On behalf of the Health and Social Care Committee, it is a pleasure to present to the House our fifth report of this Parliament, which is on the subject of the first 1,000 days of life. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for this statement. We chose this subject because this period… of life is crucial for long-term health, educational outcomes and life chances, and because child health in this country is in an alarmingly poor state. As the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has stated, our children have some of the poorest health outcomes in Europe. That is why this report is so important, and why it is essential that we get this right. We know that investment in early intervention is highly cost-effective, yet we continue to see rising obesity, uneven vaccination coverage and persistent inequalities. We therefore welcome the Government’s expansion of the family hub network. However, we must be clear about the scale of the challenge those hubs are being asked to address—supporting a much broader range of children than the previous Sure Start system with fewer resources. That is why we have called on the Government to go further by ensuring access to family hubs in every community, underpinned by reliable, long-term funding. A single hub per county is simply insufficient and will leave families isolated. This must be matched by urgent action to restore the health visitor workforce, which is the backbone of early years care. Since 2015, numbers have fallen by 43%, leaving a shortfall of 5,000 posts. Caseloads remain dangerously high, sometimes exceeding 750 children. We have therefore called for a funded plan to recruit at least 1,000 additional health visitors. The wider workforce is also critical. Health visitors are not the only key professionals involved in supporting children and their parents during that first 1,000-day period—midwives, children’s nurses, general practitioners, early years practitioners, speech and language th
Hansard · 29 Jan 2026 · parliament.uk
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Judith Cummins
We now come to the Select Committee statement on behalf of the Health and Social Care Committee. Paulette Hamilton will speak for up to 10 minutes, during which no interventions may be taken. At the conclusion of her statement, I will call Members to ask questions on the subject of the statement. These should be brief …
JC
Jennifer Craft
It was a pleasure to serve under the chairmanship of my hon. Friend during our Committee’s inquiry into the first 1,000 days of life. I was particularly struck by how, at this crucial period in a child’s lifetime—for those who are not aware, the 1,000 days begins at the moment of conception and goes up until they are t…
HH
Helen Hayes
I thank my hon. Friend for her statement and the Health and Social Care Committee for all its work on this vital stage of childhood. Last year, the Education Committee published our report, “Solving the SEND Crisis”, which highlighted the following: the importance of early identification of special educational needs an…
DB
Danny Beales
I thank my hon. Friend for today’s statement and for her excellent work in chairing the Committee’s important inquiry. It is much appreciated. There is much to welcome in this report. Colleagues have already touched on a number of the measures, so I will focus in particular on vaccination. The state of vaccination rate…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank my hon. Friend for all the hard work she put into this report. It could not have been achieved without everybody on the team working so diligently. Family hubs are an incredibly valuable resource, and they deal with all the issues that she raises. The problem is that we just have not got enough of them. One per…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend raises a crucial point. These services are just not joined up. We have got young children who, from birth to two and a half years old, are not getting the health services they need. They then go into the education system and are falling behind. The strategy is just not appropriate, as has been highlighte…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend is passionate about the administration of vaccinations, and he has asked quite a lot of questions. I absolutely agree with them all, but I will focus on his questions relating to health visitors and to having more of a strategy on vaccinations. I hope that everybody present has read the report, which sta…
Digital ID15 Jan 2026
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank the Minister for coming here today to talk to us about the revised policy.
Hansard · 15 Jan 2026 · parliament.uk
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Mike Wood
(Urgent Question): To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on mandatory digital ID.
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Josh Simons
Following my appointment as a joint Minister across the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, I would like to respond to Members’ concerns about the digital ID policy. The programme has two core objectives. The first is to transform the state and make it work better for ordinary work…
NG
Nusrat Ghani
Order. I assume that the Minister is about to come to a conclusion as he has overrun his two minutes.
JS
Josh Simons
I am, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am proud that this Labour Government are building this vital public infrastructure to make Government work better for everyone.
MW
Mike Wood
The Minister read his speech beautifully, and with a straight face. In September, the Prime Minister tossed this mandatory digital ID on to the table as a classic dead cat distraction, purely to keep Andy Burnham off the front pages as the Labour party conference started. Now it is left to a junior Minister to come to …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Well, okay; I apologise. But the Minister is here today and he has given us the revised policy, with which I am delighted. I am so pleased that the Minister and the Government have decided not to make it a mandatory scheme. I have had an overwhelming number of complaints in my constituency. Going forward, areas like mi…
West Midlands Police14 Jan 2026
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Paulette Hamilton
I welcome this statement and this clarity. The findings are damning. I was born and bred in Birmingham and I am a local MP, and I know that in my community there is very little trust in the police. Does the Secretary of State agree that, in an increasingly political world, it is important that… in future all chief constables have the skills to work in this new world and that they are able to engage with all communities?
Hansard · 14 Jan 2026 · parliament.uk
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Shabana Mahmood
With permission, I will make a statement on the decision to ban the travelling fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending a game at Villa Park in November last year. The decision was taken by Birmingham city council, following the advice of the safety advisory group, which acted on a recommendation by West Midlands police…
JC
Judith Cummins
I call the shadow Home Secretary.
CP
Chris Philp
This is a shameful episode. West Midlands police had evidence that Islamist extremists based in Birmingham planned to attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. Let us call that what it is: vicious antisemitism. We cannot allow violent Islamists to impose their will on our country, yet that is exactly what West Midlands police, thr…
SM
Shabana Mahmood
Let me first say to the shadow Home Secretary that I have long and very personal experience of standing up to extremists in Birmingham, not least in the last general election campaign. I think my track record speaks for itself, and I am a woman who knows of what she speaks—clearly unlike him. He appears to be unfamilia…
CP
Chris Philp
I am talking about section 40.
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action10 Dec 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
I have always been a massive advocate for all medical and nursing staff, and I absolutely understand what a difficult job our healthcare workers do, but given that flu is running rampant across the country and most NHS staff—including resident doctors, but also nurses and other staff—are suffering at this moment, will the Secretary of… State join me in urging the leadership of the BMA and the doctors to see sense and put patients first at this difficult time?
Hansard · 10 Dec 2025 · parliament.uk
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Wes Streeting
With permission, Madam Speaker Deputy, I shall make a statement on industrial action by resident doctors. I thank you, Mr Speaker, business managers and the official Opposition for facilitating this evening’s statement. As we head into winter, our hospitals are running hot and the pressures on the NHS are enormous. Flu…
JC
Judith Cummins
I call the shadow Health Secretary.
SA
Stuart Andrew
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement, and sincerely thank him for making me aware last night of his intention to come to the House today and make a statement. Given that the next set of planned industrial action is due just a few days before Christmas, and at a worrying time when winter pre…
WS
Wes Streeting
First, I thank the shadow Health Secretary for the constructive terms on which he has agreed to work with the Government. That should give resident doctors across the country who receive their survey the confidence of knowing that, should they vote for this deal, emergency legislation will be introduced in the new year…
WS
Wes Streeting
I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. She brings considerable frontline experience to this House, having worked in the NHS and dedicated her life to it. I am pretty sure that as well as speaking for her constituents, she speaks for so many other NHS staff. I do not want to see nurse pitted against doctor, or NHS staff …
Support into Work: Health Conditions8 Dec 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
What steps he is taking to support people with health conditions into work.
Hansard · 8 Dec 2025 · parliament.uk
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Stephen Timms
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham (Dame Diana Johnson) , just mentioned our Pathways to Work guarantee, which will offer everybody with health impairments on out-of-work benefits a support conversation to work out best ne…
ST
Stephen Timms
There is a great deal of work to be done: the disability employment gap has been stuck at around 30 percentage points ever since 2010. We have talked already today about Motability, which is key for enabling many disabled people to get to work. After the changes next July, there will still be a wide range of vehicles a…
VS
Vikki Slade
I have been assisting several constituents who are deaf and need the support of British Sign Language interpreters and face-to-face appointments. There are only five BSL interpreters available to cover the whole of Dorset, and as a result people are waiting extremely long periods not only to get appointments but to get…
ST
Stephen Timms
I am sure that the hon. Lady will be interested in the recent report published by the BSL Advisory Board, which works with the Government specifically on BSL. I met members of the board last week. They produced a report recently on access to health and care support, specifically highlighting some of these issues. For e…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
A constituent of mine with severe health needs recently told me that she gained employment only after she was able to learn to drive and then secure a car through the Motability scheme. Can the Minister set out what further steps the Department is taking to ensure that disabled people with health needs receive the supp…
Restriction of Jury Trials8 Dec 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
Jury trials allow ordinary citizens to participate in the justice system—which many groups simply do not trust—ensuring community representation and transparency. Can the Minister explain how citizen involvement can be continued, so that we do not see additional miscarriages of justice as a result of influence from personal bias or external pressures that can potentially… lead to unfair outcomes?
Hansard · 8 Dec 2025 · parliament.uk
RJ
Robert Jenrick
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the accuracy of data used to justify the restriction of jury trials in relation to rape victim attrition rates and magistrates court capacity.
SS
Sarah Sackman
This Government inherited an emergency in our criminal courts. Record and rising caseloads are leaving victims and many accused who are seeking to clear their name facing agonising delays, while some defendants game the system in the hope that their accusers simply give up on justice. We inherited a system in which, qu…
RJ
Robert Jenrick
The Government are slashing jury trials under false pretences. Last week, the Justice Secretary suggested that 60% of those who report being raped are now pulling out of cases because of court delays, but Home Office statistics show that this year, only 9% of rape cases were abandoned after a charge was brought. Althou…
SS
Sarah Sackman
As I said a moment ago, not a single person who has encountered the system—not the barristers, the prosecutors, the judiciary, the court staff, the victims or the jurors; no one whom I have met—thinks it is working as it should. The shadow Justice Secretary has made a startling defence of the status quo while victims—n…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the Chair of the Justice Committee.
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC: Away Fans Ban8 Dec 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
As someone who has had the pleasure of working with the chief constable, I can say that he is a very considered man. Having said that, as an MP who represents the adjoining constituency, I was given absolutely no information about what was going on. Can the Minister assure the House that lessons will be… learned and the appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that this does not happen again?
Hansard · 8 Dec 2025 · parliament.uk
NT
Nick Timothy
(Urgent Question): To ask the Home Secretary to make a statement on the adequacy of the evidence on which West Midland police took decisions relating to the Aston Villa versus Maccabi Tel Aviv match.
SJ
Sarah Jones
Let me again acknowledge the concern and disappointment caused by the decision to ban away fans at Villa Park on 6 November . I recognise the continued strength of feeling in this House, and in the country more widely, and I welcome this opportunity to update Members on the latest developments. The House will be aware …
NT
Nick Timothy
I thank the Minister for that response, including the news of the HMICFRS report by the end of the year. The police intelligence used to justify the ban on Israeli fans from Villa Park has fallen apart, and so has the evidence given to the Select Committee by Chief Constable Craig Guildford and Assistant Chief Constabl…
SJ
Sarah Jones
I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this urgent question. I know that he will have watched proceedings at the Home Affairs Committee with interest. Of course, it will be for the Committee to draw its own conclusions. As I said in my statement, it is right that the police clarify the latest reports that we heard ove…
PP
Peter Prinsley
Does the Minister agree that at the heart of this matter is the question of the truth, and the question of whether the deliberation of the safety advisory group at Birmingham city council was compromised or prejudiced?
Income tax (charge)2 Dec 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
I welcome last week’s Budget, which finally, after 14 years of Tory neglect, puts the people of Birmingham Erdington first. On our NHS, I was delighted to hear that the Chancellor announced further efforts to shorten NHS waiting lists, including an upgrade to Stockland Green primary care centre in Birmingham Erdington. Bringing care back into… the community was always a priority for me when I worked in the NHS, and I am thrilled to see a Labour Government finally deliver it. In addition, more than 6,000 children in Birmingham Erdington will now receive access to the crucial funds they need to thrive through the lifting of the two-child benefit cap. Growing up in poverty seriously harms a child’s life chances. They are less likely to work as an adult and earn around 25% less by the age of 30 than their peers, making us all poorer in the long run. Wages have risen more in the first year of this Government than in the first decade under the Conservatives, whose austerity measures put so many into the poverty trap. When coupled with freezing train fares and prescription charges, this will lower living costs and make everyday life better for so many. Another consistent area of concern for my constituents is energy bills. Taking levies off energy bills will save families £150 on average next year, and that figure rises to £300 for many of the most vulnerable households. This is exactly the kind of direct action that people have been crying out for. This Labour Government’s mission is to renew our economy and our communities; I am pleased to see that promise being kept, and will continue holding the Government to account and fighting for a better future for everyone in Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale and south Oscott. I support this Budget wholeheartedly.
Hansard · 2 Dec 2025 · parliament.uk
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Judith Cummins
I draw the House’s attention to two minor corrections that have been made to the text of resolution 59 and the title of resolution 98. A revised version of the resolutions paper is available in the Vote Office and online. It includes a note setting out the corrections that have been made. With the exception of Front Be…
WS
Wes Streeting
I begin by addressing the British Medical Association’s reckless call for resident doctors to strike in the run-up to Christmas. That is a cynical choice, coming as flu cases surge and we enter the most dangerous time of year for hospitals, and it is completely unjustified. After a 28.9% pay rise, the Government offere…
FE
Florence Eshalomi
Does the Secretary of State agree that the hard-working staff at St Thomas’ hospital across the bridge, who deal with patients from right across the country, including many who have had surgeries and operations booked for many months, still kept the show going during the last rounds of strikes? Will he please do everyt…
WS
Wes Streeting
I can certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance, and I absolutely endorse what she says about our local hospital, which I know very well. I genuinely thank frontline NHS staff, without whom the performance and improvements we are seeing simply would not be possible. Let me turn to the substance of this debate. There…
CM
Calum Miller
The Secretary of State knows, because his Department shares responsibility for special educational needs and disabilities education, that that is a major challenge facing the young people whose opportunity he so rightly champions. How will the announcement that the Government will take responsibility for that from 2028…
Asylum Policy17 Nov 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I agree with the Government that we desperately need to tackle illegal migration. I hear that on the doorsteps, and I see it in my mail each week in Birmingham Erdington. How quickly after the changes come into force will the Government ensure that safe and legal routes are in place? That will be key… to stopping the boats. How will the Government deal with those who claim to be minors but are clearly not? That is another massive issue.
Hansard · 17 Nov 2025 · parliament.uk
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Caroline Nokes
Before I call the Home Secretary to make her statement, I am sorry that Mr Speaker has once again had to ask me to remind Ministers of the requirement in the Government’s own ministerial code that major new policy announcements should be made in this House in the first instance and not to the media. This afternoon’s st…
SM
Shabana Mahmood
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement about how we restore order and control to our borders. I do so as this Government publish the most significant reform to our migration system in modern times. This country will always offer sanctuary to those fleeing danger, but we must also acknowledge tha…
CN
Caroline Nokes
I call the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch.
KB
Kemi Badenoch
I thank the Home Secretary for advance sight of her statement, most of which I read The Sunday Telegraph. I am pleased that she is bringing forward measures to crack down on illegal immigration. It is not enough but it is a start, and a change from her previous position in opposition of a general amnesty for illegal mi…
CN
Caroline Nokes
Order. I was very generous with the time I allowed the Leader of the Opposition. I call the Home Secretary.
Black History Month23 Oct 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
Madam Deputy Speaker, will the Minister give way?
Hansard · 23 Oct 2025 · parliament.uk
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Seema Malhotra
I beg to move, That this House has considered Black History Month. I am honoured to open this debate on Black History Month, which, for the second year running, is being held in Government time. It is a chance to honour those who came before us, to celebrate their lives and their courage, and to recognise the huge cont…
JS
Jim Shannon
I commend the Minister and the Government for bringing us this debate. What the Minister said applies to my constituency of Strangford. People from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Pakistan and India contribute to the work-life and economy of Strangford, as well its culture, religion and history. I think we all recognise…
SM
Seema Malhotra
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. He describes powerfully the contribution to his community and our country of those from all backgrounds and nations.
PP
Peter Prinsley
This week, it was reported that the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam) , who is herself a descendant of Dutch Jews, and whose family lost members during the Holocaust, spoke about the desirability of creating a “culturally coherent” society, and her plan to return many UK residents to their “home”. Such rhetoric…
SM
Seema Malhotra
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. I think we are all shocked by such sentiments. I am the daughter of two people who came to the UK in the 1960s, and I think that the intervention from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) better reflects the contribution made by immigrants to this country. People must re…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Will the Minister outline what steps she is taking to ensure that equality and opportunity are at the heart of this Government’s five missions?
Mental Health and Hoarding22 Oct 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this debate on a subject that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been discussed on the Floor of the House before. I often speak of my 25 years as an NHS nurse because that experience has fundamentally shaped my understanding of the hidden struggles within… our communities, and it is from that perspective that I raise the urgent and often misunderstood issue of hoarding disorder. Many years ago, as a district nurse serving the Kingstanding community—the same community that I am now proud to represent in Parliament—I entered homes where extreme clutter was not an anomaly but a visible sign of a deep, unaddressed need. Today, we have a name for it. In 2018, hoarding disorder was formally recognised in Britain as a distinct mental health condition. It is defined by persistent difficulty in discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of value, leading to cluttered living spaces and significant distress or impairment in daily life.
