and we're going to start with premises questions and i'm going to call the member of parliament for borrowing furnace simon phelps simon number one sir prime minister mr speaker i'm sure colleagues from across the house will want to join me in wishing everyone a very happy st patrick's day i was delighted to visit northern ireland last week where i was able to thank military and emergency response teams for their brilliant work throughout the kobit 19 pandemic mr speaker this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others in addition to my duties in this house i shall have further such meetings later today thank you mr speaker uh mr speaker a decade ago gsk announced a 350 million pound investment in my constituency which would have led to a thousand jobs in 2017 they reneged on that and a few weeks ago they announced they were closing their business all together we've gone from the very real prospect of having one and a half thousand high-paying high-skilled pharma jobs in my constituency to the risk of having none by 2025 will my right-hand friend agree to meet with me and throw the weight of the government behind efforts to make sure that gsk does the right thing by my constituents and delivers for some very worried people yes prime minister i thank my honourable friend very much and i want to express my deepest sympathy to all those in albus and affected by these job losses and to say that i will certainly meet with him i believe that bioscience is one of the great growth areas uh for this country in the the future and i am determined uh that barrow uh and furness should uh take part in that uh boom along with everywhere else as well as other high technologies right let's come to the leader of the opposition kia stammer thank you mr speaker can i join the prime minister's comments about some patrick's day my thoughts and i'm sure those across the whole of the house are with the family and friends of sarah everard who will be suffering unspeakable grief there are five words that will stick with us for a very long time she was just walking home sometimes a tragedy is so shocking it demands both justice and change the stephen lawrence case showed the poison of structural and institutional racism the james bulger case made us question the nature of our society and the safety of our children now the awful events of the last week have lifted a veil on the epidemic of violence against women and girls this must also be a watershed moment to change how we as a society treat women and girls and how we prevent and end sexual violence and harassment i believe that if we work together we can achieve that and the questions i ask today are in that spirit so first does the prime minister agree that this must be a turning point in how we tackle violence against women and girls mr speaker yes i do and i associate myself fully with the uh remarks the right normal gentleman has made about the appalling murder of sarah everard i'm sure that those emotions are shared in this house and around the country and that event has triggered a reaction that i believe is wholly justified and understandable and of course we in government are doing everything that uh we can we're investing in uh the crown prosecution service trying to uh speed up the law we're changing the law on uh domestic violence and and many many other things but i think that uh he is right frankly that unless and until we have a change in our culture that acknowledges and understands that women currently do not feel they are being heard we will not fix this problem and that is what we must do we need a cultural and social change in attitudes to redress the balance mr speaker and that is what i believe all politicians must now work together to achieve kirsten can i thank the prime minister for that answer in that spirit can i turn to the practical challenges we face if we are collectively to rise to this moment the first challenge mr speaker is that many many women and girls feel unsafe on our streets particularly at night what's needed is legal protection and that's why we've called for a specific new law on street harassment and also for toughening the law on stalking both i think are absolutely vital if we're going to make meaningful change in the everyday experiences of women and girls so can the prime minister commit to take both of these measures forward mr speaker we're always happy to look at uh new proposals uh what we're already doing is introducing tougher sanctions uh on stalkers uh or that's already been uh being brought in and we're bringing in new measures uh to make the streets safer of course that's the right thing to do mr speaker last night there was a uh a bill uh before the the house on uh police crime and sentencing uh which did a lot uh to protect women and girls which did a lot to protect women and girls and it would have been good in a uh a cross-party way mr speaker to have had the support of the opposition kirsten mr speaker i'll come to last night's bill later but it did say a lot more about protecting statues than it did about protecting women but but but let me if i may given the gravity of the situation continue in the spirit so far and i thank the prime minister for his answer the next challenge practical challenge is that many many women and girls who are subjected to sexual violence do not feel confident to come forward and report what has happened to them nine out of ten don't do so we have to support we have to improve the support that's provided for victims the victims commissioner published a report last month with 32 recommendations about this this week labour produced a detailed survivor support plan and five years ago i introduced a private members bill with cross-party support for a victims law to give legally enforceable rights to victims the shadow victims minister my honourable friend from hove has tabled a similar victims bill that's before parliament now it's ready to go all it needs is political will to act so will the prime minister commit now not just