Chris Bloore MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 17 Jun 2026 · Mental Health: Parity of Esteem · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend was a champion for mental health long before I came to this House, and I congratulate her on securing the debate. She makes a point about spending, and I read this morning that despite 28% of cases in the NHS being related to mental health, it receives only 13% of the funding. That is at the same time that parity of esteem has been a legal requirement for over a decade. If we are serious about parity of esteem between physical and mental health, the spending must follow the rhetoric.

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

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  Hundreds of parents and young people in Redditch have contacted me regarding the Government’s consultation. Many of them will welcome today’s announcement as a critical step to protect our children and end the unfettered social media experiment on our children. The Secretary of State knows that this will not be a silver bullet to keep our children safe online, so can I implore her—although I know that she will do this anyway—to keep up the pressure on the negligent tech giants who have acted with such impunity throughout the process?

• 15 Jun 2026 · Russian Shadow Fleet · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my right hon. and gallant Friend on his new role. In and out of uniform, he has dedicated his life to this country, and we are grateful to be sitting behind him. May I pay tribute to the brave men and women who executed the operation over the weekend with the utmost skill? It is clear that it required multiple stakeholders and international co-operation to deliver an excellent result. Is this the start of a more aggressive attitude in British waters to the shadow fleet, which is conducting an illegal trade to fund an illegal war?

• 15 Jun 2026 · Defence Investment Plan · Hansard source

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  The Minister will know that Redditch is home to many businesses that proudly support our armed forces. I think he may have touched on this in his previous answer, but can he confirm that when the Prime Minister goes to the NATO summit next month, the DIP will be published in full?

• 15 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Last week we held interviews for the chair of our Pride in Place neighbourhood board in Redditch. Will the Minister join me in thanking all those who put their name forward and encourage all residents in Greenlands and Woodrow to take part in the scheme, which will see the largest single financial investment in my town in my entire lifetime?

• 9 Jun 2026 · North Belfast: Violent Attack · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for his response, and I thank the right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) for asking this urgent question. As a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, I have visited Belfast on several occasions, and I have been struck by the incredible community spirit of that incredible city. What we witnessed last night was the worst of humanity but also the best of humanity; it is incredible that bystanders came to the aid of an individual suffering a brutal attack. Can the Secretary of State assure me that the PSNI will be given every resource it needs to conduct a swift investigation and ensure that all facts are shared with the public? Can we also ensure that those brave people who rushed to the aid of one of our own countrymen are given the honour and reward they deserve for representing the best of humanity?

• 28 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. Given that Reform in Worcestershire promised to cut taxes but has instead increased county council tax for Redditch residents by nearly 9%, does the Chancellor agree that at the Redditch borough council elections on 7 May the only way to protect vital local services and keep taxes low is to vote for Redditch Labour candidates?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Happy St George’s day, Mr Speaker. When Jaguar Land Rover was the victim of a cyber-attack, it had a devastating impact on the supply chain in Redditch. Will the proposed cyber-resilience index, which is part of the Government’s welcome focus on improving cyber-security and national security, be subject to parliamentary scrutiny?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Young Adult Carers: Education and Training · Hansard source

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  Sorry.

• 23 Apr 2026 · Young Adult Carers: Education and Training · Hansard source

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  I apologise for my tardiness in arriving, Mrs Harris. The hon. Gentleman is making a valid point. Does he agree that as well as challenging the Government about what they can do for young carers, we must challenge our colleges and education establishments to ensure that they are environments where young carers can thrive? I would like to highlight the excellent work of Michelle Dowse at Heart of Worcestershire college in my constituency. The college offers one-to-one support, transitional visits and external support so that, when young carers make it into higher or further education, they have support right there on those campuses to make sure that they can thrive. We have to challenge the Government but also our education establishments.

