Sarah Coombes MP: speeches

Speeches

• 16 Jun 2025 · Air India Plane Crash · Hansard source

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  This Air India crash was a devastating tragedy and my thoughts are with all those who were affected. Many of my constituents in West Bromwich have family in India and they are deeply shaken and saddened by what has happened. I am grateful to the Minister for setting out all the work that the British Government have done, in association with the Indian Government, to offer support at this terrible time. You have mentioned our aviation experts who are on-hand, but can you say a bit more—

• 22 May 2025 · Independent Sentencing Review · Hansard source

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  I am amazed by the gall of the Conservatives, who left our prisons in utter crisis, failing victims. I thank the Lord Chancellor for her work. Five years ago, my constituent Diane had her world changed when her husband was killed by a driver who was on her phone. Not only did the driver do that, but the first call the driver made was not to 999, but to her sister. When the driver is released from prison, she will have a four-year driving ban, but Diane and her family have had their lives devastated forever. Can the Minister set out that, as we take this necessary action to fix our bursting prison system, we will make use of lengthy restrictions and lifetime driving bans for those who cause death by dangerous driving?

• 15 May 2025 · Vehicle Registration: Compliance · Hansard source

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  10. What steps she is taking to help improve compliance with vehicle registration regulations by drivers.

• 15 May 2025 · Vehicle Registration: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I recently spoke to a roads policing officer about drivers who use illegal number plates, such as ghost number plates that cannot be read by police and speed cameras. He told me: “The scale at which this problem now exists is frightening. These plates are on every street, in every town and they are being used to openly commit offences and evade capture, in the knowledge there’s very little we can do about it. The problem is only getting worse, posing huge danger on our roads. We need to toughen up the law urgently”. Will the Minister set out the action she is taking to increase the penalties for using these ghost plates to at least £1,000 and six penalty points, and put an end to this number plate wild west that is endangering our streets?

• 7 Apr 2025 · Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate · Hansard source

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  Jaguar Land Rover and its wider supply chain employ huge numbers of people in my constituency, so I am very glad to see the Prime Minister and the Transport Secretary backing our automotive industry so strongly today. This commitment makes clear our strong climate commitments, but also our support for the transition in the industry. Will the Secretary of State say more about how we will support demand-side change to get EV charge points across towns such as Oldbury and West Brom in my constituency?

