Chris Vince MP: speeches

Speeches

• 25 Feb 2025 · Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I had the opportunity to visit Harlow College during National Apprenticeship Week, and I really agree with the points that my right hon. Friend is making. Does she agree that if we are to achieve the new homes targets that we really want to achieve and get people off the streets and into those homes, we need to train those apprentices now and that Skills England can be part of that future?

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister’s statement. This extra support will make a huge difference to residents in my constituency of Harlow. One of the issues with living in a post-war new town is that all the houses were built at roughly the same time, so the issues of insulation all appear at roughly the same time. At this morning’s crisis summit, which I and the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) attended, there was a strong feeling that cross-departmental communication is key to ensuring that funding gets to the people who need it the most. Does the Minister agree?

• 24 Feb 2025 · Crown Estate Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that removing these outdated restrictions on the Crown Estate will allow a greater return for the public purse and benefit all our constituents across the country, including her own in Wolverhampton and mine in Harlow?

• 24 Feb 2025 · Police Funding: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  Like Gloucestershire police, Essex police is receiving additional funding this year; in fact, we are getting increased funding of £27 million. Despite that, the front desk at Harlow police station is under threat. Does the Minister agree that given the additional funding, police services in Harlow in Essex should be increasing not decreasing, and that any proposals not to do so are down to historical underfunding by the previous Government?

• 13 Feb 2025 · LGBT+ History Month · Hansard source

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  I was not going to intervene on that point, but I was reminded of my Uncle Stephen who sadly passed away in the ’90s following a positive HIV diagnosis and I wanted to take this opportunity to mention him in this place. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you. Does the Minister agree that it is so important that we end the stigma around HIV to support more people, so that people like my Uncle Stephen do not have their lives ended prematurely?

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Can the Secretary of State outline the benefits that this Bill will have for my constituents in Harlow? I am thinking in particular of residents with multiple prescriptions who struggle to quickly have the data at their fingertips.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Arbitration Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  It is clear from what my hon. Friend is saying that the Bill is welcomed by the legal sector. What engagement has he had with the legal sector and relevant stakeholders?

• 11 Feb 2025 · Terms and Conditions of Employment · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that these changes will not only support parents who are going through a really difficult time but will also be good for employers? By showing that they are supporting their employees to return to work with these additional rights, this will be good for employers in the long term, too.

• 11 Feb 2025 · Terms and Conditions of Employment · Hansard source

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  The shadow Minister talks about targets, but was it not his own Government that got rid of the targets for A&E waiting times, and then failed to meet their lowered targets?

• 11 Feb 2025 · Mental Health Services · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his continued commitment to supporting mental health in this country. Does he also recognise that mental health involves supporting NHS frontline staff? I had the wonderful opportunity of spending time with the East of England ambulance service on Saturday morning. They work incredibly long hours and work incredibly hard. Obviously, we need to think about their mental health as well.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Financial Education · Hansard source

