Biography
Chris Coghlan has raised learning disability and autism issues predominantly through Commons debate speeches (27 contributions), with a particular focus on failures in local authority SEND provision, preventable deaths among vulnerable children, and calls for greater accountability and legal safeguards. His engagement centres on specific cases—including constituents like the 12-year-old autistic child in Dorking with suicide attempts and Christopher Laskaris, an autistic man whose death led to calls for "Christopher's law" on mental capacity assessment—alongside broader systemic concerns about local authority misconduct, underfunding, and the misuse of the Mental Capacity Act. Coghlan has also raised mental health and cancer issues, including advocacy for brain tumour research funding following a constituent's death from DIPG.
Generated from their own Hansard record, below
“I have given the Government evidence that hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities are avoidably killing themselves because of public authority negligence and misconduct, including my constituent Jen Bridges-Chalkley.”
Record by topic
- Learning disability & autism29th of 89968.5
- Cancer180th of 6229.0
- Mental health386th of 8809.0
- Dentistry access100th of 1943.0
- Elderly care & frailty76th of 2363.0
- Palliative & end of life care329th of 5683.0
What they’ve said
“…The Bill is in honour of Christopher Laskaris, whose mum Fiona is here. Christopher was not unlike many autistic children; he was a sensitive and intelligent boy, who once asked his mum to stop on the way to school to rescue a lamb stuck in a fence. I first met Fiona when I was eight.”
Mental Capacity (Duty to Assess) · 2026-07-08 · Read on Hansard ↗
“I entirely agree. An under-resourced officer can still determine need, still issue an EHCP and still be transparent about what cannot yet be delivered. That, at least, is honest.”
SEND Provision and Reform · 2026-04-13 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…I have enormous respect for him, but his underlying argument is flawed, because there is the same number of SEND children now as there was in 2010 and in 1978. The question is why the number fell so much up to 2016 and then rose, and I would suggest that the answer probably has something to do with the scrapping of Sur…”
SEND Provision and Reform · 2026-04-13 · Read on Hansard ↗
“I thank the right hon. Member for his intervention and I completely disagree. Think about the autistic boy I was talking about at the start of my speech. He has been out of school for seven years and his father has quit his job to look after him.”
SEND Provision and Reform · 2026-04-13 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…I saw the mother in September, a week after the child’s second suicide attempt. The child and adolescent mental health services wrote to the GP one week later, saying that their risk of suicide was low, but there have been more self-harm incidents since then.”
SEND Provision: Local Authorities · 2026-03-03 · Read on Hansard ↗
Contributions reproduced under the Open Parliament Licence.