Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
14 July 2026
2 contributions
NHS Workforce: Sickness Absence
4. What steps he is taking to reduce sickness absence in the NHS workforce.
As the Health Secretary is a numbers man, perhaps he will be interested in these figures. Research from Policy Exchange shows that sickness absence in the NHS costs £6 billion and removes 8 million clinician days from the frontline. What will the Secretary of State do to get staff back to work, to g…
Commons
Oral Questions
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
9 July 2026
Topical Questions
The beautiful River Wey runs through my constituency, but storm overflows from the Farnham sewage treatment works are increasingly polluting the river, affecting my residents and businesses and those further afield, including the Peper Harow Park fly fishers in the constituency of my right hon. Frie…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
7 July 2026
Topical Questions
T6. During the election, the Government promised to cut bills by £300; in fact, they have gone up by £300. With that level of financial acumen, the Secretary of State will fit right in, in his new job at the Treasury, but my constituents and local businesses want their bills cut now, not at some neb…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
25 June 2026
2 contributions
Civil Service Pension Scheme
1. What recent discussions he has had with Capita on the performance of civil service pension scheme administration.
As the Minister will know, behind every statistic and delayed case is a pensioner who is not receiving their pension after years of public service. I have constituents whose cases have been outstanding for months, including one from Farnham whose case took nine months to resolve. The end-of-June dea…
Commons
Proceedings
23 June 2026
Puberty Blockers
My hon. Friend says that we do not know the effects, but a number of children have been put through this process via the now discredited Tavistock process. Why does she think that the NHS will not refer to the data linkage study and use the data that would have been gained from the children who were…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
16 June 2026
2 contributions
Russian Oil Sales
4. What diplomatic steps she is taking with international partners to help prevent the sale of Russian oil to companies in China, Turkey and India.
While diplomatic pressure on China, India and Turkey is essential, we must also do more militarily to disrupt the shadow fleet carrying Putin’s oil. I pay tribute to our armed forces who, this weekend, boarded a Russia-linked tanker in UK waters under new Government powers. Since those powers were a…
Commons
Oral Questions
Scotland
10 June 2026
2 contributions
Renewables Sector: Employment
8. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on levels of employment in the renewables sector in Scotland.
We are losing over 1,000 jobs a month in our oil and gas industry, and despite what the Secretary of State has just said, we are not seeing a similar uptick in green jobs. Skilled workers are losing their jobs in oil and gas, and are actually leaving the country. The Government’s actions are making …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
8 June 2026
Identity Fraud
At my constituency surgery on Friday, Mr De Mesquita spoke to me about his concerns that Report Fraud was not passing on to local police forces information about victims of identity fraud. Given that those victims are often vulnerable and likely to be victims of other crimes, will the Minister let u…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 June 2026
Child Sexual Offender Data
Although I accept the hon. Gentleman’s wider point, given that we are about to have a national grooming gang inquiry that Opposition Members had to drag the Government, kicking and screaming, to do, would it not be helpful for that inquiry to have the data? Surely sunlight is the best disinfectant o…
Commons
Debate
1 June 2026
Health Bill
I have asked this question both as a member of the Health and Social Care Committee and on the Floor of the House to the Secretary of State’s predecessor. Given that the new Secretary of State is a numbers man, I hope that he can answer it where his predecessor could not. How much in redundancy paym…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
19 May 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trial Proposals
6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to jury trials on the criminal justice system.
On the Secretary of State’s watch, the courts backlog has reached record levels, yet his answer is to weaken one of the oldest rights in our justice system: trial by jury. The backlog was not caused by juries and it will not be solved by scrapping juries. The Bar Council says there is very little ev…
Commons
Proceedings
18 May 2026
Points of Order
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your guidance on a long-established convention of this House that Members notify other Members when they intend to visit another Member’s constituency in an official or political capacity. Over the weekend, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the right hon. M…
Commons
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
Topical Questions
As the Government’s reforms to special educational needs and disabilities provision focus on pushing children into mainstream education, they risk removing specialist support from many who need it and undermining successful work programmes, such as the Witherslack futures programme. Will the Secreta…
Commons
Proceedings
23 April 2026
2 contributions
Allied Health Professionals
May I wish you a very happy St George’s day, Madam Deputy Speaker?
