Anna Dixon

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

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663 held · 642 searchable for Anna Dixon. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 10.

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1. “There are still some of the same issues we heard about in the King’s Fund inquiry a decade ago: poor teamwork, weak accountability, defensive cultures and a failure to translate learning into sustained action. Like many Members, I hear a range of stories as a constituency MP. Those are mainly centred on Bradford Royal infirmary, and I want to share the story of a constituent whose son was born with complications from the umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck. A late crash call was made after he had been delivered, but sadly he suffered catastrophic brain injury and was in a minimally conscious vegetative state. The women and her son were sent home with no diagnosis, and the child has grown up with epilepsy and other problems due to his brain injury.”

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2. “It makes me angry that there has been another decade of more inquiries and reviews, with the recommendations going unheeded. That is why I am pleased to be an officer of the all-party parliamentary group on patient safety, and why I have worked with my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) and the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt) to make maternity safety one of our priorities on the APPG. It has been fantastic to join colleagues, including my hon. Friends the Members for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) and for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae), across all-party parliamentary groups to share our insights and to contribute to the Amos investigation.”

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3. “It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I echo the thanks given by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) to all the petitioners who signed the petition, including 262 of my Shipley constituents. My interest in maternity safety goes back to the time, over a decade ago, when I was director of policy at the King’s Fund. We set up an inquiry into the safety of maternity services, which was chaired by Baroness Professor Onora O’Neill. Despite the fact that that work was done more than a decade ago, the failures that we hear about today are sadly all too familiar. What struck us at that time was that there had been many reports in the preceding decade, including confidential inquiries into maternal and infant deaths, and that the recommendations had not been implemented.”

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4. “I am sorry but, respectfully, I am not going to give way. If the ambulance had routinely carried a neonatal meconium aspirator, that could have prevented the death of my friend’s daughter. My friend said: “I was not told who we could complain to following these experiences, or when we should do so.” Whether it is through a maternity commissioner or another way, we need to learn systemically from women’s experiences so that safety recommendations can be implemented. When we hear from Baroness Amos’s investigation, I hope that Ministers will finally act swiftly to implement her recommendations and back them up with investment, so that families can have confidence that when tragedies like those of my friend and those of my constituent occur, the system will genuinely learn, improve and take action.”

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5. “Does the Minister agree that training obstetricians and midwives together as a team is an important part of creating that unified culture that we know is so important to underpin safety for mothers and babies?”

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6. “According to Carers UK, 1.2 million unpaid carers in the UK live in poverty, and around half of carers cut back on essentials in 2025. There is a multitude of reasons for carer poverty. Many carers give up paid work, but many juggle paid work and unpaid care, often reducing their hours, harming their careers and impoverishing themselves. It is for all those reasons that the carer’s allowance overpayment scandal is hard to stomach.”

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7. “I am proud that it was a Labour Government that introduced carer’s allowance back in 1976, and I am just as proud that this Labour Government and Chancellor increased the earnings threshold from £151 to £196 per week—the largest increase since the benefit was introduced—and again this month to £204 per week, as promised. The world has changed a lot since Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, but some things remain the same, and Labour is still putting its money where its mouth is and standing up for carers. Supporting carers should be a moral mission of any Government. There are 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK, and the economic value of their contribution is some £184 billion per year, which is more than the entire NHS budget in England. However, despite the value that carers bring to our society, we often fail to value them.”

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8. “I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of Carer’s Allowance overpayments. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I thank Members for joining me here in Westminster Hall. I have committed my career to securing better care and support for older people and their family carers, and I continue that work here in Parliament as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on carers. This year marks a significant milestone for carers: it has been 50 years since carer’s allowance was first introduced. It was known originally as the invalid care allowance, and it was the first benefit to recognise the financial sacrifices of unpaid carers. It has made a huge difference, providing vital financial support to those who give 35 hours or more per week in unpaid care.”

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9. “Thirdly, in the cases of those affected by the failure to adjust universal credit correctly, Sayce recommended that the DWP should pay UC arrears. I would be grateful if the Minister addressed whether the audit will include reviews for those missing groups.”

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10. “However, I believe that there are several categories of people who have been adversely affected whose cases remain outstanding. The DWP appears to be accepting responsibility only for those affected by the unlawful guidance on average earnings and not for the lack of clear guidance on expenses deductions. Will the Minister ensure, as the audit begins, that the DWP fully addresses all aspects of maladministration? First, there should be consideration of cases in which the DWP held information regarding expenses but did not act on it or make corrections for many years. Secondly, I urge him to ensure that cases in which data has been “lost” by the DWP are dealt with as Liz Sayce recommended, and treated as cases of official error unless the DWP can prove otherwise.”

