Danny Chambers MP: speeches

Speeches

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Thirteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I beg to move amendment 4, in clause 136, page 77, line 8, leave out from “smoke-free” to the end of line 15 and insert— “a place in England that is— (a) an NHS property or hospital building, (b) a school, college or higher education premises, (c) a children’s play area or playground, including outdoor public areas and frontages adjoining or surrounding such premises or designated areas.”. This amendment would specify which places the Secretary of State has power to designate as additional smoke-free places in England on the face of the Bill.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Thirteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  It is reassuring to hear the Minister talk about consulting before bringing in smoke-free places in specific public outdoor areas. Personally, as a non-smoker and someone who is very concerned about the public health impacts of passive smoking, I think we must also be mindful of the need for evidence-based interventions, and of the trade-offs. A good example is that of some fantastic pubs around Winchester and the Meon valley that have maybe two beer gardens, one to the side and one to the back. There would genuinely be no public health risk if smoking was permitted in one of the beer gardens and not the other. The Liberal Democrats want reassurance on that. One of the reasons we tabled our amendment to clause 136, which is coming up, is simply to get assurances that the hospitality sector will not be impacted by any of these decisions, especially if the public health benefits are negligible.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Thirteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. To reiterate what I said before, the Liberal Democrats’ aim is to avoid unintended consequences that really damage the hospitality industry that we totally support. Amendment 4 would limit the places where we ban smoking or designate smoke-free to an NHS property or hospital building, a school, college or higher education premises, and a children’s playground or play area. We are not against public health measures; we are trying to ensure that we do not end up with provisions that are a bit over the top and damage hospitality businesses.

• 27 Jan 2025 · Speech and Language Therapy · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank Mikey for being here today and for all his hard work to get to the point of having a debate. It takes a lot of campaigning to get as many people involved in a petition as he has done, and that is a fantastic tribute to him. I also thank the hon. Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) for introducing the debate. I was struck by his comment that speech therapy is not just a treatment, but a lifeline. That was certainly brought home to me recently. In Winchester last year, I visited an aphasia support group. Its members meet every couple of weeks and they all have speech issues caused by various types of brain damage, which could be caused by a brain injury, a stroke, a brain tumour or dementia. They told me that aphasia affects about 350,000 people in the UK. Jez Hodgkinson, who is part of the group, said: “Learning to live with aphasia takes hard work, luck and lots of support—and this isn’t helped by the lack of knowledge of the condition. I’d never actually heard of aphasia until I had a stroke so hence it’s so important to share our stories both inside the group and with the wider public—including those with a voice in parliament.” I also have personal experience of living with my father who had a series of mini-strokes and then dementia, and really struggled to communicate. He knew what words he wanted to say but he could not reach for them. It made communication difficult, and especially did not help a very independent farmer who had quite a hot temper at the best of times. All people who have difficulty communicating, whether it is the result of a hearing impairment, special educational needs or conditions such as strokes and Parkinson’s, have the right to participate in society fully and independently. Too often, those rights are not fully recognised. Everyone has talked about how fundamental it is for us to be able to communicate, because we are a social species; we function because we can communicate. Even with my veterinary background, I understand how fundamental that need is. Puppies communicate primarily by body language; when they have had their ears cut off or their tails docked, they lose that ability to communicate and cannot socialise—they get psychological issues or behavioural problems that last for their entire lives. And the issue is so much more important for humans who need to communicate with friends and family, access services and interact with strangers on a regular basis to be able to work and get an education. Everyone deserves independence and the opportunity to flourish, with them and their families supported so that they can express themselves and communicate with ease in the most comfortable way for them. Speech and language therapy can make a life-changing difference to the people it supports. It is a vital and overstretched service. In recent years, demand has risen at a faster rate than the number of therapists or the support they can offer. That desperately needs to be addressed. By improving outcomes, speech and language therapy can help to deliver better care, and actually save money for other parts of the NHS. We heard about supporting people who are unable to swallow properly; that can have a significant impact on reducing repeat chest infections. The hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) mentioned how every £1 spent on speech therapy can save £2.30 of NHS costs. When people ask how we can afford to do this, we have to ask, “How can we afford not to do this?” Children and adults are waiting far too long for the speech and language therapy they need. As the hon. Member for Lichfield has already said, it is a postcode lottery; there are huge differences in outcomes depending on where someone lives. Helping people to swallow, eat and communicate is an essential service, and everyone should be able to expect that support if and when they need it. We, the Liberal Democrats, are pressing for the NHS 10-year plan to address specifically the inadequate access to these speech and language therapies, and how that will be improved. We want the Government to develop a workforce strategy to end the chronic shortage of speech and language therapists, so that everyone can get the support that they need. As a slight aside, but on a related note, we have also long campaigned for more support for those communicating through British Sign Language. We have campaigned for it to have equal official status to the UK’s other languages, and we are campaigning for free access to sign language lessons for parents of deaf children. I visited St Peter’s primary school in Winchester recently. The headteacher was discussing how, since the covid pandemic, they had noticed a sharp rise in pupils struggling to communicate, as their speech and language had not developed as quickly as it did before the pandemic. We need to remember that it is not just people’s educational needs that are affected—both by covid and by speech and language challenges—but their entire social development and friendship groups as well. We are really pleased that this issue has been highlighted, and that we have had this debate today. I urge the Minister to push forward on this issue as fast as possible.

