Alison Hume MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 Jun 2026 · NHS Dentistry · Hansard source

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  Imagine being 81 years old, blind and waking up with a terrible toothache, and then imagine having no car and no local dentist to turn to. This was the reality for John, one of my constituents in Scarborough and Whitby. His story is unfolding at a time when we are seeing a much-needed and welcome shift in how our country tackles dental care. After years of the system being left to decay, we are finally seeing real funding, new incentives to recruit dentists and a genuine, sincere effort to rescue NHS dentistry. Last year, this Labour Government invested around £3.7 billion on primary care dentistry. We are starting to make a real difference to people’s lives. Take another of my constituents, Margaret. She was so grateful for the recent changes that she sat down and wrote a letter to the Minister for Care. After suffering from a debilitating toothache, which had threatened to leave her housebound, the Government’s new emergency appointments meant that she could get her tooth extracted at short notice. The true test of our reforms is whether they reach everyone, and Margaret’s story shows that they have not. The reason that Margaret needed that emergency help was that her regular NHS dentist went private. Last week, I called 13 dental practices in my constituency. Only one, in Whitby, is taking on adults on the NHS, but only those with a Whitby postcode, and no dental practice in Scarborough is taking on adults under the NHS. Because John could not find an NHS dentist in Scarborough, he had to go private for an emergency extraction and was hit with a £280 bill. That is not just an exorbitant fee; it is a breaking point. If someone is blind and cannot drive, an emergency appointment in a nearby town is not much use. We cannot judge success on national averages while people in coastal communities such as Scarborough and Whitby feel stranded. In Scarborough, we have seen practice after practice going 100% private and handing back their NHS contracts. Two constituents who moved to Scarborough were appalled to find that not a single dental practice was taking NHS patients.

• 15 Jun 2026 · NHS Dentistry · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right, and I hope that the Minister addresses the challenges faced by rural and coastal communities in his closing remarks. The two constituents I mentioned were told that they could be put on a waiting list. Unfortunately, the waiting lists were 10 years long; aged 80 and 77, they did not think it was likely that they would even get to the top. My Scarborough and Whitby constituency is a dental desert. I worry about any constituent not having access to an NHS dentist, but I worry particularly about those with disabilities, like John. Because people can attend any dental practice, and dental practices can choose who to deliver care to, integrated care boards cannot decide who dentists see under their core contract. That makes it difficult for ICBs to target access at particular patient groups. The Minister has worked tirelessly to deliver on our manifesto commitments, and further improvements are coming. I applaud the progress made so far, but I ask my hon. Friend, on behalf of my constituents: what specific targeted action is being taken to address the complete lack of access to NHS dentistry in coastal towns such as Scarborough? What about people such as John and others who have disabilities but do not receive the benefits that passport them to free NHS care? We have made huge progress in getting children access to NHS dentistry. Is it not time to target access at patients with disabilities?

• 10 Jun 2026 · Child Contact Arrangements · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered children in child contact arrangements. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison, and to lead a debate on putting children first in child contact arrangements, an issue that is of great importance to me, to my constituents and to other Members of this House. When parents have separated and children are involved, they often turn to the family court. Family courts are at the centre of a child’s right to safe family arrangements. However, so many are not functioning in the child’s best interests. Allegations of domestic abuse are estimated to occur in up to 62% of private law cases under the Children Act 1989 in family courts in England and Wales, and counterclaims of parental alienation are increasingly being made in response to allegations of abuse. So-called parental alienation syndrome is when one parent undermines or destroys the child’s relationship to the other parent through a pattern of manipulative behaviour. It is a pseudoscientific concept with no basis in law or medicine. However, accusations of parental alienation have been made on multiple occasions by unregulated experts appointed to assess the family and provide recommendations to the court.

• 28 Apr 2026 · Park Home Owners · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) on securing this timely debate. My constituency is known for its coastal beauty, and as such it is a hotspot for park homes. Of UK mobile home owners, 80% are aged 65 and above, and they buy their homes in pursuit of a quiet, secure retirement. Unfortunately, many end up enduring a living nightmare, due to the widespread intimidation and mis-selling by some site owners. My constituent Dennis is one such retiree. He was mis-sold a holiday home on a holiday park under the false pretence that it was a residential home. He was persuaded to make the purchase by signage that suggested that the caravan could be used as his sole residence and inhabited all year round. After moving in, Dennis discovered that he was legally required to have a permanent home elsewhere, which is the rule for holiday parks. After the summer was over, Dennis faced, in his words, a “relentless campaign of harassment, intimidation and verbal abuse”. He was frequently approached by members of staff and warned that his home would be removed from the site if he did not vacate it. My constituent was threatened with physical violence. Eventually, when that intimidation became too much, Dennis sold his home back to the site at a 60% loss. The site sold it four days later for a substantial profit. Dennis told me earlier this year that, having lost tens of thousands of pounds in savings and with legal representation having cost more than £4,000, he felt that his retirement was ruined. That story is repeated again and again, up and down the country. The Holiday Park Action Group represents more 84,000 holiday park home owners across the country. As its founder Carole Keeble told me, Dennis is one of thousands of victims whose lives have been severely impacted by an unregulated industry. Sites often have a mixed licence that permits them to sell both residential and holiday homes, and they are sometimes deliberately unclear about which type they are selling. Buyers are often not properly informed of their contractual rights and obligations and are then forced to resell at a loss. Victims are led to think that they are at fault for having bought the home, not realising that they were intentionally misled. According to the Holiday Park Action Group, that has led to mental health problems and, tragically, to suicides. Will my hon. Friend the Minister respond to this debate by telling us how his Department plans to work with the Department for Business and Trade to establish robust protections and to regulate this industry, where people such as my constituent Dennis are being exploited?

