Marie Goldman
MP for Chelmsford · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“If there were a major incident in London, Broomfield hospital, just outside Chelmsford, would surely be one of the centres asked to respond, so having its helipad open would make so much sense.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I associate myself with your remarks, Mr Speaker, regarding the outgoing Clerk of the House, Tom Goldsmith. We have spent many an hour sitting in various meetings together, and I very much appreciate his wise words. E-bikes and e-scooters are an incredibly important part of active travel.”
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“However, when I met representatives from the air ambulance, they told me that every day when they do their briefing to the crews, they hold their breath a little bit and roll their eyes, because they know the answer to the question, “Will Broomfield’s helipad be open for long today?” is usually no.”
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“Member for Strangford, so I will not go through all of it. I know that others have highlighted rural issues, but this is not only a rural problem: none of the three London hospitals assessed has 24/7 helipad access. My word, what are we doing? Why does this access matter for patients?”
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“Although we can individually try to influence it, sometimes we just get pushback. I know that hospitals and hospital leaders are under lots of constraints, but the solution seems so obvious when we already have a helipad at Broomfield hospital.”
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“We would integrate air ambulances into the NHS emergency response through a national commissioning framework, while keeping their charitable fundraising status. That would expose and fix exactly the problems that I have mentioned. Of course, we also need to end ambulance handover delays, but helipad access is a very specific problem.”
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“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing this important debate, which is very timely because exactly this issue is affecting my local hospital. I want to tell Members about it, but I first want to set the scene by reiterating some of the things that other hon. Members across the House have already said. When someone is critically injured, every single minute—in fact, every single second—counts. Air ambulances, with an average journey time across the country of 17 minutes, can get patients seen by specialist doctors and nurses as quickly as possible. That is why it is critical that major trauma centres have helipads that are open 24/7.”
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“If she or one of her colleagues would be willing to meet me on that subject, I would be very grateful. Will the Government also publish how many air ambulances are at risk of closure or of cutting services because of the challenges they face? I want us to recognise that hospital helipads are absolute lifelines. Survival should not depend on whether a helipad happens to be open at that time of day, or on where people live, and yet that is what is happening at the moment. Patients—our constituents—deserve better.”
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“We would integrate air ambulances into the NHS emergency response through a national commissioning framework, while keeping their charitable fundraising status. That would expose and fix exactly the problems that I have mentioned. Of course, we also need to end ambulance handover delays, but helipad access is a very specific problem. I have some questions for the Minister. Will the Government collect and publish 24/7 helipad data for every trauma centre? Will hospital helipads be safeguarded in planning, like aerodromes are? Specifically, what is being done to keep Addenbrooke’s helipad operational? That is a really important question for the east of England in particular. Will the Minister help me get the helipad at Broomfield hospital open 24/7 as well?”
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“Members across the House have said that this should not be a matter of charitable funding alone. We do, but should not, rely on the charitable sector to step in all the time for these sorts of things. Yes, the sector can help, but it should be helped by Government as well. Air ambulances are obviously experiencing the increase in fuel prices, which is massively putting up their costs. London Air Ambulance’s fuel costs have gone up by 116%. That is huge and so difficult; think of the extra fundraising that needs to be done to cover it. We need to step in and make sure that all the fuel being used is taking patients directly to hospital, not elsewhere. What would the Liberal Democrats do?”
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“Member for Strangford, so I will not go through all of it. I know that others have highlighted rural issues, but this is not only a rural problem: none of the three London hospitals assessed has 24/7 helipad access. My word, what are we doing? Why does this access matter for patients? It matters a lot: a Kent, Surrey and Sussex study identified five extra survivors for every 100 patients treated at a hospital with a 24/7 helipad. That is a pretty good case for doing something about it, surely. We have talked about planning and the Government’s position, but we need central data so that we understand exactly what is going on. The APPG has actually done loads of the hard work, as has Air Ambulances UK. I want to massively thank the air ambulance crews, and the public for funding them.”
