Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
10-Year Health Plan: Prevention of Ill Health
Last month, the Government published their 10-year plan. It took a year to write, and it contains promises to make even more plans—a cancer plan, a maternity and neonatal plan, a workforce plan and an HIV plan—which we are still waiting for. Careful planning is important, but taking too long will de…
Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Accident and Emergency Waiting Times
Respiratory syncytial virus—RSV—is a common reason for attendance at A&E and admission to hospital among older people, and I have raised this repeatedly. Last week, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommended that the RSV vaccine programme should be extended to the over-80s a…
Commons
Proceedings
21 July 2025
Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity
Violent disorder is always wrong, but we need to recognise that it is a symptom of people’s outrage at the current situation, and of their fear of crime—particularly sexual crime—in their community. The Minister should focus not on the tone of questions in the House and what has happened in the past…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Apprenticeships
Degree apprenticeships are great for social mobility and for matching skills to the economy, and I am such a fan of them that I created one in my parliamentary office. Would the Secretary of State like to take the time for congratulate Jack Kellas, who has achieved not just a distinction in his appr…
Commons
Debate
10 July 2025
Children’s Health
Before I start, I should declare my interest as a consultant paediatrician and a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) mentioned earlier. I congratulate him on securing this important debate.
Getting the right start in life is one o…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Topical Questions
I read a recent BBC article about an asylum seeker who had violently raped a teenage girl. He has been convicted and given a sentence of nine years in prison, followed by three years on licence, after which he will need to be deported. I am concerned that such individuals, during their period on lic…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 July 2025
Alcohol and Cancer
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I congratulate the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Cat Smith) on securing the debate, and declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician.
We have a complex relationship with alcohol. On the one hand, it is a very social drug …
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
Government Performance against Fiscal Rules
We all know that taxes are coming; we just do not know on whom they are going to fall hardest. The country is nervous, with every family and every business wondering how much those taxes are going to cost them. Does the Chief Secretary regret the fact that that is leading to reduced domestic spendin…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
British Film and High-end Television
I congratulate my hon. Friend on her statement and on the report she has produced. To succeed, great British films also need a good audience. Will my hon. Friend tell us what she thinks of the Government’s support for local and regional cinemas?
Commons
Committee Stage
2 July 2025
Rare Cancers Bill
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West on bringing forward this very important piece of legislation. I declare an interest as a consultant paediatrician who has looked after a number of children with rare conditions such …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Glastonbury Festival: BBC Coverage
The Secretary of State has spoken about responsibility at the BBC, and of those who said those dreadful words. What responsibility do those who were organising the festival have both legally and morally to be held responsible and accountable, and to ensure that this does not happen again?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
It seems entirely reasonable that a Government should want to control the amount that they spend on welfare, and entirely reasonable to want to focus that on the most in need. However, I do not understand why they brought out such rushed changes, which have done nothing but cause anxiety and distres…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
Passenger Rail Performance: Cumbria
Rail services are important in Cumbria, but they are also important in Sleaford. For some time, I have been campaigning for lifts at Sleaford railway station for those who have difficulty with stairs. I was pleased when the previous Government included Sleaford in the Access for All scheme, and havi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 June 2025
3 contributions
IVF Egg Donation: Young Women
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) on securing an important debate at such short notice.
IVF counts as a medical miracle, in many respects. Since the technique was pioneered in the 1970s, some 12 million ba…
I am not clear whether the hon. Gentleman is referring to companies making profit out of providing IVF services, or whether he is talking about those who profit from egg donation itself.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
24 June 2025
Department of Health and Social Care
I congratulate the acting chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, the hon. Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), on securing this important debate. It is almost one year since the Labour Government took office. They came to power promising that they had a plan to improve our NH…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 June 2025
2 contributions
Care Settings: Right to Maintain Contact
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I declare my interest, as an NHS consultant.
I know from my own professional experience that hospitals and other care settings can be distressing places for patients and their relatives. Even with our excellent NHS staff on hand, patient…
Can the Minister clarify what constitutes a visit in those circumstances? Would an hour’s visit once a week count, or is there a specific timeframe that qualifies?
Commons
Debate
17 June 2025
9 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I rise to speak in support of new clause 106, which stands in my name, but first I will speak briefly to new clause 1, which we have been discussing so far. The hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) spoke about some pretty harrowing cases, and said how the first lady was utterly traumatised by ha…
I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. I think we need to consider both.
I remember a case involving a lady, Carla Foster, in June 2023. From my reading of the case, she admitted to lying about where she was in her gestation, saying that she was further back in pregnancy, at seven weeks, when…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
17 June 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. During proceedings of the House on 2 June 2025, it became clear that some media organisations had been given access to the strategic defence review document before Parliament. We also became aware that the timing of such early access may have been different for diffe…
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Health of the Elderly
Last health questions, I asked about delays to crucial medications in A&E and the Secretary of State said he was interested to hear more, but his office said he would delegate it to a Minister and we still have not been offered a date, so could I encourage him to look into that, please? The U-tu…
Many of those on waiting lists are elderly and have chronic conditions; rather than seeing consultants at regular intervals, which may coincide with them being relatively well, they are often kept on open appointments so that they can call when they are ill. This is efficient and responsive care. Is…
Commons
Debate
13 June 2025
3 contributions
Flood Prevention: Sleaford and North Hykeham
Before I start my remarks, I will make a declaration of interest: my husband is a farmer, and we have a small stipend to pay to the internal drainage board in relation to flood risk.
My constituents in Sleaford and North Hykeham enjoy some of the most beautiful countryside that the United Kingdom h…
The Minister is nodding—I do not know whether she has an update on what the Environment Agency means by “the summer”. We were expecting the health plan in the spring, and that has been and gone, so if she could help with that, that would be really great. There is some concern about the overall cost-…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
13 June 2025
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I refer right hon. and hon. Members to my entry on the Register of Members’ Financial Interests—I am an NHS consultant paediatrician.
The debate so far has focused primarily on ethical considerations, legal frameworks and who will be eligible—the who, the when and the why—but I want to focus my rem…
I think one of the key problems with this form of intervention, compared with others, is that we cannot ask the patients afterwards how that felt. We cannot get their feedback, because they are dead. If we are going to give them things such as neuromuscular blockers or sedatives, we may not be able …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 June 2025
2 contributions
Long-term Medical Conditions
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) on securing this important debate. I declare an interest as an NHS consultant paediatrician. In my clinical work, I have seen at first hand the impact that…
There is a question that I have been wondering about. Baroness Casey is doing a report for the Government on social care, but she is also doing a report on child abuse. We were told initially that those reports would run consecutively, but they appear now to be running concurrently. I do not necessa…
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 June 2025
2 contributions
NHS Funding: South-west
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq, and a privilege to contribute to this important debate. I congratulate the hon. Member for Torbay (Steve Darling) on securing the debate at such a timely point, following today’s spending review.
The focus on NHS funding, particularly in un…
I would need to look at that separately and come back to the hon. Member on it, although he should perhaps direct his question to the Minister, as she has control at the Department at the moment.
The problem with cutting both the ICBs and NHS England is that it risks destabilising the very structur…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 June 2025
Nuclear Power: Investment
Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. Energy security is important, so I welcome this investment in nuclear. One more small modular reactor can power a million homes using just two football pitches-worth of land, while solar needs 2,000 acres of good-quality farmland to power 50,000 homes. Will the right hon.…
Commons
Debate
9 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
Does the hon. Lady agree that car parks and rooftops might be a good place for solar, but this country’s prime agricultural land is not?