to the idea of victim's law which i think he does support but to a tight timetable ideally six months or so to actually implement such a law prime minister uh as i say mr speaker we're very happy to look at uh new proposals uh from uh all sides of the house on this issue and that's why we're conducting an end-to-end uh review of the of the law and rape and how it works and uh investing in the criminal justice system to speed up cases and give women and girls the confidence that they need and i think that the point he makes about uh victims and uh their need to feel confident in coming forward is absolutely right and that's why we put 100 million pounds so far into uh the services for dealing with violence against women and girls particularly independent domestic violence advisors independent sexual violence advisers mississippi i don't pretend that these are the entire solution they are part of the solution but it is also vital mr speaker that we have long-term cultural societal change to deal with this issue thank you mr speaker i agree with the prime minister on that last point can i gently remind him that for 10 years this government has been promising a victim's law i think it's been in his party's last three manifestos it still hasn't materialized we don't promise to need more reviews consultation strategies the conversations our shadow minister is having with government constructed conversations are exactly the same conversations as i had five years ago constructive conversations we just need now to get on with it but let me press on with the the practical challenges because the next challenge is this that for many many women and girls who do come forward to report sexual violence no criminal charges abroad only 1.5 percent of rapes reported to the police lead to a prosecution put the other way 98.5 percent of reported rapes don't lead to a prosecution that's a shocking statistic i do appreciate that efforts are being made to improve the situation but can the prime minister tell us what is he going to do about this not in a few years time not next year but now yeah prime minister he's entirely right mr speaker in the sense that i i agree with him one of the first things i said uh when i became prime minister was that i believe that the prosecution rates for rape were a disgrace in this in this country and uh we need to to sort it out and yes that's why we're investing in uh confidence building measures such as uh isbn uh and it was investing in the uh in the in the cps and trying to speed up the process of the of the law to give people the confidence their cases will be heard uh in due time uh but we're also doing uh what we can to toughen the penalties for those men i'm afraid it is overwhelmingly men who commit these crimes and i think it would have been a good thing uh if last night the whole house could have voted for tougher sentences for those who commit sexual and violence offensive offences and stop uh stop people mr speaker from being released early and in that collegiate spirit i would ask him to work together with us mr speaker i was director of public prosecution for five years and spent every day prosecuting serious crime including terrorism sexual violence and rape so i really don't need lectures about how to enforce the criminal law but walking on through the system as many women and girls have to do and facing up to the challenges that we need to face up to a house as a house the next challenge is the point the prime minister just referenced and that's the sentences for rape and sexual violence because they need to be toughened let me give the house three examples john john john patrick convicted of raping a 13 year old girl he received a seven year sentence orlando and constanza convicted of raping a woman in a nightclub they received a seven and a half year sentence james reeve convicted of raping a seven-year-old girl he received a nine year sentence does the prime minister agree we need urgently to look at this and to toughen sentences for rape and serious sexual violence prime minister mr speaker wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if there was a bill uh going through the house of commons uh which did exactly that uh wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if there were measures to defend women and girls from violent and sex criminals uh tough wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if there was a bill before the house to have tougher sentences for child murderers and tougher tougher punishments for sex offenders that i think would be a fine thing um as it happens as it happens there is such a bill before the house i think it would be a great thing if the right honourable gentleman actually had voted for it uh he still has time this bill is still uh before the house he can lift his opposition they actually voted against it mr speaker on a three-line whip and i think it was crazy mr speaker he mentions the bill last night that provided for longer maximum sentences for damaging a memorial than the sentences imposed in the three cases of rape i've reheard or referred the house to all of those sentences less than 10 years i thank the prime minister i thank the prime minister for providing me with the best examples of why the priorities in this bill were so wrong and nothing in that bill would have increased the length of sentence in any of those rape cases nothing in that bill but let me try to return to the constructive spirit because i think that is demanded of all of us if this house came together on the points raised today and there's been agreement across the dispatch boxes it would make a real difference to victims of crime this week labour published a ten point plan we published a victim's law in coming days we're going to publish amendments in relation to the criminal justice system to make it work better now i don't expect the prime minister to agree with all of this and frankly i don't care if this becomes a government bill or conservative legislation all i care about is whether