David Chadwick
MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I am here today to speak on behalf of the 217 people in my constituency who have signed this petition, as well as those who have taken the time to write to me and those I met from Breconshire Friends of Prostate Cymru.”
House of Commons26 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Instead, he and his family have had to come to terms with a terminal diagnosis. I pay tribute to Mr Morris for his courage in sharing his experience and using an incredibly difficult personal situation to campaign for change that could save the lives of others.”
House of Commons26 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Young people are the future of the armed forces, and that is why cadet groups are so important. In England, schools receive £360 a year for every child from an armed forces family, helping them to provide extra support.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Those demographic statistics are alarming. In Powys, there are high average occupancy rates for nursing beds across community hospitals—91% in Llandrindod Wells and 82% in Ystradgynlais—yet Powys teaching health board is consulting on potentially cutting the number of community hospital beds from 160 to 60.”
House of Commons15 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“At the same time, in order to save money, the same health board has been slowing down treatment times for patients awaiting surgery in neighbouring health boards and trusts in Shropshire and Herefordshire.”
House of Commons14 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Powys teaching health board is currently running a consultation called “Better Together”, which proposes that the number of hospital beds be slashed from 146 to as few as 60, with further cuts made to minor injuries units, mental health services and X-ray units.”
House of Commons14 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
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“I am proud to represent several former coalmining communities. Abercraf, Cwmtwrch, Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Ystradgynlais, Pontardawe and Rhos are just a few of the proud former mining communities that I represent. I therefore thank the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) for securing this debate. Across Wales, nearly 800,000 people—about a third of the population—live in former coalmining towns and villages, and I am very proud to come from a Welsh mining family. I will never forget my grandfather taking me to see his father’s grave in Maesteg cemetery. His father died aged 34 after working up to his waist in ice-cold water for several hours. The men and women of our coalfield communities made huge sacrifices to power this country, so it is right that we are discussing the future of their communities today.”
House of Commons6 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“After the bank branch on its high street closes on 3 March, the nearest banking hub—when it opens—will be in Leominster, 14 miles away. The bus journey to get there is two and half hours. Why are we letting our banks do that to people? While those bank branches are open the Government must ensure that they remain so. They should remind Lloyds and all other banks that the Government are in charge, setting the conditions for our banks, and not the other way round.”
House of Commons5 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Pontardawe’s Lloyds bank will also close in November. More than 300 local residents have already told me about the challenges that will cause them. The elderly and vulnerable people in Pontardawe deserve to have somewhere safe and easy to go to access their own cash. The same is true of local businesses. Pontardawe is a gorgeous town with some very successful high street businesses. The bank’s closing will make life harder for those local traders. The banks are abusing their market dominance to pile pressure and costs on to local businesses that can ill afford it. Local traders are being told to make further journeys just to access cash. That is piling the costs on to them, and our local economies will suffer as a result. Imagine being a wheelchair user in Presteigne.”
House of Commons5 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this timely debate. We heard last week that the banks will be closing their doors to more customers. Lloyds Banks has decided to close an extra 136 bank branches, despite making £7.5 billion in pre-tax profit in 2023, an increase of 57 %. That followed years of tax cuts given to it by the previous Conservative Government. Lloyds has decided to reward its customers by closing its doors to them. Shame on Lloyds Bank. Banks have been permanent fixtures on our high streets for centuries. The Lloyds branch in Brecon was founded in 1778 and is part of our town’s history. Bank closures will reduce footfall in our town centres, hurting the local economy.”
House of Commons5 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Ystradgynlais is the biggest town in my constituency, and it has a catchment area of 24,000 people. People there tell me that they experience long waits when they go to use the post office, and that post office staff have lost cheques and made other errors that have created problems for local businesses. Does the Minister agree that a post office is no substitute for a functioning bank branch run by trained staff?”
House of Commons5 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Many of my constituents have to travel to England to access cancer treatment. This presents many problems, one of which is a lack of data sharing between NHS England and NHS Wales. Will the Minister assure Welsh patients that if they are treated in an English hospital, their data will follow them home and that it will be accessible to NHS Wales?”
