Mary Glindon MP: speeches

Speeches

• 3 Jul 2025 · Phone Theft · Hansard source

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  Further to the intervention from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), does my hon. Friend agree that public awareness is not where it should be? It worries me to see people with their phones sticking out of their back pockets or people standing and taking photographs around Westminster, knowing how high the incidence of theft is. Somehow the public need to be more aware and more careful with these precious things that hold so much of their lives on them.

• 3 Jul 2025 · Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) for securing this debate from the Backbench Business Committee, of which I am a member, and for her eloquent and informative speech. Financial security is something we endeavour to secure for our families and for ourselves. Many 1950s-born women worked their whole lives with the goal of financial security in their mind’s eye, only for it to be affected through no fault of their own. I will not rehearse the ombudsman’s judgment, which stands as clear as day. We have heard those words time and again specifically because this has not been appropriately remedied. What never fails to shock are the lived experiences. The testimonies of 1950s-born women are so important because the impact of their stories never diminishes. This is about real women. My constituent, Ann, is just one of the many 1950s-born women who will not accept that finding a remedy to the DWP’s maladministration is “neither fair nor feasible and would not represent good value for taxpayers.” When Ann was 57, she applied for a pension forecast. Upon receiving it, Ann discovered that her retirement age was 66, rather than 60. Not long before that shocking news, she went from working five days a week to three. How was she to know that she had to work and plan for retirement over a further six years? She was never informed. Because she was now working part time, it was not possible for her to substantially increase her pension contributions. In 2020, at the age of 63, Ann was made redundant. She had to make her small redundancy payment last her until she retired three years later. Life has been tough for these women. Events like the pandemic, when Ann lost her job, shook us all, but events where the state has made people’s lives more difficult just because of the day they were born, have a particular degree of unfairness to them. Given the ombudsman’s significant concerns that the DWP would fail to remedy the injustice, it deliberately laid its report before Parliament. When the Government announced their position in relation to the findings—incredibly, without recourse to Parliament—this reaffirmed the ombudsman’s concerns, and sets a worrying precedent for the future. We have high hopes for our Pensions Minister; his past life, dedicated to improving living standards, makes him well suited to the role he now holds. I truly hope that he will re-examine the Government’s position on an issue that is so important to so many women who continue to fight for justice.

• 26 Jun 2025 · IVF Egg Donation: Young Women · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I congratulate the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) on securing this important debate at short notice from the Backbench Business Committee. I am a member of that Committee but did not take part in the decision on this debate. As ever, the hon. Member has spoken about his concerns with eloquence and passion, statistics and attention to detail. I think we may all have found some of the things that have been said shocking and harrowing. It is important that parliamentarians air these issues, because over recent years, although steps have certainly been taken in the right direction and some of the shame around talking about fertility and reproductive health has lessened, there are undoubtedly still barriers for many women. Our Parliament sets an important example. If collectively as a society we are unable to speak about these issues, that is an obstacle to achieving better health outcomes. That must be our unifying purpose: no matter what our stance on the broader philosophical question of IVF, health outcomes should always be in our mind. I do not oppose egg donation or IVF. Friends of mine have had very happy outcomes after having treatment, and problems before that for many years. I want to focus on women’s health and to ask the Minister about the broader view the Department holds on donors. Any woman who decides to donate her eggs should, as a minimum, know all the risks associated with the procedure. Some of the things the hon. Member outlined shows why that is so important. Our understanding of the long-term effects of fertility drugs is totally insufficient and although there are no recent studies that draw a causal link between egg donation and cancer risk, several experts have argued that a longitudinal assessment of donor health outcomes is under-explored. No known long-term issues is totally different from there being no long-term adverse impacts. Doctors from Cromwell hospital in the UK and doctors in the United States are just some of the medical professionals who have raised concerns over the years about anecdotal cancer cases and how little we know about cancer’s relationship with ovarian stimulations. Will the Minister note what discussions she has had with the HFEA on these issues? Will the Government commit to conducting systematic research on the medical and psychological health of donors over time? That must be tracked over a long period. I urge the Government to ramp up our understanding without further delay. Secondly, I want to speak about last year’s decision to increase the compensation for egg donation and the impact that could have on the donor demographic. That is worth tracking, especially in the light of some of the figures that the hon. Member highlighted from across our nations. It was the first uplift since 2011, from £750 to £986, which reflected the impact of price rises. As we all know, the cost of living over recent years has soared, placing immense pressure on so many people of all ages. My fear is that young women see this invasive procedure and the pain and discomfort it can generate as a way to help them make ends meet. We want to have confidence that people are donating because they want to, not because they have no other option or have seen adverts that do not give them enough information about what looks like easy money. How little do they know? What information does the Department hold on the demographic of egg donors, and what impact has the rising compensation figure had on donation behaviour? I hope the House can agree that more must be done to ensure that those who wish to donate have to give full, informed consent and nothing less, and that those who make the decision to do so are not pushed into it for any reason, especially financial hardship.

