Business of the House

Danny Chambers Excerpts

Thursday 26th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important matter and for how he has done so. I am sure the whole House will join me in recognising Cassie and Ryan’s campaign for this change after such a devastating experience. I understand that the General Register Office is considering options for registering births and deaths over the telephone or online to minimise the burden on bereaved families, but I will make sure that Ministers in the Home Office have heard my hon. Friend’s question and that he gets an update.

[Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)]

I will bring up one more time the state of our roads, particularly in Hampshire. I was a horse vet before I was elected, so there is probably not a single road I have not driven down. Thankfully I had a 4x4, because I genuinely needed that for the roads, not just the farm tracks. Where I live in Shawford, they are not just potholes, but craters; it is like driving on the surface of the moon. Hampshire county council, run by the Conservatives, is saying that it has no money to fix the potholes. I know that council budgets are not the remit of central Government, but potholes have become such a problem. Is there the opportunity to have a debate or a review, so that we can have some emergency funding to fix these roads? It is not fair that our constituents need to pay for financial mismanagement.

[Sir Alan Campbell]

We are investing £24 billion in maintaining and improving motorways and local roads across the country, and a record £7.3 billion for councils over the next four years, but in some cases questions need to be directed towards councils on how they are using that money. As I said previously, the Secretary of State is very keen that it is spent in the right way, but I appreciate the concern of the hon. Gentleman’s constituents and, indeed, of the farmers he previously worked with. I am quite sure that they will all be keen to learn about the action we are taking not only to tackle potholes, but to tackle vets’ bills.