Infants, Parents and Carers Bill

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2026 Public Bill Committees

[Ruth Jones (Newport West and Islwyn) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain. I commend my friend, the right hon. Member for New Forest West, for introducing this excellent Bill. I am so pleased that, as No. 1 in the ballot, he chose this issue and to build on the work of Dame Andrea Leadsom in the other place. So many people in this Parliament, including my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South, have done so much good work to make sure that the Bill comes to fruition.

I spoke in support of the Bill on Second Reading, which was a real honour, and I would like to speak today in support of amendment 1, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft. I take on board what the right hon. Member for New Forest West said about the Bill’s intricacies—I defer to his abundant knowledge of intricacies, because he knows far more in this place than I do—but I support the amendment because it is all about the inequalities. We also know that a number of charities and NGOs support the amendment.

There are currently stark and stubborn inequalities in outcomes in the UK, and factors including ethnicity, family income, geography and disability are all associated with differences in the likelihood of parents and babies surviving pregnancy and the first parts of life. It is also so important to ensure that they are healthy and developing well as they go forward.

The amendment would not prescribe which services the Government must provide, nor would it require them to achieve specific outcomes through any single service. Instead, it would require the Government to understand and report on whether babies and their parents are doing well, where inequalities exist, and whether they change over time. Putting those requirements on the face of the Bill would ensure that outcomes and inequalities remain a consistent part of the Government’s assessment and reporting, regardless of future changes in policy, Parliament or personnel. Those were the important points for me.

Obviously, I defer to the right hon. Gentleman’s interpretation, but it is important to recognise that we cannot go forward with a Bill unless we know what it is measuring. We need a baseline, and we then need to be able to return to the data, year after year, and ask whether we are making progress. It is an issue if we cannot do that, because we cannot then adequately amend services to make sure that they work in the future.

I declare an interest as a physiotherapist for 32 years, many of which I spent as a paediatric physio, so I know how important the Bill is for pre-term babies, when they are in the womb. My physiotherapy colleagues now treat babies in the womb, which is amazing stuff, and surgeons also operate in the womb. The first 1,000 days are really important, as the right hon. Gentleman said, and this is about conception through to the first couple of years, as well as pre-conception planning.

Once the baby is born, whether or not they are born pre-term and go to a neonatal intensive care unit—in my day we called it a special care baby unit—we know that those first 1,000 days are so important for every baby across the UK. I say that as a Welsh MP, because Flying Start in Wales never went away—it is a bit shaky, but it never went away, compared with Sure Start in England. It is really important to make sure we have a level playing field for all mums and babies. The evidence is clear that a brain needs stimulation from day one, because its neuroplasticity becomes so much less after the age of five. That is really important.

Whether or not the amendment is accepted, I believe this is an excellent Bill. It is a good start that allows us to go forward united and make sure that we do the best we possibly can for parents and babies in the future. I pay tribute to the hard work undertaken by all the right hon. and hon. Members who have been here much longer than I have, and I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say.

[Rachael Maskell]

We are indebted to the right hon. Member for New Forest West for introducing the Bill, and for all the work he has done on this issue. I will start by focusing my contribution on clause 4(2)(b), on which this debate hinges. It looks at inputs into the services and then outcomes with respect to matters mentioned earlier in the Bill. We are talking about fine lines and distinctions, but they are incredibly important.

In my intervention, I talked about the need for outcomes. If we are serious about achieving equality in outcomes, we cannot simply start at the point of pregnancy or childbirth, as set out in the Bill, or the point at which someone becomes a prospective parent, as set out in the amendment. A prospective parent means someone who expects to become a parent as a result of a current pregnancy or someone who expects to become the parent or carer of an infant already born.

I raise this issue because taking a public health approach to pregnancy means acknowledging that many of the factors that impact on outcomes are determined preconception. One clear example is the exposure of infants to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Around 77% of parents at the point of conception have used alcohol, exposing the foetus to risk of developing FASD. The trajectory through pregnancy and beyond of that infant has therefore been impacted by what happened in preconception.

If we are serious about the outcomes as set out and addressing the inequalities, we cannot simply start at the point of conception because we would miss a huge opportunity to change the outcomes for those infants and address these issues. Given that children with FASD are now more prevalent than children on the autism spectrum, we must recognise the impact that focusing on preconception can have in ensuring that parents have support.

I spoke to my local director of public health just yesterday. As one might expect, he raised issues around smoking cessation, mental health, exercise and diet. Ensuring that women are healthy at the point at which they conceive means that their pregnancy will carry in a safer environment. If we are serious about addressing the inequalities, we must consider the opportunity provided by this amendment. There is some conflict, and that is why it is important to consider that through the earliest of years.

I also want to raise the factors that can have a real impact. Can the right hon. Member for New Forest West assure me that we are talking not just about physical, mental and emotional health, but environmental health? That would be an important public health intervention. I cannot count the times I have had to support pregnant women because they are in appalling housing conditions, which can cause real stress and anxiety throughout the pregnancy. That can lead to poorer outcomes.

It is important, when considering the Bill, that we are look holistically at women’s surroundings and make sure they have the support they need.