House of Commons4 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In the current climate where banks are closing branches left, right and centre—Lloyds bank has announced that it will close its branch in Pontardawe—the Government should not be asking banks to act as judge, jury and executioner in social welfare policy while granting themselves access to people’s bank accounts but not requiring those banks to ensure that citizens have access to their bank accounts. That does not sit well with the liberal society that I want to live in, and I do not believe that my citizens want to live in such a society, either. I call on the Government to rethink their proposals and to assure us that the Bill will not undermine our data protection adequacy agreement with the European Union.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have all seen the devastating impact of errors made by the Department for Work and Pensions on individuals. Such a system could lead to disastrous consequences, where it falsely flags someone as fraudulent due to simple administrative errors or unintentional mistakes. The hon. Member for Normanton and Hemsworth acknowledged that the banks had raised concerns about whether they are the right organisations to do this. The Bill risks creating a two-tier society where certain groups are subjected to intrusive financial monitoring by the state while others are not, which would undermine the principles of equality and fairness that our society is built on.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Under the Bill, the Government would be granted sweeping powers to access and monitor the personal financial records of citizens, even without any evidence of suspicious activity to justify such actions. Many people are in receipt of welfare payments through no fault of their own, and this Bill could result in the mass surveillance of private financial information, potentially affecting 9.4 million citizens. The presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our justice system, yet the Bill would fundamentally alter that principle. Under the Bill, individuals could be presumed guilty until proven innocent, with their personal data shared, investigated and scrutinised without sufficient cause or due process. That sets a dangerous precedent, where the burden of proof falls on citizens, not the state.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That could create honeypots of data that might be easy for hackers to intercept and interfere with. In data protection, if there is not data integrity, availability and confidentiality, essentially all of the agreements that exist with the data subject and the data processor can be said not to be valid. I therefore wonder what the Government see as the perfect framework for this data to be provided. Does it mean that the banks will have to export the names of everyone who has more than £16,000 in savings and send that to the Government to see whether they are in receipt of welfare payments? One of the core principles of a free society is the right to privacy, yet in its current form, this Bill represents an intrusion by the state into the privacy of individual citizens.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Citizens should have the right to object to automated decision making, and I struggle to see how asking banks to scan their datasets for potential fraud could not be regarded as decision making. Let us give citizens the right to be able to object to these decisions being made about them. If we do not, we might be violating the data privacy agreements that are already in place. What do the Government expect the process to look like, when they are asking the banks to provide this information? The Secretary of State said that the information would be provided in a digital format, but what will that actually look like in practice? What could go wrong if, as has been mentioned, the banks are having to relay huge datasets to the Government and to the DWP in particular?”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We should be concerned about making banks the judge, juries and executioners of social policy, particularly with something as important as welfare policy. The UK has strong data protection laws that have been carefully negotiated over time and inherited from the European Union, and this Bill threatens to erode some of those protections and implicates treaties that we have already signed, such as the data adequacy agreement we have with the European Union. If the EU was to turn around and say that it was unhappy with the Government’s decision to monitor their subjects and citizens in this way, that would create many more problems for organisations across the UK.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is an honour to follow such an excellent speech from the hon. Member for Normanton and Hemsworth (Jon Trickett). As a Welsh Liberal Democrat, I find myself concerned with the civil liberties aspects of this Bill, particularly the influence and power it gives to the big banks. I spent seven years working in data privacy as a data protection consultant, and reading this Bill created more questions than it answered. I worked on datasets involving different businesses, Governments and organisations from across the world. In particular, I want to speak to the points around the banks, because as we speak, customers from Lloyds and Halifax cannot access their bank accounts because of an outage.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Wales is in dire need of economic growth, as we have some of the lowest wages in the United Kingdom and areas with the highest levels of poverty. Does the Secretary of State agree that banking hubs can be part of the solution? Will she support my campaign for a banking hub in Ystradgynlais, the largest town in my constituency? The banks closed and left town several years ago, so local residents and businesses face long trips to access cash.