Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
14 July 2026
2 contributions
Health Inequalities: Staffordshire
One measure that can be helpful in tackling inequalities across the country is independent feedback. Currently, Healthwatch collects independent feedback right across the country. Does the Minister agree with this Government’s plans to abolish Healthwatch, or does she share the concerns of the right…
I am not sure that it is just Opposition Members who are saying this. In Staffordshire and right across the country, more doctors can help to reduce inequalities, and many Labour Members, from the Cabinet to Back Benchers, promised that this Government would double the number of medical school place…
Commons
Oral Questions
Solicitor General
9 July 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trials
1. What advice she has given the Government on the potential impact of removing jury trials in certain circumstances on the rule of law.
In restricting access to jury trials, the Government have leant quite heavily on the Leveson report, but the Government go much further than the report recommends. Will the Solicitor General explain why?
Commons
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On 15 October 2024, the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the right hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), said:
“This Government are committed, as we were in opposition, to doubling the number of medical school places.” —[Offici…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
30 June 2026
2 contributions
Prisoner Releases in Error
5. What estimate he has made of the number of prisoners released in error since July 2024.
I understand that the total is 441, which over a two-year period is the worst on record and means that, in less than 24 months, Labour has released more prisoners in error than were released in the previous six years combined. That is a disgrace. How many of those released in error early were convic…
Commons
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Prisoner Early Release
During the passage of the Sentencing Act, we were told that the perpetrators of the “most serious, heinous crimes” would not be included in these measures, so can the Minister explain why the Government do not think that the rape of children is one of the most serious and heinous crimes, and how man…
Commons
Proceedings
23 June 2026
7 contributions
Puberty Blockers
I beg to move,
That this House calls on the Government to take steps to prevent the PATHWAYS clinical trial into the effect of puberty suppressing hormones on children with gender incongruence.
Before I start, I declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician, a member of the Royal College …
This is not a form of gene therapy. It is a medication that is a GnRH analogue, and what it essentially does is delay puberty. It was designed as a drug to treat children who go into puberty much earlier than they would be expected to, and to delay it until, as it were, the right time. The effects o…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 June 2026
Pathways Study: Puberty Suppression
I declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician and a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. What does this trial do? Put simply, it takes physically healthy children with normal pubertal development and subjects them to powerful drugs that may weaken their bones, affe…
Commons
Proceedings
11 June 2026
2 contributions
Compassionate Use Medicine Schemes: VAT
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if he will make a statement on the effect of VAT on the availability of medicines through compassionate use schemes.
I declare an interest as a consultant paediatrician. One of the worst moments as a paediatrician is when all treatments have failed and there is no suitable clinical trial. At that point, in those dark moments, compassionate use schemes can be a glimmer of hope, and new unlicensed medicines with cli…
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
9 June 2026
2 contributions
Health Inequalities
Does the Secretary of State agree that state-funded healthcare should be provided to all children based on clinical need, not economic or educational status?
I thank the Secretary of State for his answer. Does he therefore share my concern at reports that some children are being turned away from state-funded healthcare because they are not attending a state school? Will he look into those reports and ensure that he makes provision for children who are no…
Commons
Debate
28 April 2026
Referral of Prime Minister to Committee of Privileges
My hon. Friend is, as usual, making an excellent speech. He is talking about the composition of the Privileges Committee. Is it right to say that a majority of its members are Labour Members? The Prime Minister would be asking his own colleagues, among others, to judge him.
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 April 2026
7 contributions
Junior Doctors’ Foundation Programme
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) on securing this debate and giving a great speech. I need to declare an interest as a consultant paediatrician in the national health service, a member of th…
I congratulate that person on his prowess in university. He is clearly an incredible person, and it is a shame that he has been lost to medicine. I am sure Northern Ireland is a great place to work, and it is disappointing that he did not want to go there, but he should have been able to apply for t…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
21 April 2026
2 contributions
Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment
The hon. Gentleman is talking about full transparency, and the ministerial code says that Ministers must be “open and transparent”. When the Prime Minister came to the House in February and said that the reason he sacked Mandelson was because he had lied to him about his relationship with Epstein, w…
I think the remaining people who want Starmer to remain the Prime Minister are those who are worried about who the Labour party might pick instead. The hon. Lady seems to be sharing all sorts of whataboutery information, but has she considered that the outrage is not manufactured? It is a huge natio…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 April 2026