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“If there were a major incident in London, Broomfield hospital, just outside Chelmsford, would surely be one of the centres asked to respond, so having its helipad open would make so much sense. Other hospitals in the east of England—I am an east of England MP—are also in the report, such as Addenbrooke’s, which has a red rating because it has serious problems with 24/7 access. It is the only major trauma centre for more than 6 million people, and yet new building on its own campus is set to make its helipad inoperable. How mad is that? We have invested in a helipad, and then we are saying, “Oh no, let’s just build some more houses around it and stop it operating.” That does not make any sense whatsoever. We have invested public funds in this, and we are wasting them. The scale of the problem is set out in the APPG report and by the hon.”
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“If an ambulance’s time is being taken up unnecessarily—or necessarily, as it turns out, but it should not be the case—by having to meet an air ambulance, then it is not available to do other work. That ambulance transfer is also estimated to cost anywhere between £200 and £600 per journey. That is crazy. We are throwing away money when, if we just got the helipad at Broomfield open 24/7, it would be so much better. Burns patients sometimes do not even end up coming to Chelmsford; they end up going to Thames Valley instead, which I find ridiculous. We also need to think about national security and the assets that are around London. Broomfield is not very far from our capital city.”
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“When Essex and Herts Air Ambulance helicopters cannot land on top of the hospital, they have to go elsewhere. Their alternative landing site is Chelmer Valley high school, which is a few minutes down the road. There is a lot of traffic around the hospital a lot of the time, which adds to journey times, but landing there also means that an ordinary ambulance has to come to meet the helicopter. That takes up the time not just of an air ambulance, but of an ordinary road-based ambulance. There were 12 or maybe even 14 road-based ambulances queuing up at the A&E department at Broomfield hospital just a few days ago. Members will know that we are not awash with loads of ambulances.”
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“Although we can individually try to influence it, sometimes we just get pushback. I know that hospitals and hospital leaders are under lots of constraints, but the solution seems so obvious when we already have a helipad at Broomfield hospital. Yes, it needs upgrading, but there is a solution for that, and yes, it needs to be staffed, but there is a solution for that. Getting pushback from the hospital itself is incredibly frustrating. I should say that Broomfield hospital is a major trauma centre, and its helipad is listed in the APPG report as one that needs to be open 24/7—but it is not. The hospital also has a specialist burns unit, so it is part of the national asset list. Of course, with burns, like so many other things, the speed of treatment is incredibly important.”
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“However, when I met representatives from the air ambulance, they told me that every day when they do their briefing to the crews, they hold their breath a little bit and roll their eyes, because they know the answer to the question, “Will Broomfield’s helipad be open for long today?” is usually no. Frustratingly, I have tried to persuade Mid and South Essex foundation trust to work with Essex and Herts Air Ambulance, Air Ambulances UK and the HELP Appeal to implement a solution—which does exist; it is just about getting the will for it—but I have met with so much reluctance from the hospital trust to do that or even to have meetings and listen to the problem. I get pushback and pushback, and it is incredibly frustrating. That is one of the reasons why we need to have national leadership on this issue.”
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“My hon. Friend makes an important point. Air ambulances have specialist expertise on board, so they do not just provide transportation; they provide lifesaving interventions along the way. The advantage of the speed of an air ambulance can be completely lost if it cannot land on top of a hospital. Broomfield hospital, run by the Mid and South Essex foundation trust, is the main hospital that serves my Chelmsford constituency—it is not in my constituency, but it is just outside it—and it has a helipad. I pay huge tribute to Essex and Herts Air Ambulance; the crews and the communities that fund it are doing absolutely phenomenal work.”
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“It is the people who buy them who end up paying the price if they do not understand that they cannot use them, and Essex police has to pick up the pieces.”
