Wera Hobhouse MP: speeches

Speeches

• 19 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  At a time of heightened global tension, we must be aware of how important it is that we look after our current and ex-service personnel. I have a constituent who served in the Army and later in the Ministry of Defence for 50 years. He survived stage 4 cancer and his illness is now forcing him to retire. Capita, which administers the civil service pension scheme, has taken over two years to get a statement to him about his pension, ultimately delaying the moment when he can retire. That is just one of five different civil service pension cases that my office has had to deal with in the last three months, none of which has received responses from Capita. May we have a statement from the relevant Minister about how we will improve the situation for my constituents and for many across the country?

• 19 Mar 2026 · Online Harms · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is making a very powerful speech about how young people, whose brains are still being formed, are being bombarded with online content. May I just let her know that my hon. Friend is actually the hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom)? When she mentions him again, she might correct that.

• 19 Mar 2026 · Online Harms · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom) on securing this debate, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting it. There is no shortage of online harms demanding our attention. I have spoken before about children buying illegal drugs that are openly advertised on social media, the flood of harmful eating disorder content reaching young people, and Ofcom not holding social media companies to account, although it has increased powers to do so under the Online Safety Act. Today, though, I want to focus on another deeply disturbing trend. Men are secretly filming women on nights out and profiting by posting the videos online. These accounts mask themselves as “nightlife content” or “walking tours”, but the videos tell a completely different story; they fixate on women in dresses and skirts, often filmed from behind and from low or intrusive angles. These women have not consented—in most cases, they do not know that they are being filmed—and the scale is staggering. The BBC found that videos such as these have been viewed more than 3 billion times in just three years. Once they have been uploaded, the abuse begins, with comment after comment dripping with misogyny: “Look at how these ladies are dressed, no wonder they get attacked” followed by a laughing emoji, “They belong to the streets”, and “Easy meat”. Hundreds of misogynistic comments like these flood the replies beneath nearly every video. This vile practice has victims, and the impact is real. Women who have been filmed in this way say that they no longer feel safe to go out; they feel watched, exposed, vulnerable, distressed and harassed. They no longer enjoy a night out or being in public. We must be clear that secretly filming women in this way is deeply degrading and predatory and must be stopped. Right now, the law is failing. In 2024, a man was arrested on suspicion of stalking and harassment for this kind of behaviour, but no further action was taken due to limitations in the current legislation. As of now, there is no provision in law to prosecute for covert filming of this nature. This abuse sits in a legal grey area between several different crimes, including voyeurism and harassment, giving this type of video the space to grow. Existing voyeurism offences are framed around private acts or taking intimate images. Harassment laws were not designed to address the recording and mass distribution of this kind of content, so perpetrators slip through the cracks and the problem grows. My Liberal Democrat colleagues in the other place tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would have created a specific criminal offence of secretly filming someone without their consent for sexual gratification, or to humiliate or distress them. The Government’s view was that this amendment was too broad. Yes, we must protect the freedom to film in public and legitimate journalism, but we cannot allow that to become an excuse for inaction, because right now women are being targeted, filmed and broadcast to millions without protection. Something must change. We should look at harassment laws, including how the Public Order Act 1986 can be strengthened to tackle sex-based harassment, both offline and online, because harassment does not stop on the streets—it continues online, often indefinitely. It should be an offence to record and distribute footage of someone without their consent when they are targeted because of their sex and that material is used to objectify and humiliate them and subject them to misogynistic abuse. Women should not have to wonder every time they go out whether they will wake up the next morning to find themselves plastered across the internet in the most distressing and degrading way. It is not beyond the Government’s power to fix this issue, and I urge them to listen and to close this gap in the law, to protect women from this vile misogynistic harassment.

• 19 Mar 2026 · Online Harms · Hansard source

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  Can I quickly take the hon. Gentleman back to when he said he was proud of the action his Labour Government have taken? For a long time while they were in opposition, his colleagues advocated making misogyny a hate crime. I assume it was in their manifesto, but I am not quite clear about that. He mentions misogyny as one of the vile things that happen all the time in the manosphere. Why does he not press his Government more to make it a hate crime?

