Charlotte Nichols MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 17 Nov 2025 · Asylum Policy · Hansard source

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  Warrington has one of the largest communities of Hongkongers in the country, many of whom I met this weekend when they reiterated their profound concern that the British national overseas 5+1 scheme was at risk as a result of the Government’s wider agenda on tackling issues in the asylum and immigration system. Will the Home Secretary give a clear commitment to Hongkongers that the UK is their home, that the British state will keep its promise to BNOs and Hongkonger refugees, and that the 5+1 scheme is safe?

• 17 Nov 2025 · Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Power Station: Wylfa · Hansard source

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  Although this announcement is a welcome step forward for the SMR programme and the community on Anglesey, after suffering many broken promises and false starts, it is abundantly clear that the UK will not meet our future clean energy needs without further gigawatt-scale plants alongside SMRs and AMRs. To that end, and with Wylfa having been widely considered one of the best sites, if not the best, in the UK for a full gigawatt-scale reactor, does the Minister grasp the urgency in setting out the road map for wider nuclear industry needs for future gigawatt sites beyond Sizewell C?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q6. I know that the thoughts of the whole House will be with everyone affected by the Huntingdon attack, and we should praise the actions of the train’s driver, Andrew Johnson, and the heroic guard, Samir Zitouni—in my mind, a worthy candidate for consideration for the George Cross—as we wish him well in his continued recovery. Andrew Johnson told “ITV News”:“I was only doing my job”.Will the Deputy Prime Minister take this opportunity from the Dispatch Box to recognise the importance of our railway crews, drivers and station staff and the vital role they play in keeping us all safe, from averting suicides on the rail network to dealing with antisocial behaviour and emergencies such as the one we have seen this week?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree that more can be done without the need for a change in legislation, but it is concerning that the Home Office does not look at legislation. Despite everything that was said in the Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry on drugs in the last Parliament, for example, which made very clear how outdated our current legislative framework is, there does not seem to be curiosity about fixing this. I completely agree with what my hon. Friend said about treatment and testing, particularly at large-scale events and festivals, because that can be a lifesaving intervention. It is both bizarre and frustrating that the Home Office actively chooses not to take some of the measures it could take on safer drug consumption facilities and safer inhalation equipment. That is something that is very much within its gift. We cannot continue to hide behind a 1970s statue, periodically tightened but rarely reviewed, that has too often exacerbated harm. If the House wishes to take money out of criminal markets, I ask the Minister to work across Departments to expand diamorphine-assisted treatment, which is proven to be effective and cost-saving both here and abroad, to provide dignified, supervised care for those with the most entrenched opioid dependence. After all, it was in this country that that type of world-class treatment originated, with the publication of the Rolleston report in 1926. I have focused much of my remarks on opioids, but in the short time remaining I will touch on some other substances. The first substance is cocaine, with 1,279 deaths involving cocaine registered in 2024, which was 14.4% higher than in the previous year and 11 times higher than in 2011. That is perhaps not surprising, given that the UK is the largest consumer of cocaine per capita in Europe and the second-largest consumer of it in the world, according to the OECD. The National Crime Agency estimates that in 2023, England, Scotland and Wales consumed 117 tonnes of the drug. It is worth mentioning that around 52% of homicides are drug-related, and there is evidence that cocaine use is fuelling domestic violence. In 2023, a pilot scheme found that 59% of domestic abuse offenders arrested in seven police force areas tested positive for cocaine and/or opiates. The status quo is not working. The second substance is ketamine. While ketamine deaths are relatively low, with 60 deaths, the stats are again trending the wrong way, as is the prevalence of the drug in our communities. I refer Members to the rate of past-year ketamine use among 16 to 24-year-olds, which has doubled since the drug was reclassified from class C to class B in 2014. We need a fit-for-purpose national drug policy, not a platform for point scoring or performative “tough on crime” posturing while harms continue to mount. There is much talk at the moment about the reclassification of ketamine to a class A drug, as if that is some sort of panacea, despite the fact that deaths from heroin and cocaine—both class A substances—have been increasing year on year. It is as though the Home Office thinks that making something that is already illegal more illegal is somehow worthwhile. In the light of that, I have tabled a number of questions recently on the effectiveness of the reclassification. I am genuinely concerned that no analysis of that move has been made, and the intention is clearly to ramp it up further. Other policy levers are available. In particular, an emphasis should be placed on tackling the mental health crisis among our young people, which can make the dissociative effects of ketamine an appealing proposition. Throughout this debate, I have sought to lay out the extent of the problem and to offer realistic, cost-effective and constructive measures that could save this country billions of pounds, not to mention thousands of lives. There are solutions to these issues, and the UK has both the expertise and the capacity to lead in this area. We must simply find the political expediency and courage to take bold action and do what is right. We cannot govern as the careful custodians of a failed Conservative settlement; we must replace it. This is a solvable problem, and it is clear what works. With clear guidance, consistent commissioning and the courage to back frontline services, we can save lives, support families and ease pressure on our NHS. We will not solve this problem overnight, but I hope to come back next year with the figures at least trending in the right direction. No amount of warm words or hand-wringing in this place will absolve us of our collective responsibility if we do not take the steps necessary to do that now. We promised the country change, and it is now time to see it.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. There are huge regional disparities in drug deaths across the country, and a regional approach need to be taken to tackling them. While I appreciate that drugs policy and legislation do not fall under the Minister’s departmental remit, I am happy to see her here, as the drugs-related deaths crisis is primarily a public health issue, and must be treated as such if we are to avoid repeating the same mistakes of the last 50 years.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is exactly right: Change Grow Live is a fantastic organisation. Multi-year funding schemes with clear outcome metrics, such as faster time for treatment, improved retention and improved naloxone coverage, will make a difference in bringing down the figures I have talked about. That is the path out of this crisis. I recently received a letter from my hon. Friend the Minister for Policing and Crime stating she could not support overdose prevention centres because of concerns about organised crime supplying the drugs there. Overdose prevention centres are a frontline, evidence-based intervention that save lives and public money, reducing ambulance call-outs and A&E attendances, cutting public injecting and needlestick injuries, and creating a bridge into treatment. I recognise and share the Minister’s concerns about supply but, with or without such centres, people will use the same drugs, either in alleyways and stairwells or in safe hygienic settings where sharps are disposed of, and where staff can intervene and build relationships that can be the foundation for recovery from addiction. The Scottish Affairs Committee recently published a report into problem drug use in Scotland and Glasgow’s safer drug consumption facility, and it is interesting to note the call for legislative action from the UK Government and Parliament and the fact that they seem to share my frustration with the Home Office’s ideological rather than evidence-based approach on safer drug consumption facilities. In written correspondence to me, my hon. Friend the Minister for Policing and Crime also maintains that supplying essential safer inhalation equipment would contravene current legislation, and that the Government are unable to support such a provision or to provide a legal pathway to address this. Encouraging drug users to change their method of consuming drugs from injecting to inhaling can be an important harm reduction step, yet while supplying clean hypodermic needles is exempt under section 9A of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the Government continue to support a policy of criminalisation of potential providers and users of safer inhalation equipment.