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As has been mentioned, it was purposefully introduced to protect family farms and safeguard our food security. If the Government want to stop tax evasion, they must work with the farming sector to find a solution that does not punish struggling farmers, because Welsh farmland belongs in Welsh farming hands.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Our farmers are patriots and servants of the land. Who will feed us when they are gone? Surely, Ministers must now look again at this policy. It is not just Opposition parties and farming unions that are criticising it, but the Office for Budget Responsibility, supermarkets and even, as of this weekend, the Labour First Minister of Wales. Rural Labour MPs need to stand with them and to pressure the Government to reconsider, and I applaud the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr (Steve Witherden) for doing exactly that in this debate. There are alternatives. Many in my constituency are already asking why Labour is targeting family farms, small businesses and charities for tax rises, while letting big banks, oil companies and tech giants off the hook. That is where the full troughs lie. APR is not a loophole.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I asked him whether he was going to farm when he grew up, and he looked me in the eye and said, “I am a farmer already.” Yet, under these new policies, this young man may inherit a smaller farm with little profit and fewer opportunities. Farming is not a typical business, but it is an essential one. In Wales, we have already seen the decline of many industries as a result of political decisions, and I fear that the proposed changes to APR could have the same devastating effect on farming. Who will farm the Welsh countryside? Will it be Welsh farming families who have worked the land for generations, or will it be the super-rich? It is reported that the Government plan to soften the blow for non-doms, but they seem unwilling to listen to the farmers who are the backbone of our rural economy.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If the Government are so confident in their numbers, why will not they release a full impact assessment that includes national breakdowns for Wales and Scotland? When speaking to people in the sector, it is clear that they know what the impact will be: a further contraction in the rural economy. More young people will be forced to leave farming, placing our food security at risk, driving up food prices and damaging the wider rural economy. The process of rural depopulation will continue, making it harder for local councils to provide services. In Wales, the policy could have a calamitous impact on the Welsh language. Recently, I visited Llanelwedd primary school, and a nine-year-old pupil asked me about the rising cost of fertiliser.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Family farms are on the brink. The people working on our farms in Wales deserve a decent living. Farming is already a tough business, but those figures and challenges highlight how unsustainable the situation is for many families. The Government’s proposed changes to agricultural property relief make things worse by forcing farmers either to sell parts of their land or to make repayments that will wipe out any annual profit. The Government are relying on outdated APR claim figures from 2021-22 and including non-commercial holdings in their calculations, which downplays the policy’s impact. According to NFU Cymru, the number of farms in Wales that will be affected is closer to 75% than the 27% claimed by the Government.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“What they wanted to show me was not how much they were making, but how little. Their figures were corroborated by statistics released this month by the Welsh Government, which show that farming incomes have fallen by a staggering 34% across Wales in the last year. The average income now sits at just £22,000, which is perhaps not surprising considering what farmers have had to cope with recently: rising energy costs, runaway fertiliser inflation, supermarkets forcing unfair prices on producers, the transition away from the EU customs union, disastrous Conservative trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, and extra regulations from the Welsh Government. Those are just a few of the issues they are coping with, and we can now add to that the rise in national insurance and the changes to APR and BPR announced in the autumn Budget.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies) for securing this important debate, and I applaud the cross-party work she is doing to ensure that Welsh farmers have a strong voice in this place. We also heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour), who pointed out the holes in the proposed policy change. I welcome the contribution from my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), whose voice is so valued by the agricultural community across these isles. He pointed out that there is still time for the Government to engage properly with the sector, and that it is in the public interest to preserve these farms. Last weekend, a group of farmers came to Llandrindod Wells to show me their accounts.”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Does the Minister agree that it is supremely unjust that, in Wales, customers face some of the highest bills for their water, despite having some of the lowest incomes in the United Kingdom?”
