Debate: Defendant Anonymity

Before she became an MP, Sarah was a forensic medical examiner for Devon and Cornwall police, and spent many long nights with women and some men who had been the victims of horrendous sexual and physical violence. Sarah is convinced that the odds are heavily stacked against the victims, and anonymity would especially protect serial offenders.

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Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative)

I congratulate Caroline Flint on her speech and on the passion with which she spoke during the Adjournment debate that she initiated. Many right hon. and hon. Members have brought special expertise to the debate, either as barristers or from a background in social work. My background is that I am a doctor. For five years, I was a forensic medical examiner for Devon and Cornwall police and spent many long nights with women and some men who had been the victims of horrendous sexual and physical violence. I have also been a family doctor for many years and have been a practitioner for 24 years in total.

I have lost count of the number of women-they are mostly women-whom I have seen who have not made an allegation of rape. The reasons are many and complex. I can testify that the vast majority of those crimes go unreported, because of misplaced feelings of guilt, real fear of reprisals, a belief that the victims will not be believed and, in many cases, just a sense that they want to put something so horrible in a box on the shelf and never visit it. That is the truth of the matter.

I pay tribute to the many women who have the courage to go forward and make a complaint. I want to point out something that the women saw had in common. Many of them told me that the reason they were going through what is, quite frankly, a very unpleasant examination after a horrendous experience was not for themselves, but because they believed that it would protect other women. I ask the Minister to consider why those women would report a rape if they thought that there was no possibility that other women might benefit.

I completely understand the many arguments made in favour of protecting the innocent who are subject to false allegations, but we need to remember that the odds are heavily stacked in their favour. For every 100 women I saw-I believed the vast majority of them-I can count on the fingers of one hand the number who had their day in court and saw a conviction. We need to be clear that the scales are already tipped in favour of the defendant in a rape case. We need to be very careful that we do not add a further barrier to women coming forward and making allegations.

The second point I should like to make is on the difficulty in this country with serial offenders. Many hon. Members have referred to John Worboys, who drugged his victims in the back of his taxi, but let us be clear that the No. 1 date rape drug remains alcohol. Many rape offenders are serial offenders-they are frequent fliers. When I examined women in the presence of police, it became clear that many of those whom the women named as the person who had attacked them were known to the police and had form. We need to be careful that we do not put further barriers in the way of identifying such people so that others can come forward with their experiences.

Those were the two main points that I wanted to make today. Many hon. Members have said that this is not a gender issue, and I agree. However, we need to be careful that we do not make it a political issue. I have some reservations about the way in which some Members have tried to make it so. I would like the Minister to consider free votes, because that is the best way to take the political heat out of the argument and to focus on the real issue of who we want to protect. I request that he look carefully at my suggestion.

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Westminster Hall Debate: Fuel Poverty (Rural Areas)

Sarah Wollaston (Conservative, Totnes)

I congratulate my hon. Friend Dr Coffey on securing the debate. Many hon. Members have suggested solutions to the problem, but I want to emphasise a particular reason why the Minister and the House should be concerned. It is the excess of winter deaths. The fact is that 36,700 more people died in the winter of 2008-09 than expected. Even more worrying is the fact that, of the most vulnerable-those aged 75 and over-29,400 more died.

We do not have figures for excess winter deaths last year, which is unfortunate as it was a very cold winter. The figures are calculated by taking the number of deaths over the winter and comparing them with figures for the previous autumn and the summer, to the end of July. We will have those figures at the end of the month, and I expect that we will be in for a further shock. However, the figures for 2008-09 were themselves shocking, being the highest for a decade.

It is an interesting phenomenon that the further south or west one is in Europe, the higher the excess-between 5% and 30%-but we have a particular problem in this country. A study in the British Medical Journal found that a prime reason was the inadequacy of housing; it considered whether improving housing and heating would protect vulnerable people. Of course there were many other reasons, but I hope that the Minister will consider why that problem is crucial.

Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry, DUP)

What the hon. Lady says about the inadequacy of housing stock is important. Does she agree that in many regions of the UK the problem is not with housing associations or housing authorities, but with the private sector? Landlords are not always assertive in establishing whatever Warm Front schemes are available to provide better heated homes for the private-sector tenants.