Hansard · 22 Oct 2025 · parliament.uk
WJ
Warinder Juss
My hon. Friend speaks very effectively about hoarding disorder. As she has explained, it is a mental health condition in its own right, although it is often confused with obsessive-compulsive disorder. One of my constituents spoke to me about her husband, who has completely filled the living room with items that he jus…
JS
Jim Shannon
I congratulate the hon. Lady for bringing forward this issue. She is a dear friend of mine, and I always look forward to her contributions to this Chamber and Westminster Hall. I often think of a TV programme on this subject. Perhaps I did not always understand the obsessive behaviour of hoarding, but that TV programme…
RM
Rachael Maskell
I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for securing tonight’s debate. I have met York’s Community Bees, who have developed strategies for supporting people in the community. They dearly need money, because they are not only addressing mental health needs but de-risking a situation. Hoarding risks infection, infestation…
RM
Rachael Maskell
My hon. Friend is being incredibly generous with her time. Community Bees in York has helped 600 people over the past seven years. It has a lot of expertise, not just in how to sensitively support people in decluttering, but in upcycling; it makes a positive contribution by selling things on. It has sold 7,000 books, a…
ZA
Zubir Ahmed
I sincerely thank my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) , who is vice-chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, for securing this debate. I pay tribute to her for her work on that Committee, on which she has consistently championed the voices of the unheard, and for her 30 years’ s…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend raises a valuable point. I will come on to that later in my speech, but I absolutely agree that hoarding disrupts people’s lives.
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The hon. Member is right, but this is not just about a solution. A number of people in our society are living with a mental health condition, and it needs to be treated. At the moment, there are no strategies in place, but I will answer his question as I go on. I thank him for his contribution.
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Again, my hon. Friend raises a valuable point. The issue of financing is vital, but I will discuss that more as I go on. Hoarding disorder is a widespread condition affecting between 2% and 5% of the population, which equates to approximately 1.2 million to 3 million people in Britain. Let me be absolutely clear: hoard…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend makes an absolutely brilliant point. Yes, that should be part of the holistic model, but there is no model in place at the moment. It is like the wild, wild west—everybody is just doing as they see fit. That is why I secured this debate. I urge the Government to prioritise the development of national gui…
Jhoots Pharmacy15 Oct 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank the Minister for his response. Community pharmacies, such as Lodge pharmacy in Perry Common in my area, play a vital role and offer an excellent service, and that is why I am concerned when places such as Jhoots pharmacy close or, maybe, fold. The winter months are coming, and I am passionate about… winter measures. How will we ensure that our pharmacies can offer the winter vaccines needed this year if we lose large chains, such as Jhoots?
Hansard · 15 Oct 2025 · parliament.uk
EM
Edward Morello
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if he will make a statement on the adequacy of Jhoots as a pharmacy provider.
SK
Stephen Kinnock
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this important urgent question. Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. They are at the heart of our high streets and are the cornerstone of communities up and down the country. That is why this Government have given pharmacies a funding boost of almost £500 mil…
EM
Edward Morello
I would be grateful, Madam Deputy Speaker, if you could pass on my thanks to Mr Speaker for granting this urgent question. I thank the Minister for his response. The collapse of service provision in some places, the constant closures in others and the general governance at Jhoots pharmacy, which operates 150 branches a…
SK
Stephen Kinnock
I agree with everything the hon. Gentleman has said. It is completely and utterly unacceptable if a business such as Jhoots is not paying its staff. If there are indeed these reports that controlled drugs are not being handled properly, I would strongly recommend that any mishandling of drugs be reported to the General…
NG
Nusrat Ghani
I call our very own pharmacist, Sadik Al-Hassan.
Pride in Place15 Oct 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I welcome the Labour Government’s £20 million investment in Kingstanding in Birmingham. For 14 years, my constituency was repeatedly overlooked; it was even denied levelling-up funding on two occasions. Can the Minister assure me that after 14 years of Conservative neglect, local residents will come first, going forwards?
Hansard · 15 Oct 2025 · parliament.uk
NG
Nusrat Ghani
Order. Mr Waugh, you do not cross the Front Bench, even to take a shortcut. It is not on.
MF
Miatta Fahnbulleh
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a statement on the action we are taking to restore pride in place. Britain’s renewal is a driving mission of this Labour Government, and we know that that must be seen, felt and heard in every single neighbourhood. Our identity, sense of patriotism and feeling of be…
DS
David Simmonds
This statement speaks of pride. Conservative Members have pride in our local pubs, 200 of which have closed in the past six months, hammered by the Labour party’s business rates rises. We have pride in our restaurants, which are closing in record numbers under the business rates burden imposed by this Government. We ar…
MF
Miatta Fahnbulleh
I am disappointed by the hon. Member’s lack of contrition and his failure to say sorry. The Conservatives presided over 14 years of failure, during which, over a period of austerity, local government and local civic institutions were denuded and deprived communities were hollowed out. He says that we are funding areas …
NG
Nusrat Ghani
Order. “Because of your record”? My record? “Because of you”? Me? Let us temper our language, lower the temperature and continue.
Engagements3 Sep 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The Mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker, is delivering growth and jobs by backing SMEs such as Booghe Toys in my constituency, which has just doubled in size. Will the Prime Minister join me in praising this success and confirm that boosting ambitious small and medium-sized businesses across the UK remains a key priority… of his Government?
Hansard · 3 Sep 2025 · parliament.uk
DB
Dawn Butler
If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 3 September.
KS
Keir Starmer
On Sunday, we won the contract for the biggest defence deal that Norway has ever placed. That is a £10 billion investment, securing 15 years of shipbuilding in Scotland and across the rest of the United Kingdom. One day later on Monday, we launched 30 hours of free childcare for working families. Not only does that sav…
DB
Dawn Butler
Economically deprived high streets and poorer high streets are flooded with gambling shops. The “aim to permit” legislation prevents councils from saying no. My summer campaign on gambling reform has received loads of support, including from Gordon Brown, who says that if we tax the gambling industry, we will get £3 bi…
KS
Keir Starmer
I thank my hon. Friend for her question. It is important that local authorities are given additional tools and powers to ensure vibrant high streets. We are looking at introducing cumulative impact assessments, like those already in place for alcohol licensing, and we will give councils stronger powers over the locatio…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the Leader of the Opposition.
Birmingham Pub Bombings9 Jul 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank my right hon. Friend for securing this really important debate. Does he agree that for my constituents Julie and Paul—the relatives of two victims—who have waited for over 50 years to get justice, enough is enough? The families are still grieving. We must secure an independent public inquiry that includes the effective participation… of the relatives as a matter of urgency, so that the families can get closure.
Hansard · 9 Jul 2025 · parliament.uk
LB
Liam Byrne
Fifty-one years ago, on 21 November 1974 , two bombs exploded in the heart of Birmingham, at the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town. Twenty-one lives were lost and 220 people were injured. Families were destroyed, futures were stolen, and scars were left that never healed. In those two pubs, the Provisional IRA m…
JA
Jim Allister
I commend the right hon. Member for bringing this important matter to the House. He mentions Julie Hambleton. I have met Julie many times over the years. I salute her courage and tenacity, and that of her fellow campaigners. I hope we can reach the point that they want to reach. The Secretary of State for Northern Irel…
LB
Liam Byrne
I am grateful to the hon. and learned Member for that intervention, and for his support for my call. He knows as well as I do that time after time, at every turn, the families were met with barriers, bureaucracy and broken promises. They were told that they could not get legal aid. They were told that their case was no…
JS
Jim Shannon
I commend the right hon. Gentleman for bringing forward this debate; he is absolutely right to do so. I have met Julie Hambleton, and I support her campaign. I have spoken to her a number of times, both in Belfast and over here. Justice is needed for the 21 innocents who were murdered. I would like to see that. As a No…
LB
Liam Byrne
I am grateful to the hon. Member for bringing that point to the Floor of the House, and for backing my call. This campaign is not about vengeance. It is about truth and justice. It is about the right to truth and accountability. Our system of law and order, and our democracy, should work for all, not just the powerful.…
NHS 10-Year Plan3 Jul 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
As the acting Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, I am delighted that the 10-year plan was finally launched today. I thank the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for presenting it to the House. The plan represents a major opportunity for constructive reform of the health and social care system,… and I am delighted that the Secretary of State will come to the Committee on 14 July to be scrutinised on it. Many organisations have waited patiently for the 10-year plan to be published. Will the Secretary of State explain how the plan will help restore the promise of a first-class service in the NHS?
Hansard · 3 Jul 2025 · parliament.uk
WS
Wes Streeting
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall make a statement to the House on “Fit for the Future”, the Government’s 10-year health plan for England. There are moments in our national story when our choices define who we are. In 1948, the Attlee Government made a choice founded on fairness: that everyone in our count…
NG
Nusrat Ghani
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
EA
Edward Argar
I thank the Secretary of State for his typical courtesy in providing advance sight not only of his statement but of his plan. I am grateful, and others on the Government Front Bench might learn a thing or two from him. I am pleased to see the plan published. This Secretary of State is a rare thing these days: one whose…
WS
Wes Streeting
I thank the shadow Secretary of State for his constructive approach to what does need to be a successful plan for the next decade, to get our NHS back on its feet, to make it fit for the future and to make sure we improve the health of the nation. Aside from the lines that he was no doubt given to trot out at the begin…
RG
Roger Gale
I call the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.
Department of Health and Social Care24 Jun 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I am delighted to open this debate on the Department of Health and Social Care’s main estimate. My remarks will focus on the recent spending review, which includes some welcome funding increases and sets out some ambitious reform objectives. However, it also raises questions about deliverability, particularly of objectives to do with capital investment, efficiency… savings and the role of social care. Let me begin with capital investment. The Government have rightly emphasised the need to shift from analogue to digital systems across the NHS. The increase of nearly 50% in technology and transformation funding will mean that it reaches up to £10 billion by 2028-29, which is a welcome and substantial commitment. However, the NHS has a poor track record on digital transformation. The National Audit Office has highlighted the risks around fragmented delivery, unclear governance and unrealistic timelines, and those lessons remain highly relevant. Its 2020 report on digital transformation in the NHS found that despite £4.7 billion in national funding, many trusts were still reliant on systems that were outdated and not integrated. The capital budget is being asked to do a great deal more than achieve digital transformation. The Government have committed to the new hospital programme, and to addressing critical infrastructure risks, such as those posed by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Over five years, £30 billion is allocated for maintenance and repair, and £5 billion is allocated for critical risk. However, by the end of the decade, there will be no real-terms uplift in the capital allocations, compared with this year. In fact, in 2027-28, the funding settlement actually falls to £13.5 billion from £14 billion the previous year, meaning that inflation in construction costs and materials will significantly erode its purchasing power. The British Medical Association has warned that current funding cannot cover both the new hospital programme and essential maintenan
Hansard · 24 Jun 2025 · parliament.uk
RG
Roger Gale
The debate will be opened by a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, Paulette Hamilton.
DB
Danny Beales
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, as well as for her excellent chairing of the Health Select Committee at the moment and for opening today’s debate. Does she agree that this Government’s record investment in our health service will be vital to turning around the health service after 14 years of under-investment an…
AG
Andrew George
I thank my fellow member of the Select Committee and stand-in Chair for giving way, and I congratulate her on how she is introducing the issues today. Does she agree that the length of time set for the Casey review to report does not give us a sense of confidence that the Government have injected sufficient urgency to …
JR
Joe Robertson
The hon. Member is making her points very well, and I congratulate her on her success in bringing this debate to the Chamber. I agree with what she has said about fair pay for social care workers—I support that as well—but does she agree that a fair pay agreement will put undue pressure on providers unless there is som…
RG
Roger Gale
Order. It will not have escaped Members’ notice that we are playing “beat the clock” this afternoon. There is another debate to follow, with a very large number of speakers, and we are going to have to try and split the time between two debates. That means two things. First, after the next speaker I will impose a limit…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Hear, hear. My hon. Friend makes some valuable points, and I agree with every one of them. Underpinning the settlement I have described, however, is the Government’s pledge to generate £17 billion in efficiency savings over three years, with a staggering £9.1 billion expected in the final year of this Parliament. Criti…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank the hon. Member for that deep and thoughtful point. He is absolutely right. Timescales are an issue, and that is why, as a Select Committee, we are asking the Government a number of questions so that we can scrutinise what is happening and get the information. My Committee considered the better care fund in our…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The hon. Gentleman has made a valuable point. The problem is that we in the Committee are waiting for the workforce plan, and we are not sure what is being planned. What the hon. Gentleman has suggested is desirable, but at this moment we do not know what the workforce plan will throw up. It is possible that what he ha…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank all right hon. and hon. Members who have spoken. The Health and Social Care Committee will continue to scrutinise the health and social care sectors. The Committee remains united in the view that we need a programme in place to reform social care. The spending review and the funding tells us the scale of the ch…
Cancer Diagnoses17 Jun 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken for cancer diagnoses.
Hansard · 17 Jun 2025 · parliament.uk
BA
Bayo Alaba
What steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken for cancer diagnoses.
KS
Karin Smyth
Reducing waiting times for cancer diagnosis remains a key priority. Under this Government, an extra 99,000 patients have had cancer diagnosed or ruled out. This has been supported by investment, including in Cancer 360—a digital innovation that brings patient data into one central platform—and in NHS England’s cancer i…
BA
Bayo Alaba
Our Labour Government have recently invested in a new state-of-the-art linear accelerator machine in Southend hospital. The machine is the first of its type in the country and will drastically improve cancer treatments. Please can the Minister outline how record levels of investment, such as in the LINAC machine and as…
KS
Karin Smyth
I am delighted that my hon. Friend’s constituents will benefit from the £70 million investment. These machines are game changing and will reduce the number of visits for his constituents. They are also more reliable, which gives more capacity to the system. That is better for staff, as there will be less appointment ca…
KS
Karin Smyth
My hon. Friend is right to highlight that issue. I commend her great work not just on the APPG but on leading the Health and Social Care Committee on behalf of its Chair, the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) . She is right to highlight that it is a priority for the Government to diagnose cancers e…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Early diagnosis of less survivable cancers is vital if survival rates are to improve. What assessment has the Department made of the report by the all-party parliamentary group on less survivable cancers that looks at earlier detection and faster diagnosis, and what steps are the Department taking to deliver on this?
SEND Funding12 Jun 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I was contacted by a parent in my constituency who was forced to navigate a complex and lengthy tribunal process simply to challenge the decision to place her autistic son in a mainstream school, only to have the hearing cancelled at the last moment, and a place at a special school offered. Does the right… hon. Gentleman agree that education, health and care plans are not a silver bullet, that we should not need complex legal processes to ensure that young people can access good early support, that support must meet the young person’s needs, and that the money must follow the child or young person?
Hansard · 12 Jun 2025 · parliament.uk
GS
Graham Stuart
I beg to move, That this House has considered the distribution of SEND funding. I am delighted to have secured this debate, as it gives us an opportunity to highlight the situation we are facing in England, where children with special educational needs and disabilities are being left behind due to the inherent regional…
PS
Peter Swallow
The right hon. Gentleman makes a profoundly important point. There is a real and urgent need to reform the SEND system, and that of course includes how it is funded. Does he welcome the £750 million ringfenced in yesterday’s spring statement for exactly that: to transform our SEND system to make it fairer for parents, …
GS
Graham Stuart
The hon. Gentleman takes me to a point further on in my speech, but he is absolutely right. He makes the case to the Minister, exactly as I intend to: given that we have a broken distribution system and given the severity of its impact on so many children and families, will she ensure that the money in the spending rev…
GM
Gagan Mohindra
I commend my right hon. Friend on his length of service to this House.
GS
Graham Stuart
My hon. Friend, the Opposition Deputy Chief Whip—and indeed my Whip—is very welcome. Thanks very much; I am grateful for that. We have this issue of how we fix a broken and clearly unfair system. Newer colleagues, and there are many of them in the House, might think, “Well, surely people would want to fix it. There is …
Dementia Care3 Jun 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I share the hon. Member’s deep commitment to ensuring quality care within our communities—something I saw at first hand last year during my visit to Warren Farm Lodge care home in Kingstanding. The dedication of the staff left a lasting impression. Does she agree that we need to work with the Government to urgently develop… a blueprint for transforming dementia diagnosis?
