Lauren Sullivan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 May 2025 · Youth Services · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon East (Natasha Irons) for securing this fantastic debate. I experienced the youth work profession as a young person through my local youth club, and as a member of the UK Youth Parliament in its early days, so I know first hand how important youth work is, and how much of it has been cut due to austerity. Only last week, I went to see Gravesham Youth Council, which has been running for 25 years—an incredible achievement, given what has been going on. I ran a session on the national youth strategy called “Deliver You”, a consultation in the form of a delivery service for young people. In the spirit of food delivery, I present some ingredients. First, young people should be truly listened to, engaged on matters that affect them, and empowered through youth voice mechanisms at each level of government. In that, they should be supported by youth work. There should be a legal duty on Government and local government to support youth work. Secondly, we need long term, fully funded, preventive, universal, open-access youth work in all areas, not an early help or social work-lite model, although those can be used for targeted help. Thirdly, we need a trained, qualified and invested-in youth work profession, in which qualifications are recognised. The term “youth worker” should be protected in the same way as the term “doctor” is, or “lawyer”. Fourthly and finally, we need in primary legislation a duty on local authorities to provide youth work, so that it is never seen as an easy cut again. Now that is a delivery order that will truly nourish our young people across the land. Through a statutory youth service Act and a long-term workforce strategy, we can address shortages and upskill youth workers, so that they can deliver for young people. I hope the Minister will agree that that would be a step in the right direction. We have listened as a Government to the votes at 16 campaign. Twenty years ago, I was at the forefront of the campaign, and at a recent Liaison Committee hearing, the Prime Minister and Government committed to delivering votes at 16 as part of our manifesto commitments. There have been so many years of campaigning on the issue, and I pay tribute to all the young people who have joined in that effort. We should welcome those who are joining the campaign now, and jumping on the bandwagon at the last minute. We need to reverse the trends and see good, open-access youth work return to Gravesham and the country. Youth work works, and I hope that the national youth strategy will deliver the hopes of so many young people.

• 24 Apr 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Tenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree with me that, given the lifelong trauma from such offences, and the ongoing mental health struggles that could be triggered by such a notification, we need to put victims at the heart of everything that we do? How can we ensure that measures like this enable that to happen?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Building on what my hon. Friend was just saying about the town centre, I had an incident in a village convenience store in my area. The member of staff often works on their own and they were assaulted fairly recently when over £1,000 was taken. Those workers are cornerstones in our communities and drive people to hospital if necessary. Violence is seen too often in our communities, and we need to send a strong message to those who seek to cause harm and those who need protecting.

• 1 Apr 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Fourth sitting) · Hansard source

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  A recent meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on youth affairs heard from young St John’s Ambulance volunteers. They told us that many of the young people they work with want first-aid training and help with the kits so that they know how to stop bleeding. Is that not an awful indictment of the society we are in, but also a positive thing, in that young people want to be part of the solution?

