Dave Robertson MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2025 · Indices of Deprivation: England · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for bringing the stories of real lives into the debate. When we talk about deprivation, indices and statistics, we can so easily forget that behind every number are people’s lives—lives that should have promise and that deserve the support of this Government. I place on record my thanks to my hon. Friend for making sure that we do not lose sight of what we are really talking about: people’s lives.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Christmas Adjournment · Hansard source

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  People across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages are looking forward to a very merry Christmas. In the run-up to the big day, many will have enjoyed opening Christmas cards from friends and loved ones—well, they would have done if the cards had arrived. For far too many people across my area, the post simply does not arrive. The Christmas period is a busy time for letters, so let me be clear: this is not a seasonal issue in Lichfield and Burntwood. Residents have been telling me about serious problems with deliveries from Royal Mail for months. Constituents have gone weeks without mail before receiving a huge bundle of delayed letters all at once. Households tell me that they regularly receive mail only once a week or fortnight—and, in some cases, only once every three weeks. Constituents have missed jury service or court hearings because summonses have not come; they have missed hospital and GP appointments because the invitation and reminder arrived three days after the appointment; they have been fined for late payment of credit card bills that they had never received; or they are waiting for vital letters from their banks with debit cards or pin details. Royal Mail has clear delivery targets: 93% of first-class letters delivered by the next working day, 98.5% of second-class letters delivered in three working days and 99% of delivery routes to be completed six days a week. In my area, those targets are a joke—we are nowhere near that. I have been writing to Royal Mail about these issues for months and working closely with the Communication Workers Union. I want to take this opportunity to make it clear that none of this is the fault of hard-working posties. They are doing a brilliant job and doing as much as they can, and I want to thank them this Christmas. No, this is on Royal Mail. Royal Mail has been consistently slow in dealing with my requests and, when it has got back to me, it has batted away my concerns and claimed “There’s nothing to see here.” It has finally admitted that there is a problem, but I am eager to know what action it is going to take in the new year to fix it in the long term for the people of Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages. In my remaining 10 seconds, I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, all the House staff, and every right hon. and hon. Member for their support this year. I wish everybody a very merry Christmas.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q7. People throughout Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages will be looking forward to a very happy new year, not least because of this Government’s commitment to the midland rail hub project, which will revolutionise rail travel across the west midlands and further afield. As we are all eager to see a better service between Lichfield and Birmingham as soon as possible, will the Prime Minister join my campaign for a more regular service on the cross-city line, and will he confirm that rail commuters will benefit from frozen fares because of this Labour Government?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  indicated assent.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  After years of falling standards under the Conservatives, this Labour Government are investing in our railways. Anyone who commutes from Lichfield to London, as I do every week, will have seen for themselves how sorely needed that is. We have all had trains cancelled and re-routed, and been crammed in with standing room only. The Bill, creating Great British Railways, is the biggest overhaul to our rail system in a generation. GBR will run our trains, set the timetable, and control the track, stations and depots. It is about putting our railways back squarely in taxpayers’ hands—a public service under public control. GBR will be a step change compared to some of the difficulties that my constituents, in places such as Fradley, Handsacre and especially Streethay, have had with HS2—years of delay and disruption under the last Government. This Government are putting new management in place at HS2 to sort it out and I know my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary will be holding them to account, just as she will be holding GBR to account. It is really important that we get this right, because the failings of HS2 Ltd have been so significant for so long. Continuing with the way that the previous Government ran our railways is clearly not the way forward, especially when we look ahead and at the wonderful project that is the midlands rail hub. GBR will give taxpayers control over the railways and projects such as the rail hub by investing record sums in upgrading the network. That project, almost £1 billion, will mean that the clogged Birmingham New Street will have its capacity significantly increased, allowing 300 more trains to run through the city each day. It will unlock huge increases in the number of services across the midlands and beyond. This is amazing news for people in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, especially those who use the cross city line, which links Lichfield to Birmingham and is the busiest commuter line outside London. Since covid, we have had only two trains an hour. The midlands rail hub will help us get that back to the four we need. Beyond that, Labour believes in our railways, publicly owned and run for people, not profit. No longer should shareholders benefit while passengers suffer poor service. I really want to see every single pound from tickets reinvested in great services and further expanding our rail network. In my area, the next stage of rebuilding our railways really does need to be getting a passenger service back on the line from Lichfield to Burton and Derby, and a new station at Alrewas for the National Memorial Arboretum. The arboretum is our national centre for remembrance, but public transport links to it are extremely limited. Opening that line up and reinvesting what we can from a publicly owned railway service will connect people to jobs and take pressure off our roads. My right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary has heard me make the case BEFORE and she will hear it again. I will keep pushing the business case for that line under a new publicly owned railway service.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Constituents across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages will be pleased to see the Government taking action on the cost of living by reducing energy bills, but they want the benefits to be fair and felt by all bill payers. What steps will the Chancellor take with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that reductions in energy bills are reflected in standing charges, not just in unit prices?

