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Showing every spoken contribution, including 12,832 under 12 words. Hide short remarks
The Government are committed to making this generation of children the healthiest ever, as set out in our 10-year health plan. That is why we are investing £200 million to strengthen healthy baby services through Best Start family hubs, expanding mental health support to nearly 6 million young people in school or college, and using interventions, such as the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, which we passed, to create the first smoke-free generation.
I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this important work in her constituency. Initiatives such as those by Ferrero and SC Johnson complement the action that this Government are taking on prevention to improve children’s health, including our £1 billion investment in PE and school sport. I commend those organisations on their work in these important areas, and I am always happy to learn more about them.
As the right hon. Gentleman will be aware, a White Paper on SEND is out for discussion. The Government will be looking at improving assessment, diagnosis and support for all children with special educational needs and disabilities, and that includes autism.
It was an absolute pleasure to join my hon. Friend at the event yesterday to meet campaigners and to mark Disability Pride Month. We are committed to ensuring that no matter where someone is in the country, they have access to the healthcare and support that they need. Ministers would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this issue further.
As I am sure the hon. Lady is aware, the most common reason for children aged five to nine to be admitted to hospitals is tooth decay. That is why since 2025-26, £21.5 million has been allocated to support supervised toothbrushing in schools and nurseries in the most deprived areas in England, and that will include her constituency.
Heatwaves place additional pressure on hospitals, and we commend NHS staff for their continued professionalism in recent weeks. Our 10-year capital plan committed to renew our focus on climate resilience, and we are investing £6.75 billion on the most serious safety risks, including risks to cooling and ventilation. We are also ensuring that heat resilience is a key part of future building design.
The new hospital programme’s standardised design is incorporating climate adaption plans. All new build neighbourhood health centres will be required to undertake a climate change risk assessment. The hon. Gentleman mentions Torbay hospital. He will be aware that it is in wave 2 of the new hospital programme, as set out in the plan for implementation. Construction is expected to commence between 2032 and 2034, but I hear what he says about bringing that forward. I cannot commit to that at this stage, but we have heard his point.
My hon. Friend is right that health infrastructure must be equipped to deal with these heatwaves, which are not just happening on the odd occasion—they definitely look like they are here to stay. We are investing record sums and setting clear design standards to ensure that the NHS estate can adapt to all forms of risk, including heat, and providers are supported by guidance from the UK Health Security Agency under the adverse weather and health plan.
All employers have a legal duty to ensure a reasonable temperature for indoor workplaces. The Health and Safety Executive is planning to consult on proposed changes to the approved code of practice for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, including those relating to workplace temperatures. As I am sure everyone is aware, 1992 is a long while ago, and the heatwaves that we are seeing now are becoming more and more prevalent, so this work is very much needed. We are investing record capital to ensure that the estate is fit for the future and that NHS staff have the safe, modern workplaces that they deserve.
All NHS trusts and adult social care providers are required to have robust business continuity plans in place to respond to adverse weather events. The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with NHS England, the UK Health Security Agency and the rest of the Government to plan for extreme heat. I cannot recall in my time ever having had as much discussion around this issue; going forward, this is obviously something we are going to have to look at in more detail.
We are the first Government in history to commit to publishing data on corridor care. In order to know what needs to be done, we need to know the size of the problem. We have committed to ending corridor care by the end of this Parliament.
The health inequalities that exist in our country, including in Staffordshire, are an intolerable injustice. The Government are taking action to tackle them. From the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 to the new heart disease and strokes plan through the 10-year health plan, we are tackling the root causes driving ill health.
I thank my hon. Friend for his question and his good wishes. Improving air quality is a core part of the Government’s shift from treatment to prevention in our 10-year health plan. I know that my hon. Friend is very committed to cleaner air in his Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency, and I commend him for all his hard work in campaigning on Walleys Quarry—I know that his constituents will be grateful. With the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, we have introduced a new duty on strategic and combined authorities to have regard to improving population health and reducing health inequalities, and it specifically references air quality as a factor for their consideration. If time allows and I am still in post, I will be happy to meet my hon. Friend.
As the hon. Lady knows, we are putting the patient voice right at the heart of the health service, so although she may say that we are scrapping something, we are actually going to make it better.