• 23 Apr 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  My constituent Kevin has to travel between Redditch, Gloucester and Cheltenham for chemotherapy and operations following a diagnosis of oesophageal cancer. He has been told that he does not qualify for hospital transport as he is not in a wheelchair or using oxygen, but in reality Kevin is in no fit state to drive himself to appointments over an hour away from his home. Can I ask the Leader of the House for a debate in Government time to discuss how integrated care boards and the Department of Health and Social Care can work together to ensure that non-emergency patient transport services take a holistic approach to granting transport for deeply unwell patients to get them to their critical appointments?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Synthetic Chemicals · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend and his Committee on their important and timely report, on an issue that we know all too well in Redditch from our new fire and police hub. What we found reflects the report’s findings. Large-scale contamination was discovered on the site. While that has now successfully been remediated, the work relied on containment rather than destruction, echoing many of the Committee’s findings. I understand that the Committee heard that UK destruction capacity is extremely limited and largely reliant on high-temperature incineration. Does my hon. Friend agree that this local example in Redditch underlines the urgency of expanding safe, scalable destruction capability beyond incineration alone?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) on securing this debate. This is one of those occasions where I do not have a written speech from my staff. Most MPs, I suspect, use some sort of casework system; I am up to almost 20,000 cases at the moment, but when a constituent visited me at my most recent surgery, I think his case number was between 2,000 and 3,000. I was shocked to see that someone who had come to me so early was still on our database, and this debate reminds me of his extraordinary situation. My constituent Kevin Flemming, who has allowed me to talk about his case, had an incredible moment in his life where he was told he had a benign tumour in his brain. He described to me the shock of that moment, as a young man with children. He went through the whole process of diagnosis and treatment; thankfully, the tumour was benign and he managed to get himself back to full health. To be quite frank, however, the DVLA has acted in a way that I find completely unacceptable for an institution that is meant to serve the people of this country. The rules on parliamentary language mean that I cannot repeat here the words that I used at my surgery on Saturday, but it should not be the case that someone who has gone through the six-month wait after a procedure and who has had it medically proven that their sight has not changed or deteriorated throughout that two-year process should still be waiting for an answer about when they are getting their licence back. My constituent has worked for HMRC. He has worked with the public. He has helped businesses. He is a public servant. It takes him an extra three hours to get to and from work because of the situation that he has been forced into. I credit HMRC, which I would not usually in this place, because it has given my constituent the ability to work from home more often. However, he wants to be in the office; he wants to lead his team to provide a quality service for the people he works with. Shamefully, he has now had to choose semi-retirement, because he still has not had his licence back. Not only did he have to go through the process of thinking about whether he might die, but he now feels isolated and like his self-worth has been diminished just because he wants to do the basic thing, which is to go out and provide for his family. I was shocked when I became an MP to find that 85% of my casework is about chasing public institutions to do the job that they are meant to do. My hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) mentioned the DVSA—we could have a whole debate on that, but I know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we are not allowed to do so right now. It is unacceptable that, just because we send an email from a parliamentary email address, suddenly the seas part and things are resolved. Some of my constituents will not come to me to support them, because they do not know that I can help them. Quite frankly, it should not be that way. I again thank the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) for bringing the debate forward. I can imagine that Kevin in my constituency is not the only person who has had to make a huge financial decision to get on with his life, which will undoubtedly impact how he can support his children in future. I am sure that the Minister will respond to all the points put forward by everybody today. This is not just about an administrative process and trying to get some waiting times down; it is about something that is having a material impact every day on the people we represent. How that is allowed to happen is beyond the realms of my thinking.

• 23 Apr 2026 · Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency · Hansard source

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  I completely concur with my hon. Friend’s point. We are asking people to play by the rules, yet the rules do not work for them. I conclude by paying tribute to the work of my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) on ghost plates. It is a moment of pride to be named as a supporter of her Bill. She has done an extraordinary job in trying to fight an issue that goes across county lines in a rural constituency such as mine, which has a huge impact on safety and criminal activity. If the question is whether the DVLA is fit for purpose, I think my constituents would probably say no.

