I think serving on a select committee is one of the most important things a backbench Member of Parliament can do.
The committees specialise in different areas. Some cover the work of each government department to look at the policies, spending and administration of the department. Others have cross departmental remits, such as the Public Accounts and Environmental Audit committees.
Each committee has a minimum of 11 members. They are cross party, with the number of MPs from each party broadly in line with the proportion of members from that party in the whole of the House of Commons.
Committees decide on what policy areas they wish to study and run detailed inquiries, gathering written and oral evidence from organisations, experts, researchers and members of the public on this topic before drawing the committee’s conclusions into detailed reports. Committees make recommendations to government for actions, which are often powerful ways to bring about change.
MPs are elected on to committees by their peers, and as there are only a small number of MPs on committees, most MPs do not sit on any. I am currently serving on the Education Select Committee and the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee.
From time to time, committee members will make visits, either in the UK or overseas as part of their work. The Energy Security and Next Zero committee is doing an in depth inquiry into meeting the UK’s long term energy needs. The inquiry is called “Keeping the Power On”.
This week, I joined three other committee members to see Hinkley Point C in Somerset. This is Europe’s largest building site and the first nuclear power station to be built in the UK for 30 years. It will produce enough electricity for 6 million homes. Eleven thousand people are currently working on site.
Walking around the massive site, we discussed the logistics of delivering this hugely complex project as well as nuclear safety, environmental issues, skills and training, costs and construction methods. We also visited its neighbour Hinkley B, which is now being decommissioned at the end of its forty six year life. Delivering a new generation of nuclear power will be crucial for our future energy requirements.
Further west, in Cornwall, we went to the UKs first deep geothermal energy plant. Here they have drilled five kilometres deep to lay a specialist steel pipe into a natural fissure in the hot quartz rock. This will extract the water which has been heated naturally to 1800C to dive a power turbine and generate electricity. The water from deep underground has also been found to have a very high concentrate of Lithium which can be extracted to make batteries, reducing our reliance on imports for this critical mineral and this contributing to our energy security.
We also visited a very remote, isolated hamlet a long way off the mains gas network. Residents have been trialling using Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) produced from food and plant waste in their domestic boilers instead of kerosene oil. Many of them told us how they have found this to be more efficient, warmer and odourless. HVO is also being trialled as sustainable aviation fuel by the airline sector.
In the House of Commons, I spoke in the Chamber about Children’s Online Safety. There have been increasing calls for child safe phones. I am considering introducing a new law via a private members bill to help make this happen.
I also spoke in the debate on Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Its measures are largely directed at protecting children and young people. I therefore wrote to all the secondary schools in Chelmsford to ask their views. The young people sent me extremely detailed thoughts and had looked into a wide range of issues of the proposed policy. They did not all agree, but having gone through all the pros and cons, the majority of them backed the proposals and gave compelling reasons for it.
I am always wary of introducing new bans on products, as personal choice and freedom should be treasured, However, given the compelling arguments set out by the young people of Chelmsford, and the fact that it is young people who will be affected by this, I voted for the Bill.
This week it is a year since the war started in Sudan. In Westminster, as chair of the All Party Group for Sudan, I brought together members of the Sudanese diaspora, experts, the World Food Program and other aid organisations, ministers and diplomats.
Food is being used as a weapon of war. Over eight million people have been displaced, around 20 million are in dire need of humanitarian aid, nearly a million children are malnourished. It has been described as being on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades. In parts of the country there has been systemic ethnic cleansing of communities. It has been described as the forgotten war and peace is desperately needed.
Many turn a blind eye towards this conflict seeing it an isolated, domestic war. They are wrong to do so. One side of the fighting armies started the conflict with close ties to Russia’s Wagner group and has had arms from the UAE, the other side is receiving regular shipments of Iranian made drones into Port Sudan on the Red Sea. This are similar drones to those sent by Iran to attack Israel and which Russia is using in Ukraine.
The geopolitical risks of this instability spreading further from the Middle East across the continent of Africa are considerable and would impact on global migration, global trade and security. Please spare some time to think of the millions of innocent people caught in this conflict.