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative)

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that comment. Unfortunately, the BMJ study did not comment on that aspect, but it is an interesting point.

In the south-west, 11.7% of households, or 259,000 people, live in fuel poverty,. It is a serious problem, and many Members have spoken about why that is the case in rural areas. Hard-to-treat housing stock with solid walls are a particular problem. Tim Farron spoke strongly about rural households being disadvantaged because fuel costs for transport are so high. There is an inadequate bus service, which means that people have to travel quite long distances by car, thus putting them at a double disadvantage. Moreover, they are hit again by the fact that their housing costs are high. In my constituency, we have some of the lowest wages in Britain, so we are disadvantaged on all fronts. I hope that the Minister will address those points.

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House of Commons Debate: Finance Bill

Sarah Wollaston (Conservative, Totnes)

I would like to ask the hon. Gentleman whether he realises why all these very sad cases are unavoidable. It is because we have a national debt of £1 trillion. I was looking at what that means. If every pound were a second, that would be 31,546 years and we would all be sitting here for a very long time.

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House of Commons Debate: Political and Constitutional Reform

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative)

I welcome the opportunity for the electorate to have a chance to vote on AV, but does the Deputy Prime Minister share my concern that it gives a second bite of the cherry to minority parties such as the BNP?

Nicholas Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)

I think that the alternative vote system, were it to be introduced, would not be susceptible to the dangers of some other electoral systems of fostering and allowing extremist parties to get a foot in the door of mainstream politics. If it were susceptible to such dangers, I would be as concerned as she is.

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Debate: Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative)

I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way. My constituency is home to Transition Town Totnes, of which he may have heard. It leads the way in looking at climate change and peak oil, and I am sure that the people involved will be very interested to know the size and scale of the projects that will be funded by the green banks. What will be the time scale? When might they be able to start looking forward to making applications?

Christopher Huhne (Secretary of State, Energy and Climate Change; Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat)

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. [Hon. Members: "Answer!"] Opposition Members know perfectly well that there are certain processes in Government that we have to go through. We have to consult. We have to make sure not only that we produce decisions at the moment that both Opposition and Government Members would like, but that those decisions are right and have gone through all the normal processes.

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Westminster Hall Debate: Supporting Carers

Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative)I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this important debate. After 24 years as a doctor, I do not need to be told how important carers are, and I pay tribute to the many whom I have met in my experience as a doctor-they really are extraordinary people.

I would like to focus on young carers in particular, and to draw hon. Members' attention to the fact that the average age of a young carer is 12, which is extraordinarily low. The 2001 census showed that there were 175,000 young carers in the UK, 13,000 of whom cared for more than 50 hours a week. Those young carers provide not only help with cooking, cleaning and shopping, but often very intimate and personal care, and emotional support to parents with severe mental illness. Organisations such as Barnardo's need our thanks for their work, particularly in helping young carers to cope and in identifying them before they find themselves in crisis.

My constituency takes in much of Torbay, where there are 350 identified young carers. Those children suffer low attainment at school, which is partly due to their poor attendance as a result of their caring work. They are also particularly prone to living in poverty. I would like to draw the Minister's attention to a particular subset of young carers: the 20% of the children and young people in the Torbay area who are carers as a result of alcohol and drug abuse, and associated mental illness. Those who have been identified are the tip of the iceberg. Some fear coming forward for help because they worry that they might be taken into care. Those children have no access to the carer's allowance. They are particularly prone to living in poverty and to going on to misuse drugs and alcohol themselves, and also at risk of domestic violence.

My interest is in prevention as well as cure. We know that drinking adversely affects up to 1.3 million children in the UK, and that group especially needs our help. Police forces estimate that 40% of all child abuse cases and 62% of incidences of domestic violence are directly related to alcohol. I would like the Minister to look again at the evidence on what works to reduce alcohol-related crime and violence, and therefore the number of children becoming young carers. The evidence shows that that is about pricing and availability, so I hope that there will be support for the Health Committee and NICE, which is clearly on the side of minimum pricing as the way forward.