It is a privilege to respond to this debate on behalf of His Majesty’s most loyal Opposition and to recognise the invaluable contribution of allied health professionals, especially those living and working in my Farnham and Bordon c…
The hon. Lady, with whom I serve on the Health and Social Care Committee, always raises important points. What the last Government were trying to do—certainly by the end—with their workforce plan, which was the first of its kind, was to ensure that the workforce began to expand again. That is what a…
Commons
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
5 contributions
Topical Questions
T7. Happy St George’s day, Mr Speaker. When was Jonathan Powell appointed as the Prime Minister’s special envoy to the British Indian Ocean Territory, and what security clearance was he given on appointment.
On a point of order, Mr Speaker.
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
21 April 2026
Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment
Yesterday’s statement from the Prime Minister should have brought clarity. Instead, it has left this House with more questions than answers. This is not a narrow procedural issue; it goes to the judgment of the Prime Minister. It is a disgrace that he is not here today to answer questions—perhaps th…
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
On 4 February, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition asked the Prime Minister whether the vetting process had disclosed information about Epstein. The Prime Minister answered, “Yes, it did.” In his response to my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne), he s…
Commons
Debate
13 April 2026
9 contributions
SEND Provision and Reform
I beg to move,
That this House believes that SEND is an issue that affects every constituency; acknowledges that all hon. Members represent families who face daily challenges in navigating a system that can feel complex, inconsistent and under-resourced; further believes that ensuring that every ch…
The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting point. If we are to solve—if that is the right word—the issue of special educational needs, and, more importantly, put in place the systems to support children with such needs, we need to understand the reasons for those needs.
Instead, there is a feeling th…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
13 April 2026
2 contributions
Family Voting
6. What steps his Department is taking to help prevent family voting in UK elections.
While Greater Manchester police has stated that there was no evidence of family voting in a recent by-election, Democracy Volunteers reported witnessing “concerningly high levels” of such activity on polling day. How does the Minister reconcile these conflicting accounts, and can she clarify how Gre…
Commons
Proceedings
24 March 2026
3 contributions
Oil and Gas
It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman); it is like a greatest hits of the 1970s.
At a time when the war in Ukraine continues and instability spreads across the middle east, energy is not simply an economic question but a matter of national secur…
I understand that the figure is £25 billion, which is a significant injection into the Treasury however we look at it. The simple truth is this: if we increase domestic supply, we can ease pressure on prices, reduce reliance on expensive imported LNG and cut costs. That is not ideology—it is basic e…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
Topical Questions
T7. Given the ongoing national security concerns, including the risk of foreign interference in elections, will the Home Secretary set out what her Department is doing to ensure that individuals convicted of terrorism offences are prevented from standing for elected office in the UK?
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 March 2026
2 contributions
Puberty Blockers Clinical Trial
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. My constituents have a clear expectation that we proceed with caution when it comes to children’s healthcare, but there is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of this trial: the Government have already restricted these drugs due to …
Will the Minister give way?
Commons
Debate
19 March 2026
2 contributions
Online Harms
I support a number of the things that the hon. Lady is saying about the dangers of online harms, especially for children, but I am unclear about her position on a social media ban for those under 16. Although I accept her overall point, which is that social media companies have a responsibility, we …
Unlike the hon. Gentleman, I am very convinced of the need for a social media ban. That is why I welcome the Leader of the Opposition’s stance on that. On his point about communities, schools and parents, if we do not go for a full ban, there are some technologies that could be used. I think of Jaso…
Commons
Debate
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address
Two weeks ago, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister gave me two pithy answers, so I ask him to do the same this week. First, did Peter Mandelson receive top-secret so-called STRAP security clearance? Secondly—we will try this question once again—did Peter Mandelson submit a declaration of inter…
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker—and I apologise for not being able to give you notice of it. The ministerial code clearly states that Ministers must provide accurate information to this House. Under the duty of truthfulness, it states that Ministers are required to
“be as open as possible…