Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
13 July 2026
2 contributions
Asylum Hotels
3. What steps her Department is taking to close asylum hotels.
I commend my right hon. Friend for how she has gone about reducing the use of asylum hotels in this country, after the shocking legacy left behind by 14 years of the last Government. She will know that these hotels have unfortunately become a source of right-wing intimidation and violence, affecting…
Commons
Debate
9 July 2026
Israeli Settlements: Trade Ban
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making such a powerful speech; she always holds up a moral compass to us all in this place. Does she agree that those who deny access to medical treatment to children as young as four—who, while waiting for medical treatment, get to the point of near-fatal dehydra…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
2 July 2026
2 contributions
Advanced Manufacturing
4. What recent steps his Department has taken to support the advanced manufacturing sector.
The Secretary of State will know very well that Glasgow South West is home to a storied, nationally significant collection of advanced manufacturing, from Type 26 frigate construction at BAE Systems, to small satellites at Craft Prospect, to the maritime supply chain at the Malin Group. What convers…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 May 2026
Women’s Health and Wellbeing: Online Censorship
I speak as a recently departed member of the ministerial team that delivered the women’s health strategy and a former Minister responsible for digital health. Of course we must protect people from harmful content, but does my hon. Friend agree with me that at a time when medical misogyny is alive an…
Commons
Debate
20 May 2026
Defence Readiness
My hon. Friend is making a thought-provoking contribution, and I thank her for her leadership on international aid, both before she came to this place and now. With Gaza in mind, does she agree that although the cameras have turned away, we cannot? As a British and UK Labour Government, we have a mo…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 April 2026
3 contributions
Wheelchair Provision: Independent Review Body
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) on securing this important debate and also on challenging us, born of his lived experience, to make the lives of disabled people better and better li…
Ultimately, ICBs are responsible for delivering the framework. The Government are held accountable in the manner being seen today, and I have no doubt that in the new structures that we propose there will be further accountability, because in many ways the middleman will be removed and we will have …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 April 2026
8 contributions
NHS Federated Data Platform
It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) for securing this important debate and for his and other hon. Members’ contributions to it. Of course, we should also welcome the hon. Member for Solihull West …
I am going to carry on for a bit longer.
The hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) tempts me with his speech, and he knows that I cannot resist his temptation. He spoke about Scotland and he will know that I am an NHS surgeon in Scotland. I hope he thinks that I can spea…
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Statutory Instrument
15 April 2026
5 contributions
Draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. This statutory instrument makes an important change. It will amend the Health and Social C…
My hon. Friend has worked tirelessly, as all hon. Members in and around the Manchester area have, since the unconscionable events of the Manchester Arena bombing. Regulation such as this could not have come into force without their representations in addition to the inquiry’s findings, so I am grate…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
4 contributions
Topical Questions
My hon. Friend may know that in Scotland there is no NHS app. In England, where there is one, we can facilitate bowel cancer screening through the app, increase uptake, and save more lives. In Scotland, all the SNP has managed to provide in 20 years is, possibly, some dermatology services in Lanarks…
Anyone receiving mental health treatment, in particular acute mental health treatment, deserves dignity and high-quality care. Where care falls short, this Government’s approach is that sunlight is the best disinfectant. That is why we are absolutely committed to learning, and to taking action to pr…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
3 contributions
Eating Disorders
We all recognise the devastating impact that eating disorders have on people’s lives, so this Government are committed to going further. Increases in mental health spending, which reaches a record £16.1 billion this year, include funding for eating disorder care. We have also commissioned an indepen…
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting those cuts and the devastating impact they had, particularly on mental health and eating disorder services. She is absolutely right that we have to do a lot more on the pathways, including harmonising some of the data and clinical coding to make sure …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
2 contributions
Mental Health Services
Mental health funding will rise by £140 million in real terms this year, reaching a record £16.1 billion. That is on top of capital investment of £473 million over four years to deliver new models of care and digital transformation. However, improving mental health services is about more than money …
The case that the hon. Gentleman highlights is indicative of the fact that much work has been done and much more needs to be done. We are providing early intervention for children’s mental health and wellbeing by rolling out mental health support teams, which will happen in every school by 2029. We …
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 April 2026
3 contributions
National Suicide Prevention Standard
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for securing this debate on a topic that is especially close to her heart and for her work more generally to promote action on suicide prevention. I am also grateful …
My hon. Friend is always knowledgeable about these matters and she tempts me to egress across the confines of my departmental portfolio. I am happy to cite her recommendations in my correspondence with colleagues in the Department for Business and Trade when I try and set up a meeting for my hon. Fr…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 March 2026
5 contributions
Disability Equipment Provision
Mr Betts, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I start by thanking the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing the debate, as well as all Members who contributed.
We, of course, want disabled people to access and experience healthcare services on…
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend. He always channels personal experience in such a productive way and he is a credit to this House in the way he conducts himself. I remember his maiden speech with great fondness in that regard. I do agree, and I will come later in my speech to how we can maintai…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
9 March 2026
3 contributions
Funeral Directors: Regulation
I am grateful to the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) for securing this important debate and for her continued advocacy on behalf of her constituents. As the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) highlighted, I was here at this Dispatch Box not so long ago responding to him on t…
The hon. Gentleman is clearly reading my speech. I can assure him that meetings had taken place before my appointment as the Minister responsible for the aspects of the regulations relating to the Department of Health and Social Care. I can also confirm that further meetings are taking place, at my …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Statutory Instrument
3 March 2026
4 contributions
Draft Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2026
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris.
