Jess Asato

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

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260 held · 250 searchable for Jess Asato. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 5.

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1. “I will always remember a senior GP who told me, honestly, after I asked why health did not share information when a patient was at clear risk of serious harm, “Well, I care more about the thud of an envelope with a GMC logo on it, than hearing that one of my patients has been murdered.” That is why the co-location of specialist domestic abuse professionals in all health settings is so important. The “A Cry for Health” report found that when independent domestic violence advisers are located in hospital settings, they make a net positive saving of £2,050 per victim in health costs. They also lead to 84% of victims feeling safer, with 73% seeing an improvement in their quality of life. It is about their health and their wellbeing, which makes them both safer and more likely to recover.”

   House of Commons20 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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2. “But didn’t offer to refer me to somewhere that did.” This has to change. In 2018, Elena was killed by her partner, Razvan. The month before her murder, she was treated in hospital for abdominal pain after using crack cocaine, but she left hospital with Razvan before she could be discharged. As a result, a child and family assessment was conducted, and they were visited at home together the day before she was killed. She was not seen alone. She was never seen alone. She was pregnant. Razvan was with her and never, ever left her side, and no one thought to question her on her own or spotted that she was subject to an extensive range of domestic abuse as well as sexual exploitation. There are, of course, thousands of hard-working health professionals who do safeguard their patients, but it is clear that there is much more to do.”

   House of Commons20 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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3. “In some cases we found victims visited A&E 15 times before getting the help they needed. Health professionals were patching victims up and sending them back into the violent and controlling arms of their abusers. Research from Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, as we have heard, has shown that in 2024, 89% of domestic homicide reviews had at least one recommendation for professionals in the health system—professionals who could have helped save the life of the woman who had been murdered. I have met families whose relatives were killed after repeated contact with health services. In SafeLives’ report on health in London, a survivor who was interviewed and who did disclose at A&E said: “When I went to A&E the doctor told me we only do bones here, not that ‘relationship mental health stuff’.”

   House of Commons20 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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4. “Getting our response to violence against women and girls right in healthcare is key to unlocking our ability to properly tackle domestic abuse. For that reason, I was delighted to be asked by the Health Secretary to become his violence against women and girls adviser. I worked for six years at the domestic abuse charity SafeLives and saw first hand the huge role that health could play. In the report “A Cry for Health”, we found that nearly a quarter of victims at high risk of serious harm or murder had been to A&E as a result of domestic abuse injuries in the year before they were able to get help. We also found that staff were worried about asking, even though it is required under National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, because they felt they would open a can of worms and, in some cases, make the situation worse.”

   House of Commons20 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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5. “It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing this debate on such an important issue. In 2022, 44% of victims surveyed by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner said that their first disclosure was to a healthcare professional. Unlike the criminal justice system, health spaces focus on wellbeing and recovery and are therefore a crucial front door for identification and referrals into specialist services, not just for the many women affected by domestic abuse, but the 105,000 children who, right now, live in homes where there is high-risk domestic abuse. We know that victims who reach out to police are just the tip of the iceberg, given that fewer than one in five ever contact the police about their abuse.”

   House of Commons20 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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6. “Having campaigned for a ban on nudification apps, I hugely welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement today. We have all seen how AI has been used to humiliate and sexualise women, with bullet holes, blood, gagging, bruising, and even the horror of a Jewish woman being stripped of her clothes and placed at Auschwitz. Like a number of colleagues, over the weekend I have also had my own treatment and been stripped into a bikini by AI on X—much less than many victims have suffered but a reminder of what many thousands of women face daily. Will my right hon. Friend look at how the Government can work with industry to introduce AI watermarking, alongside ways of enabling users to mark that their pictures or videos should not be digitally manipulated without their consent?”

   House of Commons12 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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7. “A happy new year to you and your staff, Mr Speaker. Like many Members across this House, I receive regular alerts from the Environment Agency warning of potential flooding in my constituency. Every time the phone rings, I get the feeling of dread that this will be the time when my town floods. Every time the alert is downgraded, my constituents and I breathe a sigh of relief, as happened most recently on Monday. A major flooding event is expected every 20 years in Lowestoft, which is the only UK coastal town with no formal tidal flood defences. I know the devastation that a flood would bring, like the last time in 2013, when 152 homes and businesses were flooded. Will the Leader of the House find Government time for a debate on coastal flooding?”