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“I associate myself with your remarks, Mr Speaker, regarding the outgoing Clerk of the House, Tom Goldsmith. We have spent many an hour sitting in various meetings together, and I very much appreciate his wise words. E-bikes and e-scooters are an incredibly important part of active travel. My constituency has a trial of e-scooters that has been going on for several years. That is fabulous, but unfortunately it has led to a rise in illegal e-scooters. When I met Essex police recently, it told me that illegal e-scooters are difficult to intercept, but when it does confiscate them, they are difficult to store because of concerns about battery fires. The problem is that so many people, when they buy e-bikes or e-scooters, do not realise that it is illegal to ride them, and we really need to do something about that.”
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“I was told that humidity is not reduced by air-conditioning units, but I am not too sure about that. I am sure there are other ways of reducing humidity. I said to the chief executive that it was a really hot summer, and with El Niño, we are possibly expecting an even hotter summer next year. I asked the chief executive whether they are developing contingency plans to make sure that we can deal with that, because we know that long, hot summers are going to keep on happening. He said, “No, we’re not.” My mind was blown that he said that out loud. I say this as gently and courteously as possible, but it is obvious that the trust is massively struggling. It is not just the staff working day to day; it is the leadership. It is a new leadership team, and they have obviously lost sight of the importance of focusing on certain things.”
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“While not all the MPs could come along—I know many sent their staffers—I was certainly there. We talked about heat and the very long, hot summer we have had. We talked about how that has impacted on the running of the hospital. The chief executive told me that it meant some of the theatres had to be closed because there was too much humidity. Obviously, that has a knock-on effect on patient waiting lists, outcomes and experiences. The chief executive said that the hospital had been gifted some air-conditioning units by a very generous national company. That sounds great, but the hospital cannot plug enough of them in because the electrical circuits cannot cope. It is a fairly new build hospital—it is a combination of PFI and some older buildings—yet we cannot plug in enough air-conditioning units to keep our theatres open.”
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“When consultants retire, they are not being replaced, and their waiting lists are just being disbanded. People are writing to me about those sorts of things all the time. Patients have very few ways to raise their concerns. They can go to the patient advice and liaison service, but unfortunately the delays in getting responses back from PALS are enormous. MPs can raise an issue with the trust leadership and go through PALS as well, but we still do not get the responses that we need. There seems to be a lack of communication between leadership and staff, and we seem to have lost sight of what is important—the things that just make sense to keep on doing. There was a roundtable earlier this week for the leadership of Mid and South Essex and the Essex MPs whose constituencies are in that trust.”
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“I do not think it should be possible for me to walk around a hospital and point out things that are so obviously wrong, yet I could. There were lights outside theatres that had not been working, I was told, for 10 years. Those are things that should be relatively easy to fix, but when patients have to write to me about mould growing on the walls and windows of a children’s ward, something is going seriously wrong. Two weekends ago, an 80-year-old gentleman told my staff that he had queued out the door of the emergency department on a Saturday for an hour. He is in his 80s and nobody even bothered to offer him a seat. Something is going drastically wrong when we have lost sight of the importance of common decency and human compassion when looking after patients.”
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“They are working in difficult circumstances, and quite a lot of the time they are using infrastructure that is not fit for purpose and has not been properly invested in over many years. They are doing their very best, but unfortunately, they are not getting the support they need. I have met the staff, patients and leadership of Mid and South Essex foundation trust many times over a sustained period, and I know hon. Members from across the House have done the same. Unfortunately, I believe it is one of the worst trusts in the country on both patient and staff measures. We pushed for changes locally, but national support is needed. Let me talk about the range of issues that have been raised with me. I have walked around Broomfield hospital both with the senior leadership team and with the less senior leadership, shall we say?”
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“Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), announced that the Mid and South Essex trust would be placed into an intensive recovery programme, and we waited to find out the details. The reason for the programme is that, over several years, Mid and South Essex has been massively underperforming. There have been huge issues, and I do not exaggerate when I say that they fill my inbox every single day. We are talking about long waits, delays to treatment and difficulty accessing care. When patients do access care, they are not getting the service they need and, most importantly, they are not getting the outcomes they need and deserve. I pay tribute to the staff who work at Broomfield hospital, in the Mid and South Essex trust and in all the trusts across the country.”