• 27 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  In my constituency, residents living near the B5013 at Blithfield reservoir have raised serious concerns about speeding and dangerous driving. There have been multiple fatalities on this stretch of road, and in August a man in his 20s unfortunately lost his life. May I ask the Leader of the House if we can find Government time for a debate on how we can hold local authorities to account for their responsibilities specifically on rural roads to protect communities such as mine?

• 27 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. Mohamed Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, sexually abused hundreds of female employees over decades. Reporters tried to reveal his crimes, but it was only after his death that the true extent of the scandal began to emerge, because of media fears about strategic lawsuits against public participation. What steps will the Department take to ensure that rich and powerful men like Fayed cannot use SLAPPs to silence their critics in the media?

• 25 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls: London · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship this afternoon, Mr Stringer. Just before the debate started, the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor) light-heartedly said, “You do know this is a London debate?” He was right to ask the question, because my constituency is about 120 miles away from this room, but I am here today to talk about one perpetrator: a man who is responsible for raping and sexually assaulting hundreds of women, and used his money and power to escape justice right here in our nation’s capital. The man is Mohammed Fayed, the former owner of Harrods and various other businesses. For years, he was known as a flamboyant businessman marked by personal tragedies. He was the father of Dodi Fayed, who died in the car crash that killed Princess Diana. Today, though, Mohammed Fayed is more rightly remembered as something else entirely: a prolific sexual predator. The scale of his crimes is staggering. Despite the excellent reporting that has blown the scandal open in the last eight months, it remains too little known. There are more than 400 known survivors of Fayed—I am proud that we are joined by some of them in the Public Gallery—and still more women are coming forward; the Met police is currently investigating almost 150 allegations against him. As well as numerous accounts of rape and sexual assault, he is accused of drugging women he planned to assault and trafficking women across international borders. His crimes are now rightly seen as one of the worst ever corporate sexual abuse scandals. This was abuse on an industrial scale. Fayed died in August 2023 aged 94. He escaped justice. However, he did not act alone, and his network of enablers can still be held to account. Who were the people who helped this billionaire to abuse hundreds of women? There was a security team led by John Macnamara, a former Metropolitan police detective who tailed and threatened women Fayed had abused to enforce their silence. There were lawyers who churned out non-disclosure agreement after non-disclosure agreement and failed to sound the alarm. There were doctors hired to carry out invasive medical exams, including sexually transmitted infection testing, without informing the women what they were being tested for; the results were delivered directly to Fayed, not to survivors. There were senior Harrods staff who at best turned a blind eye and at worst groomed young girls for their boss. The scale of these crimes raises serious questions about the Met and the Crown Prosecution Service. More than 20 women approached the Met with allegations against Fayed during his life. Survivors say that their concerns were brushed under the carpet. The force is now investigating its own conduct under the direction of the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Meanwhile, the CPS has admitted that it was twice handed evidence against Fayed by the Met and failed to prosecute him. Survivors need answers. They have already waited far too long for justice; the earliest known allegation against Fayed dates back to 1977—almost 50 years ago—and significantly predates my existence. Their wait must end. That is why I and the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) formed the all-party parliamentary group for survivors of Fayed and Harrods. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Sarah Russell) and the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam)—I am glad she is in her place today—for serving as officers for the APPG. My co-chair, the hon. Member for North East Fife, and I came to this appalling scandal in different ways. For me, it was through my constituent Keaton Stone, who is in the Public Gallery. He is the man whose research underpinned the documentary on Fayed’s abuse that blew open the story last year. Keaton, whose wife Sophia is a survivor, has spent years meticulously gathering evidence against Fayed. He has asked me to champion the cause in Parliament on behalf of all survivors. My co-chair is a former police officer with sexual offences training—the only woman in the Commons with that experience. She has used her platform to advocate for women and girls, making Parliament a safer place to work, and to oppose corruption in the police. She was approached separately to become a parliamentary champion. We are eager to work together with other Members to drive this agenda forwards. The first priority will be the Met’s ongoing investigation. It is an opportunity to pursue all those who enabled Fayed, and the force must cast the net as widely as possible. Given the trafficking allegations, and because some alleged offences were committed at his estate in Scotland, we urge Police Scotland to look again at this issue and ask that our forces work with international partners where appropriate. After decades of delay, that needs to happen fast; officers must bring charges swiftly. Survivors are understandably wary, given that they have been let down by the Met in the past. We will help to keep tabs on the investigation and ensure those questions are answered. Civil claims against Harrods are also important, with hundreds of women seeking compensation for the abuse they suffered. For survivors, though, this is not about money—no amount of money could make up for the trauma they underwent at this man’s hands. It is about recognition that their employer could and should have kept them safe, and failed to do so. Those cases should be being dealt with much more swiftly. Fayed’s businesses, the Met and the Crown Prosecution Service are all implicated in this scandal. That is why, ultimately, we must have a full inquiry. Survivors deserve answers and the public should know the whole truth. We must learn the lessons so that crimes like this can never happen again.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  This weekend, a very special service will leave the station at Chasewater Railway in Burntwood in my constituency. The hospital Santa special trains are a Christmas service for seriously ill children, and are offered completely free of charge. This year, 1,300 kids and their families are expected to attend. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Chasewater Railway, its trustees and its fantastic volunteers on their wonderful work to spread the festive spirit?