• 25 Jun 2025 · Armed Forces Recruitment: North-east England · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is giving a marvellous speech. On that subject, will he commend all the veterans’ charities that work across our region and the support provided by volunteers, particularly with mental health and finding homes—all the social issues that affect people who come out of the service back into civvy street? They work tirelessly, and our well-deserving veterans would have many more problems if those charities were not in our communities.

• 25 Jun 2025 · Armed Forces Recruitment: North-east England · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate and on his fantastic speech. To take a slightly different angle, does he agree that our many cadet units across the region, which are often based in very deprived areas, provide wonderful opportunities for young people to gain many life skills and get high-skilled qualifications, leading to good jobs, and that they promote opportunities for young people to consider a career in the forces? Does he look forward to hearing about the Government’s plans to boost cadet forces by 30% over the next five years?

• 22 May 2025 · Occupied Palestinian Territories: Christians · Hansard source

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  Thousands of Palestinians, including children, are detained by the Israeli military. Reports of mistreatment and torture date back to UNICEF’s 2013 report on children in Israeli military detention. Last year, the UN special rapporteurs highlighted the escalating use of torture against Palestinian detainees with people raped, electrocuted, waterboarded, suspended from ceilings, tied to beds, blindfolded and made to wear nappies. What can the Church do to help end this appalling cruelty?

• 22 May 2025 · Occupied Palestinian Territories: Christians · Hansard source

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  2. What support the Church of England is providing to Christians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme · Hansard source

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  As well as facing uncertainty about the future of the grant, churches in my constituency are finding it hard to cope with the rise in revenue costs, which include the cost of church insurance. Can my hon. Friend tell us what is being done to support the financial position of English parish churches more generally?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme · Hansard source

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  4. Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on proposals to extend the listed places of worship grant scheme after 2026.

• 2 Apr 2025 · Great British Energy · Hansard source

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  Abandoning the 2050 net zero target shows that the Tory leader has learned nothing from her party’s historic election defeat. Does the Minister agree that Northern Ireland has a huge amount to gain from this Labour Government, working together with the Northern Ireland Executive on the transition to clean power? Will she update us on any recent discussions she has had with the Executive?

• 2 Apr 2025 · Great British Energy · Hansard source

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  3. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Great British Energy funding on Northern Ireland.

• 2 Apr 2025 · School-based Nursery Capital Grants · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for investing in Battle Hill primary school in the ward in which I live, where I was proud to be a school governor for 20 years. Does she agree that investing in nurseries in deprived areas such as Battle Hill is essential in order to give very young children a good start to their education journey?

• 31 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. During a recent walkabout in Wallsend with Northumbria’s police and crime commissioner, Susan Dungworth, and the North Tyneside cabinet member for community safety, Karen Clark, I heard about how the police, retailers and the council work in partnership to tackle retail crime. However, while larger retailers can provide personal safety equipment for staff, that is not affordable for small retailers. Does the Minister have any plans to help small shop owners with such costs?

• 26 Mar 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill · Hansard source

