Defibrillators

Debate between Graham Stringer and Susan Murray

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Susan Murray (Mid Dunbartonshire) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for raising this important issue and for highlighting that every day in the United Kingdom, people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and do not survive, when they might have been saved by access to a defibrillator.

In my constituency, more than 60% of people live in a defib desert. Concerned about that, Kirkintilloch Rob Roy football club has compiled a list of locations of defibrillators in its area and shared the information widely, while groups such as Torrance parish church and Milngavie and Bearsden Men’s Shed have equipped their facilities with them. The efforts of people in our communities are saving lives, and the increasing number of defibrillators is a good sign. While there are still not enough, we are heading in the right direction.

I want to highlight the Lauren’s law campaign, which was started following the sudden death of a 19-year-old from an asthma attack and calls for the provision of non-prescription salbutamol asthma inhalers at defibrillator sites. In that way, we can save even more lives by having emergency equipment available and accessible in our communities. I urge the Government to make defibrillators easier for our communities and first responders to access—and by providing inhalers in the same locations, we can prevent even more unnecessary deaths.

[Graham Stringer (in the Chair)]

We come now to the Front-Bench contributions. I ask spokespeople to keep their speeches to about eight minutes, which will leave a very short time for the Member in charge to respond to the debate.

Inheritance Tax: Family-owned Businesses

Debate between Graham Stringer and Susan Murray

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Susan Murray]

I thank the hon. Member for raising that issue. I have seen the research and will refer to it later in my speech. That was a timely publication.

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Middleton South) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for being generous on this important issue. When she spoke about the contribution that family businesses make, she could have been talking about J. W. Lees, a brewery in my constituency that has a nearly 200-year history of making contributions to the local community and brewing very good beer, or to Joseph Holt, which is on the edge of my constituency. The Confederation of British Industry estimates that the proposed changes to business property relief will lose the Government nearly £1.9 billion. Does the hon. Lady agree that before the Government go through with the changes, they should have a consultation that looks at the impact on tax and local family businesses?

[Susan Murray]

I completely agree: it appears that there are many factors the Government have not taken into account.

The situation was brought home to me by a local company in my constituency: Archibald Young Ltd Founders and Engineers, a family-run foundry that has been operating in Kirkintilloch since 1959—not quite as long as the business mentioned by the hon. Member for Blackley and Middleton South (Graham Stringer). I thank Ian Young for sharing his company’s position and highlighting the vital role that it plays in defence by producing high-precision critical components. Since it was established, the company has grown steadily over three generations. At one time, Scotland had over 260 foundries; it now has 12, of which 11 are family-owned, and all are third generation.