Extremism
(10 years ago)
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Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab)
(Urgent Question): To ask the Home Secretary to make a statement on her conduct regarding the Government’s action on preventing extremism.
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)
The Government take the threat of extremism—non-violent extremism as well as violent extremism—very seriously. That is why, in line with the Prime Minister’s Munich speech in 2011, I reformed the Prevent strategy that year, and it is why, in response to the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby, the Prime Minister established the extremism taskforce last year.
The Prevent strategy we inherited was deeply flawed. It confused Government policy to promote integration with Government policy to prevent terrorism. It failed to tackle the extremist ideology that undermines the cohesion of our society and inspires would-be terrorists to murder. In trying to reach those at risk of radicalisation, funding sometimes reached the very extremist organisations that Prevent should have been confronting. Ministers and officials sometimes engaged with, and therefore leant legitimacy to, organisations and people with extremist agendas.
Unlike the old strategy, this Government’s Prevent strategy recognises and tackles the danger of non-violent extremism as well as violent extremism. Unlike the old strategy, the new strategy addresses all forms of extremism. Unlike the old strategy, there is now a clear demarcation between counter-terrorism work, which is run out of the Home Office, and the Government’s wider counter-extremist and integration work, which is co-ordinated by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Unlike the old strategy, the new strategy introduced explicit controls to make sure that public money must not be provided to extremist organisations. If organisations do not support the values of democracy, human rights, equality before the law and participation in society, we should not work with them and we should not fund them.
Turning to the issue of the unauthorised comments to the media about the Government’s approach to tackling extremism and the improper release of correspondence between Ministers, the Cabinet Secretary undertook a review to establish the facts of what happened last week. As the Cabinet Secretary and Prime Minister concluded, I did not authorise the release of my letter to the Education Secretary. Following the Cabinet Secretary’s review, the Education Secretary apologised to the Prime Minister and to Charles Farr, the director general of the office for security and counter-terrorism. In addition, in relation to further comments to The Times, my special adviser Fiona Cunningham resigned on Saturday.
Yvette Cooper
The Education Secretary will shortly make a statement about Birmingham schools, but last week the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary turned this instead into a public blame game about the Government’s approach to tackling extremism. There are important questions about the oversight and management of these schools, which the House will debate shortly. There are also real and separate concerns about the Government’s failure to work with communities on preventing extremism and about the narrowness of the Home Secretary’s approach.
Both issues are complex and require a thoughtful, sensitive approach and for Ministers to work together, just as Departments, communities, parents, local councils and the police need to do. Instead of showing leadership on working together, the Home Secretary and Education Secretary chose to let rip at each other in public, making it harder to get the sensible joint working we need. That is why the Home Secretary needs to answer specific questions about her conduct in this process, particularly about the letter she wrote to the Education Secretary, which the Home Office released and which has made it harder to get that joint working in place.
The Home Secretary has said that she did not authorise the publication of the letter on the Home Office website, but why did she not insist that it be removed, rather than leaving it in place on the website for three days? She wrote that letter and sent it after she had been advised that The Times newspaper had briefing from the Education Secretary. Did she write that letter in order for it to be leaked, and did she authorise its release to the media? Section 2.1 of the “Ministerial Code” makes it clear that
“the privacy of opinions expressed in Cabinet and Ministerial Committees, including in correspondence, should be maintained.”
Did she and her Department breach the “Ministerial Code”?
Secondly, the Home Secretary made it clear in her letter that she disagreed with the Education Secretary’s approach. She said:
“The allegations relating to schools in Birmingham raise serious questions about the quality of school governance and oversight arrangements in the maintained sector”.
Does she stand by her claim that the oversight arrangements for Birmingham schools under the Education Secretary were not adequate?
Thirdly, the Home Secretary’s strategy on preventing extremism has been criticised from all sides—not just by the Education Secretary—for failing to engage with local communities and for having become too narrow, leaving gaps. She now needs to focus on getting those policies back on track, because it matters to communities across the country that there is a serious and sensible approach to these issues and joint working at the very top of the Government.
The reason why the Home Secretary needs to answer these questions about her decisions last week is to assure us that she and the Education Secretary will not put their personal reputations and ambitions ahead of making the right decisions for the country. We cannot have a repeat of the experiences of last week. It is shambolic for the Government, but it is much worse for everyone else.
Mrs May
On the specific allegations of extremism in schools in Birmingham and the wider question of how we confront extremism more generally, there are very important issues that I will come on to, but I should perhaps first remind the shadow Home Secretary of a few facts.
Under this Government, foreign hate preachers such as Zakir Naik and Yusuf al-Qaradawi are banned from coming to Britain. Under her Government, they were allowed to come here to give lectures and sermons, and to spread their hateful beliefs. In the case of al-Qaradawi, he was not just allowed to come here; he was literally embraced on stage by Labour’s London Mayor, Ken Livingstone.
I have excluded more foreign hate preachers than any Home Secretary before me. I have got rid of the likes of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada. The Government do not give a public platform to groups that condone, or fail to distance themselves from, extremism. For the first time, we are mapping out extremists and extremist groups in the United Kingdom. We make sure that the groups we work with and fund adhere to British values, and where they do not, we do not fund them and we do not work with them. None of these things was true when the Labour party was in power.
The shadow Home Secretary asked about the “Ministerial Code”. I can tell her that, as the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister concluded, I did not break the code. As she has no evidence for suggesting I did, she should withdraw any allegation of that sort.
The right hon. Lady asked about the letter, its presence on the website and why action was not taken, but action was taken immediately, because the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to investigate, and he did.
The right hon. Lady referred to schools in Birmingham. I am afraid she will have to wait for my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary to make his statement; he will do so shortly, and answer questions about school inspections and oversight arrangements.
I would just say this to the right hon. Lady: I am responsible for the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy and, within that, the Prevent strategy, but she seems to misunderstand how the Prevent strategy works, so I think I should perhaps explain it to her. The Home Office sets the Prevent strategy and it is up to the rest of Whitehall, including the Home Office, as well as the wider public sector and civil society, to deliver it. There is always more to be done, things we can improve and lessons we can learn, but we have made good progress under this Government. Yes, we need to get to the bottom of what has happened in schools in Birmingham, but it is thanks to this Education Secretary that the Department for Education has, for the first time, a dedicated extremism unit to try to stop this sort of thing happening.
The shadow Home Secretary repeated her complaint that Prevent has become too narrowly drawn under this Government, but she does not seem to realise that we took a very clear decision back in 2011 to split Prevent into the bit that tackles non-violent extremism as well as violent extremism and counter-terrorism, and the Government’s integration strategy, which is quite consciously run out of the Department for Communities and Local Government. If what she is suggesting is that Prevent and integration work should go back to being together and being confused, she needs to think again because her Government’s approach was damaging and caused a lot of resentment among many British Muslims.
As the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), the former Home Secretary, said at the time we made that change, it follows
“the eminently sensible objective of keeping the ‘prevent’ strand of counter-terrorism separate from the ‘integration’ initiatives of DCLG.”
He continued:
“I completely agree with what the Home Secretary has said about Prevent.”—[Official Report, 14 July 2010; Vol. 513, c. 1011.]
The shadow Home Secretary should listen to her right honourable colleague.
What has happened in Birmingham is very serious indeed, and the Education Secretary will set out his response in due course. We need to do everything we can to protect children from extremism and, more generally, to confront extremism in all its forms. The Government are determined to do that. However, it is quite clear from what the shadow Home Secretary has said today that on extremism, like on so many other things, the Labour party would take us backwards, not forwards.
Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)
I am very pleased that the Home Secretary focused on the substance, rather than on the pointless process questions that the shadow Home Secretary focused on. I welcome what the Home Secretary said about the changes to Prevent. Is it not better to have our approach, rather than the last Government’s? The Communities and Local Government Committee said that the Labour Government’s Prevent strategy was wasting money
“on unfocused or irrelevant projects”.
Mrs May
I agree completely with my hon. Friend. That was an early decision by this Government. It was absolutely right to separate the two strands of work of the Prevent strategy: the counter-terrorism work and the integration work. It is right that the integration work is now under the remit of the DCLG. I repeat what I said in my response to the shadow Home Secretary: I suggest that Labour Members listen to the words of the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle in this respect. He agreed absolutely with what the Government have done.
Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
The Home Secretary is at her worst when she seeks to patronise. These are extraordinarily difficult and sensitive issues, and they are certainly not funny. Whether we agree or disagree about the previous Prevent strategy, what measures do she and the Education Secretary together intend to take to reach out to the Muslim community in Britain and engage them in a positive dialogue, to ensure that we do not sink into a strategy of “They did it, we did it, other people have done it and therefore we are against you,” which can only lead to divisions in our urban communities and great dangers for our country?
Mrs May
Across the Government, we are absolutely clear that we need to reach out to and work with people in Muslim communities in the United Kingdom to ensure that we address the real issues of potential radicalisation and extremism, which many people in those communities are as concerned about as we are. That work is led by the DCLG through its work on integration at a local level. It is also work that we, as constituency Members of Parliament, can take forward. Last Friday, I was talking with a group of Asian women from my constituency about their experiences, what they wanted to do and how they wanted to work with the local council and others to ensure that people in Muslim communities feel able to be true to their Islamic faith and play a full part in British society.
Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
There are many issues on which the Home Office has to work with the Department for Education: extremism, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, gangs, drugs and many more. Will the Home Secretary be able to work with the Education Secretary to ensure that there is compulsory personal, social, health and economic education for everybody, including sex and relationships education?
Mrs May
The hon. Gentleman has worked hard to get that issue into a statement about extremism in our schools. The Education Secretary and I talk about those issues, and our Departments work together on them. We are constantly looking to ensure that what we do in our schools provides the right education for our children, and one that helps them to tackle a range of issues that might make them feel pressurised, including the important one—extremism—we are talking about today.
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)
The Home Secretary is right to remind the House that she alone has overall responsibility for counter-terrorism in the Cabinet. In the past three years, the Home Affairs Committee has conducted two major inquiries into extremism, but no Minister from any Department has given us written or oral evidence to suggest that there was a problem with Birmingham schools. She was correct in writing to the Education Secretary, and she raised four important, indeed critical questions. Has she received a reply to the questions in the letter she sent last Tuesday, and does she agree that the Prevent strategy is always capable of improvement? We do not need just to prevent; we need to engage with communities to rid ourselves of extremism.
Mrs May
The right hon. Gentleman is right, in that, of course, there is a spectrum of activity that we need to be involved in. At one end, some of that is about actively working to prevent people who want to undertake or plan terrorist acts against us from doing so. But at the other end there is obviously the wider integration work with communities, and in many cases helping to support communities to address issues of extremism and radicalisation, should they see them in their streets and local institutions. On the first point, the right hon. Gentleman knows full well that my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary will make a statement at the end of this urgent question on what has been happening in schools in Birmingham, and I suggest he waits for that.
Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)
In danger of being lost among the regrettable froth over this issue is that for four years, my right hon. Friend has presided over a team of officials who deal with these issues and who have worked extremely well in developing a globally leading policy, and in adjusting in a dynamic policy environment. We as a nation should be grateful for how well we are served, and for the leadership the Home Secretary has given.
Mrs May
I thank my hon. Friend, and he is right to point out that the strategies we have adopted are looked to with respect around the world. Of course there is always more for us to do, which is why we look constantly at the work we are undertaking to ensure that we are doing as much as possible and learning any lessons from the past. We have a good record on the strategies we have put in place. Yes, we can look to do more, as I have said, but we should not lose sight of the fact that Contest and Prevent are looked at with respect around the world.
Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)
I spoke last week to Muslim leaders in my constituency, and I recognise that the vast majority of the Muslim community are extremely concerned about the activity of extremists, not least because they know that their sons and daughters are some of those most at risk. They want to know that they are being backed to keep their families and communities safe. Will the Home Secretary therefore explain why she cut the anti-extremism programmes’ support for community action from £17 million for 93 local authorities to £1 million for 30 local authorities?
Mrs May
First, it is indeed important to reach out to and work with communities, as I have said in response to a number of questions this afternoon. I am sorry to repeat the point I made to the shadow Home Secretary, but we have changed the way that various parts of what was the last Government’s Prevent strategy are delivered. We therefore cannot look at Home Office figures and say that there has been a cut in funding, because the Home Office has changed, and we are funding activity that is much more focused than it was. Two Departments are responsible for the different elements of the Prevent strategy, and the reason for that is simple: it is precisely Muslim communities who were getting concerned about the way the strategy operated under the last Government, and its mixing of the counter-terrorism strategy with communities integration work. We responded to that.
Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)
Does the Home Secretary agree that combating extremism and building trust in communities will work only if there is action in communities consistent with the rhetoric in this place? Denouncing organisations from the Dispatch Box is not good enough; we also have to end funding to extremist organisations in communities.
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is right and that is why, as part of the revised Prevent strategy, we put in place explicit procedures to try to ensure that funding does not go to organisations that have extremists within them or that do not respect the values we all hold dear. This Government put that new strand into the Prevent strategy because we saw the importance of not funding extremism.
Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)
If the Home Secretary’s case is so convincing, why did she not manage to convince the Secretary of State for Education? Is it because there is an alternative agenda in the Tory party, which is that, post-election, the nasty party is getting ready for a succession battle and the Home Secretary is battling with the Secretary of State for Education? That is what is really happening—that is the truth. She might not like it, but that is what the people out there think.
Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
May I remind my right hon. Friend that, after the general election, practically the first meeting the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government attended was at Lambeth palace, where all the nation’s faith leaders were present? He committed the Government to fund and support the Near Neighbours programme, which enables faith communities throughout the country to work together to promote integration and tackle extremism. If this “duff up the Home Secretary” urgent question has achieved nothing else this afternoon, it will at least, hopefully, better explain to the Opposition and others where the division of responsibilities lie in government for counter-terrorism on the one hand and community integration on the other.
Mrs May
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. He is right to draw attention to the excellent work the Department for Communities and Local Government has been doing under the leadership of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State. Indeed, my right hon. Friend, the noble Baroness Warsi has been doing very important work to bring communities together, particularly faith communities, to share their experiences and increase understanding between them. That is a vital part of the integration work that I would have hoped we all, across the Chamber, accept is necessary. We should support it wherever we see it.
Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)
While we are on the subject of extremism, will the Home Secretary update the House on the whereabouts of the two control order suspects who escaped following her decision, and the Prime Minister’s decision, to remove the relocation power in the previous regime, which had prevented abscondences for many years? Does she know where those suspects are, and do they still pose a threat to the public?
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
Does the Home Secretary agree that one of the best ways to prevent the development of extremist views is through the work of interfaith groups, such as the Bury Muslim Christian Forum in my constituency, which provides a platform to explain the implementation of the Prevent strategy?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He is right to promote and recognise in this House the good work being done by the Bury Muslim Christian Forum in his constituency. It is exactly that sort of work at community level—people coming together to increase their understanding of each other—that is so valuable in the work of integration of our communities.
Mr David Lammy (Tottenham) (Lab)
In December 2009, when I was Minister with responsibility for higher education, a young man, Abdulmutallab, boarded a plane between Amsterdam and Detroit intent on bombing that plane. There were, as the Home Secretary would imagine, intense conversations between the Department with responsibility for universities and the then Home Secretary. Those conversations never made their way into the public domain. Given the seriousness of what has happened, and with the attack in Pakistan just yesterday, should the Home Secretary not come to this House and apologise, like the Secretary of State for Education, for what has happened in the past few days?
Mrs May
First, the right hon. Gentleman does well to remind us of the terrible incident that has taken place in Pakistan. Our thoughts should go out to all those who have been victims of that terrible attack. Pakistan has suffered more loss of life through terrorist acts than anywhere else. That is a fact I have recognised on a number of my visits to Pakistan and it is a fact we should recognise in this House. As to other matters, the question of those who go and preach, and attend and speak at universities is important, and is one that I discuss with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. We ensure that Prevent co-ordinators are there to be able to support universities in the necessary work they are doing to help to support those on their campuses.
David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that this issue is far too important to be treated as some sort of political football and that Members of all parties would do better to unite behind the Government in trying to tackle this problem?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is right in that this issue is one where we would hope that people would work across the House to ensure that we provide the support that communities need to carry out the necessary work referred to by a number of Members today. This is an important issue. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education will make that clear in the statement he is about to give. This Government take seriously the issues about what has been happening in Birmingham schools, just as they take seriously issues relating to extremism in any form wherever it appears.
Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)
Given the Home Secretary’s very punchy response about this Government’s commitment to combating radicalism, engaging with communities and supporting and integrating our communities so that they can tackle extremism in their midst, will she confirm, following the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), that she has only £1 million left from the £17 million budget to do that?
Mrs May
I have to say to the hon. Lady that the Opposition’s assumption that they can look at figures relating to the Prevent strategy, which has been split, and quote them as somehow indicating what this Government are doing wrong is a path that she should not be going down.
Mr Stephen O'Brien (Eddisbury) (Con)
Following the robust and clear answer from the Home Secretary, the only urgent question for the House to consider today is the misjudgment of the shadow Home Secretary. As part of the Prevent and counter-terrorism strategy for which my right hon. Friend and her Department are responsible, will she reinforce the importance of the work that the National Crime Agency is doing in countries in west and north Africa, which, as I see with my own eyes, is having a significant effect, albeit with quite small resource, to help prevent further terrorism taking place in this country as well as abroad?
Mrs May
My right hon. Friend makes a very important point. In looking at the work done against terrorism, we increasingly see across the world linkages between organised crime and terrorism. It is exactly in this way that the National Crime Agency, with its work on organised crime and how it feeds into terrorism, is so important. The NCA takes this issue very seriously, and I am pleased to say that, since it was set up, it has done some real and important work, as my right hon. Friend says, particularly in a number of countries in north and west Africa, with which he is familiar through the work he has done for the Prime Minister.
Ian Lucas (Wrexham) (Lab)
Who authorised posting the letter to the Education Secretary on the Home Office website?
Mr Speaker
Order. Mr Lucas, I understand your frustration, but I have told you before that your apprenticeship to become a statesman still has some distance to travel. You must not holler from a sedentary position. Allow the Home Secretary to respond, and others will have their opportunity.
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
I welcome my right hon. Friend’s track record on actions speaking louder than words, as she has excluded more hate preachers than any predecessor and has achieved successfully the legal deportation of Abu Hamza and the review of the Prevent strategy—a strategy that the former Chairman of the Select Committee referred to, as my right hon. Friend may be aware, as lacking
“clear-sighted and consistent ministerial leadership”—[Official Report, 10 July 2006; Vol. 448, c. 1123.]
under the last Government.
Mrs May
I thank my hon. Friend for reminding us of that quotation from the Chairman of the Select Committee. It would appear that Opposition Members have forgotten what was said by a Committee of this House about the strategy that applied under the last Government. We have changed that strategy and made it more effective. We in the Home Office are focusing more clearly on the counter-terrorism aspects, and, as we have heard, the communities integration aspects are being dealt with by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
It appears that the Home Secretary has just blamed her special adviser for the unauthorised publication of her letter to the Education Secretary. Given that she said in her statement that she had acted immediately, why did it take a whole three days for that letter to be removed from the website? Does she not need to get a grip on her Department?
Mrs May
The hon. Gentleman is getting his quotations mixed up. I made it absolutely clear in my statement, and in my response to the hon. Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas), that the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister concluded that I did not authorise the release of the letter. Following the review, certain things took place in relation to the Education Secretary, and in relation to further comments that were made to The Times, my special adviser Fiona Cunningham resigned on Saturday.
Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)
Does the Home Secretary share my surprise, indeed astonishment, that it had to fall to her to impose bans on hate preachers and to set up an extremism unit, and that those things were not done under the last Labour Government?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend has attributed to me an action to which I referred earlier and which was actually taken by the Education Secretary, namely the setting up of an extremism unit in the Department for Education. However, as I said earlier, I have banned more hate preachers than any other Home Secretary. That is because this Government take the clear view that we want to deal with not just violent but non-violent extremism, which is clear from the actions that we have taken.
Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)
The Home Secretary seems to be using the word “immediately” instead of the words “after three days”. No wonder my constituents are panicking about getting their passports on time. Can she explain why she allowed her letter to remain on the website for three days? Did she not know about it? Was it with her authorisation? Has she any sense that three days is far too long in relation to something that was supposed to have been removed immediately?
Mrs May
I have answered that question on a number of occasions. I did make reference to immediate action that was taken. I made reference to that in response to the shadow Home Secretary. The Prime Minister initiated an investigation by the Cabinet Secretary, and that investigation was concluded at the end of last week.
Mr David Ward (Bradford East) (LD)
I am very concerned about some of the language that has been used today. We are here to listen to statements which, I remind the House, have been prompted by what has been deemed to be the inappropriate behaviour of governors in some schools in Birmingham, yet the Home Secretary’s statement began with a reference to Lee Rigby. Is it right to use the same word, “extremism”, to cover both forms of activity, and, if so, are we going to replace the term “devout Catholics” with “extremist Catholics”, or change the term “committed Christians” to “extremist Christians”? How can we have a sense of proportion if we are using the same word to cover such a vast range of behaviour?
Mrs May
I think that when my hon. Friend looks at the record of what he has said in Hansard, he may regret the tone and approach that he has taken. I did make reference to the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. That murder was a terrorist attack. It took place just over a year ago in this country. It was one of two terrorist attacks that took place in this country last year. I referred to it because I wanted to refer to the extremism taskforce, which the Prime Minister set up following that murder. The taskforce reported at the end of last year, and the Government are acting on its recommendations.
Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)
The Home Secretary has said on more than one occasion that the last Labour Government were somehow funding extremist organisations, yet she, as Home Secretary, cut funding for the Quilliam Foundation. Is she implying that the foundation is a pro-extremist organisation?
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
I spent many of my early years being educated in south Birmingham. May I say to my right hon. Friend and to other hon. Members that the pressures on young people from the south Asian diaspora are intense and powerful and can come from community leaders, religious leaders and even from the extended family? The crucial issue is that, if we are to make progress, we must move away from the focus on counter-terrorism towards integration, where young people can have their own identity, but within the context of British values.
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)
The Home Secretary’s special adviser had to resign—it was right that she did so—although, after what the right hon. Lady said, we do not know whether that is related to the letter. The Education Secretary, rightly, was disciplined for breaching the ministerial code. Does the Home Secretary feel that she bears any responsibility for “certain things” that have happened?
Mrs May
The hon. Gentleman is well aware of the progress of what happened in relation to the Cabinet Secretary’s investigation of last week’s events. The investigation took place at the request of the Prime Minister. The Cabinet Secretary did that swiftly and a number of actions resulted from it.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
In terms of effective cross-Government working, the Home Secretary has told us that she has reformed the Prevent strategy. She has told us that the Education Secretary has set up a dedicated extremism unit and that excellent community cohesion work is being led by the Communities Secretary. Will she assure the House that that cross-Government work will continue effectively?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is right. That work will continue. Indeed, other Departments are working with the Home Office under the aegis of the Prevent strategy: for example, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. That Department has responsibility for universities, and I referred earlier to the issue of speakers at universities. The Ministry of Justice is also working with the Home Office under that strategy in relation to what happens in prisons and the work of the National Offender Management Service. Other Departments are involved in the strategy with the Home Office. This is genuinely a cross-Government approach to deal with extremism in all its forms.
Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)
Is the Home Secretary happy that her new strategy is working absolutely as she intends, or has she any lessons to learn from the mistakes, apologies and resignation of the past week?
Mrs May
On the Prevent strategy and the work that the Government do on extremism, as I said earlier, there is always more work that the Government can do. It is imperative that we look constantly at what we are doing to ensure that it is delivering the results that we need. However, as I have already said, it was last year, following the appalling murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, that the Prime Minister set up an extremism taskforce to bring all Departments involved across Government together and to look at whether more could be done. A number of recommendations came out from that and we have been working on them.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the last Government completely failed to promote the integration of religious and ethnic minority groups into mainstream British society? It is within these insular and isolated communities that radicalisation and extremism can take root and prosper.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
The public row between the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary is deeply disturbing when it is on a matter of national security. What will she do to restore trust among the British public, especially law-abiding British Muslims who feel targeted because of the appalling rhetoric in the media? We need to ensure that people can trust the Government to work in their interest to build cohesion and prevent extremism.
Mrs May
The concern about the impact that Government work has on the British Muslim community was precisely why we decided when we came into government to separate the integration strand of Prevent from the counter-terrorism strand. We felt that there was a concern about Prevent’s operation precisely because of its counter-terrorism element. Therefore, the integration elements were not looked at as positively as they should have been.
What do we need to do as a Government from this point? My right hon. Friend the Education Secretary will indicate what action he will be taking in connection with schools in Birmingham and related matters. All of us need to operate collectively at the grassroots level to make sure that we are reaching out to British Muslim communities and others and are undertaking the work that some of my hon. Friends have mentioned in Bury and elsewhere to bring faith communities in particular together.
Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)
As somebody from a Muslim background whose father was an imam, may I ask the Secretary of State whether she agrees that one of the major failings of the previous Government was that they failed fully to integrate communities? The previous Government looked at integration through the narrow prism of counter-terrorism, which led to a major breakdown with the Muslim communities around the country, and we must address that. Linked to that, does she agree that we have to address the issue of extremism and radicalisation on the internet, which poses a grave threat to our country?
Mrs May
On the first point, my hon. Friend is absolutely right and that is precisely why we took the decision to separate the strands of the Prevent work. On the second point, he is also right in that we need to work on addressing the material on the internet. The police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit has been set up—to be fair, it was set up at the beginning of 2010, so before this Government came into office, but we have accelerated its work, and in recent months, following the extremism taskforce identifying this as a particular issue, an increased number of items have been taken down from websites because of terrorism content.
Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)
Birmingham city’s council and national strategies were raising concerns about these issues in Birmingham schools with the Department for Education in writing in 2010. When did the Secretary of State become aware of these concerns in relation to Birmingham schools?
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
In Wellingborough we have strong Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities, but they are integrated. Does the Home Secretary agree that we must not give the impression today in this House that there is extremism across the country?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is one of the reasons why when the Home Office looked at Prevent funding and dealing with Prevent and its counter-terrorism strand, we said that we should be focusing the money not according to the number of Muslims living in a community but according to the risk of radicalisation, because that was the issue we were addressing. I am sorry to say it has been reported that the shadow Home Secretary suggests that was a false move, which implies that she thinks money should be spent just on the basis of how many Muslims are living in a particular community. I do not agree with that. I think it gives the wrong message about people in our Muslim communities. We should be focusing on where we believe there is genuine radicalisation.
Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)
The Home Secretary will be aware of the recent case of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, a former university student in Wales who was recently held in Sudan in connection with a bombing of a bus station in Abuja by Boko Haram, which killed over 70 people. Given the serious concerns rightly raised about the co-ordination of Government policy in this instance, will the Home Secretary assure the House that there is co-ordination of policy in relation to universities, and not just schools?
Mrs May
Yes, we take very seriously what might be happening on university campuses. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Universities and Science has spent a lot of time looking at this issue, and we are constantly working with universities to ensure that action can be taken on their campuses to try to stop the sort of radicalisation and the extremist preachers that have been on some campuses in the past.
Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, along with central Government funding, local authority funding will be promptly removed from organisations engaged in the promotion of hatred and violence?
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
The Home Secretary has today repeatedly denied that she authorised the placement of the letter on the Home Office website, but equally, she has repeatedly refused to say who did authorise its placement. Do special advisers in the Home Office have free access to the Home Office website, so that they can post things on it, and to the general communications strategy of the Home Office?
Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)
The Labour party is focusing on whether the Home Secretary should personally micro-manage websites, but is not the real issue the fact that under this Government the Prevent strategy, which confuses the Labour party, has been properly split between communities and counter-terrorism? That is the way that it should be. It is one of the many areas where Labour got it wrong but we are getting it right.
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. At the core is the question of how we deal with extremism, which is what the Prevent strategy is about. We took the right decision on that strategy, and it is a pity that the Opposition do not seem to understand the implications of that.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
Will the Home Secretary now increase spending on anti-extremism programmes?
Mrs May
I apologise—I did not quite catch the beginning of the hon. Gentleman’s question. We look closely across the board at how the Home Office budget is spent. We also look closely at the Prevent funding, and we have introduced measures, which were not there under the last Government, to ensure that we can ascertain not only how much is being spent on a particular project but the effectiveness of the spend. The last Government did not seek to find out whether they were spending public money effectively.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
Does the Home Secretary share my concern that there have been too many occasions when the battle against extremism has been hampered by European human rights? Does she agree that human rights reform will enable us not only to take the battle to extremists but to promote integration and make our communities safer and more secure?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend returns to a topic on which he has questioned me in the past, and on which I have made a number of statements in the House. In the cases of the extradition of Abu Hamza and the deportation of Abu Qatada, there were certainly delays due to the operation of the European Court of Human Rights. I have also made it clear in the House that the Conservative party is committed to going into the election with policies relating to the reform of the Human Rights Act 1998 and of our relationship with the European Court.
Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)
Did the Home Secretary authorise the release to the media of the letter to the Education Secretary?
Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)
Does the Home Secretary agree that the vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom despise hate crimes, extremism and terrorism, and that we in this House all have a duty to do what we can to promote inclusion within our own communities?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that everyone in the House has a duty to promote inclusion. He is also right that the majority of people in Muslim communities despise hate crimes. Sadly, too many people in Muslim communities are themselves the victims of hate crimes; we should not forget that.
Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)
The Home Secretary has made it clear that she herself did not authorise the publication of the letter, but she has implied that her former special adviser might have done so. Her former special adviser has lost her job, but has she apologised to the Home Secretary for the error?
Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)
Integration is not just about preventing young people from engaging in extremism; it is also about reintegrating them into their communities when they have been radicalised. What steps is my right hon. Friend’s Department taking to reintegrate people who have strayed in that way?
Mrs May
Within the Prevent strategy is the important Channel strand which works with people who are perhaps at risk of being radicalised—who are particularly vulnerable—to help ensure that they do not move down that path of radicalisation. Of course we also work with the National Offender Management Service on dealing with people who have been prosecuted and imprisoned under the terrorism legislation when they return to their communities.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
Did the Home Secretary know that her special adviser was going to release the letter in the way that she did?
Mrs May
I have answered quite a few questions in responding to this. [Interruption.] Opposition Members can ask the question as many times as they like, but they will get the same answer. I also have to say that it is a bit rich getting so many questions about special advisers from the party of Damian McBride.
Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con)
Does the Home Secretary agree that her reforms to split Prevent funding between Departments were essential, as the only result of the previous Government’s attempts to promote integration through the prism of counter-terrorism was to stigmatise law-abiding Muslim communities in constituencies such as mine and give succour to the British National party?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is absolutely right: the problem with the way the previous Government dealt with the Prevent strategy was that the integration part—the inclusion and communities work—became, in the eyes of many people in Muslim communities, tainted by its relationship with counter-terrorism. That is why it was absolutely right to split those two parts of the strategy and have them addressed under two Departments—the Home Office on counter-terrorism and the Department for Communities and Local Government on communities and inclusion.
Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)
The reason people keep asking the Home Secretary questions along the same lines is that she is refusing to answer them: she refuses to say who authorised the publication of that letter, and she refuses to say when she first found out about extremism in Birmingham schools. Will she at least tell us when she found out that the letter had been published and what action she took at that time?
Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)
My constituents will have been reminded today of the serious errors made under the previous Government in funding extremist groups. My right hon. Friend is right to stress the importance of inclusion, but will she join me in paying tribute to the officials in the Home Office and the intelligence services who work day in, day out to keep people in this country safe?
Mrs May
I thank my hon. Friend for reminding us of the very important work done day in, day out, not just by officials in the Home Office but by individuals in our security services and law enforcement bodies to keep us safe. They have to work at that minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day doing the valuable work that they do. We should record our thanks to them once again—it is their work that helps to keep the public safe.
Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)
I am going to press the Home Secretary again on the nature of the unauthorised correspondence. It was on the website for three days. She said that the Cabinet Secretary launched an investigation. Did she therefore make the judgment at the start of that investigation not to take down the correspondence from the website? Did she wait for the Cabinet Secretary to tell her to take it down?
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)
Rather than obsessing over process, the Home Secretary is right to talk about learning the lessons of the past. In trying to reach out to the groups most at risk of radicalisation, did funding from the previous Government sometimes reach groups that were extremist in their views and organisations that should not be funded in that way? What is she doing to prevent that situation from recurring?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend is right that what we saw, sadly, was that it was possible for funding to reach organisations that had extremists within them, that had some form of extremist intent or that had links to extremism. We have put in place a proper process within the funding arrangements that means that we look at organisations and require them to be clear about how they share British values in the way that they operate to ensure that Government are not funding extremism.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
Does the Secretary of State accept that open warfare between her and the Education Secretary is completely undermining public confidence in this Government to engage with communities and to be tough on terrorism and the causes of terrorism? We need to get rid of the turf war shambles and replace this Government with a new Labour Government.
Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)
Given the advocacy by the shadow Home Secretary of an alternative, broader Prevent strategy, does the Home Secretary share my concern that we could go back to a time when public funds are used to support groups and individuals who support segregation, not integration, which does nothing to diminish the extremism that everyone, on all sides of the House, wants to see expunged from this country?
Mrs May
My hon. Friend has made an extremely serious point. It is important for us all to work towards inclusion, integration and full participation in society and in no way to attempt to enforce a separation of groups. Indeed, the danger of the previous Government’s Prevent strategy was that it was not able to work effectively on inclusion precisely because of the way they had set it up.
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)
A couple of years ago, I visited a Buddhist centre in my constituency, and the Abbott told me how, before the last general election, the members of the centre were driven out of their Birmingham base by radical Muslim extremists. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, sadly, there are elements of the Muslim community who are extreme? These extremists put fire bombs and excrement through the letterbox of the Buddhist centre. Is it not right that this Government should target their efforts to ensure that that sort of extremism is stamped out?
Mrs May
I deplore the actions that my hon. Friend has described today. Nobody should be driven out of their home or their centre by such actions. It is absolutely right that we address extremism; we need to address it in all its forms. We have changed Prevent so that it deals not just with violent extremism but with non-violent extremism and extremism in all forms. I mentioned earlier that there were two terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom last year. I have referred to one of them, which was the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. We also saw a far right extremist murder Mohammed Saleem. We must never forget that extremism can take many forms.
Birmingham Schools
(10 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)
With permission, Mr Speaker, I should like to make a statement on schools in Birmingham.
Keeping our children safe and ensuring that our schools prepare them for life in modern Britain could not be more important; it is my Department’s central mission. Allegations made in what has become known as the Trojan horse letter suggested that children were not being kept safe in Birmingham schools. Ofsted and the Education Funding Agency have investigated those allegations. Their reports and other relevant documents have today been placed in the Library. Let me set out their findings and my actions.
Ofsted states that
“headteachers reported...an organised campaign to target…schools...in order to alter their character and ethos,”
with
“a culture of fear and intimidation.”
Head teachers who had
“a record of raising standards”
reported that they had been
“marginalised or forced out of their jobs.”
One school leader was so frightened about speaking to the authorities that a meeting had to be arranged in a supermarket car park.
Ofsted concluded that governors
“are trying to impose and promote a narrow faith-based ideology in what are non-faith schools”
specifically by narrowing the curriculum, manipulating staff appointments and using school funds inappropriately.
Overall, Ofsted inspected 21 schools. Three were good or outstanding; 12 were found to require improvement. The remaining six are inadequate, and are in special measures. Let me explain why. At one secular primary school, terms such as “white prostitute”, unsuitable for primary children’s ears, were used in Friday assemblies run exclusively by Muslim staff. The school organised visits to Saudi Arabia, open only to Muslim pupils, and senior leaders told inspectors that a madrassah had been established and paid for from the school’s budget. Ofsted concluded that the school was
“not adequately ensuring that pupils have opportunities to learn about faith in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony between different cultures”.
At one secular secondary school, staff told officials that the call to prayer was broadcast across the playground on loud speakers. Officials observed that lessons had been narrowed to comply with conservative Islamic teachings. In biology, students were told that
“evolution is not what we believe”.
The school invited the preacher Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman to speak, despite the fact that he is reported to have said: “Give victory to Muslims in Afghanistan... Give victory to all the mujaheddin all over the world. Oh Allah, prepare us for the jihad.” Ofsted concluded that
“governors have failed to ensure that safeguarding requirements and other statutory duties are met”.
At another secular secondary school, inspectors described “a state of crisis”, with governors reportedly using school funds to pay private investigators to read the e-mails of senior leaders, and Ofsted found that there was a lack of action to protect students from extremism. At a third secular secondary school, Ofsted found that students were
“vulnerable to the risk of marginalisation from wider British society and the associated risks which…include radicalisation”.
At a secular primary, Ofsted found that
“pupils have limited knowledge of religious beliefs other than Islam”
and
“subjects such as art and music have been removed—at the insistence of the governing body”.
Inspectors concluded that the school
“does not adequately prepare students for life in modern Britain”.
Ofsted also reported failures on the part of Birmingham city council. It found that the council did not deal adequately with repeated complaints from head teachers. School leaders expressed “very little confidence” in the local authority, and Ofsted concluded that Birmingham had not exercised adequate judgement. These findings demand a robust but considered response. It is important that no one allows concern about these findings to become a pretext for criticism of Islam itself—a great faith that brings spiritual nourishment to millions and daily inspires countless acts of generosity. The overwhelming majority of British Muslim parents want their children to grow up in schools that open doors rather than close minds. It is on their behalf that we have to act.
There are critical questions about whether warning signs were missed. There are questions for Birmingham council, Ofsted and the Department for Education. Today, I have asked Birmingham council to review its history on this issue, and the chief inspector has advised me that he will consider the lessons learned for Ofsted. I am also concerned that the DFE may not have acted when it should have done. I am asking the permanent secretary to investigate how my Department dealt with warnings since the formation of this Government in 2010, and before. We must all acknowledge that there has been a failure in the past to do everything possible to tackle non-violent extremism.
Let me make it clear that no Government and no Home Secretary have done more to tackle extremism than this Government and this Home Secretary. In the Prime Minister’s Munich speech of 2011, in the Home Secretary’s own review of the Prevent strategy, and in the conclusions of the Government’s extremism taskforce last year, this Government have made it clear that we need to deal with the dangers posed by extremism well before it becomes violent. Since 2010, the DFE has increased its capacity to deal with extremism. We set up Whitehall’s first ever unit to counter extremism in public services, with help from former intelligence and security professionals. That unit has developed since 2010, and we will continue to strengthen it.
Ofsted now trains inspectors to understand and counter extremist Islamist ideology, and inspections of schools at risk, like those in Birmingham, are carried out by the most senior inspectors, overseen by Michael Wilshaw himself.
There is, of course, more to do, and today’s reports make action urgent. First, we need to take action in the schools found to be inadequate. Academies will receive letters saying that I am minded to terminate funding agreements; in local authority schools, governors are being replaced. We have already spoken to successful academy providers who are ready to act as sponsors.
We need to strengthen our inspection regime even further. The requirement to give notice of inspections clearly makes it more difficult to identify and detect the danger signs. Sir Michael Wilshaw and I have argued in the past that no-notice inspections can help identify when pupils are at risk. I have asked him to consider the practicalities of moving to a situation where all schools know that they may receive an unannounced inspection. I will also work with Sir Michael Wilshaw to ensure, as he recommends, that we can provide greater public assurance that all schools in a locality discharge their full statutory responsibilities, and we will consider how Ofsted can better enforce the existing requirement that all schools teach a broad and balanced curriculum.
I have talked today to the leader of Birmingham council and requested that it set out an action plan to tackle extremism and keep children safe. We already require independent schools, academies and free schools to respect British values. Now we will consult on new rules that will strengthen this standard further, requiring all those schools actively to promote British values, and I will ask Ofsted to enforce an equivalent standard on maintained schools through changes to the Ofsted framework.
Several of the governors whose activities have been investigated by Ofsted have also been active in the Association of Muslim Schools UK, which has statutory responsibilities in relation to state Muslim faith schools. So we have asked AMS UK to satisfy us that it is doing enough to protect children from extremism, and we will take appropriate steps if its guarantees are insufficiently robust.
I have spoken to the National College for Teaching and Leadership, and we will further strengthen the rules so that from now on it is explicit that a teacher inviting an extremist speaker into a school can be banned from the profession.
I will, of course, report in July on progress in all the areas that I have announced, as well as publishing the findings of the report of Peter Clarke, who is investigating the background behind many of the broader allegations in the Trojan horse letter. The steps we are taking today are those we consider necessary to protect our children from extremism and to protect our nation’s traditions of tolerance and liberty.
The conclusions of the reports today are clear. Things that should not have happened in our schools were allowed to happen. Our children were exposed to things that they should not have been exposed to. As Education Secretary, I am taking decisive action to make sure that those children are protected. Schools that are proven to have failed will be taken over, put under new leadership and taken in a fresh new direction. Any school could now be subject to rigorous, on-the-spot inspections with no advance warning and no opportunities to conceal failure. And we will put the promotion of British values at the heart of what every school has to deliver for children. What we have found was unacceptable, and we will put it right. I commend this statement to the House.
Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)
The events in Birmingham reveal an education policy in disarray, a Government more concerned about warring egos than school standards and a Prime Minister unable to control his Cabinet. But while Ministers carry on their briefings, sackings and apology, the education and safeguarding of children in the great city of Birmingham must be this House’s priority.
I appreciate the anxiety which parents and pupils are feeling in the midst of this debate. Our focus now has to be on ensuring successful futures for the schools identified today, because what the recent weeks have shown is that the Education Secretary’s vision of controlling every school from behind a desk in Whitehall does not work; that Ofsted has to think much more carefully about the nature of its inspection system; that Birmingham city council has, as Sir Albert Bore acknowledged, some tough questions to ask of the quality of leadership in its children and young people’s directorate; that current systems of schools governance are open to abuse; and that there is a broader debate to be had about education and faith, underperformance among minority ethnic groups and the limits of communalism in multicultural Britain. In an age of multiple religions, identities and cultures, we need to be clearer about what a state education means for children of all faiths and no faiths.
Having read the Ofsted reports, Sir Michael Wilshaw’s letter and the report of the Education Funding Agency, for advance notice of which I thank the Education Secretary, I share the Education Secretary’s concerns about the provision of education and the safeguarding of children in certain schools in Birmingham. It cannot be right that children have been at risk of marginalisation from mainstream society, cultural isolation or even radicalisation. Similarly, the focus on narrow attainment at the expense of students’ personal and social development is a cause for concern. Some of the other Ofsted reports highlight invitations to inappropriate speakers, the downgrading or elimination of sex and relationship education, gender segregation, staff intimidation and a failure to prepare pupils to live in a multicultural society.
Sir Michael reports governors
“trying to impose and promote a narrow faith-based ideology in what are non-faith schools.”
He says:
“They do not ensure that a broad and balanced curriculum equips pupils to live and work in a multi-cultural, multi-faith and democratic Britain.”
This is an issue for faith schools as well as non-faith schools. We cannot have such situations in any English schools, and the report by the Education Funding Agency on the culture, ethos and governance of Oldknow academy has raised similar concerns about a restricted curriculum and the furtherance of conservative Islamist views.
We now have at least four investigations into what is occurring in Birmingham schools and today the Education Secretary has announced yet another, but this is an attempt to evade his own responsibility as Secretary of State. It seems to be everyone else’s problem—the Home Secretary’s, Charles Farr’s, the city council’s—but not his own. The truth is that if he had been in charge of the management of his Department, these issues would not have arisen in recent years. The Secretary of State has said that he has acted with speed on the issue, but the truth is that Ministers have been ignoring it for four years. In 2010, the respected Birmingham head teacher Tim Boyes made a presentation to the Department for Education highlighting the risk of a radical agenda infiltrating Birmingham schools, but nothing was done.
Will the Secretary of State confirm today which Ministers were present at Mr Boyes’s presentation, when he was first informed of the details of Mr Boyes’s presentation, when Ofsted was informed of the details of Mr Boyes’s presentation and when the Government’s extremism task force met to discuss Mr Boyes’s presentation? Or, as the Home Secretary has put it, is it true that the Department for Education was warned in 2010 and, if so, why did nobody act?
We do not need another massive review by the permanent secretary. Mr Boyes has provided the Department with information on his 2010 meeting and we need to know what steps the Ministers took and why the Secretary of State did not act. We need those answers here today, because the Labour party’s answer is absolutely clear. We need a local director of standards and accountability.
We know that Park View Educational Trust, the academy chain essential to the controversy, had a free school application turned down in 2013 on security grounds, yet the Secretary of State allowed the trust to take over Golden Hillock the same year. Can he explain why the trust was unfit to set up a free school but was still allowed to take over the Golden Hillock school, despite those security concerns? Who made that decision and what due diligence was undertaken?
The truth is that events in Birmingham point to a strategic failing in the Government’s education policy. The Secretary of State’s agenda has been an ideology of atomisation and fragmentation: teachers without qualifications; every school an island; a free market of provision; and an attempt to oversee it all from behind a desk in Whitehall. Birmingham has shown that that model is bust. Sir Michael Wilshaw speaks of successful schools in Birmingham having
“too few opportunities to share their successful practice with others.”
That is because of Government policy, and Sir Michael recommends a review of the education funding arrangements for auditing governance in academies and free schools, but the Education Secretary’s mantra of centralism and secrecy remains. He has learned nothing from this event. He says that he will personally look at funding agreements, once again from behind a desk in Whitehall, when what we need are local systems of oversight and accountability, with a system of local checks and balances.
The dramatic change in Ofsted rankings from outstanding to inadequate has also brought into sharp focus the need for inspection criteria that look beyond the exam factory model of recent years. We need young people to excel in their academic and vocational attainment, but to come out of school career-ready, college-ready and life-ready. That is why the Opposition welcome Sir Michael Wilshaw’s request to have a broad and balanced curriculum added as a further criterion to the inspection framework. We think that it should go further, to look at the development of character, resilience and grit in our school system. The Labour party believes that sex and relationship education should be a part of that.
The events in Birmingham have brought to light a desperate weakness in Government thinking. On the one hand, there is an education policy designed to fragment and divide, isolate without oversight and increase the risks of radicalisation—
Mr Speaker
Order. I think that the shadow Secretary of State is bringing his remarks to a close in this sentence.
Tristram Hunt
The Education Secretary speaks of requiring all schools to promote British values; all well and good. Among the greatest of British values is an education system that welcomes and integrates migrant communities, builds successful citizens in a multicultural society and secures safety and high standards for all, and the Education Secretary is failing to do so.
Michael Gove
I thank the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) for his comments and I agree that we need to focus on successful futures for these schools. I also agree that we need a broader debate, to ensure that all schools—faith and non-faith—make sure that children are integrated into modern Britain. But I regret the fact that in his comments he was not able to let us know the Labour party’s position on no-notice inspections. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr Mahmood) for stressing that he believes that no-notice inspections are right; I am also grateful to the right hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Dame Tessa Jowell) for stressing that. But I am still none the wiser about the position of the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central. I am afraid that I am also none the wiser about his position on whether or not it is right to promote British values in schools and right to take the other steps that we have taken.
The hon. Gentleman asks about meetings between the Department for Education and the Birmingham headmaster, Tim Boyes, in 2010. I can confirm that I was not at that meeting, nor was I informed about its content. That is why I have asked the permanent secretary to investigate, and I have also asked him to look at other occasions before 2010 when warnings were reportedly given. The hon. Gentleman has previously alleged that I was warned by Mr Boyes in 2010 and did not act; that is not the case and I hope that he will make it clear in the future, and withdraw that allegation.
The hon. Gentleman asks about local oversight of all these schools. It is important to stress that when Tim Boyes raised these issues in 2010 all these schools were facing local oversight from Birmingham city council, and as Sir Michael Wilshaw has concluded, Birmingham city council failed. As Ofsted makes clear, repeated warnings to those charged with local oversight were ignored. Indeed, it was only after my Department was informed about the allegations in the Trojan horse letter that action was taken, and I thank Birmingham city council for its co-operation since then.
The hon. Gentleman asks what action was taken overall since 2010. It would be quite wrong to allege, as he does, that the Department has taken no action on extremism since 2010; the opposite is the case. As the Home Secretary pointed out, we were the first Department outside her own to set up a counter-extremism unit. Unreported and under-appreciated, it has prevented a number of extremist or unsuitable organisations from securing access to public funds.
The hon. Gentleman asks about academies and free schools, and the autonomy that they enjoy. First, I must correct him: none of the schools that Ofsted inspected are free schools and all the evidence so far is that free schools in Birmingham are proving a success. I must also correct him on the matter of oversight of academies. Academies are subject to sharper and more rigorous accountability than local authority schools. They are inspected not just by Ofsted but by the Education Funding Agency.
The hon. Gentleman also asks about curriculum inspection. Let me stress that it is already a requirement that schools have a broad and balanced curriculum; the question is enforcement. That means giving Ofsted the tools it needs, such as no-notice inspections and suitably qualified inspectors.
The problems identified today are serious and long-standing. They require us all to take action against all forms of extremism. I have been encouraged throughout my career by support from Opposition Members—the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin), the right hon. Member for Salford and Eccles (Hazel Blears) and the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr, among others—for a non-partisan approach to fighting extremism. I hope that, after his comments today, the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central will reflect on the seriousness of these charges and recognise that this is not an appropriate vehicle through which he should make wider criticisms of the school reforms with which he and his party disagree. I hope that, in the future, we can count on him and others working across party boundaries to keep our children safe.
Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)
Beneath all this froth of what letters were written, by whom and to whom, is not the essential point this: at last we have a Secretary of State—the first—who is prepared in our state secular schools to take on Muslim sensibilities, or the sensibilities of anybody else, to ensure that all religions and all people are treated with equal respect?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Let me stress again—his question gives me the opportunity to do so—that there are exemplary Muslim faith schools and that the contribution of Britain’s Muslim community is immeasurable, and immeasurably for the good. But one of the things that both the Home Secretary and I have sought to do is ensure that in schools or other civic institutions the dangers of extremism, violent or non-violent, are countered head-on.
Mr Jack Straw (Blackburn) (Lab)
May I pick up on the Secretary of State’s previous point? Does he accept that in my constituency, where 30%-plus of the population are of the Muslim faith, there are plenty of schools—faith schools or secular schools—where 100% of pupils might be Muslim but that so far we have been able to avoid allegations of extremism of this kind? That is true elsewhere across the country. If we are to get the overwhelming majority of followers of the Muslim faith on board, it is crucial that we distinguish between those who are devout, but who embrace British values, and those who are extreme. We need to concentrate on those who are extreme and see them isolated.
Michael Gove
I absolutely agree. I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the work he has done to ensure that state-funded schools can provide children and parents in Blackburn with an Islamic faith education that equips them for the 21st century. Let me emphasise that there is a key distinction, which this Government have drawn, between perfectly respectable religious conservatism, whatever the faith, and extremist activity. It is vital that that distinction be maintained. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman’s chuntering in the background is of no interest or relevance whatsoever.
Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)
Is not a key issue that might give rise to extremism and the rejection of British values a cultural one: namely, the unwillingness or inability among some communities to speak English? Is not it important, therefore, to give appropriate financial support in those areas where we need to tackle potential exclusion, and even ghettoisation, for the teaching of English at the earliest stage?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend is, as ever, absolutely right. A key element of the Prime Minister’s 2011 Munich speech was an insistence that we do everything possible to ensure that everyone who grows up in this country can speak English fluently, and that is one of the principal aims of our education programme.
Mr Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) (Lab)
At times over the past month or two, I have thought that this day would never come. These reports have been kept under wraps, hidden in full from parents, while they have been leaked in part left, right and centre. Parents, who should have been the first to know, have been the last to know about the contents of these reports. I am sure that the Secretary of State will want to apologise to the House for the contempt with which parents have been treated in this debate. Secondly, he knows that I have been at the forefront in calling for this Ofsted process. I am glad that Sir Michael Wilshaw has today said that there is no evidence of an organised plot to radicalise our children or introduce extremism into schools, but four out of the six academies—
Mr Speaker
Order. I do not know with what frequency the right hon. Gentleman contributes from the Back Benches—[Interruption.] Order. I recognise that these matters are of extreme salience to his constituents; I do not need him to tell me that. The simple fact is that his question, which is not yet a question, is far too long—[Interruption.] Order. We must leave it there for now.
Michael Gove
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for the points he makes. It was vital that we ensured that the schools concerned had an opportunity to read the Ofsted reports before they were published and to let us know whether, in their view, there was any factual inaccuracy. It was vital—indeed, he made this point to me in a private meeting—that we did everything possible to ensure that these reports were bullet-proof against challenge. I absolutely share his desire to ensure that we do everything possible to reassure parents. The parents who have spoken out and have contacted Ofsted and the Department for Education want action to be taken, because, as is clear from the reports, the behaviour of certain governors, as reported, is unacceptable.
Alistair Burt (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)
My right hon. Friend’s statement is extremely important. His ability to find the right line in reassuring parents across the country that this is not happening everywhere and answering the question, “How did we get where we are?”, regarding some of these schools will be very important. Bearing in mind the possibility of any links outside the United Kingdom, will he assure me that if any information has come to light in the course of the investigations that might link with any other inquiry that has been held in the United Kingdom, or identifies any links to any organisations abroad that might, through their work, be threatening us, it will be made available to the appropriate authorities?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, whose knowledge of these issues as a former middle east Minister is unparalleled. Peter Clarke will use his expertise to marshal and gather all the information necessary to see whether there is any influence, untoward or otherwise, from outside this country.
Mr Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr) (Lab)
Will the Secretary of State confirm that this inquiry will not tar all the Muslim community in Birmingham, other than a few individuals who took it on themselves to lead with this issue and try to wreck the whole community and its reputation? Will he also confirm that the schools will be put back to normal as soon as possible and that whatever structural changes are due are made quickly so that in September children return to a proper education?
Michael Gove
Absolutely: I can provide assurances on both those points. May I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman, who has been outstanding in his efforts to ensure community cohesion in Birmingham? He has been one of the first and clearest voices in this House warning us about the dangers of extremism, and his commitment to his constituents is second to none.
Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
Does the Secretary of State agree that there is uncertainty among many parents about what their children are entitled to be taught in school? Would it not reassure parents if the Government introduced a minimum curriculum entitlement that all state-funded schools would teach?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Schools are, of course, already required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. I hope that in the weeks ahead we can have an informed debate about the correct balance between the autonomy that schools and head teachers properly enjoy in order to innovate and to have their professional expertise respected and a guarantee to parents that their children are being taught in a way that conforms with the values that we both share.
Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)
British values, which the Secretary of State wants to promote, include the rule of law. I am therefore quite troubled by the part of his statement where he said that governors
“are trying to impose and promote a narrow faith-based ideology in what are non-faith schools”,
specifically by narrowing the curriculum, manipulating staff appointments and using school funds inappropriately. Surely that is unacceptable, whether the school is secular or a faith school. It needs to be made clear that these standards must apply to schools universally.
Michael Gove
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. Let me stress that prior to the publication of these reports and of Sir Michael Wilshaw’s covering letter, some questioned whether these investigations were worth while. I pay tribute to her for emphasising how important it is that we deal with the findings. I also pay tribute to the shadow Secretary of State for making it clear that Sir Michael Wilshaw’s integrity is unimpeachable.
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD)
I thank the Secretary of State for the opportunity to see the papers in advance, there being two schools affected in my constituency. The National Association of Head Teachers has expressed concern that the system of investigation and inspection is rather inchoate and suggested that a more coherent system of investigation of allegations is needed. I agree—does the Secretary of State?
Michael Gove
It is absolutely right that we review how we investigate the problems that have been identified. As the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Ms Stuart) pointed out, it is clear that Ofsted has uncovered a number of unacceptable practices. It is also clear that the Education Funding Agency has additional powers in relation to academies that have been incredibly useful in this regard as well. I am entirely open to considering how, in future, we can provide parents with guarantees that their children are safe.
Shabana Mahmood (Birmingham, Ladywood) (Lab)
It is clear from the reports published today that the central charge that there has been an organised plot to import extremism that has radicalised children in Birmingham has not been met. What there has been is unacceptably poor and bad governance, which has let children, parents and staff down, and which must be tackled. Those two things are not the same. Does the Secretary of State therefore regret the tone of the debate, which has sent a clear message to Muslim parents in Birmingham and beyond that the education of their children will be viewed through the prism of national security?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving me the opportunity to make two points. She is absolutely right. When the allegations were raised in the original Trojan horse letter, it was important that they were investigated, and the findings we have today are the findings that Ofsted and the Education Funding Agency are competent to deliver.
Peter Clarke is also looking into some of the broader allegations. One of the reasons he was chosen is that if people have been unfairly alleged to have taken part in activities of which they are entirely innocent, there can be no more effective figure to exonerate them than Peter Clarke.
I would also emphasise that Sheik Shady al-Suleiman spoke at one of these schools and his comments are now on the record of the House. I think that anyone listening to those comments would recognise that such a speaker in a school is exposing children to the dangers of extremism.
Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)
When will we see the Secretary of State’s statement of British values, which I fully support, as I do his whole approach?
Mr Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab)
Amid the general hysteria that has been whipped up over these anonymous allegations, does the Secretary of State accept that there are many decent, good, hard-working school governors in Birmingham who give up their time freely? One of the schools mentioned, Golden Hillock, is right on the edge of the adjoining constituency to mine and many of my constituents’ children go to it. They cannot understand the picture that has been painted of its governors, including the chairman, Mohammed Shafique, and others whom I know, who have been at the forefront of fighting radicalism and terrorism in local communities.
The Secretary of State has rightly said that it is important that there is community cohesion. Could he therefore explain why Ofsted removed the requirement in the Ofsted inspection to demonstrate what steps schools were taking to address community cohesion? Did Ofsted do that off its own back, did the Secretary of State give his approval, or did he tell Ofsted to remove the obligation?
Michael Gove
Ofsted clearly has the capacity to detect when schools are not adhering to the responsibility to deliver community cohesion, as the reports published today clearly demonstrate. I will not be drawn into the question of individual governors, but let me take this opportunity to underline the broader point the hon. Gentleman makes that there are many who are committed to state education in Birmingham who are doing a superb job, including governors, teachers and school leaders. I should add that maintained schools, faith schools, academies and free schools in Birmingham are all contributing to the renaissance of state education in that city. That only makes it more important that we deal with those schools that are failing to protect children and failing to prepare them for the 21st century.
Mr Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)
I know at first hand how seriously my right hon. Friend takes the issue of extremism in our schools. Does he agree that there is a sharp contrast between the speed with which he and his Department took action to tackle failing schools and to investigate extremism and the lacklustre approach of Birmingham city council? Will he therefore investigate what oversight Birmingham had over Saltley science college, a community school where Ofsted has just reported the governors spent tens of thousands of pounds of school funds on private investigators, private solicitors and meals in restaurants, and where, according to Ofsted, governance is inadequate and staff are intimidated?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. The Department for Education has been faster to react to concerns expressed about schools and to deal with failure than many local authorities. The case of Saltley, a local authority maintained school, is shocking, but let me stress that Birmingham city council is now fully seized of the importance of dealing with this problem. Let me pay tribute to Sir Albert Bore, whom I met earlier today, who now understands fully the vital importance of working with central Government to deal with it. Local government has failed in the past. We need to ensure that central and local government work together to deal with this problem.
Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
May I first welcome the fact that we seem to be moving inexorably towards a national curriculum that is applied nationally? That is progress.
In the spirit of the Secretary of State’s last answer, will he ask his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary to delve into the Home Office archives for a research report of 10 years ago—funded by the Government—which examined the cultural isolation of, and the lessons to be learned from, schools in Burnley and adjoining Blackburn? The report was counter-intuitive, but it would now be extremely helpful in going forward.
Michael Gove
I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. I think that he is referring to the Cantle report, which we have looked at in the past. Certainly, there is a body of work that helps us to understand some of the challenges of separate communities and of how to secure better integration.
On the question of the curriculum, the one thing I would say is that I am confused about Labour’s position on the national curriculum. Labour Members seem to want to extend it to all schools, but the shadow Secretary of State has said that all schools should have the ability to opt out completely from it. I appreciate that the right hon. Gentleman has the benefit of experience and that the shadow Minister does not, but until we get a consensus view from the Labour party I will listen to Sir Michael Wilshaw.
Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)
As the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Ms Stuart) said, these findings would be unacceptable in any school—secular or faith, state or independent. This affront to British values may well extend to other schools outside the area that Ofsted has already inspected. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that there is no hiding place in any part of the British education system for the misogyny and homophobia that underpin so much of the religious fundamentalism in some of our schools?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Inevitably, there was only so much I could say in the time allocated about the weaknesses in the schools identified. She homes in on one problem, which is that children who are at risk of being exposed to extremist views are often at risk of being exposed to views that are fundamentally offensive to those of us who believe in the equality of all human beings. Therefore, if there are concerns—anywhere in this House or outside—about children being exposed to those views or at danger of being exposed to those views, I hope that individuals will feel able to contact Ofsted using the new whistleblowing framework outlined by Sir Michael Wilshaw to ensure rapid investigation.
Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)
All faiths should subscribe to universal human values and universal human rights, including equal treatment of men and women. Where there is clear evidence in our schools of unacceptable practices, as there is in the case of a small minority of schools in Birmingham, it should be dealt with decisively. However, does the Secretary of State accept that it is important for politicians to act responsibly, and that it is wrong to use inflammatory language or to take steps that send the wrong message? To that end, what were the grounds for appointing a former of head of counter-terrorism to investigate Birmingham’s schools, and was it wise to do so?
Michael Gove
It was absolutely wise to appoint Peter Clarke to his role as commissioner. It is important to stress that he is looking at some of the wider allegations that were raised in the Trojan horse letter. Some of the allegations in the letter appear to be unfounded; others appear to be supported by the evidence that we have gathered. We need to make sure that Birmingham city council and every agency have the capacity necessary to keep children safe.
It is important to recognise that Peter Clarke has not just the investigative capability but the experience of working with the Charity Commission to ensure that public funds are properly used and that the public are properly protected. If the hon. Gentleman has any concerns about the integrity, probity or authority of Peter Clarke, he should please bring them to me. The time has come to recognise that the situation in Birmingham is sufficiently serious that a public servant of Peter Clarke’s skill is exactly the right person to investigate.
Mr Rob Wilson (Reading East) (Con)
I listened intently to the lengthy contribution of the shadow Secretary of State. I worry that he has developed political amnesia. As we have heard, the roots of the issue in Birmingham run deep and include Birmingham city council. Will the Secretary of the State assure the House that Peter Clarke will look fully at the allegation that the previous Government failed to act on a report of an attempted hard-line Muslim takeover of a school in Birmingham as far back as 2008?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes an important point. I will stress two things. First, the permanent secretary will look to see exactly how the Department responded to warnings before and after the formation of this Government. Secondly, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary pointed out, before 2010, a number of individuals who were associated with extremist views and organisations were supported by public funds or invited to advise the last Government on anti-extremism. That does not happen under this Government as a result of her leadership. It would be gracious of the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central to acknowledge the leadership that the Home Secretary has shown and the improvement in our counter-extremism strategy as a result.
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)
I have no objection to no-notice inspections. They have worked in other areas. Will the Secretary of State confirm that there is no evidence before him of this kind of activity taking place in other areas of the country, and that his support of faith schools remains unshakeable? May I also put to him the question that the Home Secretary asked me to put to him? Has he replied to her letter of 3 June and answered the four important questions that she put to him?
Michael Gove
I believe that my statement today provides a full response to all the concerns that were raised in the letter in respect of Birmingham city council’s failure in the past, on which Sir Michael Wilshaw has reported, and the warnings that my Department was given in 2010. I am also delighted to reinforce my support not just for faith schools, but for free schools that have a faith ethos, such as the outstanding Krishna Avanti primary school in the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency, which I had the pleasure of opening. I underline the request for him or any other Member of the House who has concerns about extremism in any part of the country to please bring them to my attention and the attention of Ofsted. The hon. Member for Bradford East (Mr Ward) has brought concerns to my attention about issues in Bradford. I am pleased to say that the Labour local authority in Bradford is currently dealing with those.
Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)
We are hearing about the despicable things that have happened in Birmingham and it is quite right that they should be investigated, but I have a slight concern. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we have some of the best education in faith schools of all religions across this country, and that we must not condemn all faith schools just because of something that might have happened in one area?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is one of the pleasures of my job to visit voluntary aided schools and schools with a faith ethos that do an outstanding job of respecting the religious beliefs of children and making sure those children are fit for a life in modern Britain. It is important to stress that none of the schools that we are talking about are faith schools. One of the issues is that they are secular schools that governors have sought to turn into faith schools of a particular narrow kind in a way that is unacceptable.
Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)
Since the Secretary of State took on his job, he has limited local accountability and Ofsted oversight, and has fought attempts to publish the costs and funding agreements of schools and to reveal who is advising those schools and his Department, and on what basis. Given that he has fought openness and transparency from his Department tooth and nail, will he tell us, following the recent appalling events, whether he understands the importance of transparency to education and whether his Department will operate on a completely different basis from now on?
Michael Gove
I understand the hon. Lady’s point. She has taken the opportunity of this statement to raise one or two other questions. I believe absolutely in the importance of openness and transparency. I also think that it is important that the advice that is given by officials in confidence to shape ministerial decisions is protected as a safe space. I also agree that it is vital that when we discover things that have gone wrong in the education system, as is shown by the reports today, we publish in full.
Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)
As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Islamophobia, may I say that we have heard time and again from the community about its desire to tackle extremism? We have also heard evidence that the news coverage of issues such as this one, if they are reported wrongly, can increase feelings of insecurity, suspicion and alienation. In some instances, the wrong type of language has been used. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to do everything we can to help the community, and that accurate reporting of the established facts is really important?