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport Infrastructure Upgrades · Hansard source

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  The midlands rail hub project, which was funded at the spending review, will bring huge benefits to Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, doubling the number of services to Birmingham per hour, but my constituents are wary about big infrastructure projects because they have seen the mess that HS2 has caused in our area. What reassurance can the Secretary of State give me that this Government have learned lessons from the previous Government and will make sure that HS2 Ltd acts swiftly and decisively to limit further disruption?

• 18 Nov 2025 · Energy Costs: Support for Businesses · Hansard source

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  The ceramics industry across the country is foundational to every single part of the Government’s industrial strategy. Ceramics is an energy-intensive industry. Can the Minister confirm whether recent discussions about high energy costs for business have made mention of ceramics, an energy-intensive industry with deep roots in my constituency, where Armitage Shanks has been operating for over 200 years?

• 17 Nov 2025 · Clive Treacey Safety Checklist · Hansard source

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  It is an honour and a privilege to lead this debate on Government support for the Clive Treacey safety checklist. I secured this debate in Clive’s name, and I want to start by telling the House a little bit about him. I did not have the pleasure of meeting Clive, so I am drawing here on the words of his family, who knew him best. Clive’s sister, and his father Michael, are in the Public Gallery this evening, and I am really glad that they are able to see proceedings. They have been tireless advocates for Clive, making sure that his voice is heard, and I hope that I can do their efforts justice tonight. Clive was born in Lichfield, in my constituency, in 1969. He was soon diagnosed with a learning difficulty, and, between the ages of 8 and 10, with epilepsy. I will cover both those factors today. Sadly, they are important to understanding Clive’s death and the failures in care throughout his life, but they do not define what Clive’s life was. I want to ensure that the House hears who Clive was. Clive was a talented artist and gardener, gifted with a brush and able to make plants spring seemingly from nothing. He loved music, especially Elvis Presley, and was often singing and dancing—his family remember him as the life of the party. He wanted to work in a garden centre, helping to raise plants; to have his own home, close to family; to own a cat; to learn to drive; and to go on holiday to Blackpool and Somerset. Clive was as devoted to his family as they were to him. He was known as the family calendar, never forgetting a card for a birthday, Christmas, Easter or any other reason. Clive’s sister Elaine says that her brother was “engaging, humorous, gentle, and loving”. His parents, Pauline and Michael, have said his heart “knew no bounds”, and describe their son’s “magical qualities” throughout his life. In all the accounts of Clive, his love and optimism shine through. Clive passed away in 2017 at just 47 years of age, after a seizure caused by his epilepsy brought on cardiac arrest. This is known as SUDEP—sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Clive had been living in residential placements for years up until that point, moving often. Before he died, Clive’s family had become worried about his deteriorating health—and, tragically, so had Clive. He left a message on his dad’s phone, which was not received until some days after his death, saying that he was dying and needed an ambulance. Clive was not listened to, and his family were not listened to, and the consequences were devastating. After that terrible event, Clive’s family had to fight hard for answers. They had to fight to secure an inquest into his death, and later to secure an independent review. When that review was completed in 2021, four years after Clive died, it confirmed what they had suspected all along: the independent review found that Clive’s care fell far short of what should be expected for somebody with drug-resistant epilepsy, and it identified multiple system-wide failures in delivering his care and treatment, which put him at greater risk. It found that his death was potentially avoidable, and that he had been failed both in life and in death. What did that mean in practice? It meant that the management of Clive’s epilepsy was fragmented, and the link between his epilepsy and the sometimes challenging behaviours that he could exhibit when stressed, such as not taking his medication, withdrawing to his room, or not communicating, were often overstated. Those behaviours disproportionately impacted the generally held view that Clive required a hospital setting, and despite the fact that he had long expressed a wish to live in his own home, care in the community was discussed with him and his family only towards the end of his life. That is where Clive’s life was, and if we move on past his death, it is important to pay tribute to Clive’s family. Throughout all the suffering, they have been relentless in their focus on ensuring that other families do not go through what they had to. That is why we are here today, and for me, that is entirely what this debate is about.