Liberal Democrats MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe since (elected). An MP continuously since .
Parliament recordVoting recordWritten questionsEarly day motions
Entries on this tracker
252
Each filed under the party they sat for that day
Register entries
6
As currently published
Declared while sitting for Lib Dem
£11,417.80
5 of 6 entries state an amount
| Party | Office | Area | Period | Began | Ended | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lib Dem | MP | Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe | – present | elected | — | Party history |
Parliament's party history for this member: Liberal Democrat ( – present).
Every entry the member has in the Register of Members' Financial Interests, as Parliament currently publishes it. The wording and values are the member's own declarations; nothing here has been assessed by this site.
Totals add only the entries that declare an amount received: payments for work, donations, gifts, and funded visits (register categories 1.1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Ongoing employment is listed but not added, because its figure is a rate rather than a sum received. Each entry is dated by when the benefit happened, not when it was registered, and placed under the party the member sat for on that date. A member who changed party therefore has a separate total for each.
| Date | Category | Entry | Declared value | Sitting for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| date registered | 2. Donations and support | Brecon & Radnorshire Lib Dem 49 Club - £4,100.00 | £4,100 | Lib Dem | Register record |
| date registered | 2. Donations and support | Michael Watson - £1,600.00 | £1,600 | Lib Dem | Register record |
| 3. Gifts, UK sources | National Liberal Club - £983.90 | £983.90 | Lib Dem | Register record | |
| date registered | 2. Donations and support | Adam Management Holdings - £3,750.00 | £3,750 | Lib Dem | Register record |
| 3. Gifts, UK sources | National Liberal Club - £983.90 | £983.90 | Lib Dem | Register record | |
| 6. Land and property | Property in London | — | Lib Dem | Register record |
Communities across Wales are desperate to see economic growth and new jobs, and that is why the Welsh Liberal Democrats believe that Wales needs more powers, including powers over borrowing, full powers over rail infrastructure and full powers over the Crown estate. Does the Secretary of State agree and, if so, will Wales get more powers during this Parliament?
Q7. Last Friday, I met a group of farmers from my constituency who told me about their experiences at the hands of a company called Green GEN Cymru, which has been sending its workers on to their farms at 4 am, wearing dirty wellies and showing no regard for biosecurity. Several Members of this House have raised concerns about Green GEN Cymru. Will the Government urgently look at revoking its Ofgem licence?
During the evidence collection process, lots of experts from the cyber-security sector called for board accountability to be reintroduced into the Bill, as it is in similar legislation in the European Union. Will he give us his thoughts on why that has not been included?
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I am here today to speak on behalf of the 217 people in my constituency who have signed this petition, as well as those who have taken the time to write to me and those I met from Breconshire Friends of Prostate Cymru. Today I want to share the experience of one constituent, Mr Peter Morris from Brecon, who contacted me following his own devastating diagnosis. At the age of just 56, Mr Morris was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer entirely by chance after visiting his GP about an unrelated health issue. By the time his cancer was discovered, it had already spread beyond his prostate and was incurable. Mr Morris believes that had he been offered screening at the age of 50, his cancer could have been detected before it spread, giving him a chance of curative treatment. Instead, he and his family have had to come to terms with a terminal diagnosis. I pay tribute to Mr Morris for his courage in sharing his experience and using an incredibly difficult personal situation to campaign for change that could save the lives of others. He has expressed his deep disappointment at the UK National Screening Committee’s draft recommendations to limit screening to a very narrow group of men with specific genetic risk factors. As he rightly points out, many men will have no idea whether they carry those genetic variants, and what about men, such as Mr Morris, who have no known family history of the disease and would not qualify under the proposed criteria? I recognise that screening is not without risks, including the potential for overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, but we must also recognise the real and devastating consequences of cancers being diagnosed too late.
Young people are the future of the armed forces, and that is why cadet groups are so important. In England, schools receive £360 a year for every child from an armed forces family, helping them to provide extra support. If Wales followed the English system, over £800,000 a year could go directly to Welsh schools and service children, including £97,000 for schools in my county of Powys. The reality is in Wales schools are competing with each other for a share of just £40,000 across the whole country. Does the Secretary of State agree that the Welsh Government must stop short-changing the children of armed forces personnel and put this money directly into their schools?