we make progress so will the prime minister meet me the shadow home secretary the honourable member for birmingham yardley and victims groups who've spent many years campaigning on this so that we can really and truly make this a turning point prime minister mr speaker he i'm afraid that he does uh and i'm grateful to him for uh the the collegiate speed uh the way in which he's addressing this and the way in which he's he's reaching out across the chain but i think that's entirely right in the circumstances uh but i i do think that uh he should not misrepresent uh what the bill was trying to do the average sentence for rape is already nine years nine months as he knows uh full well the the maximum sentence is is already life what we were trying to do is stiffen the sentences for a variety of offenses offenses to protect women and girls and others and that is entirely the right thing uh to do mr speaker and we will go on with our agenda delivering on other people's priorities rolling out uh more police uh seven thousand we have already investing in is version it wasn't doing our utmost to accelerate the processes the grinding processes of the criminal justice system which is he rightly says are such a deterrent to women in coming forward to complain as they as they rightly should but until we sort out that fundamental problem until women feel that they are being heard and their voices are being heard and their complaints are being addressed by society we'll we will not fix this problem and i warmly welcome uh what he suggests about wanting to fix it together and i hope that in that spirit he can bring himself to vote for the tougher sentences that we've set out [Music] just to say we're going to be a little bit careful because nobody will misrepresent each other in this house steve double thank you mr speaker can i thank the prime minister for bringing the g7 leader summit to cornwall this summer this will put cornwall front and center of the world stage as we emerge from the pandemic and give us a great opportunity to showcase all that corner has to offer not just as a great place to visit and our amazing food and drink sector but in the technologies of the future in space and renewable energy i know the prime minister shares my ambition that the g7 will leave a lasting economic legacy for the people of cornwall so to that end in light of the recent progress made on lithium extraction would he work with me to secure a gigafactory for cornwall so that we can produce the batteries and leave that lasting economic legacy and provide the well-paid jobs for the future that cornwall needs yes prime minister yes of course mr speaker i think uh cornwall is the klondike of of lithium as far as i uh i understand the matter and i'll be delighted to assist him in uh in uh locating a uh gigafactory uh somewhere near cornwall mr speaker but i don't want to i don't want to promise too much at this stage let's go to the leader of the smp ian blackford thank you mr speaker and can i wish everyone a happy st patrick's day mr speaker for people across scotland this week again exposed the tale of two governments with two very different sets of values yesterday the snp government passed landmark legislation that will put the un convention on the rights of the child into scots law putting children at the vanguard of children's rights in contrast we have a uk government that has to be shamed into providing free school meals that will clap for nurses but won't give them a fair wage and plows billions into a nuclear arsenal that sits redundant on the clyde does the prime minister understand that the scottish people are best served with a government that lives up to their values a government prime minister that prioritizes bears not bombs i think what the people of scotland need and deserve mr speaker is a government that tackles the problems of education in scotland uh that addresses itself to fighting crime and drug addiction in scotland and a government in scotland that weans itself off its addiction uh to constitutional change and constitutional argument and he seems determined to call her in the middle of a pandemic when the country is trying to move forward together seems determined and obsessed with nothing else mr speaker nothing else than breaking up the country and a reckless referendum in blackfoot in mr speaker thank you of course this is prime minister's questions the prime minister maybe just once just once might start to try and answer the question that's put down because we're talking about a tory plan to impose a 40 increase in nuclear warheads our children have the right to a future that no longer lives under the shadow of these weapons of mass destruction as the irish president said on this and patrick's day surely we need to find ways to make peace not war every single one of these weapons will be based on the clyde so can the prime minister tell us exactly when the scottish people gave him the moral or democratic authority to impose these weapons of mass destruction on our soil in scotland mr speaker the uh people of scotland contribute enormously to the health happiness well-being and security of this entire country not least through their contribution to our science our defenses our international aid and many many other ways and i'm very proud that this government is investing record sums in defense uh including maintaining our nuclear defense which is absolutely vital for our long-term security and helping thereby to drive jobs not just uh in uh in scotland but across the whole of the uk thank you mr speaker back in july last year i informed the prime minister of the need for a new hospital in doncaster sadly doncaster was not mentioned in the first 40 hospitals promised in the manifesto what the building of the further eight specialist hospitals was yet does my rather mobile friend agree with me that a new hospital will prove to the people of doncaster that this government is committed to building back better and leveling up their town prime minister my