Tag: Mohammad Yasin

Mohammad Yasin – 2024 Speech on the Economy, Welfare and Public Services

The speech made by Mohammad Yasin, the Labour MP for Bedford, in the House of Commons on 22 July 2024.

It is a pleasure to speak in support of the King’s Speech under a Government committed to putting country before party to improve lives in this country. That is what I pledged to the people of Bedford and Kempston, whom I thank for putting their faith in me again to work hard for them and to restore their faith in politics as a force for positive change.

The last Government reduced our public services to a shadow of their former selves. In 2019 a study jointly funded by Bedford borough council and the NHS found that Bedford borough was 40% under-provided for in the primary care estate, despite a rapid growth in population since 2011. HMP Bedford has been in and out of special measures, so I am pleased that the Government have already taken action to improve the crisis in prisons.

I am also pleased to see early priority given to strengthening community policing by increase numbers of officers and giving them greater power to deal with the antisocial behaviour that blights our communities. I hope this Government succeed where the last Government failed in implementing a fairer funding formula for Bedfordshire police. Wrongly funded as a rural force, it is one of the lowest-funded forces in the UK despite a £10 million year-on-year increase to £156 million for 2024-25.

The housing crisis is causing untold misery to many of my constituents, so I am pleased that building houses will be a priority for our Government. It is indefensible that I know of parents who are beginning the summer holidays living in hotel rooms without access even to a fridge or a microwave to prepare food for their children because no suitable social housing properties are available. Even food bank vouchers are not helping when basic staples such as UHT milk cannot be kept fresh once opened.

More than 15,000 children and 17,000 adults are on waiting lists for mental health treatment in the area covered by the NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes integrated care board. For years the NHS provider has had the capital funds to bring in desperately needed in-patient mental health facilities, but the previous Government consistently refused to provide the capital expenditure cover so that we could have those facilities in Bedford. I hope the new Government’s plan to get the NHS back on its feet includes an overhaul of how new projects are funded, because the existing capital departmental expenditure limits are not working.

Many of my constituents will be very happy to see planned legislation to bring rail back into public ownership and to reform bus services and franchises, including by allowing local control and supporting public ownership, but one of the most significant transport issues in my constituency is East West Rail. Bedford is uniquely adversely impacted by the East West Rail project, because the preferred six-track route requires the demolition and blighting of homes. Residents have been in limbo for more than five years in unsellable homes. The proposed planning and infrastructure Bill will speed up planning decisions for major infrastructure and house building and seek to reform compulsory purchase compensation rules to ensure that the compensation paid to landowners is fair. The statutory consultation stage is imminent, and I hope the Government will listen to the concerns expressed by my constituents and will not leave people in limbo while decisions are made without their knowledge, as has happened before. If we want to restore faith in politics, we have to ensure that our communities come with us on plans to affect their lives.

The Universal Studios plan to build a park near Kempston is exciting, and I look forward to working with the Government to make sure we get this potentially huge investment opportunity for Bedford and Britain over the line.

August 16, 2024
Mohammad Yasin – 2023 Parliamentary Question on Access to GPs

The parliamentary question asked by Mohammad Yasin, the Labour MP for Bedford, in the House of Commons on 24 January 2023.

Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)

What steps he is taking to help improve access to GPs.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Barclay)

We recognise that increased demand has had an impact on GP services. That is why we are investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million GP appointments by 2024.

Mohammad Yasin

There is a clear failure to invest in critical infrastructure across the primary care estate, for example, in modernising in-patient mental health services and GP hubs. To make matters worse, Government bureaucracy is holding up capital funding allocations. My constituents deserve better community care and hospitals need relief, so when will the Government finally release the funding to build the facilities desperately needed in Bedford and Kempston?

Steve Barclay

We have literally just heard in this questions session from my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North (Eddie Hughes) about the investment the Government are making in infrastructure across the NHS. That is why we have also, alongside the investment we are making in primary care, invested in the new hospitals programme, as part of this Government’s commitment to the NHS estate.

Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)

Since the beginning of January, Gosport patients have learnt that one of our GP practices is threatened with closure, while another is about to merge with an already very subscribed group of practices. Partners are retiring, with no replacements. Will the Secretary of State confirm what he is doing to ensure that my constituents can access a GP? Will he please meet me to discuss this issue?

