Seamus Logan MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 21 May 2025 · Parkinson’s Disease · Hansard source

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  I defer to the hon. Member’s great wisdom on this matter, and he helpfully outlined the points that he intends to cover, but I want to add another aspect to the debate. The Government’s review of disability benefits may lead to pressure on people in receipt of personal independence payments, and it is poorly understood that people receive those payments to provide for adjustments that allow them to continue to work. Does he agree that the Government have an opportunity to learn from the system in Scotland? Scotland’s adult disability payment is a much more humane process, and it could support people in receipt of personal independence payments who have Parkinson’s, which is a fluctuating condition and may be missed.

• 12 May 2025 · Protection of Prison Staff · Hansard source

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  The Minister very graciously found time in his busy schedule to meet me and colleagues recently to discuss the “68 is Too Late” campaign. Does he agree that recent events prove the tremendous pressures on our prison officers and staff, and will he give an undertaking to me and the House that, during the course of this Parliament, the terms and conditions of prison officers could be reviewed, especially with a view to the “68 is Too Late” campaign?

• 6 May 2025 · NHS Reliance on Private Healthcare Providers · Hansard source

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  15. What steps he is taking to reduce the reliance of the NHS on private healthcare providers.

• 6 May 2025 · NHS Reliance on Private Healthcare Providers · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State claimed this morning on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme—a most excellent programme—that Labour is the only party that can be trusted with the national health service. Can he confirm that no aspect of the NHS whatsoever, whether it is ownership of the estate, the provision of specialist services or any other form of privatisation, will be included in the much-promised trade deal between the UK and the United States? No more excuses, Secretary of State: just give a direct answer to a direct question.

• 1 May 2025 · Parkinson’s Awareness Month · Hansard source

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  First, I thank the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) for securing this important debate. I agreed with everything he said in his excellent speech, except for one small thing. Given the importance of the topic, I was shocked to find that the last time Parkinson’s was debated was in 2017. My researchers may be wrong on that point, but that is what I am led to believe. I hope this discussion is of such a calibre that it will make up for the long time since we had that debate. All my remarks today are entirely in the spirit of cross-party co-operation. I have no intention whatever to make any cheap party political points, either in relation to the UK or to Scotland. I had a career in health and social care of more than 30 years, 17 of those as a commissioner and a regional director. I have to say, to my eternal shame, that Parkinson’s rarely got a look-in when we looked at physical disability and sensory impairment. Of course it did, but not to the extent that it should have. I pay tribute to those who are living with Parkinson’s and to their families. As has been said, the condition affects around 153,000 people in the UK, including at least 257 people in my constituency. I also pay tribute to the volunteers who do tireless work to support people living with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s UK does incredible work to support those across the UK and in my constituency, where it runs support groups in both Peterhead and Fraserburgh. Tasha Burgess from Parkinson’s UK has done amazing work, particularly for me today, and I know that she might consider extending the work of those support groups to Banff, Macduff and Buckie in the western part of my constituency. The groups are vital to delivering support in the community. Just knowing that there is a support network nearby of people going through the same thing, staffed by knowledgeable volunteers, makes such an incredible difference to people going through what can be the hardest time of their lives. Research has been mentioned. It is right that research funding goes to areas such as cancer, diabetes and motor neurone disease, but sadly Parkinson’s is the poor cousin in that regard. The hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar pointed out that it is the fastest-growing neurodegenerative condition in the world, yet Parkinson’s UK tells me that there is no treatment to stop or slow down the condition, only to deal with the symptoms. That is something that this Parliament must address. I want to focus minds in the Chamber today on how the benefits systems treats people living with Parkinson’s. Many Members have already raised concerns about changes to PIP eligibility announced by the UK Government in March. It goes without saying that the changes may have a severe and negative impact on those living with Parkinson’s. That can be contrasted against the adult disability payment introduced by the Scottish Government, which replaced PIP. People with Parkinson’s and those involved in the application process have reported that the ADP assessment is much more accurate and compassionate than that for PIP. Importantly, the ADP application uses paper-based evidence, as opposed to an in-person assessment, which is reported to poorly serve those living with Parkinson’s. The issues of face-to-face assessments stem from neither assessors nor the criteria being able to capture the reality of a condition that fluctuates as heavily as Parkinson’s. I am sure the Minister is paying attention to me, but I am aware that when the work capability assessment was dropped from universal credit assessments, the Westminster Government did not communicate that to the Scottish Government. I am hopeful that going forward there will be a better level of communication between the Governments in that regard. In March 2023, the Work and Pensions Committee, reporting on health assessments for benefits, stated that “when the Scottish Government publishes its planned evaluation”— on ADP— “DWP should learn from the results and consider what changes, if any, it should make to its benefit assessments.” I would be keen to hear the Minister’s thoughts on that in her closing remarks. The principles embedded within our welfare system should be a matter of principle for all MPs. We need to prioritise systems that treat people with the dignity and respect they deserve. There is an opportunity to learn from the Scottish Government’s approach to disability benefits. I strongly encourage the UK Government to consider replicating our approach in Scotland to deliver better outcomes for those living with Parkinson’s.

