Alice Macdonald MP: speeches

Speeches

• 17 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Infertility is a medical condition that affects one in six couples in the UK, but access to NHS treatment is a postcode lottery, with less than 10% of ICBs in England offering the recommended three cycles of IVF. Does the Minister agree that we need to end that postcode lottery, and will she meet me and campaigners such as Fertility Action to discuss how we can end it for good?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Spending Review: Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  I welcome this brilliant investment in our NHS, which will also be welcomed by my constituents. I know that this Labour Government will ensure that everyone in every part of the country benefits, including women. Last year, I highlighted that women in Norfolk face the longest waits in the country for gynaecological care, with hundreds waiting more than a year for treatment for conditions such as endometriosis. Can the Minister assure me that as we advance these plans for the NHS, we will ensure that we tackle those waiting lists? Far too many women are paying the price for years of inaction under the Conservatives.

• 20 Mar 2025 · Knife Crime: Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  Norfolk, as a rule, is a safe county with a generally lower than average rate of crime. It is a wonderful place to live, and many people who grow up there, as I did, have a fantastic childhood, but that is sadly not the case for every young person. We face an increasing challenge with the intertwining of knife crime and county lines activity in our area, which is having a devastating effect, and I will focus my remarks on that element. Since becoming a Member of Parliament, I have met Emma and Phil Dix, whose 18-year-old son Joe was tragically stabbed to death in my constituency in 2022. Three young men were found guilty of his murder. Joe’s parents have spoken about how they feel Joe was exploited by county lines drug dealers and became trapped in a vicious cycle. I want to quote what Emma, his mum, has said: “I don’t think we’ve really tackled the root cause of why people are carrying and using knives, particularly in Norfolk. Unfortunately, we’ve buried it under the sand for quite a while. Some of it’s going to be related to mental health, exploitation and grooming as well. We know that with a lot of incidents caused through county-lines, people won’t go to the Police due to their fear of repercussions.” As the Minister knows, the term “county lines” refers to the mobile phone lines used to take orders of drugs, and it has been strongly linked to violent offences, including knife crime. I recently met her to discuss this issue, and I welcome her engagement on it. It is also a focus for police in Norfolk. Since its creation five years ago, Norfolk’s county lines team has reportedly investigated more than 200 phone lines, with 213 charges and more than 570 years in prison sentences. I welcome that, because it is vital that those running these lines, who so often cruelly exploit young people, are brought to justice. Emma and Phil have since set up the Joe Dix Foundation, and they have welcomed the Government’s plan to recognise child criminal exploitation as a stand-alone offence in the Crime and Policing Bill. They have also called for a national register for all perpetrators who are convicted of child criminal exploitation, and I wonder whether the Minister could reply directly to that in her response. Their story, like that of so many families across our country, underlines why this Government’s commitment to tackling knife crime is so important, and it is why I welcome this debate and thank the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) for securing it. To tackle county lines and knife crime among young people, we must focus on prevention, intervention, education and tackling the root causes. I welcome the recently launched coalition to tackle knife crime, which Emma and Phil are members of. It is a welcome collaboration, because it is only through listening to the voices of those on the ground that we will find solutions to these issues. I recently held a youth engagement forum with community groups and young people across Norwich North, and the overall message was the importance of multiple organisations collaborating on early intervention measures to prevent young people from going down dangerous paths and to give them opportunities. I agree strongly with the call for a public health approach. As a councillor in London, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), I saw that at first hand, as well as the work of many community groups there. In my constituency, organisations such as the Joe Dix Foundation, MAP, Norfolk YMCA, Sprowston Youth Engagement Project, Future Projects and the district councils all do fantastic work, and I pay tribute to them. Most importantly, we must listen to young people. Young people at that roundtable raised a range of issues we have covered today, including the need for more youth-friendly spaces, the lack of opportunities for work experience and employment, and the need to tackle online harms. I particularly welcome the Young Futures programme and the hubs that will be set up. Only by taking a holistic approach to combating knife crime will we begin to pull it out at its roots. I am clear that collaboration with young people and those on the frontline is key. The Youth Endowment Fund has highlighted many of the most effective solutions when it comes to reducing violent crime. We have the evidence. With this Government, we have the political will. We have consensus on both sides of the House that we must work together to tackle knife crime, because none of us can sit back while precious lives are being lost and young people’s lives are being destroyed.