House of Commons28 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Welsh creative industries, especially our music and arts sector, must receive the support and investment that they need to survive and thrive. Clearly, we have the talent and the potential, but we need meaningful long-term policies and investment to ensure that the sector continues to grow and flourish for future generations. As we have heard, the creative industries are a vital growth mechanism for the rural economy. That is why I am calling for a creative enterprise zone to be established in Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, to give a platform and all the help we can to the creative artists and musicians across my constituency.”
House of Commons27 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“With more than 35,000 people employed in the sector and a turnover of £1.5 billion in 2023-24, it is clear how vital the creative industries are to the Welsh economy. Film and television have been a massive success story. Wales is a global powerhouse in the UK’s media landscape, with shows such as “Gavin & Stacey” showcasing our talent to millions; over 19 million people watched the final this Christmas. Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones, we commend you. It is time for my humblebrag: my mum went to Porthcawl comprehensive school with them both. The time for action to improve the arts is now. I am glad that the Government are talking about their plans for a better deal for the arts across the UK. We must make sure that includes Wales.”
House of Commons27 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is why it is so important that we listen to the people at the grassroots of our creative industries, who face similar challenges across the country. We have heard that small towns across the UK—Brecon is certainly up there—can provide a big stage for upcoming talent. It is important to keep developing that talent pipeline. Sadly, the Welsh Government have proposed a 9% cut to the Arts Council’s revenue budget for 2024-25, which would come on top of a 10.5% cut the year before, leaving the revenue budget at its lowest since 2007-08. That reduction will put further strain on an already vulnerable sector. As we heard from the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies), the creative industries are a powerful force in Wales, contributing more than 5% to our GDP and growing faster than the overall economy.”
House of Commons27 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When we talk about clusters of excellence, Wales must be at the forefront of the discussion. It is the birthplace of many famous musicians, actors and actresses, and the House can be assured that a steady flow of talent is in pipeline. I know that because last night I took my two sons to their first panto in Brecon, where we saw the Westenders’ performance of “Robin Hood”—a community show, like many across the country, that brings people together as only the arts can. Whenever I go to these shows, I notice the volunteers who sacrifice endless hours to make sure that the show goes ahead. People spend a whole month washing all the costumes that people wear during the performances. As far as I am aware, washing a whole cast’s kit is something that AI cannot yet do.”
House of Commons27 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the Minister for giving way; it is very gracious of him. Many young farmers in Wales have told me that they would love to watch the output of the UK creative sector, particularly on Netflix, but they cannot. They are not able to download Netflix because their broadband is not good enough. What would the Minister advise them to do?”
House of Commons27 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“An active regulator is essential to securing fair prices for consumers. Residents of areas such as mine are often at the forefront of rises in petrol prices, and residents of Pontardawe are regularly left wondering why they have to pay 8p more per litre than people in nearby towns. Will the Government commit to launching the Pumpwatch petrol price comparison platform, as recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority?”
House of Commons22 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I stand to speak to amendment 2 tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire). As the Member of Parliament for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, I am proud to represent a constituency with a deep and enduring military history. It is home to Brecon barracks, the headquarters of the British Army in Wales, and 160th (Welsh) Brigade, alongside the Sennybridge training area, where thousands of British service members train in the Brecon Beacons.”
House of Commons21 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I therefore call on the Government to work closely with the Welsh Government to ensure that we do not have a situation whereby extra costs are imposed on Welsh businesses to sell into England and the rest of the United Kingdom, and likewise that we do not have a situation in a couple of years’ time in which big manufacturers will not manufacture things for the Welsh market because the extra costs are too heavy to bear. I again welcome the introduction of a deposit return scheme and lament the fact that the Conservatives never did this when they had plenty of opportunity.”
House of Commons21 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Welsh food and drink sector is one of the flourishing parts of the Welsh economy, and it is home to nearly 230,000 much-needed jobs in Wales. Many of those businesses are located in my constituency, and I am fortunate that many of them also come to the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells every July to show their wares in the food hall. Many of those businesses are great examples of rural entrepreneurship. They create jobs in places that seriously need them. I welcome the deposit return scheme, as do the Liberal Democrats, but we are listening to the concerns of people in the industry, particularly in areas such as mine, who have great reservations about the impact on the Welsh food and drink sector of having a scheme that does not work across all four nations.”
