Dave Robertson

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

The complete record

550 held · 524 searchable for Dave Robertson. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 9 of 10.

This is not an official version of UK Parliament proceedings. It reproduces the published record and links to it; the official version is the one UK Parliament publishes.

1. “In Lichfield, we were lucky enough to have a fantastic midwife-led maternity unit at Samuel Johnson community hospital. The unit was closed during the pandemic for reasons we all understand, given the national crisis, but it has never reopened. The closest maternity unit is at Queen’s hospital in Burton, 11 miles up the A38. When High Speed 2 is not destroying the transport infrastructure in my constituency, that is not necessarily a significant trip in an ambulance, but it presents barriers to those who do not have access to their own transport. It is currently the only option available to people in Lichfield. However, mums in Lichfield will soon not be able to choose that midwife-led unit because it is on the chopping block. That would be a huge loss.”

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2. “While those procedures can be life-saving, and we should thank the people who use them every day to support babies into this world, they come with downsides. Caesareans increase the risk for mums, including haemorrhage, blood clots and infections in the womb, and they take much longer to recover from. The potential side effects of forceps and vacuums are less severe but are, nonetheless, very real. As the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) said, choice is important for mums. So that people can have the birth they want, we should make sure that, when they come to the end of their pregnancy, they can choose where they want to deliver—be that at home, in a more clinical setting if there are additional risks, or in a midwife-led unit.”

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3. “It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Christopher. I thank the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for securing this debate. Fundamentally, it is about giving kids the best start in life and giving mums the best care. There are few subjects of more importance to us, right across the House. The evidence is clear that midwife-led maternity units are great for babies and mums. They are every bit as safe as the big hospitals we have heard many hon. Members talk about today, and one of the benefits they offer is the option of a more natural birth, with less intervention from health professionals, unless it is necessary. Mums who deliver in a midwife-led unit are less likely to need a caesarean or help from forceps or a vacuum.”

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4. “I am interested to hear the Minister’s remarks on that, because that is a non-fiscal intervention we can make that can drive profitability significantly in the farming sector and support the people who feed the nation.”

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5. “The code is designed to ensure that farmers get a fair deal, but because it applies only to those retailers with an annual turnover of £1 billion or more, the 14 biggest supermarkets are covered but some third parties that supply the supermarkets are not in its scope. British farmers, whether they are dairy farmers or from any other part of the industry where there are different processes, must get that fair deal. That is what the code and the adjudicator were set up to establish, and we should ensure that we carry that forwards so that every single farmer gets a fair deal. One thing that strikes me is that the NFU’s call to expand the coverage of the code by decreasing the turnover limit from £1 billion would mean that a lot of those processes would be covered.”

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6. “What a pleasure it is to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick) for securing this debate on such an important issue. I spent the whole of last Monday during the recess visiting farms across my constituency, from the edge of Lichfield all the way up to Kingstone. Several of the dairy farmers I met last week raised with me, independently and without prompting, the need to see dairy processors covered by the groceries supply code of practice. Independently, they said that one of the things that we can do to encourage and improve profitability in dairy farming is to ensure that the code is applied to those processors—the middlemen who buy their milk from the farmers and sell it on to supermarkets.”

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7. “As I am sure the Solicitor General knows, fly-tipping is the most commonly reported rural crime. In 2022-23, the last year for which there is full data, there were well over 13,000 significant multi-load incidents; I use the phrase specifically, as it is an internal description. Those incidents cost more than £4 million to clear up, yet just 22 custodial sentences were handed out in that time. What assurances can she give me and my constituents that the most egregious examples of fly-tipping, like those we saw in Lichfield two weeks ago, will result in jail time for the perpetrators?”

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8. “Members will want to say, and I look forward to the contribution from the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti).”

