, this is about trust. We would always encourage any woman fleeing violence, or looking to report an assault or harassment, to find a police officer and seek their protection. That is a fundamental tenet of a free and fair society. However, like many men across London, I simply cannot provide them the total guarantee that doing so will mean they are met with the support of someone who understands and respects the problem they are facing or, more importantly, who understands and respects women themselves and all the manifold challenges they face. That is an awful place for society to be.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  44. He replied, “That’s what she says.” The station had been the focus of an investigation by the police watchdog—the Independent Office for Police Conduct—into bullying and discrimination nearly four years ago. It found that some officers had discussed hitting their girlfriends, shared offensive and discriminatory comments, and joked about rape in a private group chat, and yet nothing changed. Those are not isolated incidents, nor am I latching on to the most recent example for ease. We know there is a systemic problem in the Met: the Casey review in 2023 told us that one in three female officers had experienced sexism at work, and that around one in ten had experienced sexual harassment or assault.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  45. Although commendable work has been done by Commissioner Rowley, who I have met and I trust is treating the historic mission with the gravity required of it, recent events have underlined that this is still a serious, systemic problem. The recent revelations broadcast by the BBC’s excellent and sobering “Panorama” investigation about officers based at Charing Cross station, leading to the dismissal of four officers, was shocking and profoundly depressing. To reference just one particularly demonstrative example of the unacceptable behaviour that was uncovered, Police Sergeant Joe McIlvenny, an officer with nearly 20 years’ service in the Met, was dismissive about a pregnant woman’s allegation of rape and domestic violence after a colleague raised concerns about the decision to release the accused man on bail.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  46. Although it is true that, far too often, changes in this place happen because of a changing world beyond our gates, it is also true that, in many ways, society looks to the state to take the moral lead on the fundamental issues of equality and justice. When the state is failing in its duty to take that moral leadership, we do not just compound the problems; we actively undermine efforts happening across society to tackle them. Sadly, in the case of violence against women and girls, I fear that that is exactly what we are at risk of doing, if we do not redouble our efforts to stamp it out. Perhaps nowhere is that more pressing and concerning a matter than with the Metropolitan police. It can no longer be denied or ignored that there are elements in the force who hold views entirely incompatible with the state taking this issue seriously.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  47. Each London borough faces more than 2,000 domestic abuse offences and 4,000 incidents annually. Even in the context of known under-reporting, the Metropolitan police recorded an average of 24 reports of domestic violence per day in 2023. It is important that we also bring into sharper focus the crucial fact that we have a role—not just as legislators gathered here today, but in the wider public sector and its various arms of governance and jurisprudence—and a responsibility to lead from the front. I echo the call by the hon. Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) for us to become the first White Ribbon Parliament, which would make a small step in that direction.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  48. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) for securing this important debate and sharing her tragic experiences for the benefit of others. I also congratulate the hon. Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) on launching the APPG for the survivors of Fayed in Harrods, alongside my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain)—a huge scandal that affects women across the country. There has been lots of talk in recent years, and indeed in the Chamber today, about changing social attitudes—educating men to stamp out violence against women and girls at its root. We have all heard the terrifying statistics that seven out of 10 women have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  49. The feedback from the local police force in Sutton, which is part of the trial, is that they find them incredibly helpful. There is a ringing endorsement for the orders and we look forward to seeing them rolled out more broadly.

    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: LONDON · 2025-11-25 · READ IN HANSARD

  50. Can the Minister give some detail on how the CAA will engage with operating companies, particularly software manufacturers, to ensure that users are aware of the regulations? That is often done via apps and subscriptions. We must make sure that compliance is built in, especially with the geofencing altitude regulations and the night light operating rules. I thank the Minister for introducing the draft regulations and wish him the best of luck in boosting our competitiveness and the quality of the products we produce in the United Kingdom.

    DRAFT UNMANNED AIRCRAFT (OFFENCES AND CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) REGULATIONS 2025 · 2025-11-18 · READ IN HANSARD