I pay tribute to the caring organisations in my constituency. A fortnight ago, I was privileged to attend the opening of the Brixham carers centre. Brixham is particularly fortunate as it is also home to Brixham Does Care, which supports 150 carers and has 150 volunteers. Those organisations asked me to raise with the Minister the time that volunteers' Criminal Records Bureau checks take. Only this morning I was told that some checks submitted in April were still pending. We need to look closely at how we reduce the barriers to volunteering, because volunteers are a lifeline for carers. I welcome the review of the vetting and barring procedure that has been announced by the Home Secretary, but I would like the Minister to look at the time that the checks take.

Respite care is another concern of carers in my constituency. Will the Minister consider the issues facing the John Parkes unit, which provides respite care for some of the most severely disabled children in my constituency and is used by many of constituents?

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Sarah's Maiden Speech in Parliament

HANSARD RECORD OF MAIDEN SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT

BY DR SARAH WOLLASTON MP on 2/6/2010

6.49 pm

Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con): Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for letting me catch your eye when so many hon. Members wish to do the same.

I thank the hon. Members for Chippenham (Duncan Hames) and for Luton South (Gavin Shuker) for their passionate speeches about education. I come to the House with little political experience, but as a doctor and teacher selected through an open primary, the first in the country to give every voter in a constituency the chance to select their candidate. I would also like to thank my predecessor, Anthony Steen. He served this House for an extraordinary 36 years. He is not the sort to retire, and I wish him well in his continuing fight against the evils of human trafficking.

I am very fortunate to represent one of the most spectacular and diverse constituencies in this country. The Totnes constituency stretches from the hill farms of Dartmoor to the most stunning of West Country coastlines, which supports a diverse tourist and fishing industry. Many people may not realise this, but more fish are landed at Brixham than at any other port in England-and I hope all Members will join me in recognising the adverse effect of the common fisheries policy on our fishing industry.

Mr. Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): Hear, hear; very well said.

Dr Wollaston: Thank you.

We are also home to "Transition Town Totnes", which is the home of the transition towns movement. As such, it recognises not only the problem of climate change, but problem of the peak oil; it is planning ahead for a time when we no longer have abundant or cheap fossil fuels.

In the South Hams, we also have some of the most spectacular countryside, but I have to inform Members that that countryside is in crisis. We are fast losing our sustainability as more and more dairy farms in particular go out of business because of the problems of bovine tuberculosis. Devon is, in fact, at the very heart of the bovine TB epidemic. As a doctor, I have to tell Members that we cannot treat infected badgers by vaccination. Vaccination can only hope to prevent the disease in unaffected individuals. I have been teaching junior doctors evidence-based medicine for 11 years, and I can say that one of the problems we face is that the randomised badger culling trial has for years wrongly been used to justify a policy of inaction. Unless we do something about bovine TB, more and more of our farmers will go out of business. We need to recognise the effect on them and their families, and the very real distress bovine TB causes them.

The main reason why I came to this House is because I feel passionately about our NHS and the patients it treats. I welcome the proposals in the Gracious Speech to get rid of top-down bureaucracy in the NHS and to hand power back to clinicians on the front line.

In my constituency, we have four community hospitals, and I would like to pay tribute to their staff, and also their volunteers, for the work that they do. I hope that giving patients a louder voice in our NHS will prove to be the best protection for community hospitals, because people, particularly those in rural constituencies, really value them. I hope Members will support me in this endeavour.

There is another issue I wish to highlight, which affects not only my constituents, but those of all Members. After the tragedy of the Paddington rail disaster in which 31 people lost their lives, we rightly held a public inquiry and that led to the setting up of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, and after 3,000 terrible deaths in the USA, we joined a "Global War on Terror", so what should we say should happen after 15,000 to 20,000 deaths every year in this country as a result of alcohol? I pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron), who has chaired the Select Committee on Health. It has recommended minimum-price alcohol as the best way forward. That may not be popular-in fact, in suggesting that we cull diseased badgers and raise the price of alcohol, it is clear that I am going for the popular vote! However, unless we do something about this, our constituents will continue to suffer. Let us look at the statistics: 1.3 million children in this country are directly affected by alcohol, and alcohol is a factor in half of all homicides. Members also need only consider the number of constituents they see in their surgeries who are victims of domestic violence. Alcohol continues to be the number one date-rape drug in this country, too. I ask all Members to look at the evidence, so we can have evidence-based politics.

