Commons
Oral Questions
Science, Innovation and Technology
4 February 2026
2 contributions
Protecting Young People Online
5. What steps she is taking to help reduce social media harms for children under 16.
The Online Safety Act was intended to protect children and teenagers from harmful social media content. The Molly Rose Foundation’s study found that, before the Act’s implementation, over a third of 13 to 17-year-olds had seen harmful content online, including self-harm, depression or eating disorde…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 February 2026
Separation Centres Review
I want to begin by paying tribute to those officers who suffered an appalling assault simply for doing their job. They and their loved ones will continue to feel the effects of that day for years to come. They deserve not only our thanks, but the assurance that everything possible is being done to p…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
3 February 2026
Topical Questions
It is clear, as more evidence comes to light, that Peter Mandelson abused his position while in government, and the Liberal Democrats are calling for a public inquiry. The Hillsborough law cannot come soon enough to ensure that public inquiries hear all the relevant evidence. When the Public Office …
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
3 February 2026
Changes to Jury Trials
The Justice Secretary is right to say that justice delayed is justice denied, but the Institute for Government’s report into jury trials showed that his plans to erode jury trials will make very little difference to the courts backlog, so it is no surprise that there is wide-ranging opposition to th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
7 contributions
Transport in the South-East
I beg to move,
That this House has considered transport in the south-east.
It is a pleasure to open this debate under your chairmanship, Sir John. I thank the many hon. Members here who hope to raise transport concerns with the Minister. I know from my experience that transport issues take up a si…
The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to hear that he is much closer to the Government than I am and has a brilliant opportunity to have his concerns heard by the Minister. He is right to raise the nonsense of having to go in and then out of London to reach vital pieces of infrastructure.
I am sure ma…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
29 January 2026
Prison Capacity: Annual Statement
This Government inherited a justice system in a shambles after years of Conservative complacency and mismanagement. Overcrowding, administrative failures and cuts to vital services mean the Ministry of Justice too often appears to be moving from one crisis to the next as it tries to fix an entire ju…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
29 January 2026
Business of the House
I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, as the chair of the all-party group on infant feeding. In December last year, as part of their child poverty strategy, the Government published their response to the Competition and Markets Authority on infant formula milk.…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
29 January 2026
2 contributions
Business Operating Costs
13. What steps he is taking to support businesses with their operating costs.
The irony for many small businesses in Chichester is that they are busy, well established and popular. It is not bad business, but bad policy, that is making them struggle.
“The current business rates system disincentivises investment, creates uncertainty and places an undue burden on our high stre…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 January 2026
Water White Paper
Last year, Southern Water’s chief executive saw their pay double to over £1 million a year, while my constituents in Chichester face rising water bills, sewage outflows that continue for days at a time and the continuing over-abstraction of our chalk streams. What are the Government going to do abou…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
2 contributions
Local Government Reorganisation: Referendums
The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight a democratic deficit. West Sussex county council, which is Conservative-led, has chosen to delays its elections for another year, which means that its county councillors will end up serving seven-year terms, without seeking a democratic mandate since 2021. Do…
Our mayoral election in Sussex has been postponed until 2028, but the statutory instrument for the creation of combined authorities is still going ahead, and two elected representatives from each local authority are going to form the combined authority. That means Conservative councillors who have n…
Commons
Debate
20 January 2026
3 contributions
Sentencing Bill
I thank Members of both Chambers for their contribution and their continued work, in particular the prisons Minister for engaging collaboratively with Liberal Democrats in the other place and for making concessions both in the legislation and at the Dispatch Box.
We are pleased to see Government am…
I thank my hon. Friend for reminding us that the heart of this amendment are victims and their ability to understand what has come in the sentencing remarks. So much happens in a court trial, whether it means reliving past trauma or confronting a perpetrator, and listening to proceedings can feel li…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
I say this not just as a constituency MP with correspondence from hundreds of parents in my inbox, but as a mum: a review, however short, kicks the can down the road, even though we have the legislative vehicle for change in the other place right now. Will the Secretary of State please talk to our L…
Commons
Debate
19 January 2026
Disclosure and Barring Service
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about the speed of DBS checks. My constituent Marcia had a DBS check, but needed an enhanced DBS check to move into a child’s residential home for work, and was at risk of losing that job opportunity if the DBS check did not come back. Given that it had taken …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 January 2026
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. Liberal Democrat Members recognise that the Minister has worked to move the Bill forwards, and has given a lot of care and attention to trying to get it into this place, but the situation is frustrating for those on both sides of the House. Th…
Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Iran: Protests
“There were so many people killed, they were hosing the blood down the street using fire engines.” That was the message coming out of my constituent’s home town. She has no idea if her mum and dad are safe in Iran during the communications blackout. When she asks me, as she no doubt will, “Why won’t…
Commons
Proceedings
13 January 2026
Storm Goretti
A cargo ship lost a number of shipping containers along the shipping route off the south coast during Storm Goretti. It is the second cargo ship in a couple of weeks to lose shipping containers, which are now washing up on the shoreline in my constituency, posing a risk to the public and the environ…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
Topical Questions
Last summer, Sussex ICB cut its IVF provision from three cycles to one due to budget pressures. There is currently a postcode lottery for IVF, and going through fertility treatment can be harrowing for those families. Given that additional cycles improve success rates, will the Secretary of State co…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes
If Ofcom does not act decisively and swiftly to protect people in the UK, it risks sending a deeply damaging signal that even the most serious forms of online abuse will be accepted when they are carried out by powerful platforms that are owned by powerful men. Does the Secretary of State have full …
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
Topical Questions
Constituents on a new build estate in Chichester were ordered without warning to pay an extra £180 a month on top of the £212 that they were already paying. When the Government bring forward their planned legislation, will they stamp out these enormous price hikes and will they hold road management …
Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
9 contributions
Jury Trials
I am glad that the Minister has heard the opposition from right hon. and hon. Members from across the House. I have great news for her—she is going to hear it again.
An opinion that many of us across the House and the political divide share is that our criminal justice system is in complete disarra…
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We in the Liberal Democrats have sympathy for the scale of the task that this Labour Government have inherited, and we are glad that they recognise the real losers here—the victims. It is an utter failure of the justice system that victims and defendants are being…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
HMP Leyhill: Offender Abscondments
The news that offenders absconded from HMP Leyhill on new year’s day is yet another example of the glaring incompetence of the MOJ when it comes to maintaining control of the prison population. This situation has yet again placed the public at risk and lets down victims. It also raises serious quest…
Commons
Debate
16 December 2025
Finance (No. 2) Bill
The right hon. Member is making an impassioned speech that certainly represents the feeling of farmers in my rural constituency. Does he agree that farmers are also up in arms at these billionaire companies that are ripping small farms out of the system and building their empires? Any time the small…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
The Minister referred in his statement to the housing crisis we face, yet there are an estimated 1.4 million homes with planning permissions that are yet to be built. We know that developers favour land banking—waiting until the situation is so acute that they can then deliver those homes for more m…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Topical Questions
Andrew Turner has been fighting on behalf of parents of disabled children across the country who cannot access their children’s trust fund when their child turns 18, even though that money could provide support for the additional cost of living that comes from being a profoundly disabled young adult…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Legal Aid
My question follows on from that of the Chair of the Select Committee. In 2024, 39% of family court proceedings involved neither party being legally represented; in cases of domestic abuse, this forces victims to relive their experiences and confront their trauma repeatedly. The provision of legal a…