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Clive Treacey Safety Checklist · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman. That is my first intervention from him. He raises an important point, and when he asked that question, I thought back to a couple of weeks ago, when I was asked at a community event, “What gives you hope, Dave?”. I thought for a while. So often, we hear in this place stories of people who have gone through unimaginable hardship, but who somehow find the strength within themselves not to turn that into anger. They do not turn inwards; they turn outwards, and campaign to make sure that the same does not happen to other people. That is an example of what we have here. It is the very best testament to the human spirit that we see so many people who are able to do that. Like a quarter of people with a learning disability, Clive had epilepsy. By contrast, one in 100 of the general population has epilepsy. Coupled with that, epilepsy is the second most frequently reported preventable cause of death for people with a learning disability, so not only are people with a learning disability more likely to have epilepsy, but the risks they face from their epilepsy are higher. The risk of SUDEP—that is what killed Clive—is more than three times higher for those with epilepsy and a learning disability than for those with epilepsy and no learning disability. Tragically, Clive’s case is not an isolated example of these failures; this is a story that is far too common across the country, but there are things that we can do to change the story. Research suggests that annual health checks can significantly reduce the chance of premature death in people with a learning disability and autism who have epilepsy. Indeed, the chances of death were reduced by 84% for people with a learning disability and epilepsy who had a review of their epilepsy in the past 12 months. That brings me to the Clive Treacey safety checklist. The checklist is a tool developed after Clive’s death, and an important part of his legacy. I place on record my thanks to Professor Mike Kerr and Professor Rohit Shankar for their work on the checklist, alongside the charity SUDEP Action, NHS England Midlands, and the Cornwall partnership NHS foundation trust. The checklist was designed for commissioners and service providers, whether the care is provided in a specialist hospital setting or out in the community, and it outlines the steps that should be gone through annually, as well as whenever a patient moves between services or has a big change in their care, such as a new team looking after them. It recommends up-to-date health plans, genuine consultation with parents and families—not box ticking, but genuine consultation—and proper epilepsy training for staff. The Clive Treacey safety checklist is not a document that should be put in a drawer somewhere in an integrated care board, left alone and looked at once every so often when someone asks a question about it. It is a practical tool and the accompanying guidance, at just 24 pages long— for the NHS, a short story at best—is packed with information, and it is a document that can save lives. Since Clive’s death, a number of NHS regions have reviewed the way that they care for patients with learning disabilities and epilepsy using the checklist. That includes the NHS in the midlands, where 11 integrated care systems carried out a detailed appraisal using the self-assessment tool developed by the charity Epilepsy Action, based on the work of Professor Shankar, to find the weaknesses in their services and take concrete steps to improve them. More recently, six integrated care boards in the north-west, north-east and North Yorkshire have done the same. It is detailed work, bringing health and care services together, and using joined-up thinking, which we do not hear enough about in Whitehall, to tackle the problem and normalise best practice. That best practice, like the Clive Treacey safety checklist, should be more widespread. I again pay tribute to Elaine and to Clive’s family more broadly for the work that they have done to drive this entire piece of work forward. The problem is that we still have a postcode lottery. Different parts of the country do and do not follow the checklist; different parts of the country have and have not gone through that detailed work to update their practices. In this House, we cannot tolerate a situation where local outcomes are so varied, so I hope that we hear from the Minister what more we can do, both here in this place and through the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure that people with learning disabilities are not dying of preventable causes, and to see the very best practice, as set out in the Clive Treacey safety checklist, adopted up and down the country, so that we can end this perverse postcode lottery.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Illegal Waste: Organised Crime · Hansard source