Hansard · 3 Jun 2025 · parliament.uk
CV
Caroline Voaden
I beg to move, That this House has considered dementia care. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this important debate and Members for supporting it, as well as the charities and organisations that have provided material. Dementia is undoubtedly one of the most urgent health and care challeng…
RS
Rebecca Smith
As a fellow South Hams representative, I wonder whether the hon. Lady would agree that the Government’s lack of focus and targets for dementia diagnosis is having a particular impact on rural constituencies such as ours, given that treatment is so dependent on diagnosis. Does she also agree that the work of local group…
CV
Caroline Voaden
I thank the hon. Member for her contribution, and I agree that community groups such as the one around the Yealm are vital in caring for people with dementia. Devon as a whole is falling worryingly behind. As of March 2025, our county’s dementia diagnosis rate stands well below the national average, placing Devon 39th …
LC
Liam Conlon
The hon. Member speaks about community groups and their importance. In recent months I have had the pleasure of joining and supporting lots of dementia support groups, including South East London Mind’s young onset dementia activists group, Beckenham dementia café, and Beckenham and Penge dementia café, and Angela from…
CV
Caroline Voaden
I absolutely commend all those groups—the hon. Member is lucky to have so many in his constituency. Like many other diagnoses that can be equally shocking to receive, dementia has no cure. Approved medications offer limited benefit only in the early stages and not for everyone. For those in the moderate to late stages,…
Business of the House22 May 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The unchecked proliferation of houses in multiple occupation and exempt accommodation is devastating communities across my constituency of Birmingham Erdington. Birmingham has the highest number of exempt accommodation claims in the country. Wards in my constituency rank among those worst affected by HMOs in the city, crippling neighbourhoods and overwhelming local services. Given the urgency… of the crisis, will the Leader of the House commit to scheduling a debate in Government time to discuss how to ensure that no community is left behind while this issue is left in limbo?
Hansard · 22 May 2025 · parliament.uk
LP
Lucy Powell
With permission, I should like to make a statement about the business for the week commencing 2 June . Monday 2 June —Second Reading of the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [Lords]. Tuesday 3 June —Consideration of Lords amendments to the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill, followed by, if necessary, consideration of a Lords mess…
JM
Joy Morrissey
It is an honour to be responding to business questions as we march on to the recess. I know that the Leader of the House has had a challenging few weeks, but I want to start by thanking her for everything that she has done to advocate for Members in this House. This morning, we have learned that the Government have bee…
LP
Lucy Powell
First of all, I congratulate Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace football clubs on both winning silverware for the first time in a long time. North and south London celebrate, while both sides of Manchester commiserate. The hon. Lady asks about an important subject. I can say now that the injunction has been lifted th…
JT
Jon Trickett
I associate myself with the comments from the Leader of the House repudiating antisemitism. In South Elmsall in my constituency, there is a clay pit that has been working for 14 years, four years after the licence expired. Last year, an enforcement notice was taken out by the Environment Agency, and now we are hearing …
LP
Lucy Powell
I am really sorry to hear about the situation in my hon. Friend’s constituency, where he does great work on behalf of his constituents, and that enforcement action is not being taken where it should be. I will ensure that the relevant Minister has heard his question today and that the Environment Agency takes the actio…
Access to NHS Dentistry22 May 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The Government have an historic commitment to prevention. Birmingham Erdington is one of the youngest constituencies in the country. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must continue to build on supervised brushing and targeted fluoride applications in early years settings to protect the youngsters?
Hansard · 22 May 2025 · parliament.uk
MO
Melanie Onn
I beg to move, That this House has considered access to NHS dentistry. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this debate and the colleagues who supported that application. I am pleased that many Members want to speak and am aware of the limitations on time, so I will keep my remarks brief. Duri…
NG
Nusrat Ghani
Order. Because so many Members wish to contribute and we have to conclude by 5 pm, we will have a time limit of three minutes starting from now. I call Sir Julian Lewis, who I think can manage that—I think you can do it.
JL
Julian Lewis
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for that no-pressure introduction. I congratulate the hon. Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) on her speech and I agree with every part of it. I was hoping to quote from individual cases raised by constituents and from the local Women’s Institute, but all that will h…
IC
Irene Campbell
When the NHS was introduced, it made the biggest positive changes ever to the health of the general population. The original “How to use your NHS” booklet from 1948 stated: “It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone—rich or poor, man, woman or child—can use it or any part of it.” On the to…
NG
Nusrat Ghani
I call Ben Maguire. [Interruption.] I call Dr Andrew Murrison.
NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service19 May 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Does the Minister agree with me that as we rebuild our NHS, volunteers at NHS trusts will not be used to plug gaps in service and staff will be allowed to focus on clinical matters?
Hansard · 19 May 2025 · parliament.uk
DJ
Dr Caroline Johnson
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if he will make a statement regarding the volunteer and care service.
KS
Karin Smyth
I thank the hon. Member for giving me the opportunity to speak about this topic and highlight the important role that volunteering plays in our health and social care system. The NHS has always benefited from the generous contribution made by volunteers, who play a vital role in supporting our patients, staff and servi…
DJ
Dr Caroline Johnson
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. At the start of the covid pandemic, NHS volunteer responders were set up to support vulnerable people. Following its success, the previous Government expanded the scheme into adult social care, forming a joint NHS and care volunteers programme. That service has …
KS
Karin Smyth
The hon. Lady is right to highlight the tremendous effort that went into establishing the programme very quickly at a time of great crisis, and to thank the hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country who took part and stepped up. It was a huge effort to get the scheme running and we were all very grateful f…
KS
Karin Smyth
I am happy to give my hon. Friend an absolute assurance. Volunteers support and complement the existing workforce; they do not replace it. Including volunteers signals a recognition of the important role they play in supporting staff, services and patients. Many hon. Members are volunteers and we have all seen how thos…
Birmingham City Council31 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
This bin dispute is causing chaos in the city, including in Birmingham Erdington. What discussions have the Government had with Birmingham city council regarding not just the bin collections, but the impact on public health and the environment? It is so important that we look at the health and safety of local residents in Birmingham.
Hansard · 31 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
JM
Jim McMahon
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to update the House on the statutory intervention at Birmingham city council and on the issues affecting the waste service. This Government were elected on a manifesto that pledged to fix the foundations of local government. The public rightly expect and deserve well-…
CN
Caroline Nokes
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
KH
Kevin Hollinrake
I thank the Minister for advance sight of the statement. I am sure that the fact that both my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) and I tabled an urgent question on this issue played a part in the Minister coming to the House today. He has said nothing on this matter for the 20 days in which…
JM
Jim McMahon
Well, well. No one listening to that response would think that the Conservative Government had been in government for 14 years, and were in office when Birmingham had to come to them for financial support. But Birmingham was not alone, was it? Councils were falling like dominoes because of the last Government’s chronic…
JM
Jim McMahon
That is the crux of where we are: because the bin dispute has been going on for so long, the scale of uncollected rubbish being left in the streets is now posing public health concerns, which is why the council has declared a major incident today. It is showing local leadership, it recognises the public health implicat…
Women’s Health Services25 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of health services for women.
Hansard · 25 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
KS
Karin Smyth
The Government are committed to improving women’s health outcomes. We have already taken urgent action to tackle the gynaecology list through the elective reform plan, and we recently announced an £11 million trial using AI tools to detect breast cancer cases earlier. The 10-year health plan will set out how we will ta…
KS
Karin Smyth
The Government welcome the work my hon. Friend has undertaken and the work of the Caribbean and African Health Network in highlighting health inequalities for black women. She highlights shocking and unacceptable statistics. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has funded a significant amount of research…
JC
James Cleverly
Early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer can make a huge difference to the women involved, and, of course, to the prognosis and the cost to the state of health provision. I welcome the reference in the cancer plan to early diagnosis, but what specifically will the Government do to encourage greater awareness of t…
KS
Karin Smyth
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that question and for the work he has supported on behalf of his wife to raise awareness. Screening access and uptake are shockingly low across the country right now, and looking at that is a key part of what we need to do to ensure that women come forward for the screening test. Th…
NW
Nadia Whittome
I want to put on the record my thanks to the Health Secretary for coming to Nottingham last week and meeting some of the families who have been harmed by extremely serious failings in maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust, and for his sincere commitment to them. It was clear just how moved he …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What assessment has the Minister made of the adequacy of research into and the provision of fibroid treatment for women, taking into consideration that fibroids are three times more likely to appear in black women than in white women?
Transport Committee20 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank my hon. Friend for such a brilliant report. I welcome the commitment to an accessible road map as part of Labour’s transformational Great British Railways reform. What positive role does my hon. Friend see this road map playing in improving accessible travel across the country?
Hansard · 20 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
NG
Nusrat Ghani
We now come to the Select Committee statement on behalf of the Transport Committee. Ruth Cadbury will speak for up to 10 minutes, during which no interventions may be taken. At the conclusion of the statement, I will call Members to ask questions on the subject of the statement. These should be brief questions, not ful…
RC
Ruth Cadbury
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for me to make a statement to the House to mark the publication of the Transport Committee’s first report of this Parliament. Our report is called “Access denied: rights versus reality in disabled people’s access to transport”. It brings to a conclusion work …
PK
Paul Kohler
I thank the Chair of the Transport Committee for the report, which is most welcome. I will read it with interest. She referenced the Access for All programme, which hit the buffers during the previous Parliament with fewer than half the promised projects coming to fruition. She said much about what went wrong. How conf…
RC
Ruth Cadbury
The report has 29 recommendations, but the last one is the most important: an overarching body with responsibility for standards enforcement across transport modes, which would replace the hotchpotch of laws, policies and processes that disabled people must navigate with a more effective approach to asserting the right…
RC
Ruth Cadbury
I agree that the formation of Great British Railways provides an opportunity to bring together all the players in passenger rail, many of which have different standards, different policies and different training regimes. With a single commanding body, I think we have a real chance of bringing those processes together. …
Knife Crime: Children and Young People20 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) for securing this important debate. Knife crime continues to cast a dark shadow over our communities, claiming young lives, shattering families and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. Last year, 10 people were stabbed every week in Birmingham—a statistic that is both alarming and… unacceptable. Within my constituency covering Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale and south Oscott, the B23 postcode has been particularly affected. In 2023, it recorded the highest number of knife-related incidents in the entire city, but behind those statistics are real lives, real families and real pain. When knife crime tears through families, it destroys lives and devastates entire communities. Just weeks ago, this crisis struck my family, turning our world upside down. My nephew—a kind-hearted, wonderful young man—was brutally attacked in an act of senseless knife violence. His crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While his wounds are healing, it will take months for him to fully recover. The emotional trauma inflicted on him and our family, however, is immeasurable. This is a pain no family should ever have to endure, yet it is a pain that far too many are forced to bear. Knife crime thrives in the shadows of neglect. Fourteen years of austerity under the last Government gutted our communities, stripping away 70% of the support systems that once guided and protected young people. In Erdington, the closure of the Malcolm Locker youth centre in 2014 marked the end of the last council-run youth service in my constituency. The cuts have left a void that is too often filled by despair and violence. I am glad that this Government have recognised the problem of knife crime and included provisions to address it in the Crime and Policing Bill, but we can and must do more. I have always said that prevention is better than cure, and while the police play a vital role in tackling crime, a sustainable solution requ
Hansard · 20 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
NG
Nusrat Ghani
Before we begin the debate, may I remind Members of the House’s rule on matters sub judice? Members should make no reference to live criminal cases in which a suspect has been charged.
BO
Ben Obese-Jecty
I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of knife crime amongst children and young people. First, let me place on the record my gratitude to the Backbench Business Committee for granting this time in the House of Commons Chamber. I also thank all those from both sides of the House who supported my appli…
FE
Florence Eshalomi
I thank the hon. Member for making such an impassioned speech. He has just outlined some of the role of the social media companies. Does he agree that the same rigour that we rightly use to catch some of the perpetrators of these crimes should be applied to the social media giants who refuse, in some cases, to take dow…
BO
Ben Obese-Jecty
That is a very valid point. The social media companies themselves know full well that this content is there and could easily create an ability to moderate it. These are billion dollar companies and if they wanted to take down this stuff, they could. It is about willpower. It is part of our responsibility in this House …
NH
Neil Hudson
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate and on making an impassioned speech. He is talking about the dangers of social media influencing boys and young men. One of the key aspects of that is their role in society and the lack of clear role models. Will he join me in paying tribute to the former …
Rare Cancers Bill14 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for bringing forward this important Bill and for his tireless work in championing the need for a greater focus on research into rarer cancers. Having worked as a district nurse for over 25 years, I have seen time and again the devastation… cancer brings, not just to those diagnosed but to their families, friends and communities. The harsh reality is that one in two of us will face cancer at some point in our lives; it is an issue that touches all of us in some way. While we have made significant strides in cancer treatment and survival rates, progress has not been equal. Some cancers, like the rarer, less survivable cancers, have been unjustly left behind. Cancers such as pancreatic, oesophageal, liver, brain and stomach still face staggeringly low survival rates. Currently, the least survivable cancers have a five-year survival rate of just 16%, compared with 55% for all other cancers. This disparity is not just a statistic; it is a failure in our services and the way these cancers are researched, which has cost lives, shattered families and left too many of us without hope. A key driver of this has been the chronic underfunding and lack of focus on research into these cancers, which has meant that we lack tests and the tools and treatments needed to give people a fighting chance. The consequences of this neglect are devastating. This issue is deeply personal to me. I have lost loved ones to pancreatic cancer, a disease that steals lives with ruthless efficiency. I lost my best friend, a woman full of life and love, to this cruel illness. She endured months of uncertainty before finally receiving a diagnosis in August, only to pass away shortly after. Her story is of delayed diagnosis, missed opportunities and a system that failed her. Sadly, her story is not unique. I find it truly shocking that in 2025, more than half of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will die within three months and on
Hansard · 14 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
SA
Scott Arthur
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. We all know someone who has suffered from a rare cancer—a brain tumour, childhood cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, or one of the other cancers on a long list that are unfortunately all too familiar. Each of them may statistically be considered rare, but co…
SM
Siobhain McDonagh
The NHS has a drug repurposing office. To date, it has repurposed one drug, and that was for breast cancer. Does my hon. Friend think that is good enough?
SA
Scott Arthur
I welcome that intervention; I think that was a leading question. Of course it is not good enough. I do not think that anybody here thinks that it is good enough, including the Minister. Unfortunately, at present there are very few clinical trials in this country for rare cancer treatments. Families such as Kira’s shou…
EL
Emma Lewell-Buck
I thank my hon. Friend for the powerful way he is introducing his Bill. My constituent Steph is just 29 years old and is a mam to two little girls. She was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma, known as astrocytoma, on her birthday last year. For months prior to her diagnosis, she was treated for migraines by her GP. St…
SA
Scott Arthur
Absolutely. Last week, I attended a reception for the Eve Appeal. I was really struck by the fact that early diagnosis was a big feature of what the charity was talking about, and I will come on to that in just a second. As a consequence of the lack of recognition of the symptoms of rare cancers, too many people are di…
Emergency Alert System6 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the emergency alert system.
Hansard · 6 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
JM
Julie Minns
What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the emergency alert system.
AO
Abena Oppong-Asare
The emergency alert system is a vital tool for warning and informing in a case of a serious incident where there is a threat to life. This Government have used the tool five times, including the largest ever deployment for Storm Éowyn. We are incorporating the lessons identified, including on improved targeting, into a…
AO
Abena Oppong-Asare
My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. The whole purpose of the emergency alert is to make people safer, so we are mindful of the potential risks to people with secret phones, such as victims of domestic abuse. We are continuing to work with domestic abuse charities and organisations that support victims t…
JM
Julie Minns
The threat of flooding is ever present in Carlisle, and although I and other local residents regularly receive flood alerts, they do not necessarily distinguish between a threat to life and a regular flood alert. Could the Minister please explain at what point flood alerts are updated to reflect the seriousness of an e…
AO
Abena Oppong-Asare
My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue. The Environment Agency is responsible for issuing flood warnings. For locations covered by severe flood warnings, the Environment Agency may ask for an emergency alert to be activated where there is an immediate threat to life, in order to support the response in the local a…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
A secret phone can be a lifeline for survivors of domestic abuse. Can the Minister tell the House what steps the Government are taking to ensure that when emergency alerts are sent, survivors of domestic abuse are not put in any additional danger?
Business of the House6 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The B23 postcode in my constituency has experienced a troubling surge in knife-related offences. The west midlands violence reduction unit has been instrumental in addressing the issue, engaging with over 8,000 young people and contributing to a 18% reduction in youth violence involving knives between April and September 2024. However, the violence reduction unit depends… on short-term annual funding, which restricts its capacity for long-term strategic planning. Will the Leader of the House schedule a debate in this Chamber to discuss the incredible work of violence reduction units and explore the long-term funding arrangements for these organisations?
Hansard · 6 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
JN
Jesse Norman
Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?
LP
Lucy Powell
I shall. The business for the week commencing 10 March includes: Monday 10 March —Second Reading of the Crime and Policing Bill. Tuesday 11 March —Remaining stages of the Employment Rights Bill, day one. Wednesday 12 March —Remaining stages of the Employment Rights Bill, day two. Thursday 13 March —General debate on th…
JN
Jesse Norman
Mr Speaker, may I first associate myself very strongly with your kind remarks about Peter Hipkins and his service to this House? We join all colleagues in celebration of International Women’s Day this Saturday. I am sure the whole House will also share my deep concern at the latest news in relation to Ukraine and will …
LP
Lucy Powell
I join you, Mr Speaker, in passing on our condolences to the family of Peter Hipkins, who gave long service in this House. I also wish peace and blessings to those observing Ramadan and those marking Lent. Today is also World Book Day, a day to celebrate our favourite books and authors—and, I have to say, every working…
MT
Marie Tidball
Flooding has caused heartache for families and communities in my constituency. In order to be protected from extreme flooding, they desperately need Sheffield city council’s excellent proposals for the upper Don flood alleviation scheme, including work on the Clough Dike culvert and Whitley Brook improvements. Despite …
International Women’s Day6 Mar 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and for securing this debate. As we mark International Women’s Day, I have to say that I am proud—absolutely honoured— to stand here not only as a black woman, but as a former nurse. However, black people are four times more likely to be detained under the… Mental Health Act 1983. Does she agree that we can only truly say that we have honoured International Women’s Day when this glaring disparity is addressed?