Steve Barclay

My hon. Friend raises an important point, and we are investing over a fifth more than in 2016, as part of our wider investment programme. I am very keen to work with her on the role of her ICB. It was set up operationally last summer, and its role is to commission primary care services for the community and to assess the needs of her Gosport constituents. I am very happy to work with her and her ICB on the issues she raises.

Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)

Hull has the second highest ratio of GPs to patients in the country. Even though GPs see 46 people a day on average, it is clear that demand for their services outstrips supply. Of course the Labour Government will have a plan to resolve this, but in the meantime will the Secretary of State look at giving women direct access to specialist nurses and services, such as endometriosis or menopause specialists, to prevent them from having to go via their GP each time they need renewed treatment and updated medication?

Steve Barclay

First, that is exactly what the women’s health strategy is doing through designing women’s health hubs. It is exactly why we are appointing a wider portfolio of roles into primary care. The hon. Lady says that Labour has a plan, but Labour’s plan is to divert £7 billion out of primary care property, which will not improve services for women and will actually impede the ability to deliver exactly the sort of services she is calling for.

Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)

Thornton Cleveleys will see a 17% increase in new patients registering for primary care in the next five years, exceeding the physical capacity. Cost-effective solutions have been found, but the obstacle is the integrated care board, which keeps changing its mind as to whether money is or is not available. The clock is ticking on the need for this new capacity. Will the primary care Minister meet me to resolve this impasse and get the ICB to sort its act out?

Steve Barclay

My hon. Friend brings welcome transparency to the issue. The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Neil O’Brien) was listening intently, and is nodding his head about meeting him to discuss it.

January 25, 2023
Mohammad Yasin – 2022 Parliamentary Question on Increasing Exports

The parliamentary question asked by Mohammad Yasin, the Labour MP for Bedford, in the House of Commons on 15 December 2022.

Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)

What steps she is taking to increase exports.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Andrew Bowie)

Boosting exports is at the forefront of this Government’s agenda. I am pleased to say that UK exports were worth nearly £760 billion in the 12 months to the end of October 2022—that was an increase of £57 billion, once adjusted for inflation. Our Export Support Service has received more than 11,800 inquiries since its launch in October 2021, providing call-backs to customers and referring companies to other Department for International Trade services more effectively, to support them on their exporting journey.

Mohammad Yasin

The UK trade performance is the worst on record. Lost output is estimated at £100 billion a year. With such an appalling record, it is hardly surprising that the Government are making false claims to have secured £800 billion in new free trade deals when most post-Brexit trade deals are just roll-overs. Businesses in Bedford, big and small, are overburdened with red tape. Will the Minister explain how businesses in my constituency can improve growth and trade with the biggest trading bloc in the world?

Andrew Bowie

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question, but I am afraid that what he says is simply not true: the Japan deal was not a roll-over, and neither were those with Australia and New Zealand; the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership discussions we are in right now will not lead to a roll- over; and a deal with India, where my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has just returned from, will not be a roll-over. The hon. Gentleman talks about the EU, so I am afraid I am going to have to repeat what I said earlier: trade with the EU in the year up to June was up by about 18% and worth £652.6 billion. We are committed to growing our exports around the world and supporting British exporters to get out there and sell fantastic British goods and services into new markets, but we are also committed to continuing to sell into the EU and we continue to do so very effectively indeed.

Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con)

Farmers in my constituency —I remind the House that I am one—have expressed concerns about ensuring that agricultural interests are adequately taken into account in the upcoming free trade agreement with Canada and the trans-pacific trade agreement that the Minister refers to. I welcome him to his place; will he please invite the Secretary of State to meet me and other colleagues representing agricultural constituencies to discuss those concerns?

Andrew Bowie

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question and for bringing to my attention that it will also be a new agreement between Canada and ourselves, which I forgot to mention in my earlier answer. We are pursuing an ambitious and comprehensive free trade agreement with Canada that builds on our existing trading relationship, already worth £23 billion. We have been clear that the new agreement must work for British exporters, including those in our agriculture and food and drink industries. That includes maintaining our high animal welfare and food safety standards for farmers in Ludlow and across the UK.

Dame Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)

According to a recent report by the Social Market Foundation, while world goods exports were 7.9% higher by mid-2022 than they were at the end of 2019, the UK’s goods exports were 21% lower. “Could do better” would be a kind end-of-term report. Will the Minister now commit to a recommendation from the Institute of Directors to monitor and publish the impact of Government assistance from the Department’s teams—both overseas and UK- based—to assess their effectiveness and inform improvements so that all businesses get the best possible support for their exporting needs?