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  As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for responsible vaping, I have followed the progress of the Bill closely. I will speak to new clauses 4, 6, 7 and 15, as well to amendments 36, 37 and 88, all of which stand in my name. I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and on stepping up so wonderfully to help move the Bill forward today. Youth vaping is an enormous public health challenge that forms one of the Government’s central messages in the Bill. All of us in this place will have heard concerns from teachers and parents about the prevalence of youth vaping, and the challenges that schools face in tackling it. The Bill sets out to reduce the appeal of vaping to children, but a delicate and calculated approach must be taken when addressing youth vaping. In addressing one problem, it is incumbent on us all as legislators to not give rise to another—in this case, deterring tobacco smokers from making the switch. We still have more than 6 million smokers to reach, and vaping is 95% safer than smoking, according to King’s College hospital and the former body Public Health England, and it is the most successful tool to help smokers to quit. According to data from Action on Smoking and Health, 3 million adult vapers are ex-smokers. There are hard yards that we still have to take to reach smokers, and I fear that the Bill, at present, is losing sight of what the evidence base says about the relative harms. Vape flavours can play a significant role in passporting adults towards a less harmful alternative. I was pleased to see in the response to a written question I tabled that the Government recognise that flavours are a consideration for adult smokers seeking to quit. The previous Public Health Minister, the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Andrew Gwynne), said that “it is important we strike the balance between restricting vape flavours to reduce their appeal to young people, whilst ensuring vapes remain available for adult smokers as a smoking cessation tool.” A study led by the University of Bristol last year found that flavour restrictions could discourage adults from using e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking. Amendment 37, which stands in my name, seeks to strike a balance between banning flavour descriptors, which would remove flavours that deliberately appeal to children such as gummy bear and bubble gum, and allowing adults to use their smoking cessation product of choice. Sticking on product requirements, amendment 36 would empower Ministers to regulate the design and interoperability of products in order to prohibit the sale of very high-puff count vaping devices. These products are typically cheaper per puff, contain significantly more vape liquid and plastic content than other devices, and have a specific youth appeal. In January, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released new guidance outlining what can be considered a reusable product, aiming to prevent the retail of vapes with superficial charging and refilling features. I believe that this should be put on a statutory footing to ensure its consistent and effective application. The Bill should be amended to clearly stipulate “one device, one tank” to prevent irresponsible actors from flooding the UK with these products following the disposable ban. New clauses 6 and 7, which stand in my name, would introduce a requirement for retailers in England and Wales to include age verification at the point of use. While the Bill seeks to tackle youth appeal, a fundamental issue is left unaddressed. Once a vaping product leaves a shop, there is no barrier to its being used by children, but technology against this already exists. I met with IKE Tech LLC, a company that has developed low-cost, Bluetooth-enabled chips that pair with a mobile app for secure identity verification. Its technology also includes geofencing, which can disable devices in certain areas, such as schools. The new clauses would harness the potential that innovation has to offer to address youth vaping accessibility head-on. Turning to advertising, new clause 15 would create a limited and tightly defined exemption from the new advertising restrictions for in-store promotional materials in specialist vape shops, provided that these are not externally visible and that they meet any conditions around health warnings set by Ministers. I am fearful of a situation where specialist tobacconists are given exemptions to the restrictions set out under clauses 114 to 118 but specialist vape shops are not. These vape stores provide adult smokers with important advice and product consultations in their journey away from tobacco, and I have seen that in action. Nicotine pouches are currently only regulated through the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, meaning that there is comparatively little regulation around these products, particularly regarding nicotine strength. Nicotine pouches with strengths ranging from 70 mg to 150 mg are easily obtainable. There is a pressing need to limit the strength of nicotine to lower levels. New clause 4, which stands in my name, would ban the manufacture and sale of pouches with more than 20 mg per pouch. This would eliminate the dangerous high-strength products while maintaining a threshold that minimises adverse consequences arising from the restriction, such as smoking and illicit pouches. Before making any regulations under part 5 of the Bill, amendment 88 would require the Secretary of State to consult “any persons or bodies as appear to him or her representative of the interests concerned”, instead of what is stipulated in the more limited current wording. The Bill provides Ministers with broad powers to make further regulations. It is vital that these powers are exercised in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, including public health experts, enforcement bodies, cessation specialists, retailers and industry. As chair of the APPG for responsible vaping, I hope that Ministers will be willing to engage in the coming months as regulations are brought forward. People who do not smoke should not vape. But for those who do use tobacco, I believe that we have a duty to ensure that legislation effectively harnesses the power of vapes as a smoking cessation tool.

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

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  I add my condolences to the shadow Leader of the House. Polly Pocket is still going today—my granddaughter is a Polly Pocket fan, and my daughter still has all of hers. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating North Tyneside council, the Football Foundation, the Rugby Football League and other key partners that are supporting the new multimillion pound sports hub in Wallsend, which officially opened earlier this week and will serve as the headquarters for Northumberland FA and, at long last, provide a clubhouse for Wallsend rugby football club? Does she agree with the CEO of the Football Foundation that such facilities have a “transformative impact on physical and mental health, and play in important role in bringing people together and strengthening local communities”? I also thank the Leader of the House for her congratulations on our wonderful Newcastle United.

• 4 Mar 2025 · Investment: Newcastle Upon Tyne East and Wallsend · Hansard source

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  7. What steps she is taking to encourage investment in Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend constituency.

• 4 Mar 2025 · Investment: Newcastle Upon Tyne East and Wallsend · Hansard source

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  With the town’s access to the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, a cluster of advanced manufacturing firms and an expanding energy skills academy, more of Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend’s potential is yet to be tapped. What discussions is the Minister having with the Energy Secretary to ensure that the investment is there and that green supply chains are anchored in places such as Tyneside?

