Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ashley Dalton]

Through the medium-term planning framework, which we published in October 2025, we set out those expectations. We will continue to work with trusts to develop them to make sure that people with ADHD, or suspected ADHD, get the support they need. I am more than happy to meet the APPG to discuss these matters further.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Roughly 50% of the young people on the books of child and adolescent mental health services in south Cumbria have ADHD or autism. The integrated care board provides no funding whatever to acknowledge that. That is a huge burden on those young people and their families. It stops them getting back into school and so on, but it is also a burden on all the other young people waiting for treatment for things like eating disorders. Will the Minister pay personal attention to this—obviously, it is her ICB as well—to make sure that children with autism and ADHD are properly supported through our CAMHS services?

[Ashley Dalton]

As it is the ICB shared by my constituency, I am equally concerned. This will be explored as part of the review and I am more than happy to ask the Minister responsible to contact the hon. Gentleman further on how we can take that forward.

NHS: Winter Preparedness

Tim Farron Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

That is very good advice on vaccination. If people require health services and it not an accident or an emergency, they should call 111, visit the website or use the NHS app. There are plenty of services available to help people, but as people will have seen on their television screens and social media feeds, the current pressures mean that the emergency department is not a place to be, unless they have had an accident or it is a genuine emergency.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Across Cumbria and Morecambe Bay, the teams working in A&E, on hospital wards and in our ambulance crews are doing a stunning job dealing with the winter pressures in a community where, in my constituency, the average age is 10 years above the national average. Their jobs are made more difficult by the fact that 25% or more of the beds in our local hospitals are occupied by people who do not meet the criteria to reside. On top of that, the local trust in Morecambe Bay is planning to make bed cuts for financial reasons alone. We hear about additional investment in the NHS, but it does not feel like we are having that in Morecambe Bay and Cumbria. Will the Secretary of State personally investigate that, so that we are not cutting beds at a time when we need them more than ever?

[Wes Streeting]

We do flex beds depending on needs. For example, there were just over 101,000 beds open on average per day in the past week, which was up on the previous week and broadly the same as it was this time last year. We are investing in the NHS, and we have to ensure that people get the right care, in the right place at the right time. That means not just investing in secondary care; if anything, it means investing in the front and back doors of the hospital—primary care, community services and social care—to deal with the flow of patients through hospitals.

I do not pretend that these are easy issues or that everything is going swimmingly in the NHS—quite the opposite. I have seen conditions on our screens in the past week or two that I would not want to be treated in, someone I love to be treated in, or anyone to be treated in. It is a reflection of that fact that we inherited an NHS that was in enormous crisis. It will take time to recover. The key for me is achieving year-on-year improvements to get the NHS back on its feet and to ensure it is fit for the future.

Pandemics: Support for People with Autism

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jack Abbott]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that that had a huge impact on many autistic and vulnerable children, not least because of the lack of clear and consistent communication that I am outlining. I will not go into the issue of school closures—the Minister may touch on that in a moment—but of course they had a profound impact on all children, and we are seeing the effects of it.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Member and his marvellous constituent Ivan, who he is speaking about so passionately and affectionately. Does he agree that support for autistic children and their families must be treated as a priority during and in the aftermath of pandemics and other crisis events of that sort? In my constituency, the parent of a three-year-old child who is showing clear signs of autism has been waiting for 18 months for a community paediatric assessment and just as long for dietetic support for suspected avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. That delay is already affecting his development and nutrition at a critical stage. Does the hon. Member agree that neurodevelopmental and early years services must be properly resourced and protected, and not sidelined, so that such children are not left without support when they need it the most?

[Jack Abbott]

I agree wholeheartedly with the hon. Gentleman.

In February 2021, Ivan’s parents, Jayne and Gary, wrote to the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, describing how their son was struggling and pleading with him for help. Ivan sent me a copy of the letter a few months ago, and it is truly heartbreaking; you can hear Jayne and Gary’s desperation, helplessness and heartbreak as they watched their son in immense pain, powerless to help. They did finally receive a response, but it was a full 13 months later. It is not lost on me that illegal parties were likely taking place in No. 10 at the very time the Ambroses’ letter arrived.