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11. “Will the Minister update us on progress on the introduction of a taper system? Liz Sayce recommended a whole range of other reforms, from upgrading computer systems to using more empathetic language, improving the join-up between types of benefits and simplifying the system. I thank her and her team for completing this crucial task. I urge the Minister to implement the recommendations with urgency and to set out the timeline for doing so. Turning to those affected, I welcome yesterday’s announcement that the Government have launched an audit of more than 200,000 carer’s allowance cases affected by unclear Government guidance that was in place between 2015 and 2025. The cases will be reviewed, and debts potentially reduced, cancelled or refunded for some 25,000 unpaid carers. That is excellent news and I am sure the Minister will say more.”

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12. “Among other things, the review called on the Government to reform the earnings averaging processes and guidance, as well as that for allowable expenses, so that there is clarity, transparency and predictability, and it called for a thorough reassessment of cases to right the wrongs and deliver redress. It called for creative short-term solutions to address the cliff-edge crisis, while the DWP works on a longer-term plan. That is vital. If someone earns one penny over the earnings limit, they have to pay back the whole weekly carer’s allowance. The Sayce review found that although the earnings limit cliff edge does not itself cause overpayments, it dramatically increases their scale and impact, negatively affecting people’s health, finances, wellbeing and opportunities to work.”

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13. “As I have said, Helen’s is not an isolated case; thousands of carers are in this position, not as a result of failure on their part to report to and notify the DWP, but owing to a failure of Government. This scandal is a stain on the record of the British state. I therefore commend this Labour Government for asking Liz Sayce to conduct an independent review of carer’s allowance overpayments. She made it clear that overpayments were caused “not by widespread individual error by carers in reporting their earnings but by systemic issues preventing them from fulfilling their responsibility to report.” I welcome the fact that the Government have accepted the vast majority of her recommendations and set aside £75 million to implement them.”

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14. “She was paid those every six months, but the Department for Work and Pensions considered them as monthly earnings. It stopped her carer’s allowance and informed her that she had incurred overpayments going back over four years. She was charged more than £2,000 and told to pay back £50 a week. In her words, “there was no care of how we would live or survive. It took me three very long years to repay the debt. It hung over like a great shadow, the letters, the fear of what could come. We were devastated by the department’s actions. Carers just don’t have bank balances that can stretch and withstand such pressures…you are so vulnerable…it shouldn’t be this difficult”.”

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15. “I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman that the impact of the overpayments on carers is terrible, and I am going to share the story of someone who was affected. I am sure others have heard similar shocking stories. As many as one in five unpaid carers who claim carer’s allowance and work part time were hit with overpayments. Thousands of carers have been left with huge debts and the fear of financial ruin. Helen cares for her son Robin. He was born with a heart condition, respiratory vulnerabilities, developmental delay, mobility issues and Down’s syndrome. Helen gave up work as a teacher to support Robin and she relied on carer’s allowance. She also received some royalties for online resources that she had created as an education provider.”

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16. “I ask the Minister for reassurance that he is confident that the senior team at DWP understand the nature of the harm done to carers, are fully committed to putting this right and do not adopt a defensive culture. On the 50th anniversary of carer’s allowance, I call on this Labour Government to right the wrongs caused by the state, which have parallels with the Post Office Horizon scandal, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali) said, and to put right the scandal of carer’s allowance overpayments so that our carers are paid what they deserve and not punished for the dedication and care they provide.”

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17. “I am a member of the Public Accounts Committee, and we have requested that the DWP reports every six months on its progress on implementing the Sayce review. As a member of that Committee, I will certainly be keeping a close eye on progress. My final point is about the culture in the DWP. I have had the opportunity to challenge its senior officials in the Public Accounts Committee, and I was shocked by the culture on display, which clearly regarded the victims of Government incompetence as benefit fraudsters. It disturbs me that that culture has been prevalent for so long and that, despite knowing about carer’s allowance overpayments for many years, the Department did little or nothing. As a Committee, we are clear that the lack of integrated and concerted leadership from the Department exacerbated the crisis.”

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18. “I had understood that we were also looking into opportunities to alert carers of potentially having breached the earnings limit. Is there anything in place to help communicate information from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or the DWP to carers?”