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  In January, criminals dumped two lorry loads of rubbish on Watery Lane, just outside the city of Lichfield. The dump was so large that it blocked access to the road and, in the process, stopped emergency services being able to access nine properties. One of the residents of those properties requires chemo and has issues with his blood pressure, and occasionally he needs to call an ambulance. Given that these incidents are having such a serious impact on people’s lives, are the Government looking to introduce an aggravating factor for such situations, so that if fly-tips prevent access to a property, the risk to life is treated as an aggravating factor, and the waste criminals receive larger sentences?

• 3 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Last week I had the honour and privilege of attending the dedication of the new LGBT+ armed forces community memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas in my constituency, alongside His Majesty the King, proud veterans and members of our armed forces. Will the Minister join me in commending the unveiling of this important memorial, and does she agree that it will serve as a lasting reminder of the injustice and discrimination suffered by LGBT+ service personnel and as a powerful symbol of our commitment to equality and respect for all those who serve?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Property Service Charges · Hansard source

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  I place on record my thanks to the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) for bringing this debate before the House, and to the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling time for it. From the number of Members present in the Chamber today, we can all see that property service charges are a problem across the entire country, but they certainly are for people in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages. In the time I have, I will focus on just one of the estates where these charges are an issue: the Roman Heights estate in the village of Streethay, on the edge of Lichfield. The people who live on that estate know just how difficult managing agents can be. I have had dozens of households get in touch to tell me about the appalling service they have received from their managing agent— I will not name it, but I am sure it is the first name we would think of. Over the summer, I held a town hall with residents, at which I heard the same thing over and over again. Bills for management were coming through completely irregularly, sometimes with three bills for three years being received in the space of three months, which is interesting. There was absolutely no transparency about the level of charge, with demands to come up with huge sums of money at a moment’s notice. All the while, basic maintenance such as cutting the grass just was not being done, leaving residents wondering what exactly they were paying for.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Property Service Charges · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right. She is a very good friend, and often she has seen speeches before I give them, but she has not seen this one, and she gives me the perfect segue into my next point. Transparency is so important. When I surveyed residents in the affected estate, 85% told me that billing was either poor or very poor. Some 79% have told me that the management of the estate was poor or very poor. I have written to that management company, and I am looking forward to meeting it, because its written response is simply not good enough.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Property Service Charges · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is well apprised over the specific issue. Part of the issue we may be facing is that he refers to an Act of Parliament that is older than either of us. There may be significant space for an update in this area. It is clear from my hon. Friends’ comments and from everything we have heard this afternoon that this situation is all too common. Up and down the country, managing agents are just letting people down. The long-term solution has to be councils taking on the management of these estates themselves. It is an absolute travesty that we have a bizarre situation where some people are being charged twice for the same