• 27 Jan 2025 · A&E Services: Solihull Borough · Hansard source

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  On the point about time spent waiting in A&E, one issue we have found in Winchester is that a significant proportion of the caseload consists of people with mental health issues—sometimes suffering a mental health crisis. Many of them are already on a waiting list, but some mental health waiting lists are hitting 18 months or two years from the point of referral to the necessary specialist treatment. That is putting a huge amount of pressure on our A&E departments, as it takes a huge amount of resources to deal with mental health crises. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that investing heavily in mental health services will also help to reduce A&E waiting times?

• 23 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Twelfth sitting) · Hansard source

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  To reinforce the point that athletes may be uncomfortable wearing that type of branding, they are not only role models for children, but the epitome of health, fitness and what the human body can achieve. It seems outrageous that they should be advertising harmful products.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Eleventh sitting) · Hansard source

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  As part of the solution, legislation must already be in place, because human and veterinary prescription-only drugs are not allowed to be advertised to the public, but they can be advertised to medical professionals. There must be legislation that prevents rogue companies from advertising in the UK products that they are not allowed to advertise to the general public, and I imagine that it should be incorporated into the Bill to address the problem that the hon. Gentleman talks about.

• 21 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Tenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  It is about not just the attractiveness of the packaging, but where products are located in the store. They are often near the sweets, so young people can go and grab some chocolate or sweets and a vape and then head out. One big benefit of changing the regulations is that vapes, like cigarettes, now have to be not only plain packaged, but kept behind the counter, where people have to ask for them. The culture of seeing them as something recreational, almost like junk food or a treat, would also be removed.

• 20 Jan 2025 · New Hospital Programme Review · Hansard source

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  In Hampshire and across the country in 2019 and 2024, Conservative MPs stood on the promise of delivering new hospitals, including one for Hampshire. However, it turned out that there was never any funding for that, and that those were just false promises to try to get votes. I have fought tirelessly to save and improve Winchester’s A&E and consultant-led maternity unit. With the announcement that construction of a proposed new hospital in Hampshire will not even start until between 2037 and 2039, we absolutely need to ensure that the current services are invested in and improved so that they remain fit for purpose. Given that the new hospital programme is delayed, it is more urgent than ever to increase capacity by fixing social care, so that those who are well enough to leave hospital can be cared for in the community, thus freeing up beds immediately. We cannot endure both insufficient social care packages and crumbling hospitals. Given this delay to the new hospital programme, will the Secretary of State commit to prioritising more social care packages now, rather than waiting three years for a review to be complete? Although the Health Secretary is not responsible for the state of the NHS or the state of the economy, which the Government inherited, the new hospital programme was seen as part of the solution to the crisis in the NHS, and people across the sector have warned that delaying the programme will only mean more treatments cancelled and more money wasted plugging holes in hospital buildings that are no longer fit for purpose. We are therefore concerned that one of the biggest announcements to affect the NHS over the next few years is coming out right now, during Donald Trump’s inauguration, because it will not get the media attention it deserves. Liberal Democrats therefore urge the Health Secretary to promise to release a full impact assessment on how the delays to the new hospital programme will affect patients and NHS staff.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Foot and Mouth Disease · Hansard source