I have met Ivan several times and I think he is a hugely inspirational person. He has turned his trauma and suffering into incredible determination, and he has spent the last four years campaigning and fighting to make sure that no one has to go through what he did. He launched an online petition in 2022 calling for autistic people’s needs to be met in a future pandemic response. Although he failed to get the 10,000 signatures for a Government response, he persisted none the less. He has featured across our local media, trying to raise awareness, and over the last few years his campaign has had a real impact. Recently, he was asked to submit evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Autism Act 2009 and his evidence features in the Committee’s report. I know he is very proud of that, as he absolutely should be.

We hope and pray that pandemic-type events never occur again, but hope and prayers alone are not a responsible strategy. If this sort of tragedy should occur again, we need to make sure that autistic people, neurodivergent people and all vulnerable people are properly considered and supported.

The UK covid-19 inquiry recently published its module 2 report of its investigation into the previous Government’s response to the pandemic. The verdict was clear: that Government did not adequately consider the needs of disabled people. Neither the Minister with responsibility for disabled people nor the disability unit played a direct role in the Government’s initial strategy from January to March 2020. Neither had any part in the discussions about whether to implement lockdown, or how the effects of that decision might be mitigated.

It was not until 21 May 2020, two whole months after the country went into lockdown, that the position of disabled people was even considered at interministerial level. Disabled people were an afterthought; their needs and how the Government response to the pandemic might affect them were not considered. Ivan and thousands of other autistic and neurodivergent people across the country bear the consequences of that negligence today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

As I answered in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery), we will absolutely ensure that we learn the lessons of the last Government’s failure.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Does the Minister agree that it is completely wasteful to make cancer patients who need to go for chemotherapy in Carlisle on a Wednesday but who live in, say, Kirkby Stephen to have to travel to Carlisle on the day or on the day before to get their bloods taken? Why is that? Because the local hospital will no longer fund the local GP surgery in Kirkby Stephen or Appleby to take their bloods there. Is it not wrong that those GP surgeries can no longer provide secondary healthcare blood services in their own settings in people’s own communities?

[Karin Smyth]

As he often does, the hon. Gentleman highlights in his own very rural constituency some of the fundamental problems at the heart of our NHS. That is why we are reforming it, ensuring that we move hospital services from hospitals into the community and developing neighbourhood health services. We are also looking at the financial flows in the system that lead to these sorts of perverse incentives and funding arrangements, which do damage to his constituents, as they do to many others and to rural and coastal communities. That is why we highlighted that in the 10-year plan. We need to see the end of such examples.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I would be delighted to look at the issue that my hon. Friend raises. I am only sorry that I missed the party last week.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Lancashire and South Cumbria integrated care board is having to make savings of £142 million this year, and the backdrop to that is a loss of wards at Barrow, Lancaster and Kendal. We hear a lot about additional money for the NHS. Why is none of it coming to Cumbria?

[Wes Streeting]

It is not the case that none of the money is going to Cumbria. We are taking action to deal with the persistent overrunning and over-spending of NHS budgets, which was an intolerable situation that we had to get a grip on. We are investing £26 billion more in the NHS, and that will rise over the course of this Parliament. We will make sure that every part of the country gets its fair share, not least through the deprivation-linked funding that I mentioned. I know that it is bumpy for ICBs as we get them back to balance, but believe me it will be worth it in the end when we have a sustainable NHS that is fit for the future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 17th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I can well understand the hon. Member’s concern and her constituents’ concern. Practice closures are hard on communities wherever they are, but they disproportionately hit rural communities and those that suffer with poor transport connectivity. I would urge her in the first instance to raise the specific local issues with the ICB. However, I reassure her and other right hon. and hon. Members that the needs of rural, coastal and remote communities are very much in our mind—and, crucially, in the 10-year plan—and our thinking about how we build genuine neighbourhood health services in all types of neighbourhood.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

5. What steps his Department plans to take to ensure mental health services are fully staffed in rural areas.

[The Minister for Care (Stephen Kinnock)]

I know this is an important issue for the hon. Member from the meeting we had about it last year. This Government are supporting local providers by recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament. We are also expanding NHS talking therapies and piloting six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres, including Hope Haven serving Whitehaven and rural Copeland.