service. Last week, other Labour MPs and I met the House Builders Federation to discuss this issue, and I place on record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) for organising that. The message that came out of that was clear that adoption is holding up those companies, too. They want to see adoptions happening faster. There are massive issues with how they are approached for things. We heard one story of a particular local authority that demands semi-permeable paving as part of its planning process, but its highways department will apparently never adopt anything with semi-permeable paving. That is a totally bizarre situation. It is a case not of two councils but of one organisation where the different parts are not talking to each other. Councils need to work harder on this issue. They need to ensure that they are working with residents and companies to get it right, but they also need to have the money and expertise to be able to do so. Fourteen years of cuts, freezes and austerity on councils have left planning departments hollowed out, and we need to ensure we are rebuilding that capacity so that things can be done correctly. It is important that we take this issue seriously, so that residents in my constituency and across the country get the service they so deeply need, for which they apparently are paying through the nose.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Ending Homelessness · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing the debate, and the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling it. Last week, my hon. Friend and I had the privilege of speaking at events hosted by Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance. It is so important that we bring domestic abuse into this conversation, because it is the leading cause of homelessness for women in this country. However, the real reason I am here today is my constituent Caitlin. Caitlin is a survivor. She was in a relationship that turned abusive, and unbeknown to her family she was coerced into co-signing a lease for a flat with her abuser, naming herself as guarantor. Four days after she signed that lease, he was arrested, charged and later convicted. Caitlin has never lived in that flat, but despite her former partner’s conviction, there was no way to release her from that contract. He refused to pay rent, as another way of exerting control over her, and that put Caitlin at huge financial risk. It took until last week to resolve the issue, with months of back and forth from my office, and eventually the threat of legal action, before the agent backed down. There was no compassion and no understanding, and Caitlin knew things could have been much worse if she did not have a supportive family. I am proud that the Renters’ Rights Bill will take us a step closer to solving that problem by doing away with shorthold tenancies, but there is a lot more we need to do. Standing Together and DAHA have pioneered the adoption of what they call the whole housing approach, and last week they published the findings of a trial in Cheshire East. It was astonishingly successful, preventing 98% of the women involved from becoming homeless, up from 63% before the pilot began. What consideration is the Department giving to expanding that approach across the country? Under that approach, Standing Together and DAHA have also developed a new accreditation targeted at the private rented sector, and I want to see a trial of that new accreditation fully funded. I have written to the Secretary of State, and I would love to hear from the Minister what the consideration the Department will give to funding the next stage of that pilot.

• 20 Oct 2025 · A50/A500 Corridor · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend or right hon. Friend—sorry, my right good friend—and neighbouring MP for giving way. He has mentioned the Staffordshire chambers of commerce, which is so excited to see these investments happen. At the corridor’s closest point to my constituency is one of the roundabouts in Uttoxeter that gets so snarled up—it is just 4 miles away. Improving these roads will affect not just constituencies along the corridor, but those adjacent to it and further afield. Does my hon. Friend agree that investment in this road is not just an investment in getting to and from places faster, but an investment in real, good, high-quality, unionised jobs?