Those demographic statistics are alarming. In Powys, there are high average occupancy rates for nursing beds across community hospitals—91% in Llandrindod Wells and 82% in Ystradgynlais—yet Powys teaching health board is consulting on potentially cutting the number of community hospital beds from 160 to 60. Does the Minister agree that community hospital beds play a vital role in the care system, and does she share my concern that if those beds were cut, it would just mean that more elderly residents from Wales are left stranded in English hospitals?
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) for securing this vital debate, which could not be more timely for my constituents. I want to use my contribution to offer a warning from Wales about what happens when Governments distance themselves from the decisions being taken by NHS trusts or boards under their control. Community hospitals across Powys, including in Knighton, Llanidloes, Llandrindod Wells, Ystradgynlais, Welshpool and Machynlleth, face a perilous future, with vital local services potentially lost. Powys teaching health board is currently running a consultation called “Better Together”, which proposes that the number of hospital beds be slashed from 146 to as few as 60, with further cuts made to minor injuries units, mental health services and X-ray units. My constituents and I fear that the proposals essentially amount to closure by stealth for some hospitals, particularly at Llandrindod Wells and Ystradgynlais. All the GP practices in Powys have written to express their concerns about the proposals, which have provoked enormous public opposition, with nearly 10,000 people signing my petition against the cuts and hundreds attending public meetings that I have organised across the county. At the same time, in order to save money, the same health board has been slowing down treatment times for patients awaiting surgery in neighbouring health boards and trusts in Shropshire and Herefordshire. Despite that, the new Plaid Cymru Welsh Government have repeatedly refused to intervene, insisting that the issues are operational matters for the health board. We now face the extraordinary situation in which a health board is putting forward proposals that appear to directly contradict its Government’s own stated policy to improve step-down care. Welsh Ministers refuse to take responsibility and step in before it is too late. The health boards and trusts in Wales are accountable to the Welsh Health Minister, yet successive Welsh Health Ministers have refused to take responsibility for their funding. Welsh Ministers are responsible for the financial contributions of health boards; they cannot wash their hands of the consequences when those boards propose deep cuts to frontline services. It is striking that, while Governments elsewhere in the UK have sought to strengthen scrutiny and intervention in struggling NHS trusts, the approach in Wales has too often been to place greater distance between Ministers and local health boards. It is important that the Welsh Health Minister takes responsibility for his job and the Welsh health service that he runs, listens to the people of Powys and scraps the proposal for the removal of hospital beds across our communities.
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer) for securing this debate, and I commend her on her informative speech. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of visiting AE Gough & Sons coaches in Llandrindod Wells, where I heard at first hand some of the challenges facing the industry. I am also fortunate to have other excellent coach operators in my constituency, including Herdman Coaches and Williams Coaches. These family-run businesses are the hidden workhorses of our economy, but right now they are absorbing a lot of pain. The coach industry is particularly important to the Welsh economy and plays a vital role in connecting rural communities and destinations that cannot always be reached by rail. That is particularly important in my constituency, which contains major attractions and sites such as the Brecon Beacons, Hay-on-Wye and Waterfall Country. However, the coach industry faces significant challenges, particularly when it comes to rising operating costs and recruiting the next generation of drivers. On fuel costs, the Government must continue the freeze on fuel duty to protect operators and passengers from further inflationary pressures. The Liberal Democrats believe that a lot more must be done to help. Donald Trump’s reckless war with Iran, cheered on originally by the Conservatives and Reform, has pushed up prices at the pump, while the Treasury stands to receive an additional £2 billion in tax revenues as a result of soaring prices. The Liberal Democrats believe that money should be returned to motorists and businesses through a 10p cut in fuel duty that would reduce pump prices by around 12p per litre. For the coach operators that we have been talking about, who rely on fuel every single day, that would provide some much-needed relief. We must also see work being done to address the industry’s growing workforce crisis. That point has been made several times, which makes it apparent how pressing that really is. The bus and coach sector faces an estimated shortage of between 5,000 and 10,000 drivers, with almost a quarter of existing drivers thought to be over 60. At a time when so many young people are struggling to find employment, particularly in areas such as rural Wales, it is extraordinary that an industry that is crying out for skilled workers is facing such significant barriers to recruitment. That is why we need to see funded category D licence training and reform of the driver apprenticeship system. That was one of the issues raised with me by AE Gough & Sons, which highlighted the difficulties that operators face by taking on apprentices directly, rather than having to rely on college-led arrangements. Ultimately, if we want a thriving tourism economy, better rural connectivity and more opportunities for young people, we must give our coach industry the support that it needs. I hope the Minister will take those concerns seriously and work with the industry to secure its long-term future.