Hansard · 6 Mar 2025 · parliament.uk
DB
Dawn Butler
I beg to move, That this House has considered International Women’s Day. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate and draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am an ambassador for Ask for Angela, a great scheme whereby someone feeling unsafe in a…
SW
Steve Witherden
In the UK, a woman is murdered by a current or former partner every week. According to research from Women’s Aid, 46% of women have faced some form of abuse in an intimate relationship during their lifetime. Given these harrowing statistics, we must confront domestic abuse for what it truly is: a national emergency. Do…
DB
Dawn Butler
My hon. Friend hits on an important point. We absolutely need that investment. If we are serious about saving lives, we need to do whatever it takes. If we want to see a reduction in the number of women being killed, we need to invest in making that happen. We also need to have those uncomfortable conversations. It is …
JS
Jim Shannon
I cannot stay for the debate, unfortunately, but I wanted to have this on the record. The statistics on the murders of women in Northern Ireland are the highest in the United Kingdom. The Minister knows that. Does the hon. Lady agree that when it comes to addressing the murders of women across the United Kingdom of Gre…
DB
Dawn Butler
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I am sure he will be forgiven for missing half of a debate today. Women are being killed—that is a fact. We have got too used to talking about the statistics without thinking about who is at the end of it, and that we are losing a woman every three days to murder. It st…
Community and Third Sector Organisations: Employment10 Feb 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Before I start the debate, I would like to declare an interest: I chair the organisation in my constituency that I will be talking about, but I get absolutely no remuneration for it. It is a privilege to speak on behalf of my constituents in Erdington, whose communities are filled with untapped potential. My constituency… ranks among the top five most deprived areas in the country, with an unemployment rate of around twice the national average. Sadly, we fall well below the national average for functional literacy, ranking 47th lowest out of 533 constituencies in England last year. This stark reality creates major barriers for my constituents, but I am proud to say we have not stood idly by. Instead, in the face of adversity, our community came together to take decisive action to shape our future. In 2020, in response to the economic fallout from the covid pandemic, the north Birmingham economic recovery board was formed. This vibrant and dynamic board is administered by the Witton Lodge Community Association, and I have had the honour of serving as its chair since March 2022. Driven by collaborative action, we are ambitious, maximising economic opportunities and supporting thousands of residents into training and employment. The board brings together around 25 organisations, including the local authority, the combined authority, local and national businesses, community groups and third sector organisations, to deliver skills, training and employment opportunities to residents of north Birmingham, particularly those facing the greatest barriers and exclusion. From the beginning, it was vital to include businesses and social enterprises of all sizes to ensure that local residents can access and benefit from significant business opportunities.
Hansard · 10 Feb 2025 · parliament.uk
JS
Jim Shannon
I spoke to the hon. Lady before the debate, and I commend her initiative. Her constituents can feel immensely proud of her efforts. Scrabo residents’ group has done something similar in an area of disadvantage in my constituency where people do not have opportunities. The group has provided jobs in security and HGV dri…
DW
David Williams
I am pleased to support this debate on the voluntary sector and its role in supporting people into education, training and employment. We have some good examples in Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove, with Youth Employment Skills, the Chell Area Family Action Group and the Coalfields Regeneration Trust all playing a vi…
RB
Richard Baker
My hon. Friend has focused on the benefits of partnerships. Does she agree that employability partnerships led by third sector organisations have been shown to be more successful than traditional approaches to employability support, because they involve organisations with a wide range of expertise? Similarly, in Scotla…
RM
Rachael Maskell
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate. Small organisations can often have the biggest impact. Chocolate and Co. in York is taking people out of the criminal justice system and people who have had a life of addiction and turning their lives around with employment. However, it costs money. Does my hon.…
WJ
Warinder Juss
In Wolverhampton, we have the Wolves at Work programme. It is co-ordinated by the City of Wolverhampton council, but involves partnership working with local employers and partner organisations. The programme provides one-to-one support to highly skilled professionals and those with no experience at all, so that they ca…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank the hon. Gentleman for sharing what his constituents are doing. The results speak for themselves. To date, we have secured over £15 million in investment, supported 8,000 residents—two thirds of whom are aged between 24 and 49 —and helped over 1,000 people into work. We have enrolled 1,500 residents in gateway …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point, and I absolutely agree with what he says. The commitment of the partner organisations in my constituency has been the driving force behind our shared vision, and I take this opportunity to pay tribute to them. I am sure the Minister will join me as I extend my heartfelt thanks. Ho…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. It is so important for us to work together to get what we need for our local communities.
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend raises the valuable point that we cannot do anything without money, so we must ensure that the funding is there to support these organisations to deliver what we need in our local communities. The challenges that we face in Erdington and north Birmingham are not unique. The UK has long grappled with the …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need collaboration. Such programmes will not work if organisations work in isolation. There is always room for improvement. I firmly believe that the Government should look at the success of place-based partnerships and professional support, as demonstrated by the north Birmin…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Everybody heard my hon. Friend’s contribution and agreed with what she said. Earlier this year, I was delighted to welcome the Minister for Employment, my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern) , to my constituency of Birmingham Erdington. During her visit, we saw the impact of personalised assistance …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend makes a critical point. If we want to see people grow, we have to give them the support they need; that is vital. I would not have got to Parliament without the support that I received earlier in my life. These stories are not unique to the Birmingham Erdington constituency. Many in the Chamber will no d…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I will absolutely give way to my lovely hon. Friend.
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point. Communities working together with people makes a difference, and as leaders it is vital that we not only encourage that but press Governments to support us to make that happen. The work that we are doing in Erdington and north Birmingham is a testament to the power of a community,…
Hospice and Palliative Care13 Jan 2025
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Paulette Hamilton
I thank the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) for securing this important debate. As a nurse for 25 years and as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on hospice and end of life care, hospice and palliative care has always been at the heart of my work, both in this Chamber and in my… community. I start by acknowledging the fantastic decision by the Government to boost investment in hospices by £100 million—the largest funding uplift in a generation. That is a clear sign that the Government are listening to the hospice sector and responding with actions, not just words. However, this uplift must be the beginning and not the end. This new money will not last forever. We must now take concrete steps to ensure that the awful conditions in the hospice sector that we inherited are never repeated. It is worth noting that while the independent commission on palliative and end of life care recently created by my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) is welcome, it will mainly be about delivery and not funding. We simply cannot wait for a palliative care taskforce to complete its report; that could take months, which this sector cannot spare. In my role, I hear time and again about postcode lotteries and the chronic lack of funding that plagues this vital sector. Through no fault of its own, John Taylor hospice, which does fantastic work in my constituency, is facing a crisis in funding; it has had to announce redundancies and a reduction in in-patient beds due to the funding shortfall. That story is being repeated all over the country—I am sure many Members in this Chamber have a similar situation that they could share. Hospice care still relies heavily on charity, bake sales and donations to fund much of the work that supports families during their most vulnerable moments. That must change. This postcode lottery not only is unfair, but undermines the principles of universal healthcare. We cannot allow end of life care to depend on where someon
Hansard · 13 Jan 2025 · parliament.uk
PK
Paul Kohler
I beg to move, That this House has considered hospice and palliative care. First, I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time to support this important debate, and I thank colleagues from across the House for supporting my application and joining me today to discuss a subject that, to use an old cliché—b…
KL
Kim Leadbeater
Does the hon. Member agree that the renewed focus on the hospice and palliative care sector is extremely welcome and overdue? Does he agree that the extra £100 million of investment shows how seriously this Government are taking the issue, showing that people approaching the end of life are fully supported in whatever …
PK
Paul Kohler
I agree with the hon. Lady, and I will be coming to those points. Today is not about rehashing the arguments made that Friday, but to allow Members time to discuss and reflect on this separate, but inextricably linked subject. It is not the last word on hospice and palliative care, but an important step in forging a co…
JS
Jim Shannon
I commend the hon. Gentleman on setting the scene so well. One of the concerns that I and others in the Chamber have is the impact on the workers in hospices. It is not just about the financial implications, which are all part of the overall issue, but burnout. Staff are working long hours. They are volunteers in many …
PK
Paul Kohler
I agree with the hon. Member. We need more palliative care specialists and we need more training, and there is a real danger of burnout. It is not just hospices that provide palliative care. When talking to specialists within and beyond the hospice sector, I have been struck by their commitment to giving patients a goo…
Road Safety7 Jan 2025
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) for securing this important debate. The issue of road safety is vital and we need a sustainable funding model. Local councils are a key player in improving prevention-based road safety. I have heard a lot about rural… settings from hon. Members this afternoon, but my constituency is in the middle of a city, and the problems occurring within cities are just as bad. People veer from main roads and go on to side streets. I would like to share an incident that took place this morning in my constituency, where yet another vehicle struck the bridge on Summer Road. This follows a recent incident where a truck collided with the same bridge and overturned. It is the third such occurrence since last November—it is simply unacceptable. Does the Minister agree that the local council needs to step up and implement measures to address this issue, not only to prevent the severe disruption that is caused by these accidents, but to ensure the safety of other road users and pedestrians? My time as a nurse taught me that prevention is better than cure; it is much better to take measures now than to risk the safety of local residents in areas across this country.
Hansard · 7 Jan 2025 · parliament.uk
AM
Andy MacNae
Happy new year, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am grateful for the chance to have this debate, and I thank the Minister for her attendance and for her work on tackling this issue, including through the upcoming road safety strategy. I requested the debate because our current approach to road safety is in desperate need of ove…
JS
Jim Shannon
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
AM
Andy MacNae
I will—it would be a pleasure.
JS
Jim Shannon
I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing this debate forward. I spoke to him beforehand—through two or three different people, but I got to him eventually. I was intrigued by the title of the debate, “Prevention-based road safety and community involvement”, simply because in my constituency, back in October of last ye…
AM
Andy MacNae
I fully agree with the hon. Gentleman—indeed, that is the main subject that I will try to focus on today. It is hugely important that we listen to our communities, because in the end, not only do our communities know best, but they are the ones who experience the consequences of these decisions. Burnley Road is very he…
Social Housing Supply2 Dec 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.
Hansard · 2 Dec 2024 · parliament.uk
JT
Jessica Toale
What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.
DM
Douglas McAllister
What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.
GP
Gregor Poynton
What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.
AR
Angela Rayner
We will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. The last Government’s affordable housing programme is expected to deliver only between 110,000 and 130,000 homes, although when it was published in 2020, the ambition was for 180,000. Labour is fixing that. The Chancellor announced i…
AR
Angela Rayner
I know that housing quality has been a particular issue in my hon. Friend’s constituency. All social housing tenants deserve to live in a safe, decent home. We will bring forward Awaab’s law to the social rented sector, setting new time limits for social landlords to fix dangerous hazards. We will shortly consult on mi…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Many of my constituents in Birmingham Erdington are worried about the deteriorating quality of social housing. What work is being done to ensure that housing stock is maintained to the highest standards, so that tenants can live in the safe, high-quality housing that they deserve?
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill29 Nov 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) on the way she has conducted this debate. I worked in the NHS as a district nurse for 25 years, working with many terminally ill people. I saw the whole range of human emotion in that time, from joy to grief—everything imaginable. I… am also a mum, a daughter, a sister, a wife and a grandmother. I know how crushing it can be when someone we love is terribly ill and how helpless that can make families feel. It is completely understandable that some would want to feel that they are regaining some control over their circumstances by pursuing an assisted death, but this Bill is not the answer. I simply do not trust that it can be implemented ethically or safely. There are too many blind spots, and it is being rushed through too quickly and with too little scrutiny. It would place enormous pressure on disabled, elderly and poor people to opt to end their lives so as not to be a burden on their loved ones. The Bill would also do nothing concrete to uplift the hospice and palliative care sectors. All that we have had are promises. According to the Bill, the Secretary of State must ensure that assisted suicide is available. There is no accompanying duty to provide palliative or hospice care to everyone who needs it, leaving those essential services heavily dependent on donations and charity. That is simply unacceptable. The exercise of coercion or pressure, which are prohibited by the Bill, is difficult—perhaps even impossible—to detect. Families and personal circumstances are complicated. It would take an enormous amount of resources to make this system robust enough to entrust the lives of our loved ones to it. The Bill allows doctors to propose assisted dying to patients. Some of the worst Canadian abuses originated that way. For example, a 51-year-old Canadian cancer patient was notoriously offered death instead of surgery. Even though our proposed system has its differences, this is still a risk t
Hansard · 29 Nov 2024 · parliament.uk
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
Before I begin proceedings, I would like to say a few words to help manage expectations about business today. More than 160 Members have indicated that they wish to speak in the first debate. It is not customary to impose a speech limit on private Members’ Bills, but I hope that after the Member in charge of the Bill a…
KL
Kim Leadbeater
I beg to move, that the Bill be now read a Second time. Thank you, Mr Speaker, and thank you to everyone who is attending this hugely significant debate. It is a privilege to open the debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a piece of legislation that would give dying people, under stringent criteria, c…
KM
Kevin McKenna
I have been a nurse for more than a quarter of a century, and in that time I have worked mostly in intensive care as a specialist. I have worked with compassionate and skilled, well-trained clinicians who have been taught to spot coercion—it is fundamental to our practice. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is wrong to …
KL
Kim Leadbeater
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. I thank him for it, and for his years of service as a nurse. I have spoken to many medical professionals about this issue, and they say that this is part of their job. They are very skilled and they work closely with patients, particularly dying patients, to assess their nee…
SH
Simon Hoare
I thank the hon. Lady for giving the House the time to debate the Bill this morning. She references coercion, and I understand her point about the two medics, but medics will not be able to see or hear everything at all times. People will not be put beyond challenge, because subsequent to the death, if a relative claim…
Church-owned Hospices: Assisted Dying28 Nov 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What assessment the Church has made of the potential impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Church-owned hospices.
Hansard · 28 Nov 2024 · parliament.uk
RM
Rachael Maskell
What assessment the Church has made of the potential impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Church-owned hospices.
MC
Marsha de Cordova
Churches nationwide provide chaplaincy and grief counselling services to hospices, patients and their families. Many modern hospices started off as Church-affiliated institutions thanks to the pioneering work of Dame Cicely Saunders. They are largely now affiliated to Hospice UK, which supports over 200 hospices across…
RM
Rachael Maskell
Hospices have charitable aims to provide palliative care at the end of life, but these could be compromised by the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which comes before the House tomorrow. What consultation and impact assessment of this measure has there been with hospices that have a faith foundation? I am hear…
MC
Marsha de Cordova
I do not believe there has been consultation with any faith-connected organisations, and I do not believe that an impact assessment has been carried out. However, Hospice UK, the body to which most Church-associated hospices are affiliated, has surveyed providers, staff and practitioners, who have expressed concerns ab…
MC
Marsha de Cordova
I thank my hon. Friend for her question on this incredibly important issue. I refer her to my previous answers, but it is also worth highlighting that, in recent years, the General Synod of the Church of England has twice voted by large majorities against changing the law on assisted suicide. The Association for Pallia…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Can my hon. Friend confirm whether Church-owned hospices will work with independent hospices and other organisations to mitigate the potential impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, and to issue a statement from across the sector?
Topical Questions19 Nov 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Many of my constituents are worried that online GP appointments are too often used as a substitute for face-to-face consultation, which risks adding pressures to NHS waiting lists further down the line. Will the Secretary of State reassure my constituents that they will receive timely, in-person GP access and the quality of care that they… deserve?