• 19 Mar 2026 · Climate Change · Hansard source

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  The UK has a lot to be proud of in our record on climate change, such as halving our greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, being the first EU nation to phase out coal, and massively scaling up renewable energy. It is no coincidence that many of these accomplishments came against a background of cross-party consensus on the need to reach net zero. The parties used to compete to have the most ambitious environmental programme, but since the last election the Conservatives have abandoned our ambitious climate commitments. Instead, they have kowtowed to the politics of fear, and seized on net zero in a culture war of trying to out-Reform Reform—and where are the Reform Members? Even while still in government, the Conservatives squandered some of the huge economic, social and environmental opportunities of net zero, and now they are falling even further behind the curve. Their recent decision to call for the Climate Change Act to be scrapped would critically endanger future generations, who deserve a safer planet, energy security and a stronger economy. The Climate Change Committee frequently warned that the last Government were not moving fast enough. Let us not forget that they were defeated twice in the High Court due to their inadequate climate plans. We Liberal Democrats recognise the urgent need to go further and faster on climate change. This generation should be the first to leave the country and the world in a better condition than we found them in. We also recognise the huge opportunities that new renewable energy brings to support skilled jobs and economic growth. Previous failure to invest sufficiently in renewable energy and insulate our homes has led directly to the energy crisis, pushing up energy bills for everyone and squeezing family finances. The situation in Iran has laid bare the state of UK energy security as prices have shot up because we are so reliant on oil and gas. Home-grown, renewable energy does not have to pass through the strait of Hormuz, and its price is not set on the rollercoaster of international markets. Conservative and Reform Members have their heads in the sand in adopting anti-renewable, anti-environmental policies that would leave us vulnerable to more energy crises in the future. The Climate Change Committee has found that the cost of net zero by 2050 is less than the impact of one fuel crisis. Conservative and Reform Members would have us believe that we cannot afford net zero. In reality, the truth is that we cannot afford not to get to net zero. We cannot escape the fact that our electricity prices are among the highest in Europe, but that is not inevitable; it is the result of a pricing imbalance. Right now, the cost of electricity is set by the price of gas 97% of the time, even though half of our electricity comes from renewables, which are much cheaper. That disconnect is driving up bills unnecessarily, and we must break that link. We Liberal Democrats propose the practical solution of moving older renewable projects off expensive renewable obligation certificates and on to cheaper contracts for difference. The UK Energy Research Centre estimates that that change alone would save a typical household about £200 a year. At the same time, the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee’s inquiry into the cost of energy has uncovered serious concerns about transparency. We have heard evidence that profits can be obscured within network charges on energy bills. Energy companies must be transparent, so consumers can clearly see what they are paying for and where profits are being made. Our constituents deserve energy bills to be fair, affordable and easy to understand. In Bath, the majority of my constituents are firmly behind climate action, and so is my Liberal Democrat council. I was delighted to hold a pop-up surgery at Bath climate hub last week. The hub supports people to reduce their carbon footprint through diet, energy use or transportation changes. It also facilitates the meaningful conversation that we must keep having on climate issues. From action to rewild nature-depleted land to community owned energy initiatives, local areas in Bath are making changes that together make a big difference. In Bath, like the rest of the country, retrofitting our homes through a national insulation programme is crucial to lowering carbon emissions and reducing bills. The Government’s warm homes plan unfortunately falls short of the scale, ambition and long-term certainty we need. An emergency home upgrade programme should have been implemented in the first 100 days of this Government. We Liberal Democrats would upgrade our homes, making them cheaper to heat with a 10-year emergency home upgrade programme, starting with free insulation for those on low incomes and ensuring that all new homes are zero-carbon. We would also provide further incentives for installing heat pumps that cover the real cost. That would reduce emissions and bills, combating both climate change and fuel poverty. Climate change is, after all, a global issue. We must bring others with us. The UK and European partners must lead the global effort to tackle climate change together, even more so given that the US has abandoned the multilateral approach to international climate policy. One choice the Government could take immediately to help global efforts towards net zero would be to reverse the cut to the aid budget and set out a road map for restoring official development assistance to 0.7% of gross national income. UK aid provides vital support for the most vulnerable people in the world and is a key tool in meeting our climate commitments. We Liberal Democrats have also pushed for a long time for stronger marine environmental targets, both internationally and domestically. We welcome the Government’s decision to ratify the global oceans treaty through legislation. However, much more needs to be done to work with our coastal and fishing communities to ensure a sustainable future for fishing and our marine environment. Public support for climate action remains strong across the UK, but we cannot take it for granted. We must continue to bring the public with us throughout the energy transition. A part of that is ensuring that misinformation and disinformation is effectively challenged. That means tackling myths about renewable energy head-on, and making sure that households right across the country actually feel the benefits through lower bills, warmer homes and secure jobs in their communities. The Conservatives and Reform are all too often happy to talk down Britain’s renewable industries. They would have us scraping the bottom of the North sea oil barrel. In doing so, they overlook the remarkable innovation happening right here in the UK: home-grown green technology companies driving growth, creating skilled jobs and shaping a more sustainable future. Even if more oil was extracted from the North sea, it would be sold on the international market at international prices. That would not lower energy bills. The Conservatives know that, so it is particularly callous to ask for something that would leave our constituents less safe and secure economically. Our constituents want to tackle climate change. They want lower fuel bills. They want their wildlife and landscapes to be protected. They want a strong economy that supports British jobs. That is what the energy transition must give them. We Liberal Democrats will keep making the case for the urgent transition away from fossil fuels.