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  It is good to see cross-party support for increased investment in Weybridge, which has long been needed, but my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) mentioned biosecurity, and we know that a great deal of illegally imported meat is coming through our ports. That is a huge biosecurity risk, and an even greater risk if there is foot and mouth on the continent. As well as investing in Weybridge and improving those facilities, can we look at how we can resource the port authorities properly to catch all this illegally imported meat?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate the hon. Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) on securing this debate. There are two chalk streams in the Winchester constituency—the River Itchen and the River Meon. The River Itchen flows through the heart of our city; it is not just a beautiful part of our environment but part our cultural heritage as well. There has been a lot of talk about chalk streams in the Chamber today, including in the eloquent contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings). However, we must remember never to take these streams for granted. There are only 210 chalk streams in the world, and 85% are in southern England. The biodiversity and ecosystems of some of them are completely unique, and these streams have been designated as sites of special scientific interest. In the southern chalk streams, for example, the Atlantic salmon are genetically distinct from those in the rest of the ocean. In that respect, dumping sewage and other pollutants in sites of special scientific interest is not only morally wrong but an act of ecological vandalism. Although we support many of the measures the Government have brought forward, after the last Government ignored sewage dumping for so long, we have a couple of specific concerns about chalk streams. One is about the recent statement confirming plans by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to scrap the chalk stream protective pack, without anything else being announced specifically to replace it. Chalk streams form over millions of years and are a unique part of our heritage. The Government need to recognise their importance and not merely lump action on them in with other protective measures. Will the Minister therefore please discuss the Department’s plans to put together a chalk stream-specific recovery plan and to achieve special protective status for all chalk streams? To finish off, I congratulate and pay tribute to all the community groups in Winchester that work so hard on chalk streams—the citizen scientists, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, and the river keepers. They are really working hard, and we and the Government need to support them in every way we can.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q2. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to the emergence of bacteria that are severely resistant to multiple antibiotics, and this is now seriously delaying the return of injured soldiers to the frontline. We know that, just like Mr Putin, these superbugs do not respect national borders. It is only a matter of time until we start to detect them in our NHS hospitals, and we know that antimicrobial resistance is a huge challenge facing us at the moment. Will the Prime Minister consider supporting the Ukrainian war effort by providing rapid diagnostic tests that can be used in the field and in civilian hospitals, which would not only enable us to diagnose and treat these resistant infections more quickly, returning soldiers back to the frontline more quickly, but provide valuable surveillance data to help global public health and protect our NHS from these dangerous bacteria?

• 14 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fifth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I am reticent to extend the discussion about cigarette papers; I was unaware it was possible to discuss something to such an extent. I am not legally trained, so I ask this for my own understanding as someone who is not a learned Member. If the exact same product was renamed and rebranded as model paper or musical instrument paper, would this law still apply to it?

• 14 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Sixth sitting) · Hansard source

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  On the subject of how nicotine affects the brain and brain development, one thing we have not really touched on—and we have touched on many physical health issues—is the incidence of smoking among people with mental health issues. One submission was from the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership, which said that 45% of people with a serious mental health issue smoke, and around 25% of people with clinical anxiety. It would stand to reason that the impact on a young person’s brain could also start to lead to serious mental health issues, as well as all the physical health and development issues.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  The entire country was appalled by the terrible crime of girls being groomed by gangs of older men, and outraged by the lack of action taken by authorities to help protect those victims. It is about 10 years since these crimes first came to light. Since then we have had the Jay inquiry, which has made 20 recommendations. Will the Government commit to implementing all those recommendations, in full and at pace, to help protect future victims?

