AstraZeneca

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

It is not entirely dependent on our AstraZeneca programme, and indeed, as I have already pointed out, the piece of work in which it was intending to invest—I hope I will get the science right—was changing the way in which it would create the nasal flu vaccine for children from an egg-based to a cell-based system. It has now decided not to do that, but to stick to the egg-based system. I think that if the chief scientific adviser or the chief medical officer has anything on which to update the House, he and/or she will do so.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

Despite AstraZeneca’s decision, the UK biotech industry almost doubled last year to £3.4 billion, but it was concentrated in just a few companies. Will the Minister commit to looking at some of the trial research rules to enable smaller companies to work better with NHS trusts so that start-ups and local firms can prosper?

[Chris Bryant]

My hon. Friend is right: not only do we need to enable smaller companies to start up, but we need to enable them to grow to scale. Otherwise, the danger is that we develop the good idea, someone else ends up buying the intellectual property, and all the value disappears out the UK’s back door. When I met the husband-and-wife team who run BioNtech—they are amazing, not least in respect of some of the work they have done in developing immunotherapy, which is probably the stuff that saved my life when I had stage 4 cancer—they spoke warmly and glowingly about all the work that they want to do in the UK, alongside the work of AstraZeneca. As my hon. Friend says, we need to get small companies set up, to grow them, and to enable them to be world leaders like AstraZeneca.

Oral Answers to Questions

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Wednesday 8th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising this matter. We are committed to building those 1.5 million homes, which includes 4,500 new homes every year in Cornwall. I do recognise the point that the hon. Member makes, which is that excessive concentrations of short-term lets and second homes in places such as Cornwall can impact the availability and affordability of homes. That is why we will enable councils to charge a premium on the council tax bills of second homes, abolish the furnished home lettings regime and introduce a registration scheme for short-term lets. I am happy to make sure that he and his Cornish colleagues get the meeting that they want with the Housing Minister to discuss that further.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

Q13. This Government are committed to using the criminal justice system to tackle violence against women and girls, but when an abuser can use a child custody battle to continue their abuse, as has happened in the case of one of my constituents, it is clear that we need to raise the issue in the civil courts too. Will the Prime Minister please look at ending the absurd assumption that a domestic abuser’s involvement in a child’s live is advantageous to their welfare?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, absolutely. My hon. Friend is right; family courts must never be a tool that domestic abusers can use to continue their appalling abuse. That is why we are expanding the number of new pathfinder courts to provide dedicated support to survivors and protect the welfare of children. We are reviewing the presumption of parental involvement and will set out our position in due course. I will make sure that he meets the relevant Minister to discuss this further.