Chris Coghlan

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1. 2 Nov 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Budget Resolutions

   When my grandfather Lieutenant Austin Coghlan, a naval officer, served in the battle of the Atlantic, he did not expect to survive. That he did was in no small part due to the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, who diverted convoys away from U-boats. In the process, the codebreakers invented the world’s first computer, Colossus, which powered the economic development of the post-war world. The spill-over effect from military technology to civilian use is one of the most powerful forces for economic growth, and we can use it now. Many have said that there is not much that is transformative in this Budget, but that overlooks the Chancellor’s decision to invest up to £5 billion in dual-use military technology through the British Business Bank and the National Wealth Fund, and to borrow jointly with our allies through the multilateral defence mechanism. I have called for that for the past two years on the Treasury Committee, so I am grateful that the Government and the Liberal Democrats have embraced that policy. Academics now recognise that the economic dominance of the United States has been powered by public research and development, especially in defence. In my Budget speech last year, I called for £5 billion more on public research and development, so that we spend the same share of GDP on that as the US does. The £5 billion in this Budget, while over four years, is a start.<span id="652" class="column-number" data-column-number="652"></span> Public investment in research in universities and laboratories is powerful because it de-risks the cost of developing new technologies, and enables private investment to take that research forward in start-ups. The London Business School’s Paolo Surico has found that innovation that is funded by the Government, but taken forward by the private sector, generates productivity and growth that is eight times larger than innovation taken forward by the private sector alone. More borrowing is of course a concern in the current fiscal environment, but as the Government have correctly identified, borrowing jointly with allies can remove most of the credit risk. The latest academic research enables us to forecast the returns with confidence. If this programme was scaled in increments of £2 billion a year annually over the next 10 years, it could lead to: growth finally returning to pre-2008 levels, transforming living standards; a debt-to-GDP ratio that is 2 percentage points or £60 billion lower; and meeting our NATO defence spending commitments. British politicians in the 1930s were labelled the guilty men, because they failed to prioritise defence over the deficit. My grandfather’s generation paid the price. As a reservist, an infantry officer and an MP, I want to ensure that our generation does not.

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2. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   I was very pleased to see the Chancellor announce £5 billion more in the Budget for defence research and development, which—<em>[</em><em>Interruption.</em><em>]</em>

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3. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   Does the hon. Member agree that the announcement of £5 billion more in the Budget for defence R&amp;D through the British Business Bank could have profoundly positive implications for our national security and growth, as I have urged, if the Government scale it further from here?

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4. 21 Oct 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Community Policing: Government Support

   I thank my hon. Friend for calling this important debate. In my constituency, we have a serious problem with antisocial motorbike noise from modified exhausts. Does she agree that we should have more public spaces protection orders to help the police enforce against antisocial behaviour, and funding for trials of acoustic cameras to try to stop this?

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5. 20 Oct 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Pelvic Mesh and Sodium Valproate: Redress

   <Question HRSContentId="{DB234EC8-2830-446A-837C-653AED07C13F}">12. <QuestionText HRSContentId="{9B1C31E0-AE36-48CF-88D1-533796500239}">Whether she plans to implement a redress scheme for people harmed by pelvic mesh and sodium valproate.</QuestionText> </Question>

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6. 20 Oct 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Pelvic Mesh and Sodium Valproate: Redress

   In 2006 my constituent, Ruth, had pelvic mesh implanted. It has corroded and caused her severe pain. She has been desperate for me to raise this issue with the Government. Three years ago, she paid for surgery to remove it but that has left her tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket and she requires more surgery. What steps is the Minister taking to implement the recommendations of the 2024 Hughes report, particularly if we are to give justice to pelvic mesh patients and support to those who cannot access the NHS compensation scheme?

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7. 20 Oct 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Northern Ireland Troubles Bill

   We owe our special forces an enormous debt. I understood that more clearly when I served in counter-terrorism in the Foreign Office. That debt has not been honoured with the endless and unjustified litigation against Northern Ireland veterans. In Northern Ireland, there has been a sustained attempt to paint a moral equivalence between those who are maintaining law and order and those who conducted murder. Veterans fear persecution, and that is why I support amendment 129, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler), which will require a new evidence certificate to be issued before the resumption of any inquest. As the right hon. Member for Goole and Pocklington (David Davis) described so movingly, on 8 May 1987 a heavily armed eight-man Provisional IRA team approached a police station at Loughgall. They used a JCB to breach the perimeter, with a 300-to-400 lb bomb in the bucket. They were engaged by the SAS and killed. It was the largest single loss of life for the IRA. Tragically, an innocent civilian was mistaken for an IRA member and was killed as well. There have already been four investigations or inquests into Loughgall. If there is another, what further answers are the families expecting? On their own terms, their loved ones were members of the Provisional IRA, committed to violence for political ends. What would this mean for veterans? Anyone who opened fire would be anxious that doing their duty could be portrayed as a serious crime. I share the grave concerns of SAS veterans and their regimental associations. The failing in the Bill is that there is no robust, objective test to prevent the reopening of inquests without new and compelling evidence. I may be a Member of Parliament, but I am also a reservist soldier in the London Guards. I have served alongside soldiers who know that they have done nothing wrong, but who now worry about the possibility that in 30 or 40 years’ time they too could be hauled out of retirement into court. How can that be right? British soldiers risked their lives for others, and we owe them the just protection of this amendment.

