Parliament's party history for this member: Labour ( – present).
Register of interests
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.
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1.1. Payment for work
Payment received on 07 October 2026 - £231.19Conville and Walsh
I also join in your words in support of Helen Haines, Mr Speaker.
In the wake of the horrific cases we have seen in Hull, Leeds, Kent and elsewhere, the Government have announced that we will bring forward comprehensive proposals to ensure respect and dignity for the deceased in every setting, including proper regulation of the funeral sector, because everyone deserves dignity in death and every bereaved family deserves certainty that their loved one is being treated with care and respect.
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this matter; Ministers will certainly be happy to meet her and her constituents on it. I am aware of and concerned about the issues she raises, and I do not think that families are being given the full information about some of these practices and provisions. This goes to the heart of why we need new regulation arrangements in place, so that everyone can have the confidence that their loved ones are being shown the respect and care that all of us would want for our families.
The hon. Member raises an important issue. It is vital that we get this right, which is why we are currently holding consultations and discussions across the funeral sector. We know that there are funeral providers across the country that do an incredibly caring and compassionate job looking after families at the most difficult time; we are working with them, and we will update the House in due course. This is why we have established the principle of regulation, but getting the practice right, working with the sector, is very important.
The Government are determined to give every child the best start in life. We will appoint an independent maternity and neonatal commissioner and publish an action plan covering every area identified for improvement from pregnancy to post-natal care. We will also go further, rolling out Sure Start health services for parents and babies into every family centre across the country, reaching up to 1,000 family hubs over the next two years.
I will happily meet my hon. Friend to talk about maternity services. I pay tribute to her as well, because she has been a tireless campaigner for improving maternity services and, in particular, bereavement suites for families at the most sensitive times. I also pay tribute to all the families in her constituency who have been involved in those campaigns. Work is under way for a new maternity and neonatal facility in Kettering general, which will include a bereavement suite. We want to work with the hospital and the community on that.
I welcome my hon. Friend’s question. Having been responsible for the roll-out of the original Sure Start programme, I am still angry with Conservative Members who supported the closures of Sure Starts across the country. We are now restoring health services and the Healthy Babies programme to family hubs across the country, because health interventions from the work of midwives and health visitors and work on post-natal depression is crucial to the start of a child’s life. I hope that this time round we will have cross-party consensus as we expand those services.
I will happily meet the hon. Member. I pay tribute to the Select Committee for its work on maternity services. Clearly, some of the issues are about capital investment, and we are substantially increasing that to improve the safety of units and facilities, including maternity units. We also want to see higher standards of care not just in labour wards and maternity units but throughout pregnancy. I am happy to meet her to talk about those services.
I welcome the right hon. Member’s points. I know that he has championed those issues both on maternity care and on bereavement. Like him, I have also spoken to some of the bereaved families from Leeds, where the Ockenden review is under way.
The issues that the right hon. Member raised about babies and mortuary services, as well as funeral services for babies, show the importance of the broader response to the Fuller inquiry and the regulation of funeral services more broadly. We do need to take action. I am happy to discuss that with him further.
The work that we have done since the election has significantly increased the number of midwives across the country, which we rightly need to do. I have also been clear to the NHS chief executive that the NHS, regionally and nationally, needs to do everything possible to help reopen North Devon maternity services. I know that work is under way on trying to increase recruitment and support local recruitment. There is a broader issue about ensuring, particularly in more rural areas, that proper recruitment and maternity workforce plans are in place. We need to ensure, and mums need to know, that the services are there for them when they need them, including at the time they go into labour. That will be part of the approach that we are taking to maternity services.
The national cancer plan sets out how the Government will continue to reduce waiting times for diagnosis and treatment, and use new research technology and clinical trials to transform outcomes. Alongside the Prime Minister, last week I met Archie Goodburn in Downing Street to discuss the new action that we are taking on brain cancer, and our determination to tackle every form of that cruel disease.