Amanda Hack MP: speeches

Speeches

• 17 Jul 2025 · RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. It is also a privilege to have the opportunity to speak in this important debate, which I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) for bringing forward. As another granddaughter of a world war two veteran, I am ashamed to say that before meeting David Robertson from the Spitfire project, I had not known about the bravery, skill and determination of those pilots and the contribution that they made. I did not know about the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, and I am sure I am not alone. After the war, the PRU’s stories were buried and long forgotten, as most reconnaissance units were, but it has a unique story. Flying in essentially a gutted plane with no more than a camera deep into enemy territory, unarmed and unprotected, pilots gathered vital intelligence to help the allies win the war. Those planes were literally designed to carry as much fuel as possible at the expense of protecting the pilots—such bravery; such a sacrifice. I want to pay particular tribute to one of my own constituents, Coalville’s James Hares, who was among the brave few to serve in that extraordinary unit. Despite flying in a role that carried a death rate of one in two—one of the highest in the entire war—he survived the war but tragically passed away on the journey home having suffered a cardiac arrest after an allergic reaction. He was buried at sea off the coast of Sri Lanka, never making it home to his family. This is the second time I have had the opportunity to share my constituent’s story. I will say his name and tell his story again as he deserves to be remembered. We have written to our local paper to find out more about James. Sadly, we have drawn a blank, so I call on the Minister, alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle, to do what he can to open up the data so we can find out more about those brave men and women. I am pleased the Spitfire project has gained parliamentary support for a monument. I want to pay tribute to its hard work and the work that it has put into the campaign. Beyond the memorial, the Spitfire project is also looking to the future. Its science, technology, engineering and mathematics-focused education programme is inspiring a new generation and encouraging school-aged children to pursue careers in aerospace, aviation and motorsport. In that way the legacy of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit is not just preserved, but made a living and dynamic memory continuing to serve the nation into a new century and inspiring a generation. I am sure that the opportunity for the public to see a Spitfire as James would have piloted it will bring to everyone’s attention just how brave the pilots were. It is fantastic to see so many MPs today honouring their constituents. I look forward to working closely with the Spitfire project and I look forward to the monument. May we honour and remember the contribution that the people in the PRU made to our nation during world war two.