I know that the hon. Lady has asked me about the 10-year workforce plan on many occasions, and it will be out shortly. In that plan, she will see that we are prioritising British graduates entering the workforce.
The lung cancer screening programme is already making a difference by helping to find lung cancers earlier, when they are easier to treat. By focusing first on areas with the greatest need, it is also helping to narrow the gap in lung cancer outcomes. The programme can also identify other serious health conditions. Clear NHS protocols are now in place so that these findings are followed up and patients can get the right care as quickly as possible.
I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the excellent work of Hull University teaching hospital and Chiesi. The NHS has delivered spirometry tests in community settings, including community diagnostic centres, to diagnose COPD missed in the pandemic, and the lung cancer screening programme also refers patients to primary care, including for COPD.
The NHS lung cancer screening programme has clear national protocols and quality assurance arrangements to ensure that clinically significant incidental findings are reported, followed up and acted on appropriately to help ensure that patients receive timely assessment and treatment through established NHS pathways.
Women have been dismissed for far too long, and that must change. The renewed women’s health strategy commits to redesigning clinical pathways for heavy periods and pelvic pain in order to reduce repeat appointments, unnecessary referrals and long waits. Menstrual problems, including endometriosis, will be prioritised through NHS Online in 2027, which will give people across the country the choice of getting the specialist care they need from home.
The national cancer plan has a dedicated chapter on children and young people, as the hon. Member is aware, recognising the unique challenges they face. Cancer manuals will set out clear quality standards to reduce variation in care, and we are developing criteria for specific tumour types within those manuals.
I thank my hon. Friend for her question, which gives me an opportunity to say how much I enjoyed appearing before her Committee to discuss these matters. The Government are very much looking forward to receiving the report from the Health and Social Care Committee, and I will ensure that I respond to it in due course with full details.
2. What steps he is taking to improve maternity services in the north-west.
The publication of Baroness Amos’s report on the state of maternity care in England was a sobering moment for many across the country, especially those who still live with the trauma related to failings in maternity and neonatal care. There were so many instances in which women were not listened to, heard or believed. Given those appalling findings, what steps will the Government now take to ensure that the voices of women are heard—including the voices of those in the north-west who have been historically overlooked—and how will that look in practice?
Mr Speaker, as you are fully aware, we have had over a decade-long campaign to see the full reinstatement of the A&E at Chorley and South Ribble hospital. The public support it, the staff support it, the local NHS trust supports it, and the neighbouring hospitals at Preston, Wigan and Blackburn support it, but NHS England is blocking full reinstatement and will not say why. Will Ministers please meet with local MPs and all key stakeholders to get the A&E at Chorley and South Ribble hospital fully reinstated?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. Hartlepool is a town with a proud coastal and industrial heritage, but above all, it is a town of proud people. We spend a great deal of time in this place talking about the concept of freedom, by which we usually mean freedom from something—whether that is freedom from regulation, from taxation or from the state. Although those debates matter, there is another freedom that we speak of far less: the freedom to become everything we are capable of becoming. The freedoms to earn, to learn, to build a secure life through our own hard work, to raise a family with confidence and to fulfil our potential—those freedoms matter every bit as much, if not more. Freedom is not simply the absence of restraint; it is the presence of opportunity, but that is what deindustrialisation and globalisation robbed from communities like mine. It did not simply close factories; it took freedom away from working people. It took away their freedom to earn a secure wage and build a career, or to believe that if they worked hard, there would be a decent job waiting for them at the end. It took away the freedom to know that our children will enjoy a better future than we did. The scars were never just economic; they were social, cultural and deeply personal. To solve this issue, education must be the engine room of freedom. In Hartlepool, I am so proud that our FE college is taking a visionary approach to ensure that children have that freedom. Not every young person wants the same pathway, and vocational excellence is every bit as valuable as academic excellence. Through our partnerships with X-energy and Centrica, whereby the new nuclear that we are bringing to Hartlepool partners with our FE college, we are once again giving our young people the freedom to believe that their future will be better than the lives their parents had.
We know that sickness absence and stress are often related to people’s workplaces. With £17 million now invested in Northampton general hospital for a new urgent treatment centre, and enhanced A&E opening this summer, does the Secretary of State agree that this is proof again that this Labour Government are investing in the infrastructure that our staff need to keep them safe and keep us safe too?