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  The number of drug deaths in Scotland is stark, and it underlines the fact that the issue affects every part of the UK. We know what we need to do to start addressing it. I welcome the recent Scottish Affairs Committee report, which I will mention later. I have said before that putting drugs within the Home Office’s ministerial purview is putting the issue in the wrong place, so I am very happy that a Health Minister is here to respond. The current approach is rooted in the belief that we can simply arrest and imprison our way out of this. Despite the death toll rising every year in the six years that I have been doing this job, the Home Office seems to show not just a lack of curiosity but hostility towards harm reduction measures. My overarching question today is: will the Government finally take an evidence-based stance on drugs policy to reduce the immense harm that the status quo causes in our constituencies? Will the Minister work across Government to bring forward necessary changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and deliver a fit-for-purpose, public-health-led approach to drugs across the UK, saving thousands of lives?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend is exactly right. The clearest way to recovery is with companionship and support—there is no path to recovery without that—and I of course give credit to the organisation she mentioned that is doing such fantastic work in this space, as we were discussing earlier today. The implications of the under-reporting of drug-related deaths are that the problem is far worse than previously thought and the decision to cut funding to services under the previous Government was based on flawed figures. The National Audit Office reported that between 2014 and 2022 there was a 40% reduction in real-terms spending on adult drug and alcohol services, so I do not think it is a coincidence that the Office for National Statistics has reported a near doubling in drug-related deaths since 2014, and that the number of deaths only rises every year. It is clear that the problem has been made substantively worse by under-investment by the previous Government. We can all acknowledge that, but acknowledgment without reform is meaningless. Persisting with failed, punitive policies will only deepen a crisis that already ranks among Europe’s worst. Now is the time to show the difference a Labour Government can make by putting in place harm-reduction policies that will start to undo this extensive damage. As I mentioned previously, and I will repeat again because it is important, near half of all drug-related deaths registered in 2024 were confirmed to involve an opioid. In addition, this year’s ONS report found that the number of deaths involving nitazenes—a group of highly potent synthetic opioids—almost quadrupled from the year before. This marks the beginning of a new stage in the drug-related deaths crisis. As we have seen across the Atlantic, once those synthetic opioids take hold, it becomes all the more difficult to limit their devastation. I welcome this Government’s changes to the human medicines regulation that further expanded access to naloxone, the lifesaving opioid antidote administered in the event of an overdose. Indeed, naloxone plays a vital role in the fight against drug-related deaths. However, further change is necessary and naloxone should be available rapidly and reliably in every community pharmacy in the UK, so that it can be quickly accessed in the event of an overdose. It is important to note that naloxone cannot be administered by the person overdosing and must instead be administered by someone else. That necessitates further education on the existence of naloxone, and how and when to use it, with people who may come into contact with people who use opioids, including frontline service workers, such as police officers and transport workers, and the loved ones of those struggling with addiction. The period immediately after release from prison or discharge from hospital is when risk peaks. Opt-out pathways for naloxone distribution should be the norm. Take-home naloxone on release or discharge, same-day linkage to community treatment and a clear pathway for handover care are essential for people struggling with substance use disorders. As of December 2021, the Government estimated the annual cost of illegal drug use in England to be £20 billion. Around 48% of that was attributed to drug-related crime, while harms linked to drug-related deaths and homicide accounted for a further 33%. Notably, the majority of those costs are associated with the estimated 300,000 people who use opiates and crack cocaine in England. Dame Carol Black’s landmark 2021 review of UK drug policy found that for every for every £1 spent on treatment, £4 are saved through reduced demand on the health and justice systems. In the face of rising fatalities and a cost of living crisis, failing to scale treatment and harm-reduction measures is both morally indefensible and financially illiterate. If we want to realise that four-to-one return, we must provide long-term funding for organisations delivering services. Drug treatment services can only deliver if they are able to retain staff, train consistently and scale according to demand.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention; without it, it would not be an Adjournment debate. I completely agree. The deaths that I am talking about today are drug poisonings in England and Wales only, but if we look at drug deaths in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and at deaths related to alcohol and despair, we see that drug poisonings in England and Wales are a very small part of a huge issue in every part of our United Kingdom.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I completely agree about the role that rehab facilities can play in supporting people into recovery, and about the need for proper, consistent funding from the Government.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. Later, I will try to develop my argument for that kind of approach, which we could take here but do not. As a Parliament and as a society, we may have inadvertently come to accept the yearly statistics, and have perhaps not given them the necessary thought, but I stress that there are cost-effective solutions that could save the taxpayer money and save the lives of our constituents, while taking money out of the pockets of exploitative, organised criminal gangs. I am afraid to say that the problem may be far worse than is recognised. A recent report by King’s College London indicates that there has been a severe under-reporting of drug-related deaths over the past 15 years. The researchers found that drug-related deaths have been under-reported by 30%, and opioid-related deaths between 2011 and 2022 were found to be 55% higher than recorded, putting the estimated number of opioid-related deaths in that period north of 39,000.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree and I took a note from that report: “However, it was clear from the Minister’s evidence that the Home Office will not make legislative changes, even if the evaluation finds that the facility has been effective in meeting its aims.” That is ideological, not evidence-based, which is why I believe the Home Office is fundamentally incapable of dealing with drug deaths and drug harm in our communities.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Drug-related Deaths · Hansard source