• 19 Mar 2026 · Climate Change · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Lady not recognise that all that might make it cheaper for the oil and gas industry, but it will not make it cheaper for our constituents? Their bills will be the same wherever the gas is extracted; it is the oil and gas industry that might profit from it being extracted elsewhere.

• 19 Mar 2026 · Climate Change · Hansard source

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  Is the shadow Minister saying that because we cannot make a big enough impact globally, we should scrap our impact altogether?

• 19 Mar 2026 · Community Mental Health Services · Hansard source

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  So many mental health problems could be cared for much better in the community. As the chair of the eating disorders all-party parliamentary group, I know that some years ago we had an inquiry called “There’s No Place Like Home”. That was supported by Beat, which put out a report about the critical gap in provision, as there are no daycare centres for eating disorder services. Does my hon. Friend’s report also cover eating disorders? Will she make the plea to the Government, which we have made again and again, that we need much more critical daycare centre support and provision in the community?

• 10 Mar 2026 · State Pension Increase · Hansard source

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  Nearly half a million pensioners living abroad will miss out on the state pension increase because we do not have reciprocal agreements with countries such as Canada and Australia. Several former Bath constituents have raised this issue with me. What discussions has the Minister had with departmental colleagues to rectify this injustice?

• 9 Mar 2026 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  There is now overwhelming evidence that addictive algorithms and harmful content are deeply damaging to our children’s wellbeing. We Liberal Democrats support Lords amendment 38, which would ban social media for under-16s, although our preference is for online regulation with film-style age rating of user-to-user services. While the Government dither and delay, children across the country are being exposed to deeply harmful content every single day. I have spoken many times about the saturation of pro-eating disorder content that children view on social media, but the harms do not stop there. Social media is increasingly acting as a marketplace for the illicit drug trade. Researchers at the University of Bath have found that up to a quarter of vapes confiscated in secondary schools contained the deadly drug Spice. The Government’s own data reveals an eightfold increase in young people entering treatment for Spice in 2024-25. How are young people getting their hands on these dangerous drugs? Through social media. Researchers have identified nearly 10,000 accounts involved in the supply and distribution of Spice, using TikTok as a means of communicating and advertising to children. Ofcom agreed that the content is “priority illegal content”. However, it declined to use its powers under the Online Safety Act 2023. We are facing a shocking reality. Children, right now, can buy the most dangerous prison drugs on mainstream social media: Snapchat, TikTok, Telegram. If Ofcom will not step up and the Government will not make it, what choice do we have but to prevent children accessing these platforms altogether? The Government’s amendments in lieu of Lords amendments 38 and 39 completely miss the point, as my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) outlined. The Government must act now to stop children being exposed to illegal and harmful content online. We cannot allow endless inquiries, consultations and delays to stand in the way.