   House of Commons8 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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8. “I would like to make the House aware of my appointment as the VAWG adviser to the Secretary of State for Health, and it is the commitments made by the Department of Health and Social Care in this transformative strategy that I wish to raise. Will the Minister confirm that the roll-out of the Child House model represents a significant step in delivering against recommendation 16 of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, and that the introduction of the Steps to Safety service, which will embed specialist support workers across groups of GP practices, will play a huge role in better identifying victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence through those settings?”

   House of Commons18 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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9. “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to extend safeguards applied to pornography offline to pornography distributed online; and to legally require all pornography websites accessed from the UK to verify the age and permission of every individual featured on their platfor m –and give performers the right to withdraw their consent at any time to the continued publication of pornography in which they appear. And the petitioners remain, etc. ] [P003147]”

   House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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10. “The petition states: “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to extend safeguards applied to pornography offline to pornography distributed online; and to legally require all pornography websites accessed from the UK to verify the age and permission of every individual featured on their platform—and give performers the right to withdraw their consent at any time to the continued publication of pornography in which they appear. And the petitioners remain, etc.” Following is the full text of the petition: [ The petition of residents of the United Kingdom, Declares that pornography use is fuelling sexual violence; violence against women is prolific in mainstream pornography; and sexual coercion is inherent to the commercial production of pornography.”

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11. “On the final day of the UN’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, I present a petition on behalf of my Lowestoft constituents on the pornography industry and the serious and long-lasting impact it is having on our society, not least in fuelling violence against women and girls. Pornography that depicts performers as children or stepfamily members is abhorrent and fuels real world interest in the sexual abuse of children.”

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12. “I proposed that in a debate on the Victims and Courts Bill, and I hope the Government will look at it again as the Bill moves to the House of Lords. I will finish with the words of child survivor Roann Court, who said: “I watched my mum being brutally killed when I was 15, and the support was virtually non-existent for me and my family, which has had a lasting impact for us all. Children need support—we are as much victims as our parent who is killed.””

    House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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13. “With limited emotional trauma-informed support from counselling services for me, the caregiver, and my grandchild, it left us unable to grieve.” That is why I hope the Government, in their VAWG strategy, will consider creating a dedicated, specialist national service providing wraparound support for children bereaved by domestic homicide and their carers, alongside a guarantee for every bereaved child to have an independent advocate to ensure their voice is heard in all decisions about their care and future. We also need specialist training for all professionals in contact with these children. Finally, we need to introduce a statutory duty to commission specialist services for child victims of domestic abuse.”

    House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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14. “I urge the Government to fast-track this, as families like that of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche are still facing challenges from convicted murderers who continue to exert coercive control over their children from prison. Furthermore, the support they and their carers receive is patchy, short-term and inconsistent. Carers, often grandparents or extended family, are left to navigate grief, financial strain and complex legal processes with little help. Jodie Edith, the grieving mother of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, said: “In April 2024, our world went dark after receiving the knock at the door that no parent could ever imagine, telling me that my beloved daughter Kennedi had been killed by her partner of nine years, leaving a child behind.”

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15. “Professionals working with these children often struggle with the language to explain what has happened. They were simply not trained to approach this subject. As there is no statutory mechanism to identify and support children when a parent goes to prison, schools frequently have no idea what a child is living through. Under current UK law, a parent convicted of killing their partner can retain parental responsibility, allowing them to influence important decisions about their children’s lives, causing deep distress for the families and caregivers who are supporting the children left behind. Jade’s law was meant to change that, and was passed by Parliament in May 2024, but it has still not been implemented.”

    House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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16. “Her siblings were forced by social workers to visit him in prison. After just 14 months, her father was released and her younger siblings were made to live with him. They were beaten and starved and, within a year, he attempted to kill a new girlfriend. Debrah is one of the many children behind the shocking headlines we see far too often. I pay tribute to the tireless work of the Joanna Simpson Foundation and Children Heard and Seen, which I was honoured to host in Parliament recently, and do so much to support many of these children and the adults they become. Many of these children face a double loss: one parent to bereavement and one parent to prison. They do so while carrying the stigma of their parent’s actions and the deeply conflicting emotions that come with it.”