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  I extend my thanks to Mr Speaker for providing the opportunity to discuss the crucial matter of drug-related deaths. I declare an interest as the unremunerated chair of the Centre for Evidence Based Drug Policy, a think-tank in this policy space. The Office for National Statistics reported last month that deaths related to drug poisonings have increased for the 12th consecutive year, and have consequently reached an all-time high once again. The ONS reports that in 2024, there were 5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales, with just under half of those confirmed to involve an opiate. Continuity is therefore not a strategy; it is a guarantee of further avoidable loss. Every single one of those lives mattered, and every single one of those deaths was preventable. Eight months ago, a similar debate was held in Westminster Hall on the topic of preventing drug-related deaths, to which the Minister responded. Though it was a well-attended debate, during which Members from across the House called for the expansion of harm reduction and evidence-based measures, I am afraid to say that, since then, limited progress has been made in advancing drugs policy to limit the unspeakable further loss of life in our constituencies.

• 23 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Last week, the Office for National Statistics published its latest report on drugs-related deaths in England and Wales. Sadly, for the 12th consecutive year, drugs-related deaths have increased, with a harrowing 5,565 people losing their lives to drugs in the last year. A key finding of the report is that almost half the deaths were related to opiates, and the number of deaths involving synthetic opioids called nitazenes has increased fourfold. Given the scale of the loss of life that we are seeing and the stark regional disparities in the figures, will the Leader of the House please arrange for a debate in Government time on measures to urgently address this crisis?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Manchester Terrorism Attack · Hansard source