[Tim Farron]

I thank the Minister for his reply, but this month the Care Quality Commission found high levels of staff vacancies in the already understaffed psychiatric intensive care units and acute mental health wards in South Cumbria, concluding that this is putting patient safety “at risk”. Yet, worryingly, the ICB in South Cumbria is making additional cuts of £142 million this year, with North Cumbria also making cuts. In the light of that, what is his plan to intervene to ensure that mental health staffing in Cumbria is increased to safe levels?

[Stephen Kinnock]

I thank the hon. Member for that. There is no doubt that the NHS, universities and others need to do more to get students, trainees and qualified doctors and mental health specialists in places where the NHS and patients need them. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan later this year to ensure that the NHS has the right people in the right places to care for patients when they need it.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Tim Farron Excerpts

Report stage
Friday 13th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Smith]

On the first point, I do not believe that the Bill is strong enough as it stands. On the second point, we are already dealing with the fact that families are not even guaranteed knowledge of their loved one having an assisted death, so I do not think the hon. Lady’s point is entirely to be considered.

As it stands, the Bill would disapply the duty of the coroner to investigate in the case of an assisted death that has been carried out in accordance with the Bill’s provisions. New clause 15, specifically, would amend the Coroners and Justice Act to clarify that assisted death does not constitute “unnatural death” for the purposes of the Act. I think it takes an extraordinary leap of imagination not to conceive of deliberately self-administering lethal drugs as anything but an unnatural death.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way; I want to support her in what she is saying. We are going through a process, as we consider the appalling situation of coercive control in domestic abuse cases, where a person who is a victim may not realise they have been a victim until years later. Obviously, a person who has gone through an assisted death will have no years later. Is the amendment not a way of making sure that we guard against the evil of coercive control?

[Rebecca Smith]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and I completely agree with him. These are the sorts of safeguards that even the promoter of the Bill is saying should be there. I do not think that they are in the Bill and my amendment to new clause 15 would make them much stronger.

--- Later in debate ---

Over the past months, I have tabled amendments that I thought would help get the Bill—if it becomes law—to a point of ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected. My amendments 19 and 20 would work to edit the code of practice for the Bill to ensure that there is clear guidance with regard to doctors’ duties, suicide prevention, article 2 on the protection of human life, and interaction with the Mental Health Act. The Bill is currently blind on what to do with people detained in hospital and patients presenting with suicidal thoughts. I have great concerns that many people who are quite unwell psychologically will start presenting to services seeking an “assisted death” rather than presenting with suicidal ideation.

[Tim Farron]

I will not be the only person in this place who has lost someone they loved to suicide. In listening to what has been said recently by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which is not opposed to the Bill in principle, the penny dropped for many of us that many people given a terminal diagnosis will have mental health issues that come with that. How does the hon. Member think we can distinguish between a person who chooses to end their own life because of a mental health issue caused by despair from having a terminal illness and somebody who wants to end their life because of despair caused by something else? Does that not blur our approach to the importance and sanctity of life and to preventing suicide in every circumstance?

[Dr Spencer]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. Of course, these are difficult things to disentangle. People will say, “You would say this, wouldn’t you, Ben?”, but we should get the person in front of a psychiatrist or a clinical nurse specialist working in psychiatry. This is what psychiatry does; this is what it is about. That is why I tabled amendments to ensure that the person is put in front of a psychiatrist as part of the process to deal with the blind spot. [Interruption.] Apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker; I will finish now.

