One Day in Parliament

As I went to bed on Tuesday night last week, my watch told me I had just hit 20,000 steps, and only 5,000 of those were from a run that I had squeezed in first thing. 

The 20,000 steps were a result of having voted ten times, attended four events dotted  around the Parliamentary Estate, and taken part in two debates in Westminster Hall. 

So, this week, a quick round of up one afternoon in Parliament.

Voting

We were voting on two pieces of legislation that had been returned to the Commons having been amended by the House of Lords. One is about increasing Employer National Insurance Contributions, and the other was the GB Energy Bill. Voting in Parliament is a time consuming business. For every vote we MPs file through either the ‘Aye’ or the ‘No’ voting lobby. We both tap an electronic pass in the lobby to register our vote, but are also manually counted. Then the electronic and manual votes have to be cross matched, before the result is announced back in the Chamber. This all takes about 15 minutes per vote. You can imagine that if you do this ten times, that takes a decent chunk of time. Whilst it might be time consuming, it is also a chance to catch up with colleagues, and if you are lucky, it is the best time to bend the ear of a government minister who can otherwise prove to be elusive to track down. 

Events

During a day that Parliament is sitting there are many receptions and meetings going on. They are on any and every subject, and it is up to each MP to work out which events are the most important ones for them to attend. 

On Tuesday, five events were in my diary during the early afternoon. To give you an idea of the breadth of topics that get discussed, they were on Artificial Intelligence in the NHS, Learning Disabilities and Autism Awareness Month, an RSPCA event on responsible dog ownership, the charity Dyscover which supports people with a type of dementia called Aphasia, and a reception on regenerating local news in the UK. I managed to get to all of those except the one on local news, as a ‘division’ (voting) bell went off just as I was heading there. 

Debates

There were two debates that were disrupted by those ten votes. 

The first was about getting financial support for parents whose child has a serious illness. This is part of a campaign by the charity It’s Never You who want parents whose child has received a diagnosis of a serious illness to get immediate financial support. I have previously spoken in Parliament about Teddy and his parents Kat and Alaistair from Hassocks who strongly support this campaign. It was good to be able to speak about another Mid Sussex family who have also found themselves in difficult financial circumstances when faced with caring for a very sick child. The government response was not what we wanted to hear but 

I know that more pressure is being planned to make ministers think again.

The second debate was about construction standards for new build homes. I have long argued that for villages and towns to get behind the need for new housing, it is vital that what is eventually built is properly constructed to high standards. It makes me really angry when new build homes are shoddily constructed, causing years of misery to their new occupiers, who have often spent years dreaming of getting a decent home of their own. What was clear from the debate is that across the country, too many developers are failing to deliver decent quality homes. This is simply not acceptable.

Worth listening to

On the recommendation of one of my team members, I am currently listening to this interview with Secretary of State for Science Innovation and Technology (and Hove MP) Peter Kyle. It’s really moving, and I think, very sincere - Kyle-Campbell-Stewart.    

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,

Alison

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