Suicide Prevention

Frank McNally Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing this debate and for his incredibly powerful remarks a few moments ago.

Suicide is one of the most pressing public health challenges we face. Behind every statistic is a devastated family, a community shaken and lives changed forever. There are between 650 and 850 deaths to suicide in Scotland every year. My local authority area of North Lanarkshire experiences between 40 and 62 annually. While Parliament rightly debates this national issue and seeks a national response, I want to highlight the work being done in my own community.

Several years ago, the spotlight fell on my area where, despite there being a drop in deaths by suicide in Scotland, communities in Coatbridge and Bellshill and across north Lanarkshire were experiencing near record highs. North Lanarkshire council, working alongside partners in health education, sport and the voluntary sector, have put suicide prevention at the heart of their wellbeing agenda. The suicide prevention strategy is a model of how public services, anchor organisations and grassroots groups can come together, promote early intervention, raise awareness and ensure that support is available at the right time and in the right place. We know that men between the ages of 34 and 54 are the group with the highest risk of completing suicide.

I am proud of the way my community has specifically used sport as a force for change. For many years there was a great partnership with local public services and all of Lanarkshire’s professional football teams. I was involved in that prior to my election to this place. I was told a story in the weeks after that partnership launched that has always remained with me. One of our clubs got a phone call to their main office on a Monday morning from a man who had walked through the turnstiles two days prior for the 3 pm kick-off on the Saturday afternoon. He was clear that it would be his last game, as he was planning to complete suicide that very night. As the game progressed, he noticed the new signage erected around the stadium on suicide prevention. He took a note of the number on the billboard and, in an act of immense bravery, he made a call. His subsequent call on the Monday to the club was to say that going to the game on the Saturday had saved his life.

Just yesterday, the annual North Lanarkshire suicide prevention football tournament took place. It is not only a competition; it is a statement. It is a statement that through sport, camaraderie and community, we can break down stigma, start conversations and let people know that help is there. I am also proud to be wearing the bespoke tartan of Samaritans Scotland, a new tartan to recognise Suicide Prevention Day. I pay tribute to them, as my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme did, and to all those who work so diligently to support my constituents at such a challenging time in their lives.

But suicide prevention still requires national leadership. There are too many still dying, too many stories being cut short, too many chapters not written, too many experiences lost and too many families enduring life sentences of heartbreak. We must ensure that mental health services are properly resourced, that schools and employers are equipped to support those at risk, and that public authorities are given the funding and flexibility to expand the work they are already doing so well. Above all, we must send a clear message from this House that suicide is preventable, that no one should suffer in silence and that help is always at hand.

Alcohol and Cancer

Frank McNally Excerpts

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Cat Smith) on securing the debate.

Colleagues have rightly focused on the policy requirement of addressing alcohol harm, not just for the health of our constituents but to address the seismic burden that the effects of alcohol place on our public services, particularly the NHS. As my hon. Friend mentioned in her excellent speech, inaction is not acceptable or sustainable. This debate is especially pertinent, as we now understand that at least eight cancers can be linked to alcohol following new research from the IARC showing the link, as my hon. Friend mentioned, between alcohol and pancreatic cancer.

I would like to focus on the importance of early intervention in tackling excessive alcohol consumption. The UK consistently tops the table for binge drinking, and Scotland has long had a higher rate of alcohol-related death than the rest of the UK. More than one in four alcohol-attributable deaths were due to cancer. Furthermore, public awareness of alcohol harm is low, with polling research suggesting that 50% of people are unaware that alcohol causes cancer. Sadly, 53,000 people are hospitalised in Scotland due to alcohol each year.

Although we may be tempted into complacency by data that suggests that young people are drinking less than preceding generations, the stakes really are too high when we look at the figures. That is why early intervention initiatives, such as the work of Community Alcohol Partnerships, are so essential. Early intervention can prevent such health challenges from arising in later life. Their work is driving young people away from alcohol in 300 areas across the UK. My constituency is home to the View Park and Bellshill community alcohol partnership, which was recently recognised as Scottish CAP of the year. It has gained recognition for its approach to engaging young people while also partnering effectively with the police, NHS, local authority, residents groups and retailers to tackle under-age drinking head on. The impact of that work is significant, with the latest national figures from CAP showing a 63% reduction in drinking among 13 to 16-year-olds. We know the impact of under-age drinking on those under 15, and the consequences that it has.

There is, however, much more to do. I was pleased to sponsor the launch in Parliament of CAP’s report on the parental supply of alcohol recently. The report highlights that too many parents still believe that giving alcohol to children at home will teach them to drink responsibly or reduce the risk of them getting alcohol elsewhere. The report shows that every year earlier that a child is given alcohol, their risk of binge drinking, alcohol harm and health-related consequences as an adult increases significantly. CAP is set to launch a new pilot programme in 2026 aimed at preventing the parental supply of alcohol in six areas. I am very pleased that my area is one of those that is being looked at.

Early intervention is critical in the battle against alcohol-related cancers. I commend the CAP report to the Minister and all Members, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre for bringing forward this debate and highlighting the importance of this subject for my constituents and for people of all ages across the United Kingdom.

Covid: Fifth Anniversary

Frank McNally Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

In the time I have available, I will focus on education and care provision during the pandemic. I was serving as North Lanarkshire’s chair of education when the Scottish Government directed the closure of schools in March 2020. Within days, the entire country was locked down, and we moved to home-schooling and virtual lessons.

[Maureen Burke (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend share my concern for the children in all our constituencies who, after losing nearly two years of face-to-face schooling, are still suffering set-backs in their learning and their social skills? Will he join me in calling on the Government to channel investment into those who were at school during those years of disruption, to ensure that there is not a lost generation in this country?

[Frank McNally]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The UK Government are investing significantly in skills and apprenticeships for some of those young people who were impacted by the pandemic, and we need to see that in Scotland as well.

For children transitioning from early years to primary 1, and from primary 7 to secondary, it must have felt like experiencing an alternative universe, given social distancing, the expansion of digital learning and the use of PPE. Sadly, despite the best efforts of those on the frontline, young people lost learning, and we have to tackle that head-on. However, they showed resilience. Sadly, that resilience and those efforts were trampled on when the Scottish Government sought to downgrade the highers results of 2,900 children from my local authority area. Some 46% of young people were discriminated against based on their postcodes, rather than recognised for their ability. Thankfully, young people successfully fought back on that.

I will also touch on the role of carers. Like so many frontline workers, they showed up and put their health and wellbeing on the line to serve some of the most vulnerable in our communities. They did so despite, at times, limited and faulty PPE, entrenched low pay, and poor policy decisions that saw frail patients discharged from hospitals and into care homes untested, contributing to 5,000 care home deaths.

There can often be a focus on Downing Street parties or deleted WhatsApp messages, but at the forefront of our minds must always be the victims of covid, including those who died unnecessarily and those who live with long covid and the psychological impact of the disease, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) said. There are also those who delivered the ultimate act of service, including refuse collectors, police officers, nurses, shop workers and many others from the voluntary sector and religious establishments. As we recognise the fifth anniversary of covid, their efforts in the face of such hardship, their resilience and their sacrifice must be the true and lasting legacy of such an unprecedented pandemic, which we must all fight to ensure that we never experience again.