• 1 May 2025 · Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries · Hansard source

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  Despite Scotland’s growing abundance of potentially cheap renewable energy, businesses in Scotland’s energy sector are dealt a double blow, whereby energy-intensive businesses in the renewables supply chain are hammered by high energy costs in production and extortionate transmission charges. When the Minister looks at this problem, as her colleague told me he would the other day, will she bear in mind that this is entirely linked to the high cost of producing energy and all the other ways in which the current energy market model serves Scotland poorly?

• 29 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Minister will be aware of the switch-on of Moray West offshore wind farm at Buckie, in my constituency, last week, creating jobs, delivering clean energy and helping our nation to achieve net zero. Does the Minister accept that the current transmission charging regime poses significant and immediate threats to investment in offshore wind in Scotland? Will he meet me and industry representatives to explore that matter further?

• 28 Apr 2025 · Scientific and Regulatory Procedures: Use of Dogs · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I thank the petitioners for securing this important debate, and the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for her excellent opening remarks. I am delighted to see so many Members from her party here to support her; I rise as a Member of an opposition party, but as a member of the APPG I fully support her position. I regret that apart from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty), there is no one from the Conservative party in the Chamber. I would not dare suggest that they are not dog lovers—perhaps they are out walking their dogs on this beautiful day. My wife and I share our home with Lola, our beautiful cockapoo. I say share—I would not dare say that we owned her. We share our home. We just spent Easter ensuring that she did not make off with any of our chocolate Easter eggs; I know they are a guilty pleasure of the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran. Along with the 50% of families across these islands who have pets, I can readily see the contradiction in medical experimentation on dogs when so many of us understand the love, intelligence and friendship that our pet dogs bring to our lives—yet we seem content to inflict great suffering on them. As the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) said, many comprehensive studies demonstrate that experiments on animals, including dogs, cannot accurately and fully predict whether new drugs will be safe for humans. As the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran said, statistics for 2023 tell us that 3,749 procedures were conducted on dogs in laboratories, 69% of which were to test the safety of products and devices for human medicine, human dentistry and veterinary medicine. However, as there is a huge question mark over the reliability of the tests and the human relevance of their outcomes, it is understandable that there is massive support for the banning of experimentation on dogs in the UK. In fact, not a month goes by where I so not receive emails on that topic in my inbox. The Labour Government have confirmed that they aim to phase out animal testing and will publish proposals later this year, I believe, but they have not committed to an immediate ban on the use of dogs, which is what the petition calls for. I will be interested to hear what the Minister has to say. Some exciting—no, amazing—work in this field is happening in the UK, and it needs to be supported and celebrated. As a member of the APPG on phasing out animal experiments in medical research, I recently visited Animal Free Research UK’s animal replacement centre of excellence at the Blizzard institute at Queen Mary University of London to learn more about its groundbreaking work into how cancer spreads using animal-free methods. Doctors showed us how they are revolutionising human skin testing, which is already providing better results for patients without using animals, as well as the development of animal-free next generation 3D tissues and disease models for use in biomedical research. In other words, they grow the tissue in the lab, and they do not need to use dogs. Other truly transformative animal-free methods are available, for example, using computer modelling, which can provide results directly relevant to humans. Herbie’s law, as recommended by Animal Free Research UK, argues for a decade of change, and would mandate the replacement of animals in medical research in the UK by 2035, replacing them with humane, effective alternatives. There is support for that from within the Labour party, largely thanks to the hon. Member for Exeter (Steve Race) and his private Member’s Bill. When the UK Government say that they are partnering with scientists, industry and civic society in working towards phasing out animal testing, I hope they will also consult with animal protection groups on that goal. The Government have also agreed to publish an alternative methods strategy to support phasing out animal testing, so I hope they will read up on Herbie’s law in that process, ahead of publication later this year. If the Government’s goal, however, is to be at the forefront of an alternative methods revolution, bringing in a commitment to a ban on experiments on dogs would send a clear signal of intent and be a major milestone in the important phasing out of animal testing. That does not need to happen in 10 years—or even in five. This Government could commit to the full implementation of Herbie’s law by the end of this Parliament.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Scientific and Regulatory Procedures: Use of Dogs · Hansard source