• 17 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  At a panel discussion earlier this year, I joined a group of leading women in the hospitality sector, who repeatedly highlighted that the lack of female representation in leadership roles and ownership is a persistent barrier to progress in the sector. What steps is the Minister taking to support women in the hospitality industry into leadership and ownership roles?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q I want to put on the record that I have an airport in my constituency, so many relevant companies are based there. You are a global company in a global marketplace. The airlines I have spoken to want to source SAF from UK markets. How attractive is that to your organisation as a global business—responding to your customers’ wanting you to deliver locally? How much does that play a part in that investment? Ruben van Grinsven: I am going to answer in a slightly similar way. My role is very much investigating and developing supply assets. I am really looking at building SAF plans. I am not very familiar with how customers demand locally produced fuel. In general, customers look for affordability and, therefore, at price and eligibility legislation. At this point, those are the more driving factors for people to buy certain fuels.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Sorry. Professor Maslin : No, no, I think it’s great. Forgetting schools, I think we need reinvigorate engineering in universities—and I say that not coming from an engineering background. The reason is that, at UCL, we have a huge faculty of engineering and some real areas of expertise, but we need to build those up. We need the chemical engineers who can train the next generation to go into SAFs. We need to energise that. At the moment, the problem is that the university sector is creaking and underfunded, and top universities are doing things on a shoestring. It seems slightly ridiculous that I am going out to the middle east to get funding to support research into SAFs, but we are having to be entrepreneurial and sell our talent around the world.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q Obviously, when you are looking at green investment, there is a huge element of risk in new technologies. Are there other levers of Government that would de-risk them from an infrastructure point of view, or are there other things that we could do on top of the Bill to de-risk it? Josh Garton: Yes, I think there are. As I said, the revenue certainty mechanism seeks to address price risk primarily. The mandate deals with volume, and it provides that volume certainty in the market. When we think of the second and third-generation fuels that we need to develop to meet the aviation decarbonisation targets, these are somewhat novel technologies—in fact, they are novel technologies—and there is no market for the fuel at the moment. That means the technologies themselves are not commercially mature yet, so even with a revenue certainty mechanism in place, there is still a level of technology risk that some investors are not willing to tolerate at this point in time. We need further support to help the first-of-a-kind projects get through FID, even with the revenue certainty mechanism in place. That can include deploying things like first-loss guarantees, or other forms of Government involvement, such as being the first lender through something like the NWF taking a slightly more risk-on approach to the financing of these first-of-a-kind projects. That way we can prove that the technologies are commercially viable, and then help scale the sector.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q In terms of SAF’s growth potential, I would be interested to hear more about how smaller organisations can get involved and how we can ensure that lots of businesses benefit from this huge step forward for our economy. A lot of SAF production will be in coastal areas, but my constituency, which has an airport, is inland. How can that growth potential reach all parts of the UK? Mike Kane: Indeed, and Amanda, you are a great champion of East Midlands airport in your constituency—I have Manchester airport in mine, and I see from day to day the benefits that growth brings in terms of jobs, skills and inward investment. You make exactly the right point. Good strategy is turning what you have into what you need to get what you want. We have industrial heartlands dotted right across our nation, including in our coastal communities. They are almost oven-ready to host the technology, inward development and jobs. Our analysis, which was a minimum compared with those of everybody else in the room, is that this would create 15,000 jobs in the next few years and £5 billion in GVA. Those jobs are in many of our run-down coastal communities and industrial heartlands, so this is a win-win on many levels—in terms of decarbonisation, carbon capture, production and the regeneration of parts of our nation that have been left behind for far too long.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q On the potential economic benefits of the Bill, you mentioned the other layer of infrastructure that we need to put in place. How do we ensure that we have individuals with the skills and smaller organisations with the financial capacity to ensure that we maximise the economic benefits from trying to be the market leader? Professor Maslin : That is a huge, huge question.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q We talk an awful lot about the customers and what they might see on the price of their ticket, whether that is for freight or for going on holiday to Spain or wherever, but are your customers demanding that you be more environmentally friendly? As an airport, how far do you need your customers to support the transition to SAF? Matt Gorman: It is a great question. All the evidence from our polling of customers, as well as what we read in regular polls and consumer surveys, shows that people are broadly concerned about climate change and environmental issues generally. In terms of aviation, they see that there is a role for customers, but they are clear that the industry needs to set out a plan and take action. They understand that airports do not necessarily fly planes, but that we clearly have a responsibility. They expect us to set out the plan, communicate it and take action at the airport where we can. In that sense, all the evidence shows that consumers support us taking action. As the answer to an earlier question alluded to, the net zero transition will have some costs to consumers. The challenge is how we keep those costs as low as possible while reaching the goal of net zero. I think the balance of the mandate and the revenue certainty mechanism is well designed to achieve that. We think that domestic production in the long term so we are not reliant on imports—we have discussed the energy security angle—is a good way of helping to manage price certainty in future. Consumers are supportive, engaged and willing to pay a bit more to support the transition to net zero, but the industry and Government need to take action to manage it cost-effectively.