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9. “However, given how well supported this petition has been and how important speech and language therapy is for people who need it, I am very eager to hear that the Government are taking the issue seriously and making sure that speech and language therapy is fully integrated into that 10-year plan, so that we can look much more at preventive care, get community services to deliver support where it is most needed, and prevent those acute issues developing. I am very glad to see so many hon. Members from both sides of the House in the Chamber. Ultimately, this debate is an opportunity for us to talk about speech and language therapy, and to make sure that it has the place that it deserves at the heart of our health system. I am sure that there is much more that other hon.”

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10. “Nobody goes into healthcare for the money, but because it is a vocation and they want to support their community and support people where they need it. To support them, however, we have to do something about caseloads to ensure that they can devote enough time to each person they see. I am proud that the Government will bring forward a 10-year plan to offer a vision of a healthier, more resilient NHS.”

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11. “It is not just an operational necessity, but how we increase the number of speech and language therapists available and make sure that the more experienced people can train, support and mentor people who are less experienced to get through those grades, from grade 5 to grade 6 and so on. A survey by the royal college found that 17% of speech and language therapy roles are currently vacant. That is a huge number: almost one in five. Ensuring that we have the right number of people to support the vital care that people need would have a profound effect across the country. The biggest shortages are in bands 6 and 7 in the NHS, which are the more specialist roles. Across the board, therapists are saying that they want to do the job.”

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12. “Where money is needed, it should be there, but recruiting and retaining speech and language therapists is vital. No amount of funding in the world can replace a human being actually doing that role, or the skills, training and care that they provide for the people they are supporting. There is a shortage of therapists in our system, and many are leaving the profession due to burnout, insufficient support and unsustainable workloads. When I spoke to the royal college, it was absolutely clear that recruitment is one side of the coin, but retention is the other.”

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13. “When we see such a significant disparity, however, with around 30 or 32 times the amount being spent in one area compared with another, it highlights that for far too many people, it is a real fight to get the support that they need because the funding is not there. In the Minister’s response, I am interested to hear whether anything can be done in the long-term 10-year health plan for the NHS to set minimum standards or whether the Government intend to level the playing field between different areas. Many people, especially those from disadvantaged communities, live in areas where services are scarce and where waiting times are long. That can exacerbate some of the issues faced by those communities, as well as by the individuals affected. We know that it is not always about just funding or putting more money into the system.”

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14. “That is one example—I beg the House’s forgiveness for raising one of such significance to me; I picked it because that is where I have a lot of direct experience—but there are many, many conditions that can be supported through speech and language therapy. Returning to the postcode lottery that I mentioned, there are areas of this country where integrated care boards are spending less than £1 per person receiving therapy—I think 58p was the smallest number that I saw. In the best-funded area for speech and language therapy, the ICB was spending £16.35 per child who was receiving therapy, which is a vast difference. Now, I am not going to say that ICBs are not doing their job; we are all aware that there are regional disparities and that ICBs have to cut their cloth according to the funding available.”

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15. “Mam learned English to go to school, as her family spoke Welsh at home, and since she moved to England, where she brought up me and my brothers, she has spent her whole adult life communicating in her second language. Mam was also fluent in French. Seeing where she has gone with her Parkinson’s—just not being able to find the words—is a real challenge for all of us who know her. Helping her to find that word and communicate is something that I think everybody who knows her would support, and I am sure that anybody with a relative in a similar position would also be eager to support them with that. Parkinson’s UK did an audit of its members in 2022 and, of the people it spoke to, just 40% had access to speech and language therapy. Only 15.5% were referred to therapists at the diagnosis stage and only 8% were seen.”

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16. “Reaching out and ensuring that people can express themselves and engage with the world at large, whether that is school, friends or family, can support them to access the world and prevent them from going down a path that could end with them making some difficult decisions and finding themselves incarcerated. However, it is not just about young people; it is also about adults who develop conditions such as dementia, Parkinson’s, which is close to my heart, or long covid, which we will be talking about a lot over the coming years in the post-pandemic world. The speech and language difficulties that can come with long covid have driven demand since the pandemic, although there was significant demand for speech and language therapists before that. I will touch briefly on Parkinson’s, because a close family member—my mum—suffers with it.”

