Catherine McKinnell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for her statement today and for the leadership she has shown on this issue. A mother stopped me as I boarded the train today. She was beaming and she just said, “Thank you so much. This is going to make such a difference to my 13-year-old boy’s life.” I think there are many parents who will sleep a lot easier tonight knowing that help is coming. Does she agree with me that this is not the end of children’s life online? That will still exist, but this is a huge shift of power away from tech companies back towards children and their families, to make sure that their lives can be productive and constructive, and can include being outside with their friends as well?

• 17 Mar 2026 · Clinical Negligence · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for a fixed recoverable costs scheme to limit the costs that may be recovered in respect of certain cases of clinical negligence; to provide for regular review of the limits set by such a scheme; to amend the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948; to require the Secretary to State to report on options for reform of clinical negligence compensation relating to obstetrics; and for connected purposes. Horrified by the money spent on paying out for failure rather than on improving care, I was already set on bringing forward a Bill to implement some of the findings of our recent Public Accounts Committee “Costs of clinical negligence” report when Amie Evans from Forest Hall walked into my constituency surgery. Her story confirmed the urgency of the issue and the desperate need for change. Amie, a teaching assistant, is a truly inspirational young woman. With unimaginable grace, she told me about the heartbreaking loss of her daughter Seren, stillborn last year, and its ongoing impact. She told me how the concerns she raised about reduced movements in the days leading up to her due date were simply not listened to. The fourth time she raised it, after her due date had passed, it was already too late. On top of being utterly devastated, Amie feels completely failed by the medical professionals who were supposed to be taking care of her and Seren. Yet despite their grief, Amie and her partner Lewis have shown remarkable courage in campaigning to raise awareness and encouraging pregnant mothers to trust their instincts. She has succeeded in getting the hospital to review and change procedures in the hope that no other mother will ever have to experience such heartbreak. Yet sadly, Amie is far from alone. Failures at maternity units across the country have sadly returned to the spotlight in recent years. The Secretary of State was right to commission a national review, led by Baroness Amos. Her interim report, published last month, sets out a horrifying catalogue of failings: culture issues, weak leadership, discrimination, and a lack of transparency and accountability when things go wrong. That lack of accountability is at the heart of the problem. Review after review have found families who feel ignored by hospitals, left desperately seeking answers and concerned that the same errors will happen again. Rhiannon Davies and her husband Richard spent years calling for a review at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital following the death of their daughter, Kate, at just six hours old. Their steadfast commitment to ensuring that could never happen again led to the Ockenden review, which concluded that failures had led to the death of over 200 babies at the trust. Rhiannon said: “All we wanted was the truth about why our daughter died. Instead, we faced years of denial.” This theme of denial was front and centre of the Kirkup review into the Morecambe Bay NHS trust. One member of staff who was interviewed said as she left the room: “Sometimes bad things happen in maternity—people just have to accept it.” How can any parent have faith that lessons will be learned with attitudes like that? In Dr Kirkup’s next review into failings at East Kent, one parent said: “Every time at the hospital, it always seems like one person is covering up for the next; they are a team and they work together, but they shouldn’t cover up when children are dying.” As Chair of the Petitions Committee in 2021, I led a debate on black maternal healthcare, backed by 170,000 people calling for better care for black women, who continue to receive disproportionately poor outcomes in maternity care. I recounted the story of a woman who had said: “As soon as the second midwife was on shift, she just seemed to have one goal in mind and that was delivering my baby as soon as possible. She didn’t seem to care about easing any part of my pain or reassuring me for the many worries I had at the time—she rushed my labour along and as a result almost cost me my son’s life.” This is also personal for me. I had my own experience of poor care when in labour with my first child. Despite being in significant pain, nauseous and vomiting, and waters broken, I was sent away from the hospital numerous times. I was finally admitted as a full emergency, my unborn baby with a falling heart rate and in clear distress, both of us having endured 24 hours of unproductive, painful and dangerous back-to-back labour. I recalled afterwards that the midwives behaved more like nightclub bouncers than carers. One even said to me, I think on the third time of being sent away: “I know it’s exciting having your first baby”. She clearly had never given birth. Fortunately both my daughter and I came through the experience without lasting damage, but when I read the stories of parents who have experienced the worst, I can see how close we came. It is no surprise, then, faced with issues around accountability, denial and a lack of trust, that so many parents have to pursue legal avenues to get their answers. When mothers feel they haven’t been listened to and they hit the brick wall of NHS defensive culture, they have nowhere else to turn. Maternity claims are the highest-value negligence claims and can often involve babies born with catastrophic, lifelong injuries, yet the average birth injury claim in England takes six and a half years to conclude, during which time parents are trapped, having to fight for the support their child needs. As the Public Accounts Committee’s extensive inquiry found, other countries have shown that a better, safer and more compassionate system is possible. New Zealand’s automatic no-fault scheme costs roughly half what England spends per capita. Japan’s cerebral palsy scheme combines compensation with a robust investigation and prevention programme, improving care while reducing claims. Sweden has a long-standing no-blame compensation scheme, where cases are assessed on whether it was avoidable, rather than proving negligence. This encourages transparency from clinicians and has contributed to a reduction in avoidable birth injuries. In Sweden, one baby fewer dies each day than in the UK. In Japan, that figure is