• 9 Mar 2026 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not; I am sorry. More than 40 charities and experts support this approach. Our constituents have made their views clear too. I have been inundated with emails, the overwhelming majority of which support a ban. Now is the time for action. The Government could accept this cross-party amendment and give children an escape route from the dark corners of social media.

• 5 Mar 2026 · World Book Day · Hansard source

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  I sincerely hope that was not AI-generated; it was a very special effort. Follow that, Minister!

• 5 Mar 2026 · Local Museums · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. What a wonderful debate we have had this afternoon. From Egyptian mummies and vampires to castles and royal pump houses, from the history of textiles and shipbuilding to Captain Cook and the Cutty Sark, the whole colourful history of our country has passed through our mind’s eye this afternoon. We all agree that local museums are cultural anchors that connect people, place and history. Museums support our local economy by driving tourism, creating jobs and encouraging visitors, but foremost they are there for the enjoyment of the people who live near them. In 2023, the independent museum sector alone contributed nearly £900 million to the UK economy and attracted almost 20 million visitors. The sector supports thousands of jobs, alongside more than half a million volunteer days. It is important to dwell on the volunteers; of course they provide an important local service for all of us, but they also love what they do, and they are so connected to their local place. In Bath, we are so fortunate to have a plethora of museums—large, such as the Roman baths, and small, such as the Museum of Bath Stone. Together, they celebrate our rich heritage and tell the story of our people. The Museum of Bath at Work is a particular standout. That independent, self-funded museum is housed in a grade II listed real tennis court. It operates with just one permanent member of staff, but is supported by over 40 volunteers, including working trustees and friends. Last year, it staged an exhibition on tennis in Bath, which won a national sporting heritage award for research. This year, it is planning exhibitions on cinema and film. All that is done without a single penny of financial support from the Government. The Roman baths are so popular that they received a 93% enjoyment score—whatever that is, and however it is measured—which is the highest ever. Victoria Art Gallery celebrated its 125th anniversary this year and made major investments, including the launch of a dedicated community engagement and school room. Bath council is in the process of bringing together £54 million for a new fashion museum in Bath—I am particularly excited about that, because I like fashion. It will hopefully open in 2030 and will be a fabulous place to show the transformative power of fashion, stimulate the local and regional economy, and inspire citizens like me. I am sure I will be one of the first through the doors. We have to remember that fashion is not just for the people with money, but what do every day—we wear clothes and we create fashion. We also have the American Museum, which is set within 125 acres of outstanding natural beauty. Apart from telling the history of America in a very engaging way, it showcases colourful and beautiful American decorative arts to UK audiences and helps to reduce the perception that we have of America as a bang-bang culture of cowboys—I blame Hollywood for that. That mission is all the more important today. In Bath we are so lucky, but the picture nationally is far more sober. Decades of local authority funding cuts leave local museums unable to open their doors or plan for the future. As non-statutory services, museums are too often the first to go. Councils face impossible funding choices. Spending on museums fell by 27% between 2009 and 2020—a shocking legacy of the last Conservative Government. A study published by the Mapping Museums Lab documented that, across the UK, over 500 museums have closed in the last 25 years. When such valuable cultural assets vanish, it affects some of the most disadvantaged in our society. Children from more deprived backgrounds are already significantly less likely to visit museums. They are less likely to have parents who take them, to attend a school with the budget for trips, and to live near a major national museum, so the small local museum might be the only point of cultural contact available to them. If such museums are forced to close, we are not just losing buildings; we are pulling up the ladder and telling whole communities that their history does not merit preservation, that culture is something that happens elsewhere and that heritage is only for those with money. The economic case for keeping our museums open is compelling, and the social case is equally strong. Museums improve wellbeing, reduce social isolation and strengthen community cohesion, and volunteers find community and purpose in them—but I want to dwell on education. Local museums offer something that national institutions cannot: proximity. A child visiting a local museum is not learning about history in the abstract; they are learning about the people who lived in their own town or city, worked their land and built their streets. That sense of belonging to a story that stretches back centuries matters enormously for how young people understand themselves and their place in the world. Many schools build museum visits into their curriculum because they are fun and different from what happens in a classroom. Many schools’ trips are now under enormous pressure, but trips to the local museum are inexpensive. It may be the only cultural institution that a child visits all year, and for some children it will be the first time they have been to a museum. In this country, culture is not equally distributed. Access to museums, galleries, theatres and heritage sites is closely linked to income and social background. We need a fair deal for funding local authorities that properly reflects the value of cultural services. The Government must place far greater emphasis on heritage and local history as a public good. Every community deserves a museum. Every child deserves access to their heritage. That should not depend on where they live, how much money their family has or whether enough volunteers can hold things together for just one more year. I urge the Government to act before more of our local museum treasures are lost for good.