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17. “I met representatives of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and Speech and Language UK last year, and the most striking thing that came out of those meetings was how important it is to look at this issue through the lens of social justice. The most striking piece of data that they shared is that 25% of all children, when they go to primary school, have some form of diagnosed or undiagnosed speech, language and communications need. If one looks at the most deprived areas of the country, that percentage rises to 50%. On top of that, more than 60% of children in young offender institutions have communication difficulties. That information—that reality—is too stark to be an accident; something could be driving that.”

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18. “Every one of those lives can be touched and immeasurably improved by ensuring that they have the treatment they need to rebuild the confidence that they may have lost. Mikey told me that, after his treatment, his confidence has grown, he is less anxious, he is able to speak publicly with strangers and friends, and he has been able to get a job and catch up in education. That is all down to the speech and language therapists who have supported him to reach his goals. Not everything is down to the therapists, obviously—Mikey is responsible for a huge amount of what he has done—but his ability to express himself, and to show the world where he is coming from and what he does, is down to the language therapists who have supported him.”

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19. “He feels lucky for that one hour, because the ability to access speech and language therapists is a postcode lottery, but it should not be a matter of luck. Getting help for something so important should be a minimum; in fact, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists recommends four sessions a week for Mikey’s condition. Mikey raised that not because he did not feel supported, but as an example of the fact that current provision and support do not meet the need, even for people like Mikey, who, in his own words, is lucky to have the support that he has had. Just over 23,500 adults and more than 67,000 children and young people are on a waiting list for speech and language therapy.”

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20. “It is not about Mikey’s treatment or his journey, although he is very able and willing to discuss them with people; it is about Mikey standing up for people who find themselves in a similar situation to him. When we meet somebody who is a true campaigner, and who is willing to spend their time and effort supporting people across their community, we should applaud them. I place on the record my thanks to him for his work. When I spoke to Mikey, he told me that he is actually one of the lucky ones. A year and a half after he was diagnosed with apraxia, he was offered an hour of speech therapy a week. That was a huge boon to Mikey’s ability to take part, develop and just be part of the world.”

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21. “It is the bridge between silence and expression, and between isolation and inclusion. Speech and language therapists are the unsung heroes who help people to rediscover their ability to speak, to listen and to engage with the world, regardless of whether they are a child who struggles to form words, an adult recovering from a stroke, or someone with a lifelong condition that affects communication. Last week, I had the great privilege of speaking to Mikey, who created this fantastic petition. One thing that struck me in that meeting was not just how thoughtful, well prepared, well read and on top of every single part of the issue he was, but his determination that this debate should not just be about him.”

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22. “That is so difficult for many people, and we should never overlook it, because every single human being has the ability to communicate and a need to connect with people. Supporting people to make sure that they can always find the words, and that they can always communicate and reach out to others, is something that I am sure everybody would support. That is where speech and language therapy steps in—not just as a treatment, but as a lifeline and a way to help people to find the words. It is about helping people to find their voice and to overcome the barriers that keep them from being heard. If we cannot communicate, we can feel invisible and alone, which is a huge challenge in itself. Speech and language therapy is more than just a clinical service; it is absolutely vital to a huge number of people across this great country.”

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23. “Today I am introducing a debate on a topic that we so often take for granted, particularly those of us who have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. Communication, and our ability to speak and to put our views on the record, is fundamental. It is fundamental to Members of Parliament because of the job that we do, but it is also fundamental to everybody across this country and, in fact, across the globe. The power of communication is in our ability to speak and to express our thoughts, our feelings, our hopes, our needs and our politics. In its simplest definition, it is how we connect with each other. For some people, however, it is not so simple. The words, feelings and thoughts are there, but they cannot quite find how to get their words out.”