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  The perpetrator of the hideous antisemitic terror attack on the Jewish community at the Heaton Park shul was on police bail for rape at the time of the attack, joining a long line of terrorists and violent extremists with a documented history of violence against women and girls. I welcome the measures that the Home Secretary has outlined today to provide greater protection for our Jewish communities in the wake of the attack. Alongside that, will the Home Secretary outline whether any work is taking place into misogyny as a risk factor for, or nexus into, other forms of extremism within our anti-terrorism framework, and what plans the Government have to publish an extremism strategy and hate crime action plan?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I have been contacted by a large number of constituents in recent weeks, whose healthy scepticism about digital ID making a material difference in tackling illegal immigration I share. I think there is scope for better digital integration across the public sector more generally, but the Secretary of State talked in her statement about a lot of hypothetical things—things that this policy could do in the future—and the only use case that has been confirmed so far is right-to-work checks. Can we be clear on the use cases that we intend to pursue and over which timescales, so that we have the information we need to make a decision on whether we want to go down this path?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the Leader of the House to his new role and associate myself with the support across the House for my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson). Members have raised many times the unacceptable level of threats that we face. Increasingly, abuse and threats are being driven and whipped up by one platform in particular, X, previously known as Twitter, which has become a sewer of antisemitism, racism, misogyny and dangerous conspiracy theories. Its owner has specifically targeted Members of this House. With a new director of communications in No. 10 and a refreshed Front Bench, may we have a debate in Government time on whether it is appropriate for that platform to continue to be used for official Government communications?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Passenger Rail Performance · Hansard source

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  I am sure I speak for all fellow MPs on the west coast main line who are regular commuters on Avanti when I say that having to plan our weeks around its appalling service and regular last-minute delays and cancellations is among the worst parts of the job. My constituents—both those travelling north to Wigan and Cumbria and those travelling south to London—are fed up with the service, which affects their ability to work, visit family and travel for leisure. What consideration has the Secretary of State given to reviewing whether Avanti has breached the terms of its franchise contract, and accelerating the process by which it can be brought into public ownership?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Passenger Rail Performance · Hansard source

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  1. What steps she is taking to improve passenger rail performance.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source

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  Too often, bereaved families are left with no legal representation at the inquests of their loved ones. Does the Minister agree, as per our manifesto commitment, that the Government must provide state-funded legal aid to families at inquests and inquiries following state-related deaths and disasters to level the playing field between victims and the establishment?

• 2 Sept 2025 · Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse · Hansard source

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  The last Government failed to implement a single recommendation from the IICSA report, and Professor Alexis Jay herself spoke of the huge anger and disappointment at their response. Baroness Casey’s work rightly focuses on the future and I am grateful for today’s statement, but can the Minister please reassure me that the extraordinary work of Professor Jay and all the brave victims and survivors who contributed to her inquiry will not be forgotten and that the Government will implement the IICSA recommendations in full, including its recommendations on the criminal injuries compensation scheme? Currently, that scheme excludes far too many victims of group-based child sexual exploitation and leaves them without adequate support to rebuild their lives.

• 2 Jul 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q13. The nuclear industry provides over 29,000 jobs across the north-west, including thousands in Birchwood Park in my constituency, which is a globally leading centre of nuclear innovation. I welcome the Government’s new modern industrial strategy, which will give businesses the confidence to invest after years of economic chaos under the last Government. Will the Prime Minister outline how the industrial strategy will support the growth of the nuclear sector, which is vital to our energy security, and to creating thousands more high-paid, high-skilled and unionised jobs?

• 26 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  This is Armed Forces Week, and as we celebrate the contribution of our armed forces, we must do more to support those who serve our country. Too many of our veterans return home with post-traumatic stress disorder, for which there are few treatment options. Since December 2023, the Home Office has been sitting on a response to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report on barriers to research on schedule 1 substances, including MDMA and psilocybin, which are used in other jurisdictions such as Australia to treat PTSD. Can the Leader of the House please find out where this response is, and arrange for a debate in Government time on novel treatments for mental health conditions?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Controlled Drugs (Procedure for Specification) Bill · Hansard source

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  On a point of clarification, as part of this process will there be reviews of the evidence for keeping drugs within those schedules? We know, for example, that cocaine is class A, and cocaine deaths increased by 30% last year. We all want to reduce drug harms, so at what rate will this be reviewed if the Bill is passed?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Controlled Drugs (Procedure for Specification) Bill · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I am broadly in favour of the Bill, but I have a few questions that I hope the Minister can answer. The Home Affairs Committee report of 2023 made a number of recommendations, including the rescheduling of psilocybin and other similar substances under the MDA 1971. I hope the Minister can confirm that, if it is passed, the Bill could be used to speed up the ability to move some controlled substances down the scheduling list and others up the scheduling list. Can she also confirm that passing this legislation will not further intensify the failed war on drugs model, as we hopefully seek to move towards an evidence-based harm reduction drug policy in this country?