• 5 Mar 2026 · Local Museums · Hansard source

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  Since we have a little time, we should congratulate the whole sector for making museums so much more engaging and fun. I remember being dragged to museums when I was young. They were boring places to be, and I could just about survive for half an hour. These days, museums are places where people really want to stay, because the whole sector has been transformed into something with which everybody can engage. We should take this opportunity to congratulate the museum sector for all it has done in the last generation.

• 5 Mar 2026 · Energy Markets · Hansard source

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  The Energy Security and Net Zero Committee is running an inquiry into the costs of energy, as we have already heard from its Chair. With all due respect, I cannot understand how the Conservative Opposition can with a straight face deplore the cost of energy for bill payers while at the same time advocate prolonging our dependency on oil and gas. That is precisely what keeps our energy bills high. Let me come back to our inquiry. We heard from one of the witnesses from E3G that there could be costs of up to £500 per household in hidden profits due to the untransparent network charges put on to energy bills. Will the Government ensure that bill payers are given a full picture of the breakdown of profits across the energy sector?

• 5 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  One of my Bath constituents who is a leaseholder in a housing association-managed development has received sudden and extremely high major works bills without warning. There is currently no statutory requirement for landlords or housing associations to operate sinking or reserve funds to spread the costs of major works over time. Many leaseholders are then exposed to large, unexpected charges at short notice. Will the Leader of the House reach out to colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to draw attention to this growing problem and encourage them to consider introducing statutory guidance or regulations on sinking funds to better protect our constituents?

• 3 Mar 2026 · Hong Kong: Human Rights Situation · Hansard source

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  Bounties have been placed on the heads of pro-democracy activists living in Hong Kong—a shocking act of transnational aggression. May I add my voice to that of the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), and ask: when will the Government use our Magnitsky sanctions regime against those in Hong Kong and Beijing responsible for the unacceptable targeting of Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners? It is time that we used those sanctions.

• 3 Mar 2026 · Small Charity Sector · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that small local charities cannot compete with national charities? We have made that point time and again, but she has not made any comment on how competition can be achieved or how local charities can get priority. I have many examples in Bath where a national charity gets a bid through the bidding process but does not deliver as well as a local charity. We find that out afterwards, but then it is too late.

• 3 Mar 2026 · Small Charity Sector · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for securing this important debate. I hear time and again from local Bath charities that they are disadvantaged due to their size. They are incredible, committed and dedicated niche charities, doing excellent work in our communities. Because they are small and locally focused they can deliver swift, sensitive and tailored personal services to the people who need them, but they are disadvantaged because they are small. They are disadvantaged because they cannot afford a team of experienced bid writers who know the tips and hacks to unlock the larger funding schemes, and because they are all going for the same pots of funding at the same time, for largely the same aims. They are also disadvantaged because they lack the economies of scale that benefit the nationals, and the central infrastructure to navigate onerous administration, monitoring and governance rules. I recently convened a roundtable of smaller charities all working in the domestic abuse space in Bath, to hear about their challenges. Outstanding local charities such as Southside, the Nelson Trust, Developing Health & Independence, Voices, Society Without Abuse and Julian House attended, along with our local authority partners, officers and councillors, who are vital elements for policy setting, commissioning and delivery. Bringing them together created a space to work towards a more joined-up response for domestic abuse victims and survivors in Bath, working together rather than competing with each other. Overwhelmingly, I heard from them how the fragmentation of local delivery impeded their effectiveness, and how partnerships and collaborations were key to reducing that. As a result, regular roundtables are now taking place, at which they share best practice, limit duplication of support to some clients, and locate the gaps in provision to others. It is an opportunity to map out a clearer, more collaborative and less fragmented domestic abuse pathway for local organisations. We are creating a space where charities can build rapport with one another while discussing some of the issues that the sector faces. I hope that will begin to eliminate the barriers that smaller charities face due to the administration, monitoring and governance issues that the large national charities navigate with relative ease. I hope that in this way we can ensure that the size of a charity never determines the difference that it can make. While I echo the concerns that have been raised today, I very much hope that my example from Bath can help other hon. Members and the charities in their local areas.