2 contributions
Apprenticeships
13. What steps she is taking to promote apprenticeships as an alternative to university education.
On Thursday this week an excellent apprentice in my office will graduate with a first-class degree. Unfortunately, no one will be able to follow in his excellent footsteps, because the Government have withdrawn funding for the chartered management degree apprenticeship. Given the benefits of degree …
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 April 2026
3 contributions
Maternity Commissioner
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician. I have attended more than 1,000 deliveries of babies over my career. More recently, they have been more likely to be the ones where things were going wrong and where there were mo…
I completely agree with the hon. Lady that it is important to get the taskforce right, I am just not sure that it needed to take quite so long to do so. We heard a statistic earlier about how many babies are born and how often; I think about how many babies have been born in the intervening time, wh…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 April 2026
Women’s Health Strategy
I am glad to see that the much-delayed women’s health strategy is finally here, and I thank the Minister for her work on that and for advance sight of her statement. I am particularly pleased that Ministers have pledged to prioritise medical health conditions such as endometriosis and to continue th…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
15 April 2026
2 contributions
Draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Stringer. Before discussing the regulations, I want to acknowledge their origin. The horrific Manchester Arena attack killed 22 people and injured more than 1,000 others. I express my condolences and good wishes to all those affect…
Will the Minister give way?
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
2 contributions
Cancer Treatment
I welcome the Minister to her post.
To provide cancer care of the best quality, we need the right workforce. Before the election, the Secretary of State said that he would double the number of medical school places, but he now appears to be quietly dropping that plan. He said that he would provide …
I hope that it will be published very soon, because for people with cancer, being seen quickly is key.
Let me return to what the Minister for Care said to my hon. Friend the Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans). The Government appear to have decided that referrals will no longer be triaged b…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 April 2026
4 contributions
Ground-mounted Solar Panels: Alternatives
My hon. Friend is making a great speech about the importance of thinking about things strategically. Does she agree that if one was thinking about the strategic placement of ground-mounted solar, one would not put it on the best and most versatile farmland that we have for food security?
My hon. Friend is being exceptionally generous with her time. Does she have any comment on the scale of some of these proposals? My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman) talked about an 8,000-acre proposal, and 9,340 acres are currently open to planning in my area. It can be quite …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 April 2026
8 contributions
“For Women Scotland” Court Ruling: First Anniversary
The hon. Lady is being extremely generous with her time. Does she feel, as I do, that a lack of political courage is what has delayed the new guidance? That lack of political courage has fallen on the heads of people having to make these decisions, such as nurses on wards, people working in sports c…
The hon. Lady is making a very good speech. Does she share my concern that it plays out in the scientific arena as well? The UK Health Security Agency has been collecting data in relation to sexual health infections on the basis of gender rather than sex.
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
13 April 2026
Southport Inquiry
As a consultant paediatrician, I have to undertake Prevent training at regular intervals. On each one of those occasions, I have raised with Ministers my concerns about either the quality or emphasis of that training, or both. Can the Home Secretary say whether she feels that in this particular situ…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 April 2026
Middle East
I would like to ask the Prime Minister about food security. In response to an earlier question, he suggested that the answer to food security was to go further and faster on renewable energy. Does he recognise that carpeting some of the country’s best farmland—indeed, some of the world’s best farmla…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 March 2026
2 contributions
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Sir John. I declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician and as a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) on securing today’s importan…
My point was less that mergers of ICBs would make services more efficient, but more that that is leading to services being cut, which may make them less good, and that the principle that CDOPs look at the local area is diluted if the local area becomes very large.
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 March 2026
2 contributions
Puberty Blockers Clinical Trial
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Mundell. I must first declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician. I thank James Esses for the petition and the thousands of people who have signed it, including many of my constituents, for enabling today’s important de…
I will not because I am aware of the time.
The Commission on Human Medicines’ report heard that, because trials of puberty blockers have been blocked, some clinicians are trying to use other drugs to limit puberty, such as spironolactone and cyproterone acetate. There have been reports that the num…
Commons
Debate
10 March 2026
6 contributions
Courts and Tribunals Bill
I should first declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician who has given evidence in court in that capacity. The references to the Magna Carta are particularly profound for a Lincolnshire MP, because one of the copies of Magna Carta from 1215 is kept in Lincoln. The Father of the House, m…
That is why I have explained that the presumption is that the parents have involvement. The court must take the risks to the child into consideration and, unless shown otherwise, give contact to both parents. If the child is at risk, however, the court has the absolute right to prevent the child fro…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 March 2026
Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician and a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. I congratulate the Minister on her new role. It is a very important role in the Government, and I know that she wil…