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24. “I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 657935 relating to speech and language therapy. May I say what a pleasure it is to lead this debate with you in the Chair, Mr Vickers? Before I turn to e-petition 657935, I beg your indulgence to mention that today is International Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Given that it is possibly the last significant anniversary on which many of the survivors will be with us, it is really important that we mark today, because we must never, ever forget the crimes that were committed in the early part of the last century. I stand four-square behind the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in making sure that we never forget and that we can turn darkness into light.”

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25. “Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers), for his excellent contribution on the need to raise awareness around aphasia, which does not necessarily get spoken about enough in the community. I thank the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson), on behalf of His Majesty’s official Opposition, for her considered remarks and for avoiding making the issue a political football. It is really important to highlight where we do agree, because there is often more agreement than people realise in this place. By working together, we can achieve those goals. I especially thank the Minister for Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock)—did I get that right?”

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26. “Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Mr Rand) for raising the issue of unacceptably long wait times for speech and language therapy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) for highlighting the caseload faced by speech and language therapists in Stoke-on-Trent and the great county of Staffordshire. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for discussing the need for early intervention and the remarkable impact that it can have. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) for the story of her father’s experience in speech and language therapy. I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon.”

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27. “I place on record my thanks to all the hon. Members who have contributed to the debate, starting with the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti), who made an excellent contribution, as I think we would all expect. I congratulate him on his campaigning on this important issue. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Mrs Brackenridge) for raising the story of her constituent Samantha, who I am sure will be watching the debate closely. I thank the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) for reminding us of the importance of supporting the next generation and all those who come after. I thank my hon.”

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28. “Members who have been able to contribute today, I say an enormous thanks to Mikey, without whose campaigning we would not be here discussing this issue. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered e-petition 657935 relating to speech and language therapy.”

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29. “Mam never quite got round to teaching me the Welsh that she speaks. I thank the Minister for his kind words about her and for outlining the complicated funding scenario that currently exists for speech and language therapy, along with the Government’s desires for the future of this therapy as an example of the three shifts that the Government will introduce in the NHS, and the need for people to engage thoroughly with the NHS 10-year plan consultation as a vehicle to securing those changes. I thank the Petitions Committee for allowing me to lead the debate. It has been a real pleasure, not least because my constituency was the fourth most supportive of the petition. Finally, on behalf of all hon.”

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30. “He was content with me raising it on the Floor of the House on the condition that, in his words, I used it to speak about the wider problems that we have in Staffordshire with the special educational needs and disabilities system. Too many parents face the same challenges. They often use the phrase “delaying tactics” to me regarding the need to go to tribunal, and the consistent arguments at every step of the process. Will the Leader of the House update us on her discussions with Cabinet colleagues about introducing a Bill to fix our broken SEND system, and will she bring forward a debate on the shocking number of wrongful council decisions on SEND support that end up being overturned at tribunal?”

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31. “Yesterday I received one of the best emails that I have received since becoming a Member of Parliament. It came from my constituent Gareth Stewart and related to his son Hugo, who has finally secured a place at the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby. Hugo is deafblind, and it took two years for his parents to secure an education, health and care plan for him. It had to go to tribunal because it was consistently blocked. Even though the school had agreed to Hugo’s place, ready for September, the county council continued to fight his parents, so the resolution came only yesterday. I have spoken to Gareth several times about his case, because it is so serious.”

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32. “Friend the Member for North Northumberland for securing the debate and I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for granting me leave to contribute.”

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33. “In that instance of serious fly-tipping, as in other such instances right across the country, it is really important that the police have the necessary framework to prosecute these individuals. We need an investigation into the case in Litchfield this week, because there may be some clues in that tip that could lead to a resolution. But investigations need to end not only with significant fines; we also need to start considering custodial sentences, because the actions of those individuals pose a genuine risk to life, for example if an ambulance cannot reach someone having a heart attack. This problem affects rural areas much more significantly than urban areas, which is why it is important to raise it as part of this excellent debate. I thank again my hon.”