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17. “That is why the work of Foundations in finding what works to support child victims—including piloting Bounce Back 4 Kids, a therapeutic programme supporting child recovery—is so important. Every year, around 200 children in the UK are bereaved by domestic homicide. Shockingly, we still do not know the actual number, because it is not officially recorded. Those children are the hidden victims behind the headlines. Survivor Debrah prevented her father from murdering her mother by hitting him on the head with a poker. He told her that she “had better kill him” or he would kill her as well. A week and a half later, he succeeded in killing her mother. From prison, her father was able to block Debrah from living with her mother’s sister, instead sending her either to his own family or to live with a grandparent who had previously molested her.”

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18. “It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) on securing this important debate. Domestic abuse does not just claim adult lives; it devastates children. Lybah, a child survivor of domestic abuse and a SafeLives changemaker, said: “As a child I felt like I was often overlooked and was never really acknowledged as a victim of DA. Rather than helping me process what happened to me I was told by services to write down my thoughts and feelings and draw a picture of what a ‘happy family’ should look like.” Some 71% of adult survivors are unable to access specialist support for their children, according to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner.”

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19. “Earlier this year, I met representatives of Historic England, local historians and community representatives to address the neglect of the grade 2 listed Crown hotel in my constituency. Once a cornerstone of the community and a place where countless memories were made, it is now crumbling, and bringing the rest of our historical high street down with it. Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the protection of listed buildings on our high streets?”

    House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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20. “Just as we approach a once-in-a-generation VAWG strategy with an incredible commitment to halve VAWG in a decade, there is a real fear that the expertise we will need to rely on may not exist unless an emergency funding package is issued quickly. I hope that the Government will consider amendments I tabled to the Victims and Courts Bill, which will soon move to the Lords, including one that would create a statutory duty to commission specialist services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence—women and children. It is absurd that support for the most traumatised and vulnerable victims is not even a postcode lottery; no one anywhere has an actionable right to say, “I deserve specialist support.” We will never truly protect women and girls when the spaces that heal and rebuild them are so easily dismissed.”

    House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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21. “Time after time, we read domestic homicide reviews calling on health professionals to share information that could have saved the victim’s life, but cultural change in health is stubborn. I remember meeting a senior doctor and asking why information sharing was proving so difficult. I will never forget his answer: “I will be honest. I fear a letter thudding on the doormat with the GMC’s logo more than hearing that one of my patients has been murdered.” Where is “first do no harm”? I know the Minister will agree that the role of health will be crucial in the VAWG strategy. It would be remiss of me not to mention the clear funding crisis facing specialist women’s charities. That is not new, but the rapid closure of services is.”

    House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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22. “That demonstrates the urgent need for specialist domestic abuse support in healthcare settings. Independent domestic violence advisers, co-located in A&E or maternity units, can identify victims earlier and ensure that women are supported to be safe, ending the awful process of patching up victims, only for them to return a few weeks later, beaten further. We know that victims are far more likely to disclose abuse in health settings. Research found that hospital-based IDVAs generate a net saving of £2,000 per victim in health costs. Embedding IDVAs in hospitals is key to improving referrals and outcomes, with nine in 10 victims reporting improved safety after hospital-based IDVA support. Support at primary care level, through brilliant evidence-based interventions such as IRIS—identification and referral to improve safety—is also crucial.”

    House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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23. “I want to focus on healthcare. Health services are too often overlooked in efforts to tackle domestic abuse and VAWG, despite domestic abuse costing the UK healthcare system £2.3 billion. Investing in healthcare-based responses reduces missed opportunities to support victims, ultimately saving money and lives. In my previous life, I worked on the SafeLives report “We only do bones here”. It was titled after a survivor who gave evidence, who said that when she disclosed to her A&E doctor that she was experiencing domestic abuse, he told her: “We only do bones here, not that relationship, mental health stuff.” He then sent her away, without even referring her to a specialist service. The report found that four out of five victims never go to the police, yet in the most extreme cases, victims reported attending A&E up to 15 times.”

    House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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24. “It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) on securing the debate. I am honoured to work with her on the all-party parliamentary group on domestic violence and abuse. I also want to pay tribute to the Minister. Her determined and courageous leadership has seen sweeping changes, including the news today that domestic abuse protection orders have protected 1,000 victims since their introduction last year. She has pioneered a new national centre for violence against women and girls, putting VAWG on a similar footing to counter-terrorism for the first time. Raneem’s law has embedded the first domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms. Following years of campaigning, honour-based abuse will have a statutory definition.”