honourable friend is a fantastic advocate of doncaster he's he's right to uh to campaign in the way that he he does i wish i could uh give him uh uh you know a cut and dried yes and yes or no answer uh today but i can tell him that uh his local trust is very much in the running uh in the current open uh competition for the next eight hospitals on top of the forty and mr speaker that we're already building let's go to caroline lucas caroline thank you mr speaker the creation of a no protest zone around parliament a 266 increase from a maximum three months to 11 months imprisonment for protest organizers a direct attack on the gypsy roma and traveller community up to 10 years in prison for any offence committed by destroying or damaging a memorial and criminalizing people for taking part in protests where they ought to have known police conditions were in place would the prime minister agree that if the uk is to be a force for good in a world where democracy is in retreat as his foreign secretary is saying today it needs to start at home with the protection of the long-standing precious and fundamental right to peaceful protest that is a cornerstone of liberal democracy prime minister she is quite right to uh stick up for peaceful protest and i i understand that and i i sympathize with that uh but there are a couple of points first of all we're facing a pandemic mr speaker which we have to restrict uh alas we have to restrict human contact and although she shakes her head i think that the people of this country do understand that they do understand the restrictions that we're now under and i think we also have to strike a balance between the need to allow peaceful protest to go ahead and we do on a huge scale in this country but also to protect free speech mr mr speaker and vital parts of the uk economy thank you very much mr speaker i also want to see the fundamental right to protest protected so events such as that powerful vigil uh last saturday on clapham commas can proceed safely including covert safe but i also want to see measures so people can go about their lives get to work get to hospital without being hindered so can the prime minister reassure me that that peace and crime bill which we've been discussing today and was in the house yesterday does strike that balance whilst also taking action against the perpetrators of some of the worst crimes prime minister uh my honourable friend has perfectly summed up the balance that we're trying to to strike between allowing people in a reasonable way to go about their their daily lives but also bringing in tougher sentences for uh for child murderers tougher punishments for sex offenders and stopping the practice uh the continual practice of allowing people out early mr speaker i think that's what the people of this country uh want to see that's what they voted for uh in 2019 and i hope that the opposition can still uh can bring themselves one day to support it thank you mr speaker with the government's end-to-end rape review remaining unpublished two years after it was promised rape conviction rates having fallen to their lowest point on record and almost 90 percent of sexual harassment complaints not even reported to the police women are increasingly being left without legal recourse for sexual violence i have parliamentary privilege i can name the men who have hurt me but millions of women in this country don't even have that stuck between a criminal system where only 1.4 of reported offenses result in charges being laid and where too many survivors who speak out are pursued through the civil courts by their abusers to silence them can the prime minister advise how women are meant to get justice prime minister mrs bigger i'm i'm afraid that she's completely right and i know that she speaks for many people uh many women up and down the the country and what we need to do we can do all the things that we've we've talked about uh two men uh arguing over the dispatch box we can do all those things we can bring in um more laws uh tougher sentences uh which i hope she will uh support we can uh support independent domestic violence and sexual violence advisors all that kind of thing but we have to address the fundamental issue of the the casual everyday sexism and apathy that fails to address the concerns of women that is the underlying issue let's go to fiona bruce fiona thank you mr speaker two years ago the bishop of truro produced an interim report outlining the global phenomenon of persecution of christians as we make progress in our manifesto commitment to fully implement the true review recommendations does the prime minister join me in looking forward to our hosting the international ministerial conference on freedom of religion or belief next year and to the uk demonstrating its global leadership in defending and promoting this universal right for all prime minister i thank my honorable friend very much for everything that she's doing to campaign for freedom of religion and and belief and i'm very pleased that we're going to be holding an international conference on this uh issue uh that is exactly what uh global britain is all about it's about promoting freedom of expression freedom of belief and religion let's go to peter graham peter thank you mr speaker the prime minister refused point blank to answer the question from my honourable friend from ross guy in la cabor so i'll ask him again what is it that gives any british prime minister the moral and democratic right to impose the obscenity of an even bigger arsenal of weapons of mass murder on the people of scotland against their express will prime minister uh mr speaker i think that was a veiled attempt again uh by the uh the snp to ask for another referendum which is their uh their habitual uh refrain they they that is all they seem able uh to talk about uh democratic uh wrangling about uh democracy and uh their desire to to be separated and to break up the country i don't think that's the right way forward i think we need strong defenses that's what