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34. “About 20 businesses are based there—I will declare an interest as my old man’s art studio is up there now, although he is not a commercial exercise—including a butcher, a distillery, a café and a bakery as well as a host of others, including Cocker Hoop Creative, which runs Lichfield’s food festival. All those businesses lost two days of trade due to this rural crime. When we talk about the provision of public services in rural areas, that is not always just about the availability of hospitals, the availability of doctors, the distances from A to B or the availability of bus services. As important as all those are, it is also really important that we see a response, including from the police service, that is attuned to the issues of rural areas. That fly-tip was much more serious because of where it happened.”

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35. “It is important that we raise such serious examples of industrialised rural crime. There must have been a serious set-up involving an articulated vehicle of some type because of the sheer size of what was left. Some residents have estimated that there may have been 200 tonnes of rubbish, which has today been cleared following hard work by the district council. Although there was a way for those nine households to get in and to get out to work, that morning they faced not being able to go about their business—they could not get to school or to work. The fly-tip also led to a massive issue for the Curborough countryside centre just off Watery Lane.”

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36. “I thank Redrow homes because, as soon as it was made aware, it put a member of its staff up the top of the lane by the road closure who could keep the service road—the road that runs past—clear and make sure there were no accidents involving people crashing when trying to get down the road. Redrow also opened up the compound on its site so that the emergency services could access those properties, should they be needed. In the event, they were not, but that was more by luck than anything else. I am glad that, should they have been needed, Redrow was able to step in and do that. The company also offered to help the council clean up. When it comes to asking builders to be considerate to their communities, that is a great example of an organisation stepping up.”

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37. “When I heard about it, I popped up to have a look, and a genuinely staggering amount of waste was up there: it was a cuboid perhaps 20 feet wide, 15 feet high and probably at least 40 foot long. This was not a few tyres out the back of a Transit van but an industrial scale, enormous fly-tip, which meant that the lane was completely unpassable from the north. Unfortunately for residents living on Watery Lane, the southern end of that road has been closed for a housing development for a few months, so for a time they had no access to public services. When we talk about public services, there can be nothing more basic than the ability of the fire service, ambulances and the police to get to an emergency, should one occur.”

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38. “I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) for securing this debate on a really important subject. My constituents in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages surrounding them, like people across the country, know just how hard it can be to access basic public services in rural areas. I rise to talk about an incident on Monday that has already had a significant amount of national press coverage and was mentioned yesterday by the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East (Mary Creagh), in winding up a debate. In the early morning hours of Monday morning, an enormous pile of rubbish was fly-tipped at the top of Watery Lane, a country road leading out of Litchfield that has about nine residential properties.”

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39. “The listed places of worship grant scheme is essential to renovations and improvements being made by St Michael on Greenhill church in my constituency. Can the Second Church Estates Commissioner give any assurance to me and my constituents across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages that this grant and Government support will be available to support excellent projects such as the creation of a new community hub?”

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40. “At this point, I ask the Minister: can we look very closely at the resourcing of the Environment Agency? After 14 years of cuts upon cuts, we need to make sure that we are giving that vital piece of our regulatory framework the resources that it needs to investigate such incidents and make sure that prosecutions follow up where necessary.”

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41. “The lake is well respected by local residents and it is a huge amenity for the village, but when the foam discovered on the surface of the pond was identified, that was followed by almost all the fish in the pond dying and a whole family of swans needing to be transferred to Linjoy Wildlife Sanctuary in Burton. I really commend the sanctuary for its work, but unfortunately it was unable to save the cygnets and had to put the swans to sleep, because whatever was in the water had burned the swan’s tongues, leaving ulcers. That was a real concern to residents in Fradley and me, and a very distressing incident for everybody concerned. I know the Environment Agency is working hard on it, but almost a month later we have not yet had the results of the investigations into the water.”

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42. “It is a pleasure to take part in a debate with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. Diolch yn fawr to my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) for securing this debate. There has been a lot of talk today about the issue of sewage dumping and the important Water (Special Measures) Bill, which I fully support. However, I am here to talk about Bown Pond in Fradley, a village in my constituency. On 11 December last year it had a serious pollution incident involving not sewage, but some form of hydrocarbon—probably an oil, but we are yet to see the result.”

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43. “I commend the work of the Defence Committee. The report is important, particularly given the news that has come from Ukraine in the past few years, and the way that conflict has developed. One thing that comes out clearly is the need to be on the cutting edge of all this. The UN declared 2025 to be the international year of quantum science and technology. Do the developments that my hon. Friend is talking about lend additional credence to the importance of that statement, and of bringing those cutting-edge developments to our defence capabilities?”

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44. “That is five different NHS organisations for five different geographies, all with different funding formulas, different grant processes, different reporting mechanisms, different key performance indicators and different timescales. That is all for grants that add up to nothing more than an administrative nightmare. Simplifying and standardising that process will ensure that St Giles can spend less time securing grants from the NHS and more time on caring for the community in my constituency and further afield. I ask the Minister to look very closely at that point, because there is a real opportunity to secure significant benefit for hospices across the country.”

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45. “Having said that, Government support is essential to making sure that hospices across the country can continue to do everything they do for all our communities, so I welcome the £100 million of additional funding that the Government announced just before Christmas. However, we must find ways to ensure that all hospices remain sustainable in the long term. St Giles receives just 18% of its funding from the NHS, which is less than £1 in every £5 when the national average is £1 in every £3. Levelling that playing field cannot come fast enough. In addition, St Giles has to deal with five different integrated care boards.”

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46. “The hospice supported Sean and his children following the loss of their mother and wife, Felicity, at just 38 years old. I am not sure I would be strong enough to turn that tragedy into something as positive as Sean has, but he has all my support. The generous donors to St Giles do so much to care for people they have never met with their donations. In a recent meeting with Elinor Eustace, the CEO of the hospice, she mentioned how much she values all that they do, but said that she does not want to have a fully funded model, because of the value that fundraising brings to the entire community around the hospice.”

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47. “I thank the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) for securing this debate. Like many Members here, I am here to talk about my local hospice. Just over the constituency border in Whittington, St Giles hospice has been doing its vital work for more than 40 years. However, 2024 was a challenging year for the hospice, with rising costs, plus the impact of the cost of living crisis making fundraising more difficult, leading it to make some impossibly hard decisions last summer. St Giles had to close one of its wings and make a number of redundancies among its clinical staff. That was due not to reduced need across Lichfield, Burntwood, the surrounding villages and further afield, but only to the financial situation that the hospice faced. I commend my constituent Sean Collins, who is leading St Giles’s urgent funding appeal.”

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48. “Earlier this school year, the Friary school, a secondary school in my constituency, held a school-wide referendum, which included parents and the wider community, on lowering the voting age to 16. I am proud to say that this will be the topic for the Litchfield schools speaking competition, thanks to the sponsorship of Arthur Price and the Rotary Club of St Chad. Will the Leader of the House join me in commending the organiser of that referendum, head girl Emma Mackenzie, and agree that it is high time that we followed Emma’s lead and had a debate on the topic in this place?”

    House of Commons9 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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49. “I could make some points about Progress 8, but that is not why I am intervening. Just yesterday, my local news website reported that Dr Brown, the award-winning founding headteacher of the award-winning Maple Hayes Hall school for dyslexia in Lichfield, used his 90th birthday message to say that the obsessive focus on synthetic phonics is holding back pupils. That is not me saying that; it comes from the award-winning headteacher of an award-winning school.”

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50. “A parent came over at the end of the event with a couple of bags of things to put on their kids, which helped them out with costs. They were reduced to tears. They had been feeling pressure; they had been looking ahead to the cost and did not know how they would meet it. Being able to get that stuff at no cost released that pressure valve. I hope that story stays with me for a very long time. Those are the stories we need to focus on—stories of the real-world impact in our constituencies.”

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