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19. “I recently asked Shipley residents about their access to NHS dental services over the past two years. Over 1,100 respondents said that they could not see an NHS dentist when they needed to. I have heard from constituents who have had to go private, travel for hours to access NHS dentistry or resort to DIY dentistry. What progress is the Minister making to fix the rotten dentistry that we inherited from the previous Government?”

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20. “2. What mechanisms his Department has put in place to ensure that communities are consulted on the use of Pride in Place funding in Shipley constituency.”

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21. “A happy Easter to you, Mr Speaker. The Government’s £1.5 million impact fund for Bradford is critical to communities that have been overlooked for too long. I recently visited Windhill recreation ground in my local area, which is set to benefit from Pride in Place funding. Does the Secretary of State agree that after 14 years of brutal cuts to northern councils such as Bradford, this Labour Government are providing our local areas and communities with the investment they need?”

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22. “I join the Prime Minister in thanking our armed forces who are protecting British citizens in the middle east, and I thank him, on behalf of my constituents, for his cool-headed leadership and firm decision not to join Trump’s illegal war. Will he reassure my constituents, who are worried about the cost of energy, that he is doing everything in his power to secure peace, reopen the strait of Hormuz and ensure that consumers are protected against rocketing energy prices?”

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23. “I urge other places to look at what we are doing in West Yorkshire, and I encourage the Minister to work with colleagues at the Department for Work and Pensions to support people who are not in education, employment or training, and others who may face additional barriers to getting into work. We need to make sure that public transport is accessible to all citizens. The Government are doing lots of really positive things, but I am keen to make sure that they take further action to improve the lives of disabled people. I am sure that the Minister will agree that there is more to be done if we are to guarantee access to public transport, which most of us take for granted, as a right for all.”

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24. “I would like reassurance from the Minister that any new transport infrastructure, including buses, will meet high design standards for accessibility. Finally, I want to touch on affordability. Not only must disabled people be able to physically access transport; they must be able to afford it. Tracy Brabin, our fantastic Mayor of West Yorkshire, only a couple of weeks ago announced that once the Weaver Network—the franchised bus network—rolls out across West Yorkshire, disabled people will be entitled to use their bus pass before 9.30 am. This will help disabled workers get to work.”

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25. “I am really proud of what the Government are doing to make it easier for local authorities and mayors to bring buses back into public ownership, and I was delighted to hear—as I am sure you were, Madam Deputy Speaker—that Bradford has just been awarded over £14 million to help with the roll-out of electric buses across our district. Special thanks go to council leader Susan Hinchcliffe, who has lobbied hard on this particular issue. These buses must be designed with accessibility in mind. That means visual and audio displays, a step that drops to the kerb and, as we have heard about in the debate, drivers receiving the necessary training and awareness so that they know how to accommodate disabled passengers.”

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26. “I pay tribute to Chris Steele in particular for his ongoing campaign, because it is all very well having an accessible station, but at the moment the actual train is not accessible and he is campaigning to get what is called a Harrington hump. If colleagues have not heard of a Harrington hump, I suggest they look it up, but it basically makes a section of the platform raised so that disabled people can access the train without the need for a ramp. The progress at Menston station is just one example. I would be keen to hear from the Minister about plans to ensure that councils and combined authorities have the support they need further to increase accessibility at stations. It is vital that the Government take steps to ensure that buses, too, are accessible.”

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27. “Transport is an essential part of everyday life; it allows us to get to vital appointments and to work, and to see friends and family. It is a bridge that connects us to different aspects of our lives and keeps us from feeling isolated. Yet as we have heard in this debate, and as we know from our own experiences and those of our constituents, for many with disabilities public transport is not a bridge but a barrier. In my constituency, the lack of accessibility as Menston station has been a persistent issue. However, thanks to the combined efforts of a very doughty councillor—Chris Steele—West Yorkshire combined authority, Network Rail and funding from the Department for Transport, we have just completed a £7.8 million modernisation programme. I was delighted to cut the ribbon and ride in the new lifts just last month.”

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28. “I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury) for securing this debate and for her fantastic leadership of the Transport Committee. My hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) is no longer in her seat, but I commend her on her campaign on pavement parking, which is the bane of many of my constituents’ lives. I am pleased that the Government are giving powers to Bradford council and other councils across the country to look at introducing selective pavement parking bans. I have dedicated much of my career to campaigning to improve things for disabled people and older people in particular. Part of my work at the Centre for Ageing Better was on age-friendly communities, and we saw accessible transport as a key part of an age-friendly community.”