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“Members from across the House, served by other NHS trusts, will probably be experiencing something similarly unfortunate. I look forward to hearing their stories, because it is incredibly important to get NHS trusts to perform properly, serve their patients and look after their staff. Looking after the most vulnerable underpins everything we do in society, and I am afraid to say that the Government are not getting it right. That is what I am here to talk about. Earlier, somebody not too far away from me said, “I think I am in the worst trust in the country,” and I said, “I will go round for round with you on that one.” Later, I will give some details about why I believe that. Back in March, the then Health Secretary, the right hon.”
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“I beg to move, That this House has considered Government oversight of underperforming NHS trusts. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I am the MP for Chelmsford in Essex, and my local trust is the Mid and South Essex NHS foundation trust. A few years ago, it was decided to put three hospitals under the same trust. My local Broomfield hospital is not actually in my constituency. It is in the neighbouring North West Essex constituency, but for all intents and purposes, it is my hospital because it is the main one serving my constituents, and it fills my inbox every single day with tales of woe from both patients and staff. I thank other Members whose constituencies are served by the same trust for coming along today. Other hon.”
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“I spent much of that time sitting on the cold floor, by the open doors or standing as there were not enough seats.” It is not just about patients; it is also about the staff who work there. A nurse wrote to me just last month, in September 2026, to say: “I have worked at the trust since 2008 and when I first joined, I was so proud to say I worked there. The next few years this feeling remained but for the last 8 years or so things have definitely taken a nosedive. The trust seems to run on broken promises and the good will of frontline staff. I am no longer proud to say where I work. I know many staff feel the same and worry for the safety of the patients, the staff and the trust.””
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“The right hon. Gentleman is right to point out that we are in the same trust, and that our constituents experience each other’s local hospitals. I want to build on what he said about the experience of patients. It is really important that we remember the patients in all this. We can talk about financial planning, keeping budgets down and sticking within the envelope of how much we are supposed to be spending, but at the end of the day, it is patients who are suffering. One patient wrote to me in February—it was February this year, but just to give an idea of how long this has been going on, it could have been February two, three or five years ago. They said: “I waited four hours for triage, and it was eight hours until I was admitted to a ward.”
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“The average for Mid and South Essex is 64.3%, placing it 114th out of 117 trusts. For elective patients waiting under 18 weeks—in this case, higher is better—the median is 65.2%. In Mid and South Essex, it is 50.4%, placing it 117th out of 117. For elective patients waiting over 52 weeks—lower is better—the median is 1.5%. In Mid and South Essex, it is 8.1%, again placing it 117th out of 117. I would rather not claim the prize of having one of the worst trusts in the country, but here we are—the numbers don’t lie.”
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“I think this is bigger than just one person; it needs much more attention from the Government and across the board—and I do not just mean the local trust board. It needs a lot of oversight and intervention, and really quickly. We are talking about an intensive recovery programme that was billed by the then Health Secretary as being a rapid improvement programme. I have not seen anything rapid yet, I am afraid. The programme was announced in March, and I am still waiting to see any real outcomes. It is supposed to deliver results within six months. I know they waited until the new chief exec was in place in June, so we are now a few months in, but patients—my constituents—are really suffering. Let me give a few stats. For cancer being diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days, the national median is 78.6%.”
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“If there is no improvement within the six to 18-month window, who will intervene then, and what will be the consequences? How is this long-term if NHS England is going to disappear in April 2027? Finally, where is the commitment to making things better for the people this really matters for: the patients and the staff? I conclude by paying tribute once again to the staff who do amazing work under very difficult circumstances. Patients—my constituents—deserve better.”