the people of this country voted for and that's what we're going to deliver let's go to steve bryant steve thank you mr speaker from from gloom to joy and news from the winchester for the prime minister is that the vaccination program is going really really well there are now less than 200 000 people in the whole of hampshire in the isle of wight left to do in cohorts one to nine we have the the plan plus the supply to cover them comfortably by the end of march so with my writeable friend please thank the nhs and its volunteers here for this amazing effort and as he does that could he share with us his view on what led to the disinformation and apparent abandonment of scientific evidence in certain eu member states around the oxford astrazeneca jab the prime minister i want to of course i thank the the nhs in uh in hampshire and indeed around the country for the amazing job that they're doing in rolling out the vaccination program it's been truly stunning and i think perhaps the best thing i can say about um the oxford astrozenica vaccine program is that uh i'm i've finally got news that i'm gonna have my own uh jab mr speaker very very shortly i'm pleased to uh discover i'm i don't know whether the right honourable gentleman's had his he's had it uh but but it will certainly be oxford astrazeneca that i mr speaker there's now been over 600 cases of coronavirus infections at dvla swansea since september yet ministers still refuse to meet with the pcs union to discuss ways in which workers more workers can work from home in safety before they're vaccinated so workers have now resorted to voting for strike action as a last resort to protect their families and communities so i asked the prime minister again will he now instruct ministers to engage in talks with the union to help shield vulnerable workers before vaccination or will he force a needless strike prime minister why i think needless is is the right word mr speaker and i think he should bear in mind that any strike is likely to be bad news for motorists uh where the stage now we want to have uh advancing down our roadmap out of out of lockdown and at the dvla uh any staff who uh can work from home are doing so and currently out of a workforce of of six thousand only uh five cases of covid uh currently been found and i understand that those individuals are all working from home so i frankly mr speaker i see no need for industrial action you mr speaker my kensington constituents and i have been deeply troubled by what is coming out of the grenfell inquiry with regard to the building products industry does my right honorable friend agree with me that contractors who have behaved improperly should not be used going forward for government contracts and will my right honorable friend consider a tax on the building products industry in the same way as we've done on the residential property sector as a way for partly paying for cladding remediation uh i i thank my honorable friend and i know how how much she cares about this issue and how uh deeply her constituents have been affected by the the grenfell fire and um what i can say to her i will study her her proposal for a a new tax uh on building uh materials and uh i know my right on befriend the chancellor uh will want to think about that kind of idea but we are looking at new rules to exclude uh contractors uh from government business uh where gross professional negligence has been shown mr speaker let's go to richard berger richard exactly one year ago today we were told that twenty thousand 000 coronavirus deaths would be and i quote a good outcome yet our death toll is now six times higher over a hundred thousand more people have lost their lives than that initial estimate in march last year the prime minister pontificated about taking it on the chin others acted decisively with lockdowns but the prime minister dithered and delayed with deadly consequences with the worst hopefully now behind us isn't it time for the prime minister to hold up his hands and come clean with the british public and say those deaths are on me and for that i apologize prime minister uh well mr speaker i i certainly take full responsibility for everything the government uh did and uh of course uh we mourn uh the loss of every single uh coronavirus victim uh and uh we sympathize deeply with their with their families and and their and their loved ones and am i sorry for what has happened uh to our country yes of course i'm deeply deeply sorry mr speaker and of course there will be time uh for a a full inquiry to enable us all uh to understand uh what we need to do better uh when we face these problems in the future and that is uh something i think the whole house shows let's go to dr neil hudson deal thank you mr speaker five years on from storm desmond and a year on from storm kiara sadly penrith and the border and cumbria remain in the front line for severe flooding events with climate change these catastrophes are becoming increasingly frequent and severe and the effects on communities are serious and long term can my right honourable friend reassure my constituents that at-risk communities will be supported by government both in terms of flood protection but also with the longer term support including in the important area of help for the mental health impacts of flooding prime minister uh my honorable friend makes a really good point about the mental health impacts of flooding anybody who goes to oh who's been a victim of flooding or who visits a family that's been hit by flooding will know the immense distress that flooding uh causes and that's why the nhs will get an extra 500 million pounds to address uh those issues and to give more support uh for the for the mental health needs uh that people have those twists thank you mr speaker prime minister in december 2019's election campaign you visited samantha parker at her home in darlington samantha has the rare genetic condition pku you vowed to do your utmost to get her access to the life-changing drug kuvang on the nhs