• 13 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  6. What steps her Department is taking to help tackle violence against women and girls.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Sixth-form College Strikes: Sussex · Hansard source

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  This is a huge problem in my constituency. Between Sparsholt agricultural college, which provides specialist training, as has just been mentioned, and Peter Symonds sixth-form college, which is one of the biggest sixth-form colleges in the country, a total of almost 9,000 students are affected by this pay disparity and the resulting dispute just in my constituency alone. Does the Minister agree that the Government need to start viewing education as an investment not just in our young people, but to grow the economy, not purely as a cost to be cut, which seems to have been the case over the last few years?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourth sitting) · Hansard source

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  We could rephrase the way we talk about civil liberties. We currently have a generation among whom some are addicted and have no choice, and we will be allowing a future generation to be free from having their choice taken away by addiction.

• 9 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I agree with everything that has been said; the Minister has given a powerful summary. We have discussed freedom of choice and the lack of it, and I remind hon. Members of the extreme examples provided by some of the expert witnesses yesterday: they talked about someone who had their leg amputated purely because of complications as a result of smoking, and who, the same day, felt the need to light up another cigarette. There is no freedom of choice when someone is addicted to this substance. This might sound comical, but it shows that there is no safe level of passive smoking: as vets, we struggle to manage asthma in pets—in dogs and cats—that come from houses where the owners smoke. That is how dangerous it is. This Bill is obviously about public health—I am not trying to conflate human and animal health—but the perception that there is a safe level of smoking is utterly wrong.

• 9 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourth sitting) · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Mr Dowd. I am not sure whether this is a point of order, and I am not sure how the other parties voted on this, but this was a non-whipped vote for the Liberal Democrats. It is not a Liberal Democrat amendment; it is an amendment from an individual MP. The entire Liberal Democrat health team certainly do not support the amendment to change the minimum age of sale to 25, and the majority of the Liberal Democrat party voted in favour of the Bill as a whole. I want to put it on the record that the Lib Dems are not in favour of the amendment.

• 9 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Third sitting) · Hansard source

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  I accept the view that having to provide ID will be inconvenient and frustrating for some people, but all the expert witnesses on Tuesday pointed out that many smokers do not wish the younger generation to continue smoking. I think that most of them would probably be of that view that the slight infringement of their civil liberties in having to carry ID is a small price to pay for the knowledge that they are preventing smoking from being taken up.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q I am assuming that from a public health point of view, looking at the epidemiology, certain communities and demographics will be more greatly affected by this. Is that something that you are mindful of? How do you see the Bill changing health inequalities? Alison Challenger : We are very mindful of that. Some of the statistics we give around smoking prevalence are an average smoking prevalence for often quite large geographical areas. For my own area in west Sussex, our local survey suggests there is a variance of 4.3% in our most affluent area compared with 16% in our least affluent area. Those are still averages. We also know that in households in the most deprived part of our area, 40% of children are exposed to cigarette smoking from a parent or carer. That is through our own survey. The point I am trying to make is that there is very much a health gradient, and in those who are most disadvantaged and living in our most disadvantaged areas, we see both higher rates of smoking and more children exposed to that smoking. Those children are more likely to take up smoking if they have been exposed to it.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q Is there a ballpark figure for a general day? When you have a list of paediatric respiratory cases, are maybe 10% or 20% due to this? Professor Steve Turner: The children who are exposed to second-hand smoke in the home are over-represented among children with respiratory symptoms. Parents do not want their children to smoke, so they feel torn. They are conflicted: they are addicted to nicotine, but they do not want their children to smoke, and having a smoke-free generation will address that almost impossible parental conflict.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  That is well articulated. Thank you.