    House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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25. “Medal recognition for Sue and other blue-light emergency workers who have been injured in the line of duty will not change what has happened to them, but it could go some way to repaying the debt we owe them for their service and their sacrifice.”

    House of Commons20 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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26. “Five days after the incident, the then chief superintendent praised her “meritorious” conduct and wrote that “consideration will be given to more formal recognition of” her and her colleague’s “action at a later stage.” That later stage never came and Sue was never recognised. We have the chance now to right that particular wrong—something so long promised should now be delivered. As we have heard, it is estimated that 15,000 former police officers have, like Sue, been forced to retire due to an injury they suffered in our service. Today’s call to action is supported by nearly a third of Members of this House, across all parties, and by the Police Federation, the Fire Brigades Union, the Fire and Rescue Services Association, the National Fire Chiefs Council and Unison, of which I must declare I am a member.”

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27. “She was beginning to recover, but crippling back pain and losing feeling in her legs prevented her from returning to the frontline. She had to leave her flat because she could no longer climb the stairs. Nine months after the incident, she returned to light duties at Southend police station, but despite surgery on a damaged spinal disc, which was diagnosed three years later, the police retired her on medical grounds at the age of 26, less than a week after the operation. The teenage burglars were handed 12 months’ youth custody, but Sue has had to live with what happened that day for the past 41 years—a lifetime of chronic pain and medical issues. She sustained those injuries in the service of us all, out of duty to maintain law and order, and an eagerness to right wrongs.”

    House of Commons20 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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28. “I thank the Backbench Business Committee and the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) for bringing forward the debate. It is certainly long overdue. I also thank former police officer Tom Curry, who was injured in the line of duty and whose campaign with other injured emergency service workers has brought us here today. I want to pay tribute to a constituent of mine, Sue Mitchell, who I met today alongside her husband. In November 1984, Sue was 22 and on her sixth day working for Essex police when, while pursuing teenage burglars, she was severely rammed by their car as she and her colleague tried to block their escape. Despite having a shattered kneecap and hand injuries, Sue was able to chase and arrest one of the burglars.”

    House of Commons20 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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29. “I am delighted that next week a new 107 bus will serve residents in the Gunton area of Lowestoft, following representations that I made to First Bus. However, many of my constituents rely on the No. 99 to get to and from the town centre, and from Monday to Saturday the last bus home leaves at 5.40 pm, closing off our town to tourists. Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the impact of buses on local growth and regeneration?”

    House of Commons30 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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30. “I welcome the fact that Dame Lynne Owens will be speaking to the victims of Kebatu to understand the impact on them, but will the Deputy Prime Minister confirm whether the previous Government made any steps to speak with victims affected by prison release errors that happened on their watch due to the system being starved of funding?”

    House of Commons27 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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31. “New clause 10, which is supported by Women’s Aid, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Barnardo’s, Action for Children, Catch 22, the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, SafeLives, Respect and the Independent Domestic Abuse Services, as well as 49 of my colleagues across the parties, seeks to make this a reality by ending the postcode lottery that victims face and ensuring that we have adequately funded specialist services for whoever might need them.”

    House of Commons27 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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32. “Friend the Member for Bolsover (Natalie Fleet) and her eloquent bravery. I would like to speak to new clauses 10 and 11, which stand in my name, although I will not be pushing them to a vote. These twin new clauses seek to place statutory duties on the relevant authorities to commission specialist services for victims of abuse and exploitation and those who care for them. The Government have already committed, in their tackling child sexual abuse progress update earlier this year, to increase access to support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, which reported three years ago last week, recommended a national guarantee of support for victims of sexual abuse.”

    House of Commons27 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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33. “I want to start by thanking the Minister for accepting the principle behind amendment 9, which I have now withdrawn, and for introducing a new amendment to restrict parental responsibility for serious child sexual abusers who offend against children who are not their own, building on the Government’s welcome step of restricting it for those who do. This represents a real step forward for child safety, and I pay tribute to the collaborative spirit of the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), and to the many Members across the House who supported the amendment, alongside Fair Hearing and the many victims who have fought so hard for this change. I also want to put on the record my support for new clauses 1, 2 and 18, and to give my heartfelt love to my hon.”