i'm not responsible thank you apologies um prime minister vowed to do his utmost to get her access to the changing drug cuvan last month nice published draft guidance which would make kuvan available to children but not to adults like samantha great for children but devastating and discriminatory for adults like samantha prime minister speaking as chair of the appg on pku i now ask what action will you take to deliver on your commitment to samantha barker and make that available for her and for other adults with pku i i thank her very much for raising uh the case which i i will remember i'm glad uh that knight has now extended uh the uh the treatments availability to to children with pku uh i i clearly we need to to do more and i will i will be very happy to take it up but it's a better jenkins thank you mr speaker has my right honourable friend noted uh that the integrated review has been widely and rightly welcomed as a bold british vision for our role in the world at the same time but not in scotland of course where the nationalist administration is thinks it's more important to put indirect ii on the ballot paper at the scottish elections does he realize that they are rejecting the jobs and security that this his review guarantees in scotland because they hate the uk more than uh they want jobs for their own people prime minister um well i i'm grateful to my my rather honorable friend for his support for the integrated review um i i think that uh i it's hard to know what motivates our friends in the scottish national party but i do think that they're mistaken uh in uh in their approach to this i i think that uh were better as one uh united kingdom uh i think that we're stronger together as one united kingdom and i think the contribution of uh the people of scotland to uh the defense of our united kingdom is absolutely incredible and has been uh for centuries and uh that's what i want to maintain and i think it's a it's a it's a fine thing and they should champion it let's go to taya haley did i hear haley throughout the last year nhs staff have been working tirelessly to keep our communities healthy and safe during the pandemic mr speaker i would like to ask the prime minister why has he been economical with the truth when he says that a one percent pay increase is all the government can afford can i just say no honourable member on any side would actually mislead or lie to the house but i'm sure the premise could answer something thank you mr speaker and no i i'm grateful for your clarification because um what what we're doing is we're saying that we so value the incredible contribution of nurses to our country over the last year or more uh that we want them uh exceptionally of all the public services uh to be looked at uh for a pay increase at a time of real uh difficulty in the public finances which i think people do understand now uh that's on top of the the 12.8 increase in starting salary for nurses plus the uh the the 5 000 pounds bursary in the 3 000 pounds that we've given for a special help for uh for childcare and and other training needs and which actually are leading if he looks at the figures uh they're leading to a big increase in the number of nurses uh in in the nhs ten thousand six hundred more this year than last year more nurses in the nhs and sixty thousand more in training and when i talk to nurses what they want of course they everybody wants better paying condition i totally understand that but what they also want is an extra pair of hands next to them to give them the help and reassurance they need and that's what we're recruiting the gig thank you mr speaker recent horrific events have brought the important debate on women and girls rights into the spotlight and specifically their right to be safe and feel safe as they go about their daily lives does my right honourable friend agree that such issues need to be treated sensitively and false claims made by the labour party last night on social media about the police crime sentencing and courts bill are misleading and certainly not helpful prime minister well mr speaker i think it was it was certainly uh a a mistake and a regrettable mistake for anybody to suggest that rape had been decriminalized in in this country uh because uh because we must do everything we can to reassure victims of rape and sexual violence and get them to come forward and that is what we're doing and i also think it would be a good thing if together uh we could vote for some of the tougher sentences that we put forward in this bill and i like the collegiate spirit that uh we had earlier on i hope it could be extended to voting for the tougher sentences that we've put forward no question george thank you very much mr speaker today the welsh labour government announced a special bonus payment for nhs and social care staff in wales with the welsh government covering the basic tax and national insurance payments that most people will receive around 500 pounds will the prime minister today join me in welcoming this payment in recognition of the dedication and commitment by nhs and social care staff prime minister i i thank him and i i i do indeed recognize the amazing dedication and commitment of of nhs and social care staff who have been at the forefront of this pandemic who born the brunt of it uh in many cases personally in the in their lives and that's why i just repeat the point that i i made a little a while ago about what we're doing to recognize uh the contribution of nurses in particular alone of all uh the public sector in these very very difficult times and to say how relieved and glad i am to see the number of nurses who are now uh in trading i think there's a 34 increase in applications to be nurses this year in the country and that's great but we're going to drive it forward mr speaker we want to go as you know we have a target of 50 000 more nurses as well as 20 000 more police i've suspended the house for three minutes to enable the necessary arrangements for the next business order
2021-03-20