Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Emily Darlington—not here.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

19. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the emergency alert system.

[The Minister for Security (Dan Jarvis)]

The first duty of any Government is to keep people safe. Our recent decision to issue an alert was made in direct co-operation with the National Fire Chiefs Council at a time when emergency services were facing unprecedented pressure, with 43 active fires and four major incidents. Evidence from the 72 hours following the alert indicates that this intervention was effective, with a measurable reduction in new wildfire incidents.

[Helen Morgan]

In North Shropshire, we are on the border with Wales and have poor to non-existent mobile phone signal. This meant that many of my constituents received the emergency alert in Welsh first and either did not receive it in English at all, or received it in English many hours later. Because there was no pre-briefing, they were concerned to receive an emergency alert that they could not understand. Would the Minister consider pre-briefing when an alert is going to happen in future so that when people get an alert in a different language, or if people are trying to keep their phones secret because they are vulnerable, they have time to prepare for that and are not unduly alarmed?

[Dan Jarvis]

The hon. Lady makes an entirely reasonable point. I hope that she would acknowledge that we look very carefully when an alert has been issued and seek to learn lessons from that. I can tell her that all emergency alerts are sent in conjunction with local partners, and that in Wales the alert was sent first in Welsh, and then in English, in order to fulfil our legal responsibilities under the Welsh Language Act 1993. I will look carefully at what she has said, and I assure her that we will seek to learn lessons from the way in which the alert was issued.

Direction of Government

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have had a number of approaches from colleagues in Glasgow on how we can support them to move the bus system forward. I was surprised to hear how expensive bus fares are in the city. I believe that there have been moves to put them back under public control, but I am not aware that they have been supported by the Scottish Government. I hope the Scottish Government will provide funding and support to enable the Greater Glasgow area to move in that direction. [Interruption.] If I am wrong, I am happy to be corrected, but I did have a lot of people coming to me saying, “We’re not getting any support; can you help us move things forward?” A great city such as Glasgow should have public transport under its own control. From what I see in Scotland, there is something of the same problem as in England, where the capital city has a public transport system that is way beyond what anywhere else has. It is not that we are anti-London or anti-Edinburgh—it is great that they have those transport systems—but all parts of the UK need to have a level of infrastructure that is seen to be fair and, as I said before, connects all people to jobs and opportunities. Glasgow deserves that, too.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I welcome the Prime Minister to his place and I welcome his commitment to put power back into the heart of communities through a devolution programme, but in places such as Shropshire, where there is no immediate plan for a combined authority or a mayoral authority to be put in place, people are really worried that we will be left behind. Will the Prime Minister elaborate on his earlier comments and explain when authorities such as Shropshire will get those devolved powers—and, crucially, the resources to go with them—so that they can start turning around the lives of people in places such as North Shropshire?

[The Prime Minister]

It was a serious offer that I made at the Dispatch Box earlier today, to say that there could be a devolution deal for every part of England with or without an elected mayor. I do believe that it will only work if it is based on unitary local government. I do not think it will work with a two-tier system, but that is why I said to colleagues in Cornwall that I am quite happy to see if a deal can be done for a single unitary authority. That is what I understand Members of Parliament for Cornwall to want, working with the leader of Cornwall council. If that is the settled view, I am not going to try to impose anything else—let us work with that. The same could be true in Shropshire, but it needs to be effective and functional, and to be able to stand on its own two feet.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very proud that we delivered the Hillsborough law yesterday. It is important to recognise that there has always been an initial injustice and then a further injustice when the state does not acknowledge and get to the truth. We are putting that right with the Hillsborough law.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Q8. After 16 years of Conservative Administration, Shropshire council’s finances were left in a disastrous state. After a Local Government Association peer review praised the Lib Dem administration for making significant strides since last May, that difficult financial situation remains. The right hon. Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) has promised Manchesterism for the rest of the country, but will the Prime Minister join me in urging him to remember that the rest of the country does not all look like Manchester and rural areas need a fair deal too?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is right to raise rural areas, and that is why we have put record investment into our local authorities and our NHS across the country, including in Shropshire.

Payment Scheme

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

Yes, I do. The Hillsborough law is something that I have given a great deal of personal time to over the last couple of years; it has been before this House, and I do not think that it is far away at all from becoming law. I hope that over the next few months we will start to see the rolling-out of the duty of candour. It is a landmark law and putting it on the statute book will make a huge difference. It will be a hugely significant moment. It is also important that we drive forward the cultural change that it requires.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

The cultural point is really important because all the NHS scandals have this point of cultural failure, with cover-ups and defensiveness and people being badly let down. The Health Bill is going through Parliament at the moment, and one of our concerns is that the abolition of Healthwatch and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body will not help to progress that cultural change. Will the Minister urge his counterparts in the Department of Health and Social Care to reconsider those abolitions?

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

The point I am making around duty of candour, which I think overrides all these other points, is really what Sir Brian Langstaff was referring to. He called it institutional defensiveness, saying that the problem when awful things happened was that people put either personal or institutional reputations above the public interest. It is that cultural change that we need to drive forward.

I will return to the regulations as I am conscious of the time. Regulation 10 introduces a 50% uplift to the core injury award for some affected people. That includes eligible bereaved partners, and children and siblings who themselves became affected under 18 years of age. Eligible bereaved parents will also be able to receive this award in the tragic circumstances where their child passed away while under the age of 18. I know that some Members have raised concerns about the eligibility for this award in previous debates, and I want to assure colleagues that, as with the rest of these regulations, the decisions we made on this award directly reflect what we heard through the consultation about the specific impacts of the scandal on children.