Michael Gove
I could not agree more. We must proceed on the basis of facts and evidence, and ensure that that evidence is rigorously assessed and judged fairly. My hon. Friend makes an important point about Islamophobia. I tried in my statement, and I will try on every platform I am given, to emphasise the fundamental difference between Islam as a great faith that brings spiritual nourishment to millions and inspires daily acts of generosity by thousands, and the narrow perversion of that religion, which is extremist Islamist ideology.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
The Government fund Prevent co-ordinators in 30 local authorities where there is a perceived view of extremism. What work does the Secretary of State expect those co-ordinators to do in local schools? Over the past year how many reports were made by those co-ordinators to his Department?
Michael Gove
I salute the work of Prevent co-ordinators. Immediately after these concerns were expressed, Birmingham city council sought funding from the Home Office for an additional Prevent co-ordinator to work with schools, which my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary authorised. A Prevent co-ordinator from east London has now joined Ofsted to ensure that all Ofsted inspectors who deal with issues of this kind are trained to deal with the signs of extremist, Islamist ideology. I am, of course, more than happy to work with the hon. Lady and others to ensure that we augment the good work of those Prevent co-ordinators who have been successful in dealing with problems of that kind.
Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)
The Secretary of State began by describing keeping children safe and preparing them for life in modern Britain as his Department’s central mission. Is he satisfied that he has the means to ensure that that happens, whether or not their school is funded by the taxpayer?
Michael Gove
That is a very good point. Today we have outlined that we plan to consult on independent school standards, so that schools that are not funded by the taxpayer must meet basic standards of promoting British values, or the Education Secretary will have the capacity to close them down. We are also taking steps to work with the Association of Muslim Schools UK to see what more can be done.
Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)
The Education Secretary either omitted or did not get the opportunity fully to respond to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) about Park View. For the sake of clarity, will he explain why Park View was not allowed to open a free school but was allowed to sponsor Golden Hillock to become an academy?
Michael Gove
Before any free school can be opened a very high bar must be cleared. A separate set of criteria were judged in this case, and the Minister responsible decided that for that specific free school application, the bar was not cleared.
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement, in particular his commitment to put the promotion of British values at the heart of what every school must deliver for children. Does he agree that the reason this country has been able to offer sanctuary to people from around the world of different races and faith for so long is precisely that of a simple covenant of citizenship: “Come here, speak our language, respect our heritage and values and you are welcome”?
Michael Gove
I absolutely agree. One strength of the United Kingdom is that it has provided a safe and warm home for people of every faith over hundreds of years. It is critical that we ensure that our traditions of liberty and tolerance are protected so that everyone, whatever their background, can feel that sense of pride in this nation and allegiance to other citizens, which all of us would want to celebrate as the best of British.
Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
Thousands of schools report directly to the Secretary of State with no formal opportunity for local oversight. Will he accept that what happened in Birmingham shows how important it is to have full local oversight? That is the only way to look after the interests of all children and young people in our schools up and down the country.
Michael Gove
I agree that local representatives, whether in local authorities or as local MPs, should play a part in helping to ensure that children are safe. It is also important to recognise that the local authority in this case failed in the past, and that when the specific allegations in the Trojan horse letter were shared with the Department for Education, it was rapid in seeking to deal with those problems and ensuring that appropriate inspection and action was taken.
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)
I welcome the decisive action taken by the Secretary of State today and the consultation on the promotion of British values. Does he agree that a very clear British value is that young girls and women should be seen and heard in the classroom, not relegated to the back of the room? Will he consult specifically on whether we will be teaching them the communication skills and confidence they need if they are hidden, in our schools and colleges, behind a niqab or burqa?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. One of the concerns raised in several reports was what appeared to be unacceptable segregation in the classroom. Another point I would make is that there are real questions about how sex and relationships education was taught in some of these schools. It is vital that schools should be places where young girls find their voices, rather than feeling that they are being silenced.
Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)
As a former teacher, I welcome the Secretary of State’s defence of faith and faith-based schooling. However, I believe that the atomisation of our schooling system is a problem. Does he not concur that a greater form of solidarity between local schools would help to self-police this type of extremism?
Michael Gove
The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. We are seeing a level of collaboration between schools—through teaching school alliances, academy chains and informal partnerships—that is a very powerful driver of improved standards. It ensures that individual teachers, who may have concerns about what is happening in their own school, have access to a wider network of professionals who can help them to deal with the challenges they face.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
Extremism in schools has, sadly, been going on for more than a decade. Will the Secretary of State reassure the House that Peter Clarke will have unfettered access to all paperwork going back over that period?
Michael Gove
I will do everything in my power—I hope every agency will—to help Peter Clarke in his job.
Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
One of the primary purposes of the investigation was to look at extremism, but what is the Secretary of State doing about extremism in places of education that do not fall within the responsibility of the Department for Education?
Michael Gove
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. I infer from what he is saying that he is talking about further education colleges and perhaps even universities.
Michael Gove
On specific concerns about specific institutions for under-16s that do not fall within my remit, I infer from that that the hon. Gentleman is thinking about independent schools or even, possibly, supplementary schools. As far as independent schools are concerned, we are consulting on toughening independent school standards, as I mentioned to my hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Duncan Hames). In respect of supplementary schools, sometimes known as madrassahs, we will shortly publish a code governing how madrassahs should operate. At the moment, the plan is that the code should be voluntary, but I am, of course, open to debate and contribution in the House on how to make it as effective as possible.
Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at the opening of the new Langley Green mosque in my constituency, which was a multi-faith event. Does the Secretary of State agree that that illustrates the importance of inclusivity, which the vast majority of the Muslim community want in our education system, both in Birmingham and across the country?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the active role he plays in ensuring that all the faith communities in his constituency are effectively represented and can contribute to modern Britain.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
In an education landscape of university technical colleges, free schools and academies run directly from Whitehall, will the Secretary of State’s welcome review of what the Department has to learn include a thorough analysis of weaknesses in the current accountability system?
Michael Gove
I take the hon. Gentleman’s point. I think one of the things that is clear from the action that has been taken in schools today is that academies, and, for that matter, free schools, are subject to a higher level of accountability than local authority schools. One of the things I will be looking at is how we can ensure that local authority schools are held to a similar level of accountability in the future, not least for the discharge of public money.
Mr David Ward (Bradford East) (LD)
Will the Secretary of State tell us whether what has been discovered in Birmingham is confined to Birmingham? He will know of rumours of links between Birmingham schools and Bradford schools. Will he tell us whether it is sheer coincidence that Feversham college, a Muslim girls’ school that is one of the highest performing schools in the country, has been notified today that it will have an Ofsted inspection tomorrow?
Michael Gove
I would make two points. First, the original Trojan horse letter, which as we know contained a number of facts and allegations that proved to be unfounded, was allegedly a letter sent to individuals in Bradford. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his support in alerting me to some potential concerns. I know that Bradford council has taken them seriously, and I look forward to remaining in touch with Bradford—and, indeed, any other local authority that has concerns. The Department for Education is there to support and help if, for example, governors need to be removed and an interim executive board put in place. Secondly, as for what he tells me about Feversham college, I have no prior warning of any Ofsted inspections, which are quite properly an operational matter for the chief inspector unless I specifically request an inspection because of information that has been passed to me.
Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)
The Secretary of State’s failure to pinpoint these problems sooner makes it absolutely clear that he cannot micro-manage schools from Westminster. Will he now consider adopting a policy akin to Labour’s proposal for local directors of school standards, which would enable schools to be more accountable locally and would help to flag up these types of problems a lot sooner?
Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)
Noting that Ofsted has already put the spotlight on the quality of school leadership and management as part of the inspection, and recognising the Government’s focus on the skills of governing bodies rather than just on stakeholder representation, does the Secretary of State agree that that, combined with further accountability to the regional commissioners, will strengthen the resolve of councils to get rid of failing governors and is a step in the right direction?
Michael Gove
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, who has shown brilliant leadership on the issue of improving governance. As well as all of his important points, there are some specific recommendations on strengthening governance from Sir Michael Wilshaw that recommend themselves to me.
Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)
The Secretary of State will have heard my earlier question to the Home Secretary—one of many questions that she failed to answer this afternoon, so I am going to ask him the same question. We know of the correspondence between his Department and other agencies about these issues in 2010. When did he become aware of it, and what has gone so wrong in his Department that it has taken an anonymous letter in 2014 to get action on something that it knew about in 2010?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising that issue. If she will share that correspondence with me, I will share it with the permanent secretary and write back to her.
Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)
The Secretary of State has reported Ofsted’s concern that governors are trying to impose a narrow faith-based ideology on what are non-faith schools, but that is also not in the public interest in faith-based schools, and surely it is part of the purpose of faith schools to deliver a faith-based ideology. Since we have had three decades of unhappy experience of violent division in Northern Ireland being reinforced by state-funded, faith-based education, is it not now about time that we asked people, if they want to exercise the freedom to have a faith-based education for their children, not to expect the rest of us to pay for it because it is not in the public interest?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his point. In the light of what has been revealed, it is important to have a debate about the proper place of faith in education, but I have to say that I respectfully disagree with him. I think that the role of a number of faith institutions from a variety of faiths in education has been all to the good.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
Of course we must draw an important distinction between devout conservatism—whether it be Catholic, evangelical, Christian or Muslim—on the one hand, and extremism on the other hand. But has not all of this shown that the Achilles heel in the Secretary of State’s education policy is that there are more and more schools now in which there are fewer and fewer means of preventing fundamentalist indoctrination?
Michael Gove
I do not accept that that is the case. If we look at the problems identified, I believe that they arose well before this Government were formed, and that it is as a result of this Government—and, in particular, as a result of the higher level of accountability that exists in academies and free schools—that we were able to take the exemplary action that we did.
Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
In Birmingham and across the country, thousands of men and women are giving valuable voluntary service to act as school governors. Will my right hon. Friend explain what happens if there is a suspicion that a school governor is promoting extremism and what statutory powers there are in those circumstances to remove a school governor from an LEA-controlled school or an academy?
Michael Gove
We are consulting on how we can ensure that we can remove governors if there is any suggestion that they have been involved in extremist activity in independent schools, and also extend that power in order to bar them from serving as governors in any local authority schools in the future.
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
The Secretary of State has provided a welcome clarification today by stating that he was not at the 2010 meeting at which Tim Boyes gave his presentation, and I am sure that he can extend the same clarification to any of his ministerial colleagues. However, as a former Minister, I know that action points will have been made at that meeting. Given the importance of this matter, will the Secretary of State now agree to publish those action points—without jeopardising the integrity and confidentiality of individual civil servants—and reveal what arose from them? Was any action taken?
Michael Gove
That is a fair question. Let me say two things to the hon. Gentleman. First, I have asked the permanent secretary to look at our responses to all the warnings that the Department has received, and I think that it would be premature for me to release anything before he has finished his report. Secondly, I have described—both in my statement and in my response to what was said by the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central—some of the actions taken by my Department which have provided it with a more robust set of tools to deal with extremism than have been available before.
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)
The Secretary of State has described some shocking behaviour—shocking not only to Muslim parents, but to all parents. Does he agree that the failure of Birmingham city council to deal with this problem over a long period demonstrates the importance of the academies programme, which takes powers away from politicians and bureaucrats and hands them to teachers?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend has made an important point. Some of the most outstanding schools in Birmingham are currently academies and free schools. Indeed, the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central has previously praised Liam Nolan, the head teacher of Perry Beeches school, who runs an academy chain and has opened free schools. I think that the hon. Gentleman’s attempt to conflate the growth of academies and free schools—and the consequent improvement in school standards—and a risk of extremism constitutes an attempt to jump on an opportunistic bandwagon, which, sadly, is becoming a characteristic of his approach to opposition.
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
On 6 June, Labour’s police and crime commissioner for the west midlands, Bob Jones, issued a press release on Trojan horse which many believe ignores the dangers of extremist teaching in schools. Given that, under Mr Jones’s leadership, the West Midlands police have been criticised by Ofsted for consistently failing to attend more than 50% of child protection meetings—indeed, at one stage attendance was down to 9%—does my right hon. Friend agree that that is one example of local oversight and accountability that certainly needs to be improved?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend has made a very good point. I have been disappointed by some of the comments made by the west midlands police and crime commissioner. I hope that today, following the publication of the reports, the commissioner will have an opportunity to reflect, to think again, and to discharge his responsibilities more effectively.
Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)
On Friday, in my constituency, I was approached by some Muslim parents and, indeed, Muslim teachers who were very concerned about the tone of this debate, and who felt that the Muslim community were being branded as extremists. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that all of us who are involved in the debate should be cool-headed and avoid using incendiary language such as “Islamist plots”—when such plots do not appear to exist—and “draining the swamp”? Does he also agree that many state schools with a high proportion of Muslim students, and indeed Muslim faith schools, offer a good, well-rounded education?
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) made a very fair point about faith schools that want to teach conservative religious values. How do the Government distinguish between such schools and schools in which extremism is happening?
Michael Gove
Clear requirements apply to all voluntarily aided faith schools. They are, of course, allowed to make provision for appropriate worship and for freedom of conscience, but they must also offer a broad and balanced curriculum, as has always been the case. They must also respect British values, and, as a result of the proposals on which I intend to consult from today, they will always be required to promote those values actively in the future as well.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
In the light of what we have learned today, does the right hon. Gentleman agree with what appears to be the Home Secretary’s view—that there is no real need to increase spending on anti-extremist programmes?
Michael Gove
I totally agree with the Home Secretary and I think that her leadership on counter-extremism has been exemplary.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the findings of these reports demonstrate the need to ensure that there is a breadth of views on school governing bodies? One way of achieving that is to ensure that there are governors of different faiths on governing bodies and that they are encouraged to take a proactive role so that pupils receive a balanced education.
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a characteristically acute and pertinent point.
Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)
I welcome what the Secretary of State is doing in this area. I was appalled by some of the report’s findings, particularly the comment by Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman, where he distorted the concept of jihad and linked it to Afghanistan, which is often used by extremists to recruit people to radicalisation. Linked to that, does the Secretary of State agree that Sunday schools at places of worship should also be encouraged to teach British values and that sermons should be taught in English and not simply in Urdu or Arabic, to ensure that distortion is tackled?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a number of important points. He is right that the concept of jihad in Islam is a complex one and that it is possible to talk about it as a form of internal struggle. However, in the reported comments of Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman, it is clear that he is not using jihad in that context. My hon. Friend raises broader questions about how we deal with supplementary schools and Sunday schools in madrassahs. We will consult on how to deal with those.
Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)
I understand that my right hon. Friend has already introduced standards that allow the teaching of extremist views to be barred. Will he also advertise whistleblower lines more widely, so that teachers and parents can contact the Department for Education directly?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes an important point. We want to ensure that whistleblowers and others who have concerns can contact Ofsted in particular, so that inspection can be swift and effective.
Debate on the Address
Health
(10 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)
The legislative programme presented to Parliament last week by Her Majesty the Queen builds on four years in which we have not shirked our duty to the British people to restore confidence in disastrous public finances; to lead the country from the deepest recession since the second world war to the strongest growth in the G7; and to implement a plan that secures our long-term economic future. As part of that programme, we have been following a long-term plan to transform our NHS and help it to meet the challenges of an ageing population. However, we must remember that without the difficult decisions made to restore faith in our public finances, the NHS would have been in a very different position.
In Ireland, the health pay bill was slashed by 16% because it ran out of money. In Greece, health spending was cut by 20%. In Portugal, the public were asked to double their personal contribution to the cost of health care, but in England difficult decisions meant that we were able to protect the NHS budget, unlike the Labour party, which plans to cut it in England, and did indeed cut it by 8% in Wales, with disastrous consequences. Labour made the wrong call on the economy and the wrong call on NHS finances. Because we made the right call, the NHS is now doing extremely well in very challenging circumstances.
Later, Members will hear the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) talk about operational pressures facing the NHS. He is right: it is tough out there. This week, we will announce new measures to help the service to meet the challenges that it faces. We will no doubt also hear attempts to politicise what are essentially operational pressures, but what we will not hear is how much better the NHS is doing than it ever did when he was Health Secretary. The facts speak for themselves. Every single day—[Interruption.] This is difficult for Labour Members to listen to, but they would do well to listen. Compared with when he was Health Secretary, every single day we are referring 1,000 more people with suspected cancers to specialists. We are transporting 1,000 more patients—
Mr Hunt
I am going to make some progress and then give way. The right hon. Gentleman needs to listen. We are doing much more now compared with what was done when he was Health Secretary. If he listens, he might learn something.
This is what is happening every single day: 1,000 people with suspected cancers are being referred, and 1,000 more patients are being transported in ambulances in emergencies. Every day we are performing 2,000 more badly needed operations, we are seeing 3,000 more vulnerable people in A and E departments, and every day we are providing around 6,000 more GP consultations for members of the public and 10,000 more vital diagnostic tests. At the same time, MRSA rates have almost halved, mixed-sex wards have been virtually eliminated, and fewer people are waiting for 18 or more weeks for their operation.
Andy Burnham
The Health Secretary is standing there claiming everything is fine and giving a litany of successes. Let us just consider cancer care. He said the NHS was worse when we were in government. So that we are absolutely clear, will he confirm that the last set of figures show that the NHS is now for the first time missing its standard of treating cancer patients within 62 days?
Mr Hunt
The right hon. Gentleman should have listened to what I said: I said he was right to say it is tough out there, and I also said that this week we will be announcing measures to help the NHS deal with operational pressures. He talks about how long people are waiting for operations, so let us look at one particular statistic that sums up what I am saying: the number of people waiting not 18 weeks but a whole year for a vital operation. Shockingly, when the right hon. Gentleman was Health Secretary, nearly 18,500 people were waiting over a year, and I am proud that we have reduced that to just 500 people. Those results would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of front-line NHS staff, and whatever the political disagreements today, the whole House will want to pay tribute to their magnificent efforts.
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
Will the Health Secretary comment on the shambles he has reduced the NHS to in west London, where he is closing A and E departments, like that at Hammersmith on 10 September, while there are inadequate numbers of beds at the only hospital people have been directed to? It means that there is no acute care, and primary care is in such a state that there is an emergency in-year redistribution of money across north-west London. How is he going to sort that out?
Mr Hunt
What is happening in north-west London is going to make patient care better. It involves the seven-day opening of GP surgeries, over 800 more professionals being employed in out-of-hospital care, and brand new hospitals. That is a huge step forward, and the hon. Gentleman is fighting a lone battle in trying to persuade his constituents that it is a step backwards.
This Government recognise the pressure that the NHS is under, as I was telling the shadow Health Secretary. The fact that the population is ageing means that the NHS now needs to perform 850,000 more operations every year than when he was in office, which we are doing. That means that some patients are not receiving their treatment as quickly as we would like, so NHS England is this week announcing programmes to address that, ensuring that we maintain performance while supporting the patients waiting longest for their treatment, something that did not happen when he was in office. We will not allow a return to the bad old days when patients lingered for years on waiting lists because once they had missed their 18-week target, there was no incentive for trusts to treat them.
A and Es, too, are facing pressure and are seeing over 40,000 more patients on average every week than in 2009-10. NHS staff are working incredibly hard to see and treat these patients within four hours, and it is a tribute to them that the median wait for an initial assessment is only 30 minutes under this Government, down from 77 minutes under the last Government. However, as we did last year, we will continue to support trusts to do even better both by improving their internal processes and working with local health economies to reduce the need for emergency admissions. This will be led by NHS England, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority.
David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)
We have heard some comments from Opposition Members about waiting times. My right hon. Friend will be aware that fewer than 2% of patients in England wait for more than six weeks for diagnostic treatment, but is he aware that the figure is 42% of patients in the Labour-run NHS in Wales?
Mr Hunt
I am aware of those shocking figures, and I am also aware that the Royal College of Surgeons says that 152 people died on waiting lists in Wales at just two hospitals because they did not get their treatment in time. I gently suggest to the shadow Health Secretary that the Labour party might want to fix what is going on in Wales if it is really serious about patient care, because how Labour is running the NHS in Wales is an absolute disgrace.
Mr Hunt
I am going to make some progress, and then I will give way.
The NHS is about more than just getting through difficult winters. Looking to the future, this Government will continue to take the bold steps necessary to prepare our NHS for the long-term challenges it faces. There are two key areas for action if we are to rise to this enormous challenge. First, we must never turn the clock back on Francis. The NHS will never live up to its founding ideals if it tolerates poor or unsafe care. The last Government presided over an NHS in which doctors or nurses who spoke out were bullied, in which problems at failing hospitals were brushed under the carpet and in which vulnerable older people were ignored and, tragically, on occasions, treated with contempt and cruelty. This Government have stood up for the patient, championing high standards with a new culture of compassionate care which is now transforming our health and care system.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
The Secretary of State has already admitted some of his own failures this afternoon. Does he not think that some of the money he invested in his £3 billion reorganisation of the national health service could have been used to ensure that the NHS was hitting its targets today?
Mr Hunt
Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to look at the facts relating to the actual cost of the reorganisation. The net saving as a result of it has been more than £1 billion a year, and we are now employing 7,000 more doctors and 3,000 more nurses than when his party was in office. Last year, as a result of this programme—
Mr Hunt
This might not be something the Opposition agree with, but they should listen. I need to tell the House that we have put 10% of all acute trusts into special measures, and that in each and every one of them the warning signs were there under the last Government. The George Eliot hospital, for example, had one of the worst mortality rates in the country back in 2005. Tameside had to pay £9 million compensation for mistakes in just two years, and at the Queen’s hospital in Romford in 2006, a lady gave birth in a toilet, leading to the tragic death of her child.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)
The Secretary of State will be aware of a problem that is affecting thousands of women. It relates to medical implant devices that a court in America has banned. What is he prepared to do to deal with the situation in this country that is affecting thousands of women, both north and south of the border?
Mr Hunt
The hon. Gentleman mentioned to me earlier that he was going to raise that point. I will look closely at the issue, as it sounds like an extremely important one.
I want to look at what has changed under this Government. One of the trusts that has been in special measures is the Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. When the right hon. Member for Leigh was in office, inspectors at the hospital found blood stains on floors and curtains, blood spattered on trays used to carry equipment, and badly soiled mattresses. When the Care Quality Commission published those findings, it was allegedly leant on to tone down its press release. This Government put Basildon into special measures, and it now has 183 more nursing staff. I asked one of those nurses what the difference was. She said:
“It’s very simple. When we raised a concern before, they weren’t interested. Now, they listen to us.”
It gives me great pleasure to inform the House that the chief inspector of hospitals has today recommended that Basildon should be the first trust to exit special measures, and that Monitor has ratified that decision. The hospital has received an overall rating of “good” and has been praised for its excellent leadership. The chief inspector found that the trust had made significant improvements in a number of areas, including maternity services, which were rated as “outstanding”—[Interruption.] The Opposition might not care about what is happening at a trust in special measures, but we on this side of the House do.
Mike Gapes
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Secretary of State knows very well the issue I am trying to raise, because I raised it during the business statement last week. I want him to respond to an important fact. A leaflet was circulated in my borough on 20 May, two days before polling day. It was quoted in the local papers, and it related to the A and E department at King George hospital in my constituency. I simply want to ask him to confirm whether the announcement from the Secretary of State for Health referred to in the leaflet was made with his authority, or by him, during the week before polling day.
Mr Speaker
The hon. Gentleman is an ingenious and indefatigable Member. He probably knows that I can best describe that as an attempted point of order, because it is not a matter for the Chair. That said—[Interruption.] Order. That said, the hon. Gentleman has made his point forcefully, and it would certainly not be in any way disorderly for the Secretary of State to respond to it if he wished to do so.
Mr Hunt
I am most happy to respond to what—I agree with you, Mr Speaker—is a thinly disguised point of order. I will happily say this: what I said was completely in order because I was simply restating information publicly available on the trust’s website.
I want to go back to talk about Basildon hospital, because of the remarkable turnaround there. Chief executive, Clare Panniker, and her team deserve huge credit for the changes that they have made, which will truly turn a corner for patients who depend on their services.
Mr Speaker
Order. I ask the hon. Gentleman to calm himself for a moment. I accept the great importance of these matters, but I hope that this is a point of order rather than of frustration.
Mr Speaker
The hon. Gentleman is nodding with great vigour and intensity. Let us hear the attempted point of order.
Mike Gapes
I want to be clear about what the Secretary of State just said. He said, “What I said was”. I seek your advice, Mr Speaker. How can I get clarification from the Secretary of State about whether he made an announcement during the purdah period in the days just before the election or whether it was a previous statement rehashed and reissued from weeks before?
Mr Speaker
The short answer to the hon. Gentleman is that he must use his best devices, both in this debate, where he might have an opportunity to catch the eye of the Chair later, and in Health questions, which, if memory serves me right, are coming up very soon—
Mr Speaker
As I said, they are coming up very soon, and I am grateful to the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) for concurring with my suggestion that “very soon” does indeed include tomorrow. There will also be opportunities at all times for the hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) to table questions with the advice of the Table Office. I have known him for 20 years and more, and he is not very readily put off his stride. I have no doubt that he will continue to gnaw at the bone until he achieves an outcome that he regards as satisfactory. Meanwhile, we must continue with the debate and the oration of the Secretary of State.
Mr Hunt
The decision to place 11 trusts into special measures last summer was not taken lightly, but we can see today that it was the right decision. Across the whole NHS, the number of people who think they would be safe in an NHS hospital is as high as it has ever been, the number of people who think that people are treated with dignity and respect has risen by six percentage points over the year and the number of people who think that people are treated with compassion has gone up by eight percentage points. This Government have introduced new chief inspectors of hospitals, general practice and adult social care to oversee the toughest, most transparent and most independent rating system of any country anywhere. We have improved accountability with a statutory duty of candour, and we are supporting staff by publishing ward-level nurse staffing levels for every trust.
Jackie Doyle-Price
I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. I am sorry that his congratulations to Basildon hospital were so dreadfully interrupted earlier, because its journey since 2009, when real deficiencies were highlighted, to where we are now with the special measures being lifted is, as he has said, real testament to the leadership of the hospital’s new management and the commitment of the staff. I thank him for the impetus that he has given that process, because it is only by admitting when things go wrong that we can put them right; that is the difference between the Government and the Opposition.
Mr Hunt
I congratulate my hon. Friend for her work campaigning for higher standards at her local hospital, and I agree with her. Why is it that interventions to do with improving safety and compassionate care are coming only from Government Members and that the Opposition are not interested? I just challenge Labour Members on whether they are really on the right side of the big changes that need to happen in our NHS.
Mr Speaker
Order. There is now a kind of institutionalised rowdiness about this debate, epitomised by the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) on the third row. It would be seemly if he would calm himself. I do not refer to people outside this place, but this debate is being keenly attended by a large number of citizens, who would expect Members to behave in as seemly a fashion as I feel sure they do on a day-to-day basis.
Mr Hunt
Despite the amount of work that has been done in the past year, there is still much to do to improve safety and care. According to a study based on case note reviews, around 5% of hospital deaths are avoidable. That equates to 12,000 avoidable deaths in our NHS every year, or a jumbo jet crashing out of the sky every fortnight. On top of that, every two weeks, the wrong prosthesis is put on to a patient somewhere in the NHS. Every week, there is an operation on the wrong part of someone’s body. Twice a week, a foreign object is left in someone’s body. Last spring, at one hospital, a woman’s fallopian tube was removed instead of her appendix. Last summer, the wrong toes were amputated from a patient. This spring, a vasectomy was given to the wrong man. To tackle such issues, we need to make it much easier for NHS staff to speak out when they have concerns. We need to back staff who want to do the right thing, and we are currently looking at what further measures may be necessary to achieve that.
Today, this Government vow never to turn back the clock on the Francis reforms, and I urge the shadow Health Secretary to do likewise when he stands up. Another vital set of reforms that we need to make if we are to prepare the NHS for the future involves the total transformation of out-of-hospital care. We know that prevention is better than cure and that growing numbers of older people, especially those with challenging conditions such as dementia, could be better supported and looked after at home in a way that would reduce their need for much avoidable and expensive care. This year, three important steps have been taken towards that vital goal. First, the new GP contract brought back named GPs for the over-75s—something that was so shamefully abolished by Labour in 2004. Older people often have chronic conditions that make continuity of care particularly important. However, Labour scrapped named doctors, and we are bringing them back.
We are also acting to break down the silos between the health and social care systems with an ambitious £3.8 billion merger between the two systems. The better care programme is, for the first time, seeing joint commissioning of health and social care by the NHS and local authorities, seven-day working across both systems and electronic record sharing, so that patients do not have to repeat their story time after time and medication errors are avoided.
Barbara Keeley
The Secretary of State touches on a couple of issues, including safety, but ignores one of the most important ones, which is nurse-to-patient ratios. A safe patient-to-nurse ratio has been adopted at Salford Royal, and it could be adopted elsewhere. He is now talking about the better care fund. There is no new money in that fund, and if he is worried about pressure on the NHS, surely he should think about the £2.68 billion that is being taken out of adult social care. In my local authority of Salford this year, 1,000 people will lose their care packages. How is that good for alleviating pressures on the NHS?
Mr Hunt
Perhaps I can reassure the hon. Lady on those matters. First, the better care fund is the first serious attempt by any Government to integrate the health and social care systems and eliminate the waste caused by the duplication of people operating in different silos. The Government require all trusts to publish nurse-staffing ratios on a website that will go live this month. It is an important, radical change, and we are encouraging trusts to do exactly what she says is happening in Salford. It is important to say that, where other Governments have talked about integration, we are delivering it. We are doing one more important reform: we are taking the first steps to turn the 211 clinical commissioning groups into accountable care organisations with responsibility for building care around individual patients and not just buying care by volume.
From next year, CCGs will have the ability to co-commission primary care alongside the secondary and community care they already commission. When combined with the joint commissioning of social care through the better care fund, we will have, for the first time in this country, one local organisation responsible for commissioning nearly all care, following best practice seen in other parts of the world, whether Ribera Salud Grupo in Spain, or Kaiser Permanente and Group Health in the US—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. I say to the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), who has just published an extremely cerebral tome on the history of Parliament, that he should not be yelling and exhorting from a sedentary position as though he is trying to encourage a horse to gallop faster. It is not an appropriate way to behave.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
The Secretary of State mentioned the importance of integrating secondary and primary care. He will be aware that the chief executive of NHS England recently addressed the large number of community hospitals with a sword of Damocles hanging over them and whether or not they will continue to exist. He said that that issue should be revisited and, indeed, has argued that community hospitals should be developed and that we should protect that area of care. Does the Secretary of State believe that the chief executive of NHS England is calling for the retention and reopening of community hospitals?
Mr Speaker
Interventions should be brief—the hon. Gentleman is experienced enough to know that.
Mr Hunt
I agree with the new chief executive of NHS England. There is an incredibly important role for community hospitals and, indeed, for smaller hospitals. He was making the point that it is not always the largest hospitals that have the highest standards. One reason why the public like smaller hospitals is that they are more personal, and very often the doctors and nurses know people’s names, which makes a difference. They are also closer to people’s homes and easier to get to for relatives wishing to visit people in hospital.
Mr Hunt
I am drawing to a close, so I shall continue by saying that a long-term plan for our NHS that recognises immediate challenges and the need to reform going forward is what the Government have put into practice. It is not easy to implement, but it is the right thing to secure its future, and the right thing for our country. When the right hon. Member for Leigh rises to speak in a moment, he will say—he told The Independent that he would—that the NHS should have been included in the Queen’s Speech, ignoring the Bill to introduce additional child-care subsidies that will benefit thousands of NHS employees and ignoring the impact on NHS finances of the Bill to curb excessive redundancy payments—something for which his Government were largely responsible. He will not mention the straightforward security that the Government offer the NHS by sticking to a long-term economic plan that is working, so that we have the best possible chance to ensure that the NHS can be properly funded going forward.
If the right hon. Gentleman does not address those points, I hope that he will use his speech to show that he has learned from some of the big challenges facing the NHS over recent years. Does he accept that, without the reorganisation of about 20,000 administrators, the NHS would not be able to afford 7,000 more doctors and 3,000 more nurses? Does he accept that, without restoring named GPs, we will not be able to offer the joined-up care to vulnerable older people that he claims to champion? Most importantly, will he say publicly that, without honesty about poor care—honesty that he has repeatedly criticised as running down the NHS—we would not now be turning round 15 failing hospitals such as Basildon? In that spirit, will he categorically retract his statement, as reported in the Health Service Journal last week, that Mid Staffs was a local failure whose significance for the NHS has been exaggerated by this Government? If he does not do so, I have to say that we disagree profoundly on the biggest change that our NHS needs. We can state that change in just three words: put patients first. It is what NHS staff want to do, and they all want support to do it, but it is simply not possible unless they have the administrative and political leadership that puts patients first in every policy, target and announcement. The Government are proud of our record on the NHS: proud of record levels of high-quality care given to record numbers of patients, proud of tough economic choices that enabled us to protect the NHS budget and, most of all, proud of 1.3 million NHS staff who work hard day in, day out, to make our NHS so remarkable. We will not let them or the country down.
Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab)
Last week, the Secretary of State told the NHS Confederation that patient safety was crucial to the future sustainability of the NHS. Let me begin on a note of agreement. The Health Secretary is right to continue to send the clearest message to the NHS that patient safety must be its top priority. He knows that he has our support in introducing measures to implement the Francis report and, indeed, learning all the lessons from the terrible failings at Stafford hospital. A question arises that is perhaps more for the Government to answer than the right hon. Gentleman: why is the Secretary of State’s important priority not reflected in the Gracious Speech? It is approaching 18 months since the publication of the Francis report, yet many of its recommendations are still to be implemented. The failure to make progress in this legislative programme undermines the Secretary of State’s message today.
The Francis report recommended new legislation to modernise the regulation of doctors and nurses and speed up the handling of complaints. The regulatory bodies said that progress is urgently needed, and they were expecting a Bill in the Gracious Speech to implement those reforms. Not surprisingly, both reacted negatively to the decision to drop it. Niall Dickson, chief executive and registrar of the General Medical Council, said:
“We are disappointed that the government has not taken this opportunity to improve patient safety”,
and Jackie Smith, chief executive and registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said:
“Both the NMC and the public it protects now continue to be left, indefinitely, with a framework that does not best serve to protect the public.”
I hope the Secretary of State will explain why that Bill was dropped and answer the concerns of Jackie Smith and Niall Dickson.
Mr Hunt
The right hon. Gentleman said he would start on a note of consensus on the Francis report, so does he now retract his comments last week that what happened at Mid Staffs was “a local failure” and that the Government were exaggerating its significance for the rest of the NHS? That was a very damaging thing to have said.
Andy Burnham
The Francis report found that the failing at Stafford hospital was principally a failure of the local board. I served in the previous Government, who inherited problems from the preceding one—care failings at Bristol royal infirmary and Alder Hey, and the Shipman murders. Contrary to what the Secretary of State said today, we acted on those failures to bring more transparency to the NHS. We introduced independent regulation to the NHS. He needs to look at the statements that he has made over the past year and consider whether his response has always been appropriate. He has used language such as
“Cruelty became normal in our NHS”—[Official Report, 19 November 2013; Vol. 570, c. 1097.]
Does he stand by such statements and does he think that is fair to the thousands of NHS staff who give their all every day, doing their best to serve patients?
Andy Burnham
I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman once more, but he needs to answer those concerns of staff, who feel that he has been running down the NHS.
Mr Hunt
Let me be absolutely clear. I have never blamed NHS staff for what happened at Mid Staffs. I blame the policy failures of the right hon. Gentleman’s Government. It is not just I who say so. Robert Francis said in his report:
“Stafford was not an event of such rarity or improbability that it would be safe to assume that it has not been and will not be repeated”
in the rest of the NHS. He continued:
“The consequences for patients are such that it would be quite wrong to use a belief that it was unique or very rare to justify inaction.”
Will the right hon. Gentleman now retract his comment that this was “a local failure” whose impact has been exaggerated?
Andy Burnham
I am quite clear in what I said. I said that the finding of the Francis report was that it was a local failure, but of course there were lessons to be learned. That is why I brought in Robert Francis in the first place to begin inquiries at Stafford. The claim that we just brushed everything under the carpet could not be more wrong. The Secretary of State needs to drop it and start dealing responsibly with these issues.
The right hon. Gentleman wanted to distract the House from what I was saying—that a Bill should have been brought forward in this Gracious Speech to modernise professional regulation in the NHS. I quoted strong sentiments from Niall Dickson and Jackie Smith. There was no room for such a Bill, but it is hard to find measures in the rest of the Gracious Speech that may be considered more important than that Bill. The Speech found space, for instance, for measures on pubs and plastic bags, but not on patient safety. There was a time when the Prime Minister used to say that his priorities could be summed up in three letters—NHS. Not any more. Those letters did not appear in the Gracious Speech and received only a cursory mention when the Prime Minister addressed this House.
So what explains the relegation of health down the Government’s list of priorities? One commentator writing last Thursday offered an explanation. He said that
“there was no mention of the health service in the Queen’s Speech. Indeed, the Tories have had little to say on the subject at all recently.
I’m told that there is a precise reason for this: Lynton Crosby has ordered them not to.”
I do not know whether that is true, but it does not look good, does it? It creates the clear impression that the shape of the Gracious Speech had more to do with the political interests of the Conservative party than the public interest of the country.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
Is not another explanation for the absence of any mention of the NHS in the Queen’s Speech that the Government do not want it? They are quietly privatising the NHS by the back door, so they do not need legislation.
Andy Burnham
I think that that is exactly the reason. They introduced a reorganisation that nobody wanted, that nobody voted for, that put the wrong values at the heart of the NHS and that has dragged the NHS down, and all the while they are softening it up for accelerating privatisation. That is the record on which they will have to stand before the country in less than 12 months’ time. If the Secretary of State can justify that record and breaking the coalition agreement to his constituents, I would be very surprised indeed.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Andy Burnham
No, I am going to make some progress.
On the day of the Gracious Speech, 60 senior NHS leaders wrote to a newspaper to warn
“that the NHS is at the most challenged time of its existence.”
Just when it needs real leadership, it is being offered a period of drift from an increasingly dysfunctional Government and, sadly, the same is true on public health. The Government should have used this moment to regain the initiative and publish regulations on standardised packaging for tobacco and smoking in cars. Ministers announced on 3 April that they would publish the draft regulations on standardised packaging later that month—that was what the Minister responsible for public health, the hon. Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison), said. They have not, and since then almost 40,000 children have taken up smoking.
The public health Minister wrote to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger), the shadow public health Minister, saying
“we will now push ahead”
with banning smoking in cars following the vote in this House, but we are still waiting. We did not hear anything on public health from the Secretary of State today. When will they show some leadership and set out a timetable for these important measures?
It is not hard to guess the reason for this pre-election period of NHS silence. On every measure that matters to the public, contrary to what the Secretary of State said, the evidence is clear that the NHS has gone downhill under this Government and that it is getting steadily worse.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
On the subject of preventive measures, my right hon. Friend might be aware that in Britain today child mortality among those below the age of five is the worst in the western world bar Malta, at one in 500? Washington university explains the cause as the welfare and austerity changes—food banks and the like. Will he comment on the impact of some of the welfare and other changes that have made the very weakest weaker, poor and unhealthier and are making them die earlier?
Andy Burnham
It is well documented that the policies of this Government in a range of areas are damaging the health of the nation, but what we get instead is drift from the Government on public health. There is no momentum at all to improve children’s health and the Queen’s Speech had absolutely nothing to say on it. Where are the measures that the Minister has been proposing? What has she been doing? Why does she not introduce them?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)
The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that the legislation for both the measures to which he alludes has already been passed by this House.
Andy Burnham
But regulations are needed. If the Minister does not know that—[Interruption.] It was the Opposition who brought forward the vote on smoking in cars and she committed to introduce regulations to implement it. She cannot duck the question. When will she do that? If she does not realise that she is going to introduce regulations, she needs to go back and do a bit more homework.
It is not hard to guess why the Government want a period of silence. On every measure, the evidence is clear that the NHS is getting worse. When the Prime Minister was challenged—
Andy Burnham
No, I will not give way. When the Prime Minister was challenged on the wisdom of his reorganisation, he said that it should be judged by its effect on waiting times—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. The shadow Secretary of State is clearly not going to give way at the moment.
Andy Burnham
The Prime Minister set his own test for his reorganisation: its effect on waiting times. This month, waiting times hit a six-year high. Almost 3 million people are now on the waiting list for treatment, up by half a million since 2010, but that is not all.
David T. C. Davies
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The shadow Health Secretary does not seem to want to give way to anybody from Wales. Is there any reason for that, and could it be a case of discrimination of some sort?
Mr Speaker
I am always interested in the ingenious interventions of the hon. Gentleman, but that is not a matter for the Chair and I will not speculate on it or in response to the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies). We will return to the shadow Secretary of State.
Andy Burnham
I just gave way to somebody from Wales. What is the hon. Gentleman on about?
That is not all. As I said before, the NHS is now missing its standard to ensure that cancer patients start their treatment within 62 days. That will cause huge distress to thousands of families up and down this country.
Another way in which the NHS has got worse, and every patient knows this to be true, is that it is becoming harder and harder to get a GP appointment. It is a common experience for people to ring their surgery early in the morning only to be told that there is nothing available for days. A survey has found that almost half of GPs predict that the average waiting time will exceed two weeks by next year.
The clearest measure of growing problems in the NHS is what has been happening in A and E, which is the barometer of the whole health and care system. Problems or blockages anywhere in the health and care system will manifest, in the end, as pressure in A and E. If A and E is the barometer, what is it telling us? It is warning of severe storms ahead. Hospital A and E units have now missed the Government’s target for 46 weeks running. For the last four weeks, the NHS overall has missed the Government’s target, suggesting that the winter crisis has now been followed by a summer crisis.
Why is that happening? The fact is that cuts have been made to general practice, social care and mental health, which are pushing more and more people towards the acute hospital and placing it under intolerable pressure. Today, many hospitals are operating way beyond safe bed occupancy levels, and not surprisingly this is taking a toll on A and E staff. Today, we reveal that three times as many A and E consultants left the NHS in 2013, raising the worrying prospect of A and E now being trapped in a downward spiral.
Barbara Keeley
I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. May I just take him back to the point about GP access, because that is the start of the patient’s journey? In our survey in Salford, we did not find the situation that we had under the Labour Government, where 80% of patients could get an appointment within 48 hours. Now only half our patients can get an appointment within 48 hours, with one in seven having to wait more than a week, which is concerning, and one in five unable even to get through to speak to someone in their GP surgery. This is concerning us in Salford because these are people who may have worries—they may even have cancer and need tests—and they cannot get through to their GP.
Andy Burnham
My hon. Friend is absolutely right—the deterioration in general practice has been marked during the past few years. There have been changes that have disadvantaged patients. Within weeks of taking office, the Government removed the guarantee that patients could have an appointment within 48 hours. That explains the situation that my hon. Friend describes, alongside cuts to funding of general practice to the point that some practices now say they are on the brink of deciding whether or not they can remain open. The Government have responsibility for that situation, but there is not a word from the Secretary of State about it and there is not an acknowledgement that people have severe problems in accessing their GP.
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
In my constituency, the minor injuries unit at Guisborough hospital, the minor injuries unit at East Cleveland hospital in Brotton, a walk-in centre and medical centre in Skelton, and a medical centre in Park End—all primary or intermediary level facilities—will be closed, putting further pressure on the excellent but already outlying A and E unit at James Cook University hospital. When I write to Ministers to ask questions and for a meeting, I am told that I have already had too many discussions with them and that I cannot bring it up any further. Will my right hon. Friend please enlighten me about what he would do if he were in power?
Andy Burnham
I will move on to that point. Whenever there is a problem, we are told, “Speak to NHS England.” I am afraid that is not good enough. Up and down the country we are seeing services closed without adequate consultation. NHS walk-in centres continue to be closed, piling more pressure on A and E departments. It is just not good enough. We have seen top-down changes driven through, and the hospital closure clause is on the books, so sadly this will continue. It will only change when we have a Labour Government back in control—a Government committed to putting the public and patient voice at the very heart of the NHS.
I was talking about A and E and the reorganisation. We know that Ministers were explicitly warned about an A and E recruitment crisis by the College of Emergency Medicine a couple of years ago, but they said they were too absorbed with the reorganisation to listen or act. That brings me to the nub of the matter before the House: the root cause of the deterioration in the NHS is that reorganisation, which nobody wanted and nobody voted for. It threw the service into chaos just when it needed stability. As we warned, it has damaged standards of patient care. Four years ago the Government inherited a self-confident and successful NHS, with the lowest ever waiting times and the highest ever public satisfaction. Since then it has been destabilised, demoralised and reduced to an uncertain organisation that is increasingly fearful of the future.
Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)
The right hon. Gentleman refers to cuts in funding. The only cuts in funding that we have seen in this country have been in the NHS in Wales. With regard to patient satisfaction, I can assure him that the targets left behind by the previous Labour Government did nothing to satisfy patients who were left on the ground by ambulance services because they had already gone past the eight or 19-minute limit. I am afraid that the focus on targets, rather than patients, is something that this Government have had to address.
Andy Burnham
I think that it would behove Government Members to have a bit more self-reflection and humility. The hon. Lady was not a Member of the House at the time, but she may recall that before 1997 people used to spend years on NHS waiting lists, and some never came off them. Over Labour’s 13 years in government we saw waiting lists come down, and down, and down, to the point that, when we left office, they were at their lowest ever level. I am not claiming that the NHS was perfect and did everything right, but it had the highest ever level of public satisfaction. We must have done something right. A bit of balance and accuracy in this debate is just what the NHS needs.
Mr Sheerman
Does my right hon. Friend agree that this destabilisation has reached such an extent that very good hospitals, such as those in Huddersfield and Halifax, have a cloud over them because they might lose their A and E departments? What does that do for morale and culture, which have been so good in those two hospitals? Up and down the country, morale has been shaken to the roots.
Andy Burnham
What I find surprising is that all over the country plans are being developed to close A and E departments. How can that make sense when we are in the middle of an A and E crisis? In west London my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter) has done much work to raise concerns about the changes to hospitals there.
Andy Burnham
The question I would put to the Secretary of State is this: have the Government looked at the latest evidence? Are they looking at the fact that this year hospital A and E departments have missed his target for 46 weeks? If that is the case, is it safe to proceed with changes on this scale?
Alun Cairns
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your advice. I am trying to raise a relevant point with the shadow Secretary of State. I want to point out that A and E waiting times in Wales have not been hit since 2009—
Mr Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman must not use an attempted point of order to try to make a point that he would make in the debate if he got the chance to contribute. He said that he wanted my advice. My advice to him is that persistence pays and he should keep at it, as I am sure he will.
Andy Burnham
I will give way to the hon. Gentleman before the end of my speech, but not now; I will do so when I am ready, because I want to develop my point, which is this: a successful NHS was thrown into chaos by reorganisation. Four years after Lansley’s big bang, the dust has still not settled. People out there are struggling to make sense of the 440 NHS organisations that have replaced the 163 that the Government inherited. They cannot make it all fit together and so are still sweeping up the mess. It was always nonsense to commission local GP services from a national level. To correct that, NHS England is now suggesting a new round of structural changes. This is the reorganisation that never ends. It is now rumbling into the fifth year of this Parliament. In fixing one problem, I fear the Government are going to create another—a local conflict of interest with GPs commissioning GPs. The truth that they do not like to face is that the former Health Secretary presented a defective and confused plan, and they now know, in their heart of hearts, that instead of pausing it, as they did, they should have stopped it altogether. They did not, and however much they tinker it will never make sense.
That is why the only Bill in the Gracious Speech with any link to health is the one that tries to clear up the mess of reorganisation. The small business, enterprise and employment Bill restricts redundancy payments to public officials. If ever there were a Bill that locked the stable door after the horse had bolted, this is surely it. When the Health and Social Care Act 2012 went through the House, there were repeated warnings from Labour Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), that the reorganisation would result in primary care trust staff being made redundant and then rehired, with, as a result, a huge waste of NHS resources. In June 2011, the Leader of the Opposition challenged the Prime Minister in this House on precisely that point. The Prime Minister failed to act on the warning. As a result—these are shocking figures; Government Members should listen to them—over 4,000 people have subsequently been made redundant and then rehired within the NHS. In the first three years of the reorganisation, there have been over 32,000 exit packages, averaging £43,500, and 2,300 six-figure pay-offs, 330 of which were worth more than £200,000. The total bill is £1.4 billion and counting. What a scandalous waste of NHS resources when people are waiting longer for cancer care.
We always know when this Government are on the ropes: it is when they furiously try to blame the previous Government. This time, they cite employment contracts, but that excuse will not wash. Given that they were explicitly warned about this when their health Bill was going through the House before the reorganisation took place, people will ask why on earth they did not bring forward the measures on redundancy in this Queen’s Speech before the NHS reorganisation, not after it. It all adds up to mismanagement of the country’s most cherished asset on a spectacular scale.
Alex Cunningham
I would like my right hon. Friend to know about Port Clarence, a very isolated community in my area which lost the nurse it had for four hours a week. People are having to go through a tremendous tangle within the NHS to find out who is responsible. The local doctors cannot commission the service because they provide the nurse, so they have to go to NHS England, yet we cannot get any progress. It is a terrible state of affairs.
Andy Burnham
This is the point. The NHS is still struggling to make sense of the mess that the Government inflicted on it. Just when it needed clarity and leadership, what did it get? It got drift and chaos. That is the problem it is struggling to deal with.
The redundancy payments did not only cost £1.4 billion; they have also cost the NHS dearly in lost morale. I ask the Secretary of State to imagine how these redundancy payments and six-figure pay-offs look to the staff to whom he has just denied a 1% pay increase—an increase that would have cost a fraction of that £1.4 billion. The truth is that he does not know how they feel because he refused to meet front-line staff protesting about his decision at the NHS Confederation conference. Well, I did meet them, and I can tell him how they feel. They find it truly galling and feel that they have been singled out by the Secretary of State, whose decision seems like a calculated snub. May I suggest that he urgently reconsider this approach and find the time to sit down with staff representatives? Right now, a fragile NHS simply cannot afford a further drop in staff morale. The Chancellor promised this increase and the pay review body judged it affordable; the Secretary of State should honour it.
The truth is that a whole lot more is needed if the NHS is to be put back on track. It finds itself today in a dangerous place. It is facing escalating problems but has a Government who will not talk about them.
Simon Hart (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire) (Con)
I want to alert the House as to why the right hon. Gentleman has not at any stage mentioned the performance of NHS Wales, which on every measurement but one is underperforming its equivalent in England, and which is run not by a previous Labour Government but a current Labour Government.
Andy Burnham
My shadow responsibilities do not extend to the NHS in Wales, but the Government have spent a year or more running it down. Just a few weeks ago, a Nuffield Trust report said that the picture was more mixed and that there were some areas in which the NHS in Wales was better than the NHS in England and vice versa. The Government need to look at themselves and to be fair to NHS staff, and not constantly repeat the mantra of running down the NHS in Wales and in England.
It was to prevent the NHS from being in this limbo—this silence—that we have brought this debate to the House. Until the Government face up to some of the problems caused by their reorganisation, the NHS will not be able to move forward. In the remainder of my time, I want to focus on two areas—leadership and competition—where uncertainty urgently needs to be removed.
First, on leadership, one of the major flaws of the Health and Social Care Act is that it has created confusion on that most fundamental question of all: who is in charge? Ever since the Act was passed, I have been told of continued tension between Ministers and NHS England. Ministers have repeatedly tried to instruct and overrule, ignoring the independence of NHS England for which they legislated. The problem is that thousands of NHS staff are left receiving mixed messages as to who is in charge.
I want to illustrate that point with reference to the growing crisis in mental health services, which the Secretary of State did not mention once. There are reports of growing problems in accessing mental health care and, in particular, a dangerous shortage of crisis beds. Despite that, NHS England has made a decision on the tariff which will lead to even deeper cuts to mental health care than to the rest of the NHS. This takes the NHS into new territory, because for the first time, as far as I can see, there is a direct contradiction between Department of Health policy and NHS England policy. The Government claim to support parity between mental and physical health, but their NHS policy is actively widening the disparity.
Therefore, in mental health—a policy of growing importance—we have complete confusion. People still look to Ministers to sort it out, but they have legislated themselves into the position of bystanders, shouting on the sidelines with the rest. The care Minister took to Twitter, no less, to vent his disgust at the “outrageous decision” by NHS England. People up and down the land will see that and say, “You’re the Minister! Don’t just tweet—do something about it!” The fact is that Ministers should have the power to enforce their own policy of parity, but in the interim NHS England should reconsider the decision to inflict cuts on a mental health system that is already in severe distress.
In the end, the answer to this uncertainty is simple: the Government should be legislating in this Gracious Speech to correct the flaws of the Health and Social Care Act and restore the Secretary of State’s duty to provide a comprehensive universal service. At a stroke, everyone would know where they stand and who is in charge, restoring grip and leadership in the NHS when it faces one of the most uncertain periods in its history.
The second area about which there is still considerable confusion is that of competition policy. When the Health and Social Care Act was going through, the Government’s mantra was that GPs would decide how best to organise care, but that is not what has happened in practice. Section 75 regulations are forcing commissioners to put services out to competitive tender when they do not think it necessary. That is leading to protracted legal disputes and millions spent on competition lawyers.
The nonsense that the Health and Social Care Act has inflicted on the NHS was plain for all to see last year when the then Competition Commission intervened in the NHS for the first time in its history to prevent collaboration between two NHS hospitals on the grounds that it was “anti-competitive”. What nonsense this is. It was succinctly summed up by the chief executive of the NHS, who said that
“you’ve got competition lawyers all over the place…We are getting bogged down in a morass of competition law causing significant cost in the system and great frustration for people in the service about making change happen. In which case, to make integration happen, we will need to change the law.”
That is precisely what this Gracious Speech should have done: change the law to help the NHS get on and make the changes it needs to make and remove the competition policy, which is fragmenting the NHS, not integrating it. That is the challenge the Government have ducked completely. The problem is that if they stay on this path, the NHS will head in the wrong direction. This Government and their Health and Social Care Act have placed the NHS on a fast track to fragmentation and privatisation when the future demands the integration of care.
The Opposition are clear that the market is not the answer to 21st-century care. The NHS now needs solutions of scale to rise to the increasing challenges that it faces. The NHS needed such leadership in this Queen’s Speech, but it was offered nothing. Instead, this Queen’s Speech leaves it lumbered with a Health and Social Care Act that puts competition before collaboration and the NHS on the wrong path for the future. The NHS urgently needs a Government who want to talk about the issues it faces and to get on with the job of securing its future. Let there therefore be no doubt that the next Labour Queen’s Speech will repeal the 2012 Act and pave the way for the full integration of health and social care.
I am coming to the end of my speech—I need only a couple more moments—but I will give way to the hon. Member for Vale of Glamorgan (Alun Cairns), as I promised.
Alun Cairns
I appreciate that some light-hearted comments have been made on both sides of the House, but my constituents have to wait longer for treatment, particularly for cancer care, as they do not have access to a cancer drugs fund. Will the right hon. Gentleman use all his influence with the Welsh Health Minister to get him to look at introducing such a fund so that my constituents have the same access as people in England?
Andy Burnham
That is obviously a matter for the Welsh Government, but let me provide some clarity on the issue of cancer care. In Wales, 92% of people start their cancer care treatment within 62 days, compared with just 86% in England. I ask the Conservative party to think about that, given that it has constantly run down the NHS in the hon. Gentleman’s own country and constituency, and has misrepresented the outstanding job it does to treat patients with cancer.
We will legislate for an NHS that has the right values back at its heart: collaboration before competition, people before profits. We will ask the NHS to lift standards in social care, working to bring an end to the culture of 15-minute visits. We will make sure that people can access care closer to their homes, giving patients clear rights, such as the right to see a GP within 48 hours. This is a plan to put the NHS back on track, and it shows why a Labour Government cannot come a moment too soon for the NHS.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)
Order. The House will be aware that a great many colleagues desire to take part in the debate this evening and that time is limited. I am afraid that I therefore have to impose a time limit of eight minutes.
Dr Liam Fox (North Somerset) (Con)
Perhaps I may allow the House a slightly more bipartisan interlude by concentrating for the moment on a different part of the Gracious Speech, which is the part relating to our country’s national security. I was delighted to see in the Gracious Speech the Government’s commitment to the NATO alliance, which is underpinned by the hosting in Wales of the NATO summit later this year.
From 4 April 1949, when it came into being, NATO has become the major instrument of stability and security in Europe. It has taken in newly emerging democracies, such as Greece and Spain. It has been extended to countries formerly in the Warsaw pact, creating a far more safe and stable continent. It has embraced countries such as Norway in the far north and Turkey, giving us security in places where we perhaps have greatest strategic vulnerability.
However, as we approach the summit in Wales, we need to accept that there are big weaknesses inside our major military alliance. To an extent, the political and military roles that we clearly understood during the cold war have dissolved away, and western countries existing in peace and freedom have become fat on the prosperity and security that they have come to take for granted. Only four members of the NATO alliance currently meet the 2% of GDP floor of spending that they undertook to meet when they joined and, as a consequence, the European continent gives a lower priority to defence and is ever more addicted to welfare. As the Prime Minister and Chancellor Merkel have regularly pointed out, we have now reached a situation in which the European Union represents 7% of the global population, 25% of global GDP and 50% of global social spending. That picture is utterly unsustainable. It is a situation in which the pressures of defence have become great.
Of course, NATO has had recent success in the way it took charge of operations in Afghanistan, what it did in response to the invasion of Kuwait and, perhaps more successfully, what happened in the Balkans. However, not long ago the Libyan conflict showed us how many weaknesses the alliance has. We did not have enough of some key assets—such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or air-to-air refuelling—to the extent that we would not have been able to carry out the Libyan campaign without the United States being on board. Such is the current weakness of European NATO.
We are confronted with a growing threat in the shape of Putin’s Russia, and we have stood by and watched serial bad behaviour from the Putin Government. They cut off gas to Ukraine, in breach of the NATO-Russia treaty, and we did nothing. We saw a cyber-attack on Estonia, and we did nothing. Russia invaded Georgia, parts of which it still occupies, and we did far too little. I am afraid that the signal the House sent after the debate on Syria only gave Putin the understanding that further aggression would not be rewarded with real resistance by the west, and I am afraid that the events we have seen in Ukraine are, at least partly, a result of how such decisions have been interpreted. We must be careful to ensure that our behaviour does not further reinforce that position.
We have allowed wishful thinking on Russia to replace critical analysis. We have all wanted to see Russia develop as an open, democratic, pluralistic system, but that is not going to happen, at least not under the current regime. The quicker we understand that, the better for the wider security picture. It is a bullying and thuggish regime that is not likely to change. Its modus operandi is clear: it pumps money into regimes or city states—wherever it can—to try to encourage them to be more Russia-friendly. It issues huge numbers of Russian passports to citizens in those places and then claims that it has to defend them.
The whole debate about the Ukrainian crisis misses one essential point: it is not to do with strategic or even tactical interests; it is a direct challenge to international law. Putin has said that the protection of ethnic Russians—not even Russian citizens—lies not with the states in which they live, or with the laws, constitutions or forms of government of such states, but with an external state, Russia, which can intervene to protect ethnic Russians wherever they may be. If we allow that to stand, there will be no international law, because it will sweep away every norm of international behaviour that has been accepted since world war two.
Geraint Davies
President Obama has made it clear that he is against Britain leaving the European Union or Scotland leaving the UK. What does the right hon. Gentleman think President Putin’s position would be on those issues?
Dr Fox
With all due respect to anybody outside our own borders, what the United Kingdom decides to do is a matter entirely for the United Kingdom, and what Scotland decides to do is a matter for Scotland. Nevertheless, since the hon. Gentleman asked me what I think about President Putin’s view on those issues, I will tell him what I think about Scotland. Any fragmentation would be not only a fragmentation of our country’s defences but a potential weakness inside NATO, and that is unlikely to help or give comfort to anyone other than those who are a potential threat to our national security. The hon. Gentleman raises an important point, in that events that take place inside the United Kingdom may well have resonances that are not naturally considered when decisions are being taken.
I want briefly to mention another area of national security of which the House must be very cognisant: the changing nature of the threats we face. We have gone from state threats in the cold war to the domestic terror threat we faced from the IRA, and we now face a transnational terrorist threat. That threat has come at a time when we have seen a huge growth in the internet, which allows a lot of the enemies of this country to hide. Back in 1995, when President Clinton was President of the United States, there were 130 websites in the world; at the end of 2012, there were 654 million. That is a lot of places for our enemies to hide.
Our security services need to be able to operate in the same environment as our enemies, and that to me was the essence of the great betrayal of Snowden. We depend on a moral and legal relationship between our employees and the Governments of our allied states to maintain our security, and there were three elements to what Snowden did. The first was his disclosure about the extent of National Security Agency surveillance. Had he done that inside the law it would have been a legitimate debate in a democracy, but to go further and set out the means by which our security forces carry out their business, or even potentially to set out the names of particular operatives, goes well beyond what is acceptable. In my view it goes from legitimate debate into the business of treason.
We do not have massively overwhelming security apparatus in this country. We spend 0.3% of Government spending on all our agencies put together, which is what we spend on the NHS every six days. We have good, strong oversight of our security services in this country that we should be proud of, but we must be clear when it comes to national security that peace and security are not the natural state of the world. Those things have to be fought for with every generation, and we have a responsibility to fund that appropriately. We can have neither such restricted freedom that we start to become what we claim to oppose, nor go off on a libertarian rant that takes us to a place that leaves us far less secure than we ought to be. If we get that balance right, we will be doing our duty in this House.
Mr Peter Hain (Neath) (Lab)
I wish to speak specifically about the pensions tax Bill and the private pensions Bill in the Queen’s Speech. The Government have proposed the biggest reform to pension tax rules in nearly a century. There is no denying that it is popular to give citizens—especially those with small pension pots—the choice to take lump sums that may be more beneficial to them than eking out a living from the small annual payments on which they would otherwise rely. Paying off a mortgage or a loan on retirement by drawing down a lump sum may well be better for such pensioners, but there is real danger in destroying good annuities. That has been going on for a few decades now, and is bequeathing a nightmare that Government policies are nowhere near capable of preventing.
We have a rapidly ageing population that is dumping a huge additional burden on the young, many of whom are already leaving university with massive debts thanks to this Government’s dysfunctional policies. Now they will be saddled with subsidising through their future taxes older people who are being encouraged to live for today and not protect themselves for tomorrow.
The closure of defined benefit schemes and the shift towards defined contribution schemes has been an utter catastrophe. Accelerated further by record demographic changes, that shift is a worldwide phenomenon and a product of the neo-liberal orthodoxy worshipped by the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), which has gripped Governments from the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and which this Government still seem to be in the grip of. In the US, for example, the number of defined benefit schemes halved in under 30 years, while direct contribution schemes tripled. Australia, also worshipping such neo-liberalism, saw an 80% reduction in the number of workers covered by defined benefit schemes from the 1980s.
That is the background, but there are disadvantages to the new pension freedom. For example, people might decide to spend all their pension savings at the point of retirement, dooming themselves to poverty later in life. Having saved into a pension fund, received tax relief for many years and reached retirement with a pot of money, they might be tempted to blow the lot at once, meaning that they will never have the benefit of the extra income that they would otherwise have had as they got older. If that happens, the tax relief they receive would not fund a pension, and employer contributions that they may have received along the way would end up funding immediate consumption, rather than providing a long-term income. We know that some people will do that; we do not know how many but we hope the number will be relatively low. Pensions expert Ros Altmann suggests that about 7% of people currently say that they would spend it all. In truth, it impossible to predict that accurately.
Geraint Davies
I am sure that my right hon. Friend is a supporter, as I am, of the idea of a British investment bank. Does he think that the Chancellor should have set up tax incentives to encourage people who have liberated their pension pots to reinvest in a British investment bank and create jobs and wealth for the future, instead of it being blown on everyday consumption?
Mr Hain
That is a very good point.
The new flat-rate state pension, which is cited in mitigation for this new approach to pensions, still means that a lot of people will fall back on the state having spent all their pension savings. Around 20% of pensioners will still be on means-tested benefits even after the new system starts. People might also try to game the system by taking all their pension money and recycling it into a new pension fund, getting more tax-free cash and another lot of tax relief. That could mostly benefit those who are reasonably well-off with high incomes in later life, and it could be costly in extra Exchequer spending on tax relief.
This is mainly a market problem, and it should perhaps have been possible to reform that market without the draconian retreat from annuities proposed by the Government. Would it have been possible to insist that insurers are obliged to treat customers fairly, and ensure they would be liable if they did not carry out suitability checks to identify which type of annuity was best and offer a good rate? Would it have been possible to reform the way annuities work, and allow more freedom but not complete freedom? What protections will be built into the new system to ensure that unsophisticated consumers are not left at the mercy of product providers offering poor product choices, or higher risk products that people simply do not understand and through which they end up losing significant sums? The Financial Conduct Authority needs to be on top of that right from the start, but judging by past form can we be confident of that? I have very serious doubts.
If guidance is delivered by product providers, those providers are liable to entice their customers towards more poor-value products. Experience shows that they will do whatever they can to try to keep customers’ money, or give them poor value and make extra profit. The annuity market has worked poorly for years, with rising profits to insurers and reducing value for customers. How will the Government ensure that the new products developed finally offer good value, and that the charges are fair and terms reasonable?