Hansard · 19 Nov 2024 · parliament.uk
DT
Dan Tomlinson
If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
WS
Wes Streeting
This weekend, we launched the first in-person consultation as part of change.nhs.uk, the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS we have ever seen. We know that the Leader of the Opposition wants a conversation about whether the NHS is free at the point of use, and I can tell her, from that first conv…
DT
Dan Tomlinson
Earlier this month, I visited Barnet hospital to see the way in which it is changing the emergency care department so that more patients can be seen more quickly, freeing up capacity in accident and emergency. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that trusts such as the Royal Free and others across the countr…
WS
Wes Streeting
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. The Royal Free hospital saved my life when I went through kidney cancer, so it holds a special place in my heart. Thanks to the Chancellor’s decision and the investment she put into the NHS at the Budget, and the reform my Department is delivering, we will deliver the c…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
Income Tax (Charge)6 Nov 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
This Budget truly marks an historic shift, with real steps to rebuild Britain for lasting change. After 14 years of Conservative mismanagement this Budget brings hope, with a commitment to rebuild and restore fairness for working families, essential workers and vulnerable communities. I am especially pleased that the Budget has put working people at the… forefront by increasing the national living wage and ensuring that they will not face higher taxes in their payslips. That will benefit thousands of working families in Erdington who have been hit hardest by rising costs, stagnant wages and insecure work. The food banks at Six Ways church and Spitfire Support Services are heartbreaking reminders of the last Government’s legacy, but now hard-working people are finally getting the fair pay they deserve. As a nurse of 25 years, I am deeply heartened by the commitment to our NHS. Years of underfunding have left it struggling, and the Budget’s £25.6 billion investment is a lifeline, promising timely, quality care. That funding will help to reduce the painful waiting lists that have left many in my constituency suffering as they wait months, if not years, for essential care. Community safety is also a priority. Traders on Erdington High Street have spoken about the rise in low-value shoplifting. I am grateful that the Government have pledged to scrap immunity for such crimes, restoring accountability and safety. Education is the foundation of a fairer society. The Budget’s investment in the core schools budget and free breakfast clubs is exactly what our schools need in order to support young people and prepare them for success. Today we reject the chaos and cuts of the past. This Budget restores integrity, fairness and hope, offering a path that allows us to invest in people, protect families and rebuild communities for a stronger Britain. I am proud to support a Budget that works for Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale and South Oscott and for every community that deser
Hansard · 6 Nov 2024 · parliament.uk
JR
Jonathan Reynolds
It is a pleasure to open this final day of the debate on the Chancellor’s growth Budget. Can I welcome the new shadow team? It is lovely to see them in place. I think many of us on this side would admit that we were shadow Ministers for longer than we ideally would have been, and I know that it is a tough and thankless…
KM
Kit Malthouse
The Secretary of State makes much of growth. Of course we all want growth, but the OBR report actually says that growth in real GDP will start to slow over the next three years and that in years four and five of the Parliament it will go negative. It is telling us that the Government’s Budget is actually going to resul…
JR
Jonathan Reynolds
That is not what it says. First, on the figures, we cannot make a like-for-like comparison because we know that the information provided by the previous Government in their financial information was erroneous. They did not square their own spending pledges with what was in those documents. The analysis by the OBR shows…
GS
Graham Stuart
The right hon. Gentleman will, I hope, be aware that the long-term economic growth of this country relies not primarily on public investment or indeed public infrastructure, but on a healthy private sector—the wealth creators from whom we can take the funding to deliver into those goods that he talks about and that are…
JR
Jonathan Reynolds
I am sorry but, again, the right hon. Gentleman is wrong. I agree with part of his assessment, such as that a strong and thriving private sector is crucial to growth, but I find his analysis a little simplistic. Private firms will say that they also need skilled workers, and that they need a decent transport system so …
Black History Month24 Oct 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I start by thanking everyone who has spoken in the debate so far. It is an honour to speak today in recognition of Black History Month, a time to reflect on the immense contributions of the black community across the United Kingdom and around the world. This year’s theme, “Reclaiming… Narratives,” could truly not be more fitting. We are at a turning point in our country’s history, where the stories that we tell can shape the future for generations to come. My parents, like many others, helped to shape the city I was born in through their hard work and determination. They laid the foundations for me to become Birmingham’s first black Member of Parliament. As a proud child of the Windrush generation, I stand here with immense pride and gratitude for the black history that has shaped my own journey and the journey of countless others. It is essential that we acknowledge the challenges that we continue to face, but more importantly, we must celebrate the progress that we have made and the potential that lies ahead. Last week I had the privilege of hosting a Black History Month event in my constituency of Birmingham Erdington, and I was proud to stand alongside a panel of black trailblazers who have broken barriers, opened doors and created lasting legacies for others. Among them were some extraordinary figures, including Birmingham City Council’s first black deputy leader, Councillor Sharon Thompson, the Deputy Mayor of the West Midlands; the first black MP to represent her constituency, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Taiwo Owatemi) , who was absolutely brilliant; and the first black woman to chair the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) . All those people demonstrate the power of reclaiming narratives through their leadership. This is not just about the victories of the present; we must lay the foundations for future progr
Hansard · 24 Oct 2024 · parliament.uk
AO
Abena Oppong-Asare
I beg to move, That this House has considered Black History Month. I start by wishing Baroness Doreen Lawrence a very happy birthday—she is bright beacon for us all. It is a great pleasure to open the debate to mark Black History Month. I have led debates on the subject many times since 2020, but this is my first time …
HH
Helen Hayes
I congratulate my hon. Friend on leading this important debate in Government time. The Black Cultural Archives, which I am hugely proud to say is based in my constituency on Windrush Square, is the only national organisation dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of black history in the United Kingdom. It doe…
AO
Abena Oppong-Asare
I thank my hon. Friend for that suggestion; she has done a lot of work in that area. I know the Black Cultural Archives really well, having visited it on many occasions over the years. I, too, am concerned, and I will be happy to work with Ministers, alongside my hon. Friend, to look at ensuring that its legacy continu…
JS
Jim Shannon
I commend the Minister for leading the debate, and I think it is only fair also to commend the hon. Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for initiating it. Does the Minister agree that the celebration of culture and heritage, as well as their accomplishments, is something that benefits everyone in our community? The str…
AO
Abena Oppong-Asare
I completely agree. I mentioned how in the past different communities have come together alongside the African-Caribbean community, for example to fight the blackshirts, the National Front, and the British National party. These are the shoulders on which many of us stand. Alongside Bernie Grant and my fellow Ghanaian —…
Engagements11 Sep 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
More than half of people with pancreatic cancer die within three months of diagnosis, and seven in 10 never even receive treatment. Every two minutes in the UK, someone is diagnosed with cancer, but for those diagnosed with the least survivable cancer, time has too often already run out. I am really proud of the… Labour Government’s commitment to our NHS, but will the Prime Minister now commit to reviewing the long-term cancer strategy so that we can improve diagnosis and treatment rates in this country?
Hansard · 11 Sep 2024 · parliament.uk
TB
Torsten Bell
If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 11 September.
KS
Keir Starmer
This weekend we remembered the late Queen and her enduring legacy of service and devotion to our country, and I was proud to announce a new national monument located at St James’s Park to honour her memory. I know that the whole House will join me in sending our best wishes to the Princess of Wales as she completes her…
TB
Torsten Bell
Back in the 1990s, the Conservatives claimed that the minimum wage would cost 1 million jobs. Instead, low earners have seen the fastest pay rises year after year, with no effect on employment—[Interruption.] They opposed it. Today, and on their watch, 1 million workers are on zero-hours contracts and more than 1 milli…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
Order. Please sit down. One, it is easier if you face me—I can hear it better. The second part is that it is meant to be a question, not a statement. [Interruption.] No, I decide. I call the Prime Minister.
KS
Keir Starmer
Economic growth is our No. 1 mission, and that is why we forged a new, positive relationship with business, but too many people are insecure at work, and that holds them back and holds our economy back. This Government were elected to deliver for working people, and that is exactly what we will do.
Business of the House5 Sep 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Hospices provide a crucial role across the UK in supporting people at the end of their lives and alleviating the pressure on our NHS. However, because of the cost of living crisis, costs are rising and fundraising is falling. It is simply not fair that access to hospice care is a postcode lottery in our… country and it is high time that the funding model was changed. So will the Leader of the House please grant time to debate this crucial issue?
Hansard · 5 Sep 2024 · parliament.uk
CP
Chris Philp
May I take this opportunity, Madam Deputy Speaker, to congratulate you on your elevation to the Chair and to welcome you to your place? Will the Leader of the House give us the business for next week?
LP
Lucy Powell
The business for the week commencing 9 September is as follows: Monday 9 September —Consideration of a motion to approve the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2024, followed by consideration of a motion to approve the Syria (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024, followed …
CP
Chris Philp
A warm welcome back to everyone following the summer recess. I thank the Leader of the House for setting out those recess dates. That will make her popular with everybody across the House. She has just saved me from booking a flight that I would have had to cancel, so I am personally very grateful to her. I also thank …
LP
Lucy Powell
I, too, welcome everybody back for the new term. I knew that my announcing the recess dates would be the big news of this morning. I am pleased to be able to help everybody with their family and holiday arrangements. I thank the House staff who have worked away to ensure that many new colleagues now have their own offi…
KT
Karl Turner
I welcome my right hon. Friend to the Dispatch Box and congratulate her on the wonderful job she is doing in government. I am very concerned that Post Office Ltd plans to close the post office counter in Morrisons on Holderness Road in east Hull. Many constituents have contacted me, and a petition on the subject has ga…
Immigration and Home Affairs23 Jul 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
As this is my first time being returned to Parliament, I would like sincerely to thank all the House staff for making the process so smooth for me and all our new colleagues. I am delighted to say that this King’s Speech has filled me with hope. We have suffered over a decade of Tory… neglect, mismanagement and chaos. We have endured five Prime Ministers, seven Chancellors, 10 Education Secretaries, 12 Culture Secretaries and 16 Housing Ministers. Finally, we have a Labour Government with a plan to put politics back into the service of working people. We have a plan to save the NHS; nationalise the railways; reform benefits; recruit more teachers; properly fund councils; invest in green energy; clean up our rivers; provide children with breakfast in school every day; prioritise women’s health; reduce the gender pay gap; create a national care service; and bring transparency and accountability back to public office. It finally feels like the adults have entered the room, but I am under no illusion: the hard work is just beginning. Nine months ago, I stood in this Chamber, albeit on the Opposition Benches, to respond to the King’s Speech in despair at the levels of crime and antisocial behaviour impacting our communities in the Erdington constituency. My constituency has the highest rate of knife crime in the west midlands. People contact me almost daily about Erdington high street. Residents have made it very clear that they are frightened to go into the high street. I hear the same story time and again: our high street has become unrecognisable. Where we used to have thriving small businesses we now have empty shop fronts, drug dealing and violence, so we have our work cut out. Labour has inherited chaos in community policing. Huge issues in our criminal justice system mean that not only is crime not being prevented, but it is not being punished either. That is why I welcome the new neighbourhood police guarantee. When we speak about crime and antisocial behaviour, w
Hansard · 23 Jul 2024 · parliament.uk
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I inform the House that I have selected amendment (l) in the name of the Leader of the Opposition, which will be moved at the start of the debate, and amendments (d), in the name of Stephen Flynn, and (k), in the name of Ed Davey, which will be moved at the end of the debate. I call the shadow Home Secretary.
JC
James Cleverly
I beg to move amendment l, at the end of the Question to add: “but respectfully regret that the Gracious Speech does not commit to boosting defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 with a fully funded plan, fails to include measures that provide an adequate deterrent to migrants crossing the channel illegally, fails to …
YC
Yvette Cooper
Will the right hon. Member give way?
JC
James Cleverly
The Home Secretary will be making a speech in due course. As I say, almost 500 asylum seekers arrived in the first week, and, as of today, more than 2,000 asylum seekers have arrived in small boats since Labour took office. The second week at work was not much better.
YC
Yvette Cooper
Will the shadow Secretary of State give way?
STEM Workforce: Diversity and Inclusion22 May 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps her Department is taking to help increase diversity and inclusion in the STEM workforce.
Hansard · 22 May 2024 · parliament.uk
KJ
Kim Johnson
What steps her Department is taking to help increase diversity and inclusion in the STEM workforce.
AG
Andrew Griffith
The science and technology framework sets out our commitment to expanding STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—opportunities to the most diverse range of people possible. We have acted swiftly to identify and dismantle any barriers to entry. As a result, we have seen major improvements in recent years, altho…
AG
Andrew Griffith
The hon. Lady raises a very important point on National Numeracy Day. While we must not be complacent, the Government have made outstanding progress on equality for all. I hope she will join me in congratulating teachers in her constituency, and up and down the country, on the fact that last year, under this Government…
KJ
Kim Johnson
The Institute of Cancer Research has made positive steps on diversifying representation in STEM through its apprenticeship scheme. Can the Minister say what, if any, lessons he is taking from that very positive initiative, in particular to increase representation in respect of ethnic diversity?
AG
Andrew Griffith
I congratulate the Institute of Cancer Research on that progress. I would be delighted to meet the institute and hear what development it is making, as would my hon. Friends. This Government have increased the number of apprenticeships. Unfortunately, under the Opposition’s proposals the number of apprenticeships would…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Today is National Numeracy Day. In my constituency, which is one of the poorest, all seven wards fall into the lowest numeracy ranking in the UK. What is the Minister doing to ensure that people in constituencies like mine are not locked out of jobs in STEM by a skills gap that does not recognise the disadvantages they…
NATO: UK Obligations20 May 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps he is taking to ensure that the UK meets its NATO obligations.
Hansard · 20 May 2024 · parliament.uk
VS
Virendra Sharma
What steps he is taking to ensure that the UK meets its NATO obligations.
GS
Grant Shapps
Our commitment to NATO is unwavering. In response to Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, we have committed almost all our forces to NATO. We contribute to every single NATO mission and declare our nuclear deterrent to NATO. We show our commitment not least through our increase in defence spending to 2.5%.
GS
Grant Shapps
I am pleased to inform the hon. Lady and the House that we are now seeing a very high level of applications. Last week, the First Sea Lord told me that HMS Raleigh, where the training takes place, is the fullest it has been for more than eight years. We have seen a big increase in applications to all three services, an…
VS
Virendra Sharma
I am sure the Secretary of State recognises that the UK plays an outsize role in NATO as a crucial bridge between the United States and Europe. Does he agree that the UK should be contributing its huge industrial expertise to EU defence and security programmes, offering NATO additional resilience and choice while secur…
GS
Grant Shapps
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: our missions do indeed play an outsized role in NATO. We are the second biggest spender in NATO and the largest spender in Europe by a country mile, as Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary-General, said to me the other week. As I said in my original answer, we are contributors to ever…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The Public Accounts Committee has warned that “deterrence can only be effective if our Armed Forces are credible.” However, that has been “undermined” by recruitment issues, with more people leaving the forces than being recruited. What message does the Secretary of State think that sends to our NATO allies?
Israel and Gaza20 May 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
We must not forget that civilians and their children are the innocent victims of this war. The UN says that 800,000 people have been forced to flee Rafah since 6 May . In Gaza, there is clearly nowhere left that is safe, so will the Minister explain what he thinks the consequences should be for… any all-out attack on Rafah and any forced displacement of civilians?
Hansard · 20 May 2024 · parliament.uk
AM
Andrew Mitchell
With permission, I would like to make a statement on Israel and Gaza. Over seven months since the horrors of 7 October , there is no end to the current conflict in sight. This Government want to bring the conflict to a sustainable end as soon as possible, but as so often with conflicts of this nature, the question is n…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
DL
David Lammy
I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. The conflict has now gone on for 226 days. That is 226 days of destruction; 226 days of Israeli hostages still in chains; 226 days that have led to 35,000 Palestinian deaths; and 226 days where the risk of further regional escalation worsens every day. We will ke…
AM
Andrew Mitchell
I start by assuring the shadow Foreign Secretary that the Government’s answer to his final question is, as he would expect, yes. It is worth stating that if one looks carefully at his high-flown oratory this afternoon, we do not see very much distinction between the positions of His Majesty’s Opposition and the Governm…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Nurse Recruitment and Retention: GP Practices23 Apr 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps she is taking to increase levels of nurse recruitment and retention in GP practices.
Hansard · 23 Apr 2024 · parliament.uk
AL
Andrea Leadsom
We hugely appreciate the work that general practice nurses do. I know that the hon. Lady was a nurse in her previous life, and I absolutely pay tribute to her for her service. She will be aware that last year the Government provided additional funding for the general practice contract to uplift pay by 6%, in line with …
AL
Andrea Leadsom
The hon. Lady raises an important point. The long-term workforce plan commits to increasing the number of general practice nurses by more than 5,000 by 2036-37. In her area, the number of doctors in general practice in the NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB increased by 134 full-time equivalents between 2019 and 2023, but…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
We have all seen images of people queuing around the block for an appointment at their GP surgery, and in my local integrated care board, there has been a decline in general practice nurses since June 2020. It currently takes 12 months to train nurses wishing to move into general practice. Will the Minister tell me and…
Infected Blood Inquiry23 Apr 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My constituent contacted me again yesterday. His father and uncles were all infected with contaminated blood, and all but two of the uncles have now died. He said to me: “I had to grow up in care due to my father being too ill to look after me. We have been fighting for many, many… years for justice.” He thinks that the Government are dragging their feet on compensating victims. He is right, isn’t he?
Hansard · 23 Apr 2024 · parliament.uk
DJ
Diana R. Johnson
(Urgent Question): To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office to make a statement on the evidence uncovered of experiments on children and the contaminated blood scandal, and update the House on the action that the Government are taking on the second interim report from Sir Brian Langstaff.
JG
John Glen
Let me start by stating that the stories reported in the recent BBC news article, and indeed The Sunday Times report by Caroline Wheeler, demonstrate the unimaginable suffering of all those impacted by this dreadful scandal. As the House will know, in 2017 the Government established an independent public statutory inqu…
DJ
Diana R. Johnson
We know that more than 3,000 people have already died in the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. Another 680 have died since the public inquiry started in 2018. With two people dying on average every week, 100 people have died since Sir Brian made his final recommendations on paying compensation in Apri…
JG
John Glen
I thank the right hon. Lady for her questions and initial comments. Nobody in this House has done more than her to advance the interests of the infected and affected communities, as I have said consistently since I took office on 13 November . I recognise her frustrations and am doing everything I can to address them. …
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the Father of the House.