The evidence is out there, and it is very clear. If we want to do something about the death toll-15,000 to 20,000 people a year in this country-we have to do something about price and availability. This is not about the nanny state; lives are at stake, and I ask the House to look again at the evidence, not only from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence report issued today, but from its own Select Committee. I commend minimum-price alcohol to the House.

There is no such thing as cheap alcohol; we are all paying a very heavy price.

6.55 pm

Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab): I congratulate the hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) on making such an excellent maiden speech.

ENDS

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First month at Westminster

This is my first month as an MP representing the Totnes Constituency at Westminster.

In fact, many of you have questioned why this is called the Totnes Constituency when it covers parts of Torbay, most of the South Hams and stretches as far north as Dartmeet on the moor...as well as Totnes. I intend to write to the Boundary Commission to ask them to review the name. I would welcome your suggestions for an alternative name. Please email me at sarah.wollaston.mp@parliament.uk or write to me at the House of Commons. I will post the most popular suggestions in the Herald Express and on my website.

The Palace of Westminster is a beautiful but confusing labyrinth of corridors and committee rooms. My first experience was of feeling completely lost and forever needing to ask the way. It is friendly yet intimidating, fascinating but frustrating and surprisingly unprepared for the flood of new Members. New MPs have no offices and no secretarial support, not even a telephone; just a locker and a ‘hot desk' which needs to be left clear for the next wandering MP to use for a few hours.

As a new Member, you receive hundreds of emails and letters every day. These range from simple opinion cards to highly complex cases requiring many hours of research and correspondence. All cases need detailed tracking and without an office this seems like a mountain to climb. Old hands look on sympathetically and tell you that it will feel much better this time next year and that within ten you will have the measure of it.

Like all my colleagues, I want to do a professional job and to ‘hit the ground running'. My first task, however, is to learn to walk and recruit a team to help me to provide an effective service for my constituents. It is hard to convey how many obstacles are thrown in your path. Please bear with me if you have written but not yet received a reply from me. I hope soon to have an office but am told it may take a few weeks.

It is been a fascinating time to enter politics with the excitement of a new Coalition Government and the huge challenges it faces. I was very struck during the Election campaign by how many people told me they wanted to see political parties working together for the benefit of the Nation. For myself, having come to Parliament through an open primary, I feel a responsibility to represent all points of view, so the Coalition makes this commitment much easier. I want to see this new politics working; it is what the Country voted for and now politicians have to deliver. This will mean abandoning narrow Party agendas and working in cooperation.

So what do I hope to deliver? Above all, a voice for South Devon at Westminster, championing essential local issues such as the Kingskerswell bypass and standing up for our hard pressed farmers in their struggle against bovine TB. But being an MP should also be about holding Government to account and helping to scrutinise legislation. As one of only a tiny number of MPs with front line experience in the Health Service, I want to make sure that we finally get on top of one of the greatest problems of our times, namely binge drinking. Visit any town centre or casualty department on a Friday night and you will be only too aware of the problem. The waste of lives and money cannot be understated and so I will continue to champion this issue at national level on your behalf.

Overall, I start this new career full of optimism but well aware of its limitations. I will do my best and ask only for your patience whilst I grow into my role. I will always be willing to listen and learn and will welcome your suggestions.

ENDS

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A proper and meaningful Coalition

Commenting on the political alliance which will form the next Government, Sarah said:

"Throughout the Election Campaign in my many doorstep meetings with constituents, it was made clear to me that they wanted to see politicians working together for the benefit of the Country. This has now been achieved through the creation of a proper and meaningful Coalition of the Conservative and Liberal Democratic Parties, who will form our new Government.

"I welcome this political alliance because it is in the best interest of the Totnes Constituency and the Country. We need a strong, united and stable government to tackle the problems ahead."

ENDS

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