Question No. 12 please.
It’s the football, Mr Speaker—it’s Tuesday. Sorry.
12. What progress his Department has made on ensuring that incidental findings from the lung cancer screening programme are followed up.
Mr Speaker, if there is a five-a-side doctor in the House, I would be most grateful. Following the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is one of the big killers in my constituency of Wythenshawe and Sale East. Chiesi, a company based in my constituency, is leading the fight in early diagnosis. What assessment has the Minister made of the Frontier Hull programme in tackling this, and will she commit to exploring scaling this up nationally to improve patient outcomes and save our NHS money?
The hon. Member is making a good speech on the risks associated with extreme heat. I had the good fortune of being a maths teacher in a brand-new school building in 2023 in Leeds. Just before the building opened, the builders showed us around the place, and I asked how the building would be kept cool. They said it is a passive cooling system. I said I was not sure it would hold up in heatwave conditions. They said, “We’ve got this revolutionary new technology, Mr Sewards—you can open the window.” As anybody who has taught or been taught in classrooms during a heatwave knows, opening a window does absolutely nothing for the learning of students. Does the hon. Member agree that it is time for the DFE to consider changing its guidance on new school buildings so that air conditioning is preferred?
I think there is widespread welcome in the House for the expansion of legal aid, but does the Minister agree that allowing advocacy for each family only to the first person who manages to apply for it might cause some problems subsequent to disasters like Hillsborough? What will she do to try to improve the mechanism for who gets the legal aid?
Before he leaves the Chamber, I say to the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt) that I agree very much with what he said about transparency and its importance. He made the point that lawyers are sometimes a problem. Obviously, the legal system, in which I used to be a participant, is adversarial. A bit like in this Chamber, we have the defence and we have the prosecution, and it is not the fault of the lawyers themselves if they are perhaps not as helpful as they could be. My new clause 1 tries to deal with some of the issues that are outwith the scope of the Bill, but it also reminds right hon. and hon. Members, and the Ministers charged with making this Bill work, that something else happened to get us to the truth of Hillsborough, and that was the Hillsborough independent panel report. That was not a legal action; it was about transparency, freedom of information and being open. I know that the right hon. Gentleman has his frustrations about the fact that his well-intentioned health reforms are not operating as he would have wished. He mentioned Bishop James Jones, who led the Hillsborough independent panel report process so well. I believe there has to be something alongside the Bill which enables families, should they wish in the aftermath of a public disaster, to choose a transparency and freedom of information way forward, rather than just lining up to get lawyers. I am sure that each family would have a lawyer, but lawyers operate within a legal system that is adversarial and is not necessarily there to get to the truth. Each advocate supports the side they have been instructed by, for their best interests. That has led to problems in the aftermath of disasters such as Hillsborough. My new clause 1 relates to the Independent Public Advocate, which was legislated for. I do not believe that the role has sufficient powers or resource. It has been established and set up, and the appointment of Cindy Butts has been made. She has already started to operate and was called upon in the aftermath of the attack on the Heaton Park synagogue. She does not have the powers that I envisaged in the Public Advocate Bill, which I promoted in this House from 2016. It has been promoted in the other place by Lord Wills since 2014, so Members can work out who wrote it—it was not me. The powers in the Public Advocate Bill, which I hope my new clause will enable us to consider alongside those in the Bill before us, would enable the families, should they wish, to embark on a transparency and freedom of information process. That would be something like the Hillsborough independent panel, but at a much earlier stage in the aftermath, in order to ensure that the full gamut of possible responses that might work for the families can be pursued. Although such powers are not in this Bill, because it is too narrow in scope for them to be included, I hope that my new clause 1 on producing a report within 12 months of the passing of this Bill on how the Independent Public Advocate is working and the impact of the Act’s provisions on increasing public confidence—a public advocate with such powers to help families can increase public confidence as well—will lead to a conclusion that she needs more powers and resource, as she has very little at the moment, so that there will be another option that some families, in the aftermath of disasters, may choose to go to, rather than just having to have a series of legal actions that may succeed and then fail, followed by appeals and different kinds of actions. That is what happened to the Hillsborough families. We must bear in mind not only the inequality of arms, but the length of time taken to get through the legal actions, even if they proceed swiftly and well. In considering that measure alongside the duty of candour and the provisions in the Bill, I hope it may, in future, aid families who get caught up in public disasters to choose the best way forward for them. One key thing about the Hillsborough families was the way in which they organised themselves. They got themselves together, set up the Hillsborough family support group and had a democratic procedure so that the families themselves could decide the next steps. One or two families peeled off when they did not agree with the conclusions and ploughed their own furrow, sometimes very successfully. Anne Williams springs to mind. She wanted to focus very much on overturning the inquests. She was right in the end. She knew absolutely what had happened to her son, because she went and found out. She knew that the inquest verdicts were wrong, so she wanted to focus on that. But on the whole the families kept together and were able to decide how they would go forward. Any public advocate has a role in facilitating that kind of process, to give families the collective strength to decide how they wish the aftermath of a disaster to be dealt with. Each family will have a lawyer to advocate for them, but that does not necessitate their getting together and deciding what to do among themselves in so far as they can. I think a public advocate who is looking at establishing a process like the Hillsborough independent panel could facilitate that and could assist in some instances.