The Government are right to legislate to permit collective defined contribution pensions, but I warn Ministers about over-hyping the benefits. In principle, such pensions ought to be better for employers than traditional final salary schemes and better for workers than traditional defined contribution schemes, but in practice they still suffer from market and actuarial risks. Ros Altmann points out that lower earners may subsidise higher earners, and younger members may subsidise older members. The new pension freedoms to take most, if not all, of the pension pot in a lump sum, however attractive and justified that may be to certain people, may also mean that people prefer pure defined contribution schemes that they can access in retirement if they wish. Collective defined contribution schemes, admirable as they may be in principle, usually mean that people cannot just take the cash, which means they may well be less attractive for members.
My challenge to the Government is this: rather than leaving the private pension system to market providers and their whims, why not build a new system that works? We need a system with longevity that savers will understand and find confidence in—a lack of confidence in this Government’s approach to pensions is something that I imagine savers and I share. While the Chancellor’s right hand further fragments and individualises pensions through these tax proposals, the pension Minister’s left hand makes legal collective direct contribution pensions. Why should any employer move to that collective system when they can see the Treasury going down precisely the opposite route? I doubt whether many will do so.
The Government are not doing anything like enough to face up to the time bomb of our ageing society and the whole person social care that the shadow Health Secretary eloquently advocated, or anything like enough to face up to the pensions needed to underpin the new life that is rapidly overtaking us, and the whole person care necessary to protect us. The whole Government philosophy of leaving private pensions to the market and saying to citizens, “Effectively, you are on you own” has failed abysmally in the past, just as I believe it will fail abysmally in the future at a terrible cost to all of us—pensioners, taxpayers and the public in general. I urge the Government to look again and come back with proposals that really begin to meet the scale of both the pension challenge and the whole person care challenge that haunts the whole of this country.
Sir Peter Luff (Mid Worcestershire) (Con)
I am sure it would be churlish of me to consider for a second that the speech by the right hon. Member for Neath (Mr Hain) owes anything to his new-found interest in pensions following his decision to retire from this place at the next election. I am glad he is following my example, but I am sorry to hear that he will be lost to this place. I have not always agreed with him, but I have always liked and admired him. I am sure he will be missed by this House and by his constituents.
Last year, I had the honour to propose the Gracious Speech, a task ably performed this year by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt). Like me, she got her loudest laugh for a joke about genitalia, which probably says all one needs to know about this place.
I was tempted to tear up my prepared remarks—they are not on health, but on the health of our democracy—thanks to the rather shockingly partisan speech from the shadow Secretary of State. I will not be tempted down that path, but I will make one point on health. My father-in-law died over Christmas in a national health service hospital. He had spent nine weeks in two different hospitals on five different wards, always receiving outstanding medical care but never that full personal, human and true compassionate care that the Secretary of State spoke about in his opening remarks. I wish him every success in his campaign to drive compassionate care in the NHS, because it desperately needs it.
I hope it goes without saying that I strongly support the coalition Government and their achievements, so I shall pass over that section of my speech in the interests of the eight-minute limit. I will simply say this: the Queen’s Speech is not the most radical of recent times, but that is not necessarily a criticism. It contains good and worthwhile measures that I applaud warmly. Indeed, I think the desperate search by politicians for novelty, sometimes engendered by the 24-hour media questing sensation, can actually work against genuinely good government.
I want to set my remarks in the context of 2015, which is not just an election year but an important year for Parliament. It would have been good if the Gracious Speech had made at least passing mention of the fact that in 2015 we will celebrate two important anniversaries: 750 years since the de Montfort Parliament of 1265, and 800 years since the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215. I know that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, have worked very hard with Sir Robert Worcester on the Magna Carta 800th Committee. Magna Carta embodies the principles that have underpinned the emergence of parliamentary democracy and the legal system in the UK and across the world: limiting arbitrary power, curbing the right to levy taxation without consent, holding the Executive to account and affirming the rule of law. De Montfort’s Parliament 50 years later flowed almost inevitably from just those principles.
I have the privilege to be the Commons Chair of the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on the 2015 anniversary, alongside Lord Bew from the House of Lords. These anniversaries provide a special opportunity for all of us in this place to engage the public in the history and purpose of our democracy. Parliament’s programme for 2015 will increase public understanding of the fact that Parliament’s work really matters to them, raising awareness of Parliament at work on a local level, particularly with young people. I hope hon. Members will participate in an initiative we are launching with individual schools in our constituencies later this year.
The celebration of and debate on Magna Carta and our emerging Parliament should serve to remind us of perhaps neglected fundamentals. Democracy is not just about voting once every four or five years for a local council, Parliament or the European Parliament. The first condition of democracy is the establishment of freedoms and rights in a society that can be upheld independently of the ruler or ruling elite. Voting comes next. That leads me to my three main concerns about the Queen’s Speech: the consequences for defence, liberty and the local experience of democracy.
On safety overseas, the Queen’s Speech said surprisingly little. My right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) made a powerful speech, saying many of the things I wished to say. In the year in which British troops end their combat mission in Afghanistan, we might have hoped for more on defence in the Gracious Speech. The UK has committed to spend 0.7% of GDP on international development. I welcome that, but why do the Government, who already spend more than 2% of GDP on defence in accordance with NATO guidelines, seem so reluctant to commit formally to this target? Why do they not do more to engage our European colleagues in meeting that target too? Why did the Queen’s Speech not say something about the preparatory work for the next strategic defence and security review? We need a debate on Britain’s place in the world, a debate that would inform the Scottish independence referendum and our relationship with the EU. An open debate ahead of the SDSR would be invaluable, and it would have been good to see a commitment to that in the Queen’s Speech.
On liberty, the Bill to strengthen the powers to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking is an excellent one to enact in the year of Magna Carta’s 800th anniversary. The work of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority has made a major contribution in my constituency to reducing the exploitation of those working in the farming and horticultural sectors, but much more remains to be done. I am proud to support a Government who are putting such an enlightened and important piece of legislation on the statute book. When we think of personal liberties, we should recall that of all Magna Carta’s many clauses only four remain on the statute book today. Two of those, clauses 39 and 40, are about no freeman being imprisoned except by the lawful judgment of his peers, and no one being denied justice.
I welcome the action on modern slavery, but I must sound a loud warning note on legal aid, for which further changes are planned in this Session, including secondary legislation on Crown court advocacy fees. We must recognise that access to justice is not just a Magna Carta right, but a fundamental part of our democracy. We cannot lecture authoritarian states on their lack of democracy if our own system is denying ancient rights to our citizens. If the state proceeds against an individual unreasonably, as has manifestly happened on several occasions recently, the individual should have the proper means to defend himself or herself against those proceedings. The legal aid bill is tiny: at £2 billion, it is just one-twelfth of the £24 billion housing benefit bill. In other words, an 8% saving in housing benefit would pay for the whole legal aid bill. This Parliament should be profoundly concerned that injustice will grow and families will suffer if deep cuts to legal aid are made. In the run-up to the commemoration of Magna Carta, we should be especially heedful of such things.
My final remarks perhaps reflect my deepest concern about democracy in our country. I end with one measure of direct relevance to my constituents and their sense of justice and fair play and the upholding of their democratic rights: the planning system. This one issue has done more to disillusion many of my constituents about the reality of local democracy than any other I am aware of. I agree we need to build more houses both nationally and locally. The three councils of south Worcestershire—Wychavon, Malvern Hills and Worcester City—agree with that view with passionate conviction, but I worry about exactly what is meant by the commitment in the Queen’s Speech to increase housing supply and home ownership by reforming the planning system.
A packed meeting at Badsey Remembrance hall on Friday was powerful evidence of the sense of betrayal that people in many parts of England feel about the collapse of local planning policies. Indeed, I believe my party has lost more voters to UKIP over this breakdown in planning than over the EU. At Friday’s meeting, attended by parish councils and residents from across the Vale of Evesham and throughout Wychavon, I told the audience about what was being done and our great success in building houses—some three times the national average in my constituency—in south Worcestershire. Our area is pulling its weight. We want to build houses in the quantities needed, but where local people believe they should be built and not where developers decide. It is the developers who have the whip hand in my constituency. Through no fault of my council, we are being punished for not having a local plan in place. The only reason we are late is that the Government failed to abolish the old top-down system of regional spatial strategies in good time. We followed Government policy, but we are being punished for doing so.
Wychavon district council wants to do the right thing and build the new homes that we need, but still the Planning Inspectorate makes it clear that it expects even more. The result is a demoralised district council and angry communities. All the inspectorate needs to do is say that planning permissions already granted will count against our target and commit to ensuring that our new local plan can be the test of new applications from developers now, not when it finally comes into effect.
At Badsey on Friday night I was given a bag of Vale of Evesham soil. The person who gave it to me wanted it to remind me of the valuable horticultural land being lost to unplanned development. It reminds me of much, much more: it is the soil of the county where the founder of our parliamentary democracy, Simon de Montfort, died. It stands for the liberty of the people. It is our sacred duty in this place to protect it.
Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab)
This is the seventh occasion I have quoted from patients’ letters on the NHS. They are patients from all over the country. In some cases I will name where they come from, because they have given me their permission to do so.
A few weeks ago, when I gave evidence to the Select Committee on Health, I was asked whether things had changed as a result of the report I produced jointly with Professor Tricia Hart last year. The only way I could answer was to say that I will know that things have changed when the letters stop. I am afraid the letters have not stopped: they keep coming, and while they keep coming I shall continue to quote from them.
I received a letter from a woman who went to see a friend in hospital. The friend was given an enema while she was there. The letter states:
“Myself and other visitors therefore waited outside while this took place. The nurse then disappeared for forty minutes. When I questioned the nurse about being away for so long she explained that there are two other staff members on the ward but they are not qualified to carry out this procedure…I then waited outside again while she was changed. Once this was finished I noticed that her nightgown had not been changed, so therefore assumed it was clean. The next morning when I arrived with a clean nightgown, she was still in the previous day’s clothing and was not changed until she had been washed. Later, when I was going home, I found the previous nightgown shoved into a cupboard in a plastic carrier bag. The nightgown was completely soiled, so it was evident that she had been left wearing this from roughly 2pm and throughout the night. I reported this to a nurse who said she could not explain why this had happened.”
This illustrates again the importance of patients in hospital being shown dignity.
Another letter concerns a wife visiting her husband in hospital:
“The oxygen mask he had on had slipped down off his nose so many times it had blistered it, his wife had to put plasters from the pharmacy on herself. On his bed table at the foot of his bed was a pack of sandwiches, bottle of fizzy drink, a urine tray with urine in it and standing in that was a urine bottle half filled with urine…The man 2 beds up soiled his bed, stripped naked and walked round the ward with excrement all up his legs. Out of the ladies toilets came a lady crawling on her hands and knees with her underwear round her ankles, 2…nurses picked her up, said she was a naughty girl and dragged her up the ward. Then 5 minutes later out of the other door first appeared a walking stick, then a little man wearing a nightgown and a hat with a bobble on the top, stick in one hand and dragging his soiled nappy full of excrement behind him past”
her husband’s bed.
Another letter said:
“I have been waiting for over three months for a colonoscopy at Singleton hospital, Swansea. I have pains in my stomach. I attach an e-mail received from the Health Board stating that the waiting list for urgent endoscopies in Swansea is 35-40 weeks. No estimate is given for non-urgent endoscopies. I find the situation scandalous. If you wish to publicise this appalling state of affairs and use my name, you can do so.”
The health board wrote to the man saying:
“Unfortunately, the Endoscopy department is experiencing a backlog of patients waiting for appointments, due to the ongoing demands on the service. The current waiting time in Swansea for an urgent endoscopy can be up to 35 to 40 weeks. Plans are in place to address the backlog over the coming months. In the meantime if you are experiencing symptoms which you are concerned about, they would suggest you make an appointment to see your General Practitioner”.
Another letter states:
“My mother aged 85 was admitted to hospital…and treated as an in-patient for 3 weeks for a badly sprained wrist. My concerns about the longevity of the injury and lack of improvement, continued pain and swelling were ignored and only after an official complaint was made…by me did medical staff agree to re x-ray the wrist, where upon it was found to be badly broken. Whilst still an in-patient…when her wrist was due to be set, my mother’s call for assistance to help her to the bathroom went unanswered and she fell in the ward. I was not contacted by the hospital and advised of her fall. When I made it known to staff that I knew she had fallen I was told ‘it was nothing, a little fall and there was no injury’. My mother was discharged…I had to call out her GP”
a couple of days later
“since she was experiencing severe groin pain. Over the weekend the intensity of pain increased and my mother could no longer walk. She was taken by ambulance to Morriston Hospital, an x ray revealed a fracture of the pubis and my mother was again admitted as an inpatient that evening.”
She then talks about the standards of medical attention, stating that the
“care received was negligent, her treatment was inappropriate and exacerbated her injury. The consequence for my mother is long term and permanent impairment of mobility and quality of life.”
Another letter concerns someone admitted to a hospital in north Wales:
“Doctors were rarely seen especially not at weekends, equipment had to begged and borrowed from other wards. I feel that when he was admitted he was seen as a very old man who was probably not going to survive…He’d always been a positive, uncomplaining sort of person. It was subsequently discovered that he had an ulcerated digestive tract so forcing him to eat, as was initially happening, was bordering on the cruel.”
Finally, a letter states:
“I went to the GP last February and was diagnosed with a prolapsed womb. I was put on the proverbial waiting list. After two months I rang the Princess of Wales hospital to ask how long to my appointment. I was told the earliest I would be seen would be end of August possibly early September! A few weeks ago against all my labour principles and out of sheer anxiety of the unknown I paid £150 to see a gynae consultant (this was in one week of phoning for an appointment!) The consultant confirmed I had a prolapse, I would need a hysterectomy and a bladder repair…I was then told if I paid privately I could have the operation in two weeks!”
at a cost of £6,646. The letter continued:
“However this is the punch line. If I wanted to be put on the NHS list it would be 9/10 months! That means from seeing my GP to surgery will be 18 months. I can not believe it! I refuse to go privately; I want NHS treatment. My condition is now impacting on my everyday life…without going in to the finer details it is undignified. I went back to my GP last week asking her to expedite my referral.”
That is one of many shocking cases, and I could fill the next five hours reading out the others I have received.
Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)
It is a great pleasure, but a daunting prospect, to follow the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd), who is a model of dignity for the House and has shared some truly horrific experiences with us. I want to talk mainly about public health, but before I do so, I should like to raise an issue that is not unrelated to what the right hon. Lady has mentioned.
I have been fascinated by the fact that the Mid Staffs issue has not resonated as a major concern with the vast majority of people in this country. Perhaps I missed it; perhaps it is there just under the radar. To me, it should be seared on our collective conscience as a nation. If 1,200 had wrongfully died, say, in police custody or in some other area of direct Government responsibility, there would be crowds of people out on the streets. Yet this was a collective failure and a national failure. Irrespective of what has been said in certain journals by certain Members, this was not a local issue, but a national one in which neglect, incompetence and something called cognitive dissonance was allowed to fester—and people died in large numbers.
We rightly revere the NHS. As with my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Sir Peter Luff), I have had recent experience of a close relative being treated in the NHS, and I have nothing but praise for the staff who treated him. Where there is failure, and when people are treated in the sort of way mentioned by the right hon. Lady and dignity and care fall by the wayside, we have to act. I believe that the implementation of the Francis report is a major step on that road. I applaud the Secretary of State for his determined approach to put patients first, by putting in place measures, individuals and safeguards so that Mid-Staffs does not happen again.
As I said, I want to talk about public health, which I believe is so important to how we are going to be able in the long run to afford a national health service. So much of that is about diverting people away from needing it. It is also about addressing inequalities. I have worked hard with other Members to make sure, for example, that rural areas are not left aside. When I was the Minister with responsibility for rural affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart) raised the issue of stroke treatments in his constituency. It is, of course, much quicker and easier for a stroke therapy consultant to spend all their time in Hull, dealing with many more cases in one day, rather than getting out into the rural areas. Addressing those health inequalities is now, however, for the first time a statutory requirement. That is a major step forward. It does not just involve national bodies such as NHS England and Public Health England; local care commissioning groups and local authorities are ensuring that inequalities are addressed.
Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that there is a specific need in rural communities. Does he support the Government’s action in taking need out of the assessment for public health funding, which has meant that areas such as mine in the north-east have lost funds that have been redistributed to wealthier areas in the south?
Richard Benyon
I do not know what happens in the hon. Gentleman’s part of the north-east, but I can tell him that there is now a real drive to deal with the problems in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness. My hon. Friend felt that his constituents were getting a raw deal under the old system, and there is now a statutory requirement for that to be addressed.
The new responsibility for public health means a great deal to us as constituency Members. The West Berkshire health and wellbeing board, ably led by Councillor Marcus Franks, is taking the initiative locally, not just dealing with massively important issues such as reducing smoking but encouraging, through a partnership approach, lateral thinking and the tackling of disease and illness before they happen. We must ensure that that happens at local level as a result of legislation that has been introduced in the past.
I was pleased to be one of the authors of the natural environment White Paper. We worked closely with the Department of Health, with the aim of helping people to understand the healing benefits of nature and the great outdoors. Initiatives such as Walking for Health have created a virtuous circle. Improved health has led to greater companionship and less isolation, and organisations such as the University of the Third Age have improved the quality of life for lonely and, in some cases, elderly people—and, of course, there is the additional benefit of a lower health care bill for the taxpayer. All that is crucial to our objective of diverting people from health services.
About 20 years ago, a health service manager said to me, “The trouble is—from my point of view—that clever people keep inventing expensive new cures which we have to fund. People survive longer as a result, and that means yet more costs, because they will need the NHS at a later stage.” I think that he was being light-hearted, but it was probably just a half-joke. His point was this: if we, as a society, are to be able to afford the NHS that we want in the future, whichever party is in government, we must continue to divert people from it by keeping them healthier. The lateral thinking to which I referred earlier has never been more important.
I applaud the housing association that, working with its local health and wellbeing board, identified a large number of elderly people who were being admitted to hospital following accidents in the home. Simply employing a handyman to do some work in their sheltered accommodation resulted in a reduction in the number of injuries, particularly serious injuries such as broken hips, from which many people do not recover.
Another initiative in my area is “brushing for health”. Good oral health is vital, and my local health and wellbeing board has launched a programme involving Sure Start and other children’s centres, encouraging children to adopt diets that are lower in sugar and to brush their teeth more regularly, and ensuring that they will have access to a dentist. Promoting that initiative will mean that less national health dentistry will be required in the future.
On Saturday, I was delighted to launch the Newbury dementia action alliance. We know that 800,000 people in this country are living with dementia, and that it is costing the country £23 billion a year. It is great to hear that the G7 world leaders are getting together and making dealing with dementia one of their priorities, but what does that mean in our constituencies? It means, at local level, stimulating the minds of dementia sufferers, supporting their carers, ensuring that healthy living is part of the norm and involving organisations such as the fire service and the police.
That was a very quick canter around the importance of public health. I am running out of time, but let me end by saying that when we talk about health, we must not just talk about the important factors that surround the core of the national health service. We need to prevent people from becoming ill in the first place, and that is why the Government’s concentration on public health is so welcome. There is, of course, much more to be done, but a very important change has been made.
Mr Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon). Let me begin where he left off. For the past two years, along with other Members of Parliament representing the north-east and Cumbria, I have been arguing against attempts to alter the health service’s funding formula and reallocate funding, taking it away from deprived areas with poorer health outcomes and giving it to more affluent areas with better health outcomes. Last year, the Government’s original proposals would have led to a reduction of £230 million in the annual health funding of the north-east and Cumbria. NHS England eventually opted for inflation-proofed increases for all clinical commissioning group areas, along with extra increases for some favoured clinical commissioning groups in more affluent parts of the country. I should welcome an assurance from the Minister that we will not have to go through that fight again.
The Government’s top-down reorganisation of the national health service is riddled with gaps and negative consequences. It has significantly increased pressures on A and E departments, which have now become the default places to visit if people need to see a doctor within days. It is no longer possible to make an appointment with a GP a day or so in advance, and many people have to wait several weeks for an appointment. There are arbitrary, cost-influenced restrictions on procedures and treatments, leading to a postcode lottery whereby some services are free in certain parts of the country but not in others.
Clinical commissioning groups are reported to have spent more than £5 million on competition lawyers to try to navigate competition law in relation to commissioning services. More than £1.4 billion has been spent on redundancies in the NHS, only for thousands of people to be re-hired under the new structures. I understand the latest figure is over 4,000. That point was made forcefully by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) in his opening speech, and I support every word that he said.
There has to be an answer to this, and it is not coming from the Government. Health Ministers are increasingly hiding behind NHS England when it comes to big policy questions relating to the NHS, and more and more answers to parliamentary questions are being referred away from the Department and to unelected, largely unaccountable bodies. There is also the overarching issue of GPs’ now having key functions as commissioners, as well as functions as providers of services that are being commissioned. The obvious conflict of interest is corrosive to the ethical underpinning of the NHS.
I have the honour to represent the Freeman hospital and its internationally renowned heart units, including its high-achieving children’s heart unit. In the 2001 review of the Bristol children’s heart unit, Professor Sir Ian Kennedy clearly stated that England needed a smaller number of centres of excellence to undertake the complex, highly skilled procedures involved. No one has refuted his arguments, but, 13 years later, we are no closer to achieving the outcome that he said was desirable.
We cannot, and should not, let that issue drift. The Government have an obligation to set out a clear way forward that is compatible with Sir Ian’s recommendations, and to do so on the merits of the medical arguments and not on the basis of political expediency. The delays in addressing the issue over the four years of the current Parliament pose the risk that it will extend beyond the next general election, yet we are no clearer about the future of children’s heart units in England. Again, a response from the Minister on the issue would be welcome.
I want to raise the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body and the blocking of the recommendations by the Government. That decision comes after a two-year pay freeze and significant pay restraint following the two-year period. When factored against inflationary pressures, nurses’ pay has fallen by 10% in real terms over the past four years. Alongside that, contributions to the pension arrangements have increased, coming out of take-home pay.
The Government should not treat individual increments as if they were pay rises. Forty-five per cent. of nurses do not receive an increment. The Government should not set the NHS Pay Review Body recommendations to one side. They are wrong to insist instead on an offer of a 1% non-consolidated payment for this year, followed by a 2% non-consolidated payment for the following year. If nothing else happened at the end of this period, the nurses would be substantially worse off than they are today. These are pressing issues for the national health service.
I should like to make a more general point about the Queen’s Speech’s failure to touch on the most significant problem facing the north-east of England. Unemployment in the region remains the highest in the country, at 10.1%. Despite recent national falls in unemployment, it remains stubbornly high in the north-east.
The unemployment rate for the region has actually increased in 2014. There is a continued need to create sustainable well-paid jobs through private sector economic development in the region. The tragedy is that the parties do not quarrel about this: we agree on what needs to be done. The issue is doing it. Youth unemployment remains high and more needs to be done to open up opportunities to work and training.
Four years ago, the Government made sweeping changes to the delivery of economic development in the English regions. The Government’s reorganisation is not working for the north-east of England. Apart from the projects that were already under way under the last Labour Government, the present arrangements have little to show. Governments often make their largest mistakes in their first 100 days. Having abolished the regional development agency and Business Link, the Government have spent the last four years trying to set up structures that will carry out the functions that those bodies used to undertake, and in our region the efforts so far have achieved very little. This matters because it is our region’s core problem.
The Government’s original idea was that the new localism contained the answer to the north-east’s economic development questions. The coalition Government argued that the setting up of new locally based bodies would be the right way to provide economic development at local level. Over the past four years, the means has become the end. All energies have been focused on those structural questions. The purpose for which they were originally intended has been almost completely lost sight of. A single Minister needs to get a grip of these arrangements, which now span a range of different Departments, and force them to focus on specific economic development initiatives.
These are important issues. Now that the House has committed itself to fixed-term, five-year Parliaments, it is likely that all future final Sessions will have something of the character of this one. There is something unsatisfactory about it all. I feel that some of the big questions and the attendant debate are slipping away from Parliament.
Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)
It is a pleasure to speak in the debate because it is a Queen’s Speech that will help to deliver a stronger economy for this country and better and stronger public services. Four years ago, this Government embarked on a radical and necessary programme of measures to turn the fortunes of this country and our economy around. For 13 years, my constituents were betrayed and let down by the previous Government, as taxes rose while unemployment soared, the economy went into meltdown and public services wasted taxpayers’ money on a colossal scale.
It is a tribute to this Government’s economic focus and policies that we have been able to turn things around. Ministers have implemented many clear measures. For example, unemployment in my constituency is now almost half the level it was when it peaked under the previous Government in 2009. These are the positive policies that I bring to today’s debate on the NHS. It is a testament to this Government’s commitment to the NHS that we are now seeing an increase in spending.
I heard the opening speeches in the debate, including by Labour Members. It is appalling that the Labour party likes to talk as though it owns the NHS politically. That is wrong. Labour should listen to some of the facts not just in my constituency but in the eastern region. The fact is that Labour went into the last general election with plans to cut NHS spending—we have heard about the impact of that in Wales—while we have continued to invest in the NHS. While Conservatives recognise the increasing pressures that the country faces from demographics and the health care needs of the public—
Priti Patel
I want to develop my discussion and go into more detail on the NHS. More investment in the NHS is required. This is not about cutting services, including front-line services, or funds. It is about expanding the NHS in the right way and, as the Secretary of State said, putting patients first and moving away from the bureaucratisation of the NHS.
Priti Patel
Let me continue.
There were classic examples of that not just in my constituency but more widely in Essex. We heard earlier about Basildon hospital. In my constituency, one primary care trust saw its number of managers and senior managers increase tenfold over a decade. At the same time, it failed miserably to recognise the health needs of my constituents; we have a growing population as well as an ageing population. I had cases in 2010 where patients were denied access to life-saving hospital treatment and access to drugs because the PCT sought to prioritise spending on the bureaucracy of the NHS, rather than front-line patient care.
In Witham town, at the heart of my constituency, there is a chronic shortage of locally accessible health care facilities. All the talk by Labour and the slogans referring to “record investment” under Labour translated into nothing in my constituency. Under the previous PCT and the previous regime, we had consultation after consultation but no new services were created.
Priti Patel
Just a second. Our GPs are among the most highly subscribed in the country, with 2,200 patients per GP compared to the national average of 1,500—that is over 40% more patients per GP than average. Not only did Labour fail to plan, but the former PCTs have left a chilling legacy of debt and financial mismanagement, which has held back our new clinical commissioning group from providing innovative solutions and new local health care.
I thank NHS England, the Department of Health and the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter). They have been incredibly accommodating and are looking to create local solutions and to expand front-line services in Witham town. We have been looking at bringing in a new, purpose-built medical centre in the town, which would provide new and integrated primary care services and make services more accessible for local people. Such a centre could even go as far as integrating our local ambulance services, too, in order to bring greater collaboration and integration across our local NHS, which is needed.
These provisions do not need to be included in legislation. This is not about new legislation in the Queen’s Speech. This is about a commitment at the grass roots from health providers and GPs to get on and start delivering these services. We did not have that commitment before.
Another example of where we were completely neglected is the East of England Ambulance Service. It is a fact that we have had endless problems. That was down to a culture of mismanagement. Front Benchers will be familiar with the crisis that we had in our ambulance trust. We had great paramedics who were doing a very difficult job, but they were being let down by hospitals, A and E, and the target culture. The service was worse than poor; it was inadequate. The trust is now recovering, thanks to Dr Anthony Marsh. Last Thursday night, I joined the ambulance trust and its team from Witham ambulance station on patrol and I cannot praise them enough for the work they do. It was interesting to see the handover in patient care as we turned up at Broomfield hospital and Colchester general hospital. We need greater integration so that we are putting patients first in the provision of front-line services.
Colchester hospital has been held back because of the legacy of the culture of targets. Because of the problems we had with the East of England Ambulance Service, Colchester hospital had a target-driven culture that led to horrific examples of falling standards of care and data being manipulated. Investigations are taking place now. While what has happened at Colchester is nowhere near as damaging as what we have seen at other hospitals such as Mid Staffordshire, it shows what happens when targets overtake the delivery of quality front-line patient care. This should not be about bureaucracy, inputs or targets. We need an integrated approach so we deliver effective front-line patient care.
We struggled in the eastern region, and in Essex in particular, with the NHS legacy of the previous Government. It has been a real challenge for all health care professionals—I have mentioned our hospitals and the ambulance trust—and these are individuals who are dedicated to serving patients and doing the right thing, but they have been held back. The innovations and the NHS reforms, as well as the new investment being provided, will help to secure new services for my constituents and a more patient-friendly approach in Witham town.
Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab)
Today I would like to add my voice to those of all who have expressed disappointment and surprise that the Queen’s Speech contained not one word about the NHS. Last month’s local elections in Mitcham and Morden, and in large parts of London, were dominated by the issue of health. The verdict was overwhelming: overnight, Merton went from no overall control to Labour control, with the people of Mitcham and Morden electing 30 Labour councillors out of 30 for the first time in history. In large parts of Merton one issue stood out: the future of my local general hospital, St Helier. Anyone driving through Morden will see hundreds of signs in front gardens and windows—yellow signs with a red heart in the middle, all saying “Save St Helier.”
The Government should have used the Queen’s Speech to listen to the people. Labour would introduce an NHS Bill; the Government included not a word about the NHS. During the local election campaign, Merton’s Conservatives said that, no ifs, no buts, St Helier was safe. Their leader proclaimed that
“St Helier Hospital has been saved”,
but St Helier has been under attack for years under this Government. In 2011, the local NHS said the Government had told it to
“deliver £370 million savings each year...around 24% in their costs.”
A new body called Better Services Better Value was set up. It announced it would close A and E and maternity units across south-west London and Surrey, and St Helier would also lose its intensive care unit, paediatric centre, renal unit and 390 in-patient beds. A save St Helier campaign was launched, and the petition has now been signed by more than 13,000 of my constituents. Three local campaigners—Sally Kenny, Stan Anderson and Mary Curtin—decided the issue was so important that they should stand in the local elections in Lower Morden as residents whose primary aim was to save St Helier. Given the backing they had from Councillor Stephen Alambritis, the Labour leader of Merton council, they stood for Labour. Just before the election, doctors in Surrey, where Epsom hospital was also threatened, vetoed the plans. BSBV was wound down in ignominy. It seemed we had won a reprieve, but when the huge banner covering the front of St Helier hospital that said
“Coming soon—We’re spending £219m on a major development”
was taken down, residents realised that victory was only temporary.
The best any of us could hope for was a few years’ peace and quiet. As it happened, the reprieve lasted until only five days after the election, when the local NHS published a new five-year plan that it says will
“change the way we deliver health services”.
Far from listening to the people, who voted in unprecedented numbers to save St Helier, it ignored the verdict of the people. The plan describes the
“likely need to reconfigure maternity and neonatal services”.
Of course, “reconfigure” is just a euphemism for closures, and it suggests that A and E units will be downgraded by 2018, with what it describes as the introduction of two levels of emergency departments—major emergency centres and emergency centres. The plans do not say which maternity units will be “reconfigured” or which A and Es will be downgraded to emergency centres, rather than full-blown A and Es, but, after years at risk, nobody thinks St Helier’s future is secure.
The leader of Merton council, who won an overwhelming mandate just weeks ago, is so angry that he has told the chair of Merton’s clinical commissioning group, who has headed the local NHS throughout BSBV, that the people had spoken and his job was no longer tenable. Councillor Alambritis said:
“BSBV has been a fiasco and the voters of Merton delivered a devastating verdict...Ultimately, responsibility lies with the Chair, and he has to go…Merton’s residents have demanded change, and the Chair needs to respond to that”—
and so should the Government. They have spent the last four years undermining, rather than strengthening, our NHS.
In 2010, the Conservative party manifesto said it would stop the centrally dictated
“closure of A&E and maternity wards, so that people have better access to local services, and give mothers real choice over where to have their baby”.
The people of Merton remembered that quote, and it is no wonder they voted the way they did a fortnight ago.
This is a democracy. The Government should respect the ballot box. My constituents do not want a Queen’s Speech that has not got a single word to say about the NHS. They want a Queen’s Speech to save St Helier, and save our NHS.
Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)
I have reflected on the comments of the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) and I really must tackle head-on the belief that because there is no Bill on the NHS, that is a weakness. The reality is that the NHS does not need more legislation. What it needs is good leadership and good performance management so that it delivers what we want it to deliver for our constituents. We will not improve the care of patients by sitting on these Benches and pontificating and giving the benefit of our experience. What we need to do is empower real practitioners to actually deliver change.
Siobhain McDonagh
May I inform the hon. Lady that many of my constituents in Mitcham and Morden believe the withdrawal of clause 119 from the Care Bill would have done a lot for their NHS?
Jackie Doyle-Price
I cannot agree with the hon. Lady. The important thing is that Government Members make it clear to the NHS that we expect it to put the interests of patients at its heart. I want again to draw attention to what has happened in Basildon and Thurrock university hospitals trust because it is perhaps the best example of the profound change we have had in NHS culture over the last five years. We now have a Government, and leaders within the NHS, who are finally prepared to face up to what is going wrong and to deal with it, rather than to cover up, be complacent and say, “We’re no worse than anyone else.”
I have to say that it has been a turbulent journey for those of us involved in Basildon hospital over those five years. The shadow Health Secretary, who is not in his place, will recall coming to this House in 2009, at the same time as he spoke about Mid Staffordshire, to highlight exactly what was going wrong at Basildon. Since then I have had a number of conversations with senior managers in which I was told, “Well, we’re no worse than anyone else. You’ll find this everywhere.” That was not good enough, but after two and a half years of not making any progress at all, Members of this House had very robust discussions with Monitor and said, “This needs proper intervention.” That led to a complete change in the leadership. A new board was appointed that was more inclined to give challenge where it was due. We had a leadership team that put stronger emphasis on good clinical leadership, and a chief executive was appointed who was determined to make sure that Basildon hospital delivered the standards of care that all patients deserve. What we have had is cultural change, and cultural change comes from leadership; it does not come from legislation. As I have said in many contexts, any organisation is a creature of the person at its top, so when we get good leadership in individual hospitals we get a step change in performance.
I also wish to pay tribute to the Secretary of State for the continued emphasis he places on patients, because when the head of the NHS—the person operationally responsible here in Parliament for performance—is articulating that, it will spread the cultural change which will deliver the real change in performance. I pay tribute to Clare Panniker, Basildon hospital’s current chief executive, who has delivered this significant change in the 18 months she has been in post. She has taken Basildon from being one of the worst performing hospitals to a position where it is coming out of special measures. She has been ably supported by the chairman of the trust, who has also been prepared to give a robust challenge and to stand behind her when she was doing so. Most of all, I wish to pay tribute to all the staff at Basildon. It has not been easy for them—it has not been good for their morale to see in the newspapers regular reports of the latest horror story of poor care within the trust—but they have reacted to the cultural change that Clare Panniker has brought. They have bought into it and given good, honest feedback, and I no longer get whistleblowing letters from staff about the latest incident. They have procedures to act on things and the management then implement that change. It says a lot about the commitment of the staff in that hospital that they have bought into that process and delivered us to where we are now. We all need to learn that sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant. It is not good enough to pretend that there is not a problem when there so clearly is, and it is important that we continue to put patients at the heart of the NHS. Only by doing that will we be able to ensure that the incidents witnessed at Mid Staffs and Basildon will become a thing of the past.
I wish to turn my attention to another issue that was not mentioned in the Queen’s Speech but which is on the Government’s legislative timetable for the coming year: the plan to introduce standardised packaging for tobacco products. I have to say to the Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) that it is a very bad idea. I fully support the policy objectives of tackling tobacco consumption and, in particular, of dissuading and preventing children from ever taking up smoking, but I have worries that this tool is not effective and that its unintended consequences may bring about worse health outcomes than doing nothing at all. Sir Cyril Chantler is said to have examined that as part of his review, but I am not persuaded of the evidence. In particular, I believe that introducing standardised packaging will worsen the public health outcomes if unregulated illicit tobacco products replace the regulated ones. We all know how toxic regulated cigarettes are, but when unregulated products enter the market the health outcomes will be very much worse.
Sir Cyril Chantler has concluded that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has been very effective in tackling contraband and illicit tobacco, and he has cited figures going back to 2001. Although they show an improvement, the nature of the problem has changed over that period. European Union enlargement took place during that time and there was an immediate rise in the amount of illicit tobacco, but that has been tackled, mainly through co-operation with tobacco manufacturers. That illicit tobacco was also a legal product, whereas the illicit tobacco coming into this country today is not from Europe and it is not from regulated markets; it tends to be made in places such as China and Indonesia. Some of these products are extremely nasty, with tobacco rolled with whatever is available and containing high levels of tar. I commend The Sun for the exposé it ran last week in which an illicit producer from Indonesia explained just how toxic some of his products are and how standardised packaging will help him make money by reducing the costs of production.
Alex Cunningham
The Government’s own inquiry showed that there would not be an increase in the amount of illicit tobacco traded in this country. Does the hon. Lady not trust her own Ministers and the report they commissioned?
Jackie Doyle-Price
I was quoting that report and challenging its conclusions, which are based on a flawed analysis of the market—that is what I have been trying to explain. No, I do not trust that report. It is superficial and it has been put together with a particular agenda. As I say, it will lead to unintended consequences which will be very bad for public health.
My constituency contains Tilbury docks and the Purfleet ferry terminal. Despite the best efforts of Border Force, Essex police and the port of Tilbury, these products are getting through. Despite large seizures every week, Border Force does not believe that it is getting even 10% of the illicit product that is coming into the marketplace. It is estimated that one in three cigarettes smoked in London are illicit, and a good proportion of them will come through the ports in my constituency. Standardised packs will inevitably reduce costs for illicit manufacturers, who will be able to produce the product without differentiation in brand. I believe this proposal is a charter for a lot of very nasty people to make a lot of money, and if they do, the health outcomes we wish to see will not be achieved.
Let us be frank: we are talking about packets of cigarettes sold from holdalls behind pubs for a couple of pounds. Children do not start smoking by walking into their newsagents and picking a branded product; they are introduced to smoking via that holdall, at the back of the bike sheds or at the back of pubs. When cigarettes become that cheap, because of the proliferation of illicit products in the market, these children will be smoking some very nasty things. I ask Ministers to think again, because this is not the best tool for achieving a reduction in smoking and there will be unintended consequences for public health. I ask this Minister to sit down with Border Force and understand just how difficult the fight is that it is waging against serious organised crime and smuggling.
Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)
Interestingly, health is not even covered in the Queen’s Speech, but we are debating it so I will say a few words about it. The good news is that my granddaughter has just been accepted by Liverpool university to study midwifery, so that is some compassion coming back into the health service. The bad news is that on Friday I had a meeting with GP commissioners who came to see me because they are teetering on the edge. I am talking about the Northumberland commissioners who are running the doctors consortium. They had a budget, worked to it and were doing all right until the Government came along and clawed money back. I would not mind if the Minister tried to say why the Government clawed money back from them; I would be interested to know that.
We know what is happening in the health service and we know why there is no Bill. Since this Government came to power we have seen creeping privatisation; no corner of the health service is untouchable as far as privatisation is concerned. Sometimes I just wonder what is going to happen in the next few years—God forbid if the Tories get elected again, with this lot here in charge. Are we going to be paying for our health service? Are charges going to be put on the health service? That is a good question to ask to see whether we can get a denial from the Government—
Mr Campbell
Sit down, you will have your Welsh question in a minute. It would be good if the Minister could deny that he has any intention of charging for any services in the health service in the future, because they are creeping in little by little. As for the nurses—the people who run the health service and do all the work—their miserable wage rises are absolutely disgraceful and this Government should be ashamed of taking even that 1% away from them; they should get more but the Government are not even going to give them the 1%.
Let us get back to the reality. This Queen’s Speech was the dullest one I have seen in my 27 years in this place, and I think everyone would agree on that. I sat down and I said to myself, “How can I liven it up? What if it was my Queen’s Speech? What if I jumped on the bike of my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner)—although it has been pinched—and got into Buckingham palace to ask them to take my speech to the House of the Commons instead of the one they were going to read out?” My first Bill would be on the national minimum wage—I would put a Bill through to increase it to £10 an hour. My second Bill would be on a shorter working week—32 hours without loss of pay. My third Bill would call for full employment with no redundancies. There would be a repeal of all anti-union laws, and the reintroduction of collective bargaining. My next Bill would restore health and safety for workers. The health and safety budget has been cut by 35%, so we need a Bill to put that right for working people.
My fifth Bill would bring an end to privatisation. There would be no more privatisation of the trains or the buses—[Interruption.] Never mind about the increases and the costs; this is my Queen’s Speech, not Labour’s. There would be no more asset stripping of public facilities. Bill No. 6 would be to get rid of Trident, which would make me popular, especially with the Scottish nationalists.
My seventh Bill would put the buses and trains back into public ownership. It would try to stop the privatisation of the east coast main line, but I very much doubt that we can stop it now, as this Government are hell bent on getting rid of it before they go out of power. But we will restore it to public ownership—at least I hope we will; I hope that our Ministers are listening, and that we will restore it.
My eighth Bill would bring education back under local democratic control. We have heard in the statement today how out of control things are. Local authorities are wavering. Their spending has been cut, and they have very little say over the academies or the free schools. Anything could happen in the education service now, because we no longer have that local watch, so we need to bring it back.
My ninth Bill would be about the national health service. I want free public health care for all. That would be a big Bill and it would cost a lot of money, but we need to stop this creeping privatisation. I would get that money from one place: I would go to the City and tell all those spivs and bankers, “Your bonuses are stopped, because of all the money you have spivved off the working people of this country.” It is the working people who have had to pay for the austerity measures. I would tax those people and get the money for the Bills in my Queen’s Speech.
Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley) (LD)
The health service is very close to everyone’s hearts, and there are a lot of political gains to be made from it. I have to say that, as the Member of Parliament for Burnley, my election chances were boosted when Labour’s Secretary of State closed down our A and E unit. I am delighted to say that the coalition Government have now delivered us a brand new emergency centre in Burnley, which shows that the coalition Government have delivered good things, especially for the people of Burnley.
There is one issue that I really want to talk about today. I have been a councillor for 31 years—I stood for election only last month and increased my majority over Labour in my ward—and the issue that has become very close to my heart is the care of elderly people. I am talking about elderly people who are on their own. People from companies call on them in the morning to get them out of bed. They stay for 10 minutes to make sure they are up and have had some breakfast. They then come back at lunchtime to make sure they have eaten some lunch, and then again in the afternoon to make sure they have had their tea. They come back in the evening. As one elderly man said to me, “They come back at 8 o’clock and tell me to get ready for bed.” He said, “I don’t want to go to bed at 8 o’clock in the evening. I am 87 years old. I fought for this country, and now they are telling me that I have to go to bed at 8 o’clock. I don’t want to do that.” What he wants is for someone to come and see him in the morning and talk to him. He is housebound, and he does not have a family. He is not the only one in that situation. There are many more like him in Burnley.
We are a poor town and people cannot afford to pay for private services. These people want to talk to somebody in the morning when they get up; they want a bit of conversation. They do not want staff running in with their meals-on-wheels food in a foil container saying, “We’ll come back and see you later.” They want to talk to someone. They want to know that there is somebody who cares for them; somebody who is interested in listening to them. This elderly man has some fantastic stories about his life; I have seen him many times. When the staff come back in the evening, he is not asking them to stay all night. He is asking them to show a little bit of interest in him, and he certainly does not want to go to bed at 8 o’clock at night. He has never gone to bed at that time and for someone to tell him that he has to do so, “or he’ll be on his own” is wrong. I am not being political here. All I am saying is that we should care more for the elderly people of this country. I am talking not about people who are in their 60s, but about people who are in their 80s and 90s who, unfortunately, have been left on their own. They might be elderly ladies whose husbands have died. These are people who have worked for this country all their lives and fought for this country, and are now, certainly in my constituency anyway, being left alone. I find that hard to accept. I might be unusual. There might be people who think it is tough and bad luck, but I do not think that. We should be looking after these people and showing them some compassion. We are a wealthy country. Apparently, we are the fourth or fifth wealthiest country in the world, and the contribution that these people have made over their lives has helped to put us in that position.
Burnley is an industrial town; we had the pits and the mills. Now we have high-tech industry where young people work and create wealth. Fortunately these days, they are able to put something aside for their pension, which will help to look after them in their old age. The elderly people from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s could not do that; they were on poor salaries. In the main, the wives did not work. My mother never worked. My father brought up our family, and my mother never worked. All right, my mother and father are dead, but there are still people around who were in the same position. Many have lost a partner and in the main their children are out of the area, and they need us to care for them. Is it a lot to ask for someone to turn up and say, “Hello, Mr Jones. How are you?”
Lyn Brown
The whole House is listening very quietly to what the hon. Gentleman is saying because it resonates. My father is 87. He pays for carers to come in from an agency. What has upset us is the fact that his life savings are paying the wages of people who drive Lamborghinis, who employ people on the minimum wage and who provide very poor care to the people the hon. Gentleman is talking about. This Government need to act to ensure that the care offered to our people, which they pay for out of their meagre savings, is of the quality that they deserve.
Gordon Birtwistle
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her intervention. I do not know of a company that delivers services in Burnley that has an owner who drives a Lamborghini. In fact, I do not know anyone in my neck of the woods who has a Lamborghini. I do not know many people who can spell the word Lamborghini. At the end of the day, the hon. Lady is right: there are companies that are taking money, particularly from the state, and giving a very poor service. I do not want this to be a political point. What I want is to plead with the Minister and with the people in control—I am not in control, so I cannot deliver this—and say that we are living in an age where people are getting old and need looking after. Why can we not do a little bit more to look after these people? The people who get the sums of money to deliver this service should be a little bit more considerate and compassionate. They should not just walk through the door with a metal tray with a bit of food on that no one wants to eat, because it does not feel like the proper food they used to eat. Can we not just do a little bit more?
My message today is: can we do a bit more for our old people—the people who have put us where we are today, who have delivered the prosperity of this country over the years; and who have fought for us in wars? Can we not show them a bit more consideration? If those companies with Lamborghinis exist, can we lean on some of them to train people properly to ensure that they have a bit more compassion?
Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)
I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me for turning my back to him, but I want to tell him through the Chair that one of the places that is trying to do what he is talking about, and which I visited recently, is Wiltshire, which is using its relationships with contractors to drive out 15-minute contracting and drive up training standards, which is making a difference. That is happening now, and it needs to happen in more places.
Gordon Birtwistle
I am delighted to hear that, and I would like Wiltshire to become a standard that everyone else copies. I would hope that my constituency and the rest of Lancashire copies that. There are great companies—I know a few good companies that really care about the customer. These elderly people are customers: if Tesco treated people like some of those carers, they would shop somewhere else. Unfortunately, elderly people cannot go anywhere else, because a contract has been organised, and they have to use it. I urge the Minister to consider those suggestions and look at ways of improving the service that we deliver to our old people. I would be very happy if he did so, and I am sure that he would be too.
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)
I completely agree with what my hon. Friend is trying to achieve. I hope that he is reassured that the Government have effectively introduced compulsory minimum training for all care assistants for the first time. I think he will welcome that.
Gordon Birtwistle
I do welcome it, and I am delighted to have heard that. I just hope that we make it a major condition of all Government and local authority contracts that all companies deliver that service to our elderly people. We will all become elderly—I am catching up very quickly—so who knows how soon it will be before someone comes to my house to say, “Gordon, it’s bedtime. It’s 8 o’clock—it’s toilet time.” That’s the worst thing I think I have ever heard—someone coming in and saying that it is toilet time. An old man said to me: “I do not want to go to the toilet, but I am told that it is time to go to the toilet.” It is just not acceptable to do that to an elderly man. I am delighted to hear what the Minister said, and I hope that we ensure that it continues in future so that we really respect and care for the people who have put us where we are today.
Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)
It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle). The House was listening raptly to a speech full of humanity and compassion. I pay tribute, too, to the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd), who read out a lot of examples of what everyone will agree was shocking treatment. I genuinely hope that Ministers listened closely to those speakers and to many others who have made important points.
In the limited time available, I should like to draw attention to the obvious point that this is the last Queen’s Speech before the historic and exciting independence referendum in Scotland on 18 September. It is worth making the point that this Queen’s Speech and Westminster governance—the choices that the Government have introduced—can and should be seen through that prism. There are 100 days left before people in Scotland are able to determine whether we should become a normal country making all the normal decisions that successful democracies make.
Today, we have been encouraged to speak about health, so I was pleased to find a recent international health watchdog report issued only a few days ago in Canada, which said:
“Imagine a land where a patients’ charter of rights and responsibilities is in place that includes wait-time guarantees; over 90% of patients requiring elective care are treated within 18 weeks from referral by a family physician to start of treatment/procedure including all diagnostic testing and specialist consultations. Over 98% of in-patient procedures and day-surgery cases are treated within 12 weeks of agreement to treat. Over 90% of patients are seen within four hours in the emergency department (i.e., admitted, transferred or discharged). Citizens can access the most appropriate member of their primary care team within 48 hours. Up-to-date statistics and reports on wait times and health system performance indicators are publicly available. In addition to providing timely access, this land has been successful in improving other dimensions of quality of care (e.g., significantly reducing levels of hospital acquired infections, reducing the level of inappropriate care), and performance in all of these dimensions is being tracked through the measurement and reporting of performance targets available for use by patients, providers and system managers alike. Fortunately, this land already exists—Scotland.”
That report was issued only a few days ago by the physicians watchdog in Canada.
I pay tribute, as did the Health Secretary, to the work of health professionals, who make a tremendous difference to people in the NHS system in England and, no doubt, to the NHS system in Wales and Northern Ireland. I pay tribute to all of them, and in particular to those who work in NHS Scotland. I am proud of the difference that the Scottish National party Government have made since taking power in 2007. Staffing has increased under the SNP by more than 6.7%.
Angus Robertson
I have very little time, and I would like to make progress. The Government in Scotland have protected the front-line NHS budget—Labour said that they would not—and there is high patient satisfaction in the NHS. Obviously, there is always much to do, but 87% of people are fairly or very satisfied with local health services, which is an increase of 7%. We have seen the abolition of prescription charges in Scotland, which is extremely welcome. Prescriptions still need to be paid for in England, and I encourage the UK Government to consider following the example of the Scottish Government. A Scottish patient on a low income saves £7.85 per prescription, compared with a similar patient in England, and people with long-term conditions save £104 per annum compared with a patient in England, where there is provision for a pre-payment certificate.
Free prescriptions are not the only advantage. Free personal care, which was championed by the former Labour First Minister in Scotland, Henry McLeish, has been introduced, and there is pride across the political spectrum in Scotland about that. Free personal care for the elderly improves the lives of over 77,000 older vulnerable people in Scotland, where personal care is free for people over 65 who need it. That kind of service would be beneficial for the kind of constituents about whom the hon. Member for Burnley talked so movingly. Of course, patients in England are not entitled to free personal care.
Those are examples of better decision making and better outcomes, because in Scotland we have the ability in our Parliament and through our Government to pursue the policies that we wish to pursue, as opposed to those that are pursued by Governments whom we have not elected, such as those pursuing privatisation in the NHS in England. There is a concern about protecting budgets in Scotland against further cuts from Westminster and the austerity agenda that it is driving, which is why people are now talking about full financial responsibility. I looked closely at the Queen’s Speech to see how that might take place: all three UK parties have now said that they wish to see the transfer of further powers, notwithstanding the fact that only a few years ago there was a line in the sand. There were to be no more transfers but, lo and behold, when the SNP won with an absolute majority and a referendum was in sight, suddenly everyone was in favour of more powers. However, there were no specific proposals in the Queen’s Speech—reinforcement of the reality, if anyone needed it, that to have the powers to make a difference in people’s lives and build on the successes of devolution, we have to vote yes.
I would wish the Queen’s Speech to include a series of measures that were not included: building and enlarging free child care; abolishing the bedroom tax; halting the further roll-out of universal credit and personal independence payments to create a fairer welfare system; simplification of the tax system to reduce compliance costs; negotiation of the removal of Trident nuclear weapons from Scotland; protecting the value of the state pension and putting more money into the pockets of pensioners; supporting enterprise in the economy by increasing personal tax allowances; making sure that the minimum wage increases at least in line with inflation; the creation of an oil fund so that we do not see the wasting of that natural resource, which can be there for future generations; and negotiating directly with the European Union to get a better deal for farmers and fishing communities. The list goes on. Those are all measures that could have been in a Queen’s Speech in Scotland if Scotland were in charge of all the normal powers that normal democracies are in charge of.
This Queen’s Speech was totally empty of any of those proposals—proposals popular with the electorate in Scotland, proposals that can be brought forward if we use the power that is in our hands on 18 September. Between 7 am and 10 pm on that day the people of Scotland will have the power of Scotland in their hands. The simple choice for them will be whether we keep it or hand it back. I will be voting yes and I believe the majority of people in Scotland will do so too.
Dr Phillip Lee (Bracknell) (Con)
I shall take this opportunity in what is nominally the health debate on the Queen’s Speech to speak more broadly about the national health service. I welcome the fact that there is not much in the Queen’s Speech on health policy, because what we have done already under this Government needs to bed down.
I have always tried to build cross-party consensus in the Chamber. At no point have I sought to make any party political points in relation to health care, primarily because, as a clinician who still practises in the health service and who has an extensive network of friends from medical school who are all approaching consultancy, I have been aware of the challenges that the NHS faces and have therefore always believed that there needs to be an understanding across the Benches for us to find the appropriate solutions.
We need to get a grip of the NHS challenges that we face. Significant changes are afoot in our society—changes in attitude and behaviour, and patients’ expectations change as each generation passes away. A stoic wartime generation is being replaced by arguably much softer ones. Their experience of pain and their approach to suffering are different, in my clinical experience. Each generation is becoming more and more obese. As I have already said, the society we live in is ageing. There have been some poignant contributions to this debate. That is fine and I share the concerns, but let us not kid ourselves: more than 20% of the population is now aged over 60. The proportion of people paying tax compared with the proportion of people who have retired is diminishing. We cannot lose sight of that reality, and we need to recognise that change is inevitable.
There are some welcome advances in medicine—in drugs, technology and the application of that technology to the care of patients—but these have invariably been expensive. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence does a pretty good job of the cost-benefit analysis, but we are now saying no to drugs that enhance people’s lives. We need to reflect on that.
The NHS was introduced in 1948 by Nye Bevan, who represented a constituency that I sought and, funnily enough, failed to take in 2005. At that time, the budget was £437 million, the equivalent of £9 billion in current money. We are approaching or may have touched above £110 billion per year. He said that there would be an initial expense when he introduced the service and that costs would then fall as the population became healthier. I am sorry—Mr Bevan might have been right to introduce the service, but he was wrong in thinking that the costs of that service would diminish with time. Clearly, they have not.
What is there to do? I would say there are four things. First, we need to find a way of reducing demand on the services. This morning I attended an induction as I am about to start working at an urgent care centre in my constituency. It was striking to note who was coming through the door. The demand is great and it is growing, and we need to deal with it.
Secondly, we must improve the physical structures in the system. Our hospitals are 19th and 20th-century buildings and we are trying, and at times failing, to deliver 21st-century care in those environments. We need to improve them and to do it fast. In order to secure an appropriate plan for our nation, I suggest that we need some sort of cross-party committee and cross-party understanding of where those acute hospitals will be in the future. We will have fewer of them, but we will have more community-based hospitals delivering chronic care. Let us not forget that over 80% of the NHS budget is now spent on chronic care. We need to make sure that that care is delivered closer to patients’ homes.
In the future we will have telemedicine, which will deliver care in patients’ homes. This is the reality. It is already being piloted in Scotland, with some very good outcomes.
Dr Lee
We need to recognise that, but with that will come changes in hospital infrastructure and, yes, extremely difficult politics. We have heard about the difficult politics in south-west London, west London and elsewhere. That will be replicated irrespective of who wins next year’s election. The problem is here and now and we need to deal with it. All parties should put skin in the game and make a decision on where those hospitals should be.
The third element is funding. This is the most emotive topic to discuss. Colleagues on the Labour Benches have proposed co-payments. From those on the Government Benches, there have been suggestions of health accounts and supplementary insurance schemes. There is a plethora of ways of funding health care—one only has to look abroad. In Norway people pay to see their GP; in Denmark they pay for their drugs at cost; in Germany there are supplementary insurance schemes; in France there are means tests, and the list goes on.
I have not 100% decided what I think would be the right thing in future in this country, but the debate is needed. I cannot see how we can go above 10% of GDP on health care spending and balance the books across the whole of Government. Perhaps there are people who think we should spend north of 10% on that—fine—and approaching almost 20% on welfare if we include pensions. We are approaching £1 billion a day expenditure on these two areas. I do not think that is sustainable, but I know that if it is to change we need a cross-party debate on the matter. It is not easy.
Finally, the political cycle does not help. We have heard how it helped the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) get elected at the last election, and I am sure this will be replicated on both sides of the House in future. There is no avoiding it. I have walked the walk in my constituency: I stood at the last election calling for the closure of my local hospital, because I know that if we consolidate services in my region, we get better outcomes. People live who otherwise would not live. People suffer less. I did not think it was appropriate for a clinician who had worked in the region in which he was seeking to represent a constituency to say otherwise. I thought it appropriate that I stood on that. I continue to stand on it and I continue to stand for the consolidation of acute services in my region and for chronic care to be offered locally to people.
In conclusion, this country is very privileged to inherit a health care system that is pretty good. It is approaching first class by global standards, but it is a legacy that we must protect. Our grandparents have given it to us and we need to protect it in future, which means that we need to be open-minded about the changes required. I think the solutions will come from more than one political party and more than one expert group, but the time is now and we all need to work together.
Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)
It is often in the specific and the particular that we understand how public policy is most effective, far more than in mission statements, PowerPoint presentations and the sub-sections of the legislation that we pass. That is particularly true of the NHS. We have heard two striking examples of that already in the contributions from my right hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) and the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) talking about social care. It is also true of the reconfiguration and change in the health service, which I shall address in the few minutes available to me.
In many respects we understand across the piece what changes need to take place, yet we find that so many of the changes that have taken place at a higher level of public policy, particularly those implemented by the Government through the Health and Social Care Act 2012, have made it harder rather than easier to bring about the change that we need to deliver. In London in particular, an exceptionally complex environment, we saw that set out very clearly by the King’s Fund in its report last year, which made it clear that the Government’s reorganisation of the health service, carried out at considerable expense, had made it harder rather than easier to deliver the fundamental changes that we need by fragmenting its structure and undermining its capacity to introduce strategic leadership.
In north-west London, which we have already heard mentioned today, we are facing one of the most fundamental changes in the delivery of health care since the establishment of the national health service. The “Shaping a healthier future” agenda is rooted in a set of principles with which most of us could agree. We want to reduce the number of accident and emergency attendances and, in particular, to reduce the number of accident and emergency admissions when patients can be better cared for elsewhere, particularly within primary and community services, and we want to reduce the length of stay, particularly for elderly patients who would be better and much happier to be cared for with appropriate social care support in their own homes. Those are undeniable facts that are supported by the general principle that in many cases the higher level of acute care is more efficaciously provided in larger and more specialist units. Those things go together and they are worthy objectives.
It is in the detail of the implementation that we have a major problem. NHS England is apparently seeking to have a total of 780,000 fewer patients admitted to A and E over the course of the next two years. The “Shaping a healthier future” agenda translates into a reduction of 15% in the number of A and E admissions to be achieved in north-west London. As the King’s Fund’s health economist John Appleby has said, that is “not realistic or feasible”. The problem is not that it is not desirable or that we do not want to see it achieved over time, but that we are in the middle of a period of rising demand for A and E and the capacity simply is not there, either elsewhere in the acute hospitals sector or in community and primary care services.
Only a few months ago, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, at the heart of the “Shaping a healthier future” agenda, said:
“We are yet to see any impact of primary care and community Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention…schemes and therefore are planning to maintain the level of emergency care we provided”
over the course of this winter. So, a hospital is saying that it cannot rely on the primary and community services being in place to divert people from A and E, yet almost in the same week the Secretary of State’s letter confirmed that the closure of the accident and emergency units at Hammersmith and Charing Cross, as we understand them, will go ahead as soon as possible. We now have a date in September, and his letter stated that
“the process to date has already taken 4 years causing understandable local concern”.
Mr Slaughter
My hon. Friend has written a devastating critique to the new chief executive at Imperial about the fact that Hammersmith A and E in my constituency as well as other A and Es are being closed before there is appropriate provision to replace them. I would not hold my breath for a reply if I were her. I am still waiting for one to the letter I wrote to the clinical commissioning group on 26 April on the same subject of failure to provide primary care.
Ms Buck
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who reinforces my exact point.
Since the Secretary of State’s letter and the decision to proceed with the Hammersmith and Charing Cross closures, it has been reported in the Evening Standard that Imperial is having to use winter pressure beds routinely to cope with patients displaced by the planned A and E closures, admitting that there are “risks” of over-crowding, and warning that ill patients will have to spend longer in ambulances. This is a demand for winter pressure beds in the middle of the summer. The expectation is therefore that there is already insufficient capacity years before the construction of a planned new and improved A and E unit at Imperial hospital. The closures are going ahead and Imperial clearly cannot cope. An Imperial official said:
“We have extra acute beds at St Mary’s Hospital, normally used during the busy winter period to ensure we can quickly admit those patients”
in need. That is fine, but what will happen if and when we have a winter crisis or simply during the additional winter pressures? That capacity will not be available to help deal with them.
None of this is meant to suggest that there are not fine people in clinical and managerial practice focusing their attention on ensuring that services are in place to assist with that transition, but the scale of the challenge appears to be beyond what can be achieved realistically within the timetable. In the middle of all this—and no doubt connected to it—there came halfway through the year a letter from the west London clinical commissioning groups announcing that they have
“made an important decision to put funding into a central budget…£139 million…which means CCGs with a surplus will be supporting those with a deficit…We also agreed to explore how to bring together commissioning of primary care services across organisational boundaries”.
That seems to me to be perilously close to the end of clinical commissioning groups as far as we understand them. My understanding was that clinical commissioning groups were designed to be rooted in their local communities, to work in effective local partnerships and to reflect the local service providers, particularly primary care service providers and patients, at a local level. That has all gone with the wind in west London and I am extremely worried about it.
I am all the more worried because the whole transition programme is predicated on the delivery of improved social care, and it is social care with which we are now struggling to cope. In my local authority area, 1,000 fewer residents are getting social care than in 2010, and there will be a further £2.9 million cut this year. It is no surprise that the chief financial officer at Imperial trust, Bill Shields, has said:
“The cynic in me says”
that the proposal to take money away from the national health service to fund social care
“is a way of taking money from the NHS and passing it on to the local authority…this will allow them to make good the cliff edge they have been through in the last few years and rebuild the local government public finances.”
It would also mean
“a significant real-terms reduction in NHS income…going forward”.
Mr Slaughter
My hon. Friend makes a point about this panicked attempt to find more money in the primary care budgets and slosh it around west London at any consultation, and that is exactly the issue on which I am still waiting for an answer. This is chaos in the health service and is a reaction to closure programmes that have been carried out on financial grounds and that have now reduced the health service in west London to a chaotic and dangerous state.
Ms Buck
It is extremely worrying because the whole thing is shrouded in a lack of transparency and a lack of effective communication about what is going on. The local authority is cutting its own social care funding and needs money to fill its black hole, whereas the trust at Imperial says that that is exactly what it is worried about. It says it is concerned about the transfer of money because that might not give it the increased local community services that would allow it to reduce emergency A and E admissions, which is what we want. In fact, those things are so far from being effectively integrated in a common purpose that the different sectors of the health service appear to be at war with each other financially, if not in any other way.
The problem is that the fragmentation and delay caused by the reorganisation in the national health service since 2010 have undermined what should have been a sensible method of progressing and building up community services to reduce the pressure on the acute sector. Meanwhile, today and in the coming weeks my constituents will find that their hospital is at capacity but is expected to deal with the extra demand from the Hammersmith and Charing Cross accident and emergency closures, whereas the constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter) face the loss of their accident and emergency units without any appropriate provision. It is a shambles, I am extremely concerned, and I hope it is not too late to ensure that we can put something in place to prevent a true winter crisis this winter that would be of the Government’s own making.
David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)
Living in and representing a constituency on the border has given me a unique insight into the different systems that have now grown up in the NHS in Wales and the NHS in England. One thing has become absolutely clear—not just to me but to any independent organisation that has looked into this—and it is that the standards of care being delivered by this coalition Government are far higher in England than they are in Wales, where the NHS is run by members of the Labour party.
The reality is that, judged on virtually any single indicator that one would care to look at, standards of treatment are better in England than they are in Wales. The waiting times for cancer have not been met in Wales since 2008; the four-hour accident and emergency target has not been met in Wales since 2009; the ambulance response times targets have not been met in Wales for 21 months; and in Wales the funding for the NHS from Labour, which claims to be the party of the NHS, has been cut by 8% while NHS funding has been ring-fenced in England.
That has led to all sorts of situations. For example, an Opposition Member talked earlier about cancer in England. In England, of those people being diagnosed with cancer less than 2% have to wait longer than six weeks for their diagnosis, while in Wales 42% of people being diagnosed with cancer have to wait longer than six weeks to receive a diagnosis. The treatment times are also different; in Wales, people wait around 26 weeks, whereas in England the wait is just 16 weeks.
