Kirstene Hair
Main Page: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)Department Debates - View all Kirstene Hair's debates with the Leader of the House
(5 years, 9 months ago)
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Andrea Leadsom
As ever I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for prior notice of some of the very important topics that Back Benchers would like to speak about. I think that goes to the shadow Leader of the House’s point that parliamentarians are keen to talk about a huge range of topics. I absolutely support them and pay tribute to them for that. I will of course consider giving the hon. Gentleman time.
Kirstene Hair (Angus) (Con)
On Sunday I again hosted the Contact the Elderly Brechin community afternoon tea at Farnell church. It was a fantastic event at which people put the world to rights—and we also had far too much cake potentially. Will my right hon. Friend join me in celebrating the fantastic work of Irene Heron and Jean Malcolm, two local community champions, and may we have a debate in this place about how we can all work collectively to combat loneliness?
Andrea Leadsom
My hon. Friend raises a very important issue. I congratulate her on doing so and on the great charity work going on in her constituency, and I join her in paying particular tribute to Irene and Jean.
Loneliness can cause significant ill health, yet up to a fifth of the UK adult population feel often or always lonely. To tackle this pressing public health issue we have established a cross-Government fund dedicated to a cross-Government strategy that has almost 60 new policy ideas from nine Government Departments. So the Government are determined to tackle this. My hon. Friend and many other hon. Members do their own support in their own constituencies and deserve great credit for doing so.