Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Preet Kaur Gill]

I warmly welcome my hon. Friend’s report and thank her for all her work on behalf of her constituents. Locally, NHS and council partners are supporting delivery through services such as Thrive, Think Ahead and talking therapies, alongside community initiatives such as Male Health Survivors @ The Dale, and Andy’s Man Club Rochdale, supporting men’s mental health. We also have a mental health call for evidence, which is live until 12 July, seeking practical examples to tangibly improve outcomes and inform our mental health strategy. I would be keen to work with my hon. Friend on what more we can do.

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

The suicide rate among men in Cumbria is twice the national average. There are a whole range of reasons why that is so, but one of them is clearly bound up in isolation and rurality. Would the Minister be willing to meet me and the Farmer Network as we seek to deliver mental health answers for people struggling? Some 25% of farmers are below the poverty line, often isolated and dealing with transition at times of enormous stress and anxiety with nowhere to turn. Would the Minister agree to meet so that we can address this particular cause of the appalling tragedy in our county?

[Preet Kaur Gill]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that important issue. We of course must not overlook the needs of farmers. Our men’s health strategy has invested an extra £3.6 million in suicide prevention work in the most deprived parts of England, where men face the greatest risk of suicide. We are partnering with the Premier League’s Together Against Suicide initiative, to meet men where they are on their terms, so that they do not suffer in silence. I look forward to meeting the hon. Gentleman to hear more about the issue.

Health Bill

Tim Farron Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (James Murray)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

Madam Deputy Speaker, if you were to ask anyone in Britain what they think about the NHS, I bet they would give you an answer without hesitation. No one would be lost for words, because everyone has an opinion. Regardless of whether they tell you a story about how the NHS has helped them or their family in their moment of need, or whether they share a view on how they would change it for the better, everyone cares about the NHS. The NHS matters deeply to people right across our country because of how deeply it touches all our lives.

For my part, the NHS came to my rescue when I was diagnosed 18 years ago with a serious and rare neurological condition that threatened my ability to run, to write and to talk. After the best care I could have hoped for from my brilliant consultant and his team at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square, and from other teams across the NHS, I am now symptom free. It is only thanks to the support of those people working in our health service, and to the faith of the Prime Minister in appointing me to this role, that I am able to stand here today as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and set out what this critical Bill will mean for the future of our NHS.

Like me, everyone across Britain will have their own story of the NHS, or a view to share about its future. It is an achievement that we all share together, and one that is personal for us all. My predecessor as Health Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), has spoken movingly about the importance of the NHS to him. He explained how it saved his life when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of 38 and how, amidst all his worries, the one thing he never had to worry about was how much the treatment might cost. Let me pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for what he did in the role as a great champion of patients everywhere, and as someone with a huge passion for building a modern NHS—something we can see in this Bill, which he and my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth) put so much energy into.

As a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Exchequer Secretary, I have been incredibly proud to support my right hon. Friend the Chancellor in her determination to take the right decisions on the public finances to enable record investment in our national health service. Thanks to that investment, the changes that this Labour Government have begun to make, the leadership at the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England, and the incredible work of frontline staff across the NHS, in just under two years we have seen: over half a million fewer people on the waiting list; 2,000 more GPs; 8,500 more mental health workers; four in five patients being seen within four hours in A&E; over 100 community diagnostic centres now open in evenings and at weekends; and over 240,000 more people getting their cancer tests on time. That is the difference that this Labour Government are making: an NHS in which more patients get the treatment they need when they need it, and in which taxpayers get better value for money.

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

The Secretary of State mentions some achievements and the progress being made within the NHS. May I bring him back to the issue of cancer treatment? According to OECD figures, 53% of cancer patients should receive radiotherapy as their primary treatment. In the UK, the figure is only 35%. In Cumbria and Lancashire, it is only 29%. This is delaying treatment, delaying cures and preventing people from living long lives. Will he take a personal interest in correcting the commissioning so that every single part of this country has access to radiotherapy close to where people live, so that they can be cured with the most up-to-date technology?

[James Murray]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to draw attention to the importance of having the right approach to cancer, and our national cancer plan sets out what we as a Government are doing to achieve that. He is also right to point to the regional variation in different parts of the country, and to say how important it is not just to raise standards across the country but to ensure that the increase in standards is evenly distributed, so that all areas improve. One of my roles as Secretary of State is to ensure that we not only deliver our national cancer plan but support local areas so that they have the right services.

GP Contract

Tim Farron Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

I thank the hon. Member for his kind words about the Government’s work. I do have an excellent relationship with the Minister in Northern Ireland. Devolution is vital to the Government, and we are certainly not in the business of trying to micromanage what is happening both across the regions of England and in the devolved nations of our United Kingdom, but it is clear that there should be learning in both directions. When I speak to the Northern Ireland Minister, we are clear that we want to see the best possible performance and outcomes right across our United Kingdom. I look forward to continuing to work with him on that basis.

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

The beautiful and vibrant yet very isolated community of Coniston has had a GP practice for the last 200 years or so, but it runs the risk of losing it this year. Its GPs, who were wonderful, retired last summer and a caretaker service is being provided. Bids have been invited and there has been much interest, but no bid has been made. The reason is that the finances are really marginal at such a small surgery where people cannot go anywhere else. There is an answer, and I want to ask the Minister whether he might intervene and talk to the ICB to help us to get there. If the dispensing contract were to be let jointly with the GP contract, that would make it viable, and I know of GPs who would be interested if that were to happen. Will he talk to the ICB to ensure that that flexibility is applied so that we can save the surgery in Coniston for the next 200 years?

[Stephen Kinnock]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question. It would be deeply troubling if such an important service to the community were to be removed, so I would certainly be happy to speak to him. Perhaps he would like to write to me to provide more details. Looking to the medium to longer term, the review of the Carr-Hill formula could well end up benefiting communities such as the one he has mentioned, because remoteness and rurality will be an important factor in the Carr-Hill review, but I accept that that might be a bit too far off for what sounds like a more urgent issue. If he would like to write to me, I am sure we can look into that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ashley Dalton]

I commend my hon. Friend’s continued advocacy for radiotherapy. I have met the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) and the other members of the all-party parliamentary group on radiotherapy to discuss how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients. While trusts retain responsibility for recruitment, we are continuing to increase our cancer workforce: between November 2024 and 2025, it grew by more than 4%. In the cancer plan, we have committed to ensuring that we have the staff where and when we need them, and we are rebalancing cancer training places targeted at trusts in rural and coastal areas—such as east Durham—to improve patient outcomes.

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

I welcome what the Minister has just said, but we start a long way behind. In OECD countries, the average proportion of people with cancer with access to radiotherapy is 53%. In England the proportion is 36%, and in Lancashire and South Cumbria it is the worst in the country, at just 29%. There is no doubt in our communities in South Cumbria that that is because patients must take three-hour round trips every day to obtain treatment in Preston. Will the Minister support our new plans to bring a satellite radiotherapy unit to Kendal, so that people in our communities can experience shorter journeys and longer lives?

[Ashley Dalton]

The hon. Gentleman and I share part of that integrated care board area. In the cancer plan, we committed to ensuring that coastal and rural areas receive the services that they need. We are investing more in radiotherapy machines, and we are working with ICBs to ensure that they are providing the services that their communities need, and that we are supporting the recruitment of the cancer workforce who will be able to go into those rural areas.

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.