Behind these dreadful statistics are a range of human stories. I was grateful to the Secretary of State for Health for allowing me to meet him with a constituent of mine, Mariana Robinson. She had been trying unsuccessfully to get treated in Wales for months and there was absolutely no interest in helping her. She wanted to be treated in England; she was one of many people who would rather be treated by this coalition Government in England than by the NHS in Wales. Finally, after a great deal of correspondence and after receiving advice from the Secretary of State in London, the NHS in Wales has finally relented in this instance, and Mariana will now be treated in Bristol. I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his help.
Even this afternoon, while I was waiting to speak, I had yet two more e-mails from people who are totally dissatisfied with the treatment they are receiving in Wales at the moment and who would be prefer to be treated in England. I was contacted by an 88-year-old veteran who had served in the Korean war in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. He is in constant pain at the moment and unable to sleep because of a problem with wisdom teeth. He has been told that he will have to wait nine months for treatment in Wales. I do not believe that such a thing would be allowed to happen in England, but he has been told that he cannot seek any treatment in England; he has no right to transfer his health care to a place where it can be provided more efficiently.
Labour Members talked about the privatisation of the NHS. The Conservative party will never privatise the NHS; we have always believed that treatment should be free at the point of service. It is members of Labour in Wales who are responsible for supporting private health care, because they are putting patients in Wales in a situation where the only chance they have of being treated is to go and seek private health care. The 88-year-old veteran of the Korean war was told that if he wanted to have something done about the constant pain he is suffering, he would have to go private.
I was also contacted today by a lady, the retired head teacher of a school in my constituency, who found a lump in her breast. She expected to be seen by someone almost immediately, as she would have been in England, but she was told that the first appointment she will have will be some time in late August.
That is the reality of what is happening in Wales under a Labour-run NHS, and the Leader of the Opposition has said that we should “take lessons”—this is to quote him—from how the NHS is being run in Wales and try to implement them in England. My message today is to warn everyone, particularly Government Members, not to let these people be in charge of the NHS, because what we will end up with in England is longer waiting lists, slower ambulance response times, people not being diagnosed properly and no cancer drugs. Apparently, 150 people in Wales have died while waiting for heart treatment. It is an absolutely disgraceful situation.
I have talked to Government Members about a suggestion that I made in relation to the Government of Wales Bill, which is to let these people put their money where their mouth is. If they think they are doing a good job with the NHS in Wales, they should allow patients in Wales and England to opt to go wherever they want to for treatment. At the moment, we have two totally separate NHS systems, so patients in Wales do not have the right to access treatment in England and, of course, patients in England could not go to Wales. A lot of patients in Wales want to be treated in England. I do not believe there are any patients in England who would want to be treated by the Labour-run NHS, but perhaps there are some out there who fancy waiting longer to be diagnosed and then waiting longer again to get the treatment that they have a right to expect.
Let us see Opposition Members supporting a change to legislation that would allow patients in England to be treated in Wales, with the money required being added to the block grant given by the Government to the Welsh Assembly every year, and patients in Wales who want to be treated in England having the right to access that treatment in England, with the money required being deducted from the block grant that is handed over to the Labour party in Wales every single year. And let us see the direction of movement, because I know that an enormous number of people will immediately opt for the lower waiting times, the better diagnosis and the wider access to drugs that are available to people in England.
Geraint Davies
Does the hon. Gentleman accept that there are only 3 million people in Wales, and that when we compare Wales with a lot of the English regions and hospitals we do just as well? In London, we obviously have international centres of excellence. In Wales, we spend more cash per head. There is a sparser population and more nurses per 1,000 people, and we have better results on cancer than elsewhere, so there is a mixed picture. He is being completely political and undermining the morale of people working in the health service in his constituency; it is disgraceful.
David T. C. Davies
It is not a mixed picture at all and we should be very clear about that. People wait longer for treatment in Wales than they do in England. People wait longer to be diagnosed in Wales than they do in England. People wait longer for an ambulance in Wales than they do in England. Money for the NHS is being cut in Wales and it is being ring-fenced in England, because the NHS will be a priority.
The real disgrace is that Labour Members have always prided themselves on being the party of the NHS and have gone out of their way to do so. Because they have that reputation, they know that in Wales, and possibly in England too if they ever end up running things, they can get away with making cuts and with cosying up to the unions because they feel that people will trust them.
I say to anyone independent and impartial who wants to know what it would be like for NHS patients if Labour Members ever get into government, they should look at what is happening in Wales right now.
David T. C. Davies
I will give way to the hon. Gentleman even though he did not extend that courtesy to me or to anyone else from Wales.
Andrew Gwynne
Of course, people only needed to see the NHS at its highest satisfaction levels in 2010 to know what Labour in Westminster would do. I will correct the record on cancer waits, because of course Wales has a better record on cancer waits than England does: 92% of people in Wales are seen within 62 days, as opposed to 86% of people on this side of Offa’s Dyke.
David T. C. Davies
That is a fairly minor difference—[Interruption.] Oh yes. However, what the hon. Gentleman has forgotten to say, of course, is that those people in Wales will have waited far longer for the diagnosis of cancer than people in England. That is why he is not being entirely straight in putting his facts across. When he is winding up, I challenge him to say whether he thinks what is going on in Wales at the moment is good and something that Labour Members would like to aim for. Is what is going on in Wales what they aspire to?
I urge anyone in the Opposition to look at The Guardian, which recently did an exposé of the NHS systems around the UK and showed that people in Wales have the longest waiting times of anyone in the United Kingdom, and that is the vision for the NHS that Labour Members want to impose on the people of England. I advise people in England to look at the figures before they decide to vote for Labour Members.
I ask the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) if he would be prepared to allow patients in Wales to be treated in England, and patients in England to be treated in Wales if they wish to do so. I doubt very much whether he would support such a thing.
Andrew Gwynne
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way again. He is obviously not aware that the number of English patients being treated in Welsh hospitals has increased by 10% since 2010.
David T. C. Davies
I am well aware of that, but the hon. Gentleman might not be aware that those patients have no choice. [Interruption.] He is laughing, but he does not understand how the system works. There are many patients on the English side of the border who are treated in Wales, but they have no choice about that. They have set up a pressure group, Action for our Health—he can look it up on one of his smart phones—because they are so disgusted with the service that they are getting in Wales that they want to be treated in England. The point is that they do not have a choice, and I believe that they should. Those English patients are very angry about the fact that they are treated in Wales and not given the choice.
When the Secretary of State was talking about some of the things that have gone wrong in the NHS, I heard an Opposition Member shout, “He hates the NHS.” My right hon. Friend does not hate the NHS, but he does believe in putting patient choice and patient voice first. He believes in standing up for patients against vested interests, wherever they may be. I fully support him in that and commend him for what he has done. My only criticism of Ministers in this Government is that they have improved services in England so much that I have an enormous mailbag of letters from people who want to access the services that they have put on offer. If anyone wants to find out what would happen if Labour ran the NHS in England, they should look at the facts and figures for Wales.
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)
As this is carers week, I want to talk first about the impact that legislation and financial policy have on the one in eight people who are unpaid carers. We know that being a carer can have a significant impact on a person’s finances, career, relationships and, of course, health. Full-time carers are more than twice as likely as non-carers to have poor health, but sadly the pressure on them is increasing. Surveys last year told us that six out of 10 carers reported suffering depression, and nine out of 10 felt more stressed due to their caring role.
Since 2010, local government budget cuts have led to funding on adult social care falling rapidly. By this March, local authority spending on adult social care had fallen by £2.68 billion in four years—a 20% fall. Those Government Members who have talked about funding today have nothing to be proud of when they reflect on that. Nine out of 10 local authorities now set their eligibility for social care at “substantial needs” or higher, compared with less than half of that in local authorities in 2005-6. Therefore, fewer people are receiving publicly funded care—300,000 fewer since 2008. Of course more of the care work load therefore falls on unpaid family carers, who in turn report suffering more stress and depression.
Carers UK reports that the ever-increasing need for care and support in our ageing population will outstrip the number of family members able and willing to provide it. A carers week survey found that fewer than three in 10 people believe that they will become carers, but about six in 10 of them will have caring responsibilities at some time in their lives. Between the last two censuses, the number of over-65s providing care grew by 35%. Among carers aged 60 to 64, 54% of men and 36% of women who were caring were also in paid work. Therefore, the pressures on men and women juggling work with caring have intensified.
Carers UK has found that one in five carers surveyed have had to give up work because either they were unable to secure flexible hours or their employer lacked understanding of their caring work load. Many carers then build up significant debts and have to cut down on basic expenditure, even on heating and food, to manage. This afternoon, I met a couple of carers at a speed networking event downstairs who told me exactly that. They had had to give up their jobs to care.
Dr Jamie Wilson, a dementia physician, has said that
“the financial welfare of carers should form part of a holistic assessment of needs. The combined effects of loss of income, additional costs of care and declining state benefits have led to an increasing impact on the resilience of carers and their ability to maintain the health of their loved ones.”
The Care Act 2014 represents a wasted opportunity, because it places on local authorities a duty to assess a carer’s support needs, but it places no similar duty on the NHS. The Act makes it clear that a local authority can charge for the support provided to carers. I feel that the Government are failing carers in two ways. Giving carers new rights to assessment is meaningless when the support available is dwindling as a result of higher eligibility criteria and increased charges. A right to a local authority assessment is of little help to carers who have no contact with their local authority.
At the meeting downstairs, I spoke with a carer called Caroline, who had come in with Macmillan Cancer Support. She has a multiple caring work load but has never been referred by her GP, or by any doctor she had ever met, to any sources of support. She only found Macmillan Cancer Support through a website. That is why identifying carers is so important. Macmillan’s survey of over 2,000 carers found that over 70% came into contact with health professionals during their caring journey, yet health professionals identify only one in 10 carers, with GPs identifying less than that. We cannot be smug or self-satisfied about that situation.
The need for NHS bodies to identify carers and ensure that they are referred to sources of advice and support was raised at all stages of debate on the Care Bill in the Commons, but the Government did not accept amendments on the issue, so now we will need further legislation. Another weakness of the Act is that it restated the option for local authorities to charge carers for services. Carers’ organisations have repeatedly asked the Government to make it clear once and for all that local authorities should not charge carers for the support they receive. However, Ministers did not consider it appropriate for the Act to remove that discretion, which I think is a shame. The Government are failing carers in a number of ways, as I have outlined. This carers week, it is time to show carers that we do value their caring.
Let me touch briefly on a further aspect of health policy that relates to the attitude of NHS staff towards patients, as highlighted in the Francis report. An important source of improvement in that area is the social media campaign #hellomynameis, run by Dr Kate Granger. The campaign started 10 months ago, after Dr Granger’s admission to hospital, when she noticed that many health professionals did not introduce themselves when treating her. She spoke movingly at the NHS Confederation conference last week on the importance for patients and their care of getting the small things right. She pointed out that, in patient relationships, health professionals have most of the power, but they can make things more equal if they introduce themselves and explain what they are doing. She also explained the impact on her when doctors and nurses described her only as “Bed 7” or “the girl with DSRCT”—a rare cancer. As she rightly says, health professionals should always try to find out the patient’s name and how they like to be addressed.
The #hellomynameis campaign has had great success on social media, but it deserves much wider backing. With 1.6 million people working for the NHS, we need to spread the message about the importance of treating patients as people. It should become routine for health professionals to think about a more courteous and human connection with their patients. I hope that shadow Health Ministers and Health Ministers will do all they can to support the campaign.
Finally, in the short time remaining, I want to refer to my concern about issues caused for my constituents by measures in the Infrastructure Bill to allow fracking or shale gas exploration under properties without permission or appropriate compensation. The measure will have negative consequences for people with homes, farms or businesses adjacent to shale gas wells. We have had an exploratory shale gas well at Barton Moss in my constituency since November 2013. I have heard from businesses adjacent to the site that are losing money as a result and from constituents who have been trying to move but are finding it impossible to sell their homes. I have to tell the Minister that the offer of a £20,000 community payment seems paltry by comparison with the losses that my constituents have already suffered, even during the six-month exploration. The Government seem more concerned about a rush for shale gas than about the communities affected by the industrialisation of land caused by this process. We must have more caution and more consideration for our communities.
I will end with a story that explains the difference between the NHS in 1997 and 2010. In the run-up to the 1997 general election, I met someone in Wythenshawe and Sale East who had been waiting two years for cardiac surgery and was worried that he would die while waiting. In 2010, in my constituency, I met someone who within one week went to his GP, was diagnosed and had specialist cancer surgery that saved his life. That is the difference a Labour Government did make and could make again.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I regret to inform the House that more Members wish to speak than time allows under the current time limit. Therefore, to ensure that everybody gets in, I must now reduce the time limit to seven minutes. Even that is really tight, so Members might like to be sparing with their interventions, so that they do not slow us down.
Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) (Con)
The Gracious Speech was an extremely fine speech, but I would have liked more work on the care agenda. The Care Act 2014 made a very good start, but there is more to be done. This concerns me particularly because Devon has the highest number of over-65s in the country, and my constituency has a very large chunk of that population.
By 2035, 25% of the population will be over 65, 620,000 will be in care homes, 50% will have a sight impediment, and 75% will have a hearing impediment. Today, one in five over-80s has dementia, and that figure is set to double within the next 30 years. The demand is not going to diminish, while the supply is a real challenge for our society as a whole. Seventy-five per cent. of current need is met informally through the voluntary sector and by families. We must give thanks for that, but we then need to think about the financial contribution from the state. The NHS budget, which is now 8.4% of GDP, is in absolutely the right place—that is exactly what we should be spending given the current state of our finances—but the social care budget is decreasing and has decreased by 10% in real terms since 2010, if Age UK’s figures are correct. The reason is cuts in council funding. In my rural constituency, council budgets have been seriously hit, and I see the consequences day in, day out. Day centres in Devon are facing closure and support for supported living is being ripped out. This is a matter of great concern that must be addressed quickly.
I welcome the 2015-16 better care fund of £3.8 billion, but will it be enough and will it be too late? Age UK says that £3.41 billion more is required if we are really to meet the need. I am a great believer that we do not solve everybody’s problems through money, so we must look at what we need to do. There is nothing more important than health and dignity in the ageing population. We need to look at what we, in a civilised society, believe good care should look like. We need a proper debate about who pays. Is it the individual, their family, or the taxpayer? We need to look at who delivers it. Is it the family, the voluntary sector, or the state? Clearly, it must be all those.
The Care Act made a good start. It provided uniformity in the funding structure, consolidated the assessment process, capped costs, recognised carers and the need for support, put a duty on local authorities for care and well-being of our older population, introduced safeguarding adult boards and the star rating system—very good steps forward—and recognised that prevention is better than cure. In some ways, however, it was a missed opportunity. The commissioning process that decides what is ultimately purchased is not overseen. We still have a postcode lottery against which people’s only recourse is an individual appeal. We still have a conflict of interest in that our councils can commission and provide care, as many do. That has to change. On quality, star ratings are a good move. Let us remember that this is about relativity, not absolute quality. What are we paying for—brass or platinum? There is, as yet, no reassurance that wherever anybody lives they will get the fair share of care that they deserve.
Staffing issues were not addressed. Best practice as regards staff and patient numbers is a ratio of 1:5, but the reality is more likely to be 1:7 given the budgetary constraints. No thought was given to trying to deal with some of the training concerns. Skills for Care is a voluntary programme. If we are going to make something really work, there has to be some stick and some carrot. I am pleased that we have a studio school in Torquay that meets some of the training needs and that the University of Surrey will introduce a proper foundation degree in 2015, but more is needed.
Integration could have been addressed. This is not just about money; it is also about health and wellbeing boards. The King’s Fund suggested that there should be a requirement that providers are engaged in health and wellbeing boards. At the moment, only 30% are so engaged, and that needs to change. I am very pleased that in Newton Abbot we have a pilot on the frail and elderly that deals specifically with integration.
There has been a missed opportunity for change, and change must come soon. We need to think about how to fund smartly. How can we increase the amount available to councils? After all, prevention is better than cure; otherwise A and Es and the NHS pay the price. How can we better support families to care for their elderly as we help them to care for their children? What can we possibly do in terms of time, flexibility and tax support? How can we support the voluntary sector? There is not an inexhaustible supply of volunteers, and they are fed up with the form filling that makes their lives burdensome. How can we reduce the capital burdens that councils face when having to deal with providing care? The capital cost of the homes and day centres is driving the closures. Let us work with social enterprise, housing associations and others to look for a better model.
Let us improve quality and remove the postcode lottery. Let us, as we can under the Care Act, ask the Care Quality Commission to review the whole commissioning process. Let us look at what is provided by our county councils, what value for money we get, and whether it is the same across the country. What are we paying for? Are we finding that people in one county are getting bronze and those in another, where more money is allocated, are getting platinum? That cannot be right. Let us look, once and for all, at splitting purchasers from providers as we have in the NHS. Let us get rid of the potential bias that exists in this regard. Let us review the make-up of health and wellbeing boards and make sure that providers serve on them.
Without proper resource, and that means people, we cannot get this right. We need to ensure that more nurses are trained and that they get the respect and the pay that makes them want to work in social care as much as they want to work in the NHS. Let us produce a proper career path that drives respect and reduces the fear they live in that they are going to be criticised for trying to do their best in an impossible situation. Let us enforce the best practice ratio of 1:5. Let us look at how we are going to fill the gap whereby unless one gets to a level of substantial need one will not be funded by the state. There is so much to be done and so little time. This has to be a priority for Government this year.
Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)
As a Plaid Cymru MP, it is something of a problem to respond to the Queen’s Speech on health matters, not only because it contained little about health in the first place but because health is largely devolved. Some time ago, when Alan Milburn was Health Secretary, I asked him about nurses’ pay, and he responded that he was eternally glad that he had no responsibility for things Welsh. He was wrong at the time, but now nurses’ pay is devolved. That is the measure of the problem that I face.
On the whole, the content of the Queen’s Speech was rather thin, with little attention given to the growing challenges we face of rising inequality, regional disparities, and an economic recovery that is built on fairly precarious foundations. The impacts and consequences for Wales are fairly obvious because of our higher rates of sickness and disability, higher proportion of older people, and greater needs in respect of poverty. Hon. Members may have seen today’s report on child poverty, which paints an alarming picture and casts doubt on the Government’s ability to reach the 2020 target of eradicating it. I think that that is now beyond reach, unfortunately.
Given the nature of the Queen’s Speech, I fear that the coming year will be a matter of treading water. For Wales, we have the continuation of the Wales Bill, but we also have missed opportunities. There are matters of particular concern to Wales, not least the funding of the Welsh Government. I also fear that we will see further dismantling of the principles of the welfare state, dismantling of public services, and a failure to address the deep structural economic weaknesses that we have, with a recovery that is driven by an increase in personal debt and spiralling house prices in the south-east and in London, and continues, I am afraid, the UK’s long-term imbalance that has devastated the economy in Wales, in parts of England, and indeed in Scotland.
Plaid Cymru put forward an alternative Queen’s Speech with Bills that we would have liked to be included. The Bills have principles central to Plaid Cymru’s vision for Wales, which is built on equality, prosperity for all, and social justice. We have 10 ambitious and workable Bills founded on strengthening Wales’ economic position and its position in terms of democracy, and on improving the lives of our people, not least in respect of health outcomes.
When the pension tax Bill is before the House, we will call for proper consumer protection for people who will have large pots of money at their disposal, as the sharks are already circling. We are extremely glad that the Government are introducing the modern slavery Bill. We also welcome the legislation to strengthen the law in relation to child neglect and organised crime.
We particularly welcome the Bill to strengthen the complaints procedures for the armed forces. We have campaigned for a very long time on veterans’ issues, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder. We support the proposed measure and hope it will prevent ex-service people from suffering mental distress and psychiatric conditions, which have resulted in so many of them ending up in the prison system.
Other Bills are appealing at first glance. A case in point is the heroism Bill, which seems likely to garner good headlines in certain sections of the press, but I share the TUC’s fear that it will have a bad effect on health and safety legislation and working conditions in particularly dangerous industries.
Turning briefly to our own propositions, we would have liked an economic fairness Bill aimed at levelling up the growing wealth inequalities that exist on both an individual and geographical basis in the UK, which is the most unequal state in the European Union. Such a Bill would mirror that part of the German constitution that commits to regional equalisation and prioritises poorer areas for infrastructure and foreign direct investment.
We would also have liked a Bill to ensure that Wales is fairly funded on the basis of need. It is a long-standing complaint that Wales is underfunded to the tune of £300 million to £400 million, as identified by the independent Holtham commission. Every year, Wales loses that amount of money. The cumulative total has had a clear, bad effect on our economy and it is an ongoing injustice. More than that, it actually constrains the Welsh Government and what they can achieve, forcing them to choose between essential spending on health, education, economic development and many other desirable targets of expenditure. The effects of underfunding are seen throughout Wales, not least in our health service, but on this issue the coalition Government in London are deeply compromised as they chastise the Welsh Government for their undoubted failings in health, while at the same time denying them the resources and means to address those failings.
We were greatly disappointed, though perhaps not surprised, that the Government botched the chance to end zero-hours contracts, particularly in the care sector. We would have liked an employment rights Bill to adopt measures to protect and empower workers.
I will catalogue the other measures we would have liked to see, including a natural resources Bill transferring responsibility for all of Wales’s natural resources from the Crown Estate and Westminster to Wales. We would also have liked more direct support for the tourism and hospitality industry and, lastly, a Welsh-language provision Bill to strengthen the requirements to provide services in Welsh, particularly by private organisations working without Wales into Wales. In respect of this debate, I point specifically to private organisations providing health care in England.
James Duddridge (Rochford and Southend East) (Con)
Sometimes we in Westminster get obsessed with the minutiae and detail of Bills and Committees, but our constituents do not have the same obsessions. As the Institute of Directors has argued, it is better to focus on a small number of Bills. A Volkswagen car salesman gets obsessed with the latest VW model, but the general public just appreciate better, cheaper cars. An engineer gets obsessed with a new widget, but the general public just want the machines to work. Our constituents do not get obsessed with Bills, how many of them there are, or whether they are nuanced towards the left or right. What they care about is that we get things right—and we are getting things right. One could argue that things are not happening quickly enough, but 1.5 million new private sector jobs is a darn good start. Is the reduction of the budget deficit by a third enough? No, it is not, but it is a darn good start.
This debate is a little bizarre, in that it is on health, even though health was not in the Queen’s Speech. The people on the doorsteps of Rochford and Southend East have not said to me, “Mr Duddridge, what we need is a new Bill on the health service.” In fact, I would wager that one or two constituents in every constituency would say that we have had far too many Bills on the national health service over the years, including recently. Having set out on this strategic direction in the NHS, it is right that we stick to it, bringing GPs closer to the broader care of individuals and bringing together social services and more traditional NHS care.
The NHS is a great British institution. When I was a teenager I attended religious education classes with a vicar, who asked: “If you didn’t know whether you were going to be born to a rich or a poor country or to a rich or a poor family, whether you were going to be fully able or disabled, or whether you were going to be healthy or suffer from ill health, where would you want to be born?” I say to this House that I would want to be born here in the United Kingdom, and one of the reasons for that is the national health service. When my son and grandparents were ill, they would not have received care anywhere near as good elsewhere. Yes, one or two places might have a slightly flasher health service—at double the cost—with shinier bells and whistles, but when a member of my family was ill I remember being told: “Internationally, the hospital in the States is very good, but the hospital your family member needs is the one they are going to, because it is the best in the world.” I think we are all grateful for that.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) made an eloquent speech and he knows far more about the health service than I do, but he seemed to want politicians to coalesce and form a view that one Member’s hospital should close and another’s should be extended. That is part of a responsible debate in the House, but we truly need to trust health professionals. Southend has a particular problem with its stroke unit, which has historically been very good. The Basildon stroke unit started off from a lower base point, but stroke doctors across south Essex tell me that what south Essex needs is a single, hyper-acute stroke unit. We need to trust health professionals across the board.
I was going to make a speech about pensions on Wednesday, but I am making a speech about health today because I am going to meet the chief executive of Southend hospital on Wednesday. Despite health being one of the two ring-fenced areas, there are serious pressures. My hon. Friend talked about changes in pain threshold and people’s demands, but we cannot meet all those expectations. We need to have a balanced national debate about what we can do and the best way to do it.
Turning to other provisions, I welcome the private pensions Bill. If the Whip on duty is listening, I would very much like to serve on the Committee. I cannot imagine that many Members will volunteer and suspect I have already secured my place. More than 12 million people have underfunded pensions. It is a serious issue. The Chancellor has made some useful first moves on annuities, allowing greater choice for people coming out of pensions, but greater clarity is needed for those going into pensions.
Having previously worked in the investment and pensions industry, I know that all too often Government tinkered with the system and layered in cost for people who had only a small amount of money to invest. People often discuss the pensions of those on fat cat salaries, but most people’s pensions amount to managing only thousands or tens of thousands. A clearer, collective instrument that shares risk—greater risk can be taken when shared by a number of people—will be worthwhile.
I am not going to rewrite the Queen’s Speech like the hon. Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell). I am not sure whether he was being real Labour, old Labour or a socialist, but I saw Members on the Opposition Front Bench give him welcome looks when he said that his speech was not Labour party policy. It would in many ways have helped Conservative Members if it had been Labour party policy.
One small change that I would have liked is a help to rent Bill. There are 15 million spare rooms in the United Kingdom. I am not talking about Opposition Members’ incorrect use of the term, but of spare rooms in houses that are owner-occupied and perhaps under mortgage. Not everyone wants to rent out a spare room to somebody, but the spare room relief of £4,250 has not been changed since 1997. Rather as we are doing with council and housing association property, we could release some of the spare rooms in owner-occupied houses by making it more financially advisable to rent out a room. There is nothing wrong in taking in a lodger—
Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)
For the first time in my life, I live in a majority Labour council in the borough where I was born. On 22 May, Redbridge—
Mike Gapes
Yes, it is now. That is true.
In a borough established in 1964, for the first time we have 35 Labour councillors, with 25 Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats declining to just three.
I want to highlight an issue that I had hoped the Secretary of State for Health would have been on the Front Bench to hear in person. I do not think that he appreciates its seriousness, given that this leaflet might have changed the result in the ward where it was distributed. The leaflet said:
“Official announcement from the Health Secretary
Whilst calling on residents over the last few weeks it has become clear that the most important issue is the proposed closure of King George Hospital A&E. Lee Scott MP together with the Conservative Councillors have pressured the Health Secretary into clarifying the situation. Please read his statement overleaf. The position is now very clear:
KING GEORGE HOSPITAL IS NOT CLOSING
KING GEORGE A&E IS NOT CLOSING
Ruth Clark, Vanessa Cole, Thane Thaneswaran”.
They were the candidates of the Aldborough ward of Redbridge borough in the Ilford North constituency. On the other side is a statement issued by the Secretary of State for Health.
I heard about the leaflet because the local newspaper, the Ilford Recorder, put on its website a story with the heading, “King George A&E to remain open beyond 2015, says Health Secretary”. That was published on 20 May. Members know the rules about purdah very well. I immediately phoned the Department of Health and asked whether a press statement had been issued by the Secretary of State that day. I was eventually referred to somebody in the press office—it took a little while—who said, “We have made no statements of any kind today.” I said that it had been reported by the Ilford Recorder that there was a statement by the Secretary of State for Health. I had not seen the leaflet at that point, but I got a copy of it later.
The press office said that it would refer me, if I so wished, to somebody in the private office who would call me back. I did not get a call from the private office—I did not really expect one—but I decided to get to the bottom of the matter. I have written to the permanent secretaries in the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health to ask for an inquiry into whether any officials, civil servants or Ministers were involved in the leaflet issued in Redbridge.
I hope that the Minister will convey to the Secretary of State that I give notice that I shall write directly to him after this debate to ask, under freedom of information legislation, for all the information about what contacts, if any, there were between officials, advisers or SpAds—special advisers—in the Department with councillors in Redbridge or anybody else about the publication of the leaflet before the election. As it turned out, Labour won all three seats in Aldborough ward and it was successful in winning control of the council, but it is clear that the leaflet was designed to influence the result of the election.
When I raised this matter in the business statement last week, I was told by the Leader of the House that there “was no announcement”, and that the leaflet was just a restatement of existing policy. When I made a point of order earlier, I could not quite hear what the Secretary of State said, which was why I raised it again. I will have to read tomorrow exactly what he said, but I think that he said that the leaflet was a statement of existing policy. If so, why was a leaflet put out that said:
“KING GEORGE HOSPITAL IS NOT CLOSING”?
Under the existing policy, enunciated on the Government Front Bench in 2011, both the maternity and accident and emergency departments at King George hospital were to close in about two years’ time. Maternity services closed last year. The A and E closure was supposed to be by 2014, and then it slipped to 2015 because of the chaos, the deficit and the fact that the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, covering both Queen’s and King George hospitals, has been put in special measures, and we now have yet another chief executive to add to the litany of chief executives over recent years who were supposed to have solved the problem. It is a shame that the hon. Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies) is not in the Chamber, but perhaps he could come to Redbridge to appreciate what services are under a Conservative Government.
The reason the A and E department has not been closed is that it cannot cope with the existing pressures, and it would not be safe to close it. We have a growing population in north-east London, with very large numbers of young people and children, and a large migrant population. There are therefore enormous demands on services. We have relatively poor GP services—we still have single-handed GPs in some areas—so we cannot expect people to go to a GP. Many people are not registered or are temporary, and they therefore turn up at the hospital. These fundamental and deep-seated problems must be resolved before we can start to take away services. The people of Redbridge understand that, which is why there is a campaign to save our A and E at King George hospital.
I will continue to pursue this issue until I get to bottom of the complicity of someone in the Department in issuing the leaflets that were designed to mislead the public in the few days before the election. I assure the Minister that this will continue until I get the whole truth.
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)
May I start by paying tribute to my predecessor, Anthony Steen, for his tireless work in bringing in a modern slavery Bill?
Today, however, is for talking about health, which is a great passion for me in this place and outside it. The NHS touches people’s lives 1 million times every 36 hours, which is a staggering figure. I believe that the NHS is worth every penny of the nearly £110 billion that we spent on it in the last financial year. I am very proud that this Government have protected the health budget, but that does not of course mean that there are not enormous financial pressures. We are now in the fifth year of effectively near-flat funding, and the issues set out by the hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) are part of those pressures. We know that whichever Government were in power, there would have been serious challenges.
If the NHS is to be sustainable, we need to listen to the new chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, who has called on all staff members to think like a patient and act like a taxpayer—we must do that to get every ounce of value out of our NHS—and to address issues of patient safety and of how we keep people out of hospital in the first place and get on with implementing the measures. The nature of the challenge has been set out in exhaustive detail; now we need to get on with the measures that have been put in place to help to prevent hospital admissions, to treat people at the right time in the right place, and to integrate health and social care. I want us to look carefully at the better care fund and the plans for getting best value out of it, and at the issues of patient safety that were mentioned earlier.
Given the absence of much legislation in the Gracious Speech, there is one regret that I want to point out: the absence of the Law Commission’s draft Bill on the regulation of health and social care. I hope that in summing up this debate, the Minister will give some reassurance that he can use secondary legislation to bring forward at least some of the measures in that draft Bill. It covers issues that touch 1 million people across 32 professions that are covered by nine regulatory bodies. Unless we clarify the language so that there is a common language in respect of patient safety across all those regulators, it will be difficult to implement some of the core messages from Francis and to act quickly in response to emerging threats to protect the public.
Every year for three years, the Health Committee has called on the Government to allow the General Medical Council to appeal panel decisions that clearly have not protected the public. Likewise, the Nursing and Midwifery Council would like powers to reopen cases in which it has been judged there is “no case to answer” if serious new evidence emerges. Alongside that, the General Pharmaceutical Council would like to implement transparency and to be able to take enforcement action. Those are all simple measures that I hope the Minister will mention in summing up. I also want the unacceptable level of delays to be addressed.
Norman Lamb
I want to give a quick confirmation that we will do what we can through secondary legislation to do what the hon. Lady requests.
Dr Wollaston
I am very pleased to hear that.
There will not be an absence of debates on health in this place. Two Bills will probably come here from the Lords in this Session: the Medical Innovation Bill and the Assisted Dying Bill. I will briefly put some of my concerns about the Medical Innovation Bill on the record while there is time for it to be amended. I have no doubt that it was introduced with the best of intentions to bring forward innovative treatments. However, I fear that it will have the reverse effect: it could undermine research and open the door to the exploitation of people when they are at their most vulnerable.
Currently, clinical negligence law provides redress for patients who have been harmed as a result of treatments that would not be supported by anybody of medical opinion. There is insufficient evidence that doctors are not introducing new treatments or are put off from doing so because of the fear of litigation. The NHS Litigation Authority has made it clear that doctors are protected from medical litigation in that respect. However, the briefing note for the Saatchi Bill talks about a doctor being able to use a novel treatment if he is “instinctively impressed” by it. In other words, doctors will be able to use an anecdotal base for treatments, rather than a clear evidence base. There are dangers in going down that route.
There have been some amendments to the Bill. Lord Saatchi has accepted that a doctor should have to consult colleagues and their medical team, but not that they should consider a body of opinion or consult ethics committees. I fear that we could be turning the clock back. We should rightly be proud of the advances that we are making in the field of medical research. We should rightly be proud of the push towards greater transparency, particularly in respect of open data and drug trials. However, I fear that if we allow people to access innovative treatments that have no evidence base, we will open the door to the purveyors of snake oil, rather than those who want to allow patients to enter controlled trials to establish a clear medical evidence base.
We should not underestimate the extent to which the purveyors of snake oil are out there. I put on the record my congratulations to Westminster city council and its trading standards department on fighting two successful prosecutions under the Cancer Act 1939 against two individuals, Errol Denton and Stephen Ferguson, for peddling so-called nutritional microscopy to people who were at their most vulnerable—cancer patients and patients with HIV—and telling them that it was an alternative to evidence-based treatments.
We must therefore be careful in how we move forward with such legislation. We should take more notice of the concerns of the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, who feel not only that the Bill is unnecessary, but that it could turn the clock back on evidence-based medicine. I hope that the Government will look at the concerns that have been expressed about the Bill in its current form.
Finally, Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill would enable competent adults who were terminally ill to have assistance to end their lives, but it would require the involvement of a medical practitioner. Although the Bill comes under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice, it would have profound implications for end-of-life care and medical practice. It would fundamentally change the relationship between doctors and patients. There is a risk that the right to die would slide into a duty to die. I have seen how often patients who are towards the end of their lives fear being a burden on their families, and they often go through periods of profound depression. I do not feel that this Bill is the way forward.
Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)
It is wonderful to follow the hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston), and I totally and utterly agree with her concluding remarks.
Some may say that the absence of any reference to health legislation in the Queen’s Speech is a blessing; after all, the unwanted top-down reorganisation foisted on the NHS by the coalition and the previous Secretary of State is said by many to have put such a strain and stress on the NHS that it has been brought to its knees. Many Members present will know from their casework, inboxes, surgeries and personal experience that there is a rising tide of public concern about the NHS because of the lack of accountability and because decisions are being made upstream from local services. Our constituents may well view the absence of any mention of health in the Queen’s Speech as evidence of complacency, disinterest and unconcern. I have to say that I would agree with them. The Government have taken away the local means to secure improvements in services, and in this Queen’s Speech they have missed an opportunity to bring back local focus and accountability.
I want to look first at GP provision. One of my constituents wrote to me in April out of “sheer despair” at her inability to get an appointment at her surgery for an issue that she has said is not urgent. She has a busy job, is at work at the times she needs to call the surgery, and cannot leave work at the drop of a hat should she be offered an on-the-day appointment. As she put it,
“the current system is an absolute joke, to put it mildly…this current NHS system is completely useless”.
My constituent needs and deserves Labour’s GP access guarantee. Is there anything like that in the Queen’s Speech? The short answer is, “No, there is not, but there should have been.”
My constituents do not have the same access to GPs as people in other areas. Building on NHS England’s most recent survey, the Royal College of General Practitioners shows that 16.82% of patients in Newham were not able to get a GP appointment when needed, compared with 5.36% in Bath and North East Somerset. The Government should adopt the GP access guarantee to address those inequalities, and the Queen’s Speech would have been the right place to introduce such proposals.
Before its abolition, Newham primary care trust had a clear plan to tackle and improve the challenging local situation, of which I was an active and enthusiastic supporter. Today, I am far less sure that mechanisms are in place locally that have the capacity and motivation to root out poor practice and promote the best. My misgivings were confirmed when I asked who now decides what to do when, for example, there is a vacancy at a GP practice in Newham. The answer came back—I still find this astounding—that the decision rests with NHS England. What is more, I was told that the London office of NHS England has a small number of people who deal with the provision of GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists. They must struggle to keep up with the paperwork, let alone have any capacity to look at proactive work on quality, improvement and service development.
What local knowledge can NHS England have about what is happening on the ground in Newham? How can that make any sense, and how is NHS England accountable to Newham’s people and its clinicians? What does it say about the reality of this Government’s commitment to localism? It is surely a matter of great regret that the Secretary of State did not seek to use this Queen’s Speech to address some of those very real issues.
In his response, the Secretary of State will no doubt include fine rhetoric about control being in the hands of GPs locally through the clinical commissioning group. He will laud to the skies their skills, commitment to patients and the NHS, and their virtue in all respects. I have talked at length to my CCG in Newham and worked closely with it, and I assure the Secretary of State that I share his opinion of its estimable qualities. In fact, I would add more approving words to his glowing testimony. I also know, however, of the CCG’s absolute frustration at the straitjacket that the new NHS structure requires it to wear, and I share its recognition that the reality of local empowerment is very different from that described by the Secretary of State and enforced with the diktats of NHS England.
The new structures leave decisions in the hands of NHS England. Surely the current Secretary of State can see that that is nonsense. In his calm, perhaps even reflective moments, I think that he knows and would admit that, if only to himself. What a shame that he did not use the Queen’s Speech to intervene and turn his rhetoric of localism into more local control over NHS decisions.
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown). I am pleased to speak in this debate, and let me clarify if I stray slightly off topic that it is a tradition that one can be wide-ranging in one’s comments, but I will return to the NHS.
In my view the British people do not deserve the Gracious Speech as delivered. The first sentence contains a contradiction. It states that the Government
“will continue to deliver on its long-term plan to build a stronger economy and a fairer society.”
What is the evidence so far? So far there has been a tax cut to 40% for those earning more than £150,000, while at the same time some are struggling to pay the extra rent for the bedroom tax or a spare room. Those are among the most vulnerable people in society.
Added to that is a continued assault on the public sector, and as we start the new Session, there are still unanswered questions about the Royal Mail privatisation. There are plans to privatise the Land Registry, for which there is no case to answer, in addition to other cuts in the public sector. The Land Registry, the possibility of the east coast railway, the Forensic Science Service, the scientists at Kew Gardens—all that is the Government interfering with services that are profitable, safe and should be left alone to carry on with their expertise for future generations. Even the chief inspector of Ofsted has said that he will end its contracts with third-party services and employ school inspectors directly, because he thinks it is too important. So are all those other services and so is the legal system, but that does not seem to bother this Government. This is a giant jumble sale of the public sector.
The Gracious Speech contains a statement about selling off-high value Government land—land and assets that belong to the British people will be gone for ever. Members may remember the selling off of cemeteries for 3p by the former leader of Westminster council. The Government do not need to sell off high-value Government land for housing because that can be done by building on land where there is already planning permission. People in this country can use their creativity to find new ways to design new homes and build them, such as the programme developed by Walter Segal where people on the housing waiting list in Lewisham were taught how to build their own homes. That gave them expertise and empowered them, and the houses were sustainable.
My hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) is right when she says that the Gracious Speech will allow fracking under people’s homes whether they want it or not. There is no definitive evidence that fracking works. Some 75% of the chemicals used in fracking are toxic and 25% are carcinogenic. There are concerns about its effects on the environment and on public health.
As many Members have pointed out, it is no coincidence that the Gracious Speech is silent on the NHS. Instead, the Secretary of State wants to punish the very people who have borne the brunt of the reorganisation that, by conservative estimates, amounts to £3 billion. He says they cannot have a 1% pay rise. He is withdrawing funding from front-line services, such as GPs’ minimum practice income guarantee, which affects surgeries in places such as Tower Hamlets and some rural practices, and which will be withdrawn from Wales a year later. The Secretary of State cannot blame the Welsh Assembly Government for that.
There is a lack of doctors in A and E because they are going abroad. Where is the long-term plan to end that crisis? Where is the Secretary of State’s response, other than leaving it up to NHS England? The lack of accountability, which was pointed out by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), has been exposed since the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Nothing has been done. Instead, we get announcements about community hospitals without consultation with local people about which hospitals are needed and where they should be placed. The Government want to use public money in their own way, but they do not want to be accountable for it.
There is a provision, as other Members have pointed out, for redundancies to be capped. The revolving door and merry-go-round of people being made redundant and then rehired as consultants has been exposed time after time by Her Majesty’s Opposition. That public money could be used for my constituent Grace Ryder, aged 9, who was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She wanted to draw attention to this and raise money for charity, so on Saturday she helped to organise a fair at Delves Baptist community church. This courageous girl has to wear a cannula in her stomach for the delivery of insulin. There is an alternative—a pod that has no tubes—but it is not available on the NHS and the family cannot afford the £90 per week that it costs. Instead of these vast redundancy payments, money should be spent on the courageous Grace Ryder and other children to help them lead as normal a life as possible. I would ask the Secretary of State, if he only bothered to listen, whether he is as courageous as Grace Ryder. Can he make this insulin pump available on the NHS?
To promote a fair, just and more equal society we need to tilt the balance back to the British people. The Government should look again at the scaling back of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the equalities agenda. The organisation was there to help and to provide evidence for some of the myths that abound that may explain why some communities are not tolerant of each other. Her Majesty’s Opposition will repeal the Health And Social Care Act, which has caused chaos, insecurity and inequality in the NHS and repeal section 75, which forces competition, not collaboration, wasting millions of pounds on legal advice. We will also build affordable homes like those built under the vision of Walter Segal, which became a reality in Lewisham. Equality, opportunity, justice and tolerance should be the foundations of the Gracious Speech and our society.
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
I am sorry that this debate began with a speech that was smug and complacent even by the standards of the Secretary of State for Health. I thought we had reached a low point until I heard the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price) using a speech on the NHS to promote the tobacco industry. I am glad that those speeches have been balanced by those we have just heard from my hon. Friends the Members for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz) and for Westminster North (Ms Buck). Indeed, the speech from the shadow Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), reaffirms Labour’s commitment to the health service, which is fairly lacking from this Government.
I am going to speak about the crisis in the west London health service, partly because it is such a major crisis and partly because I think it indicates the way the Tories are dealing with the health service generally. It began two years ago, almost exactly, with the announcement of the biggest hospital closure programme in the history of the NHS. Since then we have had sham consultations with 100,000 people petitioning and being ignored, U-turns, confusion, incompetence, refusal to answer questions and political chicanery to make what happened in Ilford, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes), look like a model of probity. Now we have the contamination of the whole NHS locally, including the primary care sector.
When the closure programme began, the medical director of North West London NHS said, candidly, that if it did not close four A and Es and two major hospitals, it would literally run out of money and go bankrupt. Those are the words he used. I suppose we should be grateful to him, because those statements galvanised the population of west London to engage in “save our hospitals” campaigns, and they have been campaigning for two years in rain and snow. Despite huge disinformation paid for by the taxpayer, by a Conservative council and indeed by the NHS, when I now stand in Lyric square in Hammersmith on a Saturday, I can be sure that 99% of my constituents know what is actually happening. I pay tribute to those campaigners from all political parties—including a lot of ex-Tories, as well people from minor parties, Labour supporters and others. They have really made the running on this issue.
Yes, there were changes. Initially, for example, we were going to lose the whole of Charing Cross hospital. Now there will be a local hospital on the site. When that was first mooted, a senior member of the local Conservatives and a Cabinet member said:
“This is an enormous teaching hospital with a 200-year history. You can’t make the Charing Cross hospital into a local hospital. It’s absurd. People won’t put up with that.”
Within weeks, they were spending ratepayers’ and taxpayers’ money putting out leaflets saying that Charing Cross hospital had been saved. That was compounded last October when the Secretary of State for Health stood here and effectively said, “Oh, it won’t just be an urgent care centre. It’ll be a second-tier emergency department.” Let me clarify the three differences between those two: recovery beds, X-rays and GPs. I thought we had GPs on duty in urgent care centres, but apparently not; we can just have nursing cover. It is an urgent care centre by any other name; to call it an A and E is misleading. It will lead to people with serious medical conditions going there and risking their and their family’s lives—as we have already seen at Chase Farm and elsewhere. Charing Cross and Hammersmith will not have blue-light emergencies—except for heart attacks in the case of Hammersmith. We will not have a stroke unit; we will not have the 500 emergency beds; we will not have intensive treatment. This is a second-class, second-tier health service.
The worst transgression happened in only the past few weeks during the local election campaign. I am not making this up, Madam Deputy Speaker. After the postal votes were opened and the Hammersmith Conservatives saw that we were ahead in some of their safe wards, the Prime Minister was brought down at short notice and locked in the basement of the Conservative party offices with a local journalist and came out with this pronouncement:
“Charing Cross will retain its A&E and services”.
I believe that the Prime Minister is an honourable man, and that he was misled into making that statement. The statement is demonstrably false because the NHS has clearly said that most of those services—other than treatment services, primary care services and elective surgery—will not exist at Charing Cross hospital under any analysis.
I thus went to see Imperial. It was the day after the election and I had been up for 30 hours and was not in a terribly good mood. I went to see the new chief executive of Imperial, and I tried to persuade her that Charing Cross should stay open. I said that I would take the new Labour leader of Hammersmith council to see her, as he might be able to persuade her better than I could. I then left and went home. That evening, she e-mailed to say, “Oh, I forgot to tell you when you were here: we are closing the other A and E in your constituency on 10 September. It was just a short meeting and I did not have time to tell you about it.”
At the same time, as my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North said, the CCG is writing to tell us that it is good news that in year—in the middle of a financial year—it has decided to pull together £140 million from the CCGs around north-west London and to redistribute it into primary care. In other words, they are panicking and having to take desperate measures because the primary care services are so short of money and cannot pick up the slack from the closure of A and E services. We might think, “At least they are doing something”. A substantial proportion—they will not say how much—is going out of my CCG and into other CCGs because, they believe, that is a fair way to distribute money. We are losing not only both A and Es, but our primary care funding and, with the closure of Hammersmith A and E—if we cannot prevent it from going ahead in September—Imperial has admitted in its own board papers that there is insufficient capacity at St Mary’s hospital.
Mr Slaughter
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. In exactly the same way, the Government are choosing to close the A and E department at Hammersmith hospital, which is slap bang in the middle of one of the most deprived areas of London, covering White City, Old Oak, Harlesden, north Kensington and east Acton. That means that 22,000 people who rely on those A and E services every year will have to travel to St Mary’s hospital in Paddington. They will not be directed to Central Middlesex hospital, which will be closing on the same day, and they will not be directed to Charing Cross hospital, because the plan is to close that within a year or two. They will be told to go to St Mary’s, where there are not enough beds and not enough capacity in A and E to cope with the current demand. That is contrary to undertakings given in the House that there would be no closures of A and E services until alternative services were provided. There will also not be enough acute services to provide a training base for students at Imperial college.
Two weeks ago we won the election in Hammersmith, against the expectations of, at least, the Conservatives, and we won it on this issue. If the Government will not listen to the 100,000 people who petitioned, perhaps they will listen to the people of west London who, on the issue of the NHS, overwhelmingly voted Labour and against the policies that are being pursued by the Conservatives. They should listen, and they should think again about hospital closures that will cost the health and the lives of my constituents.
Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)
I am delighted to be called tonight. As a by-election winner just 16 weeks ago, I felt the pressure of being 650th in the order of seniority, but, following the Newark by-election, I am now 649th.
This was my first Gracious Speech, and I am prompted to echo the words of my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes). I was born and raised in Manchester, 95 of whose 96 councillors are now Labour, while the 96th is Independent Labour. That reflects people’s serious concerns about health, the establishment of Healthier Together in Greater Manchester, and what has happened to Wythenshawe hospital’s accident and emergency services over the past few years.
I pay tribute to the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister for their kind words about Paul Goggins. He was an extraordinarily dedicated public servant, and the Prime Minister was very gracious in dedicating the legislation on child neglect to his memory. My constituents and I are grateful for that, and I know that Paul’s family will be as well.
It often occurs to me that the NHS will really be 90 years old next year. Aneurin Bevan’s father died in his arms, of pneumoconiosis, without the benefit of any health care provision. Bevan felt that the pain of one was the pain of millions, and he decided on that day that he would build the extraordinarily fantastic service that became the NHS, which he created years later in 1948.
I thought about why the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition partners did not want health to feature in this year’s Queen’s Speech in terms of electoral strategy, which was probably wrong. The key to any electoral strategy is not about two competing answers to the question, but about who gets to frame the question in the first place. The coalition partners want to ignore the health service because they know from Aneurin Bevan’s legacy, from the fact that we are leading in the polls, and from the way in which my right hon. Friend Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) pounds the Government on these issues day in, day out in every part of the country that it is ground that Lynton Crosby wants them to avoid.
The top-down reorganisation cost £3 billion, and what has it done for my constituency? The Government downgraded the A and E centre at Trafford general hospital, the first NHS hospital to be opened by Bevan in 1948. They shut the Wythenshawe walk-in centre, and there was then a crisis of pressure in Wythenshawe hospital’s A and E department. Fourteen weeks ago, I asked the Secretary of State to meet me to talk about that. I later sent him a personal note, but he has still not contacted me about such a meeting. His own MPs want to be involved in that meeting. MPs on all sides of the political divide want to sort that out. I am demanding that the Government meet local MPs to discuss the continuing pressures at the hospital. Those pressures are expounded day in, day out by surgery work.
Last year, my constituent Emma Latham lost her husband Steven, aged 43. They had to wait 40 minutes for an ambulance. In February this year, she experienced breathing difficulties. The call was categorised as a red 2, but she still had to wait 40 minutes for the ambulance service to arrive. Tony Gunning, another constituent of mine, who has liver and heart failure, waited over an hour for his ambulance and for dialysis. He is often bundled into a taxi home by Arriva, the private sector provider, when it can organise one for him. John Ireland, another constituent of mine, has a heart condition. He has been told it will be two weeks before he can see his local GP.
That is not good enough. The Government might not want this to be the agenda in the next 12 months but Labour Members will highlight every case, every hospital, every downgrade and every closure, and we will make the case clear to the British public next May. The NHS will last as long as there are folk to fight for it. We on the Labour Benches will fight for it.
Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)
It is great to address the packed Benches on the Government side of the Chamber. This Queen’s Speech ought to be remembered as the last Queen’s Speech of the first coalition Government since 1945. I confess I am one of those who thought that it might never happen, but to their credit the coalition Government have put aside their differences and come up with a plan for a Bill to levy a 5p charge on poly bags. That would normally earn them a place in history, but this Queen’s Speech has been overshadowed, as we saw again today, by the row between the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary. Since the theme of today’s debate is health, let me say to the Education Secretary that trying to humiliate that lady could be very bad for his health—ask the Police Federation! Perhaps he should try to recruit a retired counter-terrorism officer to mind his back.
This has always been a Government built on hype. It has been there from the beginning, when they claimed that trebling tuition fees and slashing public spending were all for our benefit and would eliminate the deficit within five years. That much heralded and rebranded long-term economic plan aims to cut the deficit by the same amount as my right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling) would have achieved. What has become long term is the prospect of continuing cuts and a deficit stretching years into the future.
We were led to expect a Bill to regulate health and social care professionals, but that is absent, despite Winterbourne, the Francis report and the latest Anglia Retirement Homes scandal. I regret that, because there is little doubt that we need to regulate those professions and provide greater assurance and security to patients, residents and relatives. I want to be able to tell my constituent whose elderly relative was induced to give a loan of several thousand pounds to her carer to buy a car that something will be done and that such crooks will not get away with it. I want to be able to tell the family of Ms Jones that, if they see the call button by the bedside disabled or find their elderly relative naked from the waist down and covered in excrement, something will be done. I want to know that the people who are doing the caring have been properly vetted and have suitable qualifications and training, are supervised and will be given the time to provide the care that their patients need.
Of course I would have liked an admission that section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 was a disaster. Far from putting GPs at the heart of decision making, it has reduced clinical commissioning staff to second-rate auctioneers. At a time when Simon Stevens is calling for more local and community services to provide care for the elderly, section 75 requires doctors to act like second-hand car salesmen. The way forward is to construct models that bring together statutory and voluntary services. We need the local state working alongside bodies like churches, community groups and even neighbours. Clinical commissioning groups should be creative and imaginative; instead they are stymied by the Government’s market dogma.
As this is carers week, I would have welcomed a law that recognised the rights and needs of the users of health and care services, that empowered them so that joint commissioning bodies were not allowed to close respite care facilities because accountants advised them it was an easy saving. I am battling to protect the Kingswood bungalows in my constituency, a purpose-built facility less than 15 years old, but targeted by those whose priority is to manage the books, not the interests of patients; and my constituent with severe autism who has lived in a specialist autism community for over 17 years. It is his home, but just as we have seen the crass contempt for people’s needs with the bedroom tax, we are seeing people like him threatened with eviction because the accountants and the joint commissioning administrators think they have found a way to save a few quid. I would have liked some legislation to regulate and enforce action against those who look after their own interests while wrecking the lives of others.
I welcome the promise to raise the number of apprenticeships, because if there is one issue that threatens the health and well-being of a generation, it is the spectre of unemployment and the denial of a future for our young people, but how many will be real apprenticeships targeted on the 16-to-19 age range? As with every other bit of hype, too many of the current apprenticeships go to those over 25 and are often just an existing job that has been redesignated. This is, after all, the Government who think they can send a young graduate already engaged in productive voluntary work to Poundland to learn how to stack shelves.
A Bill promising proper training, relevant qualifications, a chance to build a portfolio of skills, real employment opportunities and the full engagement of employers: that is what young people need. If we are living in the age of micro-businesses, and self and portfolio employment, then let us give young people the training that allows them to make a go of these things, rather than leaving them to be ripped off and exploited.
Sadly, this is a Queen’s Speech with none of those relevant interests served.
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
Over the space of a few weeks from this April, my constituency has been overwhelmed by a perfect storm of cuts and closures pushed through by NHS England and the local clinical commissioning group, all the result of this Government’s agenda.
People in the rural East Cleveland part of my constituency need NHS services and support seven days a week, and that is why the last Labour Government proudly introduced NHS Direct and walk-in centres, but East Cleveland now faces a triple whammy. The South Tees clinical commissioning group wants to end minor injuries provision at East Cleveland hospital and Guisborough hospital. It has also decided to cease walk-in provision at Skelton medical centre at the end of June, while NHS England wants to abolish GP provision at Skelton medical centre.
Ending minor injuries provision does not, in the words of the CCG consultation letter, provide
“better care for the vulnerable and elderly”,
and I fear that the CCG is trying to disguise cuts to vital minor injury provision. This leaves no urgent care services in East Cleveland.
That is particularly problematic for the villages of East Cleveland, where public transport links are poor and an ambulance service provided by the North East Ambulance Service trust “cannot cope”, as its chief executive admitted. Over six months last year, the North East Ambulance Service recorded 10,599 delays, 196 of which were for more than two hours. Paramedics are left unable to respond to waiting 999 calls, and a regional BBC programme only last week showed that the situation is worsening. I have raised this matter in the House on many occasions.
Both the two small hospitals I cited were once run by the local primary care trust, but after the coalition NHS reforms were pushed through they were passed on to the main hospital trust for our area, the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the excellent James Cook university hospital in Middlesbrough. The trust is already facing a £30 million to £50 million black hole in financing, having had only a £5 million deficit last year; it is being investigated by Monitor and has to make drastic cuts. It is little wonder that what might be seen as easy targets in ancillary units such as these two small local hospitals come up on the trust’s radar.
In addition, we have had the CCG and NHS England turning their big guns on another NHS facility in East Cleveland: they are looking at, and have announced as a fait accompli, the total closure of the Skelton health centre and medical walk-in centre. That proposal is part of a national coalition approach that has been targeting walk-in clinics set up by the last Labour Government. If the closure goes ahead, Skelton will lose one of its GP practices, a nurse practitioner clinic and the attached pharmacy. The clinic serves people from the poorer areas of the ward such as Hollybush, the Courts and north Skelton.
Like local people, I feel that NHS England is basing its views on old numbers which we feel are suspect. The provider, LivingCare, which owns the practice, is gobsmacked, as closure letters to people on the surgery list went out before they were told about the possibility of closure. In certain instances not enough letters were sent to people actually registered with the GP practice. Skelton as a town is undergoing vast expansion, with new housing going up and more planned. More than 1,000 new homes have been built in the past three years, with the new local plan indicating a further 400 homes on open land to the east of that new estate.
LivingCare was hit by a further blow when NHS England then announced the imminent closure of another GP facility it runs in my constituency. Unlike the earlier closures, this was not in rural East Cleveland, but in deep urban south Middlesbrough, on the Park End estate. I know the area well as my mother was for many years a teacher at the St Pius X Roman Catholic primary school on the estate, and I have relatives who still live there. The estate has profound social needs, with associated poverty and high indices of ill health. The cuts occurring locally in my constituency will increase the likelihood of people going to A and E, even when that is not appropriate. Our A and E has struggled to cope with demand over recent years, so these cuts are a false economy.
The mess of the Tory-Lib Dem NHS reorganisation, and the human tragedy it brings in its wake, deepens by the day. The coalition has already wasted £3 billion on a reorganisation and £1.4 billion on redundancies, and it is leaving the NHS weakened and confused. Locally, through this consultation, we are beginning to see the consequences on our constituents’ doorsteps. The approach being taken flies in the face of the call by NHS England’s new chief, Simon Stevens, for a marked change in policy and a shift away from big centralised hospitals. The health service chief executive says that we need new models of care built around smaller local hospitals and that, combined with comprehensive walk-in and GP care, is what my constituents need, deserve and rightly demand.
I have not been idle on these issues, but all my efforts have been stymied by a combination of bureaucratic blocking and ministerial indifference, resulting in Ministers’ responding to my requests for meetings with refusals, despite earlier friendly patter. Despite an outcry from local people, a full-page protest poster in the local newspaper Coastal View & Moor News and a massive petition, I managed to organise a meeting with NHS authorities that was unhelpful to say the least. Instead of a commitment to examine the clinical arguments and the issue of closures putting more pressure on the A and E unit at James Cook university hospital—a hospital with one of the longest waiting times for A and E in the region, if not the country—the NHS reps at the meeting retreated behind the protection of contractual timetabling, based on funding cuts issued by the Department of Health, because the “Darzi clinics”, as they were at the time, are coming to the end of their five-year contracts. I can say now, without equivocation, that such an approach will inflame my constituents, as I have seen already on the doorstep.
I still want to offer Ministers the option to meet me to talk about this issue, because I really fear the consequences for East Cleveland, and for Park End in particular, of these services being taken away. There is absolutely nothing in the consultation offering the individuals there any other option. There is no plan to put people in other GP practices. My fear is that we will have a time lag, and about 2,000 to 4,000 people not knowing where to go for primary care and ultimately ending up in the A and E unit—again.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
The first line of the Queen’s Speech said that the long-term plan was to deliver a strong economy and a fair society. Failure to deliver in that regard is contributing to aggregate health costs in Britain. The question is how we use the existing budget to deliver better health, as opposed to increasing the aggregate amount of money that we spend on health to the levels that are enjoyed in the European Union and the United States. The answer must be to reduce some of the drivers of health costs and the conditions that are causing those costs in the health service.
Obviously, the first driver is smoking. The Government have an opportunity to change packaging, stop children smoking in cars and accelerate the rate of transfer to e-cigarettes. There could be great savings there. At the moment, it costs us £5 billion a year to treat people for smoking-related diseases.
The second driver is obesity. The Forsyth report suggests that, by 2050, half the UK population will be obese. There are issues about school meals and exercise. There is an option—I do not know whether the Minister is interested in this because he is looking at his iPad—to put a 20% tax on sugary drinks, which is seen in New York, Mexico, France and Norway. Oxford university thinks that such a measure would reduce the numbers of obese people by 180,000 and of overweight people by 285,000, and generate about £250 million of revenue, which could be hypothecated to fund cheaper fruit and vegetables for poorer communities.
The reality is that only 10% of young people under the age of 18 consume their five fruit and vegetables a day, but children under the age of 10 are consuming 19 grams of sugar. There is a case for a sugar tax. Coca-Cola contains 11 spoonfuls of sugar, and there is 50% more sugar in sugary drinks than is advertised. We need to discriminate between certain ingredients, such as fructose versus glucose, because of their medical impact. It has been noted in America that fructose creates a different sort of fat cell in the liver and the heart, which causes much higher mortality rates. We need to focus in on the fact that there are different sorts of fat. Ironically, the EU, which I normally support, has suddenly agreed with the fructose lobbyists that fructose should be called healthier because the high from it is not as quick, but the damage is much greater. The same goes for palm oil, which is a big killer in America.
Some of these issues are about taxing ingredients in processed foods. Madam Deputy Speaker, if I gave you a potato and told you to make some money out of it, you probably would not—or you might because you are a good person—just sell that potato. The way to make money out of the potato is to smash it up, add fat, salt and sugar, reform it as Dennis’s dinosaurs, put some packaging around it and a jingle on it and get children who are poor into the habit of consuming a large amount of it, so they die an early death. We should be aware of that, and we should be the guardians of the budget and of the people.
The same is true of advertising. If one looks at the back of a cereal packet, it will say low fat, but what it means is 50% sugar, and sugar is fat. Sugar is converted to fat if it is not energised through exercise and the like. We should be here to protect people from that, but we have dismally failed to do so. In fact, the opposite has happened. The Government’s economic policies increase stress and poverty, which are drivers of poor health and cost.
Britain now has the worst child mortality rates of the western world, bar Malta, with one in 200 children dying under the age of five. According to Washington university, that is linked to welfare cuts, which have driven people into using food banks. We just have to look at the situation on employment. We are told that there are all these jobs—I can see the Minister trying to ignore me—but 1 million of them are on zero-hours contracts. People are moving from benefits into zero-hours contracts, which leads to discontinuity in their benefits. They are having to go to food banks. They are under stress and feeling hungry, which leads to ill health for them and their children. Research suggests that 45% of people in debt have mental health problems—[Interruption.] I can hear my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) listening to this. Research in the EU has shown that recession leads to suicide. Two thirds of people on whom the bedroom tax has been cruelly inflicted are disabled.
The Government are responsible for many of the costs, which will become intergenerational, long lasting and profound. That is part of a process of saying that the health service is too expensive for the poor, so we should privatise it. Aneurin Bevan famously said:
“Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune, the cost of which should be shared by the community.”
I should like to see a future in which that community is one nation—not the weakest crushed by the strongest—so that that cost is shared more evenly and is lower and Britain is healthier for it. We look forward to a more equal Britain in opportunity and outcome, where the health of the nation is better and the salvation of the health service is once more in our hands, with a Labour Britain next year.
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)
Our national health service is undisputedly one of the greatest achievements of any Government, yet the crisis that the NHS has experienced under the Government’s disastrous privatisation, threatens the survival of services and the quality of patient care. I am proud that it was a Labour Government who created the NHS, and I am proud it is a Labour Government who will reverse the damage done by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. In our health service, more than 4,000 senior nursing posts have been lost since 2010. Accident and emergency performances in the year following the Government’s reorganisation were the worst in a decade. Last year, South Tyneside hospital in my constituency had to cancel operations because of unprecedented demand for A and E services. Only two weeks ago, it emerged that the NHS in England had failed to meet a performance target for cancer waiting times for the first time ever.
The Government’s failed reorganisation has increased wasteful spending. The NHS now spends more on senior managers and management consultants than ever before, and it is increasingly bogged down in competition law, forcing it to spend money on lawyers that could have gone towards patient care. The pressures on our health service stretch well beyond hospital waiting rooms, as demand for NHS services is affected by trends in public health and the quality of social care. In those areas, we have seen massive cuts to local authority budgets of £2.7 billion. Faced with cuts of that scale, local authorities have been left with impossible decisions and have been forced to cut services, knowing that in doing so they would increase pressure on the health service.
Those who are lucky enough to be entitled to care find that their care worker can only stay with them for 15 minutes. These workers are poorly paid, with over 300,000 on zero-hours contracts. A third do not receive proper training. Unsurprisingly, staff turnover is high, so many clients do not manage to build a relationship with their carer. The Care Act 2014, which was passed in the last Session, presented an opportunity to address some of those issues, but unfortunately it was an opportunity that the coalition parties did not take. They rejected Labour amendments on low pay and zero-hours contracts that would have improved the standard of care that people receive. They also ignored charities that warned that the new eligibility criteria for support would exclude hundreds of thousands of people from the care system.
Of course, there are challenges facing social care, but we do not solve the problem by cutting support for those with moderate needs, only for them to end up in hospital. Last year’s QualityWatch report showed that about one in five hospital admissions could be prevented by better social care. The ultimate goal should be an integrated system like the one argued for by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham). The Government at least pay lip service to that idea, but in practical terms they have done very little. The better care fund announced last June was meant for that purpose, but it was actually just money diverted from existing NHS services, proving that the Government are not serious about promoting integration.
