Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Kwasi Kwarteng(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered sudden unexplained death in childhood.
It is a great honour for me to give my first speech as a Back Bencher in about six years on this vital subject. We are here to discuss something that is incredibly difficult to deal with, emotionally very taxing, and one of the most serious medical phenomena in our country—something that has not had the public attention it deserves: sudden unexplained death in childhood, or SUDC.
This vital subject was brought to my attention while I was still in Government. Julia and Christian Rogers came to see me at the beginning of October, when I was still Chancellor of the Exchequer. In that role, I would not have been able to raise this vital subject personally. I pay tribute to my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer), for his diligence in pursuing the subject while I was still in Government. Luckily, as a matter of privilege to me, I can now raise it myself. I cannot think of a better, more urgent subject to raise in my first Back-Bench debate for many years.
When Julia and Christian came to see me in October 2022, they told me the story of their son, Louis, who tragically passed away in 2021 before he reached the age of two. Julia and Christian lived with Louis in Shepperton in my constituency, and they loved their little boy with all their hearts. Of course, no occurrence is more tragic than the death of a small child. It was particularly disturbing that they knew very little about the illness that took away Louis’ life. One can only imagine the horror of discovering one’s child lifeless, and the sheer bewilderment of trying to understand the causes of that tragedy.
Julia and Christian introduced me to other bereaved parents who had gone through this heart-wrenching occurrence. The national charity SUDC UK does vital work to promote more understanding and sensitivity around a subject that, as I said, has drawn too little attention in the past. SUDC is among the leading categories of death in England and Wales for children aged between one and four. As a community, we have to engage more vigorously with this phenomenon.
Technically, SUDC is the sudden and unexpected death of a child between one and 18 years of age. Those deaths, by their definition of sudden and unexpected, often remain unexplained after a thorough investigation, including a post-mortem. This is one of those areas that modern medical science has still not really got to the bottom of, despite the great advances we have made.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
It is good that we can unite and collaborate to address some of the issues raised by SUDC. Christian’s aunt is my constituent, so I learned about Louis from her. Many of us here are parents, and this issue is deeply worrying. Like the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer), I was a public health consultant and have come here from working in the NHS. This issue has not had the profile it needs—just 50 research papers, compared with 12,000 on sudden infant death syndrome. I hope we can do some joint working on the issue to raise the profile of risk factors and so on.
Corporate Transparency and Economic Crime
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Kwasi Kwarteng(2 years, 9 months ago)
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Kwasi Kwarteng
As I have said a couple of times, we did lead the way on SWIFT. I think that has been very effective in terms of the response of the German Government and my understanding is that they have shifted. I make no apology for defending London as a hub of capital, but we need to root out kleptocrats and dirty money.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
It is outrageous that the Government are only just introducing measures to deal with the £100 billion a year of illicit finance that this country, and especially the City, is awash with. Can the Secretary of State say how many of the 30 or so outstanding actions from the Government’s own 2019 to 2022 economic crime plan will be achieved by the actions he has identified today?
Kwasi Kwarteng
We are making very good progress on all those cases, but I bring to the hon. Lady’s attention the fact that the reform of Companies House that we are mooting is the first time in 200 years that it has been reformed in this way. I also highlight that we have led the way in the debate on SWIFT and on transparency in the international arena. Ministers from around the world are engaging with us directly on the effective measures we are bringing about.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Kwasi Kwarteng(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Kwasi Kwarteng
My hon. Friend is right to say that renewable energy manufacturing of all sizes has huge potential, not least in his constituency. At this stage, our initial focus is to establish a first-of-its-kind, large-scale manufacturing site of over 200 hectares, and after we have established that, we can look at strengthening the supply chain.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab) [V]