Air Passengers With Dementia

Henry Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Oliver Colvile]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very strong case. As he knows, I sit on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, and this is a discussion that we should have at some stage.

I am told that 80% of workers at Gatwick airport are dementia-friendly. Indeed, I am very keen to become a dementia friend myself, but I have a bit of work to do before that will happen. Ian Sherriff has said that he will help me with that.

Gatwick airport has come up with an option for people travelling with hidden disabilities to have a discreet sign, which demonstrates that they may need additional support as they travel through the airport.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

I apologise for missing the first part of my hon. Friend’s speech. I was caught out by the early end of the Second Reading debate on the Wales Bill. I pay tribute to Gatwick airport in my constituency for its lanyard scheme, which means that those with hidden disabilities and dementia can be better assisted on their travels through the airport. Does he agree that the airport leads the way in these enhancements for passengers?

[Oliver Colvile]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend has got that 100% right. Gatwick has been leading the way, but it will be very interesting to see how many emails and letters I get from other airports around the country and in Northern Ireland after this debate. As he says, the lanyard initiative is incredibly helpful, as it identifies those who are in need of help.

Help could also include: giving passengers more time to prepare at check-ins and security; allowing passengers to remain with their family at all times; giving passengers a more comprehensive briefing on what to expect from their travelling experience; and helping passengers to read a departure board or sign. Those are all about patience, and we must try to ensure that we can deliver that sort of help. These passengers may be low on confidence because of their conditions so these subtle yet highly helpful improvements will help passengers to get through what can be the difficult process of travelling through an airport.

As the House will know, national dementia awareness week was last month and the Alzheimer’s Society was on hand at the airport to discuss dementia with travellers and carers. That kind of education should be rolled out across the country. Today, I am calling on other airports across the UK to implement such a strategy of engagement with travellers.

I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister does not mind me speaking about this, but it is my sincere hope that should Plymouth City airport be reopened—I know that his Department is currently studying the viability of such a project—it will become the first regional dementia-friendly airport. I hope that he does not mind me taking this opportunity to press him on that.

I am delighted to report that there are airlines that are taking the issue of flying with dementia very seriously. Indeed the provision for passengers suffering with dementia are covered by both long and short-haul airlines, such as Virgin Atlantic and easyJet. I am acutely aware that easyJet is based in Crawley, in the constituency of my hon. Friend.

[Henry Smith]

I should like to pay tribute to easyJet, whose largest hub is at Gatwick airport, and to Virgin Atlantic, which is headquartered in my constituency. I am fortunate to have such responsible airline companies operating from my constituency.

[Oliver Colvile]

Flying can be an extremely stressful and uncomfortable experience, both for passengers who suffer from hidden disabilities and for their carers. I pay tribute to carers, as they have an awful lot of work to do to try to make sure that their patients—if that is the right word—are looked after and do not become flustered and so on.

As I mentioned, the lanyard initiative began about a month ago, so I have not seen any data showing the impact of the scheme, but I believe that it will be highly beneficial for travellers. Airports and airlines that show some understanding of the problem will do very much better, and they may want to put a sticker on their products saying that they operate a dementia-friendly service.

Moving forward, my hon. Friend the Minister may want to work with his international counterparts to formulate a globally recognised card or symbol that could be carried around in a passport to subtly tell airport staff and cabin crew that the traveller may need extra assistance. That is something that could be done whether we stay in or leave the European Union next month.

I was delighted to see research and a proposal by Dr Alexis Kirke of Plymouth University, which is based in my constituency, on the in-flight experience for accompanied travellers with dementia. Passenger announcements, in-flight entertainment and other ways to help travellers with hidden disabilities can go a long way towards easing the burden of travel. Proposals include making sure that announcements made during the flight are not distorted—for example, people can wait to make them until the plane has levelled off. Cabin crew are highly trained, but it is helpful to go that extra mile for someone who may be particularly distressed as a result of their condition. Music is also an effective way of helping a passenger with dementia to manage their mood. Perhaps we could have dementia-friendly entertainment systems on flights.

Ian Sherriff has informed me that the air transport group has even deployed its own version of a secret shopper, whereby a passenger suffering from dementia travelled on a flight with their carer. From what I have been told, the passenger and the carer were treated like royalty, and that is something that everyone across the industry should aspire to work towards. However, around the world, there is still much to do to ensure that hidden disabilities are treated with the same urgency and caution as physical disabilities. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister for taking a very keen interest in this, and doing a great deal of work on it.

I look forward to the Minister’s response. I have certainly been sent an awful lot of information, and I have been lobbied very hard in the past few days since the announcement on the scheduling of this debate, and I am sure that he has been lobbied too. Will he spell out the kind of help that his Department can give to the air transport group? I should be delighted if he updated the House on his Department’s progress on helping air travellers with dementia. Perhaps he could subsequently tell us how we can try to encourage the train companies to do the same thing. As I have suggested, I should be grateful if he looked further into an internationally recognised card for travellers with hidden disabilities. Will he make a commitment to mandate that all airports in the UK become at the very least hidden disability aware?

I have been involved in the fight against dementia since I was first elected to Parliament in 2010. I am delighted to be a member of the all-party parliamentary group on dementia, and I have sought to become heavily involved in the issues surrounding hidden disabilities such as dementia, mental health and autism.

This is a very personal issue for me. I had a stepmother who was taken into a home because she was suffering from dementia. Sadly, she died within the past five years. She was incredibly bright, had served at Bletchley Park and got a degree at Oxford University in the 1930s. One of the things that was very interesting about her was that while she was working at Bletchley Park, she followed a man called General Kesselring, who was in charge of the north African campaign for the Germans during the war. He was put on trial at Nuremburg and sentenced to death. The court then got hold of her translations and worked out that he probably did not know too much of what he was doing under his own command, and his sentence was therefore commuted to life imprisonment. Before my stepmother died, the Prime Minister sent her a plaque commemorating her activities at Bletchley Park.

My city, Plymouth, has been at the forefront of dementia research and Plymouth University has just employed a PhD student on the very topic of air travel for people with dementia. I understand that she will be producing a dissertation of 80,000 words. Do I want to read 80,000 words? Nevertheless, I am sure it will be incredibly good. The House will be delighted to know that my contribution will be much less than that this evening.

I hope that over time the UK will ensure that all people with hidden disabilities are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. After all, we all grow older and we do not know whether we may suffer from dementia in the future. We must come to terms with the fact that long-term care for the elderly will probably affect all of us. I shall be interested to hear how the Government intend to move forward. The Secretary of State for Health has done an extremely good job on that. I look forward to hearing the response of my hon. Friend the Minister.