Underlying all of that are broader questions about public health. Poverty and ill health often go hand in hand, and malnutrition in particular has become a frighteningly normal part of life in Britain today. I know parents who skip meals so that their children can eat, and people for whom food banks are the only thing standing between them and starvation. Malnutrition affects an estimated 3 million people in the UK, which is a scandal in the fourth richest country in the world.
The previous Government left office with fewer people in poverty than when they arrived. Child and pensioner poverty fell even after the financial crisis took hold, and we were well on our way to eliminating child poverty by 2020. But under the coalition, this trend has been reversed, and instead of eliminating poverty by the end of this decade the Child Poverty Action Group estimates that the number in poverty will have risen to 4.7 million.
The coalition has allowed this crisis to develop, and the Queen’s Speech needed to recognise families’ desperation by delivering help with living costs such as food, energy and rent. Poverty, and food poverty especially, has a knock-on effect for our health system. Experts have warned that there is a public health emergency. We are beginning to see diseases such as rickets returning as children no longer receive the balanced diet they need. The symptoms of poverty pose serious challenges to our health service in the long term.
Our national health service survives in spite of this Government, not because of them. It is strong because of its work force and because of a public who resolutely believe in it and value it. In communities around the country, families are fed not because their country’s Government have helped them to find decent work, but because their fellow citizens give up their time to lend a helping hand. Our country faces some of its biggest challenges for generations, and people feel that Britain is no longer working for them. Worse yet, people feel that politics has no answers to the difficult questions of our time. All these challenges need a Government who are willing to be bold, but this Queen’s Speech gave no hope of that. It was more of the same from a coalition that has long outstayed its welcome.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)
And the prize for patience goes to Nic Dakin.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to speak in this debate.
There is unanimity across the House on the importance of the NHS in our lives and the lives of the people we serve. The vast majority of people working in the NHS do fantastic work day in, day out, often in difficult conditions, to deliver a health service that is the envy of most parts of the world. In our desire to make that even better, we sometimes forget the very good things that are there, but when the NHS fails us, it is important that we tackle those failures effectively.
One thing I have noticed when talking to health professionals at whatever level in my constituency in Scunthorpe is that they, to a man and a woman, feel that the reorganisation that was thrust upon them by this Government after promising no top-down reorganisation has distracted attention and added work load, when there is already a challenging work load to tackle without having to deal with that. There is a big enough challenge anyway.
“Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures” is the consultation that North Lincolnshire clinical commissioning group is undertaking to find out whether to take forward health provision locally. That is an important endeavour, but the growth in the number of people turning up at A and E and the ageing population create great challenges for everyone. It is interesting that the financial challenges that are faced compound that. The PCT legacy debts were provided for and CCGs had further money taken out of their budget for that. A further £2 million was taken out of the CCG budget locally, although its budget is about £100 million, to deal with the pressures in specialist commissioning. The challenges involved in specialist commissioning need to be tackled. That might have been included in the Queen’s Speech.
One of the oddities of the Queen’s Speech is how little there is in it about the things that are most important to us—nothing about standard cigarette packaging, despite the Minister saying that she would introduce regulations, nothing on smoking in cars, despite the Minister saying that she would introduce regulations, and nothing to make it easier for people to see their GP. In its consultation with local people, Healthwatch North Lincolnshire identified access to a GP as one of the big issues locally. I had hoped that something would be done on that. I am pleased that the shadow Health Secretary made it very clear that Labour will at the first opportunity repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and by rolling back the costs of competition and marketisation will guarantee an appointment at the GP’s surgery within 48 hours. That is something to be proud of.
Another missed opportunity was to do something to end the abuse of older people. Why not respond to Age UK’s call to make it an offence to neglect a vulnerable adult and to ensure that directors of organisations that provide health or care services can be held accountable for neglect or abuse? Why not do something about that? There is so much that could be in this Queen’s Speech and is not but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) said, at least we have the 5p plastic bag Bill and we should be grateful for that.
Let me turn to another issue that could have been tackled in the Queen’s speech: the need to up the game on our work on antimicrobial resistance. Take for example tuberculosis, caused by bacterial infection through the air. If left untreated, it becomes deadly and BCG vaccinations are not as effective as they should be. Many people think that TB has been wiped out, yet London has the highest rate of TB of any capital in the western world. An increasing percentage of those cases are resistant to TB drugs and TB has always affected the poor. No new front-line drugs have been developed in 50 years, so why not tackle this disease, which is a real threat and is already here?
TB can be prevented by relatively low levels of investment in proactive diagnosis, outreach and good social and clinical care. It is a complex disease that can be made more complex by our health services, which often fail to diagnose it on first sight. Some doctors unfortunately prescribe antibiotics, which feed the AMR and do nothing to help patients with TB. We need to raise awareness of the disease and make sure that patients get the right support from health services that are properly staffed and equipped. We need comprehensive outreach for TB, with screening, diagnosis and treatment of people before their health deteriorates and before they can pass the disease on to others. In short, we need a preventive approach to TB and other infectious diseases like it.
We need to invest now to save later, and my point about TB is illustrative of the many other things on which we need action. Instead of that action, in this Queen’s Speech we have more of the same inaction and inertia. It is not good enough. I mark this Queen’s Speech low on its approach to health issues, and I look forward to hearing the responses from the shadow Minister and the Minister.
Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab)
We have had a wide-ranging debate. I listened carefully to the powerful speech by the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox)—I am sorry he is not in his place—on his concerns about Russia, which I share, and to the thoughtful contribution made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr Hain) about the Government’s pension reforms. I for one am sorry that this will be his last contribution in a Queen’s Speech debate and he will be sorely missed by Members on both sides of the House.
The main focus of the debate has been the NHS and social care. My right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) and my hon. Friends the Members for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh), for Ilford South (Mike Gapes), for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter), for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Mike Kane) and for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop) spoke passionately about their local services and the pressures they face. Those pressures are being experienced by services across the country as our population ages and more people are living with long-term conditions, and the biggest challenge facing us is to reform front-line services to get better results for patients and better value for taxpayers’ money when there is far less money around.
Some services must be provided in specialist centres so that patients get expert treatment 24/7, but there must be a fundamental shift in other services out of hospitals into the community, focused on prevention and joined up with social care so that people can stay healthy and living independently at home. The last Labour Government had plans to deliver these changes in every English region through Lord Darzi’s NHS next stage review, and the single biggest mistake by this Government on the NHS was to scrap those plans and instead waste three years and £3 billion on the biggest backroom reorganisation in the history of the NHS.
Ministers do not want to talk about their reorganisation and their failure to make the real reforms that patients will need in the future. The Queen’s Speech should have included a Bill to modernise the regulation of doctors and nurses, in order to improve the safety and quality of care. That was recommended in the Francis report, it is what the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council want, and it is what patients desperately need, but Ministers have failed to deliver. They are desperate to avoid another NHS Bill after their disastrous Health and Social Care Act 2012, especially in the year before a general election, but let me remind hon. Members of the mess made by that Act.
Ministers said they would cut bureaucracy, but instead they created 440 new organisations: NHS England; Public Health England; Health Education England; four regional NHS England teams; 27 local area teams; 19 specialist commissioning units; 221 clinical commissioning groups; and 152 health and wellbeing boards. It is a system so confusing and dysfunctional that no one knows who is responsible or accountable for leading the changes that patients want and taxpayers need to ensure that the NHS is fit for the future.
Ministers promised that their reorganisation would save money, but £1.4 billion has been spent on redundancy payments alone and more than 4,000 people who were made redundant have now been rehired somewhere else in the system. And as if this chaos and confusion was not bad enough, the new chief executive of NHS England says there has got to be yet more change, with yet another reorganisation of specialist commissioning, because costs have spiralled out of control, and a reorganisation of NHS England’s regional and local area teams. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), the shadow Health Secretary, said, this truly is the reorganisation that never ends.
The real cost of the Government’s failure on the NHS does not stop with their reorganisations. Labour Members warned that handing responsibility for local GPs to a national quango such as NHS England, scrapping the 48-hour waiting target and removing Labour’s incentives for evening and weekend appointments would mean GP services going backwards and, as my hon. Friends the Members for West Ham (Lyn Brown) and for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin) said, that is exactly what has happened. A quarter of all patients now say they cannot get a GP appointment in the same week, let alone on the same day. We warned that cancer care would go backwards when the Government abolished vital cancer networks, and that is exactly what has happened. Two weeks ago, the NHS missed the cancer waiting time target—the first time any cancer target has been missed since 2009. We warned that disproportionate cuts to mental health services would mean worse care for patients and extra costs elsewhere in the system, and that is exactly what has happened. Patients are being sent hundreds of miles away because there are not enough beds locally, causing them and their families terrible distress and costing taxpayers millions of pounds extra.
We warned that slashing council care budgets was a false economy that would mean fewer elderly and disabled people receiving the support they need, forcing them into hospital and piling pressure on families and local A and E units. As my hon. Friends the Members for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley), for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) and for Westminster North (Ms Buck), as well as the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Anne Marie Morris), rightly said, that is exactly what has happened. Fewer elderly people are getting vital help, such as home care visits or support from district nurses, so more of them are ending up in hospital and getting stuck there for longer.
We have had the worst year in A and E for a decade, with a million people waiting for more than four hours. Delayed discharges are at their highest ever for this time of year. These delays cost £268 million last year, which could have paid for 20 million hours of home care. Where is the sense in that?
Rising emergency admissions mean planned operations are going backwards too. Three million people are now on hospital waiting lists, which is up by half a million people since 2010. Last year, 64,000 operations were cancelled—the highest figure in a decade.
The combined effect of the Government’s disastrous reorganisation and their incompetent decisions means that Ministers have lost a grip of NHS finances too. This year, trusts are in deficit for the first time in seven years, and twice as many foundation trusts will be in deficit compared with last year. The NHS trust deficit will be three times higher than they predicted even at the beginning of this year. The real tragedy is that all that could have been avoided if Conservative Ministers had not been blinded by politics and ideology and if Liberal Democrat MPs had had the guts to oppose them.
The truth is that there was nothing on the NHS in the Queen’s Speech because the coalition Government have no plan and no idea how to solve the problems they have created. In contrast, a Labour Queen’s Speech would repeal the Health and Social Care Act so that services can work together in the best interests of patients and get the best value for taxpayers’ money. A Labour Queen’s Speech would use savings from scrapping the costs of competition to guarantee new rights for patients to see their GP at a time that is convenient for them. A Labour Queen’s Speech would end the scandal of inappropriate 15-minute home care visits and exploitative zero-hours contracts so that elderly and disabled people get the quality of care they deserve.
A Labour Queen’s Speech would deliver the real reforms that patients and their families need to create one health and care system and ensure truly personalised care: integration, not fragmentation; wise expenditure, not waste; putting people first, not playing politics with their health and the services families rely on. That is what patients want, what taxpayers need and what our constituents deserve, and that is what a Labour Government will deliver.
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)
I thank all right hon. and hon. Members who have contributed to today’s debate. It has been a wide-ranging debate stretching well beyond the NHS, as the shadow Minister said. I think that we all enjoyed the alternative Queen’s Speech from the hon. Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell). His Front-Bench colleagues looked horrified, but it was the authentic voice of Labour.
Norman Lamb
Well, let us just make sure that Opposition Front Benchers listen to the hon. Gentleman.
We can be justifiably proud, it seems to me, of the action we have taken in health and care over the course of this Parliament. The hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin) made a speech that faded away from agreement, but at the very start he made the point that we should all pay tribute to a really remarkable work force in the NHS—1.3 million people doing incredible work. We want to free those people up as much as possible to do the very best they can.
Andy Burnham
Would not the best way to pay tribute to those thousands of staff in the NHS be to honour the 1% pay increase that the Chancellor promised them?
Norman Lamb
That is equivalent to about 6,000 nurses a year. The right hon. Gentleman has to demonstrate how that would be paid for. The fact is that there is an average wage increase of 3% as a result of annual pay increments under Agenda for Change. We have ensured that at least everyone will get a 1% increase. If he is arguing for something different, he has to say where the money would come from to pay for it and how he would cope with 6,000 fewer nurses, which would be the result of his action.
For the first time, it is this Government who have made decisive moves to join up the care and health system and focus more on preventing ill health. Contrary to the shadow Secretary of State’s claims, the better care fund has been widely welcomed, and it has initiated action across the country to join up a very fragmented system. We have sent out the signal that we encourage innovation and change, driven by clinicians from the bottom up, not from the top down. Brilliant pioneers across the country are ending this fragmented system that has interrupted patient care for so long and failed patients. Those pioneers are combating loneliness, which my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) spoke passionately about. It is so far removed from the caricature offered by the shadow Secretary of State and the tired old refrain about privatisation. It was, after all, a Labour Government who mortgaged the future of the NHS to the tune of billions of pounds with their private finance initiative programme, giving massive windfall profits to private consortiums—a scandal of historic proportions. Yet Labour Members continue to argue that the Government are privatising—an argument that is based on thin air, not substance.
Tom Blenkinsop
Will the Minister tell the House at what point the provisions of the Competition Act 1998 were introduced into the Bill that became the Health and Social Care Act 2012? I think it was this Government who did that. In the Public Bill Committee, I commented on the fact that they were exposing the NHS and undermining the category B status of the European competition regulations by putting the Competition Act at the very heart of the Bill.
Norman Lamb
I am sorry to disappoint the hon. Gentleman, but it was under the Labour Government that it was made clear that competition law applied to the health care system. Indeed, the Labour Government’s guidelines on the NHS replicated exactly the regulations under section 75 of the Competition Act that this Government have introduced. Time and again, we hear false claims by Labour Members.
This Government have developed a new health and care system that is totally patient-centred, led by health professionals, and focused on delivering world-class health outcomes. The difficult decisions that we have made on public finances have meant that we have been able to protect the NHS budget. The shadow Minister spoke as though the Government have had to face no financial challenge at all. She knows that across Europe, Governments have slashed pay for health workers and introduced co-payments. We have done none of that. We have protected the budget for the NHS, and we are proud of doing so; Labour did not commit to that in its manifesto at the last election. The truth is that the NHS is doing extremely well under a great deal of pressure.
This Government have laid solid foundations to transform our NHS to help it to meet the challenges of an ageing population, drive up standards, and focus absolutely on compassionate care. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Sir Peter Luff) spoke movingly about his experience of the importance of compassionate care. We have introduced tough, robust inspections overseen by new chief inspectors of hospitals, of social care, and of general practice. We have introduced ratings of hospitals, care homes and GP practices so that people know how good their local services are. We have introduced, for the first time, fundamental standards and the ability to prosecute—to hold to account organisations and directors who seriously fail patients. We have introduced a fit and proper person test for directors; for the first time, compulsory training for health and care assistants; and—I am particularly proud of this—a statutory duty of candour to ensure that there is openness when things go wrong in the NHS or the care system.
Geraint Davies
Given the Minister’s focus on accountability and transparency, why will he not support the regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors? My private Member’s Bill would have protected 1 million people. He or I could set up shop as psychotherapists tomorrow and see these vulnerable people who are currently at risk. Why will he not protect them?
Norman Lamb
The Government are not convinced by the argument for statutory regulation. The hon. Gentleman and I have had this debate many times, and I am happy to continue to discuss the matter with him.
In the wake of Francis, the Government are clear that poor or unsafe care will not be tolerated. There will be consequences for those who fail patients.
Opposition Members have criticised the lack of health legislation in the Gracious Speech, yet, as several of my hon. Friends, including the Members for Witham (Priti Patel) and for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), have noted, people are not out there on the streets demanding a new NHS Act of Parliament; they want safe, good, compassionate care.
The Government remain committed to legislating on professional regulation when parliamentary time allows.
Norman Lamb
Let me complete this point.
This is a complex area and we should not rush to legislate. We will keep making progress to respond to the scandal of Mid Staffordshire for the remainder of this Parliament. We are working closely with the regulators to ensure that key provisions, such as a faster fitness to practise test for nurses and midwives and English-language checks for all health care professionals, are in place during this Parliament.
The shadow Secretary of State quoted selected statistics on access to a GP, yet 86% of patients are satisfied with their GP practice. The Government have introduced a £50 million challenge fund, which will support more than 1,000 practices to develop innovative and flexible services. That will include Skype and e-mail consultations, as well as extended hours, and will benefit more than 7 million people.
The right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) again spoke extraordinarily passionately, giving a voice to those who feel they have no voice in our system. We should all express our gratitude to her for her continued campaigning on this critical issue, which demonstrates that we still have a long way to go if we are to ensure that we have a system of which we can all be genuinely proud. Like the right hon. Lady, I hope that one day the flood of letters on poor care will stop. We are doing what we can through the actions we are taking and we are grateful to her for the enormously valuable work she did on the complaints system. I hope the Labour Administration in Wales will do the same, especially after she eloquently highlighted the problems there in a recent BBC documentary.
Norman Lamb
I have given way quite a lot; I need to make some progress.
The right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) asked about allocations. It is right that the allocation of funding is no longer a political football but in the hands of experts. NHS England is seeking to make progress on reducing inequalities.
The hon. Member for Blyth Valley talked about charging in the NHS. Access to NHS services is based on clinical need, not on an individual’s ability to pay. That is fundamental to the NHS, and for as long as this coalition Government are in power the NHS will remain free.
We heard from Members on both sides of the House —my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) and the hon. Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck)—that health care needs to change so that care is provided more locally. The better care fund establishes a £3.8 billion pooled fund, to help people to stay healthy and independent.
Norman Lamb
Of course it is not new money—this is a different way of working. We have never claimed that it is new money; this is to ensure that we use the money more effectively. Indeed, the hon. Lady’s Front-Bench colleagues have made the argument that by pooling the health and social care budgets, we can achieve more with the money available.
Norman Lamb
No, I will not; I have given way many times. The fund is the largest financial incentive by any Government to promote integrated care, and it would be better if Opposition Members applauded the initiative rather than constantly criticising it.
At the start of this Parliament, this Government had five priorities for health and social care. We have delivered on all of them. Through the Care Act 2014, we have delivered the most profound change to the care and support system for a generation. After a decade of inaction under the previous Labour Government, we have introduced, for the first time, a cap on care costs and extended means-tested support. No one will have to sell their home during their lifetime to pay for care.
Under the leadership of Public Health England, we have created a new public health service, giving public health the priority it deserves in local government alongside other local services. As my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon) outlined, it is vital that we prevent ill health in the first place, as opposed to repairing the damage once it is done.
We are transforming health and care so that services are integrated around the needs of patients and users. We have revolutionised NHS accountability and seen a successful transition to a new health and care system. Finally, by focusing on outcomes rather than top-down diktat, we can identify what works and where we need to give additional support to help the system do more.
Mr Jamie Reed
I always enjoy the hon. Gentleman’s emollient Dr Jekyll, in contrast to the Secretary of State’s Mr Hyde. Will he be following the Crosby diktat and keeping his head down and his mouth shut about the Government’s record on the NHS between now and the general election, or will the Liberal Democrats be doing something rather different?
Norman Lamb
I am very happy to speak for myself, and I will do so in due course. I am sure that the Secretary of State is enormously grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his description of him.
In the final session of this Parliament, the Government will continue to ensure that the new health and care system works with both integrity and purpose, delivering safe and compassionate care to patients, their families and friends.
Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned.— (Mr Gyimah.)
Debate to be resumed tomorrow.
Undeclared Work (Reasoned Opinion)
(10 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Jenny Willott)
I beg to move,
That this House considers that the draft Decision on establishing a European Platform to enhance cooperation in the prevention and deterrence of undeclared work (European Union Document No. 9008/14 and Addenda 1 and 2) does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity for the reasons set out in the annex to Chapter One of the Forty-ninth Report of the European Scrutiny Committee (HC 83-xliv); and, in accordance with Article 6 of Protocol (No. 2) annexed to the EU Treaties on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, instructs the Clerk of the House to forward this reasoned opinion to the Presidents of the European Institutions.
This debate will give the House a welcome opportunity to discuss the proposed platform on undeclared work, and to decide whether to send a reasoned opinion to the European Commission. The Commission proposal seeks to establish an EU-level platform on undeclared work. Undeclared work is defined by the Commission as paid activities that are lawful but are not declared to public authorities. This matter is high on the European Commission’s agenda, against a backdrop of efforts to improve job creation, job quality and fiscal consolidation.
The proposal highlights a number of concerns, based on a perception of high levels of undeclared work in the EU, including tax evasion, mis-declaration of hours worked and benefit fraud. The Commission is proposing a platform, whose members will be drawn from member states’ nominated enforcement bodies, to try to improve co-operation, share best practices and identify common principles for inspections. I should of course stress that addressing undeclared work is a priority for the Government. We have taken action at national level to detect and deter fraud through inspection, as well as to encourage good practice by providing guidance for employers.
The debate has been called because the European Scrutiny Committee requested an opportunity to discuss its concerns about whether the proposal respects the principle of subsidiarity. There are also very short time scales and deadlines to which the European Commission is seeking to secure agreement on a position; hence the debate taking place tonight.
Let me first turn to the issue of subsidiarity. The concerns that I set out in the explanatory memorandum—the Committee shares those concerns—were based on the initial draft of the proposal, which sought to mandate member states to participate both in the platform and in any enforcement activities arising from the platform’s recommendations. Like the Committee, we remain to be persuaded that the Commission has demonstrated a need to mandate member states to take part in the platform or that EU-level intervention action will add value.
However, it emerged in negotiations late last week that although member states’ participation in the high-level platform would be mandatory, participation in any cross-border operational activities recommended by the platform would be voluntary. The Council’s legal service has indicated that that is the case, and we have asked it to clarify its official position. Therefore, the principal concern about subsidiarity that we identified in the explanatory memorandum—based on an earlier text—drops away. We could decide, issue by issue, whether the UK should participate in further activity, and we would of course seek the Committee’s views on such matters. However, we have not yet had advice from the Council’s legal service in writing, and the proposals are still being negotiated, so they may change. I therefore understand that the Committee will want to decide for itself whether the proposal respects the principle of subsidiarity.
Our concerns about the detail of the proposal have been shared by other member states and, together, we have secured some changes. The changes, alongside the fact that the activities identified will not be mandatory, mean that the majority of member states will support the proposal. Therefore, the original subsidiarity risk that we identified does not still stand. Moreover, we should be involved in discussions about activities in relation to which we could be asked to take action, even if we probably do not want so to act. Negotiations are ongoing and the European Parliament is yet to begin its consideration of the proposals, so we will be continuing to work throughout the negotiations to ensure that our concerns about subsidiarity are addressed in the final text.
Let me now turn to justice and home affairs. Since publishing the explanatory memorandum, our ongoing analysis has identified that the proposal may include elements relating to justice and home affairs, thus invoking the UK’s JHA opt-in. That is because the proposals suggest, for example, that enforcement bodies such as the police will collaborate in cross-border activity. No decision has yet been made on whether or not to opt in to the proposal. Once a decision has been made, we will write to the European Scrutiny Committee. Having said that, as it is not mandatory to participate in any activities that result from the discussions, no significant burden would be placed on the UK by opting in.
The Commission and presidency are pushing hard on the proposal, and we were informed on Friday that they hope to reach a general approach on 11 June, which is very soon. The deadline for sending the reasoned opinion to the Commission is 11 pm tonight. With the timing of the recess and the Queen’s Speech, this evening was the earliest opportunity to facilitate a discussion in time to meet the deadline, although I appreciate that the timing is not ideal for such an important discussion. If we run out of time tonight, I will be happy to follow up any questions in writing, although given the numbers present, that seems somewhat unlikely—[Interruption.] The shadow Minister may want to raise lots of questions.
Jenny Willott
Oh, I am looking at the wrong side of the House. I hope that we will have time for a reasonable discussion and come to a decision on issuing a reasoned opinion tonight.
Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)
I thank the European Scrutiny Committee for its consideration of this issue and the Minister for her comments. Given the time scale involved and the number who would like to speak, we should try to meet the European Commission’s 11 o’clock deadline, although I doubt that I share the Minister’s enthusiasm or optimism that we will do that, given the Members who wish to speak. Nevertheless, as the Minister said, we have the first opportunity for the House to start banging on about Europe again so soon in the new Session.
It is worth reflecting on what is in the document, because undeclared work is an important issue. We should reflect on how harmful it can be to our economy and to the people who participate in it, and particularly on bogus self-employment in the construction sector. I was going to talk a little about that, but, given the time scale, I would like simply to agree with the Minister on the issues around subsidiarity and what the proposal is trying to achieve.
We have no problem whatever with trying to improve co-operation between member states’ enforcement authorities in order to prevent and detect undeclared work, including bogus self-employment. We should all share that aim, and it is welcome for all member states to work together on that. We should also be improving member states’ enforcement authorities by giving them the technical capacity to tackle cross-border undeclared work. We are very good at that in this country and should be sharing our best practice, as well as getting best practice from other member states on other mechanisms for doing that.
The third aim of the document is to increase public awareness of the urgency of action and to encourage member states to step up their efforts to deal with undeclared work across the European Union. I could spend a few minutes bashing the Lib Dem Minister and ask her what she is doing to persuade the Commission to look seriously at subsidiarity, because if they were to remove the mandatory element of the proposal, everyone would welcome taking it forward on a non-compulsory basis and be able to help other member states to go forward with the rest of the proposal.
The reality on the ground is that people are often looking desperately for work and will sign any contract placed in front of them in order to secure employment. With the freedom of movement across the EU, it is right that member states work with one another to tackle rogue employers who perpetrate undeclared work and attempt to hide behind other member states’ borders—they hide behind undeclared work in order not to pay their fair share of taxation and to undermine workers’ rights. It is that sort of limited and practical proposal that shows how the European collaboration project could work and add value to member states.
I do not know whether the Minister will get an opportunity to respond to the debate, or whether she will have time to do so, but I would like to pose a number of questions; if she does not get an opportunity to respond, perhaps she could write to me to give me some comfort.
What assessment has the Minister’s Department made of the scale of undeclared work across the EU, and in particular the UK? What investigation has she made into the cross-border problems of undeclared work? That information may be incredibly helpful in indicating the problem we are dealing with and what the benefits of such an EU-wide platform would be. What recent discussions have current enforcement agencies such as the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, the Employment Agency Standards inspectorate, and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs had with the Government and the European Commission on undeclared work and the usefulness of the proposal? Finally, I do not think the Minister mentioned this, but does she agree with the proposals in principle? The Opposition agree with the Government’s position, and hope we can get it to the European Commission as soon as possible.
Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con)
We are extremely conscious of the timetable this evening, and the fact that the whole business must be dealt with by at least 10.45 pm. We will do our best—at least, some of us will—to ensure that we get through the business as quickly as possible, but we must also have regard to what needs to be said.
The explanatory memorandum that the Minister has just discussed states:
“The Government is not yet persuaded that the proposed decision to require Member States to participate on a mandatory basis is consistent with the principle of subsidiarity and believes that participation in any platform should be on a voluntary basis.”
I know that further consideration is being given to that position, and as far as we are concerned the matter is of sufficient importance to be regarded as a breach of subsidiarity. That is our view, and the view of our legal adviser and the European Scrutiny Committee. The Minister added:
“The Government’s view is that the proposal lacks the empirical evidence base or analysis of structural failure at Member State or Union level which would support a case for intervention.”
We wish to underline the inadequacy of the Commission’s impact assessment, which acknowledges the absence of a clear “incidence chain” linking the establishment of the EU platform to a reduction in undeclared work, greater social well-being and better economic outcomes.
We also seek a clear explanation from the Government about their position on the content of the draft reasoned opinion prepared by the European Scrutiny Committee, as well as an indication of how they intend to use it in Council negotiations on the draft decision. Will member states continue to express a preference for voluntary participation in any EU platform on undeclared work? The Commission’s impact assessment indicates that most member states favour a voluntary approach.
We wish to press the Minister for a clearer indication of the scale and significance of the cross-border dimension in tackling undeclared work. In that context we bear in mind that, as she has said, there are justice and home affairs implications in respect of that and of whether there should be an opt-in. Will the Minister confirm that the Government will oppose any attempt in the general approach proposed to interfere in internal governance structures and the co-ordination mechanisms of national enforcement authorities responsible for tackling undeclared work?
I think that that is as much as needs to be said at this stage, but I wanted to put that on the record and make a general comment about reasoned opinions. I have been sceptical about reasoned opinions and the yellow card system for a long time—in fact, from the moment they were first put forward. We know that there are thresholds, but we were extremely disturbed when, in relation to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the threshold was passed by all member states and—surprise, surprise—the European Commission ignored that fact. The national Parliaments, which the Commission keeps telling us are so important, took the view that there was a breach of subsidiarity. On account of that it was assumed that the Commission would withdraw the proposal, but no such thing occurred.
I say that in general as we start the new parliamentary Session, because it is no good getting these grand statements—we are getting a lot at the moment—from the likes of Mr Juncker and company about the kind of European Union they want. There are very serious questions about the drive towards political union. If they want to trample on national Parliaments, when they put forward and achieve the threshold in terms of reasoned opinions and subsidiarity, and just ignore them, then I am afraid the increase in disaffection with the European Union will grow exponentially.
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)
I shall be very brief, because I, too, know the time limits. I prepared a great oration to last for 90 minutes, because I know the Minister loves it so much. Really, I have just two questions: first on the detail of the Government’s position and secondly on the legal base.
The first question is a fairly easy one. The Government were uncomfortable with the legal base put forward by the Commission in article 153(2)(a). I am not sure what the Government’s current position is and I would very much like to hear what the Minister has to say.
Equally, I was not quite sure from what the Minister said whether the Government’s position on subsidiarity was shifting following the clarification at Council working group level that, while participation in the proposed EU platform will be mandatory for all member states, participation in the activities of the platform will be voluntary. I am not sure that that will be the case, because in the proposed text issued by the Commission it does not appear that the national authorities’ participation in the activities of the platform could, or would, be voluntary. Article 5(1) requires that
“Each Member State shall appoint one single point of contact as a member of the Platform.”
Article 5(4) provides that
“Single points of contact shall liaise with all enforcement authorities which are involved in the prevention and/or deterrence of undeclared work regarding the activities of the Platform and guarantee their participation at the meetings and/or contribution to the activities of the Platform or its working groups if issues discussed involve their field of competence.”
It strikes me that there is a bit of an issue here, which is one of the very good reasons why we should issue a reasoned opinion. I would like the Minister’s clarification on that.
Finally, there is quite a budget attached to this platform. Europe is very good at spending money on doing these things. Personally, I do not see the value in half of this stuff, but I would very much appreciate it if the Minister clarified those two points.
Jenny Willott
A number of the points that have been raised by hon. Members are very similar. First, it is important to put on the record that undeclared work is an extremely important issue across Europe. It is on a larger scale in some countries than others. The hon. Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray) asked what research had been undertaken on the levels of undeclared work in the UK. The most recent estimate for the UK was, I think, 1.7%—extremely low. In other member states the figure is significantly higher, so it is clearly a bigger issue in other states.
Cross-border working was mentioned by the hon. Member for Stone (Mr Cash) and the hon. Member for Edinburgh South. One of our concerns is that very little evidence has been put forward on the implications and requirement to take action on cross-border work. On the assessment of the numbers and the amount of detriment that can be attributed to them, we are not convinced that the data are particularly accurate. We have asked the European Commission to identify, in a much better way, the scale of the problem. The UK, alongside other member states, does a lot of work internationally across borders, in a completely voluntary way, to try to tackle these issues. A huge amount of work is done because, as responsible Governments across different countries, we all think it is really important to tackle this issue. We do not feel that the Commission has provided evidence that what is being done at the moment is not a good enough approach and we have not seen evidence to suggest that the problem is significantly larger. That is one of the main reasons why we feel that the Commission has not made the case for why this needs to be done at EU level, rather than at member state level.
The hon. Member for Stone asked about participation and about our position on the subsidiarity principle, given that we are saying that the position has changed. We still have concerns that the mandatory nature of the platform is a breach of the subsidiarity principle. However, as regards the operation, given that the only mandatory element is attendance at the platform, we now believe that the concerns we raised in explanatory memorandums about the requirements for member states to take action when it is for them to decide—it has been agreed in the negotiations that it should not be mandatory—are not such a problem for the UK. Yet we feel it is really important that any activity should remain voluntary rather than mandatory.
Jenny Willott
We certainly support today’s motion, and we think that we should be sending a reasoned opinion. Our concerns are, however, less, now that the rest of it appears to be voluntary. We still feel strongly about the mandation, which is why we are working with other member states on the negotiation to ensure that the activity that follows from the platform should be voluntary. That is why we have asked for written confirmation from the Council legal services. We tried to get it for this evening’s debate so that we could be clear on the position. It is still a moveable feast and we are still in negotiations, but we hope to reach that position. A number of other member states have similar concerns about the mandatory element and we are not the only member state working to try to ensure that the rest remains voluntary.
The hon. Member for Edinburgh South referred to the issue of bogus self-employment in the construction sector. We hope that the work of the platform will include looking at such issues and analysing them. We will press for a full analysis of areas that we think it would be useful for the platform to consider.
The points raised by the hon. Member for Stone about the yellow card system generally are above my pay grade, but I think that his points were well made and I will make sure that they are referred back to the most appropriate Minister.
I hope that I have tackled all the issues raised. If I have not—we can go through the Hansard—I will be more than happy to clarify anything I may have overlooked.
Question put and agreed to.
business of the house (private members’ bills)
Children with Epilepsy (Children and Families Act 2014)
(10 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)
It is a pleasure to be able to initiate a debate on this issue. It is not the first time that we have discussed epilepsy in the Chamber, and I certainly hope it will not be the last. We had a useful Westminster Hall debate back in February 2013, initiated, I believe, by the hon. Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz), and I had a debate back in October 2010, which was my first on the topic.
Rather than look at the wide spectrum of epilepsy today, I want to focus—laser-like if I may—on the issue of epilepsy in education and the implications of the Children and Families Act 2014, which has just been introduced and which I think represents a fork in the road for how we deal with pupils who have serious medical conditions such as epilepsy.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty, it would be worth focusing once again on the numbers and the context. There are 122,000 children with epilepsy at any one time in our schools system—four times more than have diabetes. Diabetes has, quite rightly, had a lot of attention of late in this Chamber, so it is interesting to balance the two.
There are more than 40 types of epilepsy. It covers an amazingly massive spectrum, not just the classic “grand mal” fit with which many associate it. It can be as simple as the occasional “absence”, when people lose their attention for some reason. Epilepsy is often the least noticeable of a range of complex conditions that an individual has. More than 42% of pupils with epilepsy are on the learning disability spectrum. For some people with very severe forms of conditions such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy is almost the least of their concerns, but it is still an ever-present part of their daily lives.
A recent CHESS—Children with Epilepsy in Sussex Schools—study found that 42% of pupils with epilepsy were not fulfilling their potential in the school system, and I think that that important fact represents the crux of the debate. This is about not only the medical implications of epilepsy, but the societal context. So much is based on ignorance of the condition. That does not just mean not knowing what to do when someone is having a seizure; more important, it means ignorance of the causes, the background and the neurological underpinning of epilepsy, and, in an educational context, the implications for an individual’s learning capacity.
Lurking behind all that are the consequences of prejudice and the stigma that is attached to epilepsy. I often cite one example of that. When I was a Conservative candidate in Twickenham, I wrote to my local paper about national epilepsy day in an attempt to raise awareness of the condition. I was shocked when, the following week, a constituent wrote, “Mr Maynard should not have to worry; he has merely been possessed by evil spirits.” At the time I found it hard to believe that such a level of prejudice could exist, and I find it just as hard to believe now. However, it occurs not just in the playground, but in the classroom. Many pupils with epilepsy report a lack of understanding on the part of members of staff, which I think needs to be tackled.
The Children and Families Act represents a major opportunity in that regard. It has numerous good aspects, but I must ask the Minister a fundamental question: how can he ensure, as he implements the Act, that the needs of children with epilepsy are not left by the wayside just because they are among the more complex needs in terms of both health and education? I am sure the Minister agrees that the challenge posed by the Act will not simply disappear following Royal Assent. If anything, the challenge of implementation is that much greater. I ask him to bear it in mind that, as I said earlier, 42% of pupils fail to fulfil their educational potential. I should welcome his thoughts about how we can ensure that that percentage is reduced.
As I have said, I think that the Children and Families Act contains much that is good. I welcome the fact that school governors will have a duty to address the medical needs of pupils who are in their care. I welcome the fact that we are moving towards a more practical acceptance of epilepsy in the classroom. A couple of months ago, the Minister and I were lucky enough to launch the Council for Disabled Children’s “Dignity and Inclusion” documents, which provide teachers with a practical way in which to assess how to deal with children with epilepsy in their classrooms. However, there is still more to be done.
I myself have nocturnal epilepsy. I have night-time fits, which are triggered by alcohol. When I come to the next morning, my short-term memory is gone. I struggle to remember what I did the day before. I would probably even struggle, initially, to answer that classic question, “Can you name the Prime Minister?” I would have to think long and hard about it, and might actually fail to answer it, although I assure the House that I could answer it now.
It must be borne in mind that epileptic attacks, seizures and fits all have consequences for pupils’ learning. Young Epilepsy, the major charity that campaigns on behalf of people with epilepsy, which has been a great help in putting together the information for the debate, has produced what it calls “A Manifesto for Change”, which contains some useful guidance on matters on which I should like the Minister to focus. First and foremost, it wants to ensure that all pupils have access to a high-quality personalised assessment of their needs, rather than being subject to a standard tick-box approach. I know that Young Epilepsy has a graph assessment tool called ABLE, which may be helpful in that regard. It is all very well having an assessment and determining needs, but one must go to the next stage. All pupils, parents and teachers need to understand what the entitlements are as a consequence of the assessment. There is no point being assessed and then not knowing what one is entitled to and what the local offer consists of.
The third aspect that Young Epilepsy is campaigning on is perhaps the trickiest: teacher training. I realise that central Government have little control, if any, over the composition of teacher training syllabuses, but the key point is that it is not just about the first aid aspects of dealing with a pupil with epilepsy, important though that is—it often seems to get the main focus in political debate; it is also about understanding the consequences for an individual’s learning of those epilepsy seizures. More important again, it is about trying to understand that knowing how to spot the warning signs can incentivise earlier diagnosis and better care for the pupil.
I would welcome the Minister’s view on what he can do to encourage a greater role for epilepsy in initial teacher training. What can we do as part of continuous professional development to incentivise teachers who have already been trained and are in the classroom to look at epilepsy and understand not just the first aid consequences but the learning consequences? The two go hand in hand.
Another aspect that is worth bearing in mind and on which I would welcome the Minister’s view is the assessment that he has made of the pathfinders that have been reviewed recently. I understand that one of the initial conclusions is that within the existing resource allocation, it has been very hard to make a real difference to the lives of individual families. I know that that is an initial finding. Does he share that view? Does he have an alternative opinion?
I understand that £70 million has been allocated across the country to a range of local councils, which have all spent that money differently. Some have spent it on improving data systems, others on improving the local offer. Others have hired extra staff. How will the Minister assess all these different funding streams? What has had the most impact on families and the children? How will he measure the effectiveness of the £70 million? It is good to have £70 million, but we need to know how local authorities can best spend it.
Equally welcome is the £30 million that will go into what will be called independent supporters. That term seems a bit nebulous. I am not sure I can give a precise definition on the Floor of the House. I would welcome a bit more information from the Minister on what that might involve.
I would also like some reassurance. There is a slight concern in the epilepsy community that the £30 million may go to the larger charities, which can spend their money on branding, rather than investing in service delivery, expertise and competency down the years. It would be a great tragedy if the expertise were not utilised to ensure continuity of care for pupils between home, school and any other setting. That is why it is worth paying tribute once again to the Minister for his determination to ensure that we have education, health and care plans. I know that that was a running sore throughout the development and legislative process of the Act. We had to try to meld education and health, which did not always fit together neatly. It is vital that we have education, health and care plans, which will allow pupils to fit in between the two.
The other question I have for the Minister relates to the role of Ofsted. How will it assess the quality of the provision? At the moment I understand that we can rely on parent satisfaction surveys as a key indicator of whether services are working well. Although those are not to be dismissed, I am not sure that they constitute a proper statistical basis on which to make evidence-based policy decisions. I know that the Government are strong believers in an outcome-based system and in assessing the effectiveness of legislative intervention, but in this specific instance what outcomes will be used to make that assessment? Who will be doing the assessing—Ofsted or some other body? Will they have sufficient powers to assess the health component of what will occur in the educational setting as well as the educational activities?
My final question relates to what are called key workers, which is a relatively broad term and encompasses people who truly understand epilepsy and who can help families to navigate their way through what remains a complex minefield of different service providers. It is noted in the Children and Families Act that key workers are seen to be a good thing, but they are not mandatory: they are merely an advised addition that local authorities can consider. I would be interested to know how the Minister thinks we can strengthen the appeal of key workers, though not necessarily to make them mandatory, because I understand the importance of localism and ensuring that local authorities make up their own minds. There is a case, however, for ensuring that key workers do not become a luxury optional extra that gets tacked on at the end of a local offer if there is some money left over, but are the building blocks of the local offer provision for families with children with epilepsy.
I realise that, as is the nature of Adjournment debates, I have peppered the Minister with detailed questions, some of which I hope he can answer—civil servants in the Box are passing yet more answers to him as I speak. If he cannot answer all my questions, I hope he will be able to write to me at a later date. I thank him for agreeing to meet Young Epilepsy, which I am sure will be an interesting meeting in the light of this debate. I thank him and all hon. Members who have attended for their time, and I look forward to hearing his reply.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)
May I begin in the traditional and in this case very pertinent way, by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) for once again initiating an important debate about the wide subject of special educational needs and the specific area of those many children and young people who have some form of epilepsy? This is not the first debate of this kind that we have had, and it is good that he reminds us that as we move on from the statute book to the implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014, we should keep our focus very much on what this means to the families and children whom we hope to benefit from the reforms.
Like my hon. Friend, I understand the importance of supporting pupils with medical conditions such as epilepsy, and it is imperative that the right support is put in place quickly and effectively. I will try to cover as many of the points that he made as possible, and I will of course endeavour to make sure he has a full and proper response in writing to those that I do not.
I should like to start by restating our ambition that every child with SEN, or who has a disability or a medical condition that impedes their ability to learn, including those with epilepsy, receives the support they need, so they can achieve well in school and go on to find employment and lead happy and fulfilled lives. The special needs reforms in the 2014 Act are deliberately focused on joining up help across education, health and social care, so that children receive the help that they need when they need it throughout their education. Parents and children will be involved in decisions about the support they receive much more closely than hitherto, so that they have a genuine say in what they want to achieve and how they will achieve it.
Epilepsy is just one of the many medical conditions for which pupils require support, to help them progress properly through school, and it is right to acknowledge the excellent work that most of our schools do to provide the support that their pupils need. However, there can be no excuse for the poor practice that evidence suggests exists in some schools.
Under the Equality Act 2010, schools have clear duties not to directly or indirectly discriminate against children and young people with disabilities. Government guidance on the Act clearly identifies long-term health conditions, such as epilepsy, as being among the impairments from which a disability can arise, and they are therefore covered by this duty. As such, this form of discrimination is simply not acceptable.
As my hon. Friend skilfully argued, however, pupils with epilepsy often face significant challenges and difficulties not just in school, but in all aspects of their lives, and I also recognise that these challenges can be exacerbated because of a lack of understanding of the condition by others.
I remember a family holiday from about 30 years ago when we had with us a school friend of my sister who had epilepsy, unbeknown to me. During our holiday, this child, who sadly and tragically died this year, suffered an epileptic fit. As a young boy, I was shocked by what I saw happen in front of my eyes, but, having had had it explained to me, it has left me in good stead for the rest of my life, in terms of understanding the cause, effect and manifestation of epilepsy and the surrounding context for someone who has it. That was pure chance, and many people, whether pupils or even teachers at school, do not have that experience and cannot draw from it.
As my hon. Friend said, that is one reason why we introduced a new duty for school governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions and to have regard to guidance, so that they get the support they need at their time of need. Our aim in putting that duty in the 2014 Act was to send out a clear message that poor practice will not be tolerated and that conditions such as epilepsy must be properly recognised. Pupils with medical conditions deserve to be supported properly in schools and to have the same chances as everyone else to succeed in whatever they choose to do.
The new statutory guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions acknowledges the negative social and emotional implications associated with medical conditions such as epilepsy. That is why there is a clear expectation for a child’s social and emotional needs to be taken into account when considering the support that they require. This guidance, which comes into force in September, is deliberately child-focused, recognising that medical conditions will present differently in different children. Epilepsy is a case in point; no two children with epilepsy will have identical needs, and it is therefore right, as my hon. Friend said, that each case is treated individually, based on the needs of each child.
That is why we have also made it clear in the guidance that the school’s policy should cover the role of individual health care plans and clearly state who is responsible for their development. The plans will help to ensure that school staff know how to support pupils in lessons, how to help them with administering medication and what to do in an emergency. They will be drawn up in collaboration between the school, the parents and the pupil—that is important—and the most relevant health care professional, such as the epilepsy specialist nurse. I am pleased that we have developed the new statutory guidance in such close collaboration with a wide range of interested parties. Young Epilepsy, as a member of the Health Conditions in Schools Alliance, was actively involved in that work and added substantial value to the guidance, for which we are extremely grateful.
In identifying children and young people who need additional support and adjustments, whether because they have a health condition, a disability or special educational needs, the key is that professionals should look at the particular needs of the individual and seek to co-ordinate support, so all these needs are addressed coherently. Children with epilepsy will not necessarily have SEN. What is set out in a child’s individual health care plan might be enough to ensure that he or she has access to differentiated, high-quality teaching. However, where a child has SEN, the new nought-to-25 SEND—special educational needs and disability—code of practice sets out how schools should work with parents to identify underlying issues, including health needs, and reflect those in the support given and the outcomes we all want to see achieved. Where a child or young person has an education, health and care plan, the code sets out a thorough process—again, with parents centrally involved—for putting in place a comprehensive plan covering the full range of a child’s needs; obviously, that can include support provided by specialist services.
These plans are also supported by the strategic arrangements in the 2014 Act. The joint commissioning duties require education, care and health services to come together to commission services for children and young people with SEN and disabilities. Wider provision is also covered, including through a consideration of how to integrate education, health and care provision to provide that most effectively, in line with wider duties. As my hon. Friend will also be aware, the new local offer will set out details of all the services for children and young people with SEN and disabilities in a local authority area and how to access them. We expect that that will reflect the full range of services, including those for children and young people with epilepsy, and those offered by the voluntary and community sector.
On initial teacher training, I fully understand the case my hon. Friend makes, and it is always tempting to look to ITT as a solution in respect of the desire to see every teacher well versed in the practice of dealing with many of these conditions. Teaching standards include duties on schools to ensure that their staff understand how to deal with children’s special educational needs. We can also look at reviews into initial teacher training to satisfy ourselves that they are going far enough.
My hon. Friend will know that there have been a number of evaluations of pathfinders in 31 local authority areas. We now have pathfinder champions who are helping those non-pathfinder areas to learn from the evaluation of the progress that they have made. We have excellent examples of families who feel that the culture has shifted. For the first time, they have been able to sit in a room with someone from education, someone from health and someone from social care, and they have been asked what they think should happen, rather than it being told to them.
The special educational needs reform grant of £70 million has gone to local authorities. We have done a local authority readiness test to see how each local authority is performing in preparation for the changes in September. Ofsted is doing some thematic work to look at how some of the reforms will bed in over the next months and years, and I hope to see progress in time towards a more cohesive inspection regime of special educational need provision across all the different services. Ofsted is starting to consider that that is the best way forward for children’s services, and there is a good case for looking more carefully at how education, health and social care inspection can be brought together, so that it looks at the experience of the child and the family, rather than at the individual services.
The independent supporters are, in many ways, the key workers about whom my hon. Friend was talking. The £30 million will pay for 1,800 independent supporters who will be drawn predominantly from the charitable sector. I encourage organisations such as Young Epilepsy, which want to get involved, to contact the Council for Disabled Children, which is helping us to recruit those independent supporters. It works out at about 12 in each local authority area. We know from speaking to parents right across the country that one of the things that they value more than anything else is to have someone who is not from the local authority, the school or one of the health providers to provide them with that genuine independent support to navigate them through what can sometimes be seen as a very convoluted system—a system that we are trying to make clearer and easier to access. It is very much an investment in service delivery, as my hon. Friend says, and the £30 million will be invested over the next two years. To monitor its progress, we will work closely with our strategic partner, the Council for Disabled Children, to make sure that it is having the impact that we all want to see.
Over and above that, I will be saying more tomorrow about how we will ensure that the extra burdens that we are placing on local authorities will be met, so that the authorities have sufficient funds to ensure that the system really does reach the parts that we want it to. Ultimately, this is about ensuring that parents and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities see that cultural change in the system that for too long has been absent. As my hon. Friend says, this is a fork in the road, and we need to take the right path. I believe that we can do that, but we need to pull together to make sure that this really does make the difference that we all want to see.
Question put and agreed to.
Ministerial Correction
Leader of the House
(10 years ago)
Ministerial CorrectionsRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Lansley
........As it happens, in the last Session we passed 20 Bills, while in the penultimate Session of the previous Parliament, 18 Bills were passed. An interesting contrast is that in the last Session, 24 Bills had two days of scrutiny on Report in this Chamber, while the figure for the whole of the previous Parliament was only 10. When it has come down to it, we have been able to accomplish a substantial legislative programme and we will continue to do so in this Session, with better scrutiny and legislation as a result.
[Official Report, 5 June 2014, Vol. 582, c. 119.]
Letter of correction from Mr Lansley:
An error has been identified in the answer given to the hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle).
The correct response should have been:
Mr Lansley
........As it happens, in the last Session we passed 20 Bills, while in the penultimate Session of the previous Parliament, 18 Bills were passed. An interesting contrast is that so far in this Parliament, 24 Bills had two days of scrutiny on Report in this Chamber, while the figure for the whole of the previous Parliament was only 10. When it has come down to it, we have been able to accomplish a substantial legislative programme and we will continue to do so in this Session, with better scrutiny and legislation as a result.
Written Statements
EU Competitiveness Council
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
My noble Friend, the Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Livingston of Parkhead, has made the following statement:
The Competitiveness Council took place in Brussels on 26 May. The UK was represented by Shan Morgan, the Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU. Internal market and industry was discussed during the morning session with research, innovation and space being discussed in the afternoon session.
The Council opened with a presentation by the Commission on the current state of play of the state aid modernisation programme. In the discussion that followed the UK expressed its support for strong state aid rules and added that further work should be undertaken by the Commission to streamline and accelerate the approval system.
Modernisation of trade defence instruments was then discussed as an any other business item. The discussion focused on the Commission’s decision to adopt the non-legislative guidelines before agreement of the legislative proposal. Several member states, including the UK, intervened stating that the initiative should have been presented as a package. However, the Commission rejected this noting that it has exclusive competence on matters relating to trade and that no undertaking had been made, committing the Commission to issuing the guidelines and legislation as a package.
Following this, the Commission presented a progress report on the package travel directive, which the Council noted.
The Council then considered three intellectual property issues. First, the Commission provided a progress report on the trade mark package (there was no substantive discussion). Secondly, the Council agreed a general approach on the trade secrets directive. During discussions, the UK, with support of other the member states, intervened to praise the presidency’s draft and confirm this was the only draft that could result in an agreement. Finally, the presidency presented an information point on the European patent and unitary patent court, during which it noted the positive outcome of a referendum in Denmark on the establishment of the unitary patent court. The UK, along with several other member states, intervened to note the importance of the court and to emphasise that implementation should not be rushed so as to ensure that systems are right.
Denmark and the Netherlands introduced an any other business item on the frontrunners initiative. The initiative is designed to further improve the single market through the sharing of best practice, peer review and ambitious approaches to the implementation of single market rules.
The UK is a participant in the frontrunners initiative and intervened to express its support for it. The initiative was welcomed by both the incoming presidency and the Commission.
The Council agreed a general approach on the regulation on the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system. This is an automatic system which alerts the emergency services when a vehicle has been involved in an accident. The UK has long opposed this and intervened, opposing the general approach, maintaining that a voluntary approach would be best given the costs of the regulation outweigh the benefits.
The Commission updated member states on the current state of play of key enabling technologies and raw materials, during which it announced the adoption of a new list of critical raw materials.
In the afternoon the research, innovation and space agenda opened with a discussion on the draft Council conclusions on improving relations between the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA), during which the importance of improving the relationship between these institutions was stressed, with a number of member states noting that the best way to achieve this was through revision of the existing framework agreement or the creation of a new EU pillar in the ESA.
The Council agreed with the conclusion on European research infrastructures. The UK intervened to explain why a declaration with eight other member states had been tabled. All of the signatories explained that they felt strongly that the Commission should spend no more than half of the moneys set aside for research infrastructures this year (€90 million) on the top three priority projects. The presidency outlined its paper which argued that there should be a public-public partnership (article 185 of the treaty) for Euro-Mediterranean co-operation. Eight member states gave their full support. The UK, along with four other member states were all supportive of the general ambition of the initiative, but asked for additional information about the likely added value and an impact assessment before taking a final stance. The Commission welcomed the progress made.
Finally, the Italian delegation gave a presentation on their presidency, noting that they will prioritise mainstreaming competitiveness, industrial competitiveness, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the review of the Europe 2020 strategy.
UK Coal Production Ltd
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
I want to update the House on matters concerning UK Coal Production Ltd, further to the statement I provided to the House on 10 April 2014, Official Report, column 24WS.
As the House will recall, the Government’s intention in principle is to provide a commercial loan, alongside contributions from private sector parties, as part of a consortium created to avoid the immediate insolvency of UK Coal. Such participation remains conditional on both the negotiation of final terms that provide adequate protection to taxpayers, and the Government securing assurance that all parties are committed to successful delivery of the closure plan.
Significant progress has been made in this regard since April. However, a number of important matters need to be concluded before the final terms of the loan are agreed among all the parties and the funds can be made available to the company.
The company has performed well and production levels have been better than forecast. It is hoped that resolution and conclusion will be reached in the coming weeks. The exact amount of any Government loan is yet to be finalised and is still expected to be in the region of £10 million.
It is the Government’s intention that any party who wishes to come forward with investment to maintain the mines beyond autumn 2015, without Government support, will remain free to do so.
I should also like to again acknowledge the continuing support the company is receiving from its work force, customers, suppliers and creditors during this challenging period. I will continue to keep the House updated.
Reserve Forces
(10 years ago)
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The Minister for the Armed Forces (Mr Mark Francois)
A new call-out order has been made under section 56(l)(a) of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 to enable reservists to be called into permanent service as part of the UK’s contribution to EUFOR operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the period July to December 2014.
We anticipate calling out only a small number of reservists with specialist skills and experience who will operate alongside their regular colleagues. This is fully in line with our policy of having more capable, usable, integrated and relevant reserve forces.
Currently, we plan on calling out only willing and available reservists, who have the support of their employer.
The order takes effect from 29 May 2014 and ceases to have effect on 31 December 2014.
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
(10 years ago)
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The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond)
Further to my statement of 10 March 2014, Official Report, column 2WS regarding the preferred bidder for the strategic business partner (SBP) to operate with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), I am able to announce that the contract has now been awarded to Capita in conjunction with URS and PA Consulting.
The introduction of a strategic business partner will enable the DIO to make a significant contribution to departmental savings as set out in the 2010 strategic defence and security review and will strengthen the service we provide across defence.
Following the establishment of the DIO in April 2011, a significant transformation programme was instigated and in early 2011 the Ministry of Defence board considered the outline case for the introduction of an SBP for DIO.
The case set out the potential financial benefits of adopting a different business model in DIO whereby an SBP would be engaged to drive the transformation of DIO further and deliver rationalisation and efficiency improvements. The key areas were:
a. access to market-competitive skills and a right-sized organisation through organisational optimisation work during the short-term transformation phase of the contract;
b. access to greater capacity for transformation and specialist skills through reach-back to the partner company;
c. access to private sector funding that might be brought into use for pump-priming estate rationalisation and for spend-to-save on efficiency improvements.
Capita in conjunction with URS and PA Consulting has been selected as the strategic business partner for a 10-year contract on a predominately incentive based gain-share arrangement. The DIO will now undertake further trade union consultation with the intention of creating a GovCo to manage defence infrastructure from 2016.
Operation Althea (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
(10 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Andrew Murrison)
The House will be aware that the UK is a long standing supporter of the EU mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), EUFOR, and its role to ensure a safe and secure environment in BiH.
I wish to inform the House of the UK’s plans to contribute additional military personnel to EUFOR Althea for a period of up to six months in the run up to the elections. This is in support of a request made by deputy supreme allied commander Europe to member states, following civil unrest in BiH in February this year. This unrest highlighted the need for additional capability in EUFOR, including situational awareness and operational planning.
The UK will be contributing two staff officers to support HQ planning activity and two reconnaissance platoons (around 90 personnel in total) for a period of six months, starting in July 2014. This will help to ensure EUFOR is fully prepared for any eventualities that occur during the election period.
Review Board for Government Contracts
(10 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Dunne)
I announced updated Government profit formula (GPF) allowances to the House on 15 April 2013, in line with recommendations made by the independent Review Board for Government Contracts. The review board is an independent non-departmental public body established in 1968 following an agreement between the Government and industry and its role is to recommend a fair and reasonable return for industry based on the principle of comparability in those situations where there is only one supplier of a particular good or service and, therefore, where there is no recourse to competition to establish prices.
Following the recommendations set out by Lord Currie of Marylebone in his 2011 report into the existing single source procurement system, the Government undertook a major reform programme aimed at delivering a more suitable and modern means of delivering on this key part of our procurement activities. This programme is making good progress and forms part 2 of the Defence Reform Act 2014 which received Royal Assent on 14 May 2014. This legislation will replace the review board with a more empowered public body, the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO). In the meantime, we expect the review board to continue to produce recommendations for the current profit rate.
The review board has recently completed its 2014 General Review and has made its recommendations for the profit rate for the year beginning April 2014. The Government have accepted the board’s recommendations and the updated allowances will be implemented on new single source work undertaken in the financial year beginning 1 April 2014.
A copy of the review board’s 2014 general review report will be placed in the Library of the House.
Gifting of Search and Rescue Equipment (Syria)
(10 years ago)
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The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)
The situation in Syria remains dire. Innocent civilians have faced the brunt of the increasingly brutal war, with an estimated 140,000 people killed since the conflict began over three years ago. The Assad regime continues to use the most barbaric military methods and tactics available, including the use of indiscriminate artillery fire and barrel bombs. The UK is also concerned by recent reports that the regime continues to use chemical weapons against its own people. The UK remains committed to doing all it can to promote a political settlement to end the conflict, to alleviate the humanitarian suffering and to protect UK security.
On 23 January 2014, I laid a departmental minute before the House and issued a written ministerial statement—Official Report, column 10WS—setting out our plans to gift civil defence equipment to nine 25-man teams operating in opposition-controlled areas of Syria. No objections were raised to the gift and the UK distributed the equipment to civil defence teams alongside a comprehensive training package. The civil defence teams have saved lives by rescuing civilians trapped in damaged buildings and by providing emergency first aid. Our assistance has helped increase the legitimacy and capacity of moderate opposition, enabling them to save lives and deal with the aftermath of attacks.
The Government intend to expand the scale and scope of this programme by additionally training incident commanders, offering courses to a larger number of rapid response teams and by providing further specialist training on fire-fighting and medical emergency response. The departmental minute sets out in detail our plans to gift £1.6 million in equipment to Syrian beneficiaries delivering civil defence services. The proposed list of equipment includes cutting and rescue tools, personal protective gear including helmets and goggles, stretchers, medicines and medical supplies, and office and communications equipment. The programme will also raise awareness among local communities on how to prepare for, respond to and recover from regime attacks through community awareness training and the circulation of print and online material. Finally, the programme will increase co-ordination between the Syrian interim Government and civil defence teams. The programme is part of a range of support the UK is providing to help bolster the moderate Syrian opposition, including by enabling them to deliver essential services to the Syrian people inside opposition-held areas of the country. It is expected to cost up to £4 million and will be funded through the Government’s conflict pool.
The use of conflict pool funds to cover the costs of the gift has been approved by members of the conflict pool strategic programme board from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development and Ministry of Defence. The gift has been scrutinised to ensure that the provision of this equipment is consistent with export controls and complies with our international obligations. Recipients have been carefully selected to prevent equipment being given to those involved in extremist activities or human rights violations. All our assistance is carefully calibrated and legal, is aimed at alleviating human suffering and supporting moderate groups and is regularly monitored and evaluated.
The Treasury has approved the proposal in principle. If, during the period of 14 parliamentary sitting days beginning on the date on which the departmental minute was laid before the House of Commons, a member signifies an objection by giving notice of a parliamentary question or a motion relating to the minute, or by otherwise raising the matter in the House, final approval of the gift will be withheld pending an examination of the objection.
Transforming Youth Custody
(10 years ago)
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The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling)
On 17 January 2014, I informed the House of the Government’s plans to put education at the heart of detention and launch the first purpose-built secure college in the east midlands in 2017. The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, which will create the statutory framework for secure colleges, is currently before this House.
A pathfinder secure college will open in April 2017, which will have a strong focus on the education and rehabilitation of young offenders, equipping them with the skills, qualifications and self-discipline they need to turn away from crime and fulfil their potential.
The Ministry of Justice has selected a preferred provider to design and build the pathfinder. A competition has taken place under the Ministry of Justice’s strategic alliance agreement framework and Wates has been selected. The Ministry of Justice will enter into a project partnering agreement with Wates and work with them to develop the design for the pathfinder.
A competition for an operator to run the pathfinder will commence in 2015.
Personal Injury Claims
(10 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Shailesh Vara)
My noble Friend, the Minister for civil justice and legal policy, Lord Faulks QC, has made the following written ministerial statement:
The Government intend to bring forward at the earliest opportunity legislative measures aimed at tackling unjustified personal injury claims.
First, we intend to introduce legislation to require the court to dismiss in its entirety any personal injury claim where it is satisfied that the claimant has been fundamentally dishonest, unless it would cause substantial injustice to the claimant to do so. These provisions are particularly relevant both to cases where the claimant has grossly exaggerated his or her own claim, and to cases where the claimant has colluded with another person in a fraudulent claim relating to the same incident (for example, a “phantom passenger” case where a claimant is genuinely injured in a car accident, but colludes with another person who dishonestly claims to have been in the vehicle and also injured).
Under the current law, the courts have discretion to dismiss a claim entirely for fraudulent behaviour, but will only do so in very exceptional cases, and will generally still award the claimant compensation in relation to the “genuine” element of the claim. We intend to strengthen the law so that dismissal of the claim in its entirety should become the norm in such cases.
Secondly, the Government intend to bring a statutory ban on the offer of inducements by lawyers in personal injury cases. Examples abound of solicitors offering money or gifts such as iPads to clients for pursuing a personal injury claim.
This encourages unnecessary claims, and suggests that lawyers are making too much money out of the process and seeking to offset the effect of the Government’s much needed ban on the payment and receipt of referral fees.
On 1 April 2013, the Ministry of Justice banned claims management companies from offering cash inducements to consumers to make claims, and we propose to introduce a similar prohibition to cover lawyers as soon as legislative time allows.
TransPennine Express and Northern Rail Franchises
(10 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Stephen Hammond)
Today I have published a consultation document on the future of the TransPennine Express and Northern rail franchises. I have also published the prospectuses for both the TransPennine Express and Northern franchises. These accompany the pre-qualification documents published on 6 June 2014 and an Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) notice submitted for publication on 5 June 2014. These steps mark the start of the formal competitions to find new operators to run passenger rail services in the two key rail franchises in the north of England.
There have been great improvements in the railways nationally and regionally since privatisation. We have seen record growth in passenger numbers, achieved much higher levels of passenger satisfaction and one of the best safety records in Europe. This growth has been particularly strong in the north of England with both franchises experiencing greater numbers of passengers than predicted when the franchises were last let. We want to continue to build on this and to deliver excellent railway services for passengers across the region, providing value for money for both passengers and taxpayers.
The public consultation invites views from the public and from stakeholders on the improvements to service levels and facilities that passengers may wish to see, in order to provide a railway that supports the growth in passenger numbers we expect to see and delivers the wider economic benefits it is capable of. This Government have committed to a major programme of investment in the rail infrastructure in the north of England. The projects currently under way, such as the £600 million “Northern Hub” schemes, will allow substantial increases in capacity, improved journey opportunities and cleaner and more efficient operation through route electrification.
We will be seeking to deliver these benefits through the TransPennine Express and Northern franchises, while also securing significant efficiency improvements to ensure the taxpayer benefits, and we welcome views on the best way to achieve this.
We want to ensure that the Northern and TransPennine Express franchises we deliver best serve the needs of the people that will use them. To that end we are working closely with Rail North, a new body bringing together the local transport authorities across the whole of the north of England, in the development of them. This consultation is being carried out jointly with Rail North and aims to capture the views of the wide range of stakeholders in the region.
We are confident that our developing partnership with Rail North will help to bring a stronger local focus to the two franchises. Through this, and the skills, investment and innovation brought by the successful bidders, we can deliver a top-class railway for the north of England.
Northern Lighthouse Board and Trinity House (Triennial Review)
(10 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Stephen Hammond)
On 12 December 2013, I announced the commencement of the triennial review of Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) and Trinity House (TH). Today, I am pleased to announce the conclusion of the review and the publication of the report.
The review was conducted in accordance with Cabinet Office guidance (Guidance on Reviews of Non-Departmental Public Bodies, June 2011).