• 27 Feb 2025 · Women’s Health · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your leadership, Dr Huq. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) for securing this important debate. As we have heard for far too long, women have been paying the price of an NHS that simply is not working. Women know that; in a survey that I saw, half of women said that they believed that their health was treated as second class. Our economy is also paying the price. There are many areas that we could mention, but I want to focus on one in particular: the often very challenging journey that people experience when trying to have a baby. More than 3.5 million people in the UK go through some kind of fertility challenge, and that obviously has a huge impact on women. It can happen for a variety of reasons and is often heartbreaking. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing fertility, but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines are clear that, for women under 40 with a clinical diagnosis requiring in vitro fertilisation, or with unexplained infertility for two years, three NHS-funded cycles of IVF should be offered. The guidelines also recommend that women aged between 40 and 42 should be offered one cycle of IVF on the NHS, subject to some conditions. Yet the reality is a postcode lottery. It is down to local integrated care boards to decide their approach, and only around a quarter of ICBs in England offer a full three cycles. The east of England, where my constituency is, has the lowest proportion of NHS-funded cycles, and my own ICB of Norfolk and Waveney offers two cycles. In other areas—north-east London, for example—the full three cycles are funded, whereas in areas such as Hampshire only one is. Recent data tells us that fewer than 27% of IVF patients receive NHS funding nationally. When we think about our NHS, that is a huge anomaly. It means that most patients are paying for their treatment. Other factors also come into play: inequalities are stark when it comes to access and outcomes for black and ethnic minority patients, as well as for those in female same-sex relationships. The postcode lottery needs to end. We must address those inequalities in access to NHS funding. There also needs to be greater education for healthcare professionals around fertility, regarding diagnosis and treatment, and for people themselves, so that patients have the choice and know what to do when it comes to their own fertility. Beyond medical treatment, there is also not enough support in the workplace. We really need a whole-of-Government approach to this issue. It is not just about the Department of Health and Social Care; there are so many other areas, including, importantly, the Department for Work and Pensions. There is no legal right to time off for fertility treatment and currently, under the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s code of practice, fertility treatment is compared with cosmetic dental surgery. That means that many employers regard fertility treatment as a “nice to have”—an elective choice. Instead, it should be treated as a medical procedure that is needed. I have heard stories of women losing their jobs simply because they have attended an IVF appointment. That needs to change. That is why I am campaigning, with Fertility Matters at Work and others, for a change in the law, so that people—women, in particular—have a right to paid time off for fertility treatment. I have met the Minister for Employment, my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern), to discuss the issue, and I welcome the continued engagement with the Government. I hope the Minister will meet us to discuss those demands. Many companies, including Centrica, E.ON and Cadent, already give women time off because they know it makes sense for productivity and happiness at work. Almost one in five people undergoing fertility treatment end up leaving their jobs because of the impact. I also want to touch on miscarriage, another aspect of the journey; I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy) will mention it as well. We need a right to time off for miscarriage before 24 weeks. It causes huge trauma, and women do not recover from it straight away. They need to be given time. In the 30 seconds that I have left, I want to touch on gynaecology in my area of Norfolk. The situation is dire: we have the worst wait for gynaecology treatment in England. We are nowhere near the 92% target of 18 weeks: the figure is 44% in Norfolk and Waveney. Research from the House of Commons Library shows that more than 1,000 patients have been waiting for more than a year in Norfolk and Waveney, and that has a massive impact on women’s health. I have to stop there. I wanted to talk about women’s health hubs, but I am sure that others will. There are so many issues to discuss, but when it comes to fertility and gynaecology, we simply cannot wait. Our manifesto promised that we will not neglect women’s health again, and I am sure that we will live up to that promise.