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29. “Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that many disabled people simply do not have a choice, because public transport is either not available, if they live in a rural area, or not accessible? Much of the reason why they have to resort to relying on cars and taxis is the failure to invest in an accessible public transport system.”

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30. “For victims of child sexual exploitation, rape and serious sexual offences, the option of having pre-recorded evidence has been a really positive step forward. However, when I visited Leeds Crown court recently, I heard that too often the equipment does not work, leading to significant delays and even postponement of hearings, which is obviously terrible for victims. Will the Secretary of State outline how that investment will help victims get the justice that they deserve and ensure that the technology is available in every courtroom?”

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31. “I welcome the support for small and medium-sized enterprises in my Shipley constituency, which will be able to take on young people who have been long-term unemployed and to offer apprenticeships, but the Secretary of State will know that young carers face additional challenges with getting into education, training or work. Shipley college provides excellent training opportunities, but often struggles to find work placements. Will he commit to working with DFE to ensure that all young people, including young carers, can benefit from today’s announcement?”

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32. “T5. As the ongoing conflict in the middle east is demonstrating, drone technology is an essential military capability. Businesses around Saltaire and Baildon in my constituency are at the cutting edge of both space technology and radio frequency, which I know the Minister will understand are critical to drone warfare. What support is available to young people in my constituency and across West Yorkshire to gain the skills they need for those vital industries?”

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33. “I hugely welcome the investment into general practice, particularly the flexibility to employ often under-employed GPs who want additional hours and shifts. I also welcome the Minister’s comments about innovation and AI. Sadly, I have had representations from Grange Park surgery in Burley-in-Wharfedale in my constituency, which finds that it is unable to deliver high-quality care because of unreliable and outdated IT systems that are provided across the Bradford area. Frequent outages directly impact access and patient care, so will the Minister set out what investment is available to ICBs to ensure that shift from analogue to digital?”

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34. “I recently visited Leeds Crown court, where I saw the benefits of some of that investment in a victim support suite, which ensured that victims, particularly of violence against women and girls, were safe and secure. Does my hon. Friend agree that both the investment and the reforms that we are considering are necessary to deliver swift and fair justice for victims?”

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35. “The hon. Lady is making her case very personally and passionately, describing the harms to young people’s mental health that result from the predatory algorithms that the tech giants have devised to create addictive content for children. I, too, think that there is cross-party agreement on the need to look very carefully at how we protect children. Today I was on a call with members of the campaign group “36 Months”, discussing how they are approaching the issue in Australia. Does she agree, however, that the right approach is to have a full public consultation—as has been proposed—so that parents, schools and the rest of us can get this right, learning from evidence and learning from places such as Australia in order to protect our kids?”

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36. “I thank the hon. Member—I will call her my friend, as she gave way to me on the last sentence of her speech. She has made a powerful case for cross-party working, hearing different perspectives and bringing forward change quickly, but that is the point of consultation: to find out how we should do something, get the views of parents, schools and everyone else, and come out with something that will be effective in the long term. The Online Safety Act 2023 took far too many years, while this proposal bounces us into something when we are not even sure of what we are voting for. I say with huge respect for her that we should use the consultation process.”

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37. “I thank the Minister for his remarks, and I hope that part of the consultation will involve looking at research. The Born in Bradford study is a huge cohort study that has recently looked at social media use by 12 to 15-year-olds in the Bradford district. It found that they are using social media for 3.36 hours per day and that there are associated increases in anxiety and depression. Will the Minister ensure that the harms from social media that we already know about, including that research, will be factored in as he makes decisions, following the consultation, to act swiftly to protect our children from harm?”

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38. “Our politics are increasingly fragmented. There is a real threat that an extreme minority party could win a majority of seats with just a fraction of the popular vote at the next general election—the situation is urgent. Some 60% of the public now support proportional representation. Will the Minister meet me and other members of the all-party parliamentary group for fair elections to discuss the case for a national commission on electoral reform?”

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39. “Q7. Last week I met Lleyton, a T-level construction student at Bradford college. He was working on the remediation of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete at Airedale hospital. In the last few years, Bradford has made tremendous progress in reducing the rate of young people not in employment, education or training, so will the Prime Minister reconfirm his commitment to vocational and skills training and set out how this Labour Government are ensuring that young people like Lleyton have career opportunities in construction and other critical industries?”