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34. “That is unacceptable if we want to halve violence against women and girls. By-and-for services such as hers are the backbone of our response to victims of abuse. They help to reach some of the most excluded in our society. Losing the vital, lifesaving support provided by organisations such as JSAS and others will not make victims safer.”

    House of Commons27 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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35. “I expect that the public would be astonished to know that there is no automatic right to specialist support after a terrible, traumatic crime such as rape or domestic abuse. Even though the victims code specifies that people have a right as a victim to be referred to specialist services, this is not an actionable right. Victims cannot sue anyone if it is not upheld. The sad reality is that specialist services are on their knees. Twenty-three child sexual abuse support services have closed in the past 18 months due to financial pressures. Just the week before last, Jewish Sexual Abuse Support was forced to close due to cuts, which have had a particular impact on small by-and-for organisations. Its chief executive, Erica Marks, gave the stark warning that we could “expect to see more community sexual violence organisations fail”.”

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36. “I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention and pay tribute to the services in her local area. We all have many such specialist services, and I am sure that we will want to pay tribute to them this evening. The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse estimates that there are 55,000 adults and children in England and Wales on waiting lists for support following child sexual abuse, and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner has found that over a quarter of domestic abuse services are having to turn away children who are victims of abuse. It is a stain on this country that fewer than half of domestic abuse victims are able to access the community-based support that they deserve.”

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37. “I look forward to working with the Minister and colleagues across the House on saving our specialist services and saving victims and their families, and I will be pleased to vote for the Bill tonight.”

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38. “Once again, that should already be happening—it is supposedly a right in the victims code. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse recommended that support for non-abusing parents and carers should be statutory. New clause 11 would bring that crucial recommendation to fruition. Families should not have to wait years; they want action now. As with victim services, severe funding shortages fail to make the ambition set out in the code a reality. Together, new clauses 10 and 11 would ensure that if any one of us here, or someone we cared for, were abused or exploited, we or they would be supported. It is an ambition long supported that must now be met with action.”

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39. “I absolutely agree that kinship carers, parents and partners are different from those of the primary victim, and they need support in their own right. When we fail those third-party victims, we fail the primary victim, too. We allow them to disengage from the legal process, and we deprive them of the wraparound support they need when they are at their most vulnerable. New clause 11 is supported by the organisations Restitute, We Stand, Acts Fast and Ivison Trust, and a version of it was first laid by Baroness Sal Brinton in the other place in a Bill last year. It would place a statutory duty on commissioners to ensure that appropriate independent services are available for the parent, guardian or person responsible for the care of a victim who is under 18 at the time of the offence, or who is an adult at risk of harm.”

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40. “As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on perpetrators of domestic abuse, I have always argued that we must focus on tackling perpetrators’ behaviour. Instead of asking, “Why doesn’t she leave?”, we must ask, “Why doesn’t he stop?” I therefore welcome the new restriction zones that the Bill will introduce, which will limit the movement of perpetrators, rather than victims, and the increased use of tagging. I am also pleased to see the new judicial finding of domestic abuse, which will revolutionise our understanding of sentencing for domestic abuse and ensure that we can exclude perpetrators from future measures that put victims at risk.”

    House of Commons21 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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41. “I want to speak about new clause 5 and amendments 22 and 23 in my name. The Government’s commitment to tackling violence against women and girls was never just a pledge, never just a slogan; it has always been about action—about changing things for women, girls and victims everywhere for the better. We have seen that time and again under this Government. Indeed, just today, they announced that child sexual abuse offenders convicted of serious sex offences against any child will now automatically lose their parental responsibility after being sentenced, rather than victims having to be dragged through the tough and costly family court process. This Bill moves us forward in our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.”

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42. “SafeLives, a domestic abuse charity, has found that high-risk victims live with domestic abuse for 2.5 years. They will just be beginning to rebuild their life when their perpetrator is released from prison. If the perpetrator goes on to harass their victim, their probation officer may decide to recall them to prison, but after 56 days they will be released again, potentially to harass or abuse. They may again be recalled, and then released again 56 days later. I can see no provisions in the Bill to prevent this cycle, which could end in serious harm or the death of a victim.”