• 23 Apr 2026 · Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making an excellent speech, and I want to reiterate his point. I have an extraordinary situation in Worcestershire, where many of my housing officers are not in the borough or even in the region that they serve. I find it extraordinary that I get regular interventions from the police telling me where supported housing has cropped up in my own patch, and yet my housing teams do not even know that it exists in the local authority area. Is it any surprise that the people there are often living in squalor—to the extent that some of my most vulnerable residents have chosen to live in tents in parks, rather than be in that supported accommodation?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Housing Conditions in Temporary Accommodation · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her Committee’s work on this important issue. It is one of the most comprehensive reports I have read and many elements of it are heartbreaking. I declare an interest as a member of the all-party parliamentary group for households in temporary accommodation. In the light of the report’s findings on poor conditions and a lack of national data, what steps does she believe need to be taken to improve oversight and standards, in particular for constituents such as mine in Redditch who are sometimes asked to take a privately run temporary accommodation site miles away from their friends and family, often in conditions that are so disgraceful and simply unsafe that they lead to my constituents deciding to go on the street rather than the accommodation they have been placed into?

• 22 Apr 2026 · Government Procurement Strategy · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Leigh Ingham) on securing this important urgent question, and I thank the Minister for his statement. Businesses in my constituency—a manufacturing town—strongly welcome this new approach, and we should be unashamedly proud to back our British businesses. Can the Minister reassure me that he is speaking to small businesses, local authorities and our trade union colleagues on defining social value so that we get this right and truly and proudly back British businesses for the future?

• 15 Apr 2026 · Cost of Heating Oil · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) on securing this important debate. Across our rural communities and in villages such mine, including Inkberrow and Cookhill, many households are not connected to the mains gas grid and have no choice but to rely on heating oil. In recent weeks, my office has been inundated with emails from constituents facing what can only be described as outright price gauging: sharp, sudden increases in heating oil costs, often with little warning and no meaningful protection. The figures are not abstract; families are being asked to find hundreds of pounds up front just to heat their homes. That is the fundamental unfairness at the heart of the issue. Where someone lives should not determine whether they are protected. I welcome the Government’s swift action in providing additional support through the crisis and resilience fund, enabling local councils to step in and support households facing immediate hardship. That will make a real difference in the short term, and I thank Ministers for listening. For some families that support will mean the difference between staying warm and going without heat. But we must be clear: emergency support, however welcome, is not a substitute for structural reform. That means a properly regulated off-grid energy market, greater transparency from suppliers—including real-time price publication—and serious consideration of a price cap on domestic heating oil and LPG.

• 15 Apr 2026 · Cost of Heating Oil · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree and so would my constituents. A price cap would ensure that households are not left exposed to sudden and excessive increases that they simply cannot plan for. The Competition and Markets Authority has previously raised concerns about weak competition and poor transparency in this market. Those concerns have not gone away; they have intensified for our constituents and rural businesses. I hope the Minister will consider taking comprehensive action.