• 6 Feb 2025 · Rail Services: Open Access Operators · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to speak in this debate under your chairmanship, Mrs Lewell-Buck. I congratulate the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) on securing this Backbench Business debate and I thank our colleagues on the Backbench Business Committee for granting it. Along with other colleagues here in Westminster Hall today, the hon. Gentleman has made such a good case for increasing open access services to his constituency and beyond. In my contribution today, I will celebrate the successes of an open access agreement that benefits my constituents in Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend. So, I am showing off a bit, but I make no excuse for doing so. First, however, I reaffirm my support for the Government’s legislative action on public ownership since taking office. I supported the overhaul of our broken rail system in the voting Lobby and I still support it today. Open access was left out of the scope of the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024. It is worth noting that in the year 2022-23, domestic open access passenger services accounted for only 0.6% of passenger journeys and 2.4% of passenger operator revenues. Throughout the legislative process, Ministers advised that they saw a continuing role for such arrangements where they add value and capacity to the network and, during a statement on railway performance in November, the previous Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Heeley (Louise Haigh), cited FirstGroup’s Lumo as a successful example. The Lumo service runs between Edinburgh and London via Newcastle. Of course, Members know that most trains running to and from King’s Cross on the east coast main line are operated by LNER. However, Arup estimates that at least £480 million of economic benefits have been realised since FirstGroup’s Lumo launched in 2021. Lumo has built capacity as a complementary service on a core route in the UK, running five services a day. It has given my constituents additional choice by increasing the number of trains to the capital, for instance adding a new option for travellers between Newcastle and London to leave before 6 am and arrive in London at about 8.30 am. Open access arrangements, if done properly, should drive up the number of journeys on our rail and not abstract value from existing services. According to FirstGroup, Lumo has helped to generate 6.2 million additional journeys, with 3.9 million of those taking place on Lumo services. Overall usage of the east coast main line rose by 18% in the 12 months to September last year compared with the year 2018-19, including an 11% growth in the usage of LNER services. Modal shift will play a critical role in our journey to net zero. Decarbonising the grid, which this Labour Government have taken firm action on, is a sizeable part of that journey. Encouraging behavioural change in the transport sector represents some of the other hard yards that we must cover. I support the Secretary of State’s ambition to ensure the benefits provided by open access operators outweigh the impact they have on taxpayers, and to ensure the ability to operate the network efficiently. I have sought today to advocate for a successful example of open access, which has benefited my constituents and the broader region. On that broader region, I thank FirstGroup for the investment of £500 million into new British-built trains by Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) on his part in securing that successful investment. I hope FirstGroup can gain approval from the regulator to serve more destinations, as that would lead to a £460 million follow-on order for new trains. The most efficient use of our east coast main line is deeply important for me and all other north-east Members of Parliament. Growth and productivity in the north-east of England have been held back by our infrastructure. In closing, therefore, I seize this opportunity to lobby the Minister for the reopening of the Leamside line, which would be a game changer for the north-east, freeing up capacity for more LNER and Lumo trains to operate on our busy east coast main line.

• 5 Feb 2025 · EHRC: Code of Practice · Hansard source

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  5. When she expects the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish its revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations.

• 5 Feb 2025 · EHRC: Code of Practice · Hansard source

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  The Government have recognised that there was confusion or a lack of awareness about the same-sex exceptions in the Equality Act 2010 and how to apply them practice, so does the Minister agree that the updated EHRC statutory code is needed as soon as possible to make it explicitly clear that the Act provides for single-sex services for biological women?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Children’s Social Care: North-east England · Hansard source

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  On that high note, will my hon. Friend also commend North Tyneside council, which for the second consecutive time has been awarded “outstanding” for children’s services by Ofsted on all five counts? The council says: “From an ‘exceptional’ early help service…through to a ‘meaningful’ support offer for care leavers”— children— “receive the best support possible.” Is that not what we want for all our children in the north-east?

• 20 Jan 2025 · Planning Reform · Hansard source

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  A constituent of mine is endeavouring to prevent her neighbour from building an extension that would affect the rights of access set out in her restrictive covenant. She was initially quoted £80,000 to £100,000 to take the neighbour to court. Such costs make civil law inaccessible to ordinary people. Will the Minister consider looking at ways that restrictive covenants can be brought into the planning process as a material consideration?

• 20 Jan 2025 · Planning Reform · Hansard source

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  21. What recent progress she has made on planning reform.

• 14 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Israeli Government have stated that Israel’s presence in the Golan heights buffer zone is defensive, limited and temporary. Given that the Israeli Cabinet has recently approved a financial package to increase the number of illegal settlements in the Golan heights, what assessment has the Secretary of State made of the veracity of Israel’s statement?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The number of survivors of historical abuse at Medomsley detention centre is decreasing. Victims are seeking justice for the serious and widespread abuse that took place between 1961 and 1987. Will the Leader of the House help me secure a meeting with the Home Secretary to discuss how the survivors, as well as the families of those who are no longer with us, can finally achieve full justice?