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8. 14 Jul 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Public Office (Accountability) Bill

   I have given the Government evidence that hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities are avoidably killing themselves because of public authority negligence and misconduct, including my constituent Jen Bridges-Chalkley. Does the Minister agree that the first step in tackling this problem is knowing how many of these suicides there are? We cannot do that unless we have a national oversight mechanism and a preventable death tracker that measure it.

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9. 13 Jul 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

   Topical Questions

   Three years ago, my 22-year-old constituent, Hannah Byrne, whose family are in the Gallery, died on the first night of her holiday in Corfu. Two British women left the scene without ever being interviewed by police. We know that the Greek authorities have submitted two requests to the Home Office for mutual legal assistance, but the family know little else. Will the Minister meet me and the family to help them get the closure and answers that they so desperately need?

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10. 8 Jul 2026·Parliament·Chris Coghlan

    Mental Capacity (Duty to Assess)

    I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require persons discharging functions on behalf of certain other persons to assess the mental capacity of those persons in specified circumstances; and for connected purposes. At issue is the devastating misuse of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which has resulted in hundreds of preventable deaths. King’s College London found there were 160 of those deaths in 2023 alone. The Bill is in honour of Christopher Laskaris, whose mum Fiona is here. Christopher was not unlike many autistic children; he was a sensitive and intelligent boy, who once asked his mum to stop on the way to school to rescue a lamb stuck in a fence. I first met Fiona when I was eight. I had stayed in my bedroom and ignored her, perhaps because I was angry that she was buying my home off my dad. My mum had died a few months after I was born, and I was a sensitive boy. Well, they moved in. Christopher grew up in my childhood bedroom, and he loved the house as much as I did. As a young autistic man living alone in Leeds, Christopher was in danger. Despite Fiona raising credible doubts about his capacity on numerous occasions over eight years, she was never able to secure the mental capacity assessment that she needed to protect him. Horrifically, Christopher was exploited and murdered in his home by a man who had just been released from jail. Christopher was 24. Under this Bill, he would have been granted that mental capacity assessment, and he might still be with us. I have been working with Fiona for over two years to close this loophole. We have worked on a cross-party basis, with the Government, and with ITV, which has mounted a national campaign to expose this injustice across the county. I am grateful for all of that and for the result: that the Government have committed to review and reform the Mental Capacity Act. This Bill offers an opportunity to realise that commitment. The Mental Capacity Act states: “A person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that he lacks capacity.” Too often, public officials have used that presumption to not take action, failing vulnerable people, because if a person’s capacity is merely in doubt, but not yet established as lacking, then they are presumed to have capacity—and are too easily disregarded.<span id="344" class="column-number" data-column-number="344"></span> The Bill has been drafted by one of the most prominent mental capacity lawyers in the country, Alex Ruck Keene, honorary King’s counsel. It has two key clauses: a duty to assess capacity where a person is reasonably understood to have any impairment or disturbance in the functioning of their mind or brain; and a duty to assess capacity where a person properly interested in a person’s circumstances has raised a concern as to their capacity. Although those safeguards are in the existing code of practice, they are too often ignored. The Bill seeks to bring those existing safeguards into law in order to mandate compliance. It will enhance the presumption of capacity by ensuring that it is not used against people to their cost or to the cost of others. Charlie Gooding’s mum Annabel is here in the Gallery. Charlie had Prader-Willi syndrome, which, in his case, gave him a genetic compulsion to overeat. Annabel repeatedly begged the authorities for help. They repeatedly ignored her. She locked the food cupboards but she could not prevent Charlie from buying food or going to food banks. Ultimately, his weight reached 30 stone, and he ate himself to death. Charlie was 35. Under this Bill, authorities would have had to grant Annabel that assessment, and Charlie might still be with us. Harley Watson’s mum Jo is here too. Harley was 12 years old when he died, after paranoid schizophrenic Terence Glover drove a car into a crowd of schoolchildren. Glover had told the police beforehand repeatedly in 999 calls that he intended to run over and kill schoolchildren. The police knew about his paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis and his impaired judgment, yet they took no action. Under this Bill, the police would have had to refer Glover for a mental capacity assessment, which might have saved an innocent 12-year-old boy. In 2014, a House of Lords Select Committee recognised the failures in the Mental Capacity Act. These past 12 years, Parliament has failed to act. The cost in lives lost is unimaginable. Among the hundreds of dead, Fiona lost her Christopher, Annabel lost her Charlie, and Jo lost her Harley. These three mums are here today not only in grief, but also with the highest of all hope: to save lives. I commend their courage and this Bill to the House. <em>Question put and agreed </em><em>to</em><em>.</em> <em>Ordered,</em> That Chris Coghlan, Ed Davey, Dr Danny Chambers, Sir Jeremy Hunt, Andy Slaughter, Florence Eshalomi, John Grady, Wera Hobhouse, Liz Jarvis, Vikki Slade, Manuela Perteghella, and Ben Maguire present the Bill. Chris Coghlan accordingly presented the Bill. <em>Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 29 January, and to be printed (Bill 114).</em>

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