two. At the heart of this must be a willingness and openness to seek answers and learn lessons, so that healing can begin and care can improve. That is why this Bill calls for the incorporation of the lessons of existing maternity reviews and asks the Government to draw on international best practice, so that we can build a fairer, safer and more effective system in our NHS. The Bill also reflects the further findings in the Public Accounts Committee report. The Government’s liability for clinical negligence claims has quadrupled over the last two decades and now stands at £60 billion. When it comes to maternity, it is truly shocking that we spend more on failure than we do on the care itself. NHS Resolution is working to resolve more claims without litigation, and that is welcome but it is far from enough. In 2024-25, claims under £25,000 in value cost the NHS £183 million, yet only £39 million—just £1 in every £5—went to patients in damages. The rest was absorbed by legal and defence costs. It is staggering that so much public money goes to lawyers, not to those patients who have been harmed or to improve care. The previous Government consulted on introducing a fixed recoverable costs scheme, mirroring the approach already used in many personal injury cases, and while it was agreed to three years ago, it remains under review. The Bill will put in place a system that will improve this, and I am grateful to the former Chancellor and Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt), for supporting the Bill. There is also a long-standing anomaly in how compensation is calculated, dictated by a law predating the NHS that prevents consideration that the NHS may be the best place for claimants to access ongoing care. As it stands, it can lead to the state effectively being double-charged. To ensure that every pound is focused on improving care and preventing harm, we must finally amend and update this law—this 1948 relic—to reflect modern-day reality. Fundamentally, the Bill is not about numbers on a balance sheet, nor about restricting compensation for those who have experienced harms. It is about the mothers, patients and families who live every day with the consequences of failure, and who are crying out for a system that listens, learns and acts to reduce harm. We have to restore trust and have an NHS built on compassion, not defensiveness, when things go wrong. We must ensure that lessons are learned quickly and openly, so patients get the answers they need and a reassurance that the same mistakes will not happen again. The vast sums of money we currently spend on legal costs must instead go to improving the system, rather than forcing families into years of litigation just to get the answers they deserve. For Amie, Lewis and baby Seren, and for all parents and babies who have suffered the most unimaginable harm, I commend this Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Catherine McKinnell, Sir Jeremy Hunt, Marsha De Cordova, Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, David Smith, Peter Prinsley, Rachel Gilmour, Mary Glindon, Jen Craft, Paulette Hamilton, Anna Dixon and Josh Fenton-Glynn present the Bill. Catherine McKinnell accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 17 April, and to be printed (Bill 407).

• 20 Jan 2026 · Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for this statement, acknowledging the real harm that social media is causing for children. As a former Schools Minister, I know how welcome these announcements will be for teachers and parents, who are contacting us in droves. However, as she knows, time is of the essence. All the time we spend contemplating is time that children still remain vulnerable to those algorithms and this addiction. Will she give the reassurance today that not only will this consultation be swift, but the delivery of its outcomes will be swift, and—she has just said this—that there will be real action to enforce the regulations already in place that should be protecting children today?

• 10 Jul 2025 · Educational Attainment of Boys · Hansard source

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  I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) on securing this very thoughtful and important debate. He made a powerful opening speech. I add my welcome to Cian and Alex, who are on work experience here in Parliament, supporting my hon. Friend. He touches on a really pressing and important issue. We know that on average boys have lower attainment than girls. As a Government, we are determined to understand and address the drivers behind that. All children should have the opportunity to achieve and thrive in their education, no matter who they are or where they are from. That is the driving mission of our opportunity mission. We are determined to break the unfair link between background and success. We are determined to drive educational excellence across the country for every child and young person. To do that, many of the issues that have been highlighted need to be addressed. The current school system has many strengths but, as set out starkly by my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon East (Natasha Irons) and my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury), we know it is not working well enough for all children. Too many are falling behind and face barriers which hold them back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve. As in previous years, girls continue to do better than boys across all headline measures. Although the gap has narrowed compared with 2018-19, there is clearly still more to do. The Department is committed to addressing that challenge. The schools White Paper, which will be published in the autumn, will set out our vision for a school system that drives educational excellence for every child. We are working alongside Sir Hamid Patel and Estelle Morris, who are gathering views from thousands of children, parents, teachers and leaders across the year to build a solid evidence base on the barriers to attainment for white working-class children, and to look at what solutions there are to drive up standards for them. The inquiry is looking to get under the bonnet of what factors are driving underperformance, what best practice can support them and what policies can best be applied to address the challenge. That work will contribute to the regional improvement in standards and excellence teams—the RISE teams—and to our focus, as a Department, on raising attainment across the board. High and rising standards are the key to strengthening outcomes and closing attainment gaps, helping every child and young person to achieve and thrive. We want our reforms to the school system delivered through excellent teaching and leadership, a high-quality curriculum, strong accountability, and an inclusive system which removes the barriers to learning that are holding far too many children back. I mention the excellent teaching we need, because the quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor to improving outcomes for children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. That is why we are committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary schools, special schools and further education colleges. We have made strong initial progress to deliver the key pledge, and our investment is starting to deliver. Up to 2024-25, the workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time equivalents in secondary and special schools. Those are the schools that need these teachers the most. I agree that it is important that the teaching profession reflects the communities that it serves, and that children see themselves reflected in the role models around them. Male teachers and educators can clearly play an important role in teaching, guiding and leading the boys in our classrooms. However, as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson), and my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) rightly said, men are under-represented across the teaching workforce—over three quarters are female. Although that is broadly in line with international trends and has been stable in England for some time, we need to do better. We want to see representation increase across all phases, and we are working to recruit and retain high-quality teachers in our classrooms. We know that our recruitment campaigns are reaching diverse audiences, and they widely feature male teachers. I acknowledge the challenges that were so eloquently set out by my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland. I agree that every child and young person should have the opportunity to achieve and thrive in education, regardless of their background. That is why we have also commissioned an independent panel of experts to review the existing national curriculum and assessment system. We want to ensure an excellent foundation in the core subjects of reading, writing and maths, and a rich, broad and inclusive curriculum that readies young people for life and work. We want a curriculum that reflects our whole society, ensuring that children feel inspired and engaged in it. My hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) mentioned the value of time and support for young people to take part in sport. I very much agree. The curriculum and assessment review is considering specifically how to remove the existing blocks to progress to ensure good outcomes for children and young people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds or who are otherwise vulnerable. The review published its interim findings earlier this year. It highlighted the gap in attainment and committed to addressing the challenges and barriers holding children back from the opportunities and life chances that they deserve. We look forward to receiving the final recommendations in the autumn. As my hon. Friends the Members for Heywood and Middleton North (Mrs Blundell) and for Suffolk Coastal (Jenny Riddell-Carpenter) set out powerfully, school disengagement and exclusion are incredibly damaging and a significant concern. Every child deserves to learn in a safe and calm classroom, and we will always help our hard-working teachers to make that happen. Schools should take proportionate and measured steps to create calm and supportive classrooms. That is how to break down the barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for all pupils. However, we know that poor behaviour can be rooted in much wider issues. The Government are developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, led by a taskforce co-chaired by the Education Secretary, so that we can break down the barriers to opportunity. All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with effective strategies to encourage good behaviour. School leaders must develop and implement a policy that has the support of the school and aligns with its culture, but I acknowledge the challenges that colleagues have outlined. Education has a crucial role to play in helping children and young people to develop empathy, boundaries and respect for difference. Through compulsory relationships education, all pupils should learn how to form positive and respectful relationships. We are reviewing the relationships, sex and health education guidance to ensure that it empowers schools to tackle harmful behaviour, starting in the earliest years of primary school. It will be clear that teachers must facilitate conversations with students on what positive masculinity and femininity mean in today’s world, and on developing positive role models to build students’ self-esteem and sense of purpose. We will publish the revised RSHE guidance, which will include the importance of building communication skills, expressing and understanding boundaries, handling disappointment and paying attention to the needs and preferences of others. It will explore communication and ethics within relationships and support young people to think about what healthy relationships involve, beyond consent, including kindness, attention and care. It will consider the real-life complexities of relationships, including the significance of power, vulnerability and managing difficult emotions that can relate to relationships, such as disappointment and anger, and the influence of online misogynistic content and the impact of pornography on sexual behaviour, including what some people perceive as normal. All those issues will be addressed, and we want to empower schools to tackle these very important issues with young people. Close to 1 million 16 to 24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training. That number is too high, and the consequences are serious. My hon. Friends the Members for Stafford (Leigh Ingham) and for Loughborough (Dr Sandher) highlighted the cost of this not only to the individuals themselves, but to our society. Alongside the development of the youth guarantee, we are requiring local authorities to ensure that every young person receives a suitable offer of a place in post- 16 education or training. We need to address the underlying risk factors for becoming NEET, and that includes supporting young people’s mental health, with access to specialist mental health professionals in every school and mental health support teams in every college. Young people need effective transitions as well between school, further education and employment to prevent those moments of disengagement. We will continue to work to ensure that young people can unlock the opportunities that we know will set them up for life. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland again for raising these really important matters of concern, and I thank all those who have contributed to this thoughtful debate. I readily acknowledge that there are a number of challenges to boys’ attainment and engagement. There is much more we can do, and that is why the Government are focused on taking action to ensure that every child and young person believes that success belongs to them.