The Conservatives were in power for 14 years and could have introduced the Bill. Why did they not do so?
It is a pleasure to follow my constituency neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald). I share his views about the need for action on the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys inquiry. When I first considered running for public office, my wife said to me that she was sure that at some point I would end up voting for things with which she did not agree, but that I must promise her that I would do one thing, and that was never to engage with The Sun. That is one small snapshot of the depth of feeling in her family, who are from Wavertree and Kirkby, and in families across the Merseyside region. They are well represented today by all my colleagues from that part of the world, but in particular by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne), whose speech was one of the finest I have heard in this place—and outside it as well. I also, of course, pay tribute to the Hillsborough families whose courage and determination have brought us to this point. For decades those families were forced to fight not only with their grief, but against institutions that should have served them. They faced delay, denial and the closing of ranks. They were made to prove the truth again and again, while those in positions of authority avoided responsibility. No family should ever have to endure that. It is a credit to them that they did not give up, and their campaign has changed our country’s understanding of public accountability. The duty of candour in the Bill makes it harder for public bodies to hide the truth, mislead the public, or obstruct those seeking answers. It says that public service must mean honesty, especially when things have gone badly wrong. I pay tribute to the Ministers who have led the Bill through the House, including my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), who is sitting in front of me and who also made an excellent speech. It takes great bravery for the Executive to agree to restrict their own power, and I think that applying the offence they have created of misleading the public to senior members of the Government is a courageous thing for a Government to step up and agree to do. I therefore support clause 11, but I also feel strongly that it ought to apply to all of us as politicians, and I am grateful to the more than 30 Members on both sides of the House who supported my amendments 13 to 18 to that effect. In the age of disinformation and the rise of autocracy, politicians who intentionally or recklessly engage in serious or repeated dishonesty on a matter of significant public concern must face consequences, and I hope to hear more from the Minister about that. None the less, I am firmly in support of the Bill. Nothing can bring back those 97 people who went to watch a football match on a sunny afternoon, or return the years taken from the families in their long struggle for truth, but we can learn from that injustice. We can support bereaved families at inquests, and we can ensure that future families do not face the same walls of silence and obstruction. I pay tribute again to all those who have campaigned for justice, and I am pleased to support the Bill today.