• 2 Mar 2026 · Representation of the People Bill · Hansard source

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  Does the Secretary of State agree that the same arguments that were made over 100 years ago about women not being fit enough to vote are now being repeated for 16-year-olds? The success that ultimately came from including women in the franchise should give us confidence that this is the right thing to do.

• 2 Mar 2026 · Phone Use in Schools · Hansard source

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  I was a secondary school teacher before I came to this place, and even 10 years ago, although the school guidance was that mobile phones should not be in classrooms, enforcing that was a daily struggle. The presence of mobile phones undermines what schools are trying to do, causing distraction, potentially enabling cyber-bullying and exposing students to potentially harmful online content. We have been through all this. Sometimes it is important that guidance is supported by law, so will the Government turn the existing guidance into law and ban phones in schools?

• 26 Feb 2026 · Eating Disorders Awareness Week · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2026. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. This year, Eating Disorders Awareness Week is centred on the theme of community. Over the past six years, as chair of the eating disorders all-party parliamentary group, I have witnessed the power of community at first hand. Our APPG has grown into a determined group of MPs, campaigners, clinicians, researchers, families and, crucially, people with lived experience. I thank my colleagues across the House who continue to work constructively on this issue. I also pay tribute to Hope Virgo, our tireless secretariat, who has turned lived experience into sustained strategic campaigning. Of course, I also thank Beat, the eating disorder charity, without whose tireless campaigning Eating Disorder Awareness Week would not even come before this Parliament. Despite the tireless campaigning and the greater awareness of this tragic illness, however, I must confess to deep frustration. Over those six years, things have not improved; they have worsened. The number of children and young people treated for eating disorders has risen by around two fifths since the pandemic. The 2019 health survey for England found that the proportion of adults with a likely eating disorder had risen from about 6% in 2007 to 16% in 2019. Adults in England wait up to 700 days, almost two years, just to start treatment. Not only are we failing to treat people quickly enough; too often we fail to identify them at all. Of the estimated 360,000 children and young people affected, only about 55,000 were identified by GPs in 2020, and even fewer accessed specialist care. Only a fraction of adults receive a formal diagnosis. That is the devastating reality facing eating disorder sufferers across the country. Our APPG is therefore calling on the Government to introduce a dedicated national eating disorder strategy. At the last debate on this issue in September, the Minister for Care expressed concern about a “proliferation” of documents and strategies. He said that he was “not convinced” that adding stand-alone strategies alongside guidance and plans would improve outcomes. Eating disorders are among the most complex and deadly mental health conditions. If ever there was a case for a dedicated cross-departmental strategy, this is it. Without a unified strategy, we are left with fragmented guidance and piecemeal reform that fail to match the scale and seriousness of the challenge. I repeat our call today: it is time for a dedicated national eating disorder strategy. When we think of community, we often think of our friends, neighbours and colleagues, but for many young people, community is no longer primarily physical; it is digital, and the community that they encounter online often reinforces their problems rather than helping them to recover. Platforms are saturated with pro-eating disorder content. That includes misleading nutritional advice and distorted body image ideals. One alarming trend is in so-called recovery accounts: rather than providing helpful advice to sufferers, they often share tips on hiding behaviours from staff or how to minimise meals. Research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate reveals something deeply concerning. When researchers created simulated 13-year-old users on YouTube, the platform’s algorithm recommended harmful eating disorder content in one out of every four videos they watched—one in four. But it gets worse: when these harmful videos were reported, nearly three quarters of them were not removed. Even after being flagged, most of this dangerous content stayed online. This is not simply about individual users; it is about algorithms amplifying harm. A single pause on a video can trigger a stream of increasingly harmful material. Even when users block accounts or report content, similar posts rapidly reappear under a new hashtag. In September, the Minister for Care rightly acknowledged that the Government must address the underlying drivers behind the rise in eating disorders, including the online environment. I welcome that recognition, but I am concerned