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“Members will be pleased to know that I am on my last page, but I do have a list of questions for the Minister. Where is the “external expertise” coming from that will be helping Mid and South Essex? I get fed up with the merry-go-round of chief executives moving from one failing trust to another. Why on earth do we think we will get a different answer or outcome? If they did not fix it over there, why do we think they will be able to fix it over here? Where is the genuine expertise with a tried and tested track record coming from? Who chooses the experts? Who reviews whether the support is working—or are they going to be marking their own homework? Who holds the trust to account? Do not just tell me “the board” or “MPs”—that is not the answer. What specific support is Mid and South Essex getting?”
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“I genuinely think that we need to get things right and then deal with the money afterwards. Sometimes we have to invest to get things to the point that they need to be, and then step back and make savings; we cannot do it all in one go—I can tell hon. Members right now that it just will not work. There is too much of a focus on financial performance right here, right now. We can get to that later, but we must first sort things out for the patients who are suffering right now. The September response promised long-term sustainability. I just have to point out that NHS England is reportedly set to be abolished in April 2027, which is inside the recovery window I have been given. That creates a certain amount of confusion and uncertainty. Where will we be getting consistency on this?”
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“We have had inquiries that have told us what is going wrong, so let us make sure we are implementing their recommendations. I have written to the Minister three times, and three times I have had a response back. I have welcomed the announcement and asked questions about the detail, but I have had different details back each time. In June and July, I was told that the responsibility lies with the trust’s board, with targeted external expertise. In the July response, I was told that there was a recovery compact and a six to 18-month recovery period. In the September letter, I was told we would be getting enhanced support from NHS England regional and national teams. It struck me when rereading those letters earlier today that there is very little reference in them to improving patient outcomes or experience. They focus a lot on money.”
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“I am conscious of time and I have taken three interventions, so I will go on for just a few more minutes. There have been six years of interventions at the trust, starting after the merger in 2020, when the Care Quality Commission rated it “Requires improvement”. In April 2024, we had a recovery support programme, which was a successor to special measures, and in March this year, as I have said, we had the intensive recovery programme. Six years and two programmes, with no CQC improvement. We have had so many health inquiries in this country—inquiries into maternity and other services—and they have all made loads of recommendations. Can the Minister say how many of those recommendations have been implemented, across the country and in Mid and South Essex? How are we keeping track of that? Let’s not reinvent the wheel.”
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“A staff survey was done in the trust last November, and the results speak for themselves. Members can look it up, but this is the money answer that tells us pretty much everything we need to know, even if we read nothing else. Staff were asked whether they would be happy with the standard of care provided by the organisation if a friend or relative needed treatment. The national average for those agreeing is 60.83%. For Mid and South Essex, it is 38%—my word! Nearly two thirds of staff working in the trust are saying, “I wouldn’t want my friend or loved one to be treated there.” That has to be ringing enormous alarm bells. If we are not throwing everything at turning this around right here, right now, I do not understand the point of Government.”
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“Yes—the hon. Member makes a really important point. I have no problem with making cuts if they are genuine efficiencies. If we look at a system and go, “Do you know what? There’s wastage over here, so we can cut it from here because we’re confident that things are going to continue to do well over there”, but that never seems to be the case. It seems to be a case of just cutting, and to hell with the consequences. I find that really frustrating. The bottom line is that patients suffer from it, and that is never good for the economy. If we want to boil it down to money, economics and finances, that is never good for the economy, because when people have worse outcomes, they tend to need to stay in hospital for longer, which costs more money. It is ridiculous—it is a crazy way of running things.”
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“I thank her for her response, and everybody who took part in the debate. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered Government oversight of underperforming NHS trusts.”
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“People have tragically died because they have been on a waiting list too long or because they have been mistreated or misdiagnosed, as we have heard from Members. I make a final plea not to concentrate only on the finances. Finances will help with rural issues and infrastructure issues, but they will not help with cultural issues. The CQC did a well-led inspection of the Mid and South Essex trust recently. The stark line coming out of it was that staff are afraid to speak up for fear of reprisal. Money is not the problem with that system; it is a cultural problem, and we need to do something about it. The Minister said that we could meet again. I gently say that we have not actually met yet, so I would love to take her up on the opportunity to meet for the very first time.”