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  We have heard from a number of Members today—some of them very learned Members of Parliament who have professional backgrounds in this area—about the serious doubts regarding the efficacy of some of the tests the Minister is referring to. Would she be willing after the debate to share with me the sources she is using to support her claims regarding the value of this testing?

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  I welcome your ruling, Madam Deputy Speaker, with regard to the focus of the debate. You are speaking about waiting list times for cancer treatment. What has that got to do with immigration? Secondly, you keep focusing on—

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  This might be an opportunity for the hon. Member to catch her breath. She is making a number of claims about Ukrainian women and Scottish people, but I want to go back to something she said earlier about Stranraer and Cairnryan, which is a place I am familiar with as an Irish person and a guide. I just wanted to correct the record: Stranraer port closed many, many years ago. The example that you gave is completely impossible.

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Secretary of State is talking about health metrics. We will see about the validity of some of those health metrics for England over the next few months, but there are many other metrics in health and social care. In Scotland, we are very proud to have free prescriptions, free social care, free personal care and many more benefits. I will not list them all in the way that you do, with your litany of so-called failures, because I want to talk up Scotland—

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  After the shadow Secretary of State’s long litany of talking down Scotland, the Scottish Government and all their failures, can he explain why the people of Scotland have elected the SNP for the past 18 years and why the polls show that we can expect to be elected again next year?

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  I have the benefit of having been a tour guide in a previous life. I often brought American visitors into Dublin and on into Northern Ireland. The hon. Lady says that she is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, so I point out to her that there is no border in that regard. The tourists pass freely from the south to the north and back into the south, so I have no idea what she is talking about. Will she elaborate on where the problem might arise for those tourists?

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  How the hon. Member has managed to bring ferries into a debate about a Scottish visa is beyond me. Instead of focusing on the issues that he sees with capital projects in Scotland, why does he not talk about some of the capital project failures in England?

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey (Graham Leadbitter) will agree that the difficulty in my constituency is not the issue of proper pay or housing. [ Interruption. ] If Labour Members will just listen for a moment, they will hear the issue is that we are at full employment. Some 2.3% of the population between the ages of 16 and 64 are unemployed. By any definition, that is full employment. The issue is that we cannot get the staff. The Secretary of State is ducking the question, so will he please answer it?

• 23 Apr 2025 · North Sea Oil and Gas Workers: Transitional Support · Hansard source

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  I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s point about the choice of language, but will he confirm whether he and his party still believe in net zero and the drive towards achieving our climate targets?