• 25 Feb 2025 · SEND Education Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your leadership, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal (Jenny Riddell-Carpenter) for securing this important debate. My area of Norfolk has unique challenges as well as the common challenges we have heard about from many Members. Between 2019 and 2024, we saw a 74.5% increase in the number of EHC plans issued, and it is rising faster than the national average. I want to touch on a few of the systemic problems I see in my area. Hon. Members have mentioned health. In Norfolk there are more than 10,000 children on waiting lists for an autism or ADHD assessment, and the average waiting time is seven years. That is totally unacceptable. Can the Minister tell us what is being done with the Department of Health and Social Care to expedite that process? When members of the public contact me, whether because they are being told that, since the specialist provision is within 3 miles, they must walk there and transport will not be funded, or whether it is to tell me about the thousands of pounds being poured into tribunal processes by Norfolk county council, my feeling is overwhelmingly that the system is failing them. We have an adversarial system in which parents and children are not being listened to. We also have a real challenge in Norfolk with the expense of transport, which costs the local authority a huge amount but forces children to travel miles. There is a school sitting empty in Norwich North that could be turned into a special school. I have been campaigning for that with local councillors for almost four years, but bureaucracy seems to be getting in the way. I do not understand why the simple transfer of a lease is impeding the provision of an extra specialist school for our children. We really need to look at how we can expedite the use of facilities that could be repurposed. I also hear from constituents that when they are told there is no place for their child in a specialist resource base, they are not told the reasons why. My constituent Joanne was told that there is no right to appeal, so she has been left with no understanding of why her child cannot have the place she desperately needs. I agree that we need clear guidelines for families. We also need a co-production model, so that parents are not just talking to a system, but being included in the system right from the very start, through delivery for our young people. I welcome the steps that the Government have taken so far. I know that we will take so many more. Ultimately, speed is of the essence.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Endometriosis: Women in the Workplace · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. As she mentioned, endometriosis can have a knock-on effect on many areas of a woman’s life. It can affect mental health, and it can also have an impact on fertility, yet there is no statutory right to time off work for fertility treatment, or indeed in many other scenarios. Does she agree that we should welcome the support that employers provide in this area and encourage others to do much more to support women going through endometriosis and so many other difficult conditions?

• 18 Dec 2024 · Winter Preparedness · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the hard-working NHS staff in Norwich and in Norfolk as a whole. Norfolk County Council has used artificial intelligence to identify more than 1,000 people who are risk of being admitted to hospital because of falls this Christmas. Does the Minister welcome that use of AI, and will she expand on how we are using technology, now and in the future, to help alleviate winter pressures?

• 16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) on his cultured and moving speech—and on delivering it without notes, which is always very impressive. I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in today’s debate. I come from a family that is rich with GPs—primary caregivers who are the bedrock of our NHS. My grandad, aunt and uncle were all GPs, and my cousin is a qualified GP too. Over the generations they have served, times have got harder and pressures have grown. Under successive Conservative Governments, we saw decades of under-investment and mismanagement, and a lack of long-term planning, which has left primary care on its knees. Indeed, during the election campaign we had to fight to save our NHS walk-in centre, which has become important for so many people in my constituency —I am glad to say that we succeeded. However, as the Health Secretary said when he visited Lionwood medical practice in Norwich North, “The cavalry is coming”; in fact, it has arrived. We know that the task is monumental, but as the party that created the NHS, Labour knows how to fix it. I welcome our 10-year plan, which has primary care at its heart. It will make sure that we shift from hospital to community, and from sickness to prevention. Because of the black hole in funding that we have been left by the Conservatives, we know that money is tight, but we have already taken action by investing £82 million to recruit 1,000 newly qualified GPs. Of course, primary care refers to dentistry too. My county of Norfolk has been allowed to become a dental desert—or, as the Secretary of State has said, “the Sahara of dental deserts”. —[ Official Report , 23 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 506.] A recent ONS dentistry report states that 99.7% of new patients in East Anglia cannot access NHS dental care, which is shocking and totally unacceptable. I note that many pregnant women are unable to access the free NHS dentistry care to which they are entitled. In fact, brand-new data from the British Dental Association and the Women’s Institute shows that nearly 1.5 million NHS dental appointments for pregnant women and new mums have been lost since the start of the covid pandemic. I ask the Minister to focus on what we can do to improve women’s access to dental care, because dentistry is a feminist issue too. I welcome our plans to rescue NHS dentistry, and I will continue pushing with colleagues across Norfolk—I can see the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) in the Chamber—for the dental school that we so desperately need. Let me finish with the Health Secretary’s own words: “The cavalry is coming.” We will fix the NHS and make sure it is fit for purpose.

• 23 Jul 2024 · NHS Dental Contracting Framework · Hansard source

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  1. What assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the NHS dental contracting framework.

• 23 Jul 2024 · NHS Dental Contracting Framework · Hansard source

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  I welcome my right hon. Friend to his place. Norfolk is a dental desert and my constituents are suffering. As well as reforming the contract, we need to train more dentists. In the east of England we do not have a dental school, but the University of East Anglia has put forward proposals for one. Will he meet me, other hon. Members from Norfolk and representatives from the University of East Anglia to discuss this important proposal?