My amendment would ensure that the code of practice clarifies the interaction with services.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir John Hayes]

I am afraid that I disagree. There are numerous cases where people will be encouraged, and perhaps even forced, to take a decision, when they are coping with illness and at their most vulnerable—when they are frightened, doubtful and distressed, and may be unbalanced. Of course we have to protect against that eventuality if the Bill is to be passed.

[Tim Farron]

On that point, evidence from exit interviews shows that 35% of people choosing an assisted death in Canada and 47% in Oregon listed as their reason for doing so that they felt they were a burden to their family.

[Sir John Hayes]

The hon. Gentleman anticipated what I was about to say; I have cited exactly that evidence many times during the debate. We need to look at the experience elsewhere to inform what we do here. We always do that when we pass the right laws in this place.

There is worse news than that, because rather than being improved during its passage, the Bill has in many ways got worse, in particular by giving additional powers to Ministers—so-called Henry VIII powers. When the two words “delegated legislation” are mentioned in this place, we should always be fearful; when the words “ministerial discretion” are used, be doubly fearful. I said that looking directly at Government Front-Bench Members, but I could have been looking at the Conservative Front Bench. The Bill gives permissive powers to Government to make all kinds of changes. I want to take some of those to illustrate my point.

The Bill empowers Ministers to amend the Suicide Act, including the offence of encouraging suicide. They can rewrite the principles of the NHS, in section 1 of the National Health Service Act, to read, “secure improvement in the mental health of the people of England and Wales and end the lives of the terminally ill”. They can amend the NHS Act to specify that this service is not free of charge. The Bill points only to the section of the National Health Service Act that says,

“services to be provided free of charge except where charging expressly provided for”.

They can amend the definition of a registered medical practitioner, so it is not a doctor carrying out the assessment. And so on and so forth.

That is why the amendment in the name of the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) is so vital. The speech she gave was among the best speeches I have heard in this House. The passion she feels for vulnerable people and the difference the NHS makes to them is not only felt on the Labour Benches, as she well knows, regardless of the theatre. We all come to this place to ensure that the least fortunate have a voice; that those with less power are given a little more by our advocacy.

In conclusion, I say to the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) that there has never been any doubt about the depth of her piety. Let us now be sure about the breadth of her mind. If she really wants the Bill to be passed in a way that is palatable, then she must surely accept the amendments I have supported and highlighted in this brief—all too brief—contribution.

NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service

Tim Farron Excerpts

Monday 19th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We want to make sure that people in her constituency and all our constituencies who have volunteered or who want to—those who perhaps could not at the time, but want to in the future—can do so. Those who are already on the system and have received an email can register via that portal, and we will make sure it is easy for people to do so in future.

I have been reminded by a note that people who volunteered in the very early weeks of the pandemic might have been on a slightly different system from those who volunteered later on, so I think there will be a slightly different process for them. We do not want to lose them. Those who have received an email can register through that portal, but we will make sure that more opportunities are available when that is launched, and I will be happy to update the House when that happens.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

I take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to all the NHS volunteers across the country, but especially those in Westmorland. It was a privilege to join with them—alongside my children, actually—to deliver prescriptions during that period, but the work of the volunteers in the NHS is not over. In communities such as mine, we particularly depend on volunteer drivers to help people in rural communities who live hours away from hospital or from doctors’ appointments. As such, will the Minister take this opportunity to direct integrated care boards and trusts in Cumbria to support those volunteer drivers, so that volunteers are valued and patients are not isolated?

[Karin Smyth]

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point on behalf of his community, as well as rural communities more widely, about the role of volunteer drivers. We need volunteer drivers across a range of areas—in fact, my husband is out volunteering as I speak, driving for another charity. We need more of these people. There are plenty of opportunities for people who have time, and NHS England will continue to work with ICBs to make sure we take forward the best of what we already have into the rest of the NHS.