• 14 Mar 2025 · Rare Cancers Bill · Hansard source

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  I am here today to support the Rare Cancers Bill, a vital piece of legislation introduced by our hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur). I begin by paying tribute to his father-in-law and all those who have shared their stories here today. My hon. Friend’s story, like so many, is a stark reminder of how aggressive and under-researched cancers can be, leaving patients with little or no hope. It is assumed that rare cancers, as has been mentioned today, affect a low number of people, but that is not the case. Cancer Research UK says that rare and less common cancers account for 47% of all UK cancer diagnoses and 55% of all cancer-related deaths. Some 82% of rare cancer patients are never even consulted about joining a clinical trial. That means that while each individual rare cancer may affect relatively few people, together they make up almost half of cancer cases, yet the funding and research remain disproportionately low. I will briefly mention Charlie Shrager, one of my constituents in Gravesham. Like so many, she is fighting cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer. It is a supposedly rare but devastating form of liver cancer, and there is rising incidence. In 2001, 2.9 out of 100,000 people were diagnosed with it. In 2018, it was 4.6. Some 79% of these patients are diagnosed at stage 3 or stage 4, meaning that their likelihood of survival is limited. Histotripsy is a non-invasive treatment that uses sonic beam therapy. It is incredible. The problem is that we do not have a machine in the UK. They cost £10 million, and let us get one here, because for people facing this disease or pancreatic cancer, it is a lifesaver, and they desperately need it. As Charlie put it: “I was lucky enough to afford treatment abroad, but I know many who aren’t. They don’t have that option. Why should their chances depend on their bank balance?” We must recognise that “rare” does not mean “insignificant”. People across the UK are battling cancers that remain underfunded, under-researched and underserved by clinical trials, which is criminal. It is a pattern that is repeated again and again with bile duct cancer, glioblastoma, leiomyosarcoma—a rare soft tissue cancer that demands personalised medicine—pancreatic cancer and blood cancers. Each of these cancers devastates lives. We have discussed what the Bill can do: appoint a national specialty lead for rare cancers, review and improve the UK’s orphan drug regulations, and improve data sharing. As a research scientist in biochemistry, I worked on neglected infectious diseases and came across the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative. It was launched 25 years ago to co-ordinate research outcomes, negotiate with big pharma and test drugs that have been developed for other neglected diseases, and it is now eliminating diseases across the globe. It can be done—we have the blueprint—so I urge the Minister to reach out to that initiative to see what we can learn and implement here. For too long, rare and neglected cancers have meant a rare chance of survival, and that must change. Given the strength of feeling among everybody here, there is the will to bring about change. I look forward to seeing the Bill go forward, and to seeing that people are not left behind and that we find a cure for everybody.

• 9 Dec 2024 · Planning Committees: Reform · Hansard source

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  I welcome the mandatory training. As a former chair of a planning committee, I know that training was part of the process that we implemented, so it is good to see that it will be delivered across the board. We approved some developments multiple times on the same site, such as a maternity block in my constituency, which was then flipped and sold on to another developer. Could the Minister please tell us what steps are being taken to account for land banking or flipping sites via developers?

• 23 Oct 2024 · Budget Sustainability Plan · Hansard source

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  Does the Secretary of State agree that to ensure sustainable finances the Northern Ireland Executive need to take steps to reform the NHS and public services?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Mental Health Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) for securing this afternoon’s important debate. As we know, one in four of us will deal with a mental health issue at some point in our lives. As is the case across the country, following the decade of under-investment that has just been referred to, my constituents in Gravesham are concerned about the difficulty of accessing the right support in good time, without waiting on waiting lists for years. We can all agree that mental health is just as important as physical health, and that the strain on the NHS at this moment in time is enormous. The system is very close to breaking point. If the system is close to breaking, so are our young people. The lack of open access to universal provision was, I think, touched upon by the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans). It is about having a safe place to discuss mental wellbeing so that we prevent those people then needing further additional help. In Gravesham, we are fortunate to have the Elliott Holmes Memorial Fund, a community interest company that aims to give direct access for counselling to young people in Gravesham. At the moment, there are no people on the waiting list, because they are being seen by dedicated counsellors. Based on national statistics, 1,200 young people in Gravesham between the ages of 13 and 19 are struggling with their mental health, but the fund has helped 271 young people since 2022. I would like to place on the record my thanks to the fund for providing a space for young people’s issues to be heard. The fund was set up in memory of Elliott Holmes, who tragically took his own life in 2020 after suffering from mental illness for a number of years. After his passing, his family set up the fund to try to keep other young people from that path. I would like to thank them for that. I know that this Government are committed to addressing the mental health crisis that we are facing, and I am pleased to see that the King’s Speech included specific mention of legislation, in the form of a mental health Bill. In particular, I would be pleased to hear what further things we can do to prevent this deepening, worsening crisis.