House of Commons21 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is widespread agreement that stronger regulations on water pollution are needed, a stance that I support fully, but regulations are effective only if they are enforced. In Wales, enforcement is severely lacking. Natural Resources Wales, our environmental regulator, has faced a decade of cuts under the Welsh Government, and is currently operating at least 50 staff members short of the number needed to do the job effectively.”
House of Commons15 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for Monmouthshire mentioned, the previous Government had several roundtables on how to clean up the Wye, but what happened? Very little. The impact of the inability to clean up our rivers is hurting local communities in my constituency. We know there is a housing crisis, caused by a shortage of affordable homes. In Talgarth, a moratorium on new homes has been in place since 2022, meaning several much-needed housing schemes are frozen. Oversight from the Welsh Labour Government has fallen short. Although it is a non-profit organisation, for years Dŵr Cymru failed to invest in infrastructure and still diverted funds into executive pay, and it is one of the worst offenders on sewage dumping.”
House of Commons15 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) for securing the debate. Like her, I am privileged to represent a constituency that is home to some of the UK’s most powerful rivers, including the Rivers Wye, Usk and Towy. However, these national treasures are drowning under a barrage of pollution. The Wye, Usk and Towy are heavily polluted, harming the environment and local wildlife, and jeopardising industries such as tourism, leisure and angling. I fully support the concerns raised about the previous Conservative Government’s failure to tackle water pollution. Conservative neglect allowed water companies to pollute rivers with impunity while siphoning off profits to pay excessive bonuses and dividends. People want swift action now. As the hon.”
House of Commons15 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Farmers in my constituency are very concerned by this news, as Powys was one of the hardest-hit regions in the 2001 outbreak and the trauma remains for the 2,000 livestock farmers affected. Can the Minister provide us with some further details on the conversations that he has had with the Welsh Government, and will he confirm that the Welsh Government will commit to working with local authorities?”
House of Commons15 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. He is well aware that the south-west and Wales are connected by the Severn tunnel, which is often closed—it is likely that the closures are in his region. Does he agree that that is impacting economic growth in south Wales, and is all the more reason for Wales to receive the consequentials from HS2 funding to invest in our own railways in Wales, including the Heart of Wales line in my constituency?”
House of Commons14 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I rise to make a point about Wales. I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate, which has particular relevance to my consistency of Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe. Rural crime is defined as crime and antisocial behaviour occurring in rural areas, where we have plenty of social housing. In my region, just 0.24% of staff in the local police force are dedicated to rural crime units, despite the significant impact that that crime has on places such as Brecon and Ystradgynlais. Does he agree that antisocial behaviour is a significant issue across mid and south Wales too, and that police resourcing should reflect that challenge?”
House of Commons8 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Member for giving way and for securing this important debate. My constituency has one of the highest levels of off-gas-grid properties in the UK, with over a third of my constituents dependent on heating oil to keep their homes warm. Does the hon. Member agree that it is vital that the Government bring forward plans to help off-grid homes to decarbonise not only to help the environment, but to help to bring their bills down?”
House of Commons8 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) for securing this debate; I have two children under three, so I am delighted to come and contribute. Does the hon. Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) agree that an extra benefit of investment in playgrounds is that they bring footfall into our town centres and nearby shops and cafés, thereby benefiting the local economy, too? I have one such example in Brecon at the King George V playing field, which I hope will help to regenerate our town centre.”
House of Commons8 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Does my hon. Friend agree that this legislation should have set out a framework for devolving the Crown Estate in Wales, as is the case in Scotland?”
House of Commons7 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. Wales is very proud of its reputation for producing great musicians, actors and actresses—I will not try to name them all lest I forget people. My hon. Friend talked of the difficulties faced by people entering the profession and the worrying fact that the numbers might be dropping off. How does she think our state would be best placed to encourage people to go into the profession? Would that be through investing in buildings and education, or something else?”