NLB and TH were involved at key stages of the review, and the findings of the report have been discussed with both bodies. The key conclusion is that the primary function of the General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) (i.e. the provision of marine aids to navigation) is still necessary and that this is best delivered through the NLB and TH as non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).
The review also identified a number of measures which, if implemented, should improve the bodies’ governance transparency and accountability. The Department for Transport will be taking these recommended measures forward in discussion with the GLAs over the coming months.
I would like to thank the GLAs for their assistance, and all those stakeholders who were involved during the course of the review.
The final report of this triennial review can be found on the gov.uk website: http://mrws.decc.gov.uk/ and I have made available copies in the Libraries of both Houses.
Violence Against Women
Baroness Thornton
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to reduce levels of violence against women.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, the Government are strongly committed to tackling violence against women and girls. Forty million pounds of funding has been ring-fenced until 2015 for specialist domestic and sexual violence services. We have also created two new offences of stalking, introduced legislation to criminalise forced marriage, in which the noble Baroness played a pivotal role, relaunched our successful “This is Abuse” campaign and rolled out new powers to the police to provide greater protections for victims. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister will be hosting a girls summit in July to rally support for a global movement to end FGM and forced marriage. Indeed, a reception in this regard was held earlier this afternoon at the House.
Baroness Thornton (Lab)
I thank the Minister for that Answer. I welcome the announcement of the campaign today aimed at young men about domestic violence which is timed to run through the World Cup. However, I am sure the Minister is aware that statistics suggest that there will be a repeated increase of domestic violence during the World Cup. If that happens, what plans have the Government made to deal with the increased demand for refuge places? What advice does the Minister offer to abused women and children in an authority such as Cheshire West and Chester, whose Conservative leadership has voted to close three women’s refuges, reducing the number of beds available from 17 to just eight, and to reduce the number of places on offer to women and children outside the area? That is important because women often have to move outside their immediate area.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, first, I am sure all noble Lords will wish England well in the World Cup. We all join in that and may they go far. Turning to the specific question, this is a serious matter and all authorities at a local level target it. Irrespective of what political party they represent, they take all domestic violence cases seriously. It is interesting to look at the numbers of domestic violence cases being reported. In the past two years we have seen more cases being reported. Indeed, a record level of 74.3% was recorded for 2012-13. As I have already said, we are allocating an additional £40 million of ring-fenced funding to local authorities for them to work at a local level to ensure that refuge centres and rape crisis centres are provided and to provide support to those who are desperately in need of such services.
Lord Laming (CB)
My Lords, is the Minister aware of recent research which shows clearly that in households where there is domestic violence that behaviour is often extended to the children and young people in the household? Can the noble Lord assure the House that the recommendations of that report will be taken seriously by the Government and that everything will be done to protect children who live and grow up in these most unpleasant circumstances?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The noble Lord makes a pertinent point. Unfortunately, he is, of course, right that children who see and witness domestic violence also become part of that vicious circle, both as victims and, tragically, at times as perpetrators of such acts. The Government take this matter seriously. I have already alluded to the “This is Abuse” campaign, which aims to prevent teenagers from becoming both victims and perpetrators of abuse and encourage them to consider their view of abuse and the meaning of consent within relationships. We are working on a wider front as well with programmes such as “Hollyoaks” and the MTV music channel to ensure that issues of abuse are highlighted to young people in order to prevent this becoming a vicious circle, as the noble Lord pointed out.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)
My Lords, what progress has been made in addressing the issue of young boys, some as young as 12, being reported for harmful sexual behaviour towards girls in schools? What is being done to educate these young men and boys to treat women with respect and to desist from this behaviour?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
I agree with my noble friend that respect for women and girls is something that should be taught to boys from infancy in schools and in every sector of society. The Government have published a national strategy that supports an action plan on tackling violence against women and girls which includes a range of actions to address gender inequalities, such as the Body Confidence campaign. In December last year we launched the teenage relationship abuse campaign, which aims to prevent teenagers becoming the victims and the perpetrators of abuse.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (Lab)
My Lords, can the noble Lord give us a little more detail about the £40 million budget he alluded to? Is it a Home Office budget or will it be shared with other government departments? If it is to be shared, can he tell us about the allocations to other government departments?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
I can certainly talk about the Home Office funding. Its contribution is going to be £28 million for the spending review period. Within that, some of the schemes we are looking at are those I have already alluded to, such as refuges for women who fall victim to violence. The other thing I would point out to the noble Baroness is that we will be working with the third and voluntary sectors, which do an absolutely sterling job in protecting those women who are the victims of abuse and crime.
Lord McColl of Dulwich (Con)
Would the Minister support an exhibition in Parliament of pictures showing some of the thousands of women who have been brutalised? It would include a photograph of a lady who was smashed up with a baseball bat by her partner. The surgeons who had to repair the damage got splinters in their fingers and streptococcal infections as a result. It would also show that the man removed the whole of her upper lip by biting it off.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My noble friend has pointed graphically to some of the horrors that result from this issue. They say that a picture can replace a thousand words. It is not my place to give approval for such exhibitions, but I can assure my noble friend that any steps that can be taken to avoid violence happening, be they at the national or the international level, will be taken. I am sure he will acknowledge that through schemes such as the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is starting tomorrow, and the initiative of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister in hosting a conference in July on FGM and forced marriage, the Government are demonstrating that violence against women, whether it is perpetrated domestically or internationally in conflicts, is totally to be condemned and utterly wrong.
Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)
My Lords, would the Minister care to comment on whether, with hindsight, his right honourable friend the Home Secretary regrets denying a UN delegation access to an immigration centre where women had complained of sexual brutality against them?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My right honourable friend the Home Secretary is doing a sterling job of ensuring that she protects women’s rights across the board. She has been spearheading campaigns not just domestically but internationally. The noble Baroness refers to the visit to Yarl’s Wood by the inspector—or her desire to visit Yarl’s Wood. As I am sure we have all experienced when we travel internationally, any programme that is set for a Minister or visiting delegation is done with the authority and approval of and in conjunction with the domestic authority or the Government. In this case, a programme was sent to the special rapporteur. As part of that programme, various women’s refuges were put on her agenda, which she chose not to visit. Then she turned up unannounced at Yarl’s Wood. I am sure the noble Baroness will appreciate that operationally certain things cannot be arranged on the hoof and it would have been inappropriate for her to be granted access at that time. That said, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons conducted a visit last year and the report was generally positive, highlighting good practice, the cleanliness of the centre and the measured use of restraint at that centre.
European Commission: President
(10 years ago)
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Lord Dykes
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to announce which candidate they will be supporting for President of the new European Commission.
The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi) (Con)
My Lords, it is important to find the right candidate to run the European Commission to deliver change, someone who is prepared to respond to voters’ concerns and to a Europe that is about openness, competitiveness and flexibility. The European Council should fulfil its role, as laid down in treaties, of making its own nomination for President. That is the process set out in EU law. That is the democratic process.
Lord Dykes (LD)
Did my noble friend the Minister notice that it was the Liberal Democrat portion of the coalition that took the lead in putting forward the very strong, unarguable case for our continuing membership of the European Union on a basis of enthusiasm and not just reservation and panic? Indeed, panic about UKIP is far too exaggerated. Is it not now important for us to think positively about working together with the other countries on agreed policies, which actually strengthens the individual sovereignty of each member state rather than weakens it? In that context, therefore, is it not very important for HMG collectively to support whoever emerges as the consensus-based candidate from the European Council, reflecting the majority votes of the three or four sensible pro-European parties elected in the European Parliament?
Baroness Warsi
My Lords, the view of the Government is that Europe needs reform. The next Commission and Commissioner must therefore focus on making Europe more competitive and democratically accountable so that it delivers the jobs and growth that matter to citizens. Of course, the European elections were a reflection of the fact that people do want reform in the European Union.
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that equally important as who is appointed President of the Commission is who is nominated as the UK Commissioner? Will she give an assurance that whomever the Government propose to nominate, he or she will be subject to scrutiny by this Parliament?
Baroness Warsi
It is important that these incredibly important jobs in Europe are filled by the right candidates, and it is important that those candidates reflect the views of Europe in terms of the reform agenda, which were obvious during the European elections. It is also important that there is gender and geographical diversity in those candidates.
Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)
My Lords, is there not one very useful reminder from this whole saga that, far from being isolated in its aims for European reform, Great Britain has a great many strong allies in moving towards a more decentralised and more modern Europe fit to meet the competitiveness of the 21st century, with leaders who recognise the enormous changes that have taken place and the need for this reform to go forward vigorously?
Baroness Warsi
My noble friend makes an incredibly important point. That is why the Prime Minister has been absolutely clear that he wants the right person in the role of Commission President. It is very important that the British people have confidence that the next President will deliver change in the European Union.
Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)
My Lords, would not the Minister agree that the right order of priorities is for the European Council to focus on what it wants the next Commission to do as a first stage, and only then move on to deciding who might best carry that out? I congratulate the Government on picking up that point two weeks after having got the stick by the wrong end.
Baroness Warsi
I take it that there was a compliment for the Government in that, and I shall take it.
Baroness Morgan of Ely (Lab)
My Lords, Labour and Labour MEPs will not support Juncker as President of the European Commission. What portfolio will the Government push for the new UK Commissioner to hold?
Baroness Warsi
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for making that clear. There were some elements of that in the press over the weekend and indeed this morning. It is important that the right person fills the role. In terms of portfolios, these matters are still up for discussion. It would be inappropriate for me to try to comment on that at this stage.
Lord Garel-Jones (Con)
My Lords, can my noble friend confirm that the position of Her Majesty’s Government is not in any way personally related to Mr Juncker but rather to our desire to bring forward the reform agenda? In that context, for example, is it not the case that Article 5 of the treaty—on subsidiarity, which was supposed to ensure that no decisions are taken by the Union that could be better or well done at a national level—has been more or less neutralised over the years? One of the points will be to make that article, which is already in the treaty, as effective as it is supposed to be.
Baroness Warsi
I think the overwhelming message delivered by the electorate across the European Union in the last European Parliament election was about citizens in individual member states wanting to feel as though their voice was being heard and that the views of individual member states were rightly being heard. We saw that in the United Kingdom and across the European Union. My noble friend is absolutely right to raise that point.
Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)
Would the Minister agree that the Prime Minister has a great gift on Europe for influencing people without making friends? We saw that in the withdrawal from the European People’s Party, the natural family, and now the brutal way in which he is personalising this issue of the presidency.
Baroness Warsi
I do not think that there was a question in there but the noble Lord made a point and I disagree with it.
Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)
I do not think that the noble Baroness answered the Question put by the noble Lord, Lord Dykes, right at the beginning. We know whom the Prime Minister and Government do not wish to see as President of the European Commission. Whom do they wish to see, or what are the elements of that candidate?
Baroness Warsi
I am not sure that the noble Lord would ever expect me to have that discussion at this Dispatch Box while discussions are ongoing at the European Union level. The noble Lord is aware of the process and it is important that that process is followed.
NHS: Clinical Commissioning Groups
(10 years ago)
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Baroness Wheeler
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will ensure Clinical Commissioning Groups’ strategies and implementation plans support carers and take account of their needs and aspirations.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe) (Con)
My Lords, NHS England assures clinical commissioning groups’ plans to support and challenge them to meet the needs of their populations. This includes considering supporting carers, who are a hugely valuable asset for local communities. NHS England has published a commitment to a carers action plan. It will review the delivery of these commitments through feedback from carers and carers’ organisations and through progress towards the relevant outcomes indicators and mandate objectives.
Baroness Wheeler (Lab)
I thank the Minister for his response. At the start of national Carers Week, it is right for the whole House to pay tribute to our 1.5 million carers and the vital support that they provide in caring for their partners, friends or a family member. What is the Minister’s response to a recent Carers UK survey, which found that while GPs have implemented systems to identify those undertaking carers’ responsibilities, few are actually doing anything differently to accommodate them—for example, giving regular health checks or changing appointment systems to support getting somebody to the surgery who is in a wheelchair or caring for somebody with dementia? Does the Minister agree that the appointment of carers leads under CCG implementation plans is a key step in bringing about the major push that is needed to get GPs to up their game? How will the Government ensure that that happens?
Earl Howe
My Lords, I fully endorse the comments of the noble Baroness about the importance of carers. They play a crucial role as partners in care for the well-being of those they look after. I saw that report and of course it is important that GPs are aware of their role in supporting carers. We set out our vision for this in a document we published, Transforming Primary Care. That recognises the importance of involving and supporting carers. It sets out an expectation for GPs to identify carers as a matter of course. As I said in my original Answer, CCG plans will be assured by NHS England, including the important element of carers’ support and recognition.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that, at last, carers who work by going from one person to another will be paid for their travel time? I have drawn attention in this House before to the fact that people who were self-employed under such care systems were earning £2-something an hour. Does the Minister agree that that will be a great benefit to both the clients and, in particular, the carers who rely on that income?
Earl Howe
I do agree with my noble friend, but I would point out to her that the thrust of the noble Baroness’s Question is about unpaid carers, of whom there are 5.4 million in this country, 1.4 million of whom work more than 50 hours a week as unpaid carers. It is to support those people that the attention of NHS England is being rightly directed.
Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)
I thank the Minister for pointing that out and saving me having to do so. We are talking about so-called informal, unpaid carers in this Question. My noble friend’s Question has underlined how much progress is still to be made in bringing the needs of carers to the attention of local CCGs and health professionals. Will future versions of the carers strategy action plan address that issue?
Earl Howe
My Lords, yes. The action plan will of course be reviewed, as it needs to be, at regular intervals. I am sure that the noble Baroness will know that the action plan needs to be informed by the various legislative changes that we have recently made through both the Care Act and the Children and Families Act, both of which immeasurably strengthen the rights of carers and what they can expect from the system.
Baroness Brinton (LD)
My Lords, given that the Francis report said that it was important that carers be involved and informed about the care of their family member but one study found that only one-third of those surveyed were told how to care for their relative or how to cope with dementia, what are the Government doing to make that a real priority for CCGs?
Earl Howe
My noble friend makes a crucial point. In the document Transforming Primary Care, we included a clear expectation for GPs to work with wider health and care professionals to involve people using services and their carers in identifying and planning for a person’s needs in the round. The plan sets out a clear expectation for GPs to identify as a matter of course whether a person is themselves a carer for another person, whether they have a carer or carers and to understand fully the contribution that carers make.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich
My Lords, the census revealed a substantial increase in young carers, some of whom may not even recognise the term but are simply doing what is expected in their family. Does the Minister agree that CCGs should consult and connect with schools to ensure that those noble but often vulnerable young adults get the support they deserve?
Earl Howe
I fully agree with the right reverend Prelate. The Government’s carers strategy sends out a strong message that education, health and young carer services should work together with families better to identify and support young carers to prevent them taking on harmful caring roles. Young carers’ education, development or employment opportunities should not be diminished because of their caring role, and the right reverend Prelate may like to note that one of the initiatives recently put in train has been to recruit school nurses who are reaching out to schools to ensure that young carers’ needs are recognised in schools.
Living Wage
(10 years ago)
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Lord Haskel
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are taking to ensure that all those in work receive a living wage.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Viscount Younger of Leckie) (Con)
We support businesses that choose to pay the living wage when it is affordable, and not at the expense of jobs. The Government are committed to improving living standards. We have cut taxes for the lowest paid, allowing them to take home more of what they earn, and we have introduced tougher penalties and naming for employers who have failed to comply with the national minimum wage, which maximises wages without damaging employment.
Lord Haskel (Lab)
But the Minister’s words are not carried out in practice. The reality is entirely different. Is the Minister aware that during the last three years, two-thirds of the increase in social security payments to people of working age has gone to people in work? So while the Government are cutting public services, the taxpayer is supporting low pay. Given that support, does the Minister agree that the taxpayer would be better served if instead the Government were more rigorous in getting employers to become more productive, so that they could pay a minimum wage on their own?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
I certainly agree with the noble Lord that we are encouraging more employers to be productive. Much work has been done to that effect but I point out to him that the minimum wage is now increasing faster than earnings. The rise of 3% in the adult rate will mean that low-paid workers will enjoy the biggest cash increase in their pay packets since 2008. A rigid formula does not allow for changing economic circumstances, for example imposing a target set by politicians. That would result in job losses if it is set too high and lower earnings if it is set too low.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend not agree that the most important thing is take-home pay and that therefore the Government’s efforts to reduce the burden of tax on the low aid are what matter? Does he not think that an Opposition who refuse to deny that they would increase national insurance if they were in government have a cheek talking about the effect on living standards of taxation?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
My noble friend makes some good points. The only real way of achieving sustainable increases in living standards is through focusing on economic growth, employment and reducing taxes for the low paid, as he said. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, said recently that the IMF had,
“underestimated the growth of the UK economy”.
In a significant turnaround, the fund’s latest assessment found that the UK economy had rebounded strongly.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)
My Lords, welcome as the Minister’s support for decent wages is, wages cannot take account of family size. What steps are the Government therefore taking to restore the cuts in child benefit that they have made in order to protect the living standard of low-paid workers with children without subsidising low-paid employers, in the way mentioned by my noble friend Lord Haskel?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
We know that some households, including those with children, are seeing the amount that they spend on food increase but there is much that the Government are doing to resolve this. The Government provide a number of schemes to help the most vulnerable to afford and have access to nutritious foods, such as the Healthy Start scheme and free school meals. However, we also recognise the extremely valuable work of civil society in supporting local communities. There has always been a tradition in this country of voluntary and charity organisations providing support to people, as the noble Baroness will know, in addition to the safety nets that the Government provide.
Baroness Humphreys (LD)
My Lords, many workers on minimum wage continue to be trapped on low pay. The Resolution Foundation recently suggested that some sectors of the economy and businesses in London could probably well afford to pay more than the minimum wage, and recommended that the Business Secretary ask the Low Pay Commission to publish an analysis of the situation. Do the Government endorse the foundation’s recommendation?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
We encourage businesses to pay the living wage—indeed, the living wage or above. However, I say again that a mandated pay floor, completely detached from an affordable level, is likely to bring about job cuts. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has estimated that increasing the national minimum wage to the living wage would cause a net job loss of 160,000.
Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)
My Lords, I trust that the Minister would agree that the introduction of the minimum wage in fact benefited millions of people who were on appalling levels of pay. Perhaps the problem with the minimum wage has been to ensure its consistent enforcement. At long last, the Government have got down to improving those measures but we still have a long way to go. What consideration has been given, first, to increasing the penalties, secondly, to ensuring that local authorities play a part in ensuring enforcement of the minimum wage and, thirdly, that all those who fail to pay it—including a major premier football club—are named and shamed?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
The noble Lord makes some good points about enforcement. We are taking strong action on this front. He will be aware that 25 other firms have been named and shamed in the past few days. The case of the Premier League football club that the noble Lord raises was dealt with under the old naming policy, pre-October 2013, and did not meet the financial criteria of £500 per worker so could not be considered for naming.
Lord Flight (Con)
Does the Minister accept that there is an element of chicken and egg in the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, and that it is actually since the Labour Government brought in tax credits that productivity has been flat, wages have not risen in real terms and the situation has been much the same as in the early nineteenth century when wages were subsidised?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
The noble Lord makes a good point. It is fair to say that Labour’s plan for encouraging tax breaks to encourage employers to pay the living wage applies for 12 months only and will cover less than one-third of the increased cost to the employer. Increasing the cost of employment could encourage businesses to employ fewer people. Labour’s estimates of the cost of this policy ignore these issues, and the party has considered only potential benefits to the Exchequer.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)
My Lords, I do not think any of the Minister’s replies have explained how his strategy will take out of poverty the millions of children who have just been illustrated in the report of one of the Government’s own commissions. It recognises that many families where there is childhood poverty, even though someone in the household is employed, are not being helped. What strategy do the Government therefore have to reach the jointly agreed target to take children out of poverty in the next decade?
Viscount Younger of Leckie
Several strategies are in place, but above all the main point is to encourage more jobs. We have created many millions of jobs and encouraged apprenticeships over the past few years since 2010. That is the way forward: to increase employment and job security for all in the UK.
Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top
I wonder if the Minister would say more about the report today from the social—
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Hill of Oareford)
I am sorry, my Lords, I was hopeful that the noble Baroness could have got in, but we have a rule and the 30 minutes are up. I am so sorry.
Cohabitation Rights Bill [HL]
Business of the House
(10 years ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That Standing Order 40(1) (Arrangement of the Order Paper) be dispensed with on Wednesday 11 June to enable the adjourned debate on the address to resume before oral questions.
Arctic Committee
(10 years ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider recent and expected changes in the Arctic and their implications for the United Kingdom and its international relations, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 5 March 2015.
Affordable Childcare Committee
(10 years ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider issues relating to affordable childcare, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 5 March 2015.
Digital Skills Committee
(10 years ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider information and communications technology, competitiveness and skills in the United Kingdom, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 5 March 2015.
Extradition Committee
(10 years ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider and report on the law and practice relating to extradition, in particular the Extradition Act 2003, and that the Committee do report by 5 March 2015.
Queen’s Speech
(10 years ago)
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Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Con)
My Lords, we are resuming the debate which was adjourned last Thursday and I appreciate that there are Peers who are not taking part in it. Perhaps I may encourage them to leave fairly swiftly though quietly. There is a considerable list of those who are interested in the debate today and I know that they wish the Minister to begin fairly promptly.
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Faulks) (Con)
My Lords, I would like first to express how grateful I am to be afforded the opportunity to open this debate on Her Majesty’s gracious Speech for the first time. I am confident of a constructive and lively debate worthy of this House on the matters of law and justice, home affairs, health and education. I also look forward to the maiden speeches from my noble friend Lord Glendonbrook and from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford.
I turn first to the Government’s law and justice business. The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, carried over from the third Session, represents the next stage of significant and far-reaching reforms to the justice system. It is intended to make sure that criminals are properly punished, young offenders turn their lives around through education and modern courts run efficiently and effectively. Part 1 of the Bill introduces a package of sentencing and criminal justice reforms targeted at keeping our communities safe and continuing our pledge to put victims at the heart of the criminal justice process. It will make certain that no one convicted of either the rape of a child or serious terrorism offences can be released automatically at the midway point of their sentence. It will ensure that when offenders are released on licence, we have all the powers we need to make the best possible use of new and innovative technology to track their whereabouts while under supervision, and it will deal with those who go on the run after being recalled to custody. A new offence will make sure that those who remain unlawfully at large do not go unpunished.
On Report, this Government introduced further new clauses to the Bill to continue our focus on offending behaviour that causes the most harm to victims and our communities. These clauses introduce tougher sentences for those who kill or seriously injure when driving while disqualified and ensure that anyone convicted of murdering a police or prison officer in the course of duty faces a whole life sentence.
For young offenders, this Government continue to believe that there is more that we can do to turn their lives around. The current system is simply not working well enough, and with reoffending rates of more than 69%, maintaining the status quo is unacceptable. Part 2 of the Bill includes clauses to create secure colleges so that we can trial a new approach to youth custody, with a stronger focus on the education and rehabilitation of young offenders, giving them the skills, support and training that they need to turn their backs on crime.
Part 3 of the Bill addresses our courts and tribunals system. In such constrained financial times, this Government believe that we can and must continue to find ways to ease the burden on the taxpayer. That is why provisions in this part will ensure that criminals contribute to the cost of their court case through the introduction of a court charge. Repayment of the charge can be set at a rate that the offender can afford, and offenders who play by the rules in taking all reasonable steps to comply with payment terms and not reoffend will be able to apply to have the charge cancelled after a set period of time. The Bill also introduces a more proportionate and efficient approach to uncontested regulatory cases, allowing them to be heard by a single magistrate, thus freeing up valuable court time.
Finally, let me turn to the reforms to judicial review which make up Part 4 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill. Let me be clear: this Government are committed to making sure that judicial review continues its crucial role in holding authorities and others to account. However, it is also committed to making sure that it is used appropriately and proportionately and is not open to abuse by people in order to cause delays or to pursue a campaign at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. Clauses in the Bill seek to achieve that aim.
I also hope, and am confident, that noble Lords will not rush to judgment about the relevant provisions. The introduction of modest changes to legal aid remuneration at the application stage was met in a debate recently in your Lordships’ House with suggestions that any changes in judicial review were an attack on the rule of law, and with ad hominem attacks on the Lord Chancellor. What, with respect, is needed is a mature debate about these changes which have followed a detailed consultation on the subject. I should emphasise, as strongly as I properly can do, that this Government remain passionately committed to the rule of law. It is one of the many aspects of this country which commands admiration throughout the world and makes people want to live here and invest here.
I turn now to the Government’s plans to introduce a Bill on social action, responsibility and heroism. We often hear reports about people not wishing to get involved when somebody needs assistance because they are worried about being held liable if something goes wrong. Some noble Lords may be aware of the survey of volunteering and charitable giving which was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research in 2007. That survey found that as many as 47% of would-be volunteers were concerned about this issue. While there are, of course, many different factors which might stop people getting involved, we cannot ignore the fact that worries about liability are a real issue for many people.
The growth of this perception has coincided with the actual growth of compensation claims in the United Kingdom. It is a worrying trend which could reduce the pool of people who are willing to play an active part in civil society, and also have a chilling effect on volunteering rates. We have already taken steps to curb the growth of the so-called compensation culture; for example, we made important reforms to no-win no-fee arrangements in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Those changes have, among other things, discouraged personal injury firms from championing spurious claims by abolishing the recovery of success fees from the losing side and by limiting the success fee that a lawyer may charge to their own client to 25% of the damages awarded. However, we can do more to allay people’s concerns about the risk of liability, to reverse the commonly held belief that it is safer not to get involved, and to encourage active participation in volunteering and other activities which benefit both individuals and society in general.
The coalition agreement included a specific commitment to,
“take a range of measures to encourage volunteering and involvement in social action”.
The social action, responsibility and heroism Bill will help to deliver this by reassuring the public that if they are acting for the benefit of society, take a generally responsible approach towards the safety of others when carrying out an activity or intervene in an emergency, the court will take full and careful account of the context of their actions in the event that they are sued for negligence.
The Bill will not affect the overarching framework used by the courts when determining those sorts of claims. They will still need to look at whether a defendant met the appropriate standard of care in all the circumstances of the case. Nor will it introduce blanket exemptions to civil liability. There is an important balance to be struck between encouraging participation in civil society and being mindful of the impact that careless or risky actions could have on the very people that the defendant was trying to help. The Bill is not about removing protection and leaving victims without proper recourse in those circumstances. However, it will give valuable and needed reassurance to a wide range of people and send a powerful signal that the courts will take full account of the context of a person’s actions when determining a negligence claim. I hope that the House will support the intentions behind this Bill, and I look forward to debating the substantive provisions when we return to them in due course.
I would now like to address the Government’s business on matters of home affairs. The Queen’s Speech included the Serious Crime Bill, which was introduced in this place on 5 June. Serious and organised crime remains a potent threat to our national well-being. Nationally, it costs the country at least £24 billion a year and its impact is felt in local communities and blights ordinary lives. We see the effects of organised crime in lives ruined by drug abuse, child sexual exploitation and online fraud. To meet those threats, we have already established the National Crime Agency and are building up the capabilities of the nine regional organised crime units. However, to do their job, the NCA, police and prosecutors need up-to-date and effective powers.
Of course, an array of criminal and civil powers are already available to law enforcement agencies; but as organised criminals adapt their activities in an attempt to circumvent them, so, too, must the law respond. That is where the Serious Crime Bill comes in. To take but one example, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 has been used with some success to seize the profits from criminal enterprises—some £746 million since 2010-11. However, its effectiveness is under constant legal attack from criminals, who do all they can to frustrate its intent. The Serious Crime Bill will close loopholes in the Act and help reinforce the old adage that crime does not, or certainly should not, pay. It will also enhance the effectiveness of serious crime prevention orders and gang injunctions.
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)
Before the Minister moves on from the matter of strengthening the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act, perhaps I may say that I was a Minister at the time and helped to introduce it in the other place. Can he confirm that all the strengthening of the Act will apply to Scotland as well as to the rest of the United Kingdom?
Lord Faulks
Subject to correction, I think that I can reassure the noble Lord of that.
The Bill will also introduce a new participation offence directed at those who help sustain the operation of organised crime groups and ensure that the penalties for serious cyberattacks properly reflect the harm caused.
The Government are also taking the opportunity provided by the Bill to strengthen the protection of children by clarifying the law on child cruelty, closing a gap in the extraterritorial reach of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and introducing a new offence of possession of a paedophile manual.
The Government also plan to introduce a modern slavery Bill. Modern slavery is an appalling crime. Traffickers and slave masters, who are often part of organised crime groups, use whatever means they have at their disposal to coerce, deceive and force individuals into a life of abuse, servitude and inhumane treatment. I am sure that the whole House will join me in deploring the fact that this crime is taking place now in Britain.
The modern slavery Bill will give law enforcement agencies stronger tools to stamp out this complex crime, and it will ensure that perpetrators can receive the sentences they deserve—including, where appropriate, life sentences. The Bill also takes action to enhance protection and support for victims through a new statutory defence for victims who are compelled to commit crime.
Although not specifically referenced in the gracious Speech, the Government intend to introduce a draft Bill to reform the Riot (Damages) Act in the fourth Session. The draft Bill will be the culmination of detailed work undertaken since the events of August 2011 to ensure that the 1886 Act is modernised and provides clarity to stakeholders, individuals and businesses as to what compensation arrangements are to be put in place for the future. In November 2013, an independent review of the Riot (Damages) Act, commissioned by the Home Secretary, was published. The reviewer made a number of recommendations and these form the basis for the public consultation which we will launch shortly. We then plan to present a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny.
Finally, I wish to mention the Government’s firm commitment to health and education. This Government believe in higher standards for all and we are committed to getting every child’s education right, which is why a substantial reform programme is well under way. This programme includes restoring rigour to exams, reforming vocational qualifications, bringing in performance-related pay, reforming teacher training, transforming schools through the academies programme and increasing the total number of apprenticeship places to 2 million by the end of this Parliament.
To improve education attainment and child health, all infants will receive a free school meal. Free childcare will be extended to more of the most disadvantaged two year-olds and a Bill will be introduced to help working families with childcare costs.
During the course of this Parliament this Government have developed a new health and care system which is more patient centred, led by health professionals and focused on delivering world-class health outcomes. We strengthened the role of the Care Quality Commission, with new chief inspectors, a new inspection regime and a new statutory duty of candour on the part of the healthcare providers. With local authorities leading local public health systems and Public Health England providing national leadership and vision on health protection and improvement, this Government have given public health a higher priority and dedicated resources. Through the Care Act 2014, we have delivered the most profound change to the care and support system for a generation, enabling people needing care to be treated with dignity and respect, improving the quality of that care and easing the burden of care costs. During the final Session of this Parliament, the Government will be focused on ensuring that the new health and social care system works with both purpose and integrity.
Some have criticised this Government for having too little by way of legislation in the Queen’s Speech. I reject that criticism. In the areas of law and justice and home affairs alone there is a great deal for Parliament to consider. Experience tells me that much of the detailed scrutiny will take place here in your Lordships’ House. The legislative programme as a whole contains some highly topical and important issues, which will benefit from such scrutiny. However, this Session will be concerned not just with legislation. I appreciate that in the speeches that follow mine there will be a range of issues raised by speakers; those issues, whether they are concerned directly with the Queen’s Speech or not, are likely to set much of the agenda for this final Session.
This coalition Government have achieved much already, but there is more still to achieve. I look forward greatly to the contributions to the debate from all around the House, which will help to indicate how best we can consolidate on these first four remarkable years of government.
Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister has gone into some considerable detail on the Bills before us, and we are grateful to him for doing so. However, I shall first take a wider view of the Government’s proposals, because this is an unprecedented Queens’s Speech. It is the first time that, towards the end of a Parliament, we have known exactly when the election will be. That is an opportunity to reflect on the work of the coalition and reflect more widely on whether it has lived up to the public expectations of co-operation between parties in government.
Yet again, we have a new government programme against the backdrop of greater disengagement with politicians and the political process. In the European and local elections, most people chose not to exercise the most basic expression of political involvement, the right to cast their vote. As the government parties lose votes, and as we get closer to the general election, the justifications about which government party is responsible for what will become even more bizarre, with the two parties both trying to gain advantage over the other.
In the last Session, we experienced the strange sight of Liberal Democrats in your Lordships’ House backing the bedroom tax, as their party president in the other place, recognising the disastrous unfairness and consequences for some of the most vulnerable in society, tried to distance his party and seek to change their policy of supporting such a dreadful tax. Since the recent elections, more and more senior Lib Dems have been prepared to speak out against the coalition, which has clearly damaged if not destroyed them as a potent electoral force in almost every part of the UK. That support for the bedroom tax, the disastrous fire sale of the Royal Mail, tax cuts for the rich, a massive cost of living and housing crisis, cuts in legal aid, support for new free schools where they are not needed and a failure to tackle child poverty have all taken their toll.
Press briefings and public rows are evidence of the growing disenchantment between the government parties and, as is now so glaringly obvious, within the government parties. It is all a bit of a shambles. What has always amazed me about the coalition is what the Liberal Democrats have failed to achieve—although perhaps they did not ask—on policies that they said during the general election were the most important to them, such as having no increase in tuition fees. Instead, they were satisfied with ministerial jobs and a failed referendum on a constitutional change that no one wanted to the voting system.
Apart from the obvious party-political considerations, that is a lesson for us all, a lesson to focus not on internal issues that are important only to politicians and political parties but on those issues that really matter to real people—to parents, workers and those struggling to pay bills or trying to buy or rent a home. The deal on the coalition agreement, which has never been put to the electorate, was not on policies on the cost of living, the health service or energy bills, or even tuition fees, but on electoral and parliamentary reform. When the electorate were asked if it was as important to them as it was to the Liberal Democrats, the answer was no. The Conservative Party got away with offering ministerial jobs rather than a genuine compromise around the policies on which they had failed to convince the electorate to elect them.
By contrast, today’s debate is about issues that are central to and affect the lives of all citizens: crime, justice, health and education. The disappointment with this Queen’s Speech, as with others we have seen from the Government, is that few people will consider that the coalition Government’s proposals will make any real difference to their lives. The Conservative Party is very confident about the economic recovery; Ministers regularly come to the Dispatch Box to tell us so. So, why is it, when I talk to people in the supermarket, the pub and at my local food bank, they do not feel the same confidence as David Cameron, George Osborne or, indeed, Nick Clegg? Will the Government explain why the number of working people claiming housing benefit has increased by 60%? Why are so many working families turning to food banks? Oxfam says that the number of people using them is now double that of last year. Why does Netmums report that one in five working families has had to choose between paying an essential bill and putting food on the table, while at the same time the Government give a tax cut to millionaires and those earning over £150,000 a year?
Although the Government say that they will do something about childcare costs, they have already risen by 30% since they came to office—that is five times faster than wages. Why, with such increased costs, are there fewer childcare places? I take Swindon, for example, although similar reports can be heard across the country. Despite massive public opposition and campaigning, four childcare centres closed, adding to the pressure on families who are already paying more than £110 for just 25 hours of childcare for those over two. These families deserve support, yet whereas our proposals for free childcare for three and four year-olds would help more than 1,800 children and their families in Swindon, the Government’s proposals in the Queen’s Speech barely scratch the surface.
When I opened the debate on Home Office issues last year, I warned the Government that their Immigration Bill, while seeking to be, in their words “tough on immigration”, would fail as its proposed actions included those which were either impossible to deliver and/or had not been worked out properly by the Government. We totally reject the dishonest UKIP rhetoric that all problems could be solved if only we stopped all immigration and withdrew from the EU. However, the Immigration Bill in the previous Session failed to include measures that would have made a difference such as the undercutting of wages, terms and conditions through the exploitation of foreign workers or effective improvements in the enforcement of the national minimum wage, as my noble friend Lord Young said during Oral Questions. Although your Lordships’ House brought forward substantial changes to improve the Bill and remove some of the unworkable rhetoric, the government parties have failed to deal with these specific issues so, while the Liberal Democrats boast about stopping another immigration Bill, it is a weak boast as these issues must be addressed. We believe that a Bill to address those concerns is needed and regret that the Government have again failed to tackle so many of the real issues.
We welcome the modern slavery Bill, which has benefited from its pre-legislative scrutiny, and are grateful to those Members of both Houses who have worked to address its deficiencies. We look forward to receiving and considering the much improved Bill in due course. We also look forward to our debates and deliberations on the Serious Crime Bill. As always, we will apply our tests of effective scrutiny—that is, an analysis of the problem we are seeking to address and whether the measures proposed would be effective in tackling the issue and workable in practice. My noble friend Lord Foulkes asked the Minister whether the measures on recovering the proceeds of crime would apply also in Scotland. We clearly need to revisit the Government’s failure to implement fully the National Crime Agency in Northern Ireland, and examine the seriousness of the loophole on the recovery of the proceeds of crime that exists there to understand fully the implications of the Bill and how proceeds of crime recovery can be addressed properly and effectively in future. The National Audit Office has been very critical of confiscation orders. This is an opportunity to address its recommendations. With only 12p in every £100 being confiscated, serious work is needed to get this right.
Greater protection for children and their families from sex offenders is welcomed, as are measures to tackle cybercrime. We will work with the Government to make any proposals as effective as possible. As the Minister knows, these crimes recognise no national borders and we will have to probe further on how the Government’s proposals to opt out—and perhaps opt back in again—from all European criminal justice measures impact on European and international co-operation.
The Government have also promised to tackle police corruption. The public have a right to be confident in the integrity of every single police officer, and I urge the Minister to ensure that government rhetoric also recognises the good work of the vast majority of police. However, if this were our programme, we would abolish the IPCC and replace it with a stronger, more effective police standards authority, so we will test the Government’s proposals against the standards and structures that we would introduce as a Government.
No child should ever have to live in an unsafe environment or suffer neglect, emotional abuse and cruelty. Easier and earlier intervention is needed. We welcome the Government’s commitment to tackle the barbarity of female genital mutilation, and I know from our deliberations in both these areas that their proposals will greatly benefit from the commitment and expertise of noble Lords across the House.
I must confess that despite the Minister’s comments at the beginning of the debate it is difficult to understand why we have no measures on health and social care in the final programme from this Government. However, perhaps we should be grateful, given their obsession with privatisation. I doubt that we would ever support or welcome the kind of Bill that this coalition Government would bring forward. However, especially in Carers Week, when we celebrate the dedication of the 7 million carers of all ages across the country, it would have been highly appropriate and warmly welcome to have seen something that addressed the issues around social care—and an indication that the Government are taking them seriously.
I know that other noble Lords will want to speak in greater detail on health and education issues. We are very concerned that the Government, and certainly Michael Gove, have an ideological obsession with structures in education rather than attainment and a healthy learning environment. Even the Academies Commission admits that,
“academy status alone is not a panacea for improvement”.
As this coalition Government run out of steam, they are failing to address the issues that can really make a difference to people’s lives—creating fairness in employment, or tackling the housing crisis and the cost of the weekly shop or the gas bill, for example. They are not being, and will not be, tackled by this Government. All Governments, of any complexion, need to understand that economic recovery is not an end in itself but a means to an end. We do not seek economic success for its own sake but for the benefits it brings to our citizens and society as a whole. To those of us on this side of your Lordships’ House it means high-quality education and health provided on the basis of need, not means or wealth. It means decent jobs and employment prospects, the opportunity for businesses to be innovative and offer secure safe employment, the right to a decent home, and confidence in the future for yourself and your family. It means support and dignity for carers, and respect for teachers. That is not an exclusive list, but it stresses the need for all citizens to have the right to be participants, not just bystanders, in any economic recovery.
In less than a year, there will be a new Government and a new Queen’s Speech. From this side of the House, we look forward to bringing forward measures that will address these issues.
Lord Dholakia (LD)
My Lords, I welcome the gracious Speech and the opening remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Faulks.
Time constraints have obliged the coalition Government to propose fewer legislative measures than has been the case in the past. This is a good example for future Governments. We have learnt that knee-jerk reactions or chasing headlines are not sensible ways in which to run the country. Just look at the plethora of criminal justice legislation promoted by political parties in the past. Many of the measures have become irrelevant to the changing situation in the country. Some of these measures have still to be implemented.
The past four years have seen some important changes for the better in the criminal justice system. The iniquitous IPP sentence has been abolished. Legislation has restricted the unnecessary use of remand in custody. The prison population has increased at a significantly slower rate than under the previous Government, and estimates of the future prison population have been scaled down.
It is particularly encouraging that there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of juveniles in custody, falling by 55% in the past five years. The number of women in prison has also fallen, from 4,200 in 2010 to 3,800 now. The Government have continued to commit to funding for a national network of liaison and diversion services at police stations and courts to divert mentally disordered offenders to treatment and care. We have passed legislation which, for the first time, will provide prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months with supervision and support on release.
The Government are taking steps to reduce the indefensible racial disproportionality in the use of stop and search. They have passed legislation to promote the use of restorative justice in the criminal justice process—here thanks are due to the initiative taken by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf. They have implemented reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which will reduce the scope for unfair discrimination against former offenders in the job market and, because employment reduces reoffending, will also increase public safety. The Queen’s Speech announced two further welcome pieces of legislation in the modern slavery Bill and the Serious Crime Bill, which will contain measures to combat slavery, organised crime and child neglect. So far, so good. Regrettably, however, there are some clouds on the criminal justice horizon.
With a general election approaching, the past few months have seen signs of a heightened temptation for politicians to indulge in knee-jerk reactions which do nothing to promote justice or public safety. For example, the Secretary of State for Justice has recently banned the transfer of anyone who has previously absconded from an open prison. This means that an inadequate offender who absconds after receiving distressing news from his family, then thinks better of it a few hours later and hands himself in cannot be transferred back to an open prison later in his sentence. It is true that a small number of prisoners have gone out from an open prison and committed serious offences. However, in 2012 there were 485,000 releases on temporary licence and only 26 prisoners were arrested on suspicion of committing an offence—a rate of five failures in every 100,000 releases. It makes sense to be as rigorous as possible in assessing prisoners’ risk before transferring them to open conditions. However, it is not sensible to introduce sweeping restrictions on the use of open establishments, which greatly reduce overall reoffending by enabling prisoners to be released into the community on a gradual basis rather than suddenly after a period in completely closed conditions.
Over the past few weeks, we have seen the prison population start to rise sharply—by more than 500 in the second half of May—and this may well be in response to the tough rhetoric which is beginning to emerge as a general election approaches. During the next year, we would like to see the Government resist the temptation to engage in knee-jerk reactions or punitive rhetoric. Instead, they should use the next year to promote a series of further measures to improve our criminal justice system, either by implementing them during this Session or by preparing the ground for their implementation in a future Parliament.
First, we need to take further steps to reduce the unnecessary use of imprisonment. This country still uses imprisonment at a higher rate than any other western European country. We have 149 prisoners per 100,000 of the population compared with 100 in France and 77 in Germany. Why is there such an anomaly? Many prisons remain seriously overcrowded and more than 19,000 prisoners are held two to a cell designed for one person. At the same time, the need for public expenditure restrictions has led to a reduction in the number of prison officers relative to the number of prisoners: from 2.9 prisoners per officer in 2000 to 4.8 prisoners per officer last September. This reinforces the case for using prison more sparingly, particularly as community sentences have lower reconviction rates than prison sentences for comparable offenders. We should prohibit courts from using prison, except for dangerous offenders, unless they have first tried an intensive community supervision programme. We should also convert the sentences of existing IPP prisoners into determinate sentences once they have served a period equivalent to double their tariff.
Secondly, the Government should implement the recommendation of the draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill Committee by enabling prisoners to vote if they are serving sentences of 12 months or less or are in the last six months of their sentence. It is now 10 years since the European Court of Human Rights judged that our blanket ban on voting by convicted prisoners violates the European Convention on Human Rights. The longer we continue to ignore our obligations under international law, the longer we are adopting a position which sits badly with our insistence that prisoners and other offenders should respect the rule of law. Respect for the rule of law involves an obligation for nation states as well as individuals to abide by binding legal rulings and not to pick and choose by abiding only by decisions that they choose to accept. We should waste no further time in making this relatively limited change, for which there are strong arguments based on considerations of citizenship and rehabilitation.
Thirdly, we should build on the welcome recent legislation which provides for restorative justice when sentences are deferred by making restorative justice one of the statutory purposes of sentencing and by enabling courts to include specific restorative justice requirements in community orders and youth rehabilitation orders.
Fourthly, the Government should reinforce the steps they are taking to reform stop and search by placing a clear statutory duty on all criminal justice agencies to adopt numerical targets for reducing racial disproportionality in their operations.
Finally, the Government should grasp the nettle and raise this country’s unusually low age of criminal responsibility—currently the lowest in Europe—from 10 to 12. The current position is incompatible with our obligations under international standards of juvenile justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Dealing with children of this age through non-criminal processes would hold out more hope of diverting them from offending than subjecting them to punishments in a criminal court. A short criminal justice Bill containing these measures would provide a legacy of which the coalition Government could be proud.
I know that noble Lords from all parties with an interest in the criminal justice and penal system will continue to press for changes along these lines, not only during the current Session but throughout future Parliaments. Let me conclude with a word of caution. We have yet to study detailed provisions of legislative measures proposed by the Government. We are also aware that we have a short parliamentary timetable available to get these measures through both Houses of Parliament. I trust that the Government will accept these sensible amendments. Let us work together so that sensible amendments form part of effective legislation.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Taylor of Holbeach) (Con)
My Lords, perhaps I can interrupt at this stage of the proceedings in the absence of a Whip to say that we have an advisory time of five minutes. I am most grateful for the contribution made by the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, but I know that other noble Lords will wish to move on, and I hope that they do not mind being reminded of that.
Lord Patel (CB)
My Lords, I am pleased to be taking part in this debate following the gracious Speech, and I am particularly encouraged to speak more freely when I see the noble Earl, Lord Howe, in his place and know that he cannot answer me back or reply to my comments—at least not today. So if I do speak freely, I hope that he will understand.
Before doing that, I shall speak on two of the issues that are in the gracious Speech and in the notes accompanying it. The first relates to redundancy payments, particularly for public sector workers. We know that current statistics show that a quarter of the managers who have been given redundancy payments come back to some post or other, either as NHS employees or contractors. These are highly paid individuals and some of them were found not to be performing well. It is time that that was stopped.
My other comment relates to education. I welcome the fact that GCSE A-levels are to be reformed. Both the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society have produced reports. The Royal Society report, which will come out on 26 June, alludes to the need for science and mathematics teaching in both primary and secondary schools. It also refers to the lack of appropriately qualified specialists in chemistry and other science subjects in both primary and secondary schools. Unless we tackle the issue, the comments we have heard from universities and employers about the lack of appropriately skilled people in science and mathematics and the lack of economic competitiveness as against our competitors will not be addressed. I hope we will have an opportunity to debate that.
I turn to the issues about which I can speak freely that were not in the gracious Speech. These represent missed opportunities. We have had draft Bills, and consultations and reviews conducted by the Department of Health, and yet nothing has come to legislation. Perhaps I may just list some of these issues because I do not have the time to go through them in detail.
First, the Law Commission report on the regulation of the nine regulators in health and social care. The Government asked the Law Commission to look at this in 2011 and it produced a clear report earlier this year which will be of benefit to both the regulators and, in the case of medicine, to improved patient care. The Government said that they were committed to bringing this in and yet there is no draft regulation or legislation and we do not know when we will get it. This will stop any further development or improvement in patient care, certainly as far as medicine regulation is concerned, because the current medical Act is draconian, bureaucratic and not fit for purpose. I do not know whether the Government can change this situation but I hope that they will at least produce a draft Bill before the next election.
My next point concerns caring, to which the Minister referred. Yes, we now have draft regulation and guidance, produced last week on 6 June, relating to Part 1 of the Care Act. Again, however, the legislation, guidance and regulation do not address the key issue—the vulnerability of old people who are abused through being provided with poor care and the lack of accountability of those who provide it. We need legislation to introduce a criminal offence and a penalty for those who do not treat old people properly. Some 500,000 elderly people are abused per year—50 per hour—and so, by the time we finish the debate, 250 more elderly people will have been abused. Regulation is required to fix this situation and I am sorry that I do not see it.
Parliament has said that it would like to see the plain packaging of tobacco products. There has been consultation and the Government produced draft regulation. I now realise that there has to be consultation time and, after that, the EU will have to have a consultation period. Therefore, the timescale is so prolonged that there is a risk that the issue will be kicked into the long grass if the Government do not produce something before the next election.
We have debated folic acid—I notice that the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, is in his place—and it is clear now that the folic levels in the general population of this country are low. One-third of pregnant women do not take the precaution of having adequate folic acid pre-pregnancy. This results in more than 300 babies being born with serious neural tube defects, spina bifida being one of them. However, several hundred others have their pregnancies terminated because of such defects. It is time now to address the issue by putting small quantities of folic acid in flour. However, there is no legislation to enable this.
We have also debated mitochondrial disease. About 3,500 women in this country probably carry mutant genes of mitochondrial DNA, which accounts for less than 1% of total DNA. Diseases related to mutations in mitochondrial genes are severe and affect mostly the brain, heart, liver, kidney and nervous system. One of the ways to help those who carry a CBL gene mutation is to replace the mitochondrial DNA.
Three reviews that the Government asked an expert committee of the HFEA to produce, and the report from the Nuffield Foundation ethics committee, all said that there was no reason why mitochondrial replacement techniques should not be given the go-ahead. However, legislation will be required before this can occur in humans, even for the purposes of research. These are five missed opportunities on issues that we have already discussed.
I turn finally in one minute to—
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, there is an advisory speaking time of five minutes. Obviously the noble Lord could go beyond it, but in terms of courtesy to others, given the number of speakers in the debate, he might want to bear the time in mind.
Lord Patel
As a courtesy, I will not go any further. However, I have to say that NHS reforms have not worked so far and we should take the opportunity to look at the issues again. I hope that we will be able to discuss them further.
The Lord Bishop of Derby
My Lords, I should like to offer some comments on the welcome proposal set out by the Government in the gracious Speech to introduce the modern slavery Bill. I had the privilege of serving on the Joint Select Committee with other Members of your Lordships’ House under the superb chairmanship of Frank Field MP, and we all came to an agreement on a number of important issues. I want to comment on and offer some suggestions as to how we might handle the debate on this important topic, not least because much of the world is looking to see the terms in which such a Bill might be couched and how it is introduced. As I begin, I should remind the House of the irony of this moment. There is a movement to talk more positively about equality, freedom, democracy and transparency, but all the evidence shows increases in inequality, violence against women and slavery at this time. It is a very serious issue.
Noble Lords probably know that slavery is the second most profitable crime. It involves 21 million adults and 5.5 million children across the world. People are treated like commodities. Let us think of a Thai woman quite near this place who until recently was working in a brothel and being raped 10 times a day, day after day. That is modern slavery. I could take noble Lords to a house in Derby that has people crammed into a room with very few facilities. They have no money and they are working and working; they are being exploited.
Slavery is an emotive issue. The Prime Minister said of slavery in April 2013, “We must crush it”. The question is how to tackle the issue. In taking a lead, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Francis are doing a lot of work internationally, because it is an international issue. In April of this year the Pope said that we need two things to tackle modern slavery: strategy and mercy. Our task is to marry up strategy and mercy and to show how Governments can work with the voluntary sector, especially the faith sector, to offer the kind of mercy that provides face-to-face support for victims. When the Bill is introduced, I think next Tuesday, we must look at how it will help us to define what slavery and exploitation are, whether by way of example or legal definition. We will have to look at proposals for child advocates. Children in slavery need people to walk alongside them, but although this is important, it is also expensive. Barnardo’s is trialling some schemes and we will have to consider them. We also need to look at confiscation and compensation.
Some outstanding things are not mentioned in the proposals. One of those is the review of the national referral mechanism by which people are identified as being enslaved. We have to make sure that the legislation recognises that the national referral mechanism benchmarks what good care looks like. What does mercy look like in terms of benefits, housing, and the provision of opportunities to offer support and space to recover? Not much mention is made of supply chains. Many of us here in this Chamber are wearing garments that may well have included slavery in the supply chain that delivered them to us. We need a strategy for supply chains.
Not much has been suggested about overseas domestic workers, who, because they cannot change employers, are trapped in a very severe kind of slavery. There will also be an anti-slavery commissioner, and we will have to work hard to ensure that that person has some real authority to listen, to learn and to take the thing forward.
I suspect that as we debate this issue and look at the proposals there will be three kinds of sieving mechanisms. One will be economic: can we afford it? We are trying to recover economically. There will be a question for us all about the financial cost of mercy. There will be a second line of questioning about supply chains in terms of red tape on business and undermining business efficiency. We will have to look at the organisational cost of mercy. There will be a lot of debate about how this interfaces with immigration. Actually, fewer than 2,000 people were identified as being in slavery last year so we are not talking about great numbers, but we will have to look at the cost of strangers being made friends when they are so appallingly treated.
I hope that we will encourage legislation which enables a creative working relationship with the voluntary sector that can produce face-to-face support for victims and walk alongside and deliver mercy in a human way. But the mark of a civilised society is the quality of care for those in such horrendous need—think of that Thai woman, think of those people crammed in that house in Derbyshire. Our challenge will be: how does the state craft a strategy that delivers mercy?
Baroness Browning (Con)
My Lords, I will begin where the right reverend Prelate finished, with the modern slavery Bill, which I welcome. Like him, I think it is broad in scope and we need to ensure that as it passes through the House the detail encompasses all the aspects he has mentioned. I welcome the increased maximum sentence of life imprisonment for this crime and the enhancement to confiscate criminals’ assets. I also welcome the anti-slavery commissioner. It is not very often that I would say that because I have a rather cynical view sometimes of these job titles that are attached to people. But I think that in this case it is a very important role and one that could make a big contribution. Of course, children’s need for child trafficking advocates will be very important.
Like the right reverend Prelate, I am concerned about people who enter this country as employees through a legitimate route but are domestic servants and very often can be identified as slaves. I hope that my noble friends on the Front Bench will ensure that in those circumstances diplomatic immunity of the employer will not allow people to slip through the net and find that they are not subject to the law of this land if they are treating people as slaves within their households.
I also welcome the Serious Crime Bill, in particular the emphasis on the National Crime Agency and other law enforcement agencies, which, as the Bill recognises, need the tools to effectively tackle serious and organised crime, including cybercrime and the illegal drug trade. At First Reading last week my noble friend read out all the Bills that need amending in order for this Bill to proceed. That tells us very clearly, particularly in those areas of cybercrime and the illegal drug trade, how fast technology and information move. We need to change our legislation to keep up with them and to ensure that we are putting on the statute book laws that will allow us to bring people to justice and ensure that in those areas we have a system that is both effective and a deterrent.
I would like to briefly mention something that, to my mind, covers most of the big issues that this debate focuses on: crime, education, health and justice. It seems to me that over the years we have rather lost our way when it comes to how we view the ways in which these big public bodies are organised. Therefore I take this opportunity again to say to my noble friends on the Front Bench that, in any reforms in which we seek to improve the services and the way in which we execute those policies in this country, I hope we will have learnt the lesson that there is a difference between management and leadership. There has been far too much focus on management in previous years.
I put my hand up as somebody who worked as a manager in many ways in a previous existence. I am very happy to accept the term “manager”. But management in our public services has rather led to a culture of tick-boxes, centrally set targets and people who start to lose the authority, initiative and creativity needed to progress in any organisation, whether commercial or public sector. Therefore, in reforming our public services, let us encourage and train people to lead so that our public services are exemplars around the world. I fear that in all the subjects we are discussing today we have tended to slip behind—I am not talking about the people who work in them but the way in which we run them. It is a responsibility of government to set that framework and make sure that that happens.
Finally, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Patel, about the care industry. I am not asking for a Bill on health—I think my noble friend Lord Howe could do with a bit of a rest, as could, perhaps more so, the people who work in the health service. However, we must address the care industry and the need to make sure that vulnerable people are no longer subject to being cared for by people whose accountability can sometimes seem somewhat questionable.
Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Lab)
My Lords, following Her Majesty’s gracious Speech, it is a privilege to take part in this debate. It was my first Speech, following my introduction into your noble House. As one of the newest Members of your Lordships’ House, I was honoured to be among my eminent peers.
The most gracious Speech set out the work that the Government intend to cover to the end of this Parliament. This includes plans to legislate for penalising those employers who fail to pay the minimum wage, to implement reforms to the electricity markets—even though this is an attempt to respond to a policy announced at last year’s Labour Party conference—and to reduce the use of plastic bags to help protect the environment. I am pleased that the Government are thinking about our environment but when families struggle to earn enough to keep a roof over their heads and feed their families, while worrying about how many hours of work they will get from zero-hours jobs, I think plastic bags will be low on their list of priorities.
I would like to add my contribution to the debate on education. Although I appreciate that education was included in the most gracious Speech, the Government have not gone far enough to address the plight of black and working-class young people failing in our schools. The most gracious Speech included the Government’s apprenticeship scheme, which should have a take-up of up to 2 million by the end of this Parliament. Apprenticeships help young people gain skills that equip them for a life of work. I would congratulate the Government if this led to long-term employment, as 850,000 young people are unemployed and we need to do more to get them into work.
However, I worry that the apprenticeships are a stop-gap to keep young people off the unemployment register, which gives the Government credit to show that their strategy for the economy is working. I can remember when young people leaving school saw apprenticeships leading to a long-term career with the firms that took them on. Apprenticeships should not be seen as a short-term fix for the unemployment crisis. There is currently no guarantee of employment at the end of the apprenticeship programme. One in five apprenticeships lasts for less than six months.
The gracious Speech also includes the Government’s desire to help more schools become free schools and academies. I have concern, however, that under this Government, schools are divided. Some are denied the freedom that would help them raise standards, while others are largely unaccountable to their local communities, allowing poor performance to go unchallenged. All schools should have freedom to help them raise standards, and all schools should be accountable to their local communities.
When we are addressing education, we will need to keep an eye on our young Caribbean boys who are underachieving, although it is not just Caribbean boys who are underachieving but young people from a working-class background. In the previous parliamentary Session, the Commons Committee on Education tackled the issue of underachievement in education by white working-class children. The Government need to make sure that the same opportunities and attention are given to all.
Achievement at school obviously has a strong influence on employment opportunities. Although it is encouraging that unemployment generally is falling, figures from last November showed that in the previous year it had actually risen in the black African and Caribbean community by more than 15%. The unemployment rate among young black men is shockingly high at 45%. I hope that in their approach to education, employment and training, the Government keep in mind the need to focus on improving life chances in all communities. We in the Labour Party are saying that the economy should be working for the many, not just a few.
Lord Storey (LD)
My Lords, in terms of my interest in children and young people, I say how much I welcome the upcoming modern slavery Bill and the financial support for childcare. I laud the meals service scheme for infants due to be introduced this autumn and the extension of free childcare for the most disadvantaged. As we have said on so many occasions in this Chamber, if we get it right for children in preschool and early years, it has the biggest impact on their learning and development. Not giving young children the environment for play, learning, exploring and imagination makes it an uphill struggle all the way through formal education.
That is not to say, of course, that it has to be done in a formal setting or outside the family. My guess is that there was a collective sigh of relief in schools that the Queen’s Speech contained no proposals directly affecting schools and schooling. The past 10 years or so have seen cataclysmic changes, with every aspect of education turned over from top to bottom—the schools curriculum, training, examinations, conditions of service, inspection regimes and financing assessment. The changes have been breathtaking and it is to the credit and marvel of our schools that they have risen to the challenge. I can find no other European country that has undergone the changes that we have. Surely we now need a long period of just letting schools and teachers get on with the job that they are best at doing. Would it not be good if there was some consensus that we stop playing political football with our schools?
We are having this debate against the background of what has been happening in some schools in Birmingham: the so-called Trojan horse. I want to reflect on the issue for a few moments; I know that we are going to have a ministerial Statement. First and foremost, we need to do all we can to protect the pupils in those schools from the situation in which they find themselves. Many of these young people will be facing exams in the next few weeks, and to have television vans and crews outside their school and headlines in newspapers cannot be good for the stability that they need.
Many of us will remember that local authorities used to have responsibility for schools. They were responsible to the Secretary of State and provided the intervention, mentoring on everything from curriculum development to CPD and support at interviews. Indeed, there would always have been an LEA representative at governing body meetings. These advisers and inspectors had their finger on the pulse of each and every school and I really wonder whether it was wise to allow that complete divorce of schools from their local authorities, and indeed their local communities. We have seen local authorities denuded of resources to support schools in the way that they did and academies become free of local accountability and part of large chains, often with as many schools as some of our smallest LAs had. In my view, we cannot micromanage schools from the centre but neither can some regional commissioners take on the role of day-to-day support that schools so desperately need.
During the past 10 years, we have also seen the number of faith schools increase considerably. I speak as someone who was head of a faith school for five years. The notion that you separate children by their religion has to be carefully considered. Faith schools bring a caring and mutually respective ethos but children need to understand the tolerance of a multicultural community. My own daughter went to a Jewish school. She developed not only an understanding of different faiths but lasting friendships with children from other faiths. Faith schools should never be allowed to develop religious indoctrination and it is hugely important that they encourage and allow children from faiths other than their own to be enrolled.
We need not only to ensure that we know locally the learning and cultural environment of each school, but to have a consistent approach to inspection. It must be right that all schools, irrespective of their type—whether they are public or private, LA or free school—have the same inspection regime. I am delighted that Ofsted wants to carry out all inspections, as the notion that certain types of school could use a private inspection provider was fraught with danger. I hope that no more will a school be allowed to use the same private provider if that private provider is reliant on the school for the contract, and thus potentially turns a blind eye to some unacceptable practices. Inspection standards for schools of impartiality and rigour must be for all.
It is also important that all schools, irrespective of their pedigree, have a broad and balanced curriculum and it surely cannot be right that some schools have an overprovision of faith matters at the expense of that. Ofsted is our only means of knowing what is really going on in schools and should put “broad and balanced” as the hallmark of any inspection regime. Furthermore, schools that are deemed outstanding should not be left for many years before they are visited again.
Finally, I want to raise—but we are out of time so I cannot and will sit down.
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Maiden Speech)
My Lords, I think that the correct medical term for my condition is imposter syndrome. I have suffered from that for a long time. How could a boy from Southend who was not brought up going to church and who, aged 11, fell the wrong side of the line and went to a secondary modern school end up sitting on these red Benches and speaking in this House? Because of this, I want to say something today about the place of education in the life of our nation. However, I must begin by thanking your Lordships for the welcome I have received in this House and the staff and officers of the House for showing me the ropes. I also pay tribute to John Gladwin, my predecessor as Bishop of Chelmsford—he is well known to many of your Lordships—and to the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, who first took a punt on me 10 years ago when he invited me to be Bishop of Reading. These and many others are people who believed in me and, as I shall go on to say, without affirmation none of us can live well.
The diocese of Chelmsford, where I serve, is 100 years old this year. We have recently enjoyed splendid visits from Her Majesty the Queen and his Grace the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury. The diocese is vast and varied, from the Olympic park in Stratford—yes, the London Olympics were in the Chelmsford diocese, as I like to tell the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London—to the end of Southend pier; from Tilbury to Harwich; and from Harlow to Saffron Walden. We are the second largest diocese in the Church of England and, without doubt, the most diverse. And we are in good heart. Many churches in east London and Essex are growing. More and more people want to engage with the possibility of faith and are rooting around for a set of values and a moral compass that shape and direct human flourishing.
As the church of this land, we exist first and foremost to make Christ known, but where Christ is known there is joy and well-being and this is something that people notice, particularly in our schools. One of the few things that parents and politicians agree on is that they want education to be about more than results. Ethos is what everyone is after, but how is it achieved? Most would agree that it comes from a common set of values, articulated by the head and shared by staff, governors, pupils and parents. As Madeleine Bunting wrote some years ago:
“This is where faith schools can have an advantage. They can fall back on a well-known, religious narrative to which there is still considerable adherence in some form. As the last census showed”,
over 50% of people in this country,
“still describe themselves as Christian; that may not mean going to church but it may mean wanting children to grow up with broadly Christian values”.
It is not that other schools cannot achieve this; of course they can, but it may be harder:
“Secular ethical traditions are honourable but they lack the familiarity, the symbols, the narratives and histories that bring the abstract to emotional life”.
Those are her words, not mine, and she was writing in the Guardian, not the usual champion of faith-based schools.
In Newham, the most culturally and ethnically diverse borough in the country, the diocese of Chelmsford has recently accepted an invitation to be a co-sponsor of—it is not a very snappy title—the London Design and Engineering University Technical College. Although pupils at this school will receive the very best technical and practical training available, all the school’s sponsors agree that that is not enough for either the modern workplace or the communities that we want to build. Religious education will therefore be given a high priority on the curriculum, for the trustees recognise that it is impossible to understand and inhabit the modern world, especially in east London, without a critical appreciation of faith and, even more than that, a mature spiritual, moral, social and cultural worldview. Moreover, good religious education has been shown to be one of the best ways of countering religious extremism.
Consequently, one of the first things that the school is doing is recruiting a chaplain. To me as a secondary modern schoolboy, it has always seemed rather strange that in English public schools, where many of our political class send their children, the presence of a chaplain is deemed essential, their role is understood and their contribution prized, yet in the state system this is seen as either irrelevant or an excessive luxury. If we want our children to be mature citizens of a cohesive multi-ethnic and multi-faith society, and if we really want to combat extremism by helping each of us to understand and appreciate the other and to love the stranger in our midst, we may need to think again.