• 26 Feb 2025 · Vehicle Registration Offences (Review) · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for a review of certain offences relating to vehicle registration marks; and for connected purposes. I thank the roads Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), for being present today. When I was elected I did not expect to be a road safety campaigner, but since I became the MP for West Bromwich, family after family have come to me having lost a husband, a mother or a son as a result of other people’s dangerous driving. Our roads are used by millions of people every day. They are vital to our communities and our economy, and to keeping us connected. Most people drive safely and are just trying to take their kids to school, get to work or do the weekly shop, but there are some selfish people who use our roads as racetracks, who care nothing about risking other people’s lives, and who are evading capture by using dodgy ghost number plates. One of the central missions of our Labour Government is to “take back our streets” and restore a sense of safety to our communities. We have already invested millions in filling potholes to reduce danger, and I hope that we can now take action on something that is making our roads unsafe for all. The issue of so-called ghost plates was first brought to my attention when I was standing on Kenrick Way, a busy A-road in my constituency, with our local police and crime commissioner and the Secretary of State for Transport. We were talking about the nightmare car races that cause hell for local residents on Friday and Saturday nights, when as many as 50 cars converge on the area to race up and down that long straight road. The police and crime commissioner, Simon Foster, and local roads policing experts explained that it was increasingly hard to catch these dangerous drivers owing to the rise in ghost plates, or “stealth plates”. That was the first time I had heard of ghost plates, and I believe that today is the first time that they have been raised in the House. There has been little mainstream media coverage, but it is clear from TikTok and Instagram that they are widely known. I thank the former camera commissioners Tony Porter and Fraser Sampson, as well as Rob Gurney and Stuart Barnes, Chief Inspector Keeley Bevington and West Midlands police for their advice and their hard work over the years in bringing this issue to light. So what is a ghost or stealth plate? They look like normal number plates to the human eye, but they have a reflective coating, or have been interfered with in some way, which makes them unreadable to the infrared police speed cameras on our roads. Those who Google “ghost plates” will be presented with websites where they can buy a ghost plate online for as little as £30, making the vehicle “invisible” to the automatic number plate recognition cameras that police use to stop drivers speeding and keep our roads safe. Those websites are full of disclaimers reassuring us that they are perfectly legal—as long as we do not use them on the roads. The fact is, however, that they are being used on our roads, by people who want to speed around freely, run red lights, and do much worse. Right now, if someone has a ghost plate and they speed past a camera at 100 mph, the likelihood is that they will not be caught. It is illegal to use these plates, but the current consequences of being caught with one are far too insignificant. At the moment, the penalty for driving with a ghost plate is just a £100 fine—no points and no driving ban; just £100—and that is if they are caught. It is less than they would get for a speeding ticket. For those wanting to drive around recklessly on our roads, or commit even worse crimes, why would they not do so, when the penalty is so small? The scale of the use of ghost plates is not yet widely known, although we do know there are major issues with cloned plates and wider forms of dodgy plates. One study found that as many as one in 15 drivers may already be using anti-ANPR technology, but among some groups it could be even higher. One police exercise conducted in London examined more than 1,000 taxi and private hire vehicles, and found that 40% of those vehicles had ghost plates. Wolverhampton council—my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Mrs Brackenridge) is in her place—is one of the local authorities taking a lead on this issue. It is working with the police to use new types of cameras to find and punish drivers using these ghost plates. Rochdale trading standards has also been among the pioneers in combating these plates. Those organisations have done great work, but it is truly a national problem. I worry that the supply of ghost plates is making all our roads less safe. In the west midlands, 1,000 people are killed or seriously injured on our roads each year. Across the UK, the figure is 30,000 people. I have been working with the charity RoadPeace, which has helped constituents of mine when they have suffered terrible losses, such as Diane, whose husband was killed by a driver on her phone, and a family in Oldbury who lost their mother and grandmother when she was hit by a car that sped away. A couple of weeks ago, the RAC found that almost half of UK police forces have caught motorists driving more than 90 mph on 30 mph roads, and West Midlands police clocked a driver going at 100 mph on a 30 mph road. If a driver is using a ghost plate, most current police cameras will struggle to identify the car, and catch and punish the drivers. The police and local authorities are getting wise to ghost plates and investing in new technology to catch them, but right now it is too easy to buy one, and the penalties for getting caught are far too soft. There are also no consequences for the companies that sell the plates online with disclaimers about people not being allowed to use them on the road, when they know full well that that is exactly what they are being used for. This Bill calls for a review of the penalties for ghost plates. I think we need to see fines of £1,000 as well as six points on someone’s licence. The current fine of £100 is hardly a deterrent, but a £1,000 fine, the threat of six penalty points and potentially even vehicle seizure or licence disqualification would be ways to clamp down on the use and supply of ghost plates. That would not only make our roads safer, but ensure that our roads cannot be used to carry out crime. This issue also speaks to something wider, which is the immense importance of the little piece of plastic that is a number plate. That little piece of plastic upholds the rules of our roads—from traffic laws and speeding fines to car insurance, road tax and bus lanes. It also enables the police to track and arrest criminals using cars to flee the scenes of crime, and to move drugs and stolen goods. Yet this little piece of plastic is removable, modifiable, cloneable and almost entirely unregulated. The humble number plate, as surveillance camera commissioner Tony Porter called it, is under threat, because the national camera system used to keep our roads safe—ANPR—is being undermined by people using dodgy and ghost plates. It should be a basic right for all of us to feel safe as we walk, cycle or drive along our streets, but the reality is that too many of us do not feel safe. That is why the new Government have committed to publishing a road safety strategy—the first in over a decade—which I really welcome. The majority of drivers in West Bromwich and around the country just want to get from A to B safely, but a select minority of people think they are above the law, and that by using ghost plates they can get away with running red lights, drink driving, speeding and much worse. It cannot be right that these drivers are not facing the consequences of their actions, and are creating so much danger for everyone else, so I urge the Government to consider this Bill in their road safety strategy. The drivers using ghost plates have gone under the radar for too long, but now they have been rumbled, and it is time to crack down on them. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Sarah Coombes, Chris Bloore, Antonia Bance, Mrs Sureena Brackenridge, Sonia Kumar, Shaun Davies, Gurinder Singh Josan, Jacob Collier, Sarah Edwards, Paul Waugh, Rachel Taylor and Leigh Ingham present the Bill. Sarah Coombes accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 7 March, and to be printed (Bill 188). Business of the House (Today) Ordered, That, at today’s sitting, business in the name of the Leader of the Opposition shall be treated as being taken on an allotted day provided under paragraph (2) of Standing Order No. 14 (Arrangement of public business); such business may be entered upon at any hour and may be proceeded with, though opposed, for up to six hours after the start of proceedings on the Motion for this Order; proceedings shall then lapse if not previously disposed of; and Standing Order No. 41A (Deferred divisions) shall not apply.— ( Lucy Powell .)