• 16 Oct 2025 · Ada Lovelace Day · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to be here and to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) for securing the debate. We are here to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day—a day to celebrate women in STEM across the country and across the world. When I spotted this debate on the Order Paper, I was reminded of 12 July last year, when I received a Facebook message, of all things, from a former pupil— I have no idea how she found me. She had just that day passed out, getting her doctorate in astrophysics, and had placed a note in the acknowledgements section of her thesis thanking me “for being so inspiring and enthusiastic…and planting the seed by asking me the all-important question once after a class: Have you ever considered studying astrophysics at university?” That does not sound like an exact quote—I suspect there was possibly more sarcasm when I said it—but it made me reflect on the fact that we should never miss the opportunity to ask such a question of a young person. We need to go further and faster. We need women working in STEM and women teaching STEM. We also need to change the way we do this. We need to talk about adjectives, not just verbs. We need to talk about the beauty of mathematics. It is hard to describe to a non-mathematician, but it is so beautiful. We need to talk about the creativity of physics. We need to talk about how caring some of the life sciences can be. We need to talk about the adjectives, not just the verbs. We also need to make sure we have a cross-governmental response to encourage more people into STEM. It is the Department for Transport, DSIT, the Department for Work and Pensions and further afield. We need parity of esteem for vocational courses in STEM. We need access to triple sciences for more kids, not just the highest achievers. We need the measures in the Employment Rights Bill. We need the women’s tech taskforce. Here’s hoping that, soon, every day can be Ada Lovelace Day.

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

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  The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership is an academy trust with 24 schools across the west midlands, including five primary schools with alternative provision and my old secondary school in Lichfield. Last year the trust was bailed out by the Department for Education, and last Friday it wrote to all its staff inviting applications for voluntary redundancies and suggesting that there may be compulsory redundancies to follow. This is a huge worry, not only for the hard-working staff but for parents, pupils and the community. I have reached out to other Members affected—the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) and my hon. Friends the Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards), for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) and for Coventry North West (Taiwo Owatemi)—as they share my concerns. Can the Leader of the House arrange for me and those Members to meet the relevant Minister to discuss how we can ensure that the trust is supported to continue to deliver the best possible education?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Education Committee · Hansard source

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  I started my teacher training in 2008, and I continued to work as a teacher and to be a teacher trade unionist until 4 July last year. I knew that the SEND system was broken, although I did not realise quite how broken it was until I opened my emails on day one. We all know that the system is broken throughout the country, but it is most broken in Staffordshire, a place that I have the pleasure to represent but which has the eighth highest refusal rate for EHCPs in the country, rejecting more than 45% of requests. It also has a high rate of appeals, more than double the national average at nearly 10%, and a startling 98% of those appeals are successful. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we genuinely want to solve the SEND crisis, we must solve the problem of the postcode lottery that so disadvantages people in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, and more widely across Staffordshire?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Baby Loss · Hansard source

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  I place on record my thanks to the co-sponsors of today’s debate and to all Members who have shared their personal experiences. It has been a very difficult debate for many of us on such an important but such a difficult subject. Like many Members today, I am here to speak on behalf of my constituents. Tim and Hannah lost their son Zack when he was just 14 hours old. Zack’s inquest found that there was a total and complete failure in his care. I genuinely do not know how parents can receive an inquest verdict like that and find the strength to put themselves back together, but Tim and Hannah did—I am sure that is something we will see in many of the people in the Gallery today. They found the strength to put themselves back together and start looking to what comes next. Zack’s story is that he caught a group B strep infection as he was born. It is incredibly common—20% to 40% of women have it on any given day—and it is generally symptomless in adults, but if it passes from mum to baby during labour, it can be fatal. On average, one baby a week in the UK dies of a strep B infection. Group B strep is common in mums and highly dangerous to babies, but the UK does not routinely test for it during pregnancy. Instead, we rely on risk factors to identify expecting mums who have it, and too often—as in Zack’s case—that approach is not working. I am pleased that a major trial, the GBS3 trial, is under way to look at whether we would be better off routinely testing, and is due to report later this year. It is no overstatement to say that that trial is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at our approach to the safety of babies in this situation. I really hope that it reports and moves us towards a situation in which we can routinely test for this condition during pregnancy. The gold standard test costs just £15, and can save lives—potentially, a life a week. We must do all we can to protect babies like Zack and ensure that no more parents go through what Tim and Hannah have had to.