• 21 Apr 2026 · Wheelchair Provision: Independent Review Body · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) on securing this important debate, and on his excellent speech, which drew on his lived experience. I contribute to this debate on behalf of the many constituents in Scarborough and Whitby who have been profoundly failed by NHS-contracted wheelchair services. One such constituent is a woman in her early 80s, who became reliant on an electric wheelchair to leave the house following a traumatic road accident. Her family and friends reached out to me after failing to be told when a wheelchair might be provided and not being offered any interim support. At that point, all the necessary adaptations to accommodate the wheelchair had already been made to the outside of her home. AJM Healthcare, which is contracted by NHS wheelchair services, was contacted for an urgent update but was completely unable to provide a specific timeframe for the progress of her application. Two years ago, AJM Healthcare was investigated by the parliamentary ombudsman following a surge in complaints. As we have heard, those involved people not receiving new wheelchairs or the correct parts, delays to receiving equipment and poor communication. Two years on, sadly, it seems that nothing has changed. Other constituents have also come up against significant delays to wheelchair repairs, leading them to become prisoners in their own homes. One resident requested my help after being housebound for three months while waiting for the supplier simply to send on the correct replacement parts. Another constituent endured three months of delays over a routine maintenance issue, only to discover after countless unanswered calls that the repairs company had gone into liquidation. It is clear that the current system is not working. Wheelchair providers are failing to meet even the most basic standards, leaving people isolated, housebound and ignored. What is worse, they are getting away with it. Despite repeated complaints and investigations, failing providers are still contracted and continue to offer an appalling service to people such as my constituents. My constituents deserve better. Waiting months for a wheelchair or essential repairs is unacceptable, and it is high time that wheelchair service providers were held to account by an independent national regulator. I look forward to hearing from the Minister about how the Government plan finally to put an end to this catalogue of failure.

• 19 Nov 2025 · Myalgic Encephalomyelitis · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. A constituent recently wrote to me: “ME has taken almost everything from me. I can no longer work, I am mainly confined to my chair or bed and, on the rare occasion that I leave the house for medical appointments, I need to use a wheelchair or walker and it often results in PEM”, or post-exertional malaise. This was the sentence that really stayed with me: “ME has taken almost everything from me.” That seems to sum up the decimating effects of ME for the 25% of sufferers who experience the most severe symptoms. ME takes and then it takes some more, until in too many tragic cases the patient dies. The fate of patients with severe ME has been brought home to me through my involvement with my constituent Debbie Seymour, once a working mother of two but now into her third year of being bedbound in a dark room and principally cared for by her incredible mum Sylvia, who is in her 80s. Although nurses are offering practical support, there remains a lack of knowledge about severe ME among healthcare providers and allied professions—particularly about the nature of the key diagnostic symptom of the disease, PEM. Too often, sufferers of severe ME are required to fit into NHS pathways and procedures that suit the system but take little account of the human being at the centre of them. I welcome the Government’s delivery plan on ME. One of the stated aims is for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to explore whether there should be a specialised service for very severe ME. NHS England is in the process of being dismantled, so could the Minister confirm in her summing up that that exploration will still go ahead? The desperate experiences of so many people highlight a lack of research into the disease. Perhaps the Minister can reassure my constituents in Scarborough and Whitby that there is a future in which the ringfenced funding granted for research into other illnesses can be extended to ME. In conclusion, I have felt helpless when it comes to supporting my constituents who suffer from severe ME, and their families and carers. I am putting my faith in this Labour Government to drive forward the research to find a cure for this devastating disease and to improve specialist care for seriously ill ME patients such as Debbie, before it is too late.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Specialist treatment of stroke patients at Scarborough Hospital · Hansard source

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  I rise to present a petition on specialist treatment for stroke patients at Scarborough hospital. It declares that “Scarborough Hospital should once again provide specialist emergency assessment, investigation, treatment and care for patients who are potentially suffering from, or have suffered from, an acute stroke”. Currently, my constituents have to travel more than 40 miles on the traffic-choked A64 to be assessed and treated in York. Following is the full text of the petition: [The petition of residents of the constituency of Scarborough and Whitby, Declares that Scarborough Hospital should once again provide specialist emergency assessment, investigation, treatment and care for patients who are potentially suffering from, or have suffered from, an acute stroke; and further declares that this is to avoid the need for patients to be transported, over 40 miles and often many more, to York Hospital from the East Coast region, and so that they do not undergo a lengthy and slow journey causing unnecessarily excessive clinical delays to their management out with current national guidelines, and so that their friends and relatives are able to readily visit them at a time of distress and need. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to take steps to ensure that Scarborough Hospital can again offer timely and accessible emergency care to acute stroke patients in Scarborough, Whitby, and the East Coast catchment area. And the petitioners remain, etc.] [P003127]