• 11 Jul 2025 · Rare Cancers Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for his tireless work on the Bill. If anyone gets the opportunity to listen to the podcast he did a few weeks ago, it is well worth listening to—really insightful. He offers the opportunity to address the deep inequalities faced by people diagnosed with rare and less common cancers. In fact, this is the second debate on rare cancers that I have attended this week. The hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding) mentioned the previous debate; I had the pleasure of sitting alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) in that debate on myeloma—a rare blood cancer that affects just a few thousand people a year in the UK. However, there is a concern of the link between the condition and people flying helicopters in the military. As we have heard, around 180,000 people are diagnosed with a rare or less common cancer every year. Last year, one of those was my constituent Isaac Wilton, and his story will be the basis of my speech. I had the pleasure of meeting Isaac last year. He was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma brain tumour at just 21—he had a seizure during a workout at the gym. His sister Harriet set up a fundraiser to pay for immunotherapy, and within the first six days they raised £144,000. Isaac and his family have organised various events to support the cause, including charity football matches and community events. Last October, family and friends joined Isaac to walk from Leicester City football club to Coalville clock tower, covering 13 miles—an extraordinary feat. The campaign is now at an incredible £193,000, just shy of its £200,000 goal to pay for Isaac’s treatment. His fundraising not only helps him access life-altering treatment, but raises vital awareness about the urgent need for more brain tumour research, which receives around just 1% of national cancer research funding. Isaac’s voice matters much more than mine in this debate, and I would like to share something he has written with the House: “The disease I’m fighting, that gives every single person diagnosed such a poor prognosis, only allows for a little hope. Living a life day to day almost waiting for the bad news. I’m one of the lucky ones. One of the lucky ones who was able to see a community of over 15,000 people come together. Some of which I knew and some from overseas…to raise enough money for me to at least explore other options that I cannot be given through the NHS. Options that might just give me a second chance. But me and others in this fight should be given a fair chance to win this battle because the chances right now are heartbreaking.” This Bill will give hope to Isaac and others in his position. As we have heard, we are not talking about a minority. In the UK, 47% of cancer diagnoses and 55% of all cancer deaths are from rare and less common cancers. A system that leaves nearly half of cancer patients behind is not a fair system—not for Isaac, not for the father-in-law of my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West, and not for many others we have heard about today. I will support the Bill today, and I thank my hon. Friend for his incredibly dedicated hard work in bringing forward this change.

• 10 Jul 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  A few weeks ago, I was invited to bowl at Ibstock bowls club at a joint fundraising event with Sands United FC Ashby. That team welcomes men from across my constituency who have been bereaved by pregnancy loss and child loss to play football and to chat if they need to. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating those two local clubs on coming together to raise money for Sands, the national baby loss charity, and will she consider a debate in Government time to discuss the impact of baby loss and support for families who experience it?

• 8 Jul 2025 · Government Resilience Action Plan · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his statement. As a former Leicestershire county councillor, and as a health scrutineer before, during and after the pandemic, it was clear to me that local knowledge from our public health teams and NHS services played an important role; however, they know that they could have gone further and done so much more. Will he reassure me and my constituents that insights from local resilience forums and local experts will feed into planning and preparation for any future pandemic?

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for her statement, and for the significant investment in transport across the UK. The confirmation of funding for the A511 corridor in the east midlands is extremely welcome. For far too long, communities such as mine have been overlooked by the previous Government for infrastructure investment where we have had lots of housing growth. This funding marks a turning point, accelerating opportunity and connecting our community. Can the Secretary of State assure me that every part of my constituency will see and feel the full economic benefits of this vital investment?

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for her statement. At a recent joint meeting of the Work and Pensions Committee and the Education Committee, Sure Start was named by the panel as the previous Labour Government’s most positive policy for children. The policy had a very proud legacy, yet the Conservative party closed 50% of our centres in Leicestershire. Does the Secretary of State agree that building the foundations and investing in families, as happens at our family hub in North West Leicestershire, will ensure long-term benefits like those achieved by Sure Start? Will she say how Best Start family hubs will work alongside pre-schools and primary schools to aid the delicate transition into school?

• 4 Jul 2025 · Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill · Hansard source

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  My constituency is the home of Canine Partners, the organisation that provides canine companions for individuals with disabilities. I just wanted to reflect on the positive effect those dogs have on the people who care for them.

• 4 Jul 2025 · Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Tracy Gilbert) for bringing forward this important change. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Laura Kyrke-Smith) agree that we need to continue to have the conversation about what democracy means to people, and that creating consistency in the voting system aids that conversation?