Down the road in Dagenham, a community school that was struggling two years ago has become a Church of England school. I have visited it twice. Within 18 months of it reopening, with basically the same staff but a new set of values, a recent report has said that these values have transformed,
“the quality of relationships and effectiveness of learning within the school”.
This school, too, has a chaplain.
As this care needs to span the whole of a child’s upbringing, the diocese has recently pioneered a childcare venture called sparrows. We aim to support and strengthen churches and communities by providing high-quality, mixed-delivery childcare with Christian distinctiveness in church settings. This will provide the places that the new scheme to pay for childcare announced in the gracious Speech will make possible.
In my own life, I have experienced the best and worst of education. The school I went to, though good and well run in its own way, had pretty basic expectations. You left at 15 and got a job—“Bishop of Chelmsford” was all the job centre had when I went—and you took CSEs not O-levels. Clever children went somewhere else. The choice had already been made. I somehow managed to get three O-levels. As a consequence, I was considered at my school to be something of an intellectual. However, three O-levels were not enough to swap to the grammar school which had a proper sixth form. Believing I was capable of more, but not being in an environment where more was on offer, with two friends I enrolled in the sixth form of the secondary modern girls school next door. Since a school, whatever its title, is only as good as its teachers—although various politicians over the years do not seem to have grasped this fact—I found myself in an environment where teachers believed in me and saw my potential. Under the affirming gaze of their encouragement, I flourished and became, I think, only the second or third person from that school to get a degree.
Human beings need affirmation to live well. That attitude of believing and encouraging needs to encompass family, school, community and church. I was blessed to receive that affirmation in my family and eventually through that school. Without it, I do not know where I would be. The best schools—church schools serving their local communities and all sorts of others schools as well—know this. The proposed introduction of the so-called Cinderella law, which will criminalise the emotional abuse of children for the first time, is very welcome, for not only do thousands of children suffer in this way, but the need for this Bill is the shadow side of what the church believes should be at the centre of all educational policy and praxis: namely, that dogged and persistent determination to value and affirm every child and to nurture the God-given potential in everyone by giving them the greatest gift of all, which is the knowledge that they are valued and loved.
This is the Christian ethos that makes our work distinctive: you are valued not because of your birth, wealth or achievement, but because you are. Of course, it is our greatest desire that children receive this affirmation in their home, but the need for this law sadly reminds us that this is not always the case. It also reminds us that our schools should be places where this affirmation is commonplace. That will lead not only to better results but to a more loving and cohesive society. I am able to love and affirm others in their difference and their diversity, with their different gifts, cultures, faiths and personalities, because I have seen and received love and affirmation myself. It is therefore vital that resources for much needed school places go to where there is greatest need, and the Church of England stands ready to help the Government open new schools and develop pre-school childcare so that more places can be provided with the same high standards.
Coupled with my interest in the arts and with issues of peace and justice, I hope that my experience as someone who did not get an education the easy way, and who now leads a huge and diverse diocese, will be of service to this House and this nation as we seek to build a fairer education system where there is opportunity for all, especially for the poor and the excluded—and a set of values upon which a fruitful, cohesive and fairer society can be built. I do not know how to end speeches without saying “Amen”—so I will say thank you.
Baroness Byford (Con)
My Lords, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford is to be congratulated on that amazing maiden speech. His commitment and knowledge, surrounded by a little humour to make his point, earns him a warm place in our hearts. We wish him well in this House.
Noble Lords will not be surprised at his background, as he has told us a little about it. He was ordained a deacon in 1984 and priested in 1985. He was an ordinand in the diocese of Chelmsford and, as he acknowledged in his own CV—which is where I found the humour—they are getting a return on their investment. The right reverend Prelate also served as a diocesan missioner in Wakefield. He has been for many years involved in developing and writing the Emmaus programme for evangelism, and that came over clearly today.
In 1997, he was a member of Springboard, an initiative for greater evangelism. In 2004, he became the area Bishop of Reading. He has written widely about evangelism and, in his spare time, managed to write a children’s book. His interests include reading, cooking and music and, as he said to us today, he wishes to promote joy and well-being and to communicate them to others. I wish the right reverend Prelate every success in this House. On behalf of all of us, he is most welcome.
I welcome many of the measures announced in the gracious Speech, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to securing the UK’s economic success in the long term. Without such an achievement, public services will not be able to grow and the demands placed on the NHS and education departments will be put under greater pressure. In my short time, I will focus on the NHS, deregulation and the need for greater broadband.
As some of your Lordships may be well aware, my husband Barrie died in November last year after a long struggle with bowel cancer. The treatment he received at the Osborne unit of the Leicester Royal Infirmary was outstanding; the care and support given to our family could not have been better. Equally important was the direct link between the medical services in hospital and social services. The care providers, his GP team, the district nurses and others worked closely together, easing us through a very difficult time. I want the Minister to know that this working together is absolutely crucial—my noble friend referred to this in his opening speech.
For many years I have spoken about the challenges faced by people living in rural areas and of the greater costs involved in providing services to them. One issue raised with me recently was that of pharmacy provision. I understand that some GPs are dispensing medicines from their surgeries and have created one-stop shops for their patients. I ask the Minister whether there are plans to expand this type of service, which seems to be very worth while.
I whole heartedly support the Government’s moves to make legislation more supportive of small businesses. The Federation of Small Businesses represents 4.9 million businesses, employing some 14 million people who will benefit from these plans. The government proposal should ensure that small businesses will be promptly paid, will have easier access to finance and will be able to compete for public procurement projects. We will welcome this Bill when it comes before the House.
However good the intentions are, the success of a Bill relies on its practicality, on its implementation and enforcement, and on review. Some recommendations made by the Richard Macdonald report on deregulation, which Defra commissioned three years ago, are still outstanding. I am sad that I will not be able to speak tomorrow, but I ask my noble friends to raise this when it is discussed tomorrow with my noble friend Lord De Mauley.
Small businesses require access to broadband, especially because government departments, including HMRC, demand that they should be used for all sorts of state business. I repeat for the umpteenth time that that is not physically possible in many rural areas. The rollout is some two years behind schedule and large swathes of the countryside are without service. Rural businesses cannot compete in such circumstances, file the returns demanded by the Rural Payments Agency, or conform to the new PAYE demands.
The gracious Speech recognises the importance of economic stability. The announced freeze on fuel duty, the Bill that will boost investment in infrastructure, and the proposals reforming planning law will help businesses and public service providers. They are essential steps to enable companies to grow and more jobs to be secured. I welcome those initiatives.
Lord Noon (Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the announcement in the gracious Speech that the Government are to introduce a slavery Bill and a Serious Crime Bill. I will touch upon three areas, and will put several suggestions to the Minister.
On the Serious Crime Bill, on Friday Mr Justice Dodgson is expected to pass sentence on Mashudur Choudhury, who was arrested on his return from Syria and whom a jury found guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts. The Government estimate that around 400 Britons have travelled to Syria to join these radical jihadi groups. So far this year, police have arrested over 40 Britons who, like Mr Choudhury, they believe have returned to the UK after fighting and attending terrorist training camps in Syria.
Mr Choudhury has been convicted under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006, and as such faces a potential life sentence. However, that Act was drafted as a consequence of the dreadful London Tube bombings on 7 July 2005, long before the Syrian uprising of 2011, and was not crafted to deal with the proliferation of terrorist training activity by British-born citizens overseas. As a consequence, it may be difficult to prosecute many of those returning from Syria under Section 5 and, with no other suitable legislation, prosecutors may have to charge many returnees with lesser offences with lower sentencing tariffs. I welcome the provisions in the Serious Crime Bill, which the Government introduced in the House last Thursday, to provide for extraterritorial jurisdiction for the Section 5 offence and to extend the existing extraterritorial jurisdiction for the Section 6 offence. That will make it much clearer to those who seek to join jihadi groups in Syria that they will face prosecution on their return to the UK.
However, the Bill as currently drafted keeps sentencing tariffs for those offences at life imprisonment and a term not exceeding 10 years respectively. I believe that in respect of Section 6 offences the public rightly expect a higher tariff, and I ask the Government to consider amending the Bill to make provision for longer sentencing. With such an amendment the legislation would help prosecutors bring these would-be terrorists to justice. It would also reassure the British public that those who go to Syria to train in the tools of terrorism and return with the intent to cause harm will receive the most severe sentences.
While we must do everything we can to keep our community safe and protected from those who would do us harm, we must also do our best to provide a safe haven for those fleeing persecution in their own lands and seeking asylum in the UK. That brings me to my second point. Keeping us safe inevitably means that many asylum seekers will be kept in detention while their backgrounds and claims are properly investigated. I have no problem with this but we must also treat them with dignity throughout that process.
I have been troubled by ongoing reports of events at Yarl’s Wood detention centre—allegations of sexual abuse of vulnerable women by male guards, the failure of authorities to investigate the matters properly and the refusal to allow the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women access to the detention centre during her fact-finding mission to the UK. The Yarl’s Wood website home page states:
“We focus on decency and respect in all aspects of care for our residents and use continuous innovation to further improve and develop our service”.
Yarl’s Wood is operated by a private contractor, and I note that the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons has indicated that the contractor will be called before the committee. However, what can and will the Government do now to ensure that women held at Yarl’s Wood, or other immigration removal centres, are treated with dignity; that complaints they make are treated seriously and investigated properly; and that United Nations and any other appropriate monitoring officials are allowed free access? Is this something the noble Lord the Minister could consider tightening up by way of amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, which will shortly make its way to this House from the other place?
I welcome the news that following detailed pre-legislative scrutiny a modern slavery Bill is to be introduced in this final session of Parliament. Slavery, in any form, is abhorrent, and many fall victim to it through human traffickers who exploit the poor and vulnerable. It is almost unbelievable that slavery can exist in Britain in the 21st century. Yet as we mark this year the 10th anniversary of the harrowing case of the 23 Chinese cockle-pickers who tragically died in Morecambe Bay, we continue to see further cases in the UK where vulnerable people, including children, have been forced into slavery and prostitution by traffickers.
Where Wilberforce led in the 19th century, I humbly suggest Britain must lead again in this century to rid the world of slavery, exploitation and trafficking.
Baroness Walmsley (LD)
I welcome the gracious Speech and in particular the good Liberal Democrat policies in it. I especially welcome the extension of 15 hours’ free care to more two year-olds, a policy introduced by the Liberal Democrat former Minister Sarah Teather. Despite all the free care currently available, the poorest fifth of our young children are still 19% below average by the time they reach the age of five. The best way of changing that is to provide more high-quality professional care and education, and make it available as early as possible. I do not underestimate the role of parents but the best quality early-years settings work with the parents, helping them to extend the good work when the child goes home. This is as it should be.
I also welcome the tax relief on childcare for working families, another Liberal Democrat policy. In Wrexham, near where I live, just over 4,000 working families will be eligible for up to £2,000 under this scheme. This will make a big difference to their family budget and enable more young parents to go to work to provide for their families and contribute to the economy. What is very important, however, is to ensure that good- quality places are available wherever they are needed, especially in the poorer areas where they can make so much difference.
I welcome the proposed changes in the Serious Crime Bill to change the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 to make it explicit that cruelty which is likely to cause psychological harm to a child will be an offence. The current law on neglect is outdated and inadequate. The UK is one of the only countries in the world that fails to recognise emotional neglect as the crime it is. That is about to change.
However, the Bill is not perfect and many of us will be working to improve it even further. Currently the Bill provides that cruelty to a child must be “wilful” to be considered a criminal offence. Replacing “wilful” with “intentional and reckless” could enable more effective identification and response to this offence. I am sure that we will talk about that as the Bill progresses. But while we work on the Serious Crime Bill, recognising emotional neglect as an offence, we must also take further steps towards prevention and ensure earlier, and more effective, interventions for neglected young people and prevention of neglect in general. Under this Government, there have been several very successful initiatives providing support for parents, helping them to develop positive parenting skills, and better support and interventions for families with problems such as domestic violence, drug and alcohol addictions and other issues. But we must do more. In this case, prevention is not just better than cure but cheaper too.
I welcome the modern slavery Bill and congratulate my noble friend Lord McColl on his role in particular in raising the issues relating to children. The 23 local authority trials of providing independent advocates have been successful and now we have an enabling power to put that on a statutory footing. I trust that the Secretary of State will use it at a later date. We will be watching. I particularly welcome the measure that provides that trafficked children are not prosecuted for crimes that they were forced to commit by their traffickers. At last the law will recognise that children are not equipped to resist the pressure put on them by those who exert total power over them. I know that there are those who are calling for other specific measures, and I suspect that we will have some interesting debates.
However, although there is much to welcome, there is something missing. I would have liked to see the Government announce an intention to clarify the law on reporting of child abuse and abuse of vulnerable adults, whether physical or sexual in nature, which comes to the attention of those working in public institutions. I am talking about mandatory reporting, which would address the issue raised by the noble Lord, Lord Patel, and the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, about vulnerable elder people.
We have recently seen reports in the media of suspicions of sweeping under the carpet and covering up historic child abuse. Here I point out that there is no such thing as “historic” child abuse. Child abuse persists throughout the life of the abused person and often leads to mental and emotional illness later on. Unfortunately, there is currently no law under which those who become aware of offences against children or vulnerable adults in public institutions and do not report it to the relevant authorities can be held to account. Recently, we had a report from the NSPCC that showed that there are now more than 500 people who have made allegations about the offences of the late Jimmy Savile. Many of these offences were carried out against children in schools and vulnerable adults in Broadmoor. I cannot believe that these offences went unnoticed at the time or unreported by the victims, but nothing was done to stop it. We have also had a horrendous case of child neglect where the child subsequently died, although he was seen scavenging for food in the school dustbin and injuries were noticed on his body. This is not all in the past; it is happening now, today, in schools and institutions. It is whispered about, but it is not shouted from the rooftops, as it should be.
A few brave victims and journalists have highlighted the problems that we face today. The people who perpetrate these atrocities are clever. They hide in full view, relying on their charismatic personalities, gaining support from parents through their apparent care for children, while at the same time abusing them. A recent case of a teacher in international schools is a perfect example. It is time to bring a full stop to it. Abuse of children is a crime and the law should say so.
Lord Kakkar (CB)
My Lords, it is not anticipated that there will be any substantial primary legislation on healthcare during this final Session of Parliament, but it is inevitable that your Lordships’ House will have to address issues with regard to healthcare, because the provision of effective health services is such an important responsibility of government, commanding such a substantial proportion of public expenditure and having such a profound impact on our fellow citizens.
I would like specifically to consider issues with regard not to primary or secondary legislation generated here in our own Parliament but the impact of ongoing directives and regulation from the European Union that affect the delivery of healthcare, and most importantly the potential consequences that might attend medical research of the proposed European data protection regulation, which has been considered by both the Commission and the European Parliament and will eventually, potentially in this Session, arrive for consideration in this Parliament. In so doing, I remind noble Lords of my interests as professor of surgery, University College, London, chairman, University College London Partners Ltd and UK business ambassador for healthcare and lifescience.
First, on the ongoing question of the European working time directive, in May 2010 the Government declared that they wished to renegotiate specific provisions of the directive affecting the training of certain groups of junior doctors and the provision of healthcare services more generally. Those in craft specialties such as mine who undergo training that is restricted by the working time directive are concerned that they will not develop the necessary skills and, indeed, judgment to serve as independent practitioners and consultant surgeons in the National Health Service. This issue must be addressed. The cost to the public purse of providing locums is estimated to be some £200 million a year to allow rotas to be developed covering the working time directive’s 48 hours provision. However, most worryingly, coroners are now starting to cite the working time directive in their narrative verdicts as a safety concern in the deaths of certain patients. Only last week, the newly appointed chief executive of the NHS, Simon Stevens, cited the working time directive as potentially contributing to the closure of local hospitals which are so vital in providing community services for the elderly who are subject to many chronic diseases. At what stage are Her Majesty’s Government’s negotiations with regard to the working time directive and do they anticipate that the issues will be resolved by the end of this Parliament?
A second important issue is that of ensuring that all doctors in this country practise to the same standard. During this Parliament the Government have achieved remarkable success in enabling the General Medical Council to undertake language testing of all doctors who wish to register and practise in this country, including those from the European Union. However, there is still a deficit in assessing the skills and competence of doctors from anywhere in the world, including the European Union, who wish to practise in this country. This is a vital issue. Those graduating from our medical schools have their curriculum assessed by the General Medical Council—I declare my interest as a member of the GMC—but also have their competence tested in examinations in which the General Medical Council has an interest. International medical graduates coming from abroad will undergo tests but those from Europe will not. Do Her Majesty’s Government propose to address that issue in the remainder of this Parliament?
Finally, the data protection regulation will have a very serious impact on the potential to undertake certain forms of vital medical research. The original regulation as drafted by the Commission was satisfactory but amendments to Articles 81 and 83 passed by the European Parliament will have a detrimental impact on large-scale studies such as the UK Biobank, genome mapping and cancer registries. This will have a devastating impact on the progress of medical research and on our ability to undertake large epidemiological studies and more detailed and specific specialist studies which will drive the field of personalised medicine in this country. If this regulation were to be transposed into UK legislation, it would have a detrimental impact on medical research in this country. I would like to ask the Minister what position the Government will take to ensure that this does not happen.
Lord Glendonbrook (Con) (Maiden Speech)
My Lords, since my introduction, people often say to me that there must be few similarities between my career in the airline industry and the honour of an appointment to your Lordships’ House. To the contrary, some similarities have surprised me: long queues when voting, delays waiting for the vote and a shortage of baggage space. I will not delay your Lordships with further examples, as I am conscious of the need for brevity, but like the Lord High Executioner, noble Lords, too, will have their little list. I appreciate also that my speech has been bracketed with that of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford—I, too, was once a Bishop. My gratefulness is deep and to many—in particular to my supporters, my noble friends Lord Baker and Lord Tugendhat—but it also extends to many Members from all sides of the House, and officials, who have shown me great kindness and support.
In this speech, I am mindful of its timing between the commemorations at the weekend of the Normandy landings 70 years ago and similar ceremonies later this summer to mark the beginning of the First World War. My grandfather was born in New Zealand. I am the son of an Australian father who fought in the Australian army during the First World War and who survived, albeit with a permanent disability, thus making me ever conscious of both the ultimate sacrifice and the lifelong injuries incurred by so many in conflict.
An important part of my heritage is the Commonwealth, which is a significant conduit for shared values and common goals. Today, there are important links between Australia and the United Kingdom, not least with the 400,000 Australians who live and work here, while the UK remains the largest source of migrants to Australia.
The gracious Speech has highlighted the Government’s intention significantly to strengthen the law for those guilty of human trafficking offences. The trade in slaves was abolished by an Act of Parliament in 1807, yet research conducted by the University of Utrecht suggests that there are more slaves in the world today than there were in the entire 350 years of the transatlantic slave trade.
I cannot make a speech on this subject without paying tribute to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. This group has continually shone a light into the darker corners of this evil trade. Particular mention must be made of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Hornsey, and my noble friend Lord McColl for their leadership on the Anti-Slavery Day Act.
There are numerous good causes that I have been able to support over many years through my charitable trust, but one of the most important and rewarding to me has been as a founder donor to the UK Human Trafficking Foundation, a charity established in 2010 by the then Member of Parliament for Totnes, Mr Anthony Steen. The traditional image of slavery is only a fraction of its modern equivalent. There are many people who do not fully comprehend what is meant by human trafficking, so allow me to be absolutely clear that we are talking about the ultimate degradation in human misery in all its forms. It encompasses not only the trade in human beings but the non-consensual extraction of organs and tissues, forced labour and sexual slavery. Together it represents the most despicable betrayal of humanity in the 21st century, which we must do all in our power to curtail.
Now, some may have assumed that I would make my maiden speech on civil aviation, an industry in which I served for 45 years with the same company. I was particularly fortunate to join at the beginning of the jet age and witness the inauguration and discontinuation of supersonic commercial flights, leading into the sophisticated and very safe aircraft of today. But for my own contribution, I will summarise by merely paraphrasing WS Gilbert’s lyric for Sir Joseph Porter in “HMS Pinafore” thus:
“When I was lad, I served a term
As office boy to an airline firm.
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor
And polished up the handle of the hangar door.
But that kind of life so suited me
That I soon became the ruler of an Air Navee!”
In keeping with convention to keep this speech short, I will now resume my seat, but in doing so, I hope that I may have left noble Lords with an impression, not just of some of the issues that are important to me, but of some of the subjects that have influenced my life.
Lord Patel of Bradford (Lab)
My Lords, it gives me the greatest pleasure to speak after the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Glendonbrook—and I pronounce his name very carefully. The noble Lord was born Michael Bishop in the village of Bowdon, near Manchester. He sought permission from the Australian Government to call himself Lord Glendonbrook, Glendonbrook being, I believe, a Hunter Valley hamlet in Australia. He first visited it in 1965 as a young child, and his father, Clive, worked as a farmer there. I am sure that his decision was a wise one. I quote him:
“I knew that I would get a lot of correspondence that was not meant for me. It would be very confusing as I would be invited to say grace or give sermons or something. I would be constantly saying, ‘I am not the bishop of Bowdon’. So I thought it would be rather nice if I took an Australian title”.
The noble Lord spoke with great humour, passion and conviction, and I am sure that his comments and views on the atrocities of war and the abhorrence of human trafficking and modern slavery have the support of all of us in the House. His paraphrasing of WS Gilbert’s lyric for Sir Joseph Porter sums up very clearly and succinctly his own illustrious career in the aviation industry. He started at the front-line check-in counter and, by the tender age of 27, was chief executive of British Midland Airways. In fact, he was knighted in 1991 for his services to aviation. His talents extend much further and I could not do justice to them today. He can be described in a multitude of ways: aviation boss, advocate for gay rights, patron of the arts and Knight of the Empire. In addition, he has been chairman of Channel 4 television and is a great philanthropist. The noble Lord will undoubtedly bring an array of views and experiences to the House, and I, for one, look forward to his further contributions to our debates.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise an issue not contained in the gracious Speech but it is one which I believe is long-standing and urgent and on which I believe the Government could act now through a simple amendment to either the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill or the Serious Crime Bill. I hope that the Minister will give this careful consideration. I am focusing on the need to do more to protect the rights and welfare of children and vulnerable adults detained or interviewed by the police. I declare an interest as the president of the National Appropriate Adult Network, a charity and membership organisation which supports the development of effective appropriate adult policy and practice. I particularly thank its chief executive, Chris Bath, for his expert advice and briefing on this issue.
By way of background, under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 codes of practice, when detaining or interviewing a child or mentally disordered or mentally vulnerable adult, the police must secure an appropriate adult to protect their rights and welfare. The term “mentally vulnerable” includes, but is not limited to, people with mental ill-health, a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder. If the police have any doubts at all about the mental state or capacity of a detainee, they may not continue with procedures such as fingerprinting, DNA swabs, intimate searches or interviews without an appropriate adult being present.
The appropriate adult role, conducted effectively, is complex and demanding. It includes a multitude of tasks but is absolutely crucial. Where parents or carers are unavailable, unsuitable or unwilling, a statutory duty requires youth offending teams to ensure the provision of appropriate adults for children, whether through paid or voluntary staff, but there is no such statutory duty to ensure the provision of appropriate adults for mentally vulnerable adults, and this is a key point that I will return to in a short while.
However, my first area of concern is in relation to children. In 2012, Joe Lawton, a 17 year-old boy, took his own life. His father found him dead and a police charge sheet at his feet. Two days earlier, he was held in a police cell overnight on suspicion of drunk-driving. In 2011, 17 year-old Edward Thornber was caught with 50p-worth of cannabis. Distraught at the thought of life with a criminal record, he hanged himself. These children were treated as adults in police custody and were not entitled to an appropriate adult. The case of Hughes Cousins-Chang, another 17 year-old, led to a judicial review. The Home Secretary, rightly, amended the PACE codes of practice without appeal, extending provision to 17 year-olds and rectifying a long-standing anomaly.
The Home Secretary’s action is welcome. However, if we are to avoid such tragedies in the future, there are three key issues which still need urgent action. First, with more 17 year-olds arrested than all 10 to 16 year-olds combined, funding is desperately needed. Seven months after the change to PACE Code C, no additional funding has been given to local government.
Secondly, the PACE Act must be amended to remove anomalies where 17 year-old boys and girls continue to be treated as adults in several critical respects, including a lack of parental consent around intimate body cavity searches and no requirement to transfer them to local authority accommodation post charge. The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill will ensure that 17 year-olds have an appropriate adult for the purposes of youth cautions and youth custodial cautions. I welcome the fact that the Ministry of Justice has moved so quickly to address this issue. It would make eminent sense for the Home Secretary and the Home Office to follow suit.
Thirdly, children across the country are too often contained in cells, contrary to Section 38(6) of PACE, which places a statutory duty on the police to effect the transfer of children unless it is impracticable for certain defined reasons. Local authorities must accommodate them under the Children Act 1989. This can cause unnecessary damage to children, puts unnecessary pressure on custody suites and increases the risk of costly remands. There are, of course, odd exceptions, but the system seems to have broken down nationwide and there appears to be no accountability. This is a cross-departmental issue, but one on which I would expect the Home Office to take the lead.
I turn to the matter of mentally vulnerable adults—and here I fear that we are heading towards a crisis which needs urgent action now by the Government. At any given time one in six British adults, or 8 million people, are experiencing at least one diagnosable mental health problem. Almost 40% of people in contact with the probation service have a current mental health condition—a number which is even higher in prisons. Up to 30% of people who offend have learning disabilities or difficulties that interfere with their ability to cope within the criminal justice system; yet as my noble friend Lord Bradley’s landmark report in 2009 noted, an analysis of 21,000 police custody records found that an appropriate adult had been used in only 38 cases. He had expected up to at least 3,000 cases. The lack of any statutory provision for vulnerable adults means that trained appropriate adults for this group are often unavailable or that provision is limited. In many areas, services are non-existent.
The Government must be congratulated on investing an extra £25 million this year into services to identify mentally vulnerable people in police stations and to ensure appropriate referrals. This will be a great support for custody sergeants, and I welcome the commitment to extend these liaison and diversion services to every custody suite in England by 2017. It is already the case that where there is no organised service, the search for an appropriate adult can make significant demands on police time. At busy times, police can be impelled not to identify an individual’s vulnerability at all. If the police are discouraged from identifying vulnerability due to poor provision of appropriate adults, it may present an unwelcome barrier to their referring to liaison and diversion. As things stand, the problem is actually set to worsen dramatically.
The non-statutory nature of appropriate adult services for vulnerable adults means that those areas with a service are defenceless in the face of budget cuts. In the short term, immediate action is needed to prevent the loss of existing services, many of which are delivered by committed volunteers. However, this cannot be at the expense of the proper solution—placing appropriate adult provision for mentally vulnerable adults on a statutory footing. I hope that the Minister will be able to respond positively to my concerns. We need to see a clear commitment by the Government to take action within this parliamentary Session to tackle these important issues. I fear that without such action, we are heading towards crisis and placing some of the most vulnerable people in our communities at serious risk.
Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)
My Lords, I shall focus on the section of the gracious Speech relevant to education and training:
“Further reforms to GCSEs and A-levels will be taken forward to raise standards in schools and prepare school pupils for employment”.
On reforms to school exams, none of us could doubt that in a fast-changing world school learning and assessment need constant updating. However, it is one thing to express this as a high-level intention but quite another to implement any such reforms. I have been a school teacher and have worked for an assessment and awarding body, so I know what it feels like to be on the sharp end of politically led changes. This was long before I ever imagined I would be on the political end.
We note the involvement of higher education institutions but reforms to GCSE and A-levels will call for experts across the board to translate the aims into a syllabus, a curriculum, teaching materials and rigorous assessments. The tests and benchmarks must have the respect of those who sit the tests and those who use the results for access to further study or employment. Let us not forget our teachers, who find themselves often with inadequate time and resources, tasked with translating the reforms into exciting and engaging classroom experiences for the students in their charge. I echo the words of my noble friend Lord Storey in paying tribute to those who have the responsibility to foster learning and aspiration in the next generation. I also hear the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Patel, about shortages in science and maths teachers.
In a previous reform, this autumn will see the introduction of languages in the primary school curriculum. This measure will give young children the excitement of understanding different communications and cultures. It should strengthen the country’s woeful reputation for speaking only one language, and if in doubt speaking English very loudly. Only 6% of the world population speaks English as a first language. If we are to equip our young people with tools to succeed in a globalised world, mastering more than one language at an early stage will be enriching in both their personal and their working lives. Primary schools are already engaged in identifying which language or languages will be most appropriate for their teachers and children. For this measure to be successful, secondary schools will build on the skills and mastery of their feeder schools and from there into GCSE and A-level. It is greatly to be hoped that the tide is turning and the numbers of those continuing language studies will grow.
We have seen our language deficit highlighted in initiatives from the British Academy, the Chartered Institute of Linguists and the British Council. The Government have listened and taken action in different departments. The Foreign Office recently opened a state-of-the-art language learning centre, with the Foreign Secretary’s open aim that everyone working in that department should use the facilities to gain proficiency in one at least of the many languages on offer. The military saw the closure of its highly specialised centre of language excellence at Beaconsfield but earlier this year opened a language and culture centre at the Defence Academy at Shrivenham. Future adults embarking on these professional programmes will find their task easier and more rewarding if language learning within schools has been improved.
I ask the Minister—or perhaps even my noble friend the Education Minister, who is in his place—in his aim to reform GCSE and A-level, how far the proposed reforms will be taking into account the expertise of those in the different branches of the education sector. There has been a tendency in previous education reforms to listen more to policy experts than to those working on the front line. Will pilots be built into the development of these reforms? The timescales are very tight, but better by far to discover glitches and inconsistencies with a limited control group than to roll out full-scale untested revisions to the unfortunate masses.
Any serious intention to prepare young people for employment—and, indeed, for life—needs to place more emphasis on subjects such as citizenship and PSHE. Crucial, too, is provision for wide-ranging careers information, advice and guidance. I hope that in the last Session of this Parliament, and with the aim in the gracious Speech to prepare school pupils for employment, we shall see tangible progress in these areas.
I have not time to expand on apprenticeships except to applaud the valuable growth in apprenticeships—growth in numbers and in respect as a genuine alternative to university.
We look forward to working within the coalition to build on what has been achieved over the past four years to give all our children the best possible opportunities to live rewarding and productive lives.
Birmingham Schools
(10 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement on schools in Birmingham made earlier today in the other place by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education. The Statement is as follows.
“Keeping our children safe and ensuring our schools prepare them for life in modern Britain could not be more important. It is my department’s central mission.
Allegations made in what has become known as the Trojan horse letter suggested that children were not being kept safe in Birmingham schools. Ofsted and the Education Funding Agency have investigated those allegations. Their reports and other relevant documents have today been placed in the Library of the House. Let me set out their findings and my actions.
Ofsted states that,
‘headteachers reported … an organised campaign to target … schools … in order to alter their character and ethos’
with
‘a culture of fear and intimidation’.
Head teachers who had,
‘a record of raising standards’,
reported they had been,
‘marginalised or forced out of their jobs’.
One school leader was so frightened about speaking to the authorities that a meeting had to be arranged in a supermarket car park.
Ofsted concluded that governors,
‘are trying to impose and promote a narrow faith-based ideology in what are non-faith schools’,
specifically by narrowing the curriculum, manipulating staff appointments and using school funds inappropriately.
Overall, Ofsted inspected 21 schools. Three were good or outstanding, while 12 schools were found to require improvement. The remaining six were inadequate and are in special measures. Let me explain why.
At one secular primary school, terms such as ‘white prostitute’, unsuitable for primary children’s ears, were used in Friday assemblies run exclusively by Muslim staff. The school organised visits to Saudi Arabia open only to Muslim pupils. Senior leaders told inspectors that a madrassah had been established and been paid for from the school’s budget. Ofsted concluded the school was,
‘not adequately ensuring that pupils have opportunities to learn about faith in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony between different cultures’.
At one secular secondary school, staff told officials that the call to prayer was broadcast over the playground using loud speakers. Officials observed that lessons had been narrowed to comply with conservative Islamic teachings; in biology, students were told that,
‘evolution is not what we believe’.
The school invited the preacher Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman to speak, despite the fact that he is reported to have said:
‘Give victory to Muslims in Afghanistan … Give victory to all the Mujahideen all over the world. Oh Allah, prepare us for the jihad’.
Ofsted concluded that,
‘governors have failed to ensure that safeguarding requirements and other statutory duties are met’.
At another secular secondary school, inspectors described ‘a state of crisis’, with governors reportedly using school funds to pay private investigators to read the e-mails of senior leaders. Ofsted found a lack of action to protect students from extremism.
At a third secular secondary school, Ofsted found that students were,
‘vulnerable to the risk of marginalisation from wider British society and the associated risks which could include radicalisation’.
And at a secular primary school, Ofsted found that,
‘pupils have limited knowledge of religious beliefs other than Islam’,
and that,
‘subjects such as art and music have been removed—at the insistence of the governing body’.
Inspectors concluded that the school,
‘does not adequately prepare students for life in modern Britain’.
Ofsted also reports failures on the part of Birmingham City Council. It found that the council did not deal adequately with repeated complaints from head teachers. School leaders expressed ‘very little confidence’ in the local authority and Ofsted concluded that Birmingham has not exercised adequate judgment. These findings demand a robust but also considered response.
It is important that no one allows concern about these findings to become a pretext for criticism of Islam itself, a great faith which brings spiritual nourishment to millions and daily inspires countless acts of generosity. The overwhelming majority of British Muslim parents want their children to grow up in schools that open doors rather than close minds, and it is on their behalf that we have to act.
There are, of course, questions about whether warning signs have been missed. There are questions for Birmingham Council, Ofsted and the Department for Education. I have today asked Birmingham Council to review its history on this issue, and the chief inspector has advised me that he will be considering the lessons learnt for Ofsted. I am also concerned that the Department for Education may not have acted when it should. I am asking the Permanent Secretary to investigate how my department dealt with warnings both since the formation of this Government in 2010 and before.
We must all acknowledge that there has been a failure in the past to do everything possible to tackle non-violent extremism. But let me be clear that no Government and no Home Secretary have done more than this Government to tackle extremism. In the Prime Minister’s Munich speech of 2011, in the Home Secretary’s own review of the Prevent strategy and in the conclusions of the Government’s Extremism Task Force last year, this Government have made clear that we need to deal with the dangers posed by extremism well before it becomes violent.
Since 2010, the DfE has increased its capacity to deal with extremism. We set up Whitehall’s first ever unit to counter extremism in public services with help from former intelligence and security professionals. That unit has developed since 2010 and we will continue to strengthen it. Ofsted now trains inspectors to understand and counter extremist Islamist ideology, and inspections of schools at risk, like those in Birmingham, are carried out by the most senior inspectors, overseen by Sir Michael Wilshaw himself.
But there is, of course, more to do, and today’s reports make action urgent. First, we need to take action in the schools found inadequate. Academies will receive letters saying that I am minded to terminate funding agreements. Local authority schools are having governors replaced. We have already spoken to successful academy providers who are ready to act as sponsors.
We need to strengthen our inspection regime even further. The requirement to give notice of inspections clearly makes it more difficult to identify and detect danger signs. Sir Michael Wilshaw and I have argued in the past that no-notice inspections can help identify where pupils are at risk. I have asked him to consider the practicalities of moving to a situation where all schools know that they may receive an unannounced inspection.
I will also work with Sir Michael Wilshaw to ensure that, as he recommends, we can provide greater public assurance that all schools in a locality discharge their full statutory responsibilities, and we will consider how Ofsted can better enforce the existing requirement that all schools teach a broad and balanced curriculum.
I have talked today to the leader of Birmingham Council and requested that it sets out an action plan to tackle extremism and keep children safe.
We already require independent schools, academies and free schools to respect British values. Now we will consult on new rules that will strengthen this standard further and require all schools to actively promote British values. I will ask Ofsted to enforce an equivalent standard on maintained schools through changes to the Ofsted framework.
Several of the governors whose activities have been investigated by Ofsted have also been active in the Association of Muslim Schools UK, which has statutory responsibilities in relation to state Muslim faith schools. So we have asked AMS UK to satisfy us that it is doing enough to protect children from extremism, and we will take appropriate steps if its guarantees are insufficiently robust.
I have also spoken to the National College for Teaching and Leadership and we will further strengthen the rules so that from now on it is explicit that a teacher inviting an extremist speaker into a school can be banned from the profession.
I will, of course, report in July on progress in all the areas I have announced, as well as publishing the findings of the report of Peter Clarke, who is investigating the background behind many of the broader allegations in the Trojan horse letter.
The steps we are taking today are those we consider necessary to protect our children from extremism and protect our nation’s traditions of tolerance and liberty. The conclusions of the reports today are clear. Things that should not have happened in our schools were allowed to happen. Our children were exposed to things they should not have been exposed to. As Education Secretary, I am taking decisive action to make sure that those children are protected. Schools that are proven to have failed will be taken over, put under new leadership and taken in a fresh new direction. Any school could now be subject to rigorous, on-the-spot inspections with no advance warning and no opportunities to conceal failure. We will put the promotion of British values at the heart of what every school has to deliver for children. What we have found was unacceptable and we will put it right. I commend this Statement to the House”.
My Lords, that concludes the Statement.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. Undoubtedly these are very serious issues. I am sure he will agree that it is a sad spectacle to see two members of the Cabinet publicly bickering when there are such important issues of governance and child safeguarding at stake.
It is good to hear that the Secretary of State has apologised to the Prime Minister but will he also be apologising to the parents and children in Birmingham who feel badly let down by the consequences of this Government’s education system? Arguably it should be the Minister’s own department that is put in special measures because at the heart of this problem is a complete lack of local oversight in our schools system, resulting from this Government’s attempts to run all schools from Whitehall.
The fact is that this Government were repeatedly warned of these dangers and chose to ignore them. They were warned in 2010 by head teacher Tim Boyes, who made a presentation to the department on the threat of radical infiltration in Birmingham. They were warned by my noble friend Lady Hughes and me during consideration of what became the Education Act 2011 that by centralising control they were leaving themselves dangerously exposed. They were warned by their own civil servants earlier this year that, as more academies and free schools failed,
“more people will be aware that our intervention powers are pretty weak”.
Can the Minister now clarify three things? First, were any Ministers present at Mr Boyes’s presentation in 2010 and what was the agreed follow-up? Secondly, what steps are being taken to inspect schools in other areas given the growing evidence that this is not an isolated problem? Thirdly, does he agree that a thorough review of the Government’s ability to oversee all schools, including academies and free schools, is now essential to reassure parents and pupils that proper scrutiny is being put in place and so that we no longer have to rely on whistleblowers but instead have robust local oversight systems in place for the future?
Lord Nash
My Lords, personally, I do not think that this is a matter for political point-scoring or mud-slinging in this House. There has been plenty of that elsewhere. These are very serious and sensitive matters that require analysis, reflection, action and further reflection. Therefore, I will not rise to the political points made by the noble Baroness but concern myself with the facts and evidence in relation to the cases we are dealing with. We have set out today the actions we are taking. There are clearly lessons for all of us in this.
So far as the events in 2010 or any other warnings received by previous Governments are concerned, the Secretary of State announced that the Permanent Secretary is investigating this. Personally, I find it very surprising that the Labour Party is propagating local control bearing in mind the complete abject failure of Birmingham City Council in these schools over many years. The chief inspector’s remarks are littered with criticism of Birmingham City Council in relation to this.
On the fact that these schools are academies, 21 schools were inspected and 13 of those were local authority maintained schools. It is true that four of the six in special measures are academies but 60% of all secondary schools are academies and nine of the 11 “Requires improvement” schools were local authority maintained schools, so drawing any kind of line through that is rather difficult. The fact that they were academies has nothing to do with the matter. All schools—academies, grammar schools, maintained schools and faith schools—are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. It is in this respect, substantially, that the relevant schools failed.
The key figures in this story have been governors for many years. One of them has been a governor of one school for 20 years while it was a local authority maintained school. Within two years of it becoming an academy, we uncovered these issues and are dealing with them. Academies are subject to considerably greater accountability than local authority maintained schools. They must publish annual accounts, which local authority maintained schools do not. They are subject to the oversight of the Education Funding Agency, which has been extremely helpful in this regard.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
My Lords, I had the pleasure of introducing Mr Tim Boyes, head teacher of Queensbridge School, to the noble Lord, Lord Hill, in 2010. I was grateful to the noble Lord for meeting Mr Boyes and allowing him to go on to meet officials. I listened with interest to the Minister who said that there is now to be an inquiry into what subsequently happened but I think he should say a little bit more about what his own department did or did not do after it was alerted to these very pressing issues.
I have long been concerned about what has been happening in some of our Birmingham schools. Would the Minister agree that this is not so much an issue about links to terrorism or, necessarily, extremism but that a small group of people were determined to change the governing bodies in a number of schools using entryist tactics? How that happens is well known to many Lords. In so doing, these people undermined the existing head teachers and caused a great deal of distress to many of the teachers—including many Muslim teachers—who found themselves very isolated because it appeared that no action could be taken.
I understand that the noble Lord said that Ofsted will now undertake spot inspections but I want him to answer the point raised by my noble friend. There are other schools in other parts of the country. Remarkably, the noble Lord’s Secretary of State allowed some schools linked to creationism to be established. Will those spot inspections apply to those schools to protect them from the dogma of creationism, which I believe to be reprehensible? I also ask the Minister—
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
We would also like to hear from other noble Lords, so could the noble Lord be brief?
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
I would just like to ask the Minister about Ofsted. Ofsted has now found that many of these schools need to go into special measures. I am glad that it has done so but why did Ofsted, in recent inspections of some of these schools, classify them as outstanding? We can have little faith in Ofsted’s approach if it missed all the troubles that have been going on in those schools.
Lord Nash
On the events of 2010 or previously, I will not comment further. The Permanent Secretary is looking at that. We have established a due diligence and counterextremism unit, which is extremely well resourced and has proved highly successful.
On whether this is confined to a small group of individuals or a wider issue, that is for Peter Clarke to determine. Of course, there have been suggestions that there are issues in Bradford. Indeed, the Trojan horse letter was allegedly sent to someone in Bradford. Bradford City Council is taking these matters extremely seriously. One school has had an IEB placed in it. We do not believe that these issues are spreading that widely.
So far as creationism is concerned, or any other form of what could be called extremism, of course Ofsted could inspect these schools. Creationism is specifically not allowed in our schools and funding agreements prohibit it.
So far as the apparent change in the Ofsted outcomes is concerned, we have complete confidence in Ofsted’s findings. These are supported by the EFA’s reports. The chief inspector reports that a culture of fear and intimidation has developed in some of these schools since their previous inspections, which has resulted in significantly stark changes and low morale—as I said, since the previous inspections. It may also be the case that because these previous inspections were conducted on notice that events were concealed.
Lord Storey (LD)
My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister answer three questions? First, he will be aware that outstanding schools do not have the same period of inspection, so will these one-off, on-the-spot inspections also include outstanding schools? Secondly, how does he think that local oversight of schools can be advanced? Thirdly, would he consider that Ofsted should have as a hallmark of any inspection that the school provides a broad and balanced curriculum? Finally, he mentioned that any teacher who invites an extremist to speak in the school would be dismissed. I am aware of schools where governors invited extremist speakers into school to speak. Should that then not lead to the governor being removed—or the head teacher—for allowing that to happen?
Lord Nash
My noble friend asked four questions. The answer to the first, on whether no-notice inspections can occur in outstanding schools, is yes, if it was thought appropriate. On local oversight, I already expressed my views on the failure of that in this case. Noble Lords will know that we have hired eight regional schools commissioners who will provide oversight on a regional basis using head teacher boards from top academies. We believe that this is a more effective way of dealing with these matters. “Yes” is the answer to Ofsted looking for a broad and balanced curriculum. We will now consult on the ability for all independent schools to ban governors with extremist links. They would then be banned from sitting on maintained schools’ boards.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, let us hear from my noble friend Lord Baker, then, I suggest, the noble Lord, Lord Bew, and then the noble Baroness, Lady Morris. Then we will hear from other speakers.
Lord Baker of Dorking
Is the Minister aware that what was announced by Mr Gove today will be welcomed across the country, because he was preventing what had been set up as secular schools being transformed, very determinedly but quite slowly, into single-faith Muslim schools, and such a transformation is unacceptable in the English education system? It is a credit to Sir Michael Wilshire and his inspectors that they revealed what is happening.
This will be a difficult and long task, but I suggest to the Minister that it would be easier if he were to announce a moratorium on the approval of any new single-faith schools. The object we are trying to achieve is that students in British schools, irrespective of their race, colour, creed or faith, will sit next to each other, play with each other, eat with each other, go home in the buses with each other and respect each other. If we do not achieve that, our society will be divided by faith and that would be disastrous for our country.
Lord Nash
I welcome my noble friend’s extremely mature comments, with which I largely agree. So far as a moratorium on faith schools is concerned, there is a great place in our society for faith and church schools, which have been extremely successful. Church schools in fact promote community cohesion, it is acknowledged, better than other schools. We must make sure that all schools promote community cohesion and inclusiveness.
Lord Reid of Cardowan
My Lords, I make no apology for responding by returning to the dog that did not bark in the Minister’s speech, which is the chronic dysfunctionality of the relationships across departments in tackling extremism. I do not accept the Minister’s implication—his explicit reference—that this is party-political. From, if I may say so, a little more experience of dealing with these issues than the noble Lord, perhaps I may say that it is an essential prerequisite for tackling extremism that there is the best and smoothest cross-departmental approach—across prisons, community services, local government and education itself. It astonishes me that there was no reference to that in the Statement.
The Minister and I agree about the action plans, but the action plans are only as good as those who are leading the strategic position. It astonishes me that there was no reference to what is obviously the dysfunctionality between those two departments. The whole idea of forming the Office of Security and Counterterrorism in the Home Office—I declare an interest because I was behind the formation of that organisation, to which the Minister referred—was to enhance co-ordination across departments. If that is lacking and there are no plans to try to improve on that despite personalities, the actions that he has mentioned today will not be as effective as we all want.
Lord Nash
Of course, the noble Lord is extremely experienced in these matters and I bow to his much greater experience of them than mine, but there is no dysfunctionality between the departments. We are working extremely well across departments and across all agencies on this matter.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, may we hear from the noble Lord, Lord Bew?
Lord Bew
My Lords, the great lesson of Northern Ireland is to combat not just violent acts but also extreme ideologies, communal ideologies and religious ideologies of bigotry. Can the Minister assure us, in the light of the statements of both the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary in the other place this afternoon, that the Government are still united on the basis that it is necessary to combat the ideologies of extremism as well as violent acts?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, we have time. Perhaps we could hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, who has been trying to get in, and then come to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, and then to the Liberal Democrats.
Baroness Morris of Yardley
I am most grateful. There is no doubt that the report makes very uncomfortable reading for everyone. All parts of the education system need to look at how they have performed and ask real questions about what has gone on in recent years. Beyond the no-notice inspections by Ofsted, I find the report more shallow than I would have expected. On no-notice Ofsted inspections, I would be amazed if the wool could be drawn over Ofsted’s eyes just by giving 24 or 48 hours’ notice. I am not convinced at all that merely sending Ofsted in with no notice will enable it to spot these things if it could not spot them with 24 or 48 hours’ notice.
The point I want to raise that has not been raised is that, while excusing no individual in these schools or the local authority, or anyone anywhere from the consequences of their actions, has not the Minister reflected that, in a way, government policies over the past five years have made this situation more likely, not less likely to happen? What we read in the report is the downside to some of the Government’s flagship policies: inviting parents to play a greater part in deciding the values and type of education their children receive; destroying many of the partnerships that meant that what one school did was visible to another; massively reducing local oversight of schools; encouraging teachers, often with no qualifications, to make up their own curriculum as they go along; and excusing outstanding schools from any inspection at all. Without saying that there is nothing to be gained by those policies, the fact is that the Government have made no allowance at all for coping with the downside of some of their key flagship policies. What is the Minister going to do about that now?
Lord Nash
It is true that in recent years, Ofsted has strengthened its inspection regime by recruiting inspectors who speak Arabic and Urdu and are trained in the various Islamic ideologies, but we have today announced many other actions that we will be taking in relation to those schools. I do not accept that it is as a result of recent government actions that these things have happened. The noble Baroness may believe that these things have suddenly turned around; they have in fact taken root in these schools over many years, particularly under the previous Government, but it is this Government who have dealt with those points.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Minister painted a very worrying picture, and we should all work together to improve things. The use of special measures in the Birmingham schools and the prospect of unannounced inspections are good things. In my experience, both in government and in business, they can make a huge difference, so I do not agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, on that particular point.
What wider measures can be taken in schools to tackle the culture that breeds terrorism? Examples might include preventing teaching about suicide bombing, reducing gender segregation and even, perhaps, looking at copying the French, who have prevented various forms of face covering, in addition to the Minister’s proposals for banning extremist speakers and, above all, promoting British values.
Lord Nash
The noble Baroness is quite right. I outlined in the Statement the other actions that we will be taking, including, as she says, promoting British values. One issue that has come out of these Ofsted reports is the importance of keeping children safe on the internet. It is widely known that the biggest recruiting ground for extremism is the internet, so it is particularly important that we focus on that issue, as the Government are. As I said, we will be taking steps to ban teachers and governors from promoting extremism.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Perhaps we could hear from the noble Lord, Lord Pearson.
Lord Pearson of Rannoch
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness. Does the noble Lord agree that this activity does not emulate the Trojan horse so much as follow the violent Muslim tenet of al-hijrah, whereby the faithful are instructed to emulate the Prophet after he became established in Medina and sent into exile or slaughtered his generous hosts who did not join his new religion? In this respect, is it not very worrying that one of the schools in question is actually called the al-Hijrah School? If I understood the noble Lord to say that the Government are going to look into this problem elsewhere, will he make sure that they look at least at Blackburn, Bradford, Burnley, Tower Hamlets, Leicester, Dewsbury and Huddersfield?
Lord Nash
The parents, mostly Muslim, who have sent their children to these schools expect them to receive a secular education that prepares them for life in modern Britain and an education that opens doors rather than closes them, as the Secretary of State said. That is not what happened here. The al-Hijrah school is in the process of installing an IEB.
By one of those serendipitous moments, only yesterday I was told the story of a lady who was walking through an estate in south London, not far from here, when she was mugged. A young Muslim schoolgirl set about the mugger and saw him off, so the lady thanked her and they went on their way. Three days later, the lady met this young Muslim schoolgirl again and said, “You must be a hero in your school”, but she said, “No, I haven’t told anybody about this”. The lady then wrote to the school and told the head about it. To me, that is a wonderful example of the beauty of the Muslim faith and its belief in helping others, and in modesty.
Baroness Hussein-Ece
My Lords, as somebody from a Muslim background who was brought up with a secular education and is a believer in that, I do not believe in faith schools. We should not be rolling out far more faith schools but promoting children growing up by learning about all faiths and none—and sitting side by side, as the noble Lord, Lord Baker, said. However, I have been absolutely dismayed by the way that this has been handled. There has been a drip-drip of leaks, speculation and, as we heard, children in schools being smeared as though they are all somehow subject to extremism. As we have heard, there is obviously troubling information in what has been reported and that must be dealt with, but it concerns a minority of people. I have read reports from teachers on the ground in these schools and parents who want the best for their children through a good education and good GCSEs. When children are taking GCSEs in these schools, is this the time for this constant “Trojan horse” speculation? Given the political football created by the way it has been handled, does the Minister not agree that this is extremely damaging for those children who are just trying to do their GCSEs and are being targeted? They are afraid to go on buses wearing the school uniforms of some of these schools for fear of being singled out and called terrorists, bombers and extremists. Is this helpful?
Lord Nash
I agree entirely with the noble Baroness’s comments on the aims. As for the drip-drip, people sometimes refer to the slowness with which some of these Ofsted reports have officially come into the public domain, but it is important in these cases that we give the schools time to respond and that Ofsted can therefore check its facts. However, as far as the timing of this is concerned, we had to act and we have done so.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich
My Lords, the Minister may not be aware that earlier this afternoon in his maiden speech, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford said that good religious education is one of the best ways of countering religious extremism. I would be interested to know whether the Minister agrees. Given that none of the schools subject to these inspections in Birmingham were faith schools—although listening to our discussion, you would have thought otherwise—does it not seem that appropriate, well balanced and enriching religious education may have been an area of neglect? I cannot help but wonder whether this has been facilitated too easily by the way in which religious education has sometimes been marginalised in the curriculum by the Department for Education in recent years and whether we are reaping some reward for that.
Queen’s Speech
(10 years ago)
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Viscount Goschen (Con)
My Lords, in his opening remarks to today’s session of debate on the gracious Speech, my noble friend Lord Faulks drew attention to the dangers of the so-called compensation culture, which he described as being worrying and as having a chilling effect on volunteering. I therefore very much welcome the series of announcements made by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Justice as part of the Government’s campaign to crack down on insurance fraud.
The background to this is the depressing statistic from the Association of British Insurers which showed that the number of dishonest motor claims in 2013 increased by some 34%—a statistic worth dwelling on for a moment—to 59,900. While vehicle-related fraud is of course a major part of this, the tidal wave of claims of varying quality has a major effect on public bodies such as the National Health Service, education authorities and local government, as well as on businesses of many types. The situation we face has to a significant extent been exacerbated or even perhaps caused by the deregulation of conditional fee or so-called no-win no-fee arrangements, so that an industry of aggressive claims management companies has evolved.
In the introduction from the head of claims management regulation to that regulator’s annual report for 2012-13, he said:
“There is something about the nature of the claims industry which breeds, in too many that operate in it, a different kind of business behaviour—one that is less about putting the customer first and best business practice, but more about poor conduct and treating the consumer as little more than a commodity”.
That is a worrying state of affairs and that same regulator recorded some 12,000 complaints. That is a lot of complaints, many of which related to the PPI mis-selling scenario. Is it not a very rich irony that the greatest mis-selling scandal is now being exacerbated by the second greatest mis-selling scandal, namely that of claims management companies trying to engender greater levels of business?
Is it really right that these businesses should be aggressively touting for business by cold calling, texting or e-mailing the general public to encourage them to make a claim—any claim, it seems, and pretty much against anyone? This is backed up by relentless advertising on the television, online and in the print media, which is clearly targeted at those with time on their hands. The proposition seems to be very much, “Would you like to make some free money? Are you prepared to spend some time with us so that we can help you make a case?”. The regulator gives a case study of a claims management company in the north-west which generated many complaints about the “persistent and harassing” nature of its unsolicited calls:
“Consumers complained that they were encouraged to make a personal injury claim even where they had not suffered injury”.
That is an extraordinary state of affairs.
My right honourable friend’s recent announcement indicated certain areas where further action could be taken, namely: requiring courts to throw out compensation applications where claims have been fundamentally dishonest; banning lawyers or claims management companies from offering inducements in the form of cash or electronic goods; and improving the medical assessment of whip-lash injuries. There is much common sense there, but it might surprise some that courts do not already act on the first of those points and that strong medical assessments are not already in place.
My eye was taken by the measure which will ban lawyers from offering inducements in the form of cash and the advertising of that form of behaviour. However, will the Government take their clamp-down on this industry a step further? We now know that this is a £1 billion-pound industry, with many practitioners within it operating on a very dubious ethical basis, as the regulator conceded. I am not a banner by nature but in these particular circumstances, and until the industry can demonstrate its maturity and capability to act in a fair-minded way, I urge the Government to consider extending their suggested measure to ban the advertising of cash inducements into banning advertising overall for this industry.
Baroness Bakewell (Lab)
My Lords, I am pleased to join the debate on the gracious Speech by raising two issues that are closely involved with each other, though only one, immigration, comes within today’s agenda. The other, higher education, officially belongs within BIS and is to be debated tomorrow, but I think that few in this Chamber, certainly if the debate held here last month is anything to go by, will deny that further education is correctly a matter for education policy.
As president of Birkbeck, naturally I value first and foremost the intrinsic worth of academic achievement and scholarly distinction as at the highest level of public good. At the same time, it is gratifying, to say the least, to recognise just how powerful and global an undertaking higher education is in this country, how much it contributes to the economy and how that contribution has the potential to grow and flourish if it were released from the shackles of ever harsher controls. I will come to those controls in a moment.
First, here are some facts. Higher education is a major export industry of this country, with the potential to grow steadily and further. In 2011-12 it generated a contribution of £10.7 billion for the UK economy, which included £3.63 billion paid in tuition fees by international students. At the same time, the UK is a world leader in international research collaboration: 46% of UK-authored academic papers are co-authored with at least one non-UK researcher.
Why would we want to put shackles on such a benign success story? Yet that is what is happening. International student numbers in the UK are falling. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the total number of non-EU students enrolled on UK courses fell in 2012-13 for the first time since 1994-95. Of particular concern is the dramatic fall in student numbers from India, which fell by 49% between the academic years 2010-11 and 2012-13. The numbers of students from other countries have fallen too, though: the number from Pakistan is down 21%, from Canada by 3%, Nigeria by 4%, Saudi Arabia by 6% and Thailand by 3%. These are terrible numbers—an important crisis in higher education. Numbers from China continue to grow but there must be risks in the overreliance on one market and the dominance of one nationality in the community of students.
That is all happening in this country, while student numbers in other countries are roaring ahead: up 7% in America and 8.2% in Australia. With plans for massive expansion, Germany plans an increase of 25% in international student numbers by 2020. The UK is falling steadily and remorselessly behind in a field where once we were world-acknowledged leaders.
I therefore ask the Government to make an important and significant remedy to this situation. Will they remove international student numbers from the net migration targets? This would not only benefit the higher education sector but help along this Government’s immigration policy of reducing immigrant numbers. The long-term payoff can only be good. International student graduates will take away with them from this country not only good qualifications but a warm and generous impression of the way in which this country conducts its civil life.
Lord Willis of Knaresborough (LD)
My Lords, I warmly welcome this year’s Queen’s Speech, not particularly for its contents—though I accept that the more innovative proposals on pensions, small business, enterprise and employment are welcome—but for its brevity. If anything, I wish that there was even less of it, so that we could somehow burst the myth put about by successive Governments that quantity of legislation equals quality of government. It does not. Indeed, if volume were the route to success, the previous Labour Government would have transformed society. Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s leadership, no fewer than 558 Bills were introduced, with a record 58 in one Session in 2005-06. No wonder they missed the signs of the recession when Ministers and civil servants were so busy preparing the next set of Bills. Despite record levels of legislation, our economy went into meltdown, our schoolchildren continued to be outpaced by those of our competitors, our health and social care system was at breaking point and crime increased. The legacy, according to former Health Secretary Alan Milburn in his report today, is that some 3.5 million children are heading for living in families with poverty by 2020.
Legislation was hardly a raging success, yet, sadly, my Government felt the need to follow suit, with 47 Bills in the first Session—though that was over two years. As before, education and health took priority, with a near obsession to create new and ever more complex structures of governance and delivery, accompanied by ever more draconian threats and punishments for failure. For our schools it is not structures, ownership, targets, threats or punishment that improve the life chances of the young; it is inspirational teachers, motivated parents, enlightened and appropriate curricula and trust, not denigration, from politicians. Exactly the same applies to the NHS, where overcomplex structures, created by often confusing legislation, often act as a barrier to innovation, not an incentive.
So much of what Ministers wanted to achieve over the past four years did not require legislation at all. It is somewhat ironic that arguably the most significant successes were not even central to the original Bills. Research and education barely featured as key priorities in the Health and Social Care Act, yet, to the credit of my noble friend Lord Howe, and due to the tenacity of Peers such as the noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Turnberg, and the noble Baroness, Lady Emerton, the establishment of a research-led NHS, the only publicly funded health service in the world to be research led, is now a reality. That is a huge achievement.
We have already seen the Health Research Authority drive purposefully through a sea of red tape and petty obfuscation to create a single point of entry for clinical trials. The HRA has simplified ethical approvals and, importantly, begun to eliminate the need for multisite approval for patient recruitment on clinical trials. The academic health science networks and the 13 new NIHR collaborations for leadership in applied health research are undertaking high-quality applied health research focused on the needs of patients across England, translating research directly into practice.
Similar progress is being seen in the development of the health and care workforce. With over 1.3 million staff performing over 300 different roles for more than 1,000 different employers, even beginning to think about how you plan and then train a workforce is daunting. Health Education England, within months of its establishment, is doing just that. Later this month it will produce its first workforce tool to allow organisations, whatever their size, and individuals, no matter how important or less important they feel they are, to seek out their training needs. That will include healthcare support workers, who will now be entitled to training and to have that training certificated, and will no longer be expected to deliver high-quality safe care without appropriate competencies.
Many of these initiatives have come not from legislation but from inspirational leaders who have been given the freedom to challenge, find solutions and simply get on with the job. I am delighted that the Government have learnt their lesson: fewer Bills and no new legislation on health and education. I trust that in a year’s time there will not be any either—but I suspect that I will not bet on it.
Baroness Deech (CB)
My Lords, I am concerned at how some of the legislation promised in the gracious Speech, particularly the Serious Crime Bill and the held-over Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, once enacted, will ever be enforced. In the final months of the previous Session, many of our debates were taken up with concerns over the cutting of legal aid, the reduction of fees paid to advocates and litigators, and the obstacles being placed in the way of ordinary consumers trying to access justice and legal advice. I have no doubt that the concerns are well founded, and the recent delays to serious fraud cases demonstrate the damage that is being caused to the legal system and to the expectations of citizens that crime will be properly prosecuted and defended. Our troubles are by no means over; indeed, they are set to increase as more young law students realise that their pathway to a decent career is closed and as more skilled advocates leave the independent criminal bar and practise elsewhere, to the detriment of the diversity and talent of our judiciary and barristers.
However, the intricacies of those arguments are not my main concern today as I speak. I am here to offer a solution, at least for that part of the law that I know best from my teaching days—the division of assets on divorce. A major reason why legal aid has proved expensive is that the law about financial provision on divorce is so uncertain, so tailor-made, so different in outcome judge by judge and so emotionally charged. Therefore husbands and wives spend more than they or the state can afford on just getting to some principles along which they may divide their assets on divorce. One of the worst effects of the cuts in legal aid is that divorcing couples who formerly qualified for legal aid and therefore could be legally represented are no longer able to be so. They appear in court at the worst moment in their lives representing themselves. They do not know what a fair outcome might be, they are overwrought in any case and they need a barrier—a barrister—between themselves and their former spouse while they negotiate life-changing settlements affecting them and their children. But they have no one, and the judges, to their annoyance, and with consequent delays, are having to conduct the litigation for them. The judiciary has complained about this. It is not its job to represent the clients or, in an even worse scenario, to try to achieve fair play when one of the couple has a lawyer and the other does not. The media are replete with accounts of couples who spend more than half their assets on fighting about their ownership after divorce.
My Bill, the Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill, will not only help mitigate the results of the removal of legal aid by giving certainty and greatly reducing the need for legal representation in court but assist judges by giving them an easier role. Above all, it will introduce broad-brush fairness into a system which has not been discussed in Parliament for more than 30 years. In a nutshell, it will make prenuptial agreements about financial provision in the event of divorce binding, with very few qualifications, and it will introduce a new simple regime for the division of matrimonial assets on divorce. It is unashamedly modelled on the law appertaining in New Zealand, Scotland, many US states and some European ones. It synthesises the recommendations made over many years by the Centre for Social Justice, the Law Commission and the Government themselves. My Bill provides that on divorce the post-marital assets should be divided equally: that is, everything acquired by the couple after their marriage is to be divided, but not any inheritance or gift or anything owned before marriage. Thus, the model who marries a rock star for a few years will share only in what he earned after it, unless this is dealt with by a prenup, while the long-married couple who started with nothing and worked together to reach a reasonable lifestyle will share practically everything.
The division of assets on divorce is a delicate issue on which opinion is divided. Society has different views about the roles of men and women, and I quite understand that political parties are reluctant to take it up. It is therefore very suitable for a Private Member’s Bill. If we cannot afford to extend legal aid to family and criminal litigation, as in the past, then the obvious answer is to reform the law in a way that obviates the need for expense, or at least reduces it.
The Lord Bishop of Carlisle
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Willis, that the quantity of legislation does not equate to its quality. As we have already heard, we doubtless all agree that the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and the NHS deserve a bit of a rest. However, there are none the less those who regret the fact that so little of the gracious Speech related directly to health. For instance, the charity Age UK expressed its disappointment that an opportunity was lost to put in place safeguarding legislation that would have helped prevent the abuse of older people. Certainly, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, has already reminded us, the statistics are shocking. Every hour, more than 50 older people are neglected or abused in their own homes by family members, friends, neighbours or care workers. In the course of a year, that means that about 500,000 older people are abused in the UK, which is 5% of the older population.
In addition, the General Medical Council is concerned about the lack of any reference to the regulation of health and social care professionals Bill. This is regarded by many as a once in a generation plan for much needed medical regulation. The GMC observes that if the Bill does not pass before the general election next year, it will be a significant missed opportunity. I agree and hope that we may receive some assurance on this point.
However, like my friend the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby, I am delighted that the modern slavery Bill was highlighted in the Queen’s Speech. We have already heard that many others in your Lordships’ House share my enthusiasm for its various provisions. In particular, I am grateful that law enforcement will be better equipped to prevent the distressingly widespread incidence of modern slavery and note the proposed increase in penalties for perpetrators of slavery or trafficking. There is also a promise that the Bill will provide statutory guidance on victim identification and victim services. That is excellent, but it raises three health-related issues to which I will draw your Lordships’ attention.