Andrew Bowie

This Department and, in fact, this entire Government are committed to growing our exports. We are going to export our way to growth and, in the 12 months to December 2022, trade was worth £748 billion. We are rolling out our export support service, making export champions more visible and more available across all nations and regions of this United Kingdom. We are committed to working with small and medium-sized enterprises to get them into exporting and we are supporting those companies that export already. We are driving up exports from this country and our new independent trade policy—something that, if the Labour party had its way, we would not have in the first place—allows us to do just that.

December 17, 2022
Mohammad Yasin – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Mohammad Yasin, the Labour MP for Bedford, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

Watching the family rushing to the bedside of the gravely ill Queen yesterday will have brought back traumatic memories for many of us who have received the heart-stopping call with news of the imminent death of a loved one. As we remember the Queen’s 70 years of dedication and loyal service, we first pay our respects to a grieving family; they have lost a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother and a friend who was very special—and so has our country.

This is a profoundly sad moment for the UK, the Commonwealth and the world. Our Queen Elizabeth II is an icon throughout the world, who makes our nation proud. She earned our respect and embodied all that is good about public service, duty, fortitude and diligence. Her reassuring presence, her dignity and constancy, especially in times of discord, bound us in a way that we may only be about to understand. She has been a role model for the ages. I pay tribute to her remarkable life’s work; the legacy she leaves and the lives she has touched will echo through the ages.

It was a delight to see our community come together for the jubilee celebrations. The outpouring of love was heartfelt and enduring. The days and months ahead will be very difficult. May we come together in peace, kindness and respect as we remember our Queen and prepare for the next chapter in our nation’s history. On behalf of the people of Bedford and Kempston, thank you, Ma’am, and long live the King.

September 10, 2022
Mohammad Yasin – 2022 Speech on the HM Passport Office Backlog

The speech made by Mohammad Yasin, the Labour MP for Bedford, in the House of Commons on 14 June 2022.

Passport delays are causing immense stress to my constituents. This problem was predictable, but the Government completely failed to plan properly for the surge in applications when borders reopened. The Prime Minister will not admit that there is a problem and cannot even say how long it is taking for passports to be processed. It seems to be an unlucky dip of four, six or 10 weeks, but far too many of my constituents are waiting even longer than that.

A mother wrote to me a month ago to ask for my help on her son’s passport after receiving no response from the Passport Office. After weeks of chasing the new passport, she was advised that HMPO had lost her documents and that they would need to apply and pay for a lost passport and start the process again. After more weeks of waiting, my constituent chased the Passport Office again only to discover that it had entered the wrong details on the system. My constituent was exasperated when the call handler thought it was funny—the date of birth that they had entered would have made my constituent 600 years old. The HMPO advised that it would fast-track the application, but that did not happen.

My team had to travel to Parliament to raise a number of cases with action teams in Portcullis House, but the flaw in that system—other than the inconvenience and expense of my caseworkers having to travel to Parliament to escalate cases—is that the MP engagement team do not appear to have a full overview of all actions that have been taken on a case, including any notes added by the Portcullis House team. That means that caseworkers are unable to follow up on any action that the Portcullis House team has committed to without travelling to London again. I hope the Minister will look at fixing that. Despite the best efforts of my team, my constituent had to cancel the flights that she had booked to pick up a family member’s ashes and was absolutely devastated to miss the memorial service. She finally received her son’s passport on 7 June—nearly 13 weeks after the application. My constituents should not have to deal with the stress and incompetence of a service for which they pay the Government a lot of money.

Missing significant family occasions during the pandemic was tragic but understandable. It really is disgraceful that it is still happening because of a failed passport system. The Government are desperate to point the finger at civil servants. The Passport Office has not covered itself in glory, but there is much more going on here. The Government want us to believe that a hitherto hard-working group of individuals have suddenly and for no apparent reason decided to stop doing their jobs properly. Nothing seems to be working under this Government, whether it is getting a GP appointment, a visa, access to courts, a dental appointment, or a driving licence. Nothing is working properly. If the public are sick of the appalling delays and errors with HMPO, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is now just waiting for the Prime Minister to cut its staff by a reported 90,000.

The common denominator in all these failings is this Government’s mismanagement, underachievement and incompetence. I have no confidence that any of this will be sorted out before the summer holiday rush starts. This is where the impact of this Government’s policies will be revealed for all to see, as there will be chaotic delays, queues and frustrations at passport control and customs. The Government should sort it out now.

June 15, 2022