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43. “No, I will make progress. The expansion of specialist domestic abuse courts is also very exciting. I am concerned, however, by the provisions that allow for the automatic re-release of recalled perpetrators after 56 days, and fear that they may place some victims at serious risk of harm. Those who perpetrate crimes such as domestic abuse and stalking know everything about their victims—where they live, where they work, where their children go to school, their regular routines—and we know how fixated such abusers can be. Although I welcome the exemptions of those managed under MAPPA—multi-agency public protection arrangements—categories 2 and 3, I must note that this will not capture the vast majority of domestic abusers. By the point a perpetrator is sentenced, it is likely that their victim has already been subject to abuse for years.”

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44. “I thank my hon. Friend for her statement. Does she agree that improving ordinarily available provision alongside effective SEND support can meet many pupils’ needs without the need for an EHCP, as our Committee’s visit to Aylsham high school in Norwich proved? Does she hope, as I do, that the Government’s forthcoming White Paper will not seek to restrict access to EHCPs, but instead will offer earlier and effective support, thereby bringing the need for EHCPs down naturally?”

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45. “It is the loss of a child, a dream, and a future. Without compassionate systems in place, the trauma of miscarriage can last a lifetime.” With her words to close my speech, I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this moving debate during Baby Loss Awareness Week.”

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46. “Dads have told me that they even felt ignored by services, while also needing to support their partners in turn. We must do better, for everyone, which is why Angels and Rainbows is campaigning for a full-time bereavement midwife or bereavement support worker in every hospital. For a while we had one at the James Paget, and some really positive changes had been made as a result and through work with our intrepid support group. Sadly, in May this year that role was cut, despite the trust’s acknowledgment that the role was “undoubtedly beneficial to families”. While all midwives need training, it takes a lead to help to co-produce change with those with lived experience, drive it through and then, importantly, sustain that change. In the words of one of my constituents, baby loss “is not ‘just’ a medical event.”

    House of Commons13 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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47. “One of my constituents found out at her 12-week scan that she had suffered a “missed miscarriage”, and was given medication and told to expect an experience similar to a bad period. Instead, she nearly passed out from the agonising pain, had contractions, and passed the pregnancy on her bathroom floor at home. She had been given no guidance on what to do next, and was not given any reassurance when she reached out for advice. She was not offered a follow-up scan, contacted by a midwife, or signposted to counselling or a specialist service. Left without support, she was later diagnosed with PTSD. Unprepared staff, the dearth of support services and long waiting times for counselling make this horrible situation worse, and it is important to recognise that fathers too are suffering from that lack of support.”

    House of Commons13 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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48. “That is why hospitals should provide a space away from new parents and the maternity unit, so that parents can grieve in peace. As my local hospital, the James Paget, is brilliantly part of the new hospital building programme, I hope that its senior leadership looks at the need for a dedicated private space for bereavement care in its plans. Training is key, too. Parents told me how vital it is for staff to receive appropriate training in how to communicate sensitively with families going through baby loss. As one constituent said: “I felt the staff weren’t prepared or prepared me on what was happening or going to happen. It was as if it was a taboo subject.” The quality of care received by my constituents has been very inconsistent, with some feeling well supported and others not at all, particularly once they were out of hospital.”

    House of Commons13 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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49. “I thank the hon. and right hon. Members for securing today’s debate on such an important issue that is sadly too often overlooked. Earlier this year, I was incredibly grateful to meet Angels and Rainbows, a local group in my Lowestoft constituency run by bereaved parents who support others through the experience of baby loss. I put on record in this place my sincere thanks for their vital work, which is life-affirming, trauma-informed and grounded in the realities of grief. One key issue they wished me to raise today was how women who have just lost a baby are placed on the same wards as those who have just given birth. It feels deeply cruel that parents who have just been through the trauma of child loss should have to share the same space as joyful new mothers and healthy new babies making their first cries.”

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50. “One of the concerns that my constituents in Lowestoft raise is the closure of our public toilets due to the local council’s redevelopment of our old Wilko site. I am concerned that older and disabled residents in particular are being dissuaded from spending their time and money in our town centre’s shops due to fear of being caught short. I recently met the British Toilet Association, and I learned that in the US there is a national standard of one toilet for every 10,000 people. I therefore ask the Leader of the House whether we can have a debate in Government time on the need for more toilets on our high streets.”

    House of Commons11 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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