• 23 Apr 2025 · North Sea Oil and Gas Workers: Transitional Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman) for securing this important debate and for her thoughtful and passionate speech introducing it. Many colleagues have made excellent speeches, and I will not repeat their points. The just transition must be both just and fair, so that sectors and communities are not left on the industrial scrapheap as they were during the Thatcher years. If the just transition means anything, it must mean something for the north-east of Scotland. It cannot be left to the market alone to sort those things out. To give one small example, I have recently been lobbied by the plumbing industry. A crisis is coming in a few years’ time because the financial problems facing the training and education sector mean that it cannot possibly meet its demands. One thing the Minister could do is nudge the private sector to invest in apprenticeships in those areas, so that we are preparing alternatives for young people as North sea basin declines. The Scottish Government set up their Just Transition Commission in 2018 to provide scrutiny and advice on delivery. Northern Ireland is currently consulting on setting up its own commission; Wales established its commission in 2013. Where is the UK-wide just transition commission? The UK Government launched their North sea consultation in March as “a dialogue with North Sea communities” to develop a plan for making the best of this transition. I trust that in his closing remarks the Minister will tell us how that is going. The chairman of GB Energy—perhaps the flagship project of this Government, with its headquarters in Aberdeen—described its work as “a very long-term project,” with the much-promised 1,000 new jobs taking perhaps 20 years to realise. Even then, it will be a mere drop in the North sea when it comes to replacing the jobs that will be lost in the years ahead. Unite’s Scottish secretary Derek Thomson recently said: “If you look at how many jobs are going to go in the north-east, if GB Energy does not pick up the pace and start to move workers in there and start to create proper green jobs, then I’m afraid we could be looking at a desolation of the north-east.” “Speeding ahead” is an interesting choice of words for the Secretary of State in this context, given that any decision on funding the Acorn project at St Fergus is now in a most uncertain position in the June spending review. I have been asking about this since I was elected. The UK Government were able to find £22 billion for carbon capture schemes in Merseyside and Teesside last autumn, but they could not dig deep enough into their pockets for Scotland, which has much of the infrastructure already. I await June’s announcement with trepidation as speed and commitment to North sea communities in the north-east of Scotland have been thin on the ground so far from the UK Government. Will the Minister please give us a clue about the Government’s plans? The Acorn project, the new power station at Peterhead and the investments in key strategic ports at Peterhead and Fraserburgh are key components of the just transition. A Robert Gordon University review of UK offshore energy workforce skills transferability showed that 90% of the oil and gas workforce have transferable skills to work in adjacent energy sectors. The just transition needs buy-in from the UK Government. It cannot be left to market forces, which are even more unpredictable in the current political climate, thanks to Trump and the ongoing energy crisis, and of course Putin too. Households are facing a third rise in energy costs since Labour came to power. Indeed, the vast majority of the UK’s offshore wind capacity is owned by companies outside the UK. The typical North sea turbine contains more than three times as much material from abroad as it does from domestic manufacturers. The wider context is an energy market that is, paradoxically, working against both the interests of the consumer and the companies and investors who want to realise the green energy industrial revolution. If Members do not believe me, they should take a deep dive into zonal pricing. The clean industry bonus, an extra revenue support in contracts for difference rounds, has the potential to bring quality jobs to the UK and in particular Scotland and the north-east of Scotland, but there is an absence of detail on whether specifics such as job quality will be a requirement for investors to receive financial support from the Government. Does the Minister acknowledge that private investment does not necessarily guarantee good, secure jobs? How will he ensure that the clean industry bonus delivers good-quality jobs in Scotland and supports workers currently reliant on the North sea oil and gas industry?

• 23 Apr 2025 · Barnett Formula: NHS Funding · Hansard source

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  The Minister is right to speak of the wonderful NHS staff that we have, but she also speaks of a new direction that is required. Let me give the House a clue as to what new direction she might be speaking of. The Good Law Project revealed this month that more than 60% of donations to Labour’s Health Secretary, totalling £372,000, came from individuals and companies linked to the private healthcare sector. As the same Labour Health Secretary is so fond of saying, all roads lead to Westminster, including on NHS funding. With cuts to public services coming down the line, is the Secretary of State—or the Minister—worried about the influence of private health donors on Cabinet colleagues?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Free-to-air Events · Hansard source

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  4. If she will have discussions with Ofcom on extending the list of events designated as free to air.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Free-to-air Events · Hansard source

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  The BBC has secured an exclusive contract to broadcast live all of Scotland’s men’s international football matches in the run-up to the 2026 world cup. It is part of a wider deal agreed with the European governing body UEFA, which also includes matches for Northern Ireland and Wales. On Friday night, the BBC will provide extensive live coverage on several platforms of Scotland’s women’s team playing Germany in the nations league at Tannadice stadium in Dundee. I am sure the Minister will join me in wishing them well, but will she also consider taking steps to safeguard these events for free-to-air broadcasters, so that our nations can enjoy them without paying expensive subscriptions?

• 3 Apr 2025 · UK-US Trade and Tariffs · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State cannot have failed to notice the number of Members from all parties who have raised the food and drink industry, particularly in Scotland, where many products are made in my constituency. I admire his approach of speaking softly and carrying a big stick as he prepares his plan B, but retaliatory action is not the only lever that we could pull. In discussions with the Chancellor, would he be prepared to offer some sort of mitigation to businesses in the food and drink industry in the autumn statement?

