Commons
Westminster Hall
23 October 2025
Work of the County Court: Government Response
The report to which the Government are responding outlines that the county court is in complete crisis. As the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter) said, the county court is where the majority of our constituents will encounter the justice system, and it is the Cinderella servic…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 October 2025
5 contributions
Criminal Courts: Independent Review
I just wondered whether I might pose the fact that the backlog has been created and exacerbated by problems in the criminal justice system, and that it is certainly nothing to do with the time a jury trial takes to be completed. Jury trial has been statistically proven to be fairer to ethnic minorit…
The point I would make, of course, is that a jury is free, and paid judges are not. Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman have any observation to make about that? The cost is a problem, is it not?
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 October 2025
Postural Tachycardia Syndrome
I thank the hon. Member for allowing me to intervene. My constituent Julie told me about her adult daughter, who has myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME, and believes she also has PoTS. After struggling to find a specialist, Julie’s daughter finally got a GP referral to a consultant in Bristol, who sai…
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Baby Loss
This Baby Loss Awareness Week, we honour those children who are loved and missed, and we recognise the parents, siblings, families and friends who carry their memories every day. Today, I want to emphasise just how vital it is that we see the quality of bereavement care standardised, and that this s…
Commons
Proceedings
4 September 2025
Business of the House
The Environment Agency has issued notice of its permanent withdrawal from main river maintenance to riparian owners in Somerset and North Somerset. The Leader of the House and Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will recall the devastation caused by flooding in 2012, …
Commons
Oral Questions
Women and Equalities
3 September 2025
Maternity Care
Post maternity, many women suffer female pelvic prolapse, but I am unable to get any answers on the matter of surgical mesh implants. Will the Minister please work with his counterparts at the Department of Health and Social Care to get a realistic update on exactly what has happened as a result of …
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
Pavement Parking
On exactly that issue, I represent the city of Wells, which has wonderful, beautiful streets, but when delivery vehicles park on the pavements, they break the paving slabs. That makes it an absolute peril for people who have accessibility problems and are less mobile. Does my hon. Friend agree that …
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families
I wish to make it really clear that I am vice-chair of WhistleblowersUK, a non-profit-making organisation set up to protect whistleblowers. Nothing should slow down the promised Bill, and it is essential that those who hold public office are held fully accountable. If we are to prevent the now const…
Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Topical Questions
At midnight, The Times published an article on the ME final delivery plan, carrying quotes from three ME campaign groups. The charity Action for ME published a five-page briefing at the same time, and “BBC Breakfast” also featured the plan, so they had all read the plan. I checked with the relevant …
Commons
Debate
21 July 2025
Extending the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme
Could we ask the Minister for clarity about the women who have dependent children or elderly relatives, who are often unable to meet the income thresholds required under settlement routes such as the skilled worker visa or the global talent visa? Could we also ask for clarity for their children, who…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
Can the Secretary of State publish the data that quantifies the amount lost in leaks, so that the public can understand exactly how much water and how much of their hard-earned money is lost? It will also help the water companies to focus on fixing their pipes; it is no good just building another re…
Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Business of the House
Three weeks ago I asked about the long overdue final delivery plan for ME, and the Leader of the House rightly acknowledged the strength of feeling on this issue and referenced the NHS 10-year plan. The 10-year plan has now been published, but unfortunately it makes absolutely no mention of ME. The …
Commons
Proceedings
9 July 2025
Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions
I have caution about stripping back jury trials, so I ask the Government to commit to tackling court backlogs by investing in more court capacity, particularly in Bristol and the west country, by supporting rehabilitation to stop reoffending and people coming back into the system so quickly, and by …
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
7 contributions
ADHD: Impact on Prison Rehabilitation and Reoffending
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of ADHD on rehabilitation and reoffending in the prison system.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I think we all accept that our prison system faces significant challenges, including poor rehabilitation, high reoffe…
I could not agree more; that might help us to understand the interaction between behaviour and authority.
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
25 June 2025
2 contributions
Criminal Justice
On that point, we are clear that the money that goes into the probation system may not be enough to deal with the scale of the added pressures on the probation system. I think the Chair of the Justice Committee, the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter), talked about contract man…
Following the Leveson report, will there be capacity for more funding for his recommendations?
Commons
Debate
24 June 2025
3 contributions
Speed Cameras: Installation Criteria
I thank my hon. Friend very much for bringing forward this debate. I point out in particular that one of my residents—a man called Chris, who is now a friend—lost his wife Lorraine. She was simply cycling back from her work at school and was hit by a driver. In order to ensure that nothing so dreadf…
We do not have bins in rural areas. There is nothing bar the speed cameras.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
19 June 2025
Water Safety Education
I am greatly pleased that this debate is taking place. In my constituency and within Somerset and North Somerset—the whole of Somerset—there are 8,463 miles of rivers, reans and streams which, from Somerset, would take us as far as Singapore. That level of water coverage presents a danger not only f…
Commons
Proceedings
19 June 2025
Business of the House
On 28 June 1986, my constituent developed symptoms of ME, and he has lived with those same symptoms for 40 years, and the NHS remains unable to offer any meaningful intervention. Those who have lived with ME for decades—some bed-bound and in darkness—feel that no one in authority notices or cares. I…
Commons
Debate
12 June 2025
Covid: Fifth Anniversary
Today, we mark five years since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Just under 227,000 people in the UK died with covid-19 listed as a cause on their death certificate. Every one of those statistics is a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a child, a neighbour or a friend. Thousands were separate…
Commons
Proceedings
9 June 2025
Breast Cancer Screening: Bassetlaw
I thank the hon. Lady very much for introducing this debate, because it is so important. I could not agree more that screening is incredibly important, but we also need to make sure that modern radiotherapy treatment is available for those whose breast cancer has been detected. NHS England has degra…
Commons
Proceedings
5 June 2025
Business of the House
My constituent Anthony’s husband’s emergency and urgent care was compromised because hospital staff could not access his medical records, even though he had been treated by specialists in the same hospital. Can we have a debate on ensuring that patient records can be accessed swiftly by clinicians a…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
5 June 2025
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
My constituent Phill is one of the 916 people in the special category mechanism who were suddenly and inexplicably excluded from the Government’s infected blood compensation scheme when it was published in February this year, even though the Government’s expert group had said in August last year tha…
Commons
Oral Questions
3 June 2025
2 contributions
Imprisonment for Public Protection: Sentencing
17. What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the third report of the Justice Committee of Session 2022-23 on IPP sentences, HC 266, published on 22 September 2022.
It is 12 and a half years since IPP sentences were described as “not defensible” and were abolished for offenders, but 2,852 people remain incarcerated under these sentences—just 74 fewer than in June 2022. When the Justice Committee reported in 2022, its key recommendation was that the Government l…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 May 2025
Business of the House
This week is National Epilepsy Week. Epilepsy is more than just seizures; it affects every area of somebody’s life. With more than 630,000 people suffering in the UK, every single MP in this House will have someone with this condition in their constituency. In the light of this being National Epilep…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 May 2025
Independent Sentencing Review
I welcome the Lord Chancellor’s statement and the work that David Gauke has done to inform everything that is happening today. As a member of the Justice Committee, I look forward to seeing him before us shortly. I seek clarity on what the Lord Chancellor referred to as the
“so-called medication to…