that he pointed to the Online Safety Act 2023 as an example of how this can be addressed. After the global ban of #SkinnyTok, new hashtags emerged almost immediately, after which the same harmful content was posted. We must focus on the algorithms that amplify harmful content. Through Ofcom, the Government must hold social media giants to account when their platforms repeatedly allow harmful content to circulate. Relying on the victims of such content to report continuously and become the regulators cannot be right. If there is one lesson that the APPG has learnt over six years, it is that eating disorders are profoundly misunderstood, and that misunderstanding costs lives. Early warning signs are often missed, leaving families to navigate complex and frightening conditions without guidance or support. That lack of training translates directly into delayed recognition, unsafe discharge decisions and prolonged suffering. In 2017, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman warned of avoidable death and systemic failings in NHS eating disorder services. It called for improved training, better co-ordination and cross-organisational learning. Nine years later, we are still seeing the same failures. Across England, many of the specialist community eating disorder teams lack a consultant psychiatrist. Vacancy rates for consultant posts remain high. There is guidance available, such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ medical emergencies in eating disorders guidance, but it is inconsistently applied. Where training is offered, it is patchy, inconsistent and too often voluntary. Last year, I was contacted by the family of Ruby Hamill, a young woman with a history of severe anorexia nervosa. While held on remand at HMP New Hall, she collapsed after being unable to eat for almost a month. Despite her known history of anorexia, she received no eating disorder treatment in prison. She was later treated for refeeding syndrome, a life-threatening complication, after being granted humanitarian bail. Thankfully, Ruby survived, but she nearly died in the care of the state due to an absence of clear, mandatory standards and properly trained staff. Frontline staff need practical, evidence-based training. They must be able to recognise early warning signs and know how to ask sensitive questions, communicate without reinforcing harmful thinking and escalate concerns safely. Proper training saves lives. If we are serious about tackling this crisis, we must equip frontline staff with the skills and knowledge they need to help people effectively. Training alone, however, is not enough. Even the most skilled professionals cannot protect patients within a system that lacks clear, enforceable standards on timely access to care. For children and young people, there is a waiting time standard—95% of urgent cases seen within one week, and routine cases within four weeks—yet that is not consistently met. For adults, there is no waiting time standard at all. Recent data shows that median waits are 42 days, with some waiting many months, even more than a year, for assessment or treatment. During that time, physical health deteriorates and hospital admissions become more likely. Access to quality care is a postcode lottery. Only one in six integrated care systems currently provide sufficient intensive community or day treatment for both children and adults. I welcome the commitment to expand intensive community and day services, but we must not allow community care to be a pretext for the erosion of specialist in-patient units. Specialist in-patient services stabilise those who are critically unwell. They offer a range of expertise that community teams cannot always replicate. Yet we do not currently have enough specialist beds for the acute level of need that exists. At the same time, our research has found some deeply concerning discharge practices. Recent freedom of information requests to all trusts across the UK found that people with eating disorders are often being discharged with a BMI of under 15, and in some cases far lower. I am concerned that we are discharging patients who are medically unsafe simply because beds are scarce. If community and day services are to succeed, they must be properly funded and able to intervene early, so that everyone can receive quality care closer to their home. When people receive timely and evidence-based support, the need for intensive in-patient or day treatment can fall by around a third. That reduces risks for patients and long-term pressures on NHS services. We cannot solve this crisis by shifting care around the system. We must build capacity across the whole pathway—early intervention, community provision and specialist in-patient care—so that access is determined by need, not postcode. In October last year, our APPG published a report on preventing deaths related to eating disorders. It made for harrowing reading. Although some areas of the UK showcased pockets of good practice, the evidence is clear that unsafe discharges are still far too common and that the system fails to prevent avoidable deaths. People with anorexia are five to six times more likely to die—through physical complications, or suicide—than the general population. In many cases, deaths from eating