Regulations 11 and 12 are unrelated to the public consultation, and relate to the transfer of responsibility for making support scheme payments from the infected blood support scheme to IBCA. To maintain consistency with the support schemes, the value of someone’s support scheme payments will be uprated every year in April at the rate of the consumer prices index of the previous September. These regulations therefore account for the next CPI uplift taking place in April 2027, after IBCA takes responsibility for making those support scheme payments from the existing infected blood support schemes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I think the most effective way to get change is to show the results that have been achieved by the women who produce the brilliant science and technology that helps to create innovations and bring in the cash. Women founders of tech companies get only 2p in every £1 in venture capital funding, yet on average they present 35% higher returns. If companies want better science and tech and a better economy, they had better get more women on board.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Liz Kendall)]

I am proud that today I am launching our charter for women in research, setting out minimum standards for maternity pay and leave for women doing PhDs in this country, alongside leave for their partners, adoption leave, leave for baby loss and pregnancy-related sickness. More than 64 organisations have already signed up. This is crucial for women, for the quality of science and tech and for our country, because Britain succeeds only when we make the most of all our talents.

[Helen Morgan]

At the all-party parliamentary group on digital communities, which I chair, we often hear from mobile network operators that one reason they do not serve rural areas properly is that they cannot get planning permission. In Shropshire, the council has given planning permission to a passive infrastructure provider for three specific sites but it still cannot get the mobile network operators to put their equipment on their masts. What can the Secretary of State do to ensure mobile network operators give my constituents the coverage that they are paying for?

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Eagle]

Dual-use infrastructure is an important part of how we do planning, and my hon. Friend is right that we have to be much smarter and more forward thinking than perhaps has been the case, knowing that we face a very volatile and rapidly changing series of threats ahead.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Water resilience is very much on people’s minds this week. When a canal embankment collapsed in Whitchurch in my constituency just before Christmas, I found out that the canal network is used for drinking water, and that millions of gallons of drinking water will be being pumped over the breach every single day until it is repaired. Canal embankments are often 200 years old and largely made of sand, yet they are critical national infrastructure. Is the Minister satisfied that the Government are doing enough to retain the canal network in a safe state, not only to keep people safe but to protect our water resilience?

[Dame Angela Eagle]

When I was first in government in 1997, I discovered that I was the Minister for Canals, which was a particularly enjoyable part of the brief, so I understand what the hon. Lady is saying. My previous Department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, does a lot on this issue, so I will contact the Water Minister. We can liaise, and I will be in touch with the hon. Lady.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ian Murray]

We are a shareholder in Eutelsat, of which OneWeb is a part, and we will be examining all these issues. We have asked for Eutelsat to come forward with proposals to ensure that we have that resilience here in the UK, and we want to make more use of that shareholding.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

The roll-out of Project Gigabit in my constituency has been a failure because Freedom Fibre has handed back the contract, with many thousands of properties unconnected, and the replacement contract is likely to take many more years to deliver gigabit access to thousands of my constituents. The all-party parliamentary group on digital communities, which I chair, has suggested some solutions to the problem. Will the Minister come to one of our meetings, and meet us, in order to understand how critical this is for rural communities?

[Ian Murray]

I am happy to ensure that the Minister in the other place who deals with this particular issue meets the APPG. However, Project Gigabit is designed to adapt in the event of a contracted supplier no longer being able to complete its planned delivery, using a mix of contracts and interventions. We are keen to hear from the hon. Lady about the experiences of her constituents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 21st January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Anna McMorrin]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising the important work of the Lingen Davies charity. I understand that its appeal is seeking to raise £5 million to grow cancer care awareness in his area. The Government are committed to catching cancer earlier and treating it faster. I would be very happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss the charity’s fundraising campaign.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Powys health board has been categorising the needs of its patients based on cost rather than clinical need, and that is causing a real problem for the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt orthopaedic hospital in my constituency and the associated Headley Court veterans’ centre, because they need to prioritise patients based on clinical need, not whether Powys health board will pay for them this year. What is the Secretary of State doing about Powys health board to ensure that patients are treated according to clinical need and in a way that my hospital trust can manage?

Ministerial Code

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

One potential breach of the ministerial code is the briefing to the papers, but not to this House, that the Government will pay a major increase to pharmaceutical companies, seemingly at the behest of Donald Trump. Can the Minister confirm today that people who are worried about their local health services will not see a huge amount of money going to pharmaceutical companies at the behest of an outside player? Furthermore, will he ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to come to the House and explain that to us in full?

[Josh Simons]

I can assure the hon. Member, given the respect that the Government pay to this House and to their obligations in it, that if there is an important policy announcement to be made, it will be made to this House. If she writes to me with more details about the issue she raises, I will be happy to look into it and to talk to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Trade Negotiations

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Alexander]

Forgive me: I was shuffling through my papers and missed the hon. Gentleman’s final point, but I am happy to write to him. He is absolutely right, I can assure him, to recognise that compared to the tariff quotas agreed under the Australia deal, negotiated by the then Prime Minister, the former Member for Henley, there is much more proportionality—a much more modest increase—anticipated under the quota in the agreement reached today. I recognise his point that there are continuing challenges for farmers in the United Kingdom, and we will continue to seek to address those.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I welcome the Minister’s clarification on chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef, but will there be protections in place for egg products? Hens raised in battery cages are illegal in this country, but not elsewhere in the world, so will it be illegal to import egg products from hens raised in those poor conditions elsewhere?

[Mr Alexander]

We have not compromised our animal welfare standards in any aspect of what we have agreed on behalf of the United Kingdom today.