Hospice Funding22 Apr 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank the hon. Members for Hastings and Rye (Sally-Ann Hart) and for Darlington (Peter Gibson) for securing an excellent and important debate. We think of hospices as places where people go to die, but they are not; they are places where people go to live comfortably, supported and cared for while they are ill,… until that moment of death and—for many of the families—beyond. I might not be the only MP in the Chamber for whom this debate has made me remember my mortality, but I think we would all agree that when we come to that time, we want to be looked after by kind, supportive staff who can give us the care and attention we need. Those staff should be able to look after patients and their families without worrying about how they will feed their own children. Rooms should be warm, and directors of hospices should be thinking about how they can support as many people as possible, not when they will have to switch off the heating or turn someone away. Hospices across the UK provide care and support to 300,000 people every year. They are absolutely vital to our health and social care system, but unfortunately, they are facing serious financial challenges. It has now become a postcode lottery for many of our constituents.
Hansard · 22 Apr 2024 · parliament.uk
SH
Sally-Ann Hart
I beg to move, That this House has considered the postcode lottery of funding for hospices; and calls on integrated care boards to urgently address the funding for hospice-provided palliative care in their areas. As a member of all-party parliamentary group for hospice and end of life care, I am very happy to be co-lea…
BG
Barry Gardiner
I agree with everything that the hon. Member has just said. I wish to highlight the importance of palliative care for children and the amazing support that some children’s hospices are able to provide not just for the child, but for the entire family. It really is wraparound care, and so important for those parents goi…
SH
Sally-Ann Hart
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, and I could not agree more; he is absolutely right.
AF
Anna Firth
My hon. Friend asks why this support is not funded. In Southend we have the absolutely brilliant Havens hospice, which includes the children’s hospice Little Havens. More than 80% of its funding comes from donations, so it is dependent on sky dives and cycle rides, which is fantastic, but given that we fund, on the NHS…
SH
Sally-Ann Hart
I do, and I will be coming to that a little later. The future of end of life care is uncertain, as increasing costs and demands are putting huge pressures on hospices and care providers. When it comes to the debate on assisted suicide, it is important that people feel confident that their end of life care will protect …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I absolutely agree with what my hon. Friend says. We absolutely need those models. As I go through my speech, I will be agreeing with what she has just said. John Taylor Hospice in my constituency, which is run by Birmingham Hospice, does unbelievably important work to support my constituents and their families in Erdi…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I absolutely agree with your sentiments and statement. As was said earlier, we need to move away from looking at individuals to look at population health and how we will support the local community. I will move on swiftly so that I can finish. My constituency is the fifth poorest in the UK, and our communities are in s…
Support for Veterans25 Mar 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What recent steps Veterans UK has taken to support veterans and their families with the cost of living.
Hansard · 25 Mar 2024 · parliament.uk
LT
Liz Twist
What recent steps Veterans UK has taken to support veterans and their families.
KH
Kate Hollern
What recent steps Veterans UK has taken to support veterans and their families with the cost of living.
CC
Chris Clarkson
What steps his Department is taking to support veterans.
AM
Andrew Murrison
With other Government Departments, the Ministry of Defence delivers a range of services to our brilliant veterans and their families. That includes the administration and payment of armed forces pensions and compensation, the provision of tailored advice and assistance through the veterans welfare service, defence tran…
LT
Liz Twist
A new report from Northumbria University found that suicide among serving personnel and veterans could be reduced if there was better understanding within existing care provision of the specific challenges that they face. The report also found that military families felt unheard, misunderstood and not cared for during …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
At the last census, just over 17,000 veterans were living in Birmingham, 35% of whom were over the age of 80. Despite pledges to end veteran homelessness, Government figures show that it rose last year by 14%, and up to 180 veteran households across the UK are made newly homeless each month. Can the Minister tell me wh…
NHS Dentistry: Recovery and Reform7 Feb 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The £200 million pledged today is less than half last year’s record-breaking underspend. The plan says that any underspends will be ringfenced for dentistry. That was promised by a Minister last year, but it did not happen because integrated care boards were using that underspend. Why should the 73% of dentists in the west midlands… who cannot and are not accepting any new patients believe it will be any different this year?
Hansard · 7 Feb 2024 · parliament.uk
VA
Victoria Atkins
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry. First, though, on behalf of the entire House and my Department, I send our very best wishes to His Majesty the King. His decision to share his diagnosis will be welcomed by anyone whose life has been touc…
WS
Wes Streeting
I wholeheartedly associate myself and my party with the Secretary of State’s remarks on sending our best wishes to His Majesty the King. Having gone through a cancer diagnosis myself, I particularly send best wishes to his family, for whom a diagnosis is often more difficult than for the person receiving it. Also in th…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
Order. Mr Baker, I am sorry, but I don’t want any more heckling from you; you did a little bit earlier. I wanted everybody to listen to the Secretary of State, and I expect them to do the same for the shadow Secretary of State.
WS
Wes Streeting
Don’t worry, Mr Speaker: I will come back to the Parliamentary Private Secretary shortly. Tooth decay is the No.1 reason for children aged six to 10 being admitted to hospital. Unbelievably, there have been reports of Ukrainian refugees booking dentist appointments back home and returning for treatment, because it is e…
VA
Victoria Atkins
I tried to help the hon. Gentleman by giving him an advance copy of my speech yesterday, yet that was his speech. This Government are focused on delivering for patients. Perhaps I can help him understand the difference between the Opposition’s proposals and the Government’s fully funded dental recovery plan. The Opposi…
Knife and Sword Ban6 Feb 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
In the past decade, the Tories have cut 21,000 police officers across the UK and knife crime has gone up by 77%. This Government’s response has been completely inadequate. The serious violence strategy is more than five years out of date, the serious violence taskforce has been disbanded, and everyone knows from their own communities… that too little is being done to divert young people away from violence and crime. People in Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale have been left to face the consequences of Tory knife crime failure, and the B23 postcode in my constituency has the highest rate of knife crime in the west midlands, with 39 people stabbed last year, yet we have just a single weapon surrender bin. If we are serious about ending the blight of knife crime in our communities, we need the Government to be serious about funding. In the west midlands, we have lost 2,221 officers and have had £175 million slashed from our budgets since the last Labour Government. That is felt most harshly in areas that are already struggling. Of the 225 left-behind neighbourhoods in the UK, two are in my constituency, which is the fifth most deprived in the country. With the increase in county lines and gangs, young people do not feel safe walking to and from school—it is as simple as that. Even when my constituents contact the police, the massive funding failures and long waiting times in the criminal justice system mean they very rarely see any justice. A constituent told me that she had raised the issue of a gang in her block following a recent stabbing. She told me that, when her neighbour was threatened with a knife by a group of young people and she reported it to a police community support officer, she was advised that the best thing she could do would be to “make friends” with the gang. One of the most worrying aspects of knife crime is the large amount of youth violence across the UK. When a stabbing is reported in areas like Erdington, it is too often a child being sta
Hansard · 6 Feb 2024 · parliament.uk
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
Before we begin the debate on banning knives and swords from UK streets, I remind hon. Members that, under the terms of the House resolution on sub judice matters, they should not refer to any individual cases that are currently before the courts. I call the shadow Minister. 12.47 pm
AN
Alex Norris
I beg to move, That this House condemns the Government for overseeing a 77 per cent increase in knife crime since 2015; recognises the devastating impact that knife crime has on victims, their families and the wider community; acknowledges that the Government recently announced measures to ban zombie knives and machete…
AC
Alistair Carmichael
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way because he is describing a situation that is virtually identical to the one we faced in Scotland 15-plus years ago. The initiative taken by the then Strathclyde police force and the Scottish Government since has been a very different approach to tackling it—that of tre…
AN
Alex Norris
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention, and that will be part of my case, so I am sure I will be able to meet that test. It feels like most days we wake up to another tragic story of death and families torn apart. The most basic search online tells us it is all over the country—Bristol, Feltham,…
AC
Alex Cunningham
Under the Conservative Government and a Conservative police and crime commissioner, Cleveland has the highest crime rate in the UK, and only this weekend we saw another serious stabbing a mile down the road from me in Norton village. We hear the Government try to talk the talk but the bottom line has to be that they ar…
Engagements10 Jan 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I was a nurse in our NHS for 25 years. It is an offence to my colleagues and our patients when the Prime Minister pretends that he has a grip on NHS waiting times. Despite his big pledge to cut waiting lists, they have grown by half a million patients in the last year alone.… He can blame striking all he likes, but after 14 years of the Tories, who can possibly say that the NHS is better off?
Hansard · 10 Jan 2024 · parliament.uk
LA
Lee Anderson
If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 10 January.
RS
Rishi Sunak
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.
LA
Lee Anderson
Happy new year to you, Mr Speaker. Now then, the Horizon Post Office scandal saw hundreds of innocent people sent to prison—people like a former constituent of mine who went to jail for three years. During this scandal, the leader of the Liberal Democrats was the Minister in charge of the Post Office. This is the same …
RS
Rishi Sunak
This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history. People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and reputations destroyed, through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation. Sir Wyn Williams’ inquiry is undertaking crucial work to expo…
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I call the Leader of the Opposition.
NHS Dentistry9 Jan 2024
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I sit on the Health and Social Care Committee and was shocked at what I heard during the inquiry, but it lined up with what residents in my constituency are facing. There are more than 100,000 people living in my constituency and only seven dental surgeries, at least three of which are not accepting any… new adult patients. That issue is not unique to Erdington. Across the west midlands, 73% of dentists are not accepting any new adult patients. A constituent contacted me after her dentist’s practice closed down, as she had spent four hours trawling through websites and ringing practices, and she was not getting anywhere. She cannot afford private dental care, and her son has a serious health condition that means he requires regular dental check-ups. She explained that to every practice she could, but without success. Another constituent’s daughter was referred for braces in 2021. Two years later, after being referred to three separate orthodontists, she was told that there is a waiting list of more than 1,500 children, and it continues to rise. The response that I received from NHS England advised my constituents to call 111 for any urgent care services, and said that it is “working to address the challenges facing the service right now.” The list of challenges is long. The record of the Conservative Government means that NHS dentistry has completely collapsed. Over the past two years, 6 million adults tried and failed to get an appointment, and 4.4 million did not even try because they knew that there was no hope. Rotting teeth is the No. 1 reason that children aged six to 10 are admitted to hospital. Despite that, seven in 10 UK dentists are not accepting any new child patients. Shamefully, one in 10 people in the UK have attempted their own dental work out of pure desperation. That is how my constituents are experiencing the shocking record of the Conservative Government: getting them to properly fund our NHS is quite literally like pulling teeth. In April last ye
Hansard · 9 Jan 2024 · parliament.uk
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I inform the House that I have selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister. I call the shadow Secretary of State.
WS
Wes Streeting
I beg to move, That this House recognises that NHS dentistry is in crisis, with eight in 10 dentists in England not taking on new NHS patients and vast parts of the country considered so-called dental deserts, where no dentists are available; regrets that this has led to people resorting to DIY dentistry or attending A…
SC
Sarah Champion
May I add Rotherham to the list that my hon. Friend is quoting? To give an example, one of my constituents has been trying for more than a year to register with an NHS dentist. He has now had to go private for the consultation, which said: “Your teeth are in a very poor condition with most of your remaining teeth decay…
WS
Wes Streeting
I totally agree with my hon. Friend. We have heard so many heartbreaking stories like the one she mentions from her constituency. A service that once was there for all of us when we needed it is almost gone for good.
AM
Anthony Mangnall
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Pupils with SEN and Disabilities11 Dec 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for children with special educational needs and disabilities to receive support.
Hansard · 11 Dec 2023 · parliament.uk
DJ
David Johnston
In our improvement plan, we set out plans to deliver consistent early support through our new national standards, backed by a 60% increase in high-needs funding and in programmes such as our £13 million investment in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme, which supports the needs of neur…
DJ
David Johnston
We are investing £2.6 billion to transform the special educational needs and alternative provision system. That has included a 36% increase in funding to Birmingham, where the timeliness of EHCPs has been getting better each year between 2020 and 2022.[Official Report, 18 December 2023 , Vol. 742, c. 8MC.]
MP
Mark Pritchard
Beyond the traditional methods of support for SEND, the Minister will know that councils give specialist provisions, and we have heard a lot today about some of those longer-term provisions, for children in particular, and the time involved. What assessment does the Department make when looking at the distance that som…
DJ
David Johnston
My right hon. Friend makes an important point. Out of county placements are not ideal for the child and their family or for the cost to the local authority, which is why we have 78 new special schools in fruition. We are also committed to seeing the children whose needs can be met in a mainstream school being supported…
MF
Mark Francois
Thank you, Sir. It is good to see you back safe and well in the Chair. As this is the nearest I am ever going to get to it—No. 10, please! [Laughter.]
PH
Paulette Hamilton
More than half of children with an education, health and care plan are now experiencing a delay, and even after receiving an EHCP, my constituent’s child was held back a year and had to wait another year before finding a space in a special school. Over 1.5 million children in the UK have special educational needs, so c…
Primary Care: Patient Access5 Dec 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
A primary care walk-in facility at Warren Farm in my constituency faces closure due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The proposal to close the service will mean that services are relocated away from residents who need them. What is the Minister doing to fund the investigation and removal of RAAC in health… facilities while making sure that communities can still access the healthcare that they so desperately need?
Hansard · 5 Dec 2023 · parliament.uk
MY
Mohammad Yasin
What steps she is taking to improve patient access to primary care.
AL
Andrea Leadsom
The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that, with huge thanks to all the superb GPs and health teams, our manifesto commitment for 50 million more general practice appointments a year compared with 2019 has now been delivered. Our primary care recovery plan is addressing access challenges by tackling the 8 am rush …
MY
Mohammad Yasin
I thank the Minister for her answer, but let me correct her. Since 2014, the number of GP practices in Bedford and Kempston has decreased from 18 to 11; there are fewer doctors, while the patient list has increased; and the number of patients per qualified GP now stands at 2,812, which is a rise of 60%. Will the Minist…
AL
Andrea Leadsom
The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that 50 million more appointments between 2019 and now is a fantastic increase. There are just under 4,000 new GPs since 2019, and the hon. Gentleman will appreciate that through the post-covid recovery plan to improve access we have said to GP practices that they should provide urgen…
KT
Kelly Tolhurst
I am incredibly grateful for the significant increase in the number of GP appointments offered to residents in my constituency. However, last week Aspire announced that it wishes to close the Lower Stoke surgery on the Hoo peninsula, where the council proposes to build thousands of homes. Will my right hon. Friend meet…
Israel and Hamas: Humanitarian Pause27 Nov 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Does the Minister agree that to prevent a catastrophic outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera, we need to see fresh water flowing and sanitation and hygiene supplies being delivered on a large scale, alongside key public health and medical support?
Hansard · 27 Nov 2023 · parliament.uk
DL
David Lammy
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if he will make a statement on the Israel-Gaza situation and the humanitarian pause.
AM
Andrew Mitchell
I thank the shadow Foreign Secretary for his question. A tragedy is unfolding in the middle east. Israel has suffered the worst terror attack in its history and Palestinian civilians are experiencing a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis. As the Foreign Secretary made clear, last week’s agreement was a crucial …
DL
David Lammy
I am grateful for the granting of this urgent question. Holding the Government to account is a sacred duty of this House, but with Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton not here, this feels more like a game of “Where’s Wally?” I start by asking the Minister what progress is being made with Mr Speaker to ensure that all Membe…
AM
Andrew Mitchell
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for most of his comments and, in particular, his desire to ensure an extension of the cessation of hostilities. On what he said about the broader situation, the Opposition Front Benchers and the Government are in complete agreement. The right hon. Gentleman asks what progress has been m…
EL
Eleanor Laing
I call the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Violence Reduction, Policing and Criminal Justice15 Nov 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
It is a pleasure to speak in this debate on His Majesty’s first King’s Speech, especially on the vital issue of crime and confidence in our police and criminal justice system. Under the Conservative Government, crime and antisocial behaviour are having a massive impact on communities in Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale. Last year, my… constituency had the highest rate of knife crime in Birmingham. In one area, covering Stockland Green and Kingstanding, the West Midlands Ambulance Service was called out to treat, on average, three victims of knife crime every month. A constituent contacted me last month. He said, “My friend recently had his skull cracked on the high street. Four guys tried to rob him and then stamped on him. I haven’t seen a police officer up there in months.” I hosted a meeting last month of all the local traders on our high street in Erdington. One woman told me that she works alone all day. She said that, from 8am to 11pm, there are constantly people dealing drugs outside her shop—when she arrives, while she is working, and when she closes up. But unfortunately, even though she constantly rings the police, she never sees anybody. The Conservative Government have cut the police force by 15% since Labour left office, leaving us with the lowest number of officers since the early 1980s. That was reckless and short-sighted. It is no wonder that our local community does not trust the Government’s action on antisocial behaviour; there is not any. On the impact that the King’s Speech could have had, it could have pledged to restore neighbourhood policing, as Labour has, and put 13,000 more officers and PCSOs on our streets. It could have guaranteed town centre patrols, as Labour has pledged to, so that people could walk down high streets such as mine after 5 pm and at night without worrying about violence. Unfortunately, that has not happened. The Government are wrong to think that our constituents will give up. We need to stop the decline and start
Hansard · 15 Nov 2023 · parliament.uk
RW
Rosie Winterton
I inform the House that Mr Speaker has selected amendment (r) in the name of the Leader of the Opposition, the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) , which will be moved at the start of the debate, and amendment (h) in the name of Stephen Flynn, the Scottish National party leader, and…
YC
Yvette Cooper
I beg to move amendment (r), at the end of the Question to add: “and submit to Your Majesty that this House wishes to see an end to the violence in Israel and Palestine; unequivocally condemn the horrific terrorist attack and murder of civilians by Hamas, call for the immediate release of all hostages and reaffirm Isra…
YC
Yvette Cooper
Eight Justice Secretaries—it has been a struggle to keep count of their changing. We have had eight Home Secretaries in less than eight years and, even worse, two of them were the right hon. and learned Member for Fareham (Suella Braverman) . She was so unsuited for the job of Home Secretary that she was sacked twice: …
AC
Alex Chalk
The first duty of any Government—its most serious and solemn responsibility—is to keep its people safe. Since 2010, overall levels of crime are down by more than 50%. Domestic burglary is down by 57%, violent crime by 52%, vehicle-related theft by 39%, and the number of young people admitted to hospital following an as…
YC
Yvette Cooper
Let me correct the Secretary of State. He may not recall, but I tabled one of the first amendments on reform to introduce a stalking law. That same amendment was eventually taken up in the other place by the Labour lords, and the Conservative Government agreed to it. I am very glad that they did, but he should not take…
Cancer Treatment Waiting Times17 Oct 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps he is taking to improve waiting times for cancer treatment.