Hospitals

Tim Farron Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

In rural communities like mine, our issues are very often about the distances that we have to travel in order to get any kind of healthcare, but particularly to reach hospitals. In Morecambe bay, which covers three quarters of my constituency population-wise, we are funded as if we have one hospital, but have to have three. One way that we have got around that is to have funding for GP surgeries to provide minor injury care in places like Grange, Ambleside, Hawkshead and beyond—yet, as of 1 April, our local integrated care board has cancelled that funding. There was a total of 1,221 minor injury assessments last year; they are now pushed on to the urgent treatment centre at Kendal, potentially overloading that excellent centre, but also causing huge harm to people who live in those rural and dispersed places, and undermining the funding model for those GP surgeries and putting them at risk. I would love it if the Minister had words with the ICB to challenge it on this.

Tomorrow, the ICB for Lancashire and South Cumbria will meet. On its agenda may or may not be, but jolly well should be, the decision to approve and to seek a new provider of GP services in the community of Coniston. We have known for three months that the excellent Dr Frey and Dr Abbas were retiring and leaving their posts in July, and the ICB has dragged its feet for three months, despite the community clamouring for action. We presented a petition of over 1,000 signatures in this place just a few weeks ago for there to be a replacement of the GP surgery to serve the community in Coniston.

When it comes to the new hospital programme, I acknowledge the fantasy figures behind the previous Government’s non-existent programme, but I point out that land is available in the larger district general hospital site serving Lancaster in the southern part of my constituency. It is right next to the new medical school at Lancaster University and it is absolutely shovel-ready. There is no logical reason for it to be in the last division of the third phase of the programme, which means that it will not be built until the 2030s. I urge the Minister to think again on that point.

The Minister will be unsurprised to hear me use my last minute and a bit to talk about radiotherapy. In the northern part of my constituency, in places like Appleby, people who have cancer are able to get good quality radiotherapy treatment at Carlisle, but in the southern three quarters of my constituency, people have to make return journeys, sometimes of four hours a day for weeks on end, to get radiotherapy treatment at our nearest centre in Preston. That is outrageous. That is why we are asking for there to be a satellite radiotherapy unit at the Westmorland general hospital in Kendal. This is not just about convenience. According to an OECD recommendation, radiotherapy should be the primary treatment for cancer in 53% of cases; shamefully, in the UK, it is in only 36% of cases. Lancashire and South Cumbria ranks 42nd of 42 ICBs, with only 29% of people with cancer receiving radiotherapy. That is in no small part down to the failure to provide that treatment within our communities.

It is absolutely the case that the longer the journeys to treatment, the shorter the life expectancy of the people suffering with cancer. I urge the Minister finally to make the decision, which we have been demanding for years, to add to the chemotherapy service, to the diagnostics and to the cancer surgery that we now have at Kendal. It was wonderful to win those campaigns, but the one thing that we are missing is radiotherapy. It is time that we brought it to the people of Westmorland, so that they can have shorter journeys and longer lives.

National Cancer Plan

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

I absolutely do. That shift to analogue to digital, and the use of the latest advantages in technology, science and research, will push the boundaries of what is possible when it comes to diagnosing and treating some of the rarer cancers, on which we have made virtually zero progress in recent years. I think that, with the right direction, the right commitment and the right drive, we can really start to make inroads in this area.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

May I invite the Minister, and indeed everyone here, to join us in Room M after these exchanges, when Radiotherapy UK will have a drop-in session with—most important—our patron Bryan Robson, England’s Captain Fantastic? I thank him for mentioning radiotherapy in his statement, which is crucial step forward, but may I suggest that he and the Government need to show exponentially greater ambition to get this right? The UK spends 5% of its cancer budget on radiotherapy, while the OECD average is 9%, which is why the UK is at the bottom of the survival league for so many cancers. Will the Minister commit himself to putting that right?

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am not sure that I will be able to attend the hon. Gentleman’s meeting, but I will certainly be in Westminster Hall for his debate later this afternoon. I understand exactly the concerns of people who are championing the need for increased access to radiotherapy treatments. My dad benefited from radiotherapy at the Christie, which probably gave him an extra couple of years of life with his family—I will be forever grateful for that. I get it; I understand it; we need to make the case.