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40. “The Public Accounts Committee recently had a hearing on environmental regulation with the Environment Agency and Natural England. Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that the transition to a new regulator is a huge undertaking and that there is a risk while it is being set up? We must not take our eyes off the enforcement and regulation of water companies to ensure that we reduce the amount of their pollution in the meantime.”

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41. “The regulator needs skills to take action on the finances, given the complex structures. How will we ensure that customers’ money is going where they want? How will the regulator take action on pollution and work with the Environment Agency on how farmers, who face many regulations, can play their part in cleaning up our rivers and seas? I urge the Minister to take all the actions in the water White Paper to make sure that companies such as Yorkshire Water are properly held to account in future.”

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42. “Despite the figures of £104 billion in investment and, for Yorkshire Water, £8.3 billion, it does not seem as if the shareholders are actually putting their hands in their pocket. It is the customers who will have to pay for the infrastructure upgrade and for the past failure of companies to invest. I would like to draw attention to a couple of other points on which I would welcome the Minister’s reassurance. I warmly welcome the creation of a new regulator, as the Public Accounts Committee has recommended. How will we ensure that it has the right skills and resources? The previous Government cut funding to the Environment Agency, which meant that it failed to do its job of prosecuting some incidents; I am pleased that under this Government we now have many cases in hand.”

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43. “The Committee has recently undertaken two reports, the first on water regulation and the second, not yet published, on environmental regulation. I will briefly quote findings from the first report: “Ofwat has failed to prevent companies taking excessive dividends, increasing levels of debt and setting up complex company structures, all of which have reduced their financial resilience. The sector’s risk profile has risen and customers must now pay investors higher returns as a result.” To illustrate the point, my own Yorkshire Water bill shows that 23% is just to finance debt, while 17% is spent on infrastructure investment. How can that be? Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for the bill payers being made to pay that debt. I urge the Minister to say how she will change the gearing of those companies that are so indebted.”

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44. “I put in a submission to the review, setting out some actions that I felt were necessary for fundamental reform of the water industry, so that it works better in the interests of customers and the public by clamping down on the illegal discharges of sewage, which are all too frequent. I am pleased to see that the Government have addressed quite a number of those issues in the water White Paper. I put on record my thanks to the People’s Water Commission, a group of campaigners, researchers and experts who came together to engage the public on their views about water. I particularly thank Becky Malby, a local resident who is involved in the Ilkley Clean River Group. I sit on the Public Accounts Committee; I do not know whether that is part of my entry on the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.”

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45. “I was pleased to vote for and support the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, which made sure we took immediate action to clamp down on the obscene bosses’ bonuses, including those that the chief exec of Yorkshire Water was receiving. Very sadly, the Kelda holdings company, which owns Yorkshire Water, also paid her a sort of behind-the-scenes £1.3 million extra payment, which I and others have been urging her to donate or give back. I hope that in future the companies meet the spirit of the legislation. I welcome the work of Sir Jon Cunliffe in bringing forward the Independent Water Commission.”

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46. “It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) on securing this important debate. My constituents in Shipley, with the lovely River Wharfe and River Aire flowing through, have been outraged at the levels of water pollution in them. They face high bills, while leaking infrastructure causes damage to roads and homes. Companies such as Yorkshire Water have been failing us for years now. We suffered last year from a failure to invest in new reservoirs, with an almost year-long drought starting in the spring. I very much welcome the fact that this Labour Government have come in with a determination to tackle those issues.”

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47. “Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that under the previous Government, light-touch regulation left our infrastructure crumbling? It is right that there will be asset mapping under the new proposals, so that we can finally know the state of the infrastructure and whether these investments are actually fixing the leaks.”

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48. “Will the Minister assure the House that the regional planning for water catchments will have a strong citizen voice embedded in it, as well as drawing on evidence and expertise?”

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49. “I draw my hon. Friend’s attention to Born in Bradford, an internationally recognised research cohort study. It has just launched the “In Real Life” trial with children in Bradford aged 12 to 15 to test whether reducing their social media use will reduce anxiety and improve their sleep and their relationship with their parents. Does my hon. Friend agree that such research and evidence will be essential to understanding the harmful impacts of social media on our young people?”

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50. “I am sure that the Minister is aware that it is the National Year of Reading. On the wider opportunities to get our kids off their screens, would she commend the work of the National Literacy Trust in trying to restore the joy of reading, and perhaps share her favourite childhood book with us? Mine was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.”

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