• 29 Jan 2025 · Growing the UK Economy · Hansard source

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  The Minister and the Chancellor are absolutely right that more growth means more pounds in people’s pockets, which is exactly what we were elected to deliver and what the Conservatives failed to do for years and years. The west midlands is a car manufacturing heartland and I was delighted about the big investment today in electric vehicle infrastructure. Will the Minister say more about how it will be great for EVs, great for the green transition and brilliant for the people of the west midlands?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Vulnerable Road Users · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to her place. A couple of years ago, some children in my constituency started a campaign about a really dangerous stretch of road where cars speed and there is no pedestrian crossing. Tragically, a few months ago, one of those children lost her grandmother to a car crash on that very stretch of road. This is devastating for families and communities. What steps are the Government taking to make our roads safer?

• 12 Dec 2024 · Disability History Month · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this debate, during which we can reflect on the treatment of disabled people in the past and on how we can learn from the experiences of our constituents to shape a better future. As we focus on this year’s theme of disability, livelihood and employment, the optimists among us like to think that the arc of history tends towards progress. We have heard about the important 1944 and 1970 Acts, and the fact that 2010 was a landmark year in disability history, with the introduction of the Equality Act. Prohibiting discrimination against disabled people, the Equality Act is still one of the most progressive and long-standing legacies of the previous Labour Government. Unfortunately, in 2024, after 14 years of Conservative Government, it feels like we are going backwards. In March this year, the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found that we have a system that “devalues” disabled people and that which results in “hate speech and hostility” towards them. A fragmented and inaccessible system that undermines human dignity is not one that this Labour Government stand for. Today the disability employment gap—the difference in the employment rates for disabled people and non-disabled people—stands at around 25 percentage points in West Bromwich. That is slightly less than the national average, but it is still far too large, which is why I am pleased that the Government are addressing this disparity and listening to disabled people regarding how to do that. It is clear that the employment support system for disabled people is not working properly, which is why the Government’s recent White Paper has a focus on enabling disabled people to find long-term work and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock said, well-paid work that they can thrive in. I am glad that the Government are investing £115 million next year to deliver Connect to Work, a new supported employment programme to match disabled people with job vacancies. It is hoped that from 2026 onwards the programme will support nearly 100,000 people a year. I can think of many very qualified disabled people in my constituency who do not have the jobs that they deserve and would do well in. In the Budget, the Government also addressed an issue that affects many disabled people: the carer’s allowance. The previous cap was trapping people in poverty and penalising them like criminals for earning just a few pounds over the threshold. We have raised the earning limit on carer’s allowance, meaning that it is easier for people who are caring for loved ones, many of whom are disabled, to go out and work. We should be clear, though, about the scale of the challenge that many disabled people come up against when looking for work, or just going about their daily lives, whether it is the social barriers presented by other people’s perceptions of their disability or the physical barriers presented by public transport, as my hon. Friend mentioned. Disabled people are more likely to rely on buses to get around, but unfortunately our bus system is just not good enough. The new Government are doing something about that, and I hope the Minister will say more about that in his response to the debate. Unfortunately, the 45 bus service from West Brom to Walsall, which I campaigned to save, is still so unreliable that it often leaves passengers stranded or forces them to abandon their journeys; the loss of the 46 bus means that elderly and disabled people on Old Walsall Road now have to navigate an enormous hill; and the fact that there are no direct buses to the train station from Oakham means that many residents find it hard to work further afield, go shopping in the city centre or take part in sport. I will touch on sport, as other Members have, because it is worth mentioning areas where progress has been made. Of course, we have a long way to go to make sure that all sport is accessible, but I will pay tribute to a few people in my area. In West Brom, we are proud that our local football club is famous up and down the land, but there is one part of the club that is not so widely known. West Bromwich Albion are the reigning champions of at least one league—the national league premiership for powerchair football. Their goalkeeper and player-manager Chris Gordon, who has spinal muscular atrophy, has a career and livelihood that is centred on sport—not despite his disability but because of it. Another local champion of sporting opportunities for people with disabilities and learning disabilities was Norma Hyde from neighbouring Halesowen. In 1983 she set up Special Olympics Sandwell, for which this year she was rightly recognised in the King’s birthday honours list. Finally, Blind Dave Heeley—as he calls himself—is a local legend in West Brom. Having lost his sight at a young age, he committed himself to fundraising through sport. He recently cycled 1,000 km along the western front in Europe, and once did seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, becoming the first and only blind person in the world to achieve this. In the process, he raised millions of pounds. Of course, not every disabled person needs to be inspiring, run marathons or be at the top of the league to deserve fulfilling employment, a decent livelihood and access to transport. As parliamentarians, we must put the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of what we do and work towards a future that is truly inclusive for everyone.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Bus Funding · Hansard source

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  Buses are essential in my constituency, which is why I am grateful to the Government for the £50 million invested in the West Midlands combined authority area. When operators cut services, such as the 46 bus that goes through Hamstead in my constituency, it is devastating for the community. After decades of failed deregulation, I am grateful that the Government are turning the page. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is much better for local leaders to have control over local bus services?