disorders are misrecorded or omitted from death certificates, with death instead being attributed to organ failure or suicide. As a result, we do not even have exact statistics for eating disorder deaths, which means the true scale of the crisis remains unclear. If we cannot even accurately record how many people are dying from these illnesses—these eating disorders—how can we possibly begin to address the scale of the problem? The APPG has repeatedly called for a confidential inquiry into eating disorder deaths, which would be similar to the inquiries into maternal deaths that already exist, so that patterns can be identified and lessons learned. We know what we need to do. We have a strategy planned and—through the APPG—we have experts who are willing to support this work. In September last year, I asked for a follow-up on what the Department is doing to ensure that eating disorder deaths are recorded accurately on death certificates. I was promised an update from the Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health on progress in this area. I waited for weeks. It was only after I raised the matter in the main Chamber that I eventually received a written response, which stated that the issue did not lie with the Department of Health and Social Care but with the Ministry of Justice, and that I would be contacted shortly. Why did it take weeks to give me that information? That was in November, and I am still waiting. I still have not heard from the Ministry of Justice. I appreciate that Ministers face competing pressures, but this issue is about accurately recording avoidable deaths. It should not require repeated parliamentary interventions for an MP to finally receive an answer to their question. I ask the Minister in Westminster Hall today: when can I expect an answer and when will families receive the transparency they deserve? In 2020, it was estimated that eating disorders cost the UK £9.4 billion annually. That is just the cost for the NHS. It is not the full cost of what eating disorders cost us as a society, including the cost to life and to family, and the stress caused by someone waiting years and years for treatment, or being finally treated successfully, if they are treated at all. Between 2015 and 2019, however, research into eating disorders received only around 1% of UK mental health research funding. We are spending billions on managing the consequences of this problem, while investing only a fraction of that amount in understanding the causes and improving treatments. We cannot reduce long-term costs if we continue to under-invest in research. In line with the Government’s focus on early intervention and prevention, the current situation must change. The eating disorder community is strong, passionate and determined. Our goal is to grow the community beyond those who are already engaged with it, to reach those who do not yet recognise the symptoms, and to engage those who think that eating disorders are “someone else’s issue”, because they are not. No one should be dying of an eating disorder in 2026. No parent should be forced to fight the system while fighting for their child’s life. No person should be told that they are “not ill enough” to deserve care. We need a dedicated national eating disorder strategy. We need sustained and proportionate research funding. We need mandatory workforce training. We need a waiting time standard for adults. We need accurate death recording and a confidential inquiry into all eating disorder-related deaths. We also need stronger online regulations. We know what needs to change, and the APPG stands ready to work constructively with Ministers to deliver it. There is no time to waste.

• 26 Feb 2026 · Eating Disorders Awareness Week · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Gentleman agree that another big consideration is the mental health toll on people who work in eating disorder services and know that they cannot provide an adequate service to the many people who suffer? What are we doing for the people who work in these services and who want to do the best they can but simply cannot because of a lack of resources?

• 26 Feb 2026 · Eating Disorders Awareness Week · Hansard source

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  One of the most harrowing things that we hear again and again when taking evidence in the APPG is how families feel completely abandoned. People have to give up work, often over years, because they are meant to care for someone with a severe condition and they do not have the capacity to do so by themselves. It is only when that condition is finally so bad that the loved one is then readmitted to hospital. That revolving door must end. The human cost to that tragedy—apart from the cost to the NHS—must end. It is absolutely tragic and wrong.

• 26 Feb 2026 · Eating Disorders Awareness Week · Hansard source

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  It is also worth mentioning the many people who have come forward to bravely tell their stories, raise awareness and take away the stigma. We know how much courage it takes to come forward. I want to collectively thank everybody who does that. We need more people to come forward and talk about their experiences, but I thank everybody who has come forward.