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“I thank all Members who have taken part in this important debate and the Minister for her response. Hon. Members from across the House have pointed out that rural constituencies are not the same as urban constituencies, and that they have very different needs. They have pointed out that we need investment in the infrastructure at our hospitals. Some hospitals are failing because their buildings have been neglected for decades. That needs to be fixed. None of us is here just to criticise. We are all listening to our constituents, to patients and to staff. It is our duty to call problems out and demand better, and that is what we have done today. I do not like hyperbole, and often when people talk about life and death, it is hyperbole. That is not the case here. It is literally life and death for people on waiting lists.”
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“If we think back 200 years, there are many words from 200 years ago that we do not even use now or that have changed over time, and we should embrace that and be joyful about how things change over time.”
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“I fit in, and I am accepted—in fact, I do not just fit in; I stand out in a good way.” We should definitely be looking more at that. Hon. Members mentioned other studies, including a University of Edinburgh study that suggests that individuals with regional accents find themselves code switching to be taken seriously. Other hon. Members mentioned the fact that students alter their pronunciation to avoid negative judgment. Returning to question of linguistics. I like reading; I can see words in front of me even when I am just speaking. I can see the way that the word is written, so I think about how I am going to pronounce it. But pronunciation changes over time. As a linguist, as much as I find that a little bit frustrating sometimes, I have to understand that language is constantly evolving. I think we should embrace that.”
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“I want to highlight a particular statistic mentioned in that about university students. The report found that, across all stages of life, individuals are concerned about how their accent affects their ability to succeed. That is worrying enough, but it went on to say that 33% of university students, 19% of employees and 18% of university applicants felt that. I want to draw out that difference between 18% of university applicants and 33% of university students. Something goes wrong between applying for university and being at university: that concern gets worse. We must tackle that, and I encourage all universities to reflect deeply on what they can do, because that is not the right way around. People should be going to university and thinking, “Hey, isn’t this great?”
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“It is hard to be inspired if we only see people who look and sound like something completely different from us. If we are seeing something that is familiar to us, it is more inspirational and gives us more courage to take part, so I commend those broadcasters for giving that a platform. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) talked about blank stares when we hear an accent that we do not completely understand. He is right to point that out. When we have those blank stares, it is hard to make a connection; but the more we hear different accents, the more we get used to them, and familiarity breeds friendship. That is why it is so important that we expose ourselves to many different accents, regions, customs and traditions. Various hon. Members have mentioned the Sutton Trust’s 2022 report.”
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“We need to make sure that people feel comfortable in whatever job they are doing. We are privileged to be able to do this job. As other hon. Members have said, it is important that we represent the people who have elected us to this place, and that we give people the opportunity to see people who look and sound like them. Many hon. Members have spoken very passionately about how important it is to them and to their constituents that people are here, standing up, being heard, speaking and sounding exactly like the constituents who elected them. That is incredibly important. The hon. Member for York Outer (Mr Charters) mentioned how important it is that more broadcasters are encouraging regional accents. I commend those broadcasters.”
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“I remember doing a practice run and there was a line in the reading I had to do that said, “The old man’s past it,” but I said “past” the way that we would in Devon. I was told by a teacher, “That was very good, but you need to tone that down a little bit,” and I did. I remember another word: my parents have always said “tuth”; I remember being mocked about that once, so I now say “tooth”— I am slightly ashamed to say that I corrected my accent. I have not been immune to that. I am a linguist, and although I might have a fairly neutral accent in this country, I know that when I have lived abroad and tried to speak another language, my accent has stood out. As much as I like to think that I have a good French or German accent, compared with native speakers I stand out a mile. I know how difficult and uncomfortable that can be for people.”
House of Commons15 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Essex has a fairly well-known accent, thanks to programmes such as “The Only Way Is Essex” and “Gavin and Stacey”, which obviously celebrates other parts of the country as well. I really like the Essex accent, because it is really interesting—not just the tone of voice that people use, but the way that they say certain words, just as Members from across the country have highlighted with the phrases that they use. I am originally from Devon and grew up in the west country, which has quite a strong accent as well. The hon. Member for Stourbridge (Cat Eccles) talked about teachers encouraging students to tone down their accent, and I was also told that as a child. I was privileged to take part in readings that we celebrated in the cathedral every year at my school when I was 12 or 13 years old.”
House of Commons15 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank the hon. Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) for introducing this really interesting debate. I have not been in a debate that has brought such a lovely smile to my face in a long time. We are celebrating diversity, which is what regional accents are really about. We should be celebrating diversity much more, rather than trying to tell people to do things differently, and it is a real opportunity to do that, so I have genuinely enjoyed listening to this debate. I probably have a fairly neutral accent, but that does not mean that I have been immune in my life to people telling me to change it. I represent Chelmsford in Essex.”
House of Commons15 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Member reminds me that my aunt sadly lost her partner a few months ago. He was three days off his 90th birthday, and he was a true Cornishman. He had lived in Cornwall his entire life—in a very small area of Cornwall, in fact. He was incredibly well known, and I had the privilege of being able to love spending time with him. Listening to the way that he spoke and the stories that he used to tell was just beautiful, but the phrases that he used to use are unfortunately dying out. They will be lost over time, so we have to take advantage of modern technology to record some of these things, so that they are not lost and we should also continue to encourage them in our schools through spoken histories. I thank the hon. Member for raising that.”
House of Commons15 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There are so many lovely stories to tell about this subject, and that is why this has been such a lovely debate. We genuinely should be continuing to encourage the retention of regional phrases, stories and poems, and I thank the hon. Gentleman very much for bringing us that poem. In conclusion, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe very strongly in a society with strong social mobility. Our regional accents, backgrounds and experiences should never hold us back from social mobility; people’s opportunities should definitely never ever be limited by their accent. I thank the hon. Member for Leigh and Atherton for bringing us this debate.”
House of Commons15 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Since October last year, I have been taking part in the parliamentary knowledge scheme that relates specifically to frontline services, under the auspices of Mr Speaker. As part of the scheme, we visited the MCA and met CROs. I took part in a training exercise about rescues from muddy situations, so I know at first hand the fabulous work they do. But they are not the only voluntary search and rescue organisation out there. I know that many other volunteer organisations are very worried about the implications for them. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact on other maritime search and rescue organisations, such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and other independent lifeboat associations?”
House of Commons8 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On the point about communicating with the public, there is a way to do it. I visited Norway recently, and it has communicated with its population incredibly well, to the extent that it has this concept of total defence and civil preparedness, where everybody in the entire nation recognises that they have a role to play. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we can learn a lot from some of our friends and allies?”
House of Commons8 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Briefly, the Liberal Democrats are supportive of this statutory instrument. We wanted to make the case that having fairness in the system through legal means is all very well, but the problem is that if there are not enough duty providers to provide legal advice, it is almost pointless; we are not actually serving justice because we are not allowing people to get the support that they need, even though they are legally entitled to it. We need to ensure that the wider system is fair and that people have the ability to access the support that they are legally entitled to.”
House of Commons1 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Will the Minister work with her colleagues in the Department for Education to ensure that teachers have the resources and support in the curriculum to cover that?”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Government’s recently announced social media ban for under-16s will play an important role in tackling violence against women and girls and the online spread of misogyny, but social media bans by themselves are not enough. While we welcome steps to address online harm, the Government’s proscriptive approach simply will not be enough. New platforms and apps will continue to spring up, and the Government are in danger of being a dangerously outpaced competitor in an online game of whack-a-mole. Alongside legislation, we urgently need to give our parents, teachers and schools the tools that they need to ensure that when children come across harmful or inappropriate content, they are equipped to recognise and challenge it, and are ultimately kept safe from it.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