Kaylan Hippsley, who grew up in Ystradgynlais, was just 13 years old when he was tragically killed by a driver under the influence of drugs and alcohol in February 2024. The Court of Appeal increased his killer’s sentence to nine years, with at least six years to be served in custody before he would be considered for early release. However, Kaylan’s family have now been informed that his killer has been transferred to an open prison after serving barely two years and will soon be out on day release. Can the Minister explain how this has been allowed to happen? What assurances can be given to Kaylan’s family that the sentences imposed by the courts for such offences will actually be upheld?
I rise to speak in favour of new clauses 133 and 134, which stand in my name. The new clauses would require the Secretary of State to work with Welsh Ministers to update the England and Wales cross-border healthcare statement of values and principles, and to bring forward proposals to place those principles on a formal legal footing. For many people living along the border, cross-border healthcare is simply a fact of life. In Powys, at least 40% of people depend on hospitals across the border in England. Yet the framework governing how our two healthcare systems work together is based on a voluntary statement of values and principles dating back to 2018. We do not need to look far to see why the current arrangements need reform. Since last July, Powys teaching health board has been asking English hospitals treating Powys residents to treat them more slowly than patients from England as part of cost-cutting measures, despite the fact that they had always previously been treated as equals. The impact of that decision has been devastating. Many patients have had their waiting times increased to up to two years—forced to wait longer in pain, all while their conditions deteriorate. It is not just me and the Liberal Democrats who have been sounding the alarm; providers on the English side of the border have resisted the arrangements because of concerns about the impact on patients. However, there seems to be little will to resolve the issue from either the Welsh Government or the health boards responsible. Meanwhile, patients are falling through the cracks. My constituents should not have to navigate the administrative boundaries between the NHS in England and NHS Wales simply to get the arrangements and treatment they need. Eight years after the statement of values and principles was introduced, the limitations of relying on a voluntary statement with no formal legal footing are clear. New clause 134 would require the Secretary of State to work with Welsh Ministers to update that statement, reflecting the problems that cross-border patients face today. Crucially, it would also require the Government to bring forward proposals within two years to place those principles on a statutory footing. The border should never be a barrier to receiving healthcare. It is time to update and strengthen these principles and give cross-border patients the statutory protections they deserve, because I fear that cross-border healthcare will continue to deteriorate over the next couple of years. Over the summer recess, I held a series of public meetings in response to plans by Powys teaching health board to cut the number of community beds, which will just mean that more people end up stuck in community beds on the English side of the border.
Held . Recorded result: LD Gain. Majority 1,472. 46,548 votes cast from an electorate of 73,114. Parties are as each candidate stood at the time.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Chadwick | Liberal Democrat | 13,736 | 29.5% |
| Fay Jones | Conservative | 12,264 | 26.3% |
| Matthew Dorrance | Labour | 9,904 | 21.3% |
| Adam Hill | Reform UK | 6,567 | 14.1% |
| Emily Durrant-Munro | Plaid Cymru | 2,280 | 4.9% |
| Amerjit Kaur-Dhaliwal | Green Party | 1,188 | 2.6% |
| Jonathan Harrington | Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party | 372 | 0.8% |
| Lady Lily The Pink | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 237 | 0.5% |
| Seat | Dates |
|---|---|
| Brecon, Radnor and Cwm TaweElected 1 time | – present |
| Post | Dates |
|---|---|
| Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Wales)Opposition Department | – present |
| Committee | Dates |
|---|---|
| Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill | – present |
| Welsh Affairs Committee | – present |
Constituency office
7a James Street, Pontardawe, Swansea, SA8 4LR
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