House of Commons18 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In my own constituency, the already limited service along the Heart of Wales line is being cut further. Altogether, it seems that, despite Labour promising a change in how Wales is treated from when the Conservatives were in power, they have continued with a business-as-normal approach. It is completely inappropriate that my constituents, and people across Wales, are now expected to deal with a further reduction in services for several years, for a project in London that will provide no benefit to them, while they continue to be robbed of investment in their own local services. This Labour Government must listen to the Welsh people and ensure that this disruption is minimised and that Wales receives its fair share when it comes to rail funding.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“HS2 does not involve a single mile of track in Wales, yet the previous Conservative Government decided to class the project as an “England and Wales” project, a designation that Labour has taken an active political choice to keep, despite their own Ministers in Wales admitting it is deeply unjust. This means that Northern Ireland and Scotland both received consequential funding to spend on transport, while Wales received not a penny more—particularly none of the estimated £4 billion that it should have received as a result of the project. Even ignoring HS2, Wales is already underfunded, as the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies) has mentioned, when it comes to investment in rail, receiving just 1% of rail investment in the UK despite having 11% of the country’s rail network. That is having tangible real-life impacts.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Construction work at Old Oak Common is set to impact services along the south Wales main line until 2030—five whole years during which Welsh travellers will face slower and more disruptive journeys into London. In addition to longer journey times, the disruption is expected to reduce the number of available seats, diminishing the already poor capacity and connectivity, with fewer direct trains to London reducing resilience to recover from any delays. The disruption in services for residents across south Wales, including those in my constituency who use Great Western Railway services at Neath and Newport, comes without any significant long-term benefit to them.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) for securing this important debate. Wales is a proud industrial nation, which was built on the back of the railways, with the world’s first train operating at Penydarren ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil. It did not carry passengers—it carried coal—but it was a train none the less. However, Wales’s proud contribution to rail in this country has been diminished in recent years by both Government neglect and diminished services from rail providers. As the development of HS2 continues, the work at Old Oak Common station in London may seem like an isolated project in the heart of England, with little consequence elsewhere. However, the implications for Wales are substantial and far-reaching.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I should declare an interest in that many of my relatives across south Wales are former miners. In the autumn Budget, the Government quite rightly made the decision to end the pension injustice for miners who were part of the mineworkers’ pension scheme, but they did not do the same for the 40,000 miners who were part of the British coal staff superannuation scheme, including 151 former miners in my own constituency. Will the Government guarantee that these men and women get the pension they deserve and explain why they will have to wait longer for justice than many of their former colleagues?”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Can the hon. Member explain why his Government are choosing to raise taxes on GPs’ surgeries, which did not crash the economy or the public finances, rather than opting to raise the revenue from the big banks, as the Liberal Democrats suggest?”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I urge the Government to reconsider their decision to raise income in this manner and to make exemptions for the health and social care sectors as well as for charities.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It already has the worst outcomes of any nation across the United Kingdom. Charities and local authorities will suffer too from this decision. In my constituency, the chief executive officer of Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations has stated that the national insurance increase will “place considerable financial pressure on voluntary sector organisations, many of whom are crucial partners in delivering essential services.” That is the reality of the decision taken by the Government to use such a blunt tool to try to fix the nation’s finances. Many of my constituents are asking why Labour has chosen to go after the small businesses, charities, and health and social care providers rather than target the big banks, the oil and gas giants, or the social media giants.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We know that the scenes of ambulances left queueing for hours outside our hospitals are the result of them being unable to discharge patients due to shortcomings in social care. It is not just care homes that are affected, but primary care too. Our GPs, dentists and pharmacies will suffer from this tax rise. A local GP practice in my constituency told me that it will have to cut one day of practice nurse time and one day of GP time from April 2025. That is a direct result of the projected £30,000 increase in its national insurance bill, alongside an overall lack of funding for GPs. A second surgery is projected to have an increase in its NI bill greater than £100,000 in April 2025. Both are clear that without an exemption for health and social care providers, the NHS in Wales could face collapse.”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