• 27 Mar 2025 · St Patrick’s Day and Northern Irish Affairs · Hansard source

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  I endorse the hon. Gentleman’s remarks and pay tribute to all the embassy staff here in London. I rise as a proud Irishman to speak in this debate celebrating the life and legacy of the late fourth or fifth-century man we know as St Patrick. But be aware that there may have been a number of people from the so-called dark ages who might have at least contributed to the legacy we now know. There is absolutely no doubt that it was Irish monks and missionaries who throughout that period kept Christianity alive, spread the good news and taught so much to so many through early versions of what we now call universities. The efforts of St Patrick’s disciples, maybe contemporaries, are felt to this day. Columba and Drostan had such an influence in Scotland, and my own church is named for St Drostan, while another local church celebrates Columba. Members will have heard of the book of Kells, but they may not have heard of the book of Deer—a handwritten copy of the Gospels written a little later. It is now in Cambridge University library, but it was written in the north-east of Scotland in a local village. I was raised within sight of the slopes of Slemish in County Antrim where, according to his own account, Patrick spent six years as a shepherd having been kidnapped by Irish pirates. They allegedly came from Dalriada, a Scottish kingdom ruled by the McDonnell clan. There is much uncertainty about where Patrick was born. Was he Roman? Was he Welsh? Who knows and, to be honest, does it really matter? Patrick apparently escaped back home, and years later, now as a cleric, dreamt that the people of Ireland were calling him to return and walk among them. There are many stories about his life in Ireland. The one that always appealed to me was how he broke the law by lighting a pyre on the slopes of the Hill of Tara in County Meath—a privilege reserved to the high king of Tara at the time, as a fire on that spot could be seen for many miles and many counties across Ireland. But so impressed was said king by St Patrick that he allegedly converted on the spot. Patrick is credited with teaching Christianity to the Irish people using the shamrock, with fasting for 40 days on top of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, thus earning the right to judge the Irish at the end of time on the day of judgment. I think the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme may well have secured his future. Patrick’s legacy requires little acknowledgment from me other than to credit the eloquent speeches of other hon. Members speaking today, so in my brief contribution I will recall some personal St Patrick’s day memories from the past 67 years. It was always a day on which one was released from the usual Lenten pledges, so as children we fogged the chocolate and sweets into us so hard that we almost made ourselves sick. Later, it became a day on which we would make the pilgrimage to Dublin, not necessarily for the St Patrick’s day parade but for the all-Ireland club championship finals in football and hurling, which were played at Croke Park. I am pleased to say that my own local hurling team, the Cuchullains of Dunloy, contested that final on no fewer than five occasions; an amazing feat for a small village in north Antrim. On other occasions I attended the schools’ rugby cup final at Ravenhill—a tradition still carried on to this day on St Patrick’s day, so for me, as Father Ted would have said, that would be an ecumenical matter. There are many other memorable moments on this day, but a special one was sitting in a bar in Bariloche in Argentina listening on the radio to a live performance by my singer-songwriter daughter Aislinn at the London Irish Centre in Camden several thousand miles away. I say to hon. Members: let us recognise and celebrate the life, legend and legacy of the man, or men, we call St Patrick—not least because it means so much to the more than half a million people who said in the last census that they were Irish and living on this island.

• 27 Mar 2025 · St Patrick’s Day and Northern Irish Affairs · Hansard source

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  I may be getting on a bit now, but I do not recall some of the accusations that the hon. and learned Member is making about the role of the Irish Government in the negotiations that followed the Brexit vote. Will he clarify, for the purposes of the record, whether many Unionist elected representatives, some of whom sit in this Chamber, encouraged their supporters to vote for Brexit in June 2016? Did they not?

• 27 Mar 2025 · St Patrick’s Day and Northern Irish Affairs · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) for securing this debate. I feel I must check his entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, though, to see whether he is on the board of Irish Tourism or Tourism NI. It was a marvellous tour we had of so many wonderful places in Ireland. I want to identify with all the sentiments that the hon. Gentleman expressed. I apologise for missing the start of his speech, but I think he was referring to Michael from the Irish embassy. Would that be correct?