In Parliament
- Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access ( 5 Nov 2025)
Ben Coleman: I am grateful, Mr Mundell—I will conclude. The hon. Member makes a very helpful point, particularly for constituencies that are more rural than mine of Chelsea and Fulham—what he says certainly has validity in many parts of the country. My final point is very simple: families do not need lectures. They need a Government who are prepared to do a lot more to ensure fair access to healthy,...
- Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access ( 5 Nov 2025)
Ben Coleman: That is a very important point. The availability of fast food right outside schools needs to be looked at and curtailed. The food is cheap, but it is incredibly low quality, and it is not doing our children any good. And school food standards are not properly enforced. There is a lot of cheap school food, but in some of the schools I visit, it is just orange—it is not healthy. The...
- Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access ( 5 Nov 2025)
Ben Coleman: Just yesterday, the Government came out with new figures showing that the prevalence of childhood obesity in the most deprived areas is more than double the prevalence in the least deprived. It may surprise many hon. Members to hear that it is a significant problem in my constituency. Although Chelsea and Fulham is among the most affluent constituencies in the country, it has huge pockets of...
- Written Answers — Department for Work and Pensions: Access to Work Programme ( 5 Nov 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, hat steps his Department is taking to ensure timely payments to Access to Work support providers.
- Written Answers — Department for Work and Pensions: Access to Work Programme ( 5 Nov 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the accessibility of the Access to Work application process for people with (a) learning disabilities, (b) mental health conditions and (c) neurodivergent needs; and what steps his Department is taking to simplify the process.
- Written Answers — Department for Work and Pensions: Access to Work Programme ( 5 Nov 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) consistency and (b) transparency in Access to Work funding decisions in different types of (i) disability and (ii) employment sectors.
- Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease — [Clive Efford in the Chair] (28 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: Will the hon. Member accept that there is now a general body of opinion that it is time to stop blaming people for not having the willpower not to eat bad food when they are constantly bombarded with advertising and marketing? Some £6.4 billion a year will be spent by the food industry on advertising and marketing to people, and in many areas it is very difficult to get food that is both...
- Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease — [Clive Efford in the Chair] (28 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: If I may bring the hon. Member back to childhood obesity, does she agree that there is a serious problem with sugar being pumped into so much baby food? Does she therefore welcome what the Government have finally done after many years of the issue’s sitting unaddressed? They are giving the industry 18 months to take the sugar out of baby food and to stop marketing basically unhealthy...
- Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease — [Clive Efford in the Chair] (28 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: I suggest to the hon. Member that one of the principal reasons that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has shot up so radically in recent years is the increasing prevalence of food that is simply bad for people and is causing them damage—in particular, food that is high in fat, sugar and salt. For that reason, the Health and Social Care Committee, of which I am a member, is currently doing...
- Written Answers — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Social Rented Housing: Standards (24 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that social housing meets (a) decent and (b) safe living standards.
- Written Answers — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Social Rented Housing: Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (24 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that all disabled people in social housing have personal emergency evacuation plans.
- Black History Month (23 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: I am grateful to my hon. Friend—my youthful friend—for that comment. I could not agree more. When I became aware of this problem back when I was a councillor, we instituted a programme to build trust within the black and minority ethnic community in the NHS. As a result, we had hundreds of conversations in the community with people from the NHS and with people of colour. One black...
- Black History Month (23 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: I am most grateful for the correction, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is interesting that my hon. Friend talks about doctors, because honestly there are not that many people in leadership positions in the NHS who are black, and that is another issue that needs to be addressed. I have used the word “racism”—as we all have—in a way that is perhaps not easy to do everywhere. I have to say,...
- Black History Month (23 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: My hon. Friend makes a strong point, and I could not agree more. There is some data out there. Hospital trusts collect data each year on how their staff are feeling about a whole range of things. I looked at my local hospital trust’s data and one question it asks is: “Do you feel that you have suffered more discrimination this year from patients and from colleagues and managers?” I have...
- Black History Month (23 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: Absolutely. I think the hon. Member and I are advocating the same thing. I have to say—quick plug here—that the NHS app is quite good. If anyone does not have it, I would sign up and get it. If people do not get it and give feedback, we cannot make it any better. I am quite impressed by the app. I was shocked to see how many times I have been to the doctors in recent years, but all the...
- Black History Month (23 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: The hon. Member makes a very good point. I will run through a few more proposals from the maternity report, but they will not surprise Members; they are not radical or new. What would really be radical and new would be if one of these reports— I think I have read at least six reports about black people getting less good treatment from the NHS—had their recommendations implemented. That...
- Black History Month (23 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: My remarks will be influenced by my membership of the Health and Social Care Committee, and by the fact that I am the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on black health. Also, like my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey), I have the pleasure of being a trade envoy: for Morocco and francophone west Africa. We share a great interest in that continent. I will...
- Heathrow: National Airports Review (22 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: Does my right hon. Friend recognise the severe concerns that my constituents in Fulham will have about aspects of this proposal, particularly the noise? They will hence take an interest in ensuring that the four tests are properly adhered to. Can she reassure me that she has no intention of watering down the ANPS to lessen its noise commitments?
- Written Answers — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Social Rented Housing: Hazel Grove (20 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help support councils to increase the supply of affordable housing in Chelsea and Fulham constituency.
- Written Answers — Department for Work and Pensions: Social Rented Housing: Rents (20 Oct 2025)
Ben Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help support tenants with the cost of rent in the social housing sector.