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  I can see the hon. Gentleman was a model student. We have to recognise the way the school system currently works. If young people think there will not be an exam on a subject, they do not think that subject is measurable. Equally, if teachers do not see that something is going to be measurable in an Ofsted inspection, it will be moved down the list of priorities. We have to recognise that a lot of teachers have a lot on their plates. If we want financial education to be on the top of the plate—the cherry on the top, perhaps—we need to ensure that it is measurable, accountable and taken seriously. I do not believe that bolting financial education on to the maths curriculum will make that happen; I would much prefer it to be a bespoke subject. I have rambled on enough but hopefully I have made my point.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Financial Education · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) and my hon. Friend the Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove) for securing this debate. I can tell my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Mr Charters) that a 20p coin is heptagonal. I support the need for further financial education in schools, but as Members may have sensed from my poker face earlier, I have a few caveats. Please take them as constructive, rather than destructive. Having worked for a homelessness charity, I know that people cannot budget their way out of poverty, but this conversation is not just about budgeting. It is about the wider views and ideas on financial education. Members on both sides of the House have recognised the power of teaching young people about some of these pitfalls and scams, such as the impact of turning to payday loan sharks when times are tough. It is not about telling young people how they have to live their lives or what they have to do, but about providing awareness of the dangers that they face. As many hon. Members will know, because I mention it in almost every speech I give, I used to be a teacher. I was a secondary school maths teacher for 15 years, teaching young people from year 7 to year 13, including teaching A-level maths and further maths, so I taught maths up to degree level. I absolutely love trigonometry. Wait until you get to further maths trigonometry, and sine and cosine rules, Madam Deputy Speaker—I can tell you, it is brilliant. I also specialise in statistics, strangely enough, despite my engineering degree. There is a misapprehension that the ability to teach maths equates—excuse the pun—to an ability to teach finance. If we were having the ordinary to and fro that we normally see in the Chamber, I would defend myself by pointing out that I can read a book, but I cannot teach English literature. Finance and maths both include numbers, but history and English both include words and they are different subjects. When I chat to my Conservative friend—he is the reason I am in this place—we have very animated discussions about education. I once said to him, “What do you think is the most important skill for a teacher?” He said, “Well, discipline, and the ability to get marking done on time.” He came up with a whole list of things, but I said to him, “The one thing you have not mentioned is the ability to explain things clearly—surely that is the most important skill for a teacher.” I could teach the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham how to do compound interest, which comes up on the maths curriculum, but if I were asked to teach him how pensions work, I would struggle. That means not that I do not know how pensions work, but that I have not been taught the skills to teach that to somebody else. People do not naturally have the ability to explain things; they have to be trained in that skill. I hope what I am saying, in a roundabout way, is seen as constructive, not critical. If we believe in financial education— [ Interruption. ] It is just like being back at school—put the phone in the box, Minister. You don’t have to really— [ Laughter. ] If we believe that teaching financial education is important in schools, then it has to be taught properly. The hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham correctly said that measures were brought through this place over 10 years ago, but the subject is not truly being taught in schools in the way that we would like it to be. I would like it to be a distinct, bespoke subject. At worst, it could be a module taught as part of a subject like business studies or economics—my wife is an economics teacher, so she will love me for that suggestion—rather than adding to the already extensive maths curriculum. I do not think it would be feasible to add financial education to the maths curriculum or that that would have the outcome that the House wants to see. The hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham talked about the importance of financial education being measurable, and I could not agree more. One of my biggest frustrations as a maths teacher—have I got time, Madam Deputy Speaker? I will not go on a big story—was when a student would say to me, “Is this going to be in the exam?” That was frustrating because I genuinely love maths. I wanted to teach people that a 2 +b 2 =c 2 , not because it was going to come up in the exam but because it is truly interesting.

• 5 Feb 2025 · English Devolution and Local Government · Hansard source

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  I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for her statement. Does she agree with me, as Conservative-led Essex county council does, that these plans will make local government in Essex clearer and more efficient, but also more accountable? It will mean that we can finally take to task the people who are to blame for the dreaded potholes that plague my constituency.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Police Grant Report · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Lady recognise, as I do, that the previous Government’s cuts to policing have led to a void of experience in community policing? We need to get that experience back, but that, sadly, will take time.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Police Grant Report · Hansard source

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  Will the shadow Minister give way?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Police Grant Report · Hansard source

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  Will the shadow Minister give way?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Police Grant Report · Hansard source

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  I join the Minister in thanking the hard-working police officers and police community support officers in Essex. Last week, the Conservative police, fire and crime commissioner threatened to get rid of all 99 Essex PCSOs, who do incredibly hard work supporting my community of Harlow. Does the Minister welcome the fact that the PFCC has U-turned on that, and will she recognise the £27 million in extra funding for Essex police?

• 4 Feb 2025 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his statement, and I thank every Member on both sides of the Chamber who has shared their personal stories. I was nine years old when I lost my grandmother, Grace, to cancer. That was a long time ago, but it still has a profound effect on me. Does the Minister agree that early detection is vital for survival rates? In particular, I emphasise the point about the importance of ensuring that women are taken seriously when they visit their GP. I thank my constituent Sir Rod Stewart for the support he gave to the radiography department at Princess Alexandra hospital. Does the Minister agree that this national cancer plan will mean that we do not have to rely on the good will of rock legends such as Rod Stewart to support everyone in our society?

• 3 Feb 2025 · School Accountability and Intervention · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her statement, particularly considering the awful news she had to convey to this House. As a former teacher, I saw at first hand the damage that high-stakes single-word Ofsted judgments had on teachers and headteachers not just in my constituency of Harlow, but across Essex. I welcome this Government’s focus on raising standards in our schools, but does she recognise that under the previous Government there was far too much focus on stick rather than carrot when it came to supporting teachers? Any change to the Ofsted framework needs to support our hard-working teachers, whose mental health and wellbeing are rock bottom at the moment.

• 3 Feb 2025 · AstraZeneca · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that the Chancellor’s announcement last week of investment in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor shows very clearly that the Government see a bright future for life sciences in the United Kingdom, and will he forgive me for giving a brief plug to a post-war new town—my constituency of Harlow—which would very much like to be part of that future?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Schools · Hansard source

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  Thank you for your chairmanship today, Ms Jardine. I sincerely thank the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth) for securing the debate, and for her passionate and powerful opening remarks. The hearts of everyone in this Chamber go out to her constituent’s family. That was an unbearable thing to have happened, and the hon. Lady is right that, sadly, it was not an isolated incident; unfortunately, across the country, incidents like that happen far too often. I want to refer to an incident that happened at a school in my Harlow constituency, Pemberley academy, on 17 September 2023. A car, breaking the 30 mph speed limit, came around a corner far too quickly, came off the road and went straight into the perimeter fence of the school. Fortunately, that happened on a weekend; if it had happened on a weekday, there would have been severe casualties, because it took place where the parents and their children line up to get into school. Despite a petition led by the teachers at the school and signed by all the parents and local residents—including one local councillor at the time—nothing has been done to remedy the situation. This is not a political criticism—I recognise that Essex county council wants to do more—but there is so much red tape that it takes too long for communities and community groups, such as those mentioned by the hon. Lady, to make the changes that they want in their communities. I hope that a benefit of the English devolution Bill will be that power is given back to local communities, so that they have a greater say on what changes they can make to tackle this issue. I want to add something positive and pay tribute to the work done by Essex county fire and rescue. The hon. Lady mentioned the importance of education, although she is right that education alone is not everything. We recognise that, with all the will in the world, children—especially young children, when we talk about primary schools—are not always going to look both ways and use the techniques that we have mentioned. I pay tribute to the work of Essex county fire and rescue. Its FireBreak scheme at Harlow fire station teaches young people how to be fire officers and looks at road safety as well. It has visited Harlow college and other educational institutions in Harlow to talk about road safety education. It is important that you can never be too young or too old for road safety education. Although we often talk about how important it is to teach young ones, the hon. Lady made the point that teenagers and older children can be distracted too. I welcome this debate and the ongoing conversation with the Minister and shadow Minister, who will be bored of me talking about this topic, because I spoke on it yesterday as well. We need to look at how we can give power back to local communities who know best how to ensure that the areas around their schools are safe.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Airport Expansion · Hansard source

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  My local airport, Stansted, is a huge employer for residents in my constituency, and it is has led the way in developing sustainable aviation fuel. Does the Minister agree that sustainable aviation fuel is vital to achieving our decarbonisation targets?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Young Drivers · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. Before I start, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) for her incredibly moving story, particularly her story about Harvey. The hearts of everyone in this Chamber today will go out to Harvey’s family for what must have been an absolutely terrible ordeal. Sadly, one does not have to go far in my constituency of Harlow to see signs of a road traffic incident—a damaged traffic island, a crushed crash barrier, a single bunch of flowers or a football scarf tied to a lamppost. I also agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury about the issues on rural roads. Like previous speakers, my constituency is made up of urban areas, Harlow, and rural areas, such as Roydon. I have met the Roydon community speed watch team to talk about the issues they face; I will go into some of my suggestions as to how we can solve those if I have time. In 2022, there were a total of 228 casualties in Harlow, two of which were fatalities and 51 were life-changing serious injuries. There have been over 1,000 incidents since 2018. I recognise that I do not have a lot of time, but I will briefly mention the two young gentleman who I had the pleasure to teach and who I mentioned in the Chamber a few weeks ago. The impact of losing someone so young is huge for those families and for everyone who knows and cares about them. Later in the week, there will be a debate about road safety around schools, which I look forward to taking part in, but I agree with what hon. Members have said about education. I will finish by mentioning my pet peeve—I am sure many campaigners in the room will agree—that when an issue of road safety is raised with the relevant authority, it takes so long to get the necessary road safety interventions in place. I ask the Minister to give that some consideration.

• 27 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T9. Students at Sir Frederick Gibberd college in Harlow have been taught in marquees and portacabins for over a year after the previous Government wasted £29 million on a building that has since been deemed unsafe. What consideration will the Department give to support SFG college?

• 24 Jan 2025 · Unity Contract · Hansard source

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  I think we all want to live in a world where we do not need a nuclear deterrent, but it is clear from some of the conflicts we have seen recently that that is not the world we currently live in. Does the Minister agree that the first duty of a Government is to protect the country, and will she welcome the work being done at Raytheon, which we both visited—it seems a lifetime ago, but it was actually only seven months ago—to ensure that we are manufacturing and producing defence systems in-house, rather than relying on foreign imports?