Hansard · 17 Oct 2023 · parliament.uk
JS
Jeff Smith
What steps he is taking to improve waiting times for cancer treatment.
WQ
Will Quince
Improving cancer treatment waiting times is a top priority for this Government, and it is a key focus of our elective recovery plan, backed by an additional £8 billion in revenue funding across the spending review period. In August 2023, cancer treatment activity for first treatments stood at 105% of pre-pandemic level…
WQ
Will Quince
I thank the hon. Lady for her question, and, of course, I recognise the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Cancer checks are up by a quarter on pre-pandemic levels, and in August more than 91% of patients started their first cancer treatment within a month of a decision to treat. We have opened 123 additional…
JS
Jeff Smith
The Minister has again been referring to “pre-pandemic levels”. Ministers have a tendency to blame covid for increased waiting times, including in respect of cancer. I presume they are aware that the number of cancer patients not getting care on time rose in every year since the Conservatives came to power before the p…
WQ
Will Quince
We are continuing to support NHS England in increasing cancer treatment capacity. As I say, I recognise the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. NHS England has instructed integrated care boards to increase and prioritise the diagnostic and treatment capacity for cancer. As of the middle of this year,…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest type of common cancer, killing more than half of those diagnosed in England within three months. I know the pain of losing close friends and family to pancreatic cancer and how important it is that people are diagnosed and treated quickly. Under this Government we have seen NHS waitin…
Clause 148 - Guidance17 Oct 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Does my hon. Friend agree that people deserve to have their voices heard and to decide for themselves who they want to represent them as their police and crime commissioner?
Hansard · 17 Oct 2023 · parliament.uk
RM
Rachel Maclean
I beg to move amendment (a) to Lords amendment 117.
RW
Rosie Winterton
With this it will be convenient to consider: Government amendments (b) to (d) to Lords amendment 117. Lords amendment 231, and Government amendment (a). Lords amendment 237, and Government amendments (a) and (b). Lords amendment 369, and Government amendments (a), (c), (b) and (d). Lords amendment 1, and Government mot…
RM
Rachel Maclean
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill has had a lengthy passage. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to all my predecessors in my role and to colleagues across the Department who have shepherded the Bill to its position. The Bill reflects the huge importance of levelling up for the future of the country. For decade…
DS
Desmond Swayne
I do not know what the Minister is going to say about Lords amendment 14, but if she is agin it, will she reassure me that the voice of district councils will not be lost in combined county authorities, which would create a disparity of the type that she is out to remove in the Bill?
RM
Rachel Maclean
I thank my right hon. Friend for his view. I will come on to address that point substantially in my remarks. We are modernising our planning system, putting local people at its heart so that it delivers more of what communities want. The reformed system will champion beautiful design in keeping with local style and pre…
Birmingham City Council19 Sep 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Birmingham is the eighth local authority to declare a section 114 notice since the Tories took power, causing huge concerns to my residents in Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale. Across the UK, councils are struggling with rising prices and limited budgets, and most are being forced to make even deeper cuts next year. Can the… Secretary of State accept that local leaders need certainty about their budgets and reassure the House today that every local council will be properly funded by central Government?
Hansard · 19 Sep 2023 · parliament.uk
MG
Michael Gove
With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement about Birmingham City Council. Birmingham is a great city with a wonderful, diverse, creative and enterprising population. It has real economic, cultural and educational strengths. But Birmingham City Council has not served the citizens of that g…
AR
Angela Rayner
I thank the Secretary of State for the advance copy of his statement today. It has been a while since we faced each other: 804 days, to be exact. A lot has changed since then. We are on our third Prime Minister, our fourth Chancellor and, of course, our sixth different Minister for Housing. They have crashed the econom…
MG
Michael Gove
It is a great pleasure to be reunited with the right hon. Lady; those 800 days apart seemed much longer. We have certain things in common—both of us have been trade union organisers in the past—but she has been much more successful in internal party elections than I have ever been, so I do have a lot to learn from her.…
JM
James Morris
I welcome the statement—it is right that the Secretary of State is taking this decisive action in relation to commissioners so that we can get to the bottom of what has actually happened in Birmingham City Council—but can he give me some reassurance that neighbouring local authorities such as Dudley and Sandwell, and c…
MG
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes an important point. Of course, there are real issues for Sandwell as a local authority, which is why we had to intervene there to deal with years of mismanagement, but it is also the case that council tax payers elsewhere in the west midlands must not be on the hook for failures that occurred in Bi…
UK Automotive Industry18 Sep 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
In communities such mine in Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale, the automotive industry is our lifeblood, and it is no wonder that families are seriously worried about job decline. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to prioritise not only job creation but upskilling, so that jobs can be created and sustained locally?
Hansard · 18 Sep 2023 · parliament.uk
SJ
Sarah Jones
It is a pleasure to take part in a debate on a sector whose past, present and future lie at the heart of British manufacturing. I know that many of my colleagues and their constituents will understand the vital importance of this issue; I also know that several colleagues sadly cannot be here today because they are att…
SJ
Sarah Jones
My hon. Friend is doing an excellent job on behalf of her constituents, as, of course, did her predecessor, in standing up for the sector in many debates in this place. The Tories risk putting British motor manufacturers under the bus. According to analysis that I have seen, under the Conservatives we have lost more th…
JR
John Redwood
I rise to urge the Government to be careful about rushing to close our factories making diesel and petrol cars before we have established the electrical revolution and are confident that we have created the capacity and the extra jobs in the alternative power system that the hon. Member for Croydon Central (Sarah Jones…
WH
Wera Hobhouse
Is the right hon. Gentleman not making an important admission that although the EU has delayed ending the manufacture of combustion engines, there are important exemptions in that those cars should be run only on synthetic fuels and sustainable fuels?
JR
John Redwood
I have said that the EU was keen to explore the synthetic fuel opportunity. In the meantime, it is not recommending the closure of traditional vehicle factories at pace. Indeed, the EU has recently required of its member states that they should not only speed up the roll-out of electrical charging points—which will cle…
Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education Settings4 Sep 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I have 40 schools in my constituency, which is one of the poorest in the UK; they simply cannot afford another crisis. They have faced austerity, coronavirus, energy bills and strikes. What support can be offered to schools and parents in Erdington who will be affected by this? Also, we have talked about other public… buildings, so how will the right hon. Lady work to ensure that what has been learned from this will be passed on to other areas so that the same mistakes are not made again?
Hansard · 4 Sep 2023 · parliament.uk
GK
Gillian Keegan
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement about the steps that my Department is taking to support education settings to respond to the risk of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, commonly known as RAAC. Before I go into specifics, I want to be clear that absolutely nothing is more impo…
BP
Bridget Phillipson
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement. I will turn in a moment to the sorry story of how we got here, but let me first ask the House to reflect on two things. First, the safety of children and staff in schools today should be our highest priority, and while the voices of children are rarely …
GK
Gillian Keegan
I thank the hon. Lady, and of course that is me, but what matters is what you do. When I was given new information and had to consider the impact that this would have on our schools and children, I took action even though it was politically difficult. Yesterday, when the hon. Lady was asked about Wales and RAAC, she wa…
GK
Gillian Keegan
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think I answered the hon. Lady’s question. The information will be published this week. Everything will be fully funded: the mitigation, any revenue that is required on a case-by-case basis, and also the rebuilding of the schools. When it comes to doing a good job, I make no apologies…
MM
Maria Miller
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to put the safety of children first and to take a cautious approach, but I know from speaking to headteachers in my constituency that her Department has been speaking to schools about RAAC and how to mitigate it not just for weeks or months, but for years. One of my schools, in …
Under-age Vaping12 Jul 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I thank my hon. Friends on the Front Bench for choosing this important topic for debate. I recognise that encouraging the use of e-cigarettes is a vital part of the Government’s strategy for a smokefree 2030. I am a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, and two weeks ago I listened to the… expert panel and heard some of their disturbing evidence. It is worrying that the risks associated with vaping are still unclear, as long-term studies do not exist. I was a nurse for 25 years. Believe me, there is no one who wants to support effective public health measures as passionately as I do, but I am concerned. It is illegal to sell vapes containing nicotine to anyone under the age of 18, but, in 2021, over 20% of children aged 11 to 15 had tried vaping. Clearly, something is not working. At the Health and Social Care Committee, I asked the panel about banning vape sticks, but was struck by the answer that banning them would drive them underground, which worried me. One secondary school in my constituency told me: “Vaping has massively increased with children—they are too easy to obtain and the negative consequences are not fully appreciated by the children. Vapes are also being used as a method of supplying harder drugs, which is a wider issue across our estate.” Forty children and young people were admitted to hospital in England last year owing to vaping-related disorders. We have all seen reports about some of the terrible symptoms that they have experienced, from seizures and shortness of breath, to hypertension and high blood pressure. The Khan review, published last year, recommended that the Government do everything they possibly can to prevent children and young people from vaping. If Conservative Members are really committed to doing everything they possibly can, they could start by fixing the mess that they have created in the NHS and attempting to make new records, rather than those they are currently achieving for the longest waiting list, the highest
Hansard · 12 Jul 2023 · parliament.uk
AG
Andrew Gwynne
I beg to move, That this House is concerned that children are being inappropriately exposed to e-cigarette promotions and that under-age vaping has increased by 50% in just the last three years; condemns the Government for its failure to act to protect children by voting against the addition of measures to prohibit bra…
SC
Stella Creasy
Like my hon. Friend, I have been horrified to see custard, banana, bubble gum and doughnut-flavoured vapes, clearly targeted at younger palates. They are clearly not about helping people cease smoking. One of the challenges is that we know children are increasingly moving from vaping to actual cigarettes. Does he agree…
AG
Andrew Gwynne
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There is a place for banana, custard and even doughnuts, but that is not on a vape package. She is right that we need to close the loophole and protect children’s health. That is why we have tabled this motion. In a recent evidence session on youth vaping, Laranya Caslin, the headtea…
DC
Daisy Cooper
I am grateful to the shadow Minister for giving way. I have heard really shocking reports from parents and teachers in my constituency that children as young as 11 are using vapes and that one young person, at the age of 17, is now addicted. In the worst cases I am hearing, some young children are being targeted and ar…
AG
Andrew Gwynne
The hon. Lady makes a powerful case. Those are precisely the reasons why we have called this debate. It should shock each and every one of us. The ease of access to e-cigarettes for children, many younger than the ages she gave as an example, just cannot be allowed. We must be doing all we can on e-cigarettes, as we di…
Asylum Accommodation: Hotels3 Jul 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What recent progress her Department has made on reducing the use of hotels as contingency asylum accommodation.
Hansard · 3 Jul 2023 · parliament.uk
JS
Jeff Smith
What recent progress her Department has made on reducing the use of hotels as contingency asylum accommodation.
RJ
Robert Jenrick
The Home Office seeks to end the use of hotels and to move asylum seekers to less expensive, more suitable accommodation. To support that, we are bringing into use large, disused military sites and vessels, which will provide adequate, safe, secure, non-detained accommodation for asylum seekers and also reduce the pull…
RJ
Robert Jenrick
The policy that we have adopted is one of maximising the capacity of the hotels that we have for as long as we have them. That is saving the taxpayer at least a quarter of a billion pounds and reducing reliance on hotels elsewhere in the country. I do appreciate that there are pressures on the hon. Lady’s local authori…
JS
Jeff Smith
In my constituency, I have had the same experience as my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs Hamilton) , but the question I want to ask is about unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The Home Office still has not explained how it is going to find the children missing from asylum accommodation, so wil…
RJ
Robert Jenrick
We have been very clear that we and the police take extremely seriously any young person who goes missing from a hotel or any other form of accommodation. Local police forces and Home Office personnel treat that exactly as they would any other child going missing and they conduct a full missing person inquiry. However,…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I recently received an email from the Home Office that said that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is “inappropriate”, and that reliance on them must be reduced. In the same email, the Home Office informed me that it planned to increase the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in my constituency of Erd…
Mortgage and Rental Costs27 Jun 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Time and again I meet people in my surgery who can barely afford to feed their family, let alone afford rent hikes. Does my hon. Friend agree that people in communities across the country cannot afford to pay the price of a Tory Government?
Hansard · 27 Jun 2023 · parliament.uk
RW
Rosie Winterton
I inform the House that amendment (a), tabled in the name of the Prime Minister, has been selected. I call the shadow Chancellor to move the motion.
RR
Rachel Reeves
I beg to move, That this House is extremely concerned that, under this Conservative Government, average mortgage costs will be increasing by £2,900 per year, with a typical household in the UK paying over £2,000 more per year than in France and over £1,000 more than in Ireland and Belgium, and that renters face huge in…
LR
Lloyd Russell-Moyle
My right hon. Friend is making a good introduction. Is it not the case that all this money that will be lost by households does not go to help anyone but the Tories’ friends in the banks, who, of course, have presided over those neo-liberal policies that trashed our economy?
RR
Rachel Reeves
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I will come on to the ways in which we can better protect people, but many banks are doing the right thing and trying to support their customers. It is important that all lenders take the action that is needed, which is why we need the Government to make that charter a requ…
MG
Margaret Greenwood
My right hon. Friend is making excellent remarks. Does she agree that this situation is having a devastating impact not only on people with mortgages, but on renters, because landlords are passing on the costs to them? Does she agree that we need no-fault evictions to be scrapped immediately?
Mental Health Treatment and Support7 Jun 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests because I am an independent lay manager. Everywhere we look in Britain at the moment, public services are crumbling. Chronic neglect by the Conservative Government means that people across the UK can no longer trust that they will be able to… access mental health services when they need them. As a lay manager in Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, I often see the impact that dwindling services and limited resources have on residents across our city. In our local ICB area in December, nearly 3,000 children and almost 50,000 adults were on the mental health waiting list. In my constituency, parents have told me that their children are waiting a number of years for urgent mental health support. Birmingham and Erdington are not unique cases. Since 2010, the Conservative Government have cut one in four mental health beds across the country as waiting times for treatment have soared. Currently, 400,000 children are waiting for mental health treatment across the UK. They are being denied the help that they need. I am a mum and a grandmother. Like all parents, I want the next generation to have better opportunities than I did. That is why Labour’s plan to recruit thousands more mental health staff, guarantee treatment within a month and provide access to a mental health professional in every school is so important. It is inconceivable that the Government have failed to put forward their own plan to recruit mental health staff or even reduce the shocking waiting times that our constituents are having to put up with. I worked in the NHS for 25 years and, like many of my colleagues, I despair at how it has been treated by the Government. This year will mark 75 years of our incredible NHS, but, over the last 13 years, the Conservatives have done all they can to wreck it. People suffering with their mental health cannot afford to wait any longer for the support that they need. We
Hansard · 7 Jun 2023 · parliament.uk
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
I inform the House that I have selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister.
