King’s Speech

Lord Mott Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mott (Con)]

My Lords, I want to address the parts of the gracious Speech aimed at improving the NHS. Attempts to reduce bureaucracy and duplication in the NHS with the Health Bill are welcome if they can be successfully delivered. However, we have seen little progress in more than a year since the abolition of NHS England was first announced, with it still recruiting hundreds of roles and its pay bill increasing, and I fear that it may be diverting attention away from front-line services.

In that vein, there are four areas on which I will focus my brief remarks today. First, I turn to cancer, particularly rare cancer. During the last Session we saw significant progress with the Rare Cancers Act. This is not a partisan issue and I was proud to support that legislation, but there is no silver bullet and improvements in treatment options for some rare cancers have not significantly improved for decades, so we cannot let the momentum stall. We need further improvements, including improved pathways for the approval of innovative treatments and faster genomic testing. I urge the Government to ensure that rare cancers do not slide down the priority list simply because recent legislation has been passed, and that we remain focused on getting new treatments to patients in need.

Prostate cancer is another issue on which I have campaigned extensively, and I know it is a cause shared by many noble Lords and Members in the other place. Early diagnosis is the difference between a treatable condition and a terminal one, yet one in five men who receive a diagnosis do so too late to be cured. Despite that, and despite it being the most common cancer in the UK, we continue to see a postcode lottery that determines a man’s survival chances and we still do not have a national screening programme. I urge the Government to commit to a more proactive, modernised screening programme and to consider the evidence gathered by the APPG on Prostate Cancer, of which I am an officer, including in the excellent recent report Diagnosing Prostate Cancer: Insights from Primary Care, potentially saving thousands of men every year.

Thirdly, I turn to the state of maternity care. It is no secret that, sadly, it remains a national disgrace that half of all NHS maternity units in England are currently rated as either “requires improvement” or “inadequate”. After a new assessment framework was introduced in 2024, two-thirds of the services rated since were “inadequate” or “requires improvement”, and not one has been “outstanding”. This is a failure of safety for mothers and newborns, who deserve much better. While it is disappointing that there was no explicit mention of maternity safety in the King’s Speech, the House must ensure that it is not forgotten. We await the independent review by the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, with high expectations, but the Government must be prepared to act on those findings immediately, not simply add them to the list of more than 700 existing recommendations from previous reviews. Whether the answers are legislative or operational, mothers must be able to trust the care they receive.

Fourthly and finally, I turn to the challenge of late diagnosis of and poor support for people with ADHD. At a recent meeting of the APPG on ADHD, the tragic death of Matthew Lock was discussed. He was diagnosed with ADHD far too late. His condition was missed by the system on multiple occasions and this ultimately led to him taking his own life. We need to do much more to help those with ADHD so that Matthew’s experience and those of his parents, Richard and Christine, are not repeated for many more families. Will the Minister commit to look again at the excellent work done by the NHS England ADHD taskforce to see what can be implemented without delay?

These four areas do not get the same attention as headline measures to tackle waiting lists, but each one represents an area where patients deserve better and it will ultimately save lives. I urge the Minister to take this contribution in the constructive manner it is intended so that these areas get the attention they deserve within the health system.

Network North

Lord Mott Excerpts

Wednesday 14th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I think the noble Baroness must have missed the fact that £1 billion is being spent on improving the north Wales line through electrification. In November we announced the £8.3 billion of truly additional highways maintenance funding over the period from 2023 to 2034. The next thing is for local road surfacing and wider highways maintenance. That covers £3.3 billion for local authorities in the north-west, the north-east, Yorkshire and the Humber, £2.2 billion for those in the West Midlands and the east Midlands, and £2.8 billion for those in the east of England, the south-east, the south-west and London.

[Lord Mott (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the investment in the north and the Midlands, particularly the improvement between Newark and Nottingham. I am very aware that East Anglia is not quite in the north of England but, if I may make a plug, can my noble friend the Minister give us an update on any extra funding or resources going into improving rail services in my home county of Cambridgeshire?

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

My Lords, the Ely area capacity enhancement programme comprises a series of infrastructure upgrades to increase rail freight and passenger capacity in the east of England. Ely is a key hub on the cross-country freight route from Felixstowe to the north Midlands. The other, via London, is at operating capacity. Existing infrastructure in the area and its layout limit the ability to operate additional passenger and freight services. The approximate cost for full delivery of the programme would be £550 million. The scheme would increase freight capacity into the Port of Felixstowe from 36 to 42 trains per day, but the good news is that this would be expected to remove 98,000 lorry journeys per year from the roads.