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. My constituency has enormous potential, but it has been held back by years of austerity, under-investment and managed decline. Coastal communities once stood at the heart of Britain’s economy: our ports connected us to the world, our fishing fleet fed the country and our industries sustained skills and secured jobs. Fleetwood was a thriving port, central to our national prosperity. Today, many coastal communities face deep poverty, poor health, lower educational attainment, insecure work and poor-quality housing, yet the deprivation is hidden. Severe need in one neighbourhood can be obscured by apparent prosperity only a few miles away, and broad funding formulas fail to reflect the reality of individual towns. Those problems are made worse by isolation. When buses are unreliable, railway lines have disappeared and services have closed, geographical isolation quickly becomes economic and social isolation. Young people feel that they must leave to find decent work. The industries that once sustained reliable working communities like mine have disappeared with too little put in their place. This decline was not inevitable; it is a result of political choices, and it is now the duty of this Government to fix it. Without investment in towns such as Blackpool and Fleetwood, the Government cannot achieve their missions of growth, opportunity, health and clean energy. It is not good enough simply to pump more money into the major cities of the north and south; our towns need support too. The lasting answer to poverty is good work that pays decent wages, and that requires the reindustrialisation of our coastal towns. In Fleetwood, we need a tidal barrage and the train line reconnected. Transport is not simply about getting from one place to another; it connects people to work, education and healthcare. We came here to rebuild our communities, build warm homes, restore transport links, create secure jobs and give young people a reason to live locally. It is time to give our coastal towns hope again. Let us all get on with delivering the future we promised.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. Despite countless studies showing gaping disparities in everything from employment to life expectancy, coastal towns are neglected in discussions about geographical inequality. There are a few reasons for that. They often sit within otherwise affluent areas, and they do not neatly fit into the north-south divide. Places such as Morecambe and Blackpool have more in common with Ramsgate and Bournemouth than, say, Manchester, to pick a random example. In Morecambe and Lunesdale, 10.2% of people say that they are always lonely. That is staggering, given what we know about the health impacts of loneliness. Social connection is a fundamental human need. It is as crucial to our survival as food, water and shelter. We are biologically wired for social connection. As adults, we cannot just go up to someone in the playground, like my daughter does, and say, “Will you be my friend?” Communities do not happen by accident. They need the social infrastructure such as parks, libraries, youth clubs and naval clubs. We need to protect that infrastructure and think about the barriers to social interaction, such as poverty. If someone cannot afford to go and do anything, how do they meet people, particularly if they are on a fixed income, as pensioners often are? Transport is an issue. I have two brilliant bus user groups in my constituency, and they fight every day to make sure that everyone can get on a bus to go places and meet people. Finally, I want to mention the necessity of communities with roots. In Morecambe, we have a deep-rooted community. There are areas of transience, but people have been there for generations. People know each other, and that social infrastructure is important. I am really concerned about the impact of short-term lets, such as Airbnb and others, on social cohesion. In my constituency, we are getting Eden Project Morecambe. That will be fantastic for our town, but I am concerned about the impact of the changing accommodation scene. I am worried about the impact on residential housing, which is why I am supporting calls for licensing, including caps on numbers, for short-term lets. We need to make sure that the roots can stay deep in our community. We need to make sure that people are able to build connections over generations, and then they can be healthier and live longer.
1. What steps he is taking to help improve the health of children and young people.
Businesses in Amber Valley are doing brilliant work to improve health outcomes for children and young people. Ferrero in Alfreton is encouraging children to be more active through its “Joy of Moving” programme, while SC Johnson, headquartered in Denby, is launching a hand-hygiene pilot in schools to reduce absences. Will the Minister commit to meeting me to discuss these initiatives, so that we can learn from the excellent work being done in Amber Valley and develop it nationally?
With 28 world records, the Crystal Palace national sports centre is the spiritual home of UK athletics. It is also an incredible community asset. Residents across Beckenham and Penge speak fondly about using its facilities growing up, or remember their children and grandchildren learning to swim in the Olympic-sized pool. However, in recent years, the centre has become a boarded-up relic of the past—in 2014, the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, even tried to demolish the athletic stadium and turn it into an unwanted free school—but thanks to the work of Fran Bernstein, Ben Woods, the Crystal Palace Sports Partnership and many others, the centre now has a lifeline. The £130 million transformation of the centre, backed by funding from our Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, will see the reopening of the Olympic-sized pool and diving boards, a revamped athletics stadium, and new facilities for other sports, too. I will be campaigning to bring world-class athletics back to Crystal Palace park once again. The petitioners “therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to work with the Mayor of London and other relevant partners to support the delivery of the transformation of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.” Following is the full text of the petition: [The petition of residents of the constituency of Beckenham and Penge, Declares that the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre is a nationally significant sporting and community facility; further declares that plans have been submitted to transform the site, including refurbishment of the Grade II listed building, a revamped Olympic-sized pool and athletics stadium and new multi-sport and parasport facilities; and further declares that this transformation would benefit residents of Beckenham and Penge for generations to come. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to work with the Mayor of London and other relevant partners to support the delivery of the transformation of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. And the petitioners remain, etc.] [P003227]