RA
Rosena Allin-Khan
I beg to move, That this House notes with concern the scale of the mental health crisis facing the country with patients suffering with mental health issues waiting more than 5.4 million hours in accident and emergency last year; further notes with concern the mental health crisis facing young people with nearly 400,00…
TP
Toby Perkins
I am very pleased with the way my hon. Friend has started her speech, because she is absolutely right. Alongside the additional healthcare staff needed and the many measures that my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) and I have been spelling out for the health service, the society that has been cre…
RA
Rosena Allin-Khan
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention; he is right. I will talk about the need for mental health not to exist in a silo later in my remarks. Frankly, it is the problem of every single Government Department. One in four people experiences a problem with their mental health each year in England. One in six people e…
AB
Andrew Bridgen
The shadow Minister makes an accurate assessment of the size of the mental health crisis facing our nation, but her words would have more resonance if she and her party had not voted in lockstep with the Government for the disastrous lockdowns that damaged mental health, especially that of our young people. Will she ap…
Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh2 May 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) on securing this important debate. I refer the House to my declaration of interests. In March, I had the pleasure of visiting Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. I was blown away by the unbelievable resilience of the Rohingya people living there. Over 1 million refugees… live in Cox’s Bazar, with more than 900,000 of those having fled persecution in Myanmar. I was a nurse for 25 years, and I worked in public health all my working life before being elected to Parliament. The conditions that vulnerable refugees in Bangladesh face are some of the worst I have witnessed. Living conditions in Cox’s Bazar are extremely poor, with overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and limited access to clean water meaning that infectious disease spreads very easily. Chronic malnutrition is also a major concern: 40% of children suffer from stunted growth, 45% of Rohingya families have insufficient diets, and 41% of pregnant and breastfeeding women are anaemic and just do not have access to the health services they need. Many refugees have experienced trauma, including violence, displacement, grief and loss, all of which can lead to significant mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. I am a lay manager at my local NHS trust in Birmingham and I know the difficulties that many people face with their mental health here in the UK. We can only imagine how difficult it must be for people who have been forced away from their homes and families and seen indescribable violence along the way.
Hansard · 2 May 2023 · parliament.uk
MY
Mohammad Yasin
I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of support for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. I thank right hon. and hon. Members from across the House—especially those on the all-party parliamentary group on Bangladesh—who supported the application for the debate, and I thank the Backbench Business Committe…
IH
Imran Hussain
I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing such an important debate to the House. He is making an excellent speech, in particular about the plight of the Rohingya in the Cox’s Bazar camps. Does he agree that it is beyond disappointing that less than 50% of the aid promised by the international community has yet to be re…
MY
Mohammad Yasin
I thank my hon. Friend for making such an important point. That is what I am saying: aid from the international community has been cut by more than 50%. Aid from the UK has reduced by more than 82%. That is really affecting the people who are living in such difficult conditions. We must improve our aid and lead a campa…
JH
Jane Hunt
I congratulate the hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) on leading this important debate. In March, I had the privilege of visiting Bangladesh. As well as meeting the honourable Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, and a number of businesses throughout the region, we visited the Rohingya refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar. It w…
RA
Rushanara Ali
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) on securing this important debate and thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing time for us to debate this issue. As he mentioned in his opening speech, in January this year we visited Cox’s Bazar and south-eastern parts of Bangladesh with …
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I absolutely support what my hon. Friend says. This has to come to an end. When I went to Bangladesh, it was an absolute honour to go to those camps. Sometimes, it does not matter what you read; you have to see it and experience it. When I went there I saw the conditions that people were living in. The hon. Member for …
Access to Primary Care7 Mar 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What steps he is taking to improve patient access to primary care.
Hansard · 7 Mar 2023 · parliament.uk
NO
Neil O'Brien
We have increased real-terms spending on general practice by more than a fifth since 2015. We are growing the workforce, with 2,200 more doctors and 25,000 extra primary care clinicians compared with 2019. We have the most GPs in training ever, up from 2,600 to 4,000. In January there were 11% more appointments in gene…
NO
Neil O'Brien
As well as the 2,200 extra doctors in primary care, I mentioned the 25,000 extra other clinicians. That means that in the hon. Lady’s constituency there are 55% more staff working directly with patients than before.
CS
Chloe Smith
At a time when GP and A&E services are under pressure, I am pleased to see the ministerial team’s focus on helping people to see a doctor when they need to. Does the Minister agree that walk-in centres, such as ours in Norwich city centre, are helpful, popular and necessary?
NO
Neil O'Brien
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right; walk-in centres are a key part of primary care. We are looking at how they can do more, and I pay tribute to all the work they are already doing.
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Under the Tories, the number of qualified GPs has fallen to a record low, which is hitting local communities across the UK very hard. In January, in Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale, more than 2,000 people had to wait more than a month for a GP appointment. Is it not the case that the longer the Tories are in po…
Illegal Migration Bill7 Mar 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I am the daughter of immigrants. My parents’ generation faced injustice through the mistakes made by the Windrush scheme, which are taking years to unravel. Last year set a record high for small boat crossings, with 46,000 arrivals. Why on earth should our constituents trust the Conservative Government, when under them, small boat crossings are… going up rather than coming down?
Hansard · 7 Mar 2023 · parliament.uk
SB
Suella Braverman
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement about the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill. Two months ago, the Prime Minister made a promise to the British people that anyone entering this country illegally will be detained and swiftly removed—no half measures. The Illegal Migration Bill will fulfil t…
YC
Yvette Cooper
A record 45,000 people crossed the channel on dangerous small boats last year, up from just 280 four years ago. In that short time, the Government have allowed criminal gangs to take hold along the channel and along our border. At the same time, convictions of people smugglers have halved; Home Office asylum decisions …
SB
Suella Braverman
I thank the right hon. Lady for her remarks, but—forgive me—after five minutes of hysteria, histrionics and criticism, I am still not clear: I have no idea what Labour’s plan is. I will assume that the shadow Home Secretary is still committed to scrapping our Rwanda partnership, as she said last year, and I will assume…
TL
Tim Loughton
Never have I heard such fabricated rage against genuine attempts to come up with practical solutions for this problem, from a Labour party that has consistently been a policy vacuum on any practical solutions at all. I support this Bill, particularly the provisions for sustainable safe and legal routes for genuine asyl…
SB
Suella Braverman
My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. Deterrence is the key theme running through these measures. We want to send the message loudly and clearly to people smugglers and people thinking about crossing the channel: do not do it. Do not hand over your life savings, do not get in to that flimsy dinghy and do not risk your …
Future of the NHS23 Feb 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend raises a valuable point. I am passionate about mental health, but at the moment we have no plan. The 10-year plan for mental health services and the way forward was abolished and nothing has been put in its place. Does my hon. Friend feel that that has contributed to the fact that… we are seeing so many issues in our young people and elderly, and anxiety in our teenagers?
Hansard · 23 Feb 2023 · parliament.uk
KO
Kate Osborne
I beg to move, That this House has considered the future of the NHS, its staffing and funding. The national health service is a beloved national institution. Everyone in the country and in this House will have interacted with the NHS and have their own personal connections and stories that they can reflect on, from the…
JM
John Martin McDonnell
The crisis in dental and mental health is affecting our children at the moment. In some of our constituencies, it is a direct result of the lack of local provision. We are feeding a generation of problems as a result of that failure.
KO
Kate Osborne
I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. The problems for our children further down the line are worrying, but of course, they are preventable if the right action is taken. The Conservatives blame everything else—the weather, the pandemic and even NHS staff—but their 13 years of failure have left the health servic…
AC
Alex Cunningham
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. This will come as a surprise to her, but I have visited a private health provider in my constituency in the last fortnight. People there told me that they are recruiting staff directly from university, so people are trained at the state’s expense but are then used f…
KO
Kate Osborne
I will address my hon. Friend’s point in my remarks. This Government’s ideological commitment to the free market has led them to force through more and more privatisation of our national health service. Some Government Back Benchers are talking openly about moving to an Americanised healthcare system in which people ar…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow (Kate Osborne) on securing this debate. I worked in the NHS as a nurse for 25 years. I know at first hand how soul destroying it can be to work long hours with inadequate staffing and funding. I am also a mom, a sister, a wife and a grandmother. I know how worry…
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Women and Girls31 Jan 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
What recent steps his Department has taken to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene for women and girls across the world.
Hansard · 31 Jan 2023 · parliament.uk
AM
Andrew Mitchell
Britain is working to improve access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in 37 developing countries.
AM
Andrew Mitchell
I thank the hon. Lady, my constituency neighbour, for flagging up an extremely important area of development policy. Over the last three years, Britain has trained 460,000 health and other key workers in the science of hygiene, and has supported 14,800 healthcare facilities. As she will have seen from her visit to Ghan…
TV
Theresa Villiers
Research by Open Doors for its world watch list indicates that there is a worrying tendency for Christian communities to be deprived of access to vital aid programmes. Will the Minister ensure that all UK-funded aid programmes are open to Christians, where needed, and other ethnic minorities?
AM
Andrew Mitchell
My right hon. Friend makes an extremely good point, and the answer is yes.
PG
Preet Kaur Gill
We have now passed the halfway mark to the 2030 deadline for meeting the sustainable development goals that we and 192 UN countries signed up to. On our current trajectory, however, we are set to miss every single one. Does the Minister agree that WASH is a cornerstone of the global goals and, to meet his targets on gi…
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I refer the House to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. A third of women around the world do not have access to clean water. In December, I visited Ghana and saw how water, sanitation and hygiene projects funded by UK aid can be life-changing for women and girls. The Government’s internatio…
Business of the House26 Jan 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Erdington High Street has seven betting shops, and I am campaigning to oppose the latest planning application for yet another one. Birmingham City Council did the right thing by rejecting the application last July, but the gambling bosses have now made an appeal to the Government. Another bookies on our high streets is the last… thing we need. After being let down by Ministers yet again when our levelling-up fund bid was rejected last week, will the Leader of the House grant a debate in Government time on the importance of investing in our high streets?
Hansard · 26 Jan 2023 · parliament.uk
TD
Thangam Debbonaire
Will the Leader of the House give us the business for next week?
PM
Penny Mordaunt
The business for next week is as follows: Monday 30 January —Committee of the whole House and remaining stages of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill. Tuesday 31 January —Opposition day (12th allotted day): debate in the name of the official Opposition, subject to be announced Wednesday 1 February —Remaining stag…
TD
Thangam Debbonaire
I thank the Leader of the House for setting out the business. Ministers answering questions from MPs on behalf of our constituents should be a given—it is the most basic form of scrutiny in a parliamentary democracy—but, as we all know, this Government struggle with even the basics. Swerving scrutiny is now the norm. L…
PM
Penny Mordaunt
I am sure the whole House will want to recognise that we have Holocaust Memorial Day this week. Let me place on the record my thanks, in particular, to all the survivors who help us and new generations to understand what happened and, of course, to redouble our efforts to tackle antisemitism wherever it appears. I also…
TM
Theresa May
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 states that the Secretary of State must appoint an independent anti-slavery commissioner, but the post has been vacant since the excellent Sara Thornton stepped down last April. May we please have a statement from the Home Secretary on the process and timetable for the appointment of the rep…
Business of the House19 Jan 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
The levelling-up round 2 funding announced last night was a kick in the teeth for my community in Erdington. Despite the attempts by the Minister who responded to Labour’s urgent question to pretend that the process was fair, we know the truth. The Prime Minister’s constituency received £19 million of funding but Erdington High Street… got nothing. An urgent question is simply not enough, so will the Leader of the House grant time for a proper debate on the total failure of the Government’s levelling-up agenda?
Hansard · 19 Jan 2023 · parliament.uk
TD
Thangam Debbonaire
Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?
PM
Penny Mordaunt
The business for the week commencing 23 January includes: Monday 23 January —Consideration of an allocation of time motion, followed by all stages of the Northern Ireland Budget Bill. Tuesday 24 January —Remaining stages of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (day 1). Wednesday 25 January —Remaining stag…
TD
Thangam Debbonaire
I thank the Leader of the House for the forthcoming business, and for her good wishes last week. As she is about to find out, I am indeed back to something approaching full voice. I put on record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) , who so ably stood in for me. Yesterday, the Leade…
PM
Penny Mordaunt
Happy Chinese new year to everyone and congratulations to HMS Oardacious, which I mentioned in a previous session, on its record-breaking row across the Atlantic. It is very good to see the hon. Lady back and in full voice, and I am glad she has been paying attention to my speech—I am very flattered by that. Before tur…
EL
Edward Leigh
Of course, solar panels have their part to play, but Gainsborough is going to be ringed with 10,000 acres of solar panels, more than the rest of the east midlands combined. May we have a debate on this issue and particularly on Government guidance on whether solar panels should be put on good agricultural land? There i…
NHS: Long-term Strategy11 Jan 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
I was a nurse for 25 years and I returned to the frontline during the pandemic. I know at first hand that after 13 years of Tory mismanagement, our NHS is in crisis. Many health workers who have dedicated their lives to caring for others day in, day out are still living with the after… effects of having worked flat out during and before the pandemic, all while trying to do the work of three or four people due to staff shortages. It is soul destroying for people to go on duty knowing that there will be inadequate staffing levels for nine or 12-hour shifts. Tory cuts have reduced A&E departments to shells of what they were under the last Labour Government—they are now so busy that staff feel that they can seem, at times, like a zoo. Social care needs fundamental reform that truly brings together health and social care. People in Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale and across the UK are finding it almost impossible to get a GP appointment, an ambulance or an operation when they need one, but the implications of stress on the health of staff can be tragic. The ongoing failure of the Government to address staffing levels can be a matter of life or death for patients. It breaks my heart to say that I just could not face the prospect of working in nursing right now. In November, 140,000 people had to wait more than four hours to be admitted to A&E, and unfortunately my husband was one of them. If we add all that time together, collectively, the British public waited almost 65 years for emergency treatment, but the real question is: how much longer will they have to wait for a competent Government—
Hansard · 11 Jan 2023 · parliament.uk
RW
Rosie Winterton
I inform the House that amendment (a), tabled in the name of the Prime Minister, has been selected.
WS
Wes Streeting
I beg to move, That this House condemns the Government for failing to recognise the current crisis in the National Health Service; regrets that, as a result of Government mismanagement, hundreds of lives may be being lost every week due to the collapse of emergency care while patients are finding it impossible to get a…
AC
Alun Cairns
Will the hon. Member give way?
WS
Wes Streeting
The Government do not have a plan, but perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will surprise me by telling me, against all hope and expectation, that they do.
AC
Alun Cairns
Clearly, some of the statistics and cases that the hon. Member highlights are distressing and no doubt need to be investigated. The Prime Minister has rightly prioritised waiting times as one of his key commitments this year. How does the hon. Member account for the performance in Wales, which is worse than in England …
Windrush Lessons Learned Review: Implementation of Recommendations10 Jan 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
Before Christmas, I asked the Home Office how many of my constituents in Erdington had applied to the Windrush compensation scheme. Shamefully, the way the Government record applications means that they cannot tell me. Now we hear that Ministers are abandoning most of the recommendations of the Windrush review. Can the Minister tell me, a… child of the Windrush generation, why the Government are intent on pretending that the Windrush scandal is now behind us?
Hansard · 10 Jan 2023 · parliament.uk
SK
Stephen Kinnock
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the progress in implementing the recommendations of the Windrush lessons learned review.
SD
Sarah Dines
Since the injustices of Windrush came to light, there has been a concerted effort across the Home Office to right the wrongs suffered by those affected. That work continues, and the Department is making sustained progress on delivering on the recommendations of the Windrush lessons learned review of 2020 and the commit…
SK
Stephen Kinnock
The reality is that this Government’s treatment of the Windrush generation is surely one of the most shameful episodes in our post-war political history. The Windrush community played a pivotal role in rebuilding Britain. We all owe them a debt of honour and gratitude but, instead, consecutive Conservative Governments …
SD
Sarah Dines
This Government are absolutely not betraying the Windrush generation. Successive Governments of all colours have failed to step up to the mark, but this Government are stepping up. The Windrush generation are rightly identified as British and have the right to be in this country, and this remains separate from the many…
KF
Kevin Foster
It is worth noting that the Wendy Williams review looked across a catalogue of issues that affected the Windrush generation. I was particularly struck by the fact that the first case listed in her initial report was from 2009. So this is not just something that has occurred in the past 10 years. On the commitment to im…
Home Building9 Jan 2023
PH
Paulette Hamilton
It has been six months since Birmingham City Council applied for round 2 of the levelling-up fund. Sadly, Ministers overlooked our bid in round 1, but that was two Governments ago. I am grateful to the Minister for Levelling Up for confirming that the results of the second round will be announced by the end… of this month. If our bid is successful, the funding will totally transform Erdington High Street—
Hansard · 9 Jan 2023 · parliament.uk
AJ
Andrew Jones
What steps his Department is taking to support the building of high-quality homes.
LF
Lucy Frazer
The design of our homes matters. That is why we have already taken steps to embed design quality in the planning system through changes to national planning policy and guidance. Furthermore, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill requires areas to adopt local design codes, setting clear rules for development.
AJ
Andrew Jones
I thank the Minister for that answer. Councils can only require developers to build homes with energy measures that are in line with national guidelines. What work is being done to update these frameworks so that developers can be mandated to install measures such as solar panels or ground-source heat pumps and thereby…
LF
Lucy Frazer
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the importance of ensuring that our homes use green energy. In 2021, the Government introduced an uplift in the energy efficiency standards that means that new homes are now expected to produce 30% less carbon dioxide than the current standards. Furthermore, that is just …
LH
Lindsay Hoyle
Order. Unfortunately this is not a levelling-up question.
