Former Scottish National Party MP for Livingston
My constituent Linda Cannon lost her husband after he received a blood transfusion that infected him with hepatitis C. My constituent Vera Gaskin has stage 2 chronic cirrhosis of the liver from contaminated blood. She spends her life explaining that she is not an alcoholic. What guidance or comfort does the Minister have for my constituents that anybody overseeing compensation and justice...
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) for her blistering and brilliant opening speech. She speaks for many of our constituents and for those Members who cannot be here today. We must remember, as other Members have said, that WASPI women are not just some distant, transient group, but real people with real lives, and that this injustice has...
My constituent Mrs Houria Nicoll is an Algerian-British dual national. She went to Algeria to deal with the estate of her deceased parents, and travelled out on her Algerian passport, as her British passport had expired. She has been denied entry to the UK on her Algerian passport and is now stuck in Algeria. She is unwell and cannot access any care or support from family or friends. The...
When the Secretary of State is considering welfare reforms, will he please look at the shambles in the Child Maintenance Service? Over the past year, the number of complaints to my constituency office has skyrocketed. Chief among those is that constituents cannot get responses. When they do, those responses differ between different members of staff and often are in conflict with each other....
Before I call the SNP spokesperson, I want to note that the Minister was not in his place, which is disappointing given the importance of the issue and the effort put in by the Member in charge. We have been grateful to Minister Opperman for sitting in, who is fortified with the relevant information. I am sure he will let his colleague copy his homework, so he is able to respond, if the...
On that basis, we will proceed. I call SNP spokesperson Owen Thompson.
It has been seven years and we have had four Prime Ministers since this public inquiry was set up, and there have been many decades waited before then. Surely the Minister will agree that the stories of children being impacted are tantamount to state-sponsored abuse—abuse similar to that suffered by my constituents Linda Cannon, whose husband died after a contaminated blood transfusion, and...
I start with heartfelt congratulations to the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine): it is wonderful to see another Member taking up this cause so passionately. I pay tribute particularly to Richard and Nazanin; if it were not for the dignified way they raised their voices, this issue would not have come to the attention of all Members from across the House. However, it should...
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of customer service provided by the child maintenance service.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether child maintenance caseworkers receive training on identifying when standard procedures may cause undue harm or upset for the paying and receiving parent and their children.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether staff in his Department are provided training on trauma (a) awareness and (b) prevention procedures.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to reduce the waiting times for responses from the Child Maintenance Service.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to support women in the workplace.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to answer Question 125316 tabled on 14 February 2022 by the hon. Member for Livingston.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme claims relating to covid-19 vaccinations have been passed to an independent medical advisor for assessment as of 18 February 2022.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme for covid-19 vaccinations will prioritise the processing of claims where the claimant’s diagnosed condition has an association acknowledged by inclusion in the Product Information warnings provided by MHRA.