First, there is the question of potential payment by immigrants for NHS services. This could be used by traffickers as yet another lever in their exploitation of today’s slaves. I hope it may be possible to disseminate a very clear message—for instance, through posters on buses and tubes, television advertisements and so on—that trafficked individuals will not be penalised for attending healthcare facilities.
Secondly, over the past two years, there have been some instances of people being trafficked for the harvesting of their organs. Your Lordships may know that the churches have been working closely and successfully with the NHS to increase numbers on the organ donor register. That campaign has included making next of kin more aware of their relatives’ intentions. This campaign needs to continue and should help militate against organ trafficking, but there will also be a pressing need to alert the public and health professionals to this nefarious trade.
Thirdly, with regard to victim identification, NHS staff may often be the only point of contact that trafficked individuals have with society. That is why it is so essential that front-line staff are properly trained to recognise the signs of trafficking, not least in children. Of course, the healthcare professionals who are sometimes best placed to do this by virtue of their wide-ranging brief and their interpersonal skills are hospital chaplains. This is just one of many reasons why the significant reduction in chaplaincy hours by some trusts seems to be short-sighted and ill advised.
There were some other health-related issues in the gracious Speech which warrant attention and raise important questions. For example, while there is a welcome extension of free school meals, which will improve the health of thousands of children, it is not at all clear where the age cut-off will come. No doubt further detail will be forthcoming in due course. While paying tribute to the magnificent work done by so many in the NHS, I trust that the relative lack of emphasis on health in the gracious Speech will not mean any diminution of attention by Her Majesty’s Government to the huge and crucial issues that we all face in this area.
Lord Rooker (Lab)
My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Willis, I have not come to complain about the lack of a Bill on health. I have come to complain about actions on health.
Let us have a brief look at salt and sugar, two major health concerns. The related health problems from these substances cost the National Health Service billions. Salt is connected with high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease, and sugar with tooth decay, diabetes and obesity. The story of the coalition is not good on either, and yet the potential to save billions of pounds and lessen human suffering is massive.
The so-called responsibility deal between the Department of Health and the food industry has been a failure. It was hammered out by the Tories with the food industry when they were in opposition. I recently came across a BBC documentary called “The Men Who Made Us Fat”. In fact, the responsibility deal was effectively written by the men in that documentary, who were all from big food. Only last week, the Sunday Telegraph exposed the food firms ratting on the deal by taking sugar out of the lesser-known brands and promoting sugar-free brands, while keeping the top brands topped up with sugar. That was followed a few days later by the Daily Mail exposing the sugar in coffee: over four times more than the daily limit. Both those papers have done some excellent work and are to be commended.
On salt, the position is even more reprehensible for the coalition. During the previous Government, the Food Standards Agency—a government department, not a quango—launched the salt awareness campaign in 2004. The fourth phase was launched in October 2009. It was a genuine partnership with the food industry. In 2000, the average intake of salt was 9.5 grams a day. By 2008, it was down to 8.6 grams a day, which was estimated to prevent 6,000 premature deaths and save £1.5 billion every year in healthcare and other costs—well on the way down to the 6 gram target. That was a target that the industry was working to, because it was planned and agreed well in advance. In fact, by 2011, intake was down to 8 grams a day. New targets for 2012 onwards were to be agreed in 2010-11.
However, one of the first actions of this coalition was to abandon the programme of salt reduction by not agreeing to any targets for industry to work to. This remained the case for three years. We have lost three years due to the food industry “men who made us fat” having effectively captured Andrew Lansley when he was in opposition. Leading members of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine have said that during these three years—2011-14—some 12,000 people may have died needlessly as a result of strokes and heart attacks. The policy and staff were taken from the FSA in 2010, into the Department of Health, where they were broken up and the policies conducted behind closed doors—unlike what happened when the matter was at the FSA.
Here is the rub: every time anybody raises these matters, the Department of Health claims that it has the backing of the World Health Organisation and says that,
“our salt reduction work is world leading”.
Knowing the responsibility deal was a failure, and that for three years no progress was made, I decided to look a little closer the next time that claim was made. On 9 March, the Department of Health stated in the Mail on Sunday:
“'Far from lacking momentum, the World Health Organisation has said our salt reduction work is world leading”.
Well, I set about asking the DoH where that support came from. In fact, I gave up on the website, which even GCHQ probably could not fathom these days, and wrote directly to the noble Earl, Lord Howe. Of course, he replied very quickly with his general great courtesy to the House. His letter said:
“The WHO has recognised the UK’s salt reduction work as world leading”.
Note the tense: “has recognised”.
The noble Earl went on to say that the WHO had approached us, the UK, “to share our experience”, and gave a couple of those huge web addresses that you get in letters these days. Both of them led me to the 2010 London WHO conference on salt reduction strategies in July of that year. I well recall the event because I opened the second day. By that time, the Food Standards Agency civil servants at the conference were answering to the DoH. It is therefore more than a little disingenuous for the Department of Health to claim World Health Organisation support in 2014 for what happened under the coalition, by using a WHO quote from July 2010 which referred to work from 2004 onwards by the previous Government, which the coalition abandoned within a month of coming into office. We have had three years of doing nothing, costing us thousands of avoidable premature deaths, while claiming World Health Organisation support. Then, in the year before the election, the coalition switches the programme on again.
Frankly, if I was still in the other place down the Corridor, I would bring the roof down on the Government for their despicable political shenanigans. However, I regret to say that all I hear from the Commons is a deathly silence.
The Earl of Lytton (CB)
My Lords, the gracious Speech refers to a fairer society. The Minister mentioned the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, and rightly referred to the importance of the rule of law. However, I start with the Home Secretary’s address to the Police Federation on 21 May. She made a welcome promise of better protection for whistleblowers in the police. People such as James Patrick have put their entire careers on the line for the truth. However, the proposed new offence of police corruption is otiose. We already have laws enough on our statute books, although of course police co-operation in investigating themselves may be in doubt.
The Home Secretary suggested that leaving police operations unfettered would resist political pressures but that, to me, means inadequate oversight despite the beefing up of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Operations at the front line will always trump policy. We still have many questions but few answers to the points raised about police culture and operations. A senior judge has recently questioned the objectivity of that other safeguard, the IPCC, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon.
Under anti-social behaviour legislation, the police have virtually untrammelled and incontestable powers. They decide ab initio who they think is the guilty party. The rampantly one-sided exercise of these in a case involving a Sussex MP has been corroborated by cases in south Wales, Devon and Cornwall, Thames Valley and, in the most recent, from Hampshire, police evidence seems to have been total fiction. I have been shown custody records altered post hoc to refer falsely to a more serious offence of violence. I have seen manifestly concocted properties for legal photographs used to procure convictions in magistrates’ courts. This I now find is very easy to do, and applies also to CCTV and audio files. This material is increasingly used as evidence in court proceedings. All that is required is slackness by witnesses and prosecution, and the guidance of ACPO on digital evidence to be ignored, and you have a recipe for misleading the court.
I learn of serious failure of prosecution to disclose documents as required, and of failure of defence teams and judges to ensure compliance. The Attorney-General’s recent guidance identifies this as a threat to a fair trial. I hear of documents that are unsigned or undated, possibly even forged, being accepted by the courts, and a failure to safeguard the interests of people under rulings from the Court of Protection.
Much of this is ongoing, with frequent accounts of files lost, court records deleted or unavailable, police notes absent or officer amnesia in the witness box. A solicitor categorised this for me as “gaming” the provisions of Section 117 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, because a police witness cannot be cross-examined on something he has forgotten, and if the only other evidence is documentary or electronic, however faulty, then that must stand unless the defence can have the evidence struck out: effectively a reversal of the burden of proof. It would also appear from a recent BBC “File on 4” programme that these and allied manipulation of rules of evidence and procedure continue at the highest administrative and professional levels.
Withdrawing most legal aid—a principle I applaud as a general concept—but without rendering the system of justice accessible and affordable to normal folk, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, seems to be a flawed policy. I question why two legal experts are required to represent a criminal defendant. However, if undeserving types were gaming the legal aid budget beforehand, we now appear to have police and prosecution gaming the procedures to the detriment of fair trials. Add these together and we have a situation once described to my father by his lawyer as follows: “Where there is muddle and confusion, dishonesty follows close behind”. I try to remember that.
Once an offence, police notification or occasion of arrest is established, the details go into a police computer system. The citizen does not have rights, or certainly has no adequate rights, to gain access to or check that for accuracy, yet may find material regurgitated at some future date in proceedings, shared with other agencies or disclosed in a CRB check. Necessary protections before the law remain inadequate, open to abuse, and are being manipulated to the unfair disadvantage for defendants in criminal proceedings in particular. This erodes trust in a vital sector of public administration. That imperils the rule of law and ultimately, the stability of society. Oversight must be restored. Senior law officers within the Government have long been aware of the situation, so why no action?
We should not be complacent or wag our finger at other jurisdictions, while all the while corrupt practices infect our own affairs. The Government need to act now—or if not this one, now, then a new one in 2015.
Baroness Perry of Southwark (Con)
My Lords, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak about education in this debate. Although there are no education Bills in this gracious Speech, that does not mean that education will not be a part of much that we will debate in the year ahead. Education affects every aspect of our individual and national life. For example, lack of literacy skills is strongly related to poverty, crime—the rate of functional illiteracy in our jails is a scandal in itself—and social unrest. Equally, our failure to give marketable skills to sufficient numbers of our young people is a direct cause of much youth unemployment and a huge drag on the national economy.
I am therefore proud of the Government’s work in raising the national standards of education in very direct ways. I am now delighted to welcome a new initiative to ensure that every child learns to read at the level appropriate for their age. This builds on many schemes of the past 10 years, from the “every child reading” strategy, launched in the 1990s, to the national strategy, Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life, which was launched in 2011. All those have begun to have an impact on this most basic of educational outcomes, but it has still not been enough.
We cannot afford to get this wrong. Literacy is the gateway to all other learning in both the humanities and sciences, it opens the spirit to great literature, and it is a source of infinite pleasure throughout life. It has always seemed to me to be the first element of the implicit contract between the state and a parent: “Trust me with your child, and I will teach her or him to read”. One national expert said to me, so wisely, that we know when a child is reading, not by tests and grading but when we see them go into the book corner, choose a book, and curl up to read for pleasure. At that point they are reading.
I also celebrate the initiative of charities to deal with educational failure. I particularly commend the charity to which my noble friend Lady Stedman-Scott gives so much of her energy and commitment. The charity works on a one-to-one basis with young people who have been identified by their school as in real danger of slipping permanently through the net. They are truanting, failing and losing any opportunity to make a success of their lives. It was a great privilege recently to meet, along with my noble friend Lady Shephard, some of the young people in Tower Hamlets who have been lucky enough to have their lives turned around by this programme. The key to its success is that each young person is encouraged to articulate their own chosen goal. Once this has been established, their mentor—working with many excellent and far-sighted employers in the neighbourhood—arranges a work placement in the field to which they aspire. That is the turning point in their motivation.
One young 16 year-old boy told us that he simply loved cars. He wanted to work with cars and was tired of wasting his time hanging around street corners or shopping malls with other disenfranchised young mates. His mentor got him a placement with a BMW service centre, and that changed his life. He realised while he was there that if he was to work with cars, he needed to win an apprenticeship, and to do that he needed some good GCSEs. Back to school he came, and worked hard for the first time in many years. He has now won the place he so longed for, and from failure his life has been turned to the fulfilment of what had been a distant dream.
For many young people like these, academic subjects do not in themselves attract their interest. Once they see the vocational relevance of academic work, their motivation is focused. There is a real lesson here for policy, and I commend the UTC initiative of my noble friend Lord Baker for recognising and building on this. By combining high-level academic work and real motivation in the vocational subjects, success is being achieved. So many good things are happening, and so many more are to come.
Lord Bach (Lab)
My Lords, in this incredibly wide-ranging debate, the Minister referred to legal aid. I will speak about one aspect of our justice system. This may seem a narrow ambition, but—thanks to a number of highly committed and hard-working people—it is of immense importance both to the individual lives of our fellow-citizens and to the reputation of our legal system. When I use the word “justice”, noble Lords can be forgiven for thinking that I am referring to criminal justice, which of course is discussed and debated all the time, but I am not. I refer to civil justice, and in particular to what I consider one of the most pernicious and damaging policies that the Government have put into practice; namely, the removal of legal aid from vast areas of social welfare law. Whether it be benefit law, debt law, housing law, employment law or immigration law, there are areas where millions of our fellow citizens, at some time in their lives, require some legal help, nearly always in the form of early, quality legal advice. Many who require legal help are, of course, disadvantaged, poor and disabled.
When the Government came to power, this country enjoyed a system built up by Governments of both parties that meant that everyone who needed legal help could get it. It provided quality providers, whether not-for-profits such as law centres or CABs, or solicitors’ firms. However, it was not expensive—at around £150 a piece of advice—and used up only one-10th of the legal aid budget. That represented great value. Thanks to that early intervention many of those problems were sorted out and lives were changed for the better. Crucially, although it was far from perfect and far from generous, that system worked. It was a gem in our legal system. It allowed some access to justice to everyone, and seemed to have the support of all political parties.
Why, then, did the coalition—and here I mean both political parties working together—change the system from the moment it came into office? Immediately, well before the legislation was passed, the number of cases that were helped in that way per year declined, from 485,000 at exactly the moment the previous Government left office to 293,000 three years later. Then, on 1 April 2013, Part 1 of LASPO came into force, and in the 14 months since, numbers have, of course—there being no legal aid—declined further. The number of our fellow citizens who once received legal help but are now no longer able to do so is almost certainly over half a million.
Yet this practical removal of citizens’ rights at a time of continuing austerity and radical welfare reform—both of which mean that more people need help—has received scant media attention and is largely not known about by the general public. Where there has been comment, it has been hopelessly misinformed and inaccurate. Of course, that lack of publicity and interest is exactly what both parts of the Government want. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats vie with each other to claim credit for achievements they are proud of. My guess is that they will not be competing with each other to take credit for effectively destroying a vital part of our civil justice system, for ensuring that hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens, who are often at the bottom of the pile, cannot receive access to justice, and for seriously demeaning the reputation of our much-admired legal system. That policy is this Government’s dirty little secret.
Baroness Brinton (LD)
My Lords, I declare my interest as a trustee of UNICEF UK.
I welcome the proposal in the Serious Crime Bill to expand the definition of child cruelty to include psychological suffering or injury, as well as the long-accepted physical charge. Since this proposal was announced in the gracious Speech, there has been something of a debate on the internet asking how on earth one can decide what is psychological suffering and injury, and where the boundaries lie. Some have even suggested that people involved in contested divorces would suddenly start to cite that their child had been psychologically damaged by their ex-husband or wife. I am sure that the passage of this Bill will make it clear where those boundaries lie and how those judgments will be made by professionals other than individuals with an interest.
When referring to psychological cruelty we are talking not about family disputes but about the constant haranguing of a child to make them feel worthless. Children often believe what their close family members tell them; or, as discussed in the passage of the Children and Families Act, it might also be the public exorcism of children in certain churches or “shutting up”—that is, locking children in their rooms with no access to others for up to months at a time, as we were told last year happens in the Exclusive Brethren Church, where a girl was shut up for three months for accessing Facebook.
Over the years, very few charges have been laid about the psychological damage to children that causes cruelty, let alone brought to court and convictions secured right across the child-cruelty spectrum. Charities such as the Children’s Society and Barnardo’s have for years been campaigning about the damage of child cruelty, especially the invisible psychological and emotional abuse. In the past I have discussed with social workers and doctors the problems of the current law which mean that too many cases are not even brought because of that invisibility and, therefore, lack of evidence. I believe that this new addition of psychological damage will strengthen the child cruelty definition well.
However, as with the stalking law reform debate that we had two years ago, with which I was involved, changing the law on its own will not take effect without a real commitment by the criminal justice system, schools, children’s service and the health service being trained and supported to deliver this. We know from the stalking legislation that where there has been training in both the police and elsewhere, the numbers of charges and convictions have gone up, whereas there is real doubt about those areas that have not yet trained all their staff.
There are also long-term mental health consequences of psychological cruelty. Convicting the perpetrator is important, but it will be useless if the child victim does not get access, and quickly, to child and adolescent mental health services. My honourable friend Norman Lamb MP is right to demand parity of funding for mental health services, and it is disgraceful that NHS England has told CCGs to cut mental health in favour of acute physical services, causing a real shortage of beds, with children having to travel hundreds of miles to access an emergency bed. Many children who have suffered mental cruelty are scarred for life, especially when much of it has taken place out of sight.
We know already that only one in four children with a mental health diagnosis is getting access to the therapy they need. This must be improved. If four children had all broken a leg, we would not say that only one could get access to a plaster cast and, if necessary, physiotherapy afterwards to help them heal. This discrimination must cease. I ask the Minister if there is an intention to provide clear guidance for multidisciplinary professionals who are likely to come into contact with cases of psychological cruelty to children, both about where the boundaries lie and what help the child victims of such cruelty are entitled to access as soon as it has been made plain, including urgent referral to CAMHS.
Equally importantly, what steps are the Government taking to ensure that more help is provided to vulnerable families to prevent neglect happening or to ensure that early intervention is offered before there is a need to resort to criminal prosecution?
Following my noble friend Lord Willis’s comments about quality not quantity of legislation, echoed by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle, I welcome the comments in the Minister’s speech this afternoon that much of this year would be spent in embedding and delivering the new health and social care arrangements. I welcome that, and it is vital to give the new arrangements time to bed in. Moving towards joint health and social care commissioning is an enormous step, but a step that must be taken, and the better care fund is a start to encourage best practice between local authorities and health. However, these are still very early days and the journey towards true joint working will take time to develop.
Lord Harris of Peckham (Con)
It is very important that we get every child in this country a good education because they get only one chance. I thank the late Baroness Thatcher and the noble Lord, Lord Baker, for giving us our first chance of a CTC, at Crystal Palace in 1992. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, under whose leadership we opened 10 academies. I am proud to say that nine of those are outstanding and one is good, in Peckham. I expect the school in Peckham, sometime this year, to get an outstanding rating. I also thank the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, for allowing us to have another 15 schools by September 2013 and 10 more this September.
I would like to mention all our schools. Some 44% of the children receive free school meals. Our school at Crystal Palace, which we opened in 1992, previously had a pass rate, with five As to Cs including English and maths, of only 9%. Over the past 14 years, our average has been 92%. On two occasions it was the most improved school in the country. From 1995 to 2000, it went from a 9% pass rate to a pass rate of 54%. It then went from 54% to 92%. When we took on the school, it had only 350 students; today it has 1,500. This year we have four students going to Oxford and Cambridge. It is the most popular school in the country with over 2,000 applicants for 180 places. This gave me the confidence to open more schools; so today we have 27 academies—16 secondary, 10 primary and one referral unit.
I would like to say a few words on the referral unit. It is for children who have been expelled. Instead of putting them on the street and leaving them alone, they come to this school. We opened it in September last year and it had 30 students. Of those 30 students, we have now got 27 back into the normal state schools. It is not just from our schools but from all the schools in the Beckenham-Bromley area. We are proud of that. I am also very proud that the Government have made us expand the school so that we will be taking 60 children from this September.
We have had 12 Ofsted reports on our 16 academies in the past two or three years and have got nine outstanding ratings and three good ones. As for the three good ones, we have had two of those schools only since September 2012. Some 75% of our academies have a rating of outstanding compared with the national average of 20%. All our academies, except one, were failing when we took them on. Last September, 80%—or 465—of our students progressed to university. Some 5% deferred and had a gap year for one year. Some 10% went to a Russell university.
Why did I get involved with primary schools? It is important. Our school at Purley had 1,000 applicants for 180 places in 2012. Of those applicants, 16 had a reading age of six to eight years old, or year 2 to 4. Within a year they were put back into their normal classrooms, and today they have a reading age of 12. That is why we wanted to do more primary schools: because the more primary schools we did, the more chance these pupils would have when they got to secondary school. Of the primary schools that we have taken on, nine were failing or in special measures. In the past year, one of those schools, at Peckham, which is a free school, had an Ofsted rating of outstanding in every department: four grade 1s.
Noble Lords have probably heard of the Downhills School, which caused everyone such trouble in Tottenham, and which caused me and my shops a lot of trouble personally. I am proud to say that, within less than a year, this school has been assessed as among the 20% most improved schools in the country. This week we will receive an Ofsted report and I will be very disappointed if we do not get a “good” rating, and there is a chance that we will get an “outstanding” one.
We are very proud that in September we will be opening a school called Harris Westminster, which is linked with the Westminster School and will be a sixth form for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Over 50% of the students will be getting free meals. We are very excited about this school. We will eventually take up to 500 students, and in two or three years’ time we will have 600. They will have a first-class education, helped by the Westminster School. We are proud of that. It will be chaired by the chair of governors of the Westminster School, the Dean of Westminster. I thank him very much for all the work that he has done to help make this happen. Our chief executive, Sir Dan Moynihan, is one of the best chief executives who I have ever worked with. Finally, I thank our principals, teachers, support staff and governors for making our group so successful and helping to give children a better chance in life. Our motto is, “All Can Achieve”.
Lord Beecham (Lab)
My Lords, this debate ranges over four disparate areas, but there is an underlying, unifying theme across them, which reflects the Government’s record on these important areas of public policy and was to some extent echoed in the gracious Speech. That theme lies in the Government’s obsession with privatising public services, combined with botched and expensive reorganisations. I propose to cite examples of this ideologically driven agenda from the experience of the north-east.
In May the Northumbria branch of the National Association of Probation Officers wrote to the Northumbria Probation Trust and the Ministry of Justice raising serious concerns on the part of employees of the Community Rehabilitation Company and the National Probation Service about job security, workload, increased management spans, reduced support from HR and, especially, the transfer of cases and the split between risk categories. They are worried about the risk to public safety as a result of the split and point to bureaucratic delays in transfers, with existing users being transferred and high-risk offenders going to new officers. There are also concerns about the lack of a legal requirement for CRCs to maintain a level of training, which is particularly important in the area of domestic violence. They call for an extension of the transition process to the new structure until all these issues are resolved. I hope that when he replies, the Minister will be prepared at least to consider that suggestion.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice must also look at what is happening in family law cases, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, referred, where, as many of us warned, the cuts in legal aid are having a serious effect on family and especially child-related proceedings. The Journal newspaper in Newcastle reported on Saturday a rise of 61% in people representing themselves in north-east family courts, with the predictable result of serious delays—a topic on which, incidentally, I tabled a Question when Parliament resumed last week.
Also in the north-east, we had the experience of a prison riot at the newly privatised Acklington Prison, where 130 staff left: about one-third of the total. The prison is now managed by Sodexo, one of those oligopolies assumed by the Government to be capable of running any public service, despite the record of failure over issues such as tagging or interpreters, where Sir James Munby, head of the Family Division, recently described arrangements as “unacceptable”, and questioned the contracts between the Ministry of Justice and Capita. Not surprisingly, there is widespread doubt about the concept of a huge secure college, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, in opening this debate, doubtless to be privately run, which we will debate when the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill reaches us in due course.
The same contagion appears to threaten child protection, where the Government recently launched a six-week consultation about plans to permit local authorities to outsource children’s social services to the likes of G4S and Serco. This provoked a protest from 37 leading experts in a letter to the Guardian, and prompted a warning from Professor Eileen Munro, who had conducted a review on child protection for Michael Gove, the Secretary of State, in 2011. She asserted:
“It’s the state’s responsibility to protect people from maltreatment. It should not be delegated to a profit-making organisation”.
The chief executive of Children England, which represents 100 children’s charities, said:
“Such an important public function must never be open to the real, or even perceived, risk of being done in the pursuit of profit”.
Consistent with these concerns, incidentally, Ofsted—of which we have heard much today—is apparently seeking to bring inspection in-house and not to rely on contracting.
Then we have the NHS, with its injection of a toxic mixture of a huge bureaucratic reorganisation combined with increasing private sector involvement. In my own council ward in the west end of Newcastle, among the most deprived areas in the country, there are three current NHS issues. First, a GP practice—a Darzi practice—was threatened with closure on six weeks’ notice and without consultation as the provider and NHS England failed to reach agreement. While a temporary provision has been made, the future of the practice is uncertain. Recently, Care UK announced it was withdrawing early from another practice in the same area after controversially winning a tender only 21 months ago—although at least in that case it gave adequate notice. And 14 months after NHS England replaced the primary care trusts, we are still awaiting the outcome of a review of a longstanding proposal to build a new health facility on a site in the area which the PCT had agreed—indeed, the whole programme had been agreed and the land was transferred some time ago by the city council. After 14 months there is no decision.
As a final example of institutional ineptitude, I must refer to the closure of cells at Newcastle’s magistrates’ court following the relocation of the police station that was part of the same building, which has meant custody cases being transferred to other courts miles away. The Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, who is not in his place, advised me that the courts would reopen on 3 June. I had to tell him today, outside the Chamber, that recently—just in the last day or so—a letter was received saying that they will now not reopen until 30 June “at the earliest”, while “negotiations continue”. Since that conversation, I have received a message that staff in North Tyneside, where cases have been transferred because cells are available there, have been told that the cells in Newcastle will not reopen at all. What that means for the future of the magistrates’ courts in Newcastle and Tyneside very much remains to be seen.
This catalogue of problems will not be confined to the north-east, and none of them has really been addressed in the gracious Speech. They will be addressed by a Labour Government—starting, I trust, with the next Queen’s Speech.
Baroness Manzoor (LD)
My Lords, the gracious Speech mentioned a fairer society. We have sadly all heard of the scandalous and shocking events that took place at the mid-Staffordshire trust over a year ago, affecting some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Complacency and indifference to complaints was one of the many findings of the subsequent review led by Robert Francis QC. The Francis report called for cultural change, focus on patient experience, and much greater willingness to listen to the voice of patients and people who use the service.
The Government’s response to the Francis inquiry, Hard Truths: The journey to Putting Patients First, was published last year in November. This report demonstrated the Government’s commitment to supporting NHS organisations to create a culture of openness in the NHS, and to supporting staff and patients who raise concerns or complaints. This is to be welcomed, as is the subsequent duty of candour which places a requirement on all Quality Care Commission-registered providers of health and adult social care to be open with patients and service users about failings in care. Also to be welcomed are new leadership programmes for nursing and clinical staff.
These are important commitments, but little has been done to see things through the eyes of patients and the people who use the health and care services. Visibility and ease of accessibility of the current complaints system for the public is generally poor, and there is unnecessary complexity in it. There remains an overreliance on outdated methods of dealing with complaints. Good governance should be much more than following rules. The landscape of complaints handling and related issues of regulation is a very crowded place: who is supposed to do what, I suspect, is fully known and understood only by officials working in the Department of Health.
There are numerous organisations with overlapping roles and responsibilities, such as clinical commissioning groups, NHS trusts, the Care Quality Commission, Healthwatch England, chief inspectors for hospitals, primary care and social care, the Health & Social Care Information Centre in England, NHS England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman—who has a dual role and is also, confusingly, known by another title—the Local Government Ombudsman, Monitor, and the NHS Trust Development Authority on finance. No doubt there are others.
In my view this unnecessary complexity has been further compounded as new or additional functions have been bolted on in an ad hoc fashion when failings in service delivery have emerged. This cannot, and is not, sustainable for the long run. It aids confusion and fosters a lack of clear accountability and therefore overall responsibility. Despite this, I recognise that some good innovations have been put in place, but their full potential will be difficult to achieve in an overcrowded field. Besides the burden of bureaucracy there are also significant costs at a time when the NHS can ill afford them.
The Government have a Bill on deregulation that will be coming before your Lordships’ House. I would welcome the Government considering modernising the deregulation framework for healthcare professionals and for users of health and social care services. I agree with the chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, who said:
“There needs to be a revolution in the way public services are run, and how the public perceives government. As things are, most people believe there is no point in complaining”.
His statement is backed by a report undertaken by the consumer organisation Which?, which highlighted a survey showing that 35% of people who have cause to complain about the NHS choose not to do so. I suspect that the figure may well be even higher.
According to government statistics, there are 10 million patients aged over 65 and 15 million people living with a chronic condition in England. The number of these vulnerable people is rising, and increasingly there is a much greater blurring of lines between health and social care as more people move to receiving care in their home and budgets are pooled.
I, like the Public Administration Committee, urge the Government to create a new, accessible and transparent unified Public Services Ombudsman, which brings together the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman, and to bring together health and social care complaints at the second tier of complaints handling. The Government should also consider establishing a supercomplainant power for Healthwatch England and simplifying the complexities of the regulatory burden. In that regard I agree with the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Patel. Good things have happened but the NHS, patients and service users deserve more.
Lord Ramsbotham (CB)
My Lords, I base my contribution on two military analogies, one comparatively ancient and one more modern. I have often thought that Governments should base working relationships on the ethos of my regiment, the Rifle Brigade—that is, a mutual bond of trust and affection between all ranks which officers have to earn, trust coming before affection. Last week saw the 70th anniversary of D-day, the success of which was based on meticulous planning.
The whole House, the country and particularly criminal justice system staff would have sat up with a jolt had Her Majesty’s gracious Speech last Wednesday included the words: “In recognition of its duty to protect the public, my Government will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about the rehabilitation of offenders”. I say that because the Government are losing public and staff trust by not telling things as they are and mounting inadequately planned operations.
When Her Majesty said in her gracious Speech on 8 May 2013:
“Legislation will be introduced to reform the way in which offenders are rehabilitated in England and Wales”,
I suspect that she, like everyone else outside government, did not know that this included deliberate denial of parliamentary scrutiny of incomplete and untested plans for reorganising probation. Neither do I suspect that she realised, when she said:
“To make sure that every child has the best start in life, regardless of background, further measures will be taken to improve the quality of education for young people”,
that these included modern-day Dotheboys Halls—secure colleges for offenders aged between 12 and 17 without specification of the rules under which contracted staff are to be allowed to use restraint in the interests of good order and discipline.
Regarding probation, and all the unanswered questions during the passage of the Offender Rehabilitation Bill, such as how the supervision of 50,000 short-term prisoners in the community would be paid for, the Public Accounts Committee has published a devastating report asking many of the same, and calling on the Ministry of Justice to set out the key points it will use to assess whether it is safe to progress to the next stage of the programme. The Ministry of Justice tells us that all is well while the probation officers association reports considerable staffing problems, confirmed by advertisements in the Guardian seeking probation officers from Australia and New Zealand at a significantly higher hourly rate than that paid to United Kingdom staff. Will the Minister please explain this variance?
Regarding variance of views, I used to tell Home Secretaries that they could believe either the observed facts that I gave them, or in what my successor called the “virtual” prisons described by officials, but that real improvement could be made only if based on fact. Recently the Chief Inspector reported that the provision of purposeful activity was inadequate in over half the prisons inspected, having plummeted over the past year to the worst levels for six years. Despite this, Mr Grayling said during Second Reading of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill that he had,
“transformed the regime in our prisons so that they are now places of hard work and discipline, where prisoners are expected to engage with their own rehabilitation and work hard to earn their privileges”.—[Official Report, Commons, 24/2/14; col. 47.]
More recently he said publicly that disturbances at HMP Northumbria were merely the reaction of prisoners being made to work longer hours. Last November he imposed changes to the incentive and earned privileges scheme, demanding that, in order to attain either standard or enhanced status, prisoners, including the elderly and disabled, must show their commitment to rehabilitation by taking part in purposeful activity. When he, the inspectorate and staff know that there simply is not enough work for prisoners, what does he think that such abuse of the truth signifies and proves about the living virtue and stored-up strength of our nation, to quote Winston Churchill’s famous words?
Does this matter? Offenders, from whose reoffending the public expect to be protected, will be in prison or on probation whichever party is in power. Public protection and offender rehabilitation are national responsibilities, not party-political matters, which is why I hate the self-styled “tough” Mr Grayling saying that he wants to bring “right-wing” solutions to correct the “palpable failure” of the left. Decency and fairness are not matters of right or left politics.
My noble and learned friend Lord Woolf said in his seminal report on the riots in Strangeways and other prisons in 1990 that, as often happens at times of change, the improvements that were being introduced,
“brought with them periods of increased instability which made the prison system particularly vulnerable to disturbances”.
The latest statistics published by the Prison Reform Trust draw attention to an increase in symptoms of instability, exacerbated by the breakneck speed with which untested change is being imposed. No one can possibly know whether the Government’s plans will work by the 2015 election, but given the lack of trust and inadequate planning I only hope that I am wrong in warning of impending crisis, about which I detect more government complacency than contingency planning, and that the gracious Speech in May 2015 will not have to include the words: “In recognition of its duty to protect the public, my Government will introduce urgent measures to rehabilitate the rehabilitation of offenders”.
Lord Ribeiro (Con)
My Lords, measures to end smoking in cars while children are present did not appear in the gracious Speech. After the large vote in favour of the measure in the Commons in February this year by 376 votes to 107, it might have been assumed that it was a done deal and a job done and that legislation would follow swiftly. Here I must declare an interest as the author of the Private Member’s Bill introduced in 2012 which proposed a ban on smoking in cars when children are present.
The Government are to be congratulated on tackling the two great obstacles in the way of reducing harm to children through smoking—that is, the introduction of plain or standard packs of cigarettes and smoking in cars. In the face of stiff opposition from the tobacco industry, the Government have shown courage and steadfastness in pursuing their strategy to reduce harm from smoking. In order to have the evidence to support their proposals, they invited Sir Cyril Chantler to undertake an independent review of standardised packaging of tobacco. It endorsed the findings of the University of Stirling in 2012 and, after careful consideration, the Public Health Minister, Jane Ellison MP, said that,
“if standardised packaging were introduced it would be very likely to have a positive impact on public health”,
and that these health benefits could include health benefits for children.
So why are we still waiting for legislation? The Government are committed to undertaking a six-week consultation on the draft regulations. There is then a bureaucratic process that involves a regulatory impact assessment, notification to the European Union, and another six months before the process is completed. We are now 11 months from a general election. Can my noble friend assure me that there will be no further delay and that we can expect legislation before the machinery of government turns its focus on to the election? One can expect continued lobbying from the tobacco industry to frustrate the proposed legislation, which has cross-party support and the overwhelming support of both Houses of Parliament. I urge the Government not to let this prize for which they have worked hard slip through their fingers, like the sands in an egg timer.
I welcome the intention to introduce legislation to stop female genital mutilation—again, a further assault on our children.
Public health is increasingly getting the recognition it deserves, and it is strange for me as a surgeon to be promoting it. However, in developing countries the burden of disease has shifted from infectious diseases to chronic conditions. The level of infectious diseases is, in fact, falling in developing countries. In an article in the Lancet on 31 May, the work of a new health group, of which I am patron, tasked with introducing essential surgery in developing countries, is featured. It has produced a film entitled “The Right to Heal”, which identifies the surgical challenges facing public health over the next 30 years. The paradigm shift to conditions that require surgery is clear: trauma and injury, burns, obstructed labour and fistulae, appendicitis, cataracts, hernia, club foot, and cleft lip and palate. These conditions affect millions of people around the globe and can all be treated by surgery.
As the millennium goals come to an end in 2015, we need a Government to lobby the World Health Organisation and the World Health Assembly to pass a resolution on the use of essential surgery. The Lancet quotes a former WHO director-general, HT Mahler, who asked for an internationally agreed list of essential surgical procedures to support primary healthcare and help countries to decide on their own lists and the related training and equipment that they would need. He concluded:
“The alternative for most people in the world is either the kind of selected essential surgery I am advocating or absolutely nothing at all”.
Lord Berkeley (Lab)
My Lords, in this short debate I want to speak about the free movement of people across Europe, because I believe that travel around Europe has been a major contributor to peace since the last war. Many noble Lords will not have experienced war, and certainly not invasion, in this country. This possibly influences the attitude that the Government and many other politicians have to immigration, which I want to speak about particularly in relation to the services through the Channel Tunnel—with which I was involved when it was being built about 25 years ago.
I lived in Romania in the 1970s and witnessed at first hand the lack of freedom to move. That was not just to neighbouring countries—you could not go to sunny Bulgaria for a holiday, and you certainly could not go to the West. When the iron curtain lifted and those countries eventually joined the European Union, I thought it was a major step forward. I was rather sad that so many politicians last year, Ministers and others, screamed about the “hoards” and “floods” of Romanians who were going to come here when the borders were opened on 1 January. The numbers actually reduced, I believe—lower than they were last year. We do not necessarily want to believe everything we are told about hoards of people trying to get into this country.
There is of course an economic argument to this, too. Many noble Lords may have read in the Sunday Times yesterday a view that, because Chinese visitors require separate visas to come here from the Schengen countries, the UK is losing out on about £1 billion of spending. That is a significant figure. There is a lot to do and I have talked to the Minister about this on several occasions, but we are not getting very far.
The demand for travel is of course growing. Immigration checks seem to be a major constraint to growth. They add cost and delay, and bring no hope at all of any services beyond London, Brussels or Paris. Apparently, we now have to check everyone going out of our country. I do not know why Big Brother needs to know everybody who is leaving; they should possibly be pleased that people do leave. However, I am told that the scanner for doing such checks will take 12 seconds per person. It is supposed to be a bit like Oyster cards, which, however, take about half a second to get through. There will therefore be horrible queues to get out of this lovely country. The immigration service cannot cope with the present workload because Ministers keep changing their ideas. I came back from Brussels on Friday and our checks took twice as long as the Belgian checks. The train left 10 minutes late in order to allow all the passengers to get on. I do not know why this is the case, but it is a continuing issue.
Looking further ahead, HS2 is now proposed. Admittedly the HS1 link has been removed, but one could still run a train service from Birmingham to Paris tomorrow. Of course, that could not happen because immigration controls would require fixed installations at every station along the route, whether in France, Germany, Frankfurt, Cologne, Aachen or Rotterdam. At every station in each direction there would have to be an immigration desk. Of course, one could not mix domestic passengers with international passengers. What hope is there for anyone wanting to operate those services? The costs would be enormous.
I maintain that it would be possible to develop a system of checking passports on the train before people arrive in the country. I have not heard any reason why that could not be done except, “It’s much easier to do it in one place”. If we are going to have the benefit of the tunnel, which is a wonderful connection between two countries, we ought to go further afield than Brussels or Paris and be able to get on the train and have the checks made much easier. We would then see a modern, up-to-date network of rail services to wherever one might go, day and night, but with immigration checks—which are clearly necessary—that are modern, proportionate and do not, as is currently planned, impose such an enormous cost on the operators that they cannot get a business case together.
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick (CB)
My Lords, given the time constraints, I want to comment on just one aspect of the gracious Speech and to ask one or two questions. The aspect on which I want to comment is the provision, which I am sure we all welcome, for a Bill to strengthen the powers to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking. This is an opportunity not only for Members of all sides of this House but for both Houses to come together in an uncontentious but determined way.
My questions relate to the fact that this criminal activity is of the second order worldwide after drug trading. Estimates put the global human trafficking business at $150 billion a year. The European Union estimates that 26.9 million people are traded annually and that 880,000 work in slave labour conditions in western Europe. If those facts and the cash problems associated with human trafficking are to be believed, is not this Bill lacking ambition?
The proposal in the gracious Speech is to bring about measures to amalgamate existing measures and then to appoint an anti-slavery commissioner, as the notes indicate. However, is that really what is needed in the light of the scale of global human trafficking, the devastating stories of human lives around the globe taken and disrupted, the sex trade on the back of that, the abuse of young people at major international sporting events, and the way in which certain countries seek to hide their human rights duties and responsibilities behind commercial priorities or even religious approaches? Is a Bill that simply amalgamates existing provisions adequate?
I wonder whether, in their response, the Government might consider not rushing this legislation through what will be a partial year in this House but, rather, reflecting on the fact that, when this Parliament last seriously took through legislation on slavery more than 200 years ago, it was a 40-year journey. I am not suggesting that we need 40 years in which to bring to a conclusion this horrendous and ugly global trade, but I am not convinced that the normal processes of time, nor this small Bill, will be measured and appropriate or do what is necessary for the scale of the issues involved. Is it not right that, outside the provisions of the Bill at whatever point it is published, we should debate the issues of modern slavery, human trafficking, global supply chains, the mechanisms for legal checking and the processes through courts, and that we should ask hard questions of both DfID and its resources invested in international law and the Foreign Office concerning the extent to which Britain is serious about dealing with the global supply trade systems and the legal complexities that keep this trade ever growing and ever more complex?
I contend that the provisions of the existing Bill are welcome. They will not divide this House—we will agree almost unanimously. It may be possible to move this legislation through almost too easily and too quickly, but I suggest that if we do that we may well lose the weight and substance of this issue facing the Government. We may not deal with it with the dignity required for the women, in particular, who are trafficked and all those in slavery, and we may lose the opportunity to be genuinely heroic. I urge the Government to think about that and possibly to take this issue forward into the next manifesto—and I look to the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats to do the same—so as to make a commitment on it beyond this small Bill.
Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)
My Lords, I share the view of the noble Lord, Lord Patel, and several others who have spoken that it is a great disappointment that there is not something in the Loyal Address about care and health. It is one of the electorate’s highest priorities and there is still much work to be done on it. In his opening remarks, the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, recognised that and nodded in that direction by explaining how much good work the Government have been doing, particularly in relation to Public Health England. I regret that the noble Lord is not in his place to hear it but perhaps the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, will draw the following to his attention:
“Alcohol misuse is the third highest preventable cause of ill health and death after tobacco and high blood pressure. Consumption has doubled in the last 50 years and the costs to the individuals concerned, to their families, to the NHS and more widely are huge. Preventing and reducing these harms requires action by individuals themselves and at national and local levels to implement those policies and interventions that the evidence tells us will have the greatest impact, for example, nationally on minimum unit pricing, and for local government, incorporating health into their judgments on alcohol licensing decisions”.
Those are not my words but those of Mr Duncan Selbie, the Government’s chief executive officer for Public Health England, to whom the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, referred. They were in a message that he issued as recently as Friday, 23 May 2014.
Mr Selbie was formerly the chief medical officer for Brighton and Hove, a city much plagued at weekends by drunkenness. Its major hospital’s A&E department can be inundated and sometimes almost overwhelmed from Thursdays to Sundays by people suffering from alcohol or substance misuse. Therefore, he knows from personal experience what he is talking about. Regrettably the Government have, to all intents and purposes, ditched a meaningful and effective policy on minimum unit pricing for alcohol. That was the major plank in their former alcohol strategy, and no matter what they may argue, the opportunity to do this has now gone, and that is to be regretted.
Similarly, under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, much decision-making on health has been devolved to local authorities. The Government have so far rejected all attempts to permit local government to incorporate a health factor into its judgments on alcohol licensing decisions—something which, again, Public Health England advocates strongly.
The Government could have looked at this again if they had tabled legislation in the Queen’s Speech based on the Local Government Association’s January report entitled Open for Business: Rewiring Licensing, but they did not. Instead, we see that they are moving precisely in the opposite direction with the Deregulation Bill, which is soon to come to this House from the Commons. On the last day of business there, the Government introduced late amendments to that Bill which, to quote the Liberal Democrat Minister responsible, is a,
“new light-touch authorisation to reduce burdens on ancillary sellers of alcohol”.—[Official Report, Commons, 14/5/14; cols. 786.]
While that comes under the guise of helping local groups such as the Women’s Institute to sell alcohol, it is to be extended to small businesses that want to sell, as he puts it,
“small amounts of alcohol … as part of a wider service”.—[Official Report, Commons, 14/5/14; cols. 777.]
What is a small business in that context? What is a small amount of alcohol? Just where is liberalisation in this area going to lead? Is there really a need for it? Do hairdressers desperately need to start selling alcohol to their clients? A whole range of other operations will be named as places where alcohol will possibly be on sale in the future. Who wants this, unless it is your major interest to sell more alcohol and to make it easier to access it? I urge the Government to think again while they are still dealing with the Bill in the Commons and before it comes here. If it does come here, I urge colleagues to oppose it strongly.
Is it healthy and right that Sainsbury’s—one of our more responsible supermarkets—now sells lemonade and dandelion and burdock with alcohol in it? As I have been told by that supermarket, it is authorised by the Portman Group, the drinks industry representative body and the principal partner of the Government in their so-called “responsibility deal”, on which my noble friend Lord Rooker spoke passionately earlier. As the Government seem to have such faith in this body, can the Minister say whether discussions have opened up within it to control and regulate alcohol in powder form now that its partners in that deal have devised a means whereby the drinks industry can produce such a form of alcohol?
Lord Phillips of Sudbury (LD)
My Lords, I propose to address a broad issue to which there is little or no direct reference in the Queen’s Speech, but which I believe is of fundamental interest and importance to this House. It is of course the state of our democracy. If one seeks to measure that by, for example, voting statistics or the number of our fellow citizens who are members of political parties, then the degree of crisis—I believe that that is an appropriate word—facing us now in terms of our political vitality and relevance is extreme.
I remember very well making my maiden speech in the debate on the Queen’s Speech in 1998 and referring to this subject then; it is not new. I believe that it is a continuing and deepening problem. I quoted then from the great John Pym who, your Lordships will remember, led the parliamentary cause into the Civil War before dying in 1643. He uttered a remarkable phrase, which has stuck in my mind ever since I read it 50 years ago, when he talked about the essentiality of what he called the,
“vigour and cheerfulness of allegiance”.
He remarked on the fact that such vigour and cheerfulness was not a feature of those years and on how Charles I had sacrificed that vigour and cheerfulness by his failure to involve Parliament et al. That lack of vigour and cheerfulness is dramatic today. If we add in the several million voters who did not even bother to register at the previous election, fewer than one in five under-25s voted. We need to ask why this is so and we need to address the complex causes of this state of affairs. They are mightily complex.
The Queen’s Speech refers to preparing “school pupils for employment”. How about preparing them to be active and engaged citizens and to have the knowledge, skill and will to engage as citizens in civic life? There are three further obstructions or challenges to the crisis, as I will call it. The first is the breakdown of community life, which continues unabated, as it has almost since the war. It is within community that we learn about citizenship. We do not learn it formally, but informally—involuntarily. We learn about mutualism and the common wealth, and so many things which then and for ever thereafter sustain us in our engagement with our local communities. Community life has broken down everywhere.
What about the complexity of our laws? We know enough about that in this House. We change the laws every few years, usually because we have not implemented the laws that we have. It is a common fact that the number of parliamentarians in both Houses who now engage in legislating is going down and down, which is why we have more debates. It is so complicated. You need to be a lawyer to get your head around half of it. What about the poor citizen, who is not consulted and certainly not informed in language that they can understand?
We need to refer to and remark on the lack of civic leadership, which is acute and impacts on public service, local and national. A number of speakers today have referred to the Bill on slavery. I was reading about the great William Wilberforce the other day and came across this remarkably contemporary quote. He wrote:
“The opposite to selfishness is public spirit; which may be termed, not unjustly, the grand principle of political vitality, the very life’s breath of states”.
How is public service in our time? It is in a dire condition. The natural elites of our communities are now largely opted out of civic engagement. There are wonderful exceptions, but take my own profession—the law. It is, I am afraid, a tragic fact that, from being pillars of the community at the start of my professional life, we are now largely absent. I think that the disaffection and disconnection to which this state of affairs has led, which I have had to sketch very briefly, has impacted devastatingly, particularly on the less able and the less—how shall I put it?—elevated. Of course, UKIP and the Scots Nats tap into the feelings of abandonment, of being outside the tent and of being ignored and overlooked. They have tapped into that with a will. We have to revitalise our national democratic vitality. I am sorry that time means that I have to leave it at that bare exposition.
Lord Scott of Foscote (CB)
My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Bach, I want to say a word or two about the civil justice system in this country and the importance that individuals should not only have but be able to exercise their rights of access to the courts, either to prosecute civil claims of their own or to defend themselves against civil claims made against them by others. The ability to have access to the civil courts, whether as claimant or defendant, has a vital part to play in establishing a healthy relationship between individuals and the law and in creating a climate of respect for the rule of law. If any individual is unable to enforce his or her rights in the civil courts, or equally important to defend himself or herself in the civil courts against claims by others, there is a real danger of a diminution in the individual’s self-esteem and a diminution in the individual’s respect for the law itself.
There is no doubt that civil litigation is expensive and that the cost of litigation is capable of constituting a serious impediment to a realisable access to the courts by many, perhaps most, citizens of this country. Of course, legal aid, traditionally, and for many years in my experience, has come to their aid in that regard. Your Lordships may recall that in 1988 and 1989 the then Government adopted a policy that the civil justice system should be made self-financing—the costs to be met by fees charged to litigants. At first, the fees to be so financed excluded judicial salaries, but in 1991 the Government decided that judicial salaries, too, should be included and that all the costs of the civil justice system, save only the costs of the legal aid scheme, were to be met by fees charged to litigants. This was, of course, an impediment to access to justice for all those unable to avail themselves of legal aid.
Since that time, the legal aid scheme itself has been under attack by Governments unwilling to stand the size of the legal aid debts as a burden on the Exchequer year after year. Of course, the consequence of this is that litigants in person will increase in number. The time taken by litigation when the judge does not have the assistance of counsel to represent one or other of the parties will be longer and the whole style of the litigation will change. A judge with a litigant in person before the court cannot afford to have the normal adversarial approach to litigation, with one side against the other and the judge then deciding which of the two is to be preferred in the result. The judge will have to enter the arena and himself or herself investigate the matter, try to discover the real cause of the dispute and the best line of law that should be applied to resolve the dispute. The length of the litigation, as I have said, will increase and at the end of the day I wonder how much in costs will be saved by withholding legal aid from one or both of the disputants.
I ask the Government to make clear their current intentions with regard to legal aid in civil cases. Whatever they are, the Government will, I hope, bear in mind the importance of the respect for the rule of law engendered by a proper ability to appear before the civil courts with legal assistance so as to present the case to the judge and for the acceptance by the general public of the importance of respect for the law. If further inroads are made into the ability to have free access to the courts for want of funds in a way that prevents a proper hearing, that may damage respect for the rule of law, which, in my opinion and the opinion of many, is important for the health of this country’s community.
I therefore ask the Government to make clear their intentions in regard to legal aid, which has been cut down drastically over the past few years and, more recently, in the regulations which came into effect in April this year, which impede the granting of legal aid on applications for permission to bring a judicial review. I need not emphasise how important judicial review is as a form of civil litigation in this country and an individual without legal aid having to make an application for permission is difficult to accept. I therefore ask the Government to think carefully about any further impediment to justice in that and other fields.
Lord McColl of Dulwich (Con)
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s intention to bring forward the modern slavery Bill. It is seven years since I first spoke in this House about the need for action to address the appalling crime of human trafficking. In those seven years much has changed. We have opted in to the Council of Europe’s convention and the EU directive to combat human trafficking; we have established a national referral mechanism and victim support programme; and we have worked to raise awareness among the general public and the staff of our criminal justice and social care services.
However, many of these developments have come about one by one through incremental improvements in legislation and occasional government action plans. It is time that we re-evaluated our response to this continually evolving challenge and the legal framework that underpins it. In 2011, I first proposed a human trafficking and exploitation Bill to your Lordships’ House and I am delighted that we will finally have a new law focused on eradicating this abhorrent crime from our country and offering support and hope to those who have been exploited so cruelly.
I was privileged to serve on the Joint Committee scrutinising the draft modern slavery Bill under the able chairmanship of Mr Frank Field MP and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. We had the opportunity to hear from experts across many fields, from victims of slavery and from those who work hard to catch and prosecute offenders. This issue, in general, receives support in all quarters. I was particularly pleased that, as a cross-party committee of both Houses, we were united in our recommendations to enhance the draft Bill. I sincerely hope the Home Secretary has found our report of use and will be able to incorporate our recommendations into the Bill.
It is vital that the Bill contains not only strong measures which deter, prosecute, convict and punish those who visit this terrible exploitation on vulnerable people, but also gives support, care and protection for the victims. Organised crime gangs play a big part in slavery and human trafficking, and a country which is hostile to this activity will be better for all of us. However, the greatest impact of this awful crime is on those who are deceived, coerced, threatened and exploited. The Bill must reflect that.
Specifically, I hope the Bill will contain measures which will guarantee support for victims in the initial recovery and reflection period. I hope also that a clear definition of these criminal offences will reflect international standards and ensure that our courts are able to convict people who commit the worst forms of exploitation. Last month I welcomed the Minister’s assurance of a measure to enable provision of specialist child trafficking advocates. I hope that this provision has all the necessary teeth set out clearly in our amendment to the Immigration Bill with the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lord Carlile.
I welcome the news that victims who are compelled to commit crimes by their traffickers—for instance, those who are forced to tend cannabis plants—will be protected from prosecution. I am pleased that our legal system will now recognise that these people, many of them teenagers, have not freely chosen to engage in criminal activity but have done so under extreme duress. I also welcome the desire to see more victims receive reparation from the people who have profited at their expense. This reparation needs to be within a structured framework.
The Bill has the potential to be a milestone in our Parliament’s history, an opportunity to be proactive to a developing problem and not simply reactive. Up until now there has been a piecemeal, random distribution of amendments within other Bills with little sequential structure. However, we owe it to this House, to our forebears who fought so persistently for the abolition of chattel slavery, and most of all to those who are exploited, to make this Bill the best it can be. I assure the Minister that I will continue to do all that I can to help him achieve that goal.
Perhaps I may finish by quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said:
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself”.
Lord Clinton-Davis (Lab)
It is widely rumoured that Secretary of State Grayling will be Britain’s candidate for the presidency of the European Commission. I am not entirely convinced that he is cut out to do that job but there is one decisive advantage—he would no longer be the Secretary of State.
As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Scott of Foscote, has pointed out, law and justice should be inseparable. I think, as he does, that legal aid is part of that. Unhappily, the Justice Secretary, as he steams furiously forward, sees his prime aim as the virtual elimination of our legal aid system which, hitherto, has been the envy of other countries. The first time legal aid was seen as a vital part of our human rights system was in 1947. It was seen in that light as far as both civil and criminal cases were concerned.
Lawyers were reasonably, although not excessively, remunerated and were an integral part of the system. This country led the way, enabling justice—both civil and criminal—to be done. Although some were unfairly enriched, which was undoubtedly the case, they were a minority, and the system of legal aid certainly worked. It is wrong and unwise to dismantle the majority of our legal aid machinery. However, that is what is happening today as the Justice Secretary alienates those lawyers who seek to make legal aid work, thereby bringing justice to many people. He is apparently unconcerned, or at least insufficiently so, about the fact that today a disproportionate part of the criminal legal aid budget is being expended on very few cases. Surely we should concentrate on finding ways and means of shortening cases or ensuring that legal aid is available for only a reasonable part of the case—and that issue should be appealable, if necessary.
Legal aid should be regarded as a vital part of our social services, not as a luxury, which it certainly is not. It is a mark of our civilised society. Does the Secretary of State really believe that the pressures he is imposing on legal aid will save money? That may be his fervent wish, but is it realistic? As has been pointed out, we are bound to witness the burgeoning of unrepresented people, leading ineluctably to increased costs.
Either the Secretary of State fails to recognise the extent of his actions or he is well aware of the consequences. In either case, he is failing to discharge the essential duties that he has been called upon to do. In personal terms, I am loath to attack the Secretary of State because in my view he is a very agreeable person, but unfortunately he is inured to misconceptions which are damaging our very way of life as far as the law is concerned.
Lord Bilimoria (CB)
My Lords, arriving at his Cardiff primary school at the age of five, the future vice-chancellor of Cambridge University could use just one English phrase. Today, at the age of 63, he still remembers the kindness that people showed him as he learnt to speak English, and of course he now holds one of the world’s most influential academic positions. The gracious Speech talked about the packed programme of a busy and radical Government, but despite that there is no mention of immigration or of higher education. I want to talk about those two topics and I declare my various interests in the higher education field, as well as being an immigrant. Professor Leszek Borysiewicz has made a defence of the value of immigration. He opposes crude numerical limits and praises Britain’s plural society as one of its greatest strengths.
We all know that the target of tens of thousands has become a real issue. The number of students coming here from India fell by 39% between 2011 and 2012. The vice-chancellor has said that a university such as Cambridge is in the global race, a point also made by the Prime Minister. It is competing not just with other British universities, but with Princeton, Harvard and Stanford. Setting an immigration target of this kind is harming Britain, because for the first time in many years the number of international students coming to Britain has fallen overall. What is even more scary is that the numbers have fallen in the STEM subjects, which we so desperately need students to study.
Michael Kitson, a university lecturer in global macroeconomics at the University of Cambridge, has come up with some great insights. He feels that the popular press has been propelling the bandwagon in immigration. He has said that non-EU students contribute over £7 billion to our economy—our GDP and balance of trade—and, while some students may remain after they have finished their studies, the vast majority leave. When we look behind the figures for net immigration, if students are excluded, the net figure in 2013 was 58,000, averaging 49,000 between 2004 and 2013. Voilà, the Government’s target of net immigration to be measured in the tens of thousands has already been met if students are excluded. When we look at people who come here to work we see that, while 214,000 came to work here in the UK, some 186,000 left the country to work overseas.
The main driver of future prosperity in this country can be summed up in one word: innovation. Innovation is driven by diversity. Just look at Silicon Valley, one of the most diverse communities in the world, and what it has achieved in changing our lives. What has happened over here is that the popular press has been stirring up a hatred of immigration based on anecdotes, rumours and slurs, not on figures. I think we need to come to terms with that. The National Union of Students has conducted surveys which show that 51% of non-EU students think that the UK Government are either not welcoming or not at all welcoming towards international students. We had the Government’s £3,000 visa bond, which set off the alarm bells. In a U-turn, the Government withdrew it. They then had the idea of hoardings saying “Illegal immigrants go home” being driven around. Even Nigel Farage of UKIP objected to them, and they were the subject of another government U-turn. Yet here in this House we have the noble Lord, Lord Glendonbrook, who made an excellent maiden speech. He is an immigrant who has made a brilliant contribution to this country. The Government’s attitude to immigration can be summed up in one word: hypocrisy. On the one hand, we have the immigration cap, while on the other hand, for years I have been saying that we should bring in exit controls at our borders: scan every passport that comes in and scan every passport that goes out. You will then know who is in the country and thus who should or should not be here. The Government must do this. The e-border scheme has been a miserable failure and over £500 million has been wasted on it.
The National Union of Students, which supports the aim of removing international students from the immigration figures, says clearly that such students contribute a great deal to the social and economic fabric of the UK, contributing more than £12.5 billion to the UK economy. Its surveys show that only 1% of all immigrants granted settlement in 2009 progressed directly from a study route to remain in this country. That is because the vast majority of students leave the UK within five years. The excellent post-graduation work visas need to be brought back in by the Government. In any case, we have one of the most expensive visa systems in the world.
I conclude by going back to the vice-chancellor of Cambridge, who has said:
“When I think of how my parents were welcomed to this country, I find that actually quite saddening. I do feel we are an open, democratic country and we should be setting the standards for the rest of the world, not hindering them … One of Britain’s greatest strengths has been in the way it has assimilated so many different communities, and we are a very plural and open society … At a personal level I abhor the idea that we actually have a very strict migration target. There are so many nuances to numbers in this regard that it actually hides the true potential benefit that people coming into Britain can have. We should be looking at the capacity of individuals to contribute to our society here rather than have a political ding-dong over ‘we brought in 10,000 fewer than you did’”.
Lord James of Blackheath (Con)
My Lords, I have indicated previously the impact that forced migration has had upon my family. We had in the Queen’s Speech a Bill for dealing with the abuse of children and the intention to bring forward better controls over trafficking. Those are closely connected. This country has a terrible record in its handling of the migration of its own subjects. It has combined the most appalling suffering of children with the most appalling lack of management of the migration process to get the worst of every world. There should be no smugness around these two initiatives going forward. It is a very small penance to pay for a very big crime.
It started in 1682. The first migration in this country happened when one of the early colonies in North America was raided by the Indians, who took all 84 of its children and would not give them back. No one knows what happened to them. The colony sent a communication back to England by the first available boat saying, “Look, we have no children and therefore no future. Send us some children”. The Mayor of London was asked to deal with it and he did. He sent his beadles out on to the streets of London and took the first 84 vagrant kids he could find. He sent them down to a boat at Rotherhithe and sent them to America. He told the captain that he could pay for the trip by taking the kids out and bringing it back with a load of tobacco on board and that would pay for it, and it did. Unfortunately, it created the precedent of making it seem that trafficking these children was profitable, which it was.
We have a terrible record of having introduced waves of migration in the same way in latter years. The great shock is when you get to 1880 and find that Dr Thomas Barnardo himself—a man of irreproachable reputation, one would think—formed a council for the identification of the migration needs of the whole British Empire and took from each country an indication of how many children it would like. He then went out to find the children to fill the quotas that were requested. This was effectively a disaster because a lot of these children were taken without any recognition or contact with the homes from which they came—they might have had some small misdemeanours in their community—and were swept up. They were the poor of the churches of the country. This was very heavily supported by the Protestant Church of the day, right the way through, and it was not until 21 years later in 1901 that this House debated the subject for the first time and said that it was a probably not a very good thing. But by that time tens of thousands had been sent to Africa because of concerns about the encroachment of the German population in Africa, and many had gone out to Australia.
It is appalling that in the old government building in Sydney today there is an index where you can access the details of every criminal who was ever sent to Australia and what happened to him, but there is no such index for the children who were sent because nobody knows who they were. They are lost without trace. Eventually around 1938 the Catholics decided that this was something they wanted to get in with as well so they started sending migrant children from their own communities to Australia. Then the war came and it was too unsafe to send ships to sea with children on and nothing happened again until 1947, when the Australians set a target: they urgently wanted 4,000 children and 30,000 adults. They did so by first buying two Italian aircraft carriers and converting them into liners, the “Fairsky” and the “Fairsea”, and sending out 2,000 migrants on each of those ships every month. It took six weeks to get there and six weeks to get back.
I regret to say that I was recruited to that exercise as the religious liaison officer for the Australian civil service. My task was to find clergymen who would go with these people. I had to have one clergyman for every 30 kids on board. It was the most appalling thing ever. These children were bussed in—God knows where they had got them from; I was never given any details on where they came from—and they were terrified. They were screaming. They had lost control of every bodily function and they were just a screaming mess. The clergymen and I had to rip the fingers of these kids off the gangplank to get them up on to the ship. It was a very gruesome task indeed. The clergy got paid a good fee for going out there and doing it and they got a free sail trip back again afterwards.
It was an official policy. This is why I am saying that we have a big penance to pay and we need to recognise that in putting it right now we are not doing something that we should be proud of. We should be seriously ashamed of what went on before and I hope that in what we do in this Bill we will reflect a great many of the concerns that we did not honour at the time.
I have explained previously how my uncle and aunt were sent out to Canada by the Church of England. As a small peace offering to the Church of England, I should say what happened to those two. The girl married the grandson of the lady she had been bought for $50 to look after, who had had a stroke. Today her grandchildren operate and run the biggest and most profitable logging operation in the whole of Canada. The boy ended up owning a 35,000-acre farm in British Columbia. When he died 12 years ago, he had double-digit millions in the bank. He left it all to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, with the stipulation that they could only have it $1 million at a time for every Protestant priest that they could kill and lynch for him. That order was overturned in court and the Jehovahs were allowed to keep the $12 million and the priests all survived.
There is a lot to be concerned about in this. We have a lot to put right and I hope that your Lordships will have some very far-reaching thoughts about what we can do about somewhere along the line trying to restore the record of where all these people were, who they were and where they went. It would be a small penance to pay.
Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)
My Lords, my brief contribution to this debate picks up on the points made by the noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Ribeiro, on the introduction of standardised packaging for cigarettes and tobacco products.
Your Lordships will recall that tobacco control clauses were added to what is now the Children and Families Act as a result of initiatives taken by a cross-party group of Members of this House. One of them I see sitting opposite me: the noble Lord, Lord McColl of Dulwich. The thought that standard packaging could be achieved as a child health measure had not occurred to Members of the House of Commons and we added the new clauses to the Bill in this place. We were delighted when the Government brought forward their own amendments to give effect to the provisions and were able to get them passed by overwhelming majorities in this House and the other place. The votes were a clear demonstration of the will of Parliament that these important public health reforms should be brought in as soon as possible.
For reasons which we understood, the Government decided that they should commission an independent study from the eminent paediatrician Sir Cyril Chantler on the public health benefits of standardised packaging, particularly as far as children and young people were concerned, before proceeding further. Sir Cyril’s report, published in April, was a model of careful and rational analysis. I urge anyone with an interest in this area of public policy to read it. Sir Cyril concluded that the policy was justified, saying:
“Having reviewed the evidence it is in my view highly likely that standardised packaging would serve to reduce the rate of children taking up smoking”.
Quite rightly, therefore, the Public Health Minister responded immediately that the Government would publish draft regulations by the end of April for a short further consultation before they were laid before Parliament. But, as the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, pointed out, we are still waiting for those.
The Government have committed to a six-week public consultation period after the draft regulations are published. It will then be necessary for them to notify the European Union of the draft regulations. This process can take up to six months. Counting backwards from a May 2015 election, we now have a rapidly closing window of opportunity. If the draft regulations are not published imminently, the chance to vote on them before Parliament is dissolved will be lost. That would be a very great loss indeed. The United Kingdom is a world leader on tobacco control, which is the achievement of successive Governments. It should be the common concern of everyone who cares about the health and well-being of the public that this is so; it should not be a party-political matter.
The facts are not in dispute. Everyone knows that most smokers start when they are teenagers. Two-thirds of existing smokers report that they started before their 18th birthