Anneliese Dodds MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 Jan 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Replacing Oxford’s Kennington bridge would secure critical transport links and unblock the Oxford flood alleviation scheme. Having OFAS named in the Government’s infrastructure strategy would protect jobs, homes and people. How can we ensure that Departments work with each other, including on the forthcoming structures fund, to support such projects that have positive outcomes for a range of Government priorities, and can we have a debate on this subject in Government time?

• 20 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Yesterday, the International Criminal Court’s deputy chief prosector said that atrocities in Sudan would be repeated from town to town unless impunity for belligerents ended. What measures have the UK Government been taking to make it clear to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, as well as to the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese armed forces, that they must protect civilians and let aid through?

• 19 Jan 2026 · Iran: Protests · Hansard source

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  Chillingly, the head of the Iranian judiciary has publicly called for the acceleration of executions of protesters. The killing in Iran is not stopping. Last week, when the Foreign Secretary talked of further sanctions and sectoral measures, she linked those to the nuclear industry. Will the Minister now confirm that the UK will be seeking to go further than sanctions applied in relation to nuclear issues, to also seek to impose them on human rights grounds for those who have been linked with this brutal Iranian regime?

• 14 Jan 2026 · UK-France Relations · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will be aware that both our nations are currently subject to disinformation online, and we also face the challenges of artificial intelligence, as well as its promise. Does he therefore agree that we need to continue the work from the Bletchley and Paris summits on AI, and to really intensify that work on technology in the future?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes · Hansard source

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  I agree with the Secretary of State. The production of these disgusting images amounts not to freedom of speech but to freedom to abuse, harass and commit crime. Will she condemn what seems to be an organised campaign of intimidation against female staff at Ofcom? After all, they are just carrying out the responsibilities that they were given by this House.

• 6 Jan 2026 · Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill · Hansard source

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  I wish you, Madam Deputy Speaker, all parliamentary staff and all Members in this Chamber a very happy new year. It is a real pleasure to rise to speak in favour of this crucial Bill, which I am pleased to see having its Second Reading. It is also a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed), who set out many of the stakes that are so critical here. We also heard that in the opening speech by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Digital Government and Data, who described a number of disturbing cases, as others have done during the debate. He also set out the scale of the impact of cyber-attacks with some concerning figures, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western). I was particularly struck by the 0.5% hit to GDP from cyber-attacks and the fact that our country has been the third most severely impacted worldwide by cyber-attacks. It is therefore welcome that the Bill focuses on a faster and more joined-up approach to deter and deal with cyber-attacks. I believe that that approach has gone alongside a really strong grip from the new Government on the need for a sectoral approach to dealing with cyber-attacks. Of course, we unfortunately had to see that, given the attack on JLR. I was pleased to see the previous Secretary of State really engaging with the automotive sector—work that has been continued by the current Secretary of State—on the challenges and lessons that need to come out of that attack, which has been particularly important in my constituency given the significance of BMW Cowley for employment in Oxford East. I believe it is critical that we assess cyber-security alongside other forms of cyber-criminality, as the head of MI5 has argued for us to do. Cyber-attacks are increasingly being carried out by quasi-non-state actors that operate in the grey zone that the right hon. Member for Hertsmere (Sir Oliver Dowden) talked about, often implicitly backed by Russia or other adversaries. Those attacks are taking place at the same time as a rise in cryptocurrency laundering and disinformation operations. I am sadly forced to share the assessment of GLOBSEC, the security-focused think-tank, that the pattern of Russia’s hybrid war “has persisted without an effective Western response”. There has been an escalation in cyber-attacks, sabotage, disinformation and political interference, but we have not seen the kind of joined-up approach across like-minded democracies that is needed. I was assured recently by my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General that the Government are working with the EU on combating foreign interference. That work clearly needs to be intensified, especially when we see what is happening to other democracies not so very far away from us. I saw the threat for myself directly in Moldova, where cyber-criminals’ methods are often being used in combination: a cyber-attack on the election regulator coincided with a disinformation campaign sponsored by Russia and disruptions like bomb hoaxes in real life. So while I welcome this legislation, it must be co-ordinated with broader work to protect our country’s resilience and digital sovereignty, and to secure transparency on foreign interference. In that regard, I will end by mentioning a concerning development: the sanctioning of two British citizens by the United States over the Christmas period, both of whom have worked to deliver transparency, including on foreign interference—clearly relevant to this Bill. Imran Ahmed is from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, whose dispassionate, evidence-based analysis has uncovered the spread of disinformation, violent racism and material that poses harms to children. Clare Melford is from the Global Disinformation Index, which provides information about the extent of polarisation and disinformation so that companies can make informed choices about where to advertise—a free market approach to providing transparency. The Minister stated at the beginning of this debate that when national security is on the line, we must be ready to act, and I strongly agree. A number of Members in the Chamber have said how important it is that we have a cross-economy and cross-society approach to these issues. I believe that the sanctioning of these individuals risks chilling transparency, including potentially transparency that can uncover foreign interference. I hope the Government will resist all attempts to reduce transparency. The welcome efforts in this Bill on cyber-resilience must be accompanied by work to counter other cyber and information-related threats to our national digital sovereignty and, more broadly, threats to our national security and interest.

• 17 Dec 2025 · UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations · Hansard source

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  I also welcome progress on Erasmus, but may I ask about progress on another commitment from the May summit: advance co-operation on foreign information, manipulation and interference, and working together to fight violent extremism including in its online dimension? The UK and the EU do indeed face threats, including threats to our digital sovereignty from the same powerful people, so we need urgently to work together.

• 15 Dec 2025 · Sudan: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Government’s sanctioning of senior commanders in the RSF, but the Minister will be aware of the genuine fears about further barbaric escalation in the run-up to Christmas. He rightly talked about the appalling killing of peacekeepers, but in the past couple of days a hospital has been shelled, and there are huge concerns about the insecure situation of refugees, particularly in Tawila. What is the Government’s timeline for further measures to try to force the belligerents to protect civilians, as a matter of extreme urgency?

• 15 Dec 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal · Hansard source

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  Like my hon. Friend, I want to pay tribute to site managers and moderators; I am sad indeed that an incredible example of that function from my city of Oxford, Maggie Lewis, has passed away. She was an incredible presence online for the community and did much other community and charity work. I looked at some of the small websites that had apparently had issues because of the Act. I found one that was an internet forum known for its open discussion and encouragement of suicide and suicide methods. I found another community website that had allegedly shut down, but is still functioning and has a forum where local people can let others know what is happening in the community—just one element of it had had to close. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that, when looking at the regulatory burden, we argue on the basis of facts to make the right decision?

• 11 Dec 2025 · National Plan to End Homelessness · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend knows, homelessness pressures in Oxford are some of the worst in the whole country. Will she join me in commending Oxford city council’s plan to purchase 260 additional homes for temporary accommodation to get kids out of hotel rooms and other unsuitable accommodation and into decent-quality, much cheaper accommodation? What will she do to back initiatives such as that and to preserve councils’ ability to impose requirements on developers so that they also provide social accommodation?

• 10 Dec 2025 · AI Safety · Hansard source

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  It is such a pleasure to take part in this critical debate. I start by acknowledging the Government’s commitment to rolling out AI in many areas and making the UK an adoption nation. They must also respond to the public demand for regulation in this area, however, and recognise that the two are interlinked. Research from the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Alan Turing Institute found that 72% of the public would feel more comfortable with AI if it was properly regulated. There are clear potentials from AI, but there are also clear harms. We have already heard about chatbots in this debate, and I would add to that discussion the issues related to AI slop—often hate-filled slop produced by influencers who are profiting heavily from it while polluting the internet. I would also add that Sora 2, which is well known to many schoolkids if not to those of us in the Chamber, has recently been shown to produce videos of school shootings, for example, for people purporting to be 13 years old—who were, of course, adults pretending to be that age. Snapchat execs have apparently been willing to go ahead with so-called beautification lenses, despite concerns relating to body image. There are significant harms, and I seek clarification on a number of questions. Will the curriculum review cover AI? Will teachers be supported in delivering that? Will there be a ban on nudified adult women images? When is the violence against women and girls strategy coming out—very soon, I hope? What is the position of AI chatbots, and are they covered by the Online Safety Act 2023? There seems to be a lot of confusion around that, at a time when we cannot have confusion. What is the timeline for the Secretary of State to look into this issue, given how important it is? Can the Minister push Ofcom to speedily publish the parameters for its welcome investigation into illegal online hate and terror material, and is that going to cover AI bots and slop? Surely it needs to. We need Ministers to commit to an AI Bill. Can the Minister provide a timeline for that? Will that much-needed Bill include mandatory ex-ante evaluations for frontier AI models and transparency from companies on safety issues? I have asked parliamentary questions about this issue, but I am afraid that I do not completely agree with the Government that AI companies are conforming with international agreements. Surely we need more on that. Are we going to have more scrutiny of AI use in government? Again—taking up the question that was asked earlier—I have asked PQs on BSL. Apparently, there is no knowledge of the cross-Government procurement of AI BSL, but there does seem to be discrete use of it by governmental bodies. Surely that needs to be looked at more. Surely we also need to act with the EU, with its commitment to human-centric, trustworthy AI, because ultimately, we have strength in numbers.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to be part of this important debate. I very much share the assessment given by my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner): after many years of rhetoric, we are finally starting to see delivery for the growth corridor under a Labour Government. Recent months have seen so many announcements and so much practical action, including the creation of the Oxford growth commission, under the excellent Neale Coleman, on top of local financial commitments—with money, at last, for the reopening of the Cowley branch line. I am pleased to see that East West Rail is powering ahead, and there are new towns, artificial intelligence growth zones and reservoirs as well. Now is the time to drive this forward. I will focus my remarks on areas where we need to see even more action, particularly so that we can realise Oxford’s potential for contributing to the corridor and to economic, scientific, social and cultural growth. First, local government reorganisation has to align with the goal of inclusive growth, not push against it. It is imperative that LGR delivers a greater Oxford, rather than the growth-sapping, democracy-reducing option of a great Oxfordshire or a split of the county into two. Research from Volterra shows that by focusing growth on Oxford city, Oxfordshire-wide annual gross value added could increase by 70%. Housing is critical, as has already been mentioned. Oxford has extreme housing need, for a range of reasons, from the under-bounded nature of our city to the anti-housing approach of neighbouring local authorities. We are the least affordable city in the whole UK, with average wages at 68% of average rent levels and average house prices 13.6 times the average wage. As was mentioned, there is an overwhelming need for social housing, as well as genuinely affordable homes, as part of the corridor. The duty to co-operate, such as it is, will cease to apply from early next year, so it is really important that LGR leads to a greater Oxford, not an anti-growth unitary Oxfordshire, and that that is confirmed quickly so that the city can be in control of housing delivery. We also need a homelessness prevention grant that is based on genuine needs, not on inaccurate proxies such as claimant count, and there must be no dilution of the ability for high-demand areas such as Oxford to impose conditions on developers for genuinely affordable and social homes. I would be grateful if the Minister could refer to that in his response. We also need inclusive growth. I was encouraged by the launch of Equinox by the University of Oxford. The clue is in the name: Equitable Innovation Oxford. Some amazing companies are already delivering on this locally, and the city council has been pushing the Oxford living wage. We have heard about motorsport. BMW Cowley is a jewel in the crown of advanced manufacturing not just in Oxfordshire, but nationally. We need the changes in industrial energy to speed ahead as quickly as possible to support production, including at BMW Cowley. We also need a campaign to show the public that electric vehicles are still cheaper. We must recognise that, although our country will need luxury electric cars in the future, it will also need affordable ones, such as those produced at BMW Cowley. We need to tackle educational inequality. Sadly, some of the schools in my area of Oxford have some of the worst results in the whole country. We are trying to deal with London-style problems with a shire’s budget. That needs to end. Finally, we need transport infrastructure that matches the challenge. That means getting the Kennington bridge sorted out so that the Oxford flood alleviation scheme can be unblocked. [ Interruption. ] I am pleased to see the Minister smiling; I know that he will persuade his Department for Transport colleagues to also smile, and to give it the green light.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Sudan: Ceasefire · Hansard source

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  I was pleased to hear that the Foreign Secretary met representatives of the emergency response rooms. I also met some of those incredibly brave volunteers. Of course, their humanitarian organisations have been strictly neutral throughout the war, yet they have been targeted by belligerents on all sides, simply for trying to feed people. What representations has she made about the need to protect emergency response room volunteers?

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport Infrastructure Upgrades · Hansard source

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  The structures fund announced in June will help to deliver transport infrastructure upgrades effectively. Upgrading transport can of course support other goals: fixing Kennington bridge in my constituency would help thousands of motorists and cyclists while also enabling the Oxford flood alleviation scheme to go ahead. When will the Secretary of State announce the arrangements for the structures fund, so that my area can apply for funding for that much-needed project?

• 18 Nov 2025 · Gaza and Sudan · Hansard source

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  On Sudan, I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s comments about potential additional sanctions and aid access, but surely, given the nightmarish reports, we need to go far further if we are to do what she has committed to doing—if we are to prevent further atrocities, and prevent impunity for perpetrators. Will she push the Quad to pressure the RSF to do two things: first, to allow International Criminal Court forensic teams and the media into El Fasher and on to other key sites; and secondly, to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detainees, given that they seem to be routinely subject to torture and mass execution?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Curriculum and Assessment Review · Hansard source

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  Does the Secretary of State agree that there must be strong support from school leaderships and local authorities for individual teachers as they, rightly, teach social media literacy? Does she agree that the review’s focus on social media literacy must be accompanied by stronger co-ordination on this issue across Government?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Conflict in Sudan · Hansard source

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  The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification recently discovered conditions of famine in El Fasher and Kadugli. It has also stated that conditions in Dilling in south Kordofan are likely similar to those in Kadugli, but those conditions cannot be classified due to insufficient reliable data. Does the Minister agree that just as it is unacceptable to indiscriminately kill civilians, health workers and aid workers and restrict aid access, it is unacceptable to deny access for the purposes of famine classification, and are the Government making that point to the belligerents?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate. She will be aware that many of those who have died from complications and overdoses related to opioids died on their own. That reflects the social isolation that so many experience when they become addicted to drugs. Does she agree that it is incredibly important that the social isolation of those seeking to move beyond addiction is broken through, and will she join me in thanking organisations like Jungle in my constituency, which seek to provide companionship and support for those who are trying to move beyond addiction?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to the hon. Member for securing this important debate, and to everyone who has participated. He mentioned impediments to aid, and he will be aware that the most recent, very disturbing IPC assessment showed that famine is taking place in El Fasher and Kadugli. That came out after the quad statement from the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE. On the subject of diplomatic pressure, does the hon. Member agree it is important that the UK uses its influence with those quad members, to say that they must pressure the belligerents to stop blocking that much needed aid in this famine situation?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation · Hansard source

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  I have found that local post workers are really keen to innovate where they can to try to deal with the issues. One thing they pioneered was putting the NHS barcode on healthcare-related letters. Does the hon. Member agree that the Minister should liaise with his colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care to make sure that every NHS organisation puts that barcode on so that those letters can get to the people who need them?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Sudan: Protection of Civilians · Hansard source

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  (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if she will make a statement on the UK’s activity to promote the protection of civilians, following a reported massacre at El Fasher’s Saudi maternity hospital.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Sudan: Protection of Civilians · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, I am very grateful to you for granting this urgent question. The scale of suffering in Sudan’s war on civilians is almost impossible to comprehend. A population the size of Australia’s are living in acute hunger. A population the size of London’s have been forced to flee their home. There are consistent reports of conflict-related sexual violence, and consistent warnings that if the international community do not act, we will effectively see a slow-motion Srebrenica. The Minister set out the reports of what may have happened at El Fasher’s maternity hospital yesterday evening; 460 people could have been slaughtered in a maternity hospital—patients, their companions and medical staff. This surely must be a turning point in the war, and for the international community’s focus on it. The Minister talked about the special representative’s contact, but what specific conversations have the Foreign Secretary and Ministers had with their counterparts, particularly in the Quad countries—the United States said it wanted to take a leadership position on these issues—but also in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates on the issue of civilian protection? Secondly, I was pleased to hear that an emergency session of the Security Council has been called. What will the UK Government press other countries in the UN to commit to at that session? Thirdly, are the Government confident that the arms control export regime has been robust in this case, given recent reports? What is the Government’s assessment of claims that El Fasher appears to be at the start of a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa and Berti indigenous communities, through forced displacement and summary execution? Finally, what are the Government doing to prevent what is happening in El Fasher from also happening in Tawila, to which so many thousands of terrified civilians have fled?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Sudan · Hansard source

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  As penholder at the UN Security Council for both Sudan and the protection of civilians, the UK has a special responsibility following the fall of El Fasher and the appalling reports to which the Foreign Secretary referred. Will she call an emergency session of the Security Council focused on the protection of terrified civilians in Darfur, given recent events? She talked about the Quad. That statement was before the appalling events of the last three days. Will she push every country in the Quad—the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE—to act now to prevent further massacres?

• 22 Jul 2025 · Humanitarian Situation in Sudan · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to speak in this really important debate. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal), who was absolutely right to state that the war in Sudan is a war on civilians—that is what it is. She set out many of the truly grim statistics. I will try to put them in some perspective before building on the many calls to action that we have already heard. My hon. Friend talked about the extent of displacement. I want Members to imagine that every single person living in this city of London had been forced to move, and then half again—every man, woman and child, whether frail or strong, ill or healthy, had been forced to move. That is the extent of the displacement that we have seen taking place in Sudan. My hon. Friend talked about the extent of hunger—24 million people facing acute hunger. That is the same number of people as live in London, the south-east and the west midlands combined. It is only just less than the number of people who live in Australia. Can we imagine an Australia in which either people are already malnourished or they can stay nourished at the moment only by selling off livestock or other essential means of survival? That is the number of people we are talking about. My hon. Friend talked about the 638,000 people who face catastrophic hunger—people who are living in famine. That is more than the population of Glasgow, Bristol or Cardiff. Can we imagine entering one of those cities and finding that one in three people is already acutely malnourished and there is an extreme shortage of calories per person per day? That is the extent of this catastrophe. The numbers of those impacted by violence are staggering, and so is the depravity of the violence. Many Members have spoken incredibly powerfully about this. I have seen footage, particularly from Humanitarian Action for Sudan. I am very grateful for the work of that organisation, and to Zeinab Badawi and others who are so engaged. I have seen footage that I can never unsee. It is absolutely appalling. We have seen so many Rubicons being crossed. Sexual violence has already been referred to by colleagues. We have also seen camps for displaced people being purposely attacked, individuals being kidnapped and homes being burned. So what to do? We have to maintain the political profile of Sudan. There is such a strong moral case; we all know that. There is also a strong security case, regionally and globally. We also know that, of the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children coming to our country, the highest number are from Sudan. We must maintain pressure for a ceasefire. We must work with the African Union. We must work with the EU-convened consultative group on Sudan. We must put pressure on those who deny famine, deny atrocities and refuse to engage with those processes. We must do more as the penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council. I know that my hon. Friend the Minister is committed to that, as are the broader ministerial team. We must ensure that perpetrators are held to account. Above all, we must act with urgency. We have already heard that Sudan is now moving to the rainy season. That, coupled with the appalling behaviour of all warring parties in restricting access to aid, will make the situation even worse. I will end with a personal story—so many Members have told such stories about this situation. I met some of those who had fled from violence in Sudan when I was in South Sudan. At the camp of Bentiu, I met people who had fled. They were the only members of their family to have survived. Their siblings had died while trying to walk through floodwater. They had died because of exposure. They had died because of diarrhoea. They had died because they did not have enough food to eat. They had died because they had been killed by warring parties. They had been abducted by warring parties. That is happening time and again, and it is happening while the international community is failing to act.

• 15 Jul 2025 · SEND Provision: South-east England · Hansard source

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  I sure that, like me, the hon. Member has taken up many cases with her local education authority on behalf of parents and children. I have not heard a single parent or child say to me that the current system is working; I keep hearing them say that the system is broken. The Government have been clear that a legal right to additional support for SEND children will be maintained, but that we have to reform the system. Surely she agrees with that?