In response to the covid-19 pandemic, multiple temporary amendments were made to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 in autumn 2…
I am grateful to the shadow Minister for her support; she is a learned Member of this House, and I know she takes these matters extremely seriously both here and in her own clinical practice.
She raised a technical point on whether the sub-paragraph should include the word “pharmacist”, given the u…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 February 2026
6 contributions
Eating Disorders Awareness Week
It is an honour and a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) on securing today’s debate and raising this important topic—as she always does. I also pay tribute to her for her long-standing advocacy on this topic and for all the work…
I wholeheartedly agree. The Government are committed to ending the revolving door for many conditions—this is an exemplar, in many ways—by joining up care and the streams of information that underpin it. One of our main commitments in our 10-year health plan is to have more joined-up care, to move i…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
4 contributions
Topical Questions
This UK Labour Government, at least, are spending billions of pounds upgrading the digital architecture of the NHS in England. That means that over 90% of GPs now offer appointments online, and by 2029 we will have a single patient record for patients and their clinicians to access all their informa…
Glasgow is a great place to get medical care—I can attest to that—but people should not have to travel 200 miles to get medical care. My hon. Friend and I have had many discussions on this topic, and I am very glad to continue those discussions. She knows that treatment along the border is subject t…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
4 contributions
Disabled Women: Maternity Care
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her work on raising the profile of this underserved area. It is simply unacceptable that disabled women are at higher risk of neonatal and perinatal mortality and stillbirth, and that they continue to experience adverse outcomes relative to the general population.…
We are so lucky to have my hon. Friend in this place, challenging us to be better—and we can be better. We need to be bolder, and we need to take decisive action to close the gap on inequalities to ensure that all women receive safe, personalised and compassionate care. We know how important inclusi…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
2 contributions
People with Down’s Syndrome: Sport and Health
Every child with a disability should have the opportunity to reap the health and wellbeing benefits of being active. We are working across health, education and sports to break down barriers to physical activity, including for children with Down’s syndrome. That includes ensuring that they have acce…
The hon. Member is not the first colleague to raise that issue. Clearly, the safety of patients and children is paramount, but it must be proportionate and led by evidence. I would be very happy to explore this further with him.
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
5 contributions
Access to Mental Health Services
Mental health issues affect all ages, and the support is not always there. We are determined to change that. We have hired almost 8,000 extra mental health workers since we came into office and increased investment in mental health by an additional £688 million this year. We are also transforming se…
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s invitation. She is right: we need to think of innovative ways of attacking the mental health issues that face our country, and particularly our young people. Those include digital and face-to-face therapies, both of which we are expanding at a rapid pace. I am deli…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
15 contributions
Pharmacy First: Withholding Payments
It is a pleasure to take the traditional Department of Health and Social Care urgent question before recess—I would not miss it for the world.
Since coming into office, we have reversed the decade of cuts to community pharmacy with the biggest uplift for the sector in years and frozen prescription …
As the hon. Gentleman will know—or should know—the current remuneration method was agreed in conjunction with the sector. The adjustment was agreed with the sector’s representative body, Community Pharmacy England. Advance notice of the change was provided to those contractors by letter and in an ar…
+13 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
9 February 2026
7 contributions
Brain Tumour Survival Rates
I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh), and the hon. Members for Witney (Charlie Maynard) and for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) for supporting this important debate. I would like to take a few moments to acknowledge the contri…
I am grateful to the right hon. Member for his remarks. At the risk of turning this into some sort of medical journal club—I will move on quite swiftly, Madam Deputy Speaker—let me point out that the association is based on retrospective data, and we all know that we have to be a little bit cautious…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Statutory Instrument
21 January 2026
5 contributions
Draft Medical Devices (Fees Amendment) Regulations 2026
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Medical Devices (Fees Amendment) Regulations 2026.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I am grateful for the opportunity to open the debate on these regulations, which were laid before Parliament on 16 December 2025…
I turn first to the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham. Like me, she is a scholar of medicine, and she practiced in the NHS throughout all 14 years of the last Government. She will know, possibly at first hand, that the MHRA as a regulatory body has not been fit …
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
5 contributions
ADHD Diagnosis
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) for securing what is, by all acknowledgement, an important debate on ADHD. I thank other hon. Members for their valuable contributions today, particularly my hon. Friends the …
I have met the chair of the taskforce: we discussed the outcomes, and the need—as the hon. Member mentioned in his remarks—for work on those outcomes to dovetail with the prevalence review. I think that would be the most appropriate way to provide a holistic response. We, of course, respect the find…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 December 2025
4 contributions
Terminal Illness: Mental Health Support
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy, and I start by sincerely thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Mr Rand) for securing this debate. I also welcome Mike and his family to the Public Gallery, and pay tribute to Mike for all his efforts.
My hon. …
The mental health investment standard is something that we expect ICBs to meet. I will gently push back on what the hon. Gentleman is saying because, as we have been so succinctly reminded in this debate, investing in mental wellbeing is about more than just headline figures. For instance, we need p…
+2 more contributions in this session