• 15 Apr 2026 · Single Status of Worker · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders) on securing this debate. I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests regarding my union support and membership of the trade union group of Labour MPs. In my constituency, I hear from postal workers, delivery drivers, care workers and many others who feel that the current system simply does not reflect the reality of the work they do. At the heart of the debate is a simple question: does our system of employment status match the modern day labour market? At the moment the answer is clearly no. We have a three-tier system that is overly complex, often unclear and too easily exploited. This is not a marginal issue. The TUC estimates that approximately 4 million people in the UK are in insecure work, including those on zero-hours contracts or in forms of precarious self-employment. In my community, insecure work shows up in very real ways: the delivery driver working regular hours who is told that they are self-employed, with no sick pay or job security; the worker who wants to speak up about unsafe practices, but fears that they have no protection if they do; and the families trying to make ends meet without the certainty of stable hours or fair conditions. In sectors such as distribution and logistics, which are so important to the economy, the problem is particularly acute. The TUC has also highlighted that up to one in eight workers are now in some form of insecure work. Where a parcel is delivered in my constituency, the person carrying it is often classified as self-employed, without basic protections. That is not genuine flexibility; it is insecurity dressed up as choice, and it is costing working people in my constituency real security and dignity, and ultimately real income. We can also see the wider consequences. Companies that rely on insecure models are able to undercut those that provide decent pay and conditions. That creates a race to the bottom, one that often harms workers, undermines responsible employers, and weakens our economy. We see that tension clearly in the postal sector. Royal Mail, which directly employs its workforce and provides a universal service, is competing with firms that can erode basic obligations by classifying workers as self-employed. As evidence to the Business and Trade Committee has shown, it is not a level playing field: decent employers are penalised for doing the right thing, while the Treasury loses out on revenue that should be contributing to our public services. There is, therefore, a strong case for moving towards the single status of worker, with a robust test to distinguish genuine self-employment. This is not about removing flexibility where it works; it is about ensuring that flexibility does not become a loophole for rights to then be stripped away. It is also about ensuring that the gains we have made through measures such as the Employment Rights Act actually reach the people they are designed to protect. Rights such as protection from unfair dismissal, guaranteed hours and access to union representation mean little if they can be avoided through reclassification. There is also a wider public interest in the single worker status. At present, too many people fall outside whistleblowing protections simply because of their employment status. That cannot be right. If we want safer workplaces and higher standards, we need a system that gives people the confidence to speak up without fear of losing their livelihood. On the day that we mark the 37th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, candour and truth in public and private life have never been more important. Fundamentally, this is a cost-of-living issue. The TUC has found that insecure workers are significantly more likely to struggle to pay their household bills. When people lack basic protections, when their hours fluctuate unpredictably, when they have no sick pay and when they can be dismissed without notice, that instability feeds directly into financial insecurity. A fair labour market is essential to a fair standard of living. As a former chief executive who worked with a progressive Government overseas to improve employment rights, I believe in an economy built on fair rules, strong rights and shared prosperity, one that rewards good employers and protects working people. I know the Minister has a long track record of supporting working people, so I have every faith that she will conduct this process well. I welcome the Government’s commitment to consult on a simpler framework to create a system that reflects the reality of modern work, closes loopholes and ensures that every worker has access to dignity, security and fairness at work. Ultimately, this issue comes down to a simple principle: people who work should have rights that they can rely on. For the people I represent, that principle cannot come quickly enough.

• 14 Apr 2026 · Infected Blood Compensation Scheme · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for the contents of his statement and for the diligence of his work with Sir Brian Langstaff and the victims to ensure that the inquiry’s recommendations have been delivered. Noting the incredible damage that has been done to many of our constituents’ lives as they try to return to normality, may I ask the Minister to outline further how we will ensure that the community’s voice will continue to be heard, bearing in mind that the challenges caused by this injustice will not suddenly stop, even if those people are awarded compensation?

• 13 Apr 2026 · Young Cancer Patients: Experiences and Outcomes · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) on securing this important debate; he has been a champion on this issue since he came to this place. The Minister mentioned patient experience. One issue that has been brought to my attention in my surgeries is that, after the often intensive clinical process of a young person going through a cancer diagnosis, getting treatment and getting through the other side, the period after the all-clear is an intense time of social isolation. Significant mental health support is required to get them back and integrated into school, college or work. Would she be prepared to meet me and young people who have been through that experience to discuss how we can improve the system, so that they can integrate back into normal life as quickly and as efficiently as possible?

• 13 Apr 2026 · Young Cancer Patients: Experiences and Outcomes · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 19 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am sure the Leader of the House will remember with regret that he was unable to join me and Gareth Gates in switching on the Christmas lights in Redditch last year. It will not surprise him that Redditch has launched its own town of culture bid, especially given that it is the home of Royal Enfield and Bordesley Abbey and the birthplace of John Bonham from Led Zeppelin and Grammy-award winner Harry Styles. I know the Leader of the House has to stay neutral in this process, but if he cannot join me for a gluten-free toastie at the Boathouse café on Arrow Valley lake, will he join me in wishing Redditch all the best in its bid?

• 19 Mar 2026 · Banking Services: Accessibility · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this debate. He makes a really pertinent point about the issue of transport. One of the most frustrating elements for me, apart from the initial announcement of a closure of a bank on my high street or in the villages that I represent, often occurs when they tell people the location of their nearest alternative branch. I do not know whether the people running the banks understand the local transport system, but it can often take three and a half hours on public transport to even get to those branches. Does the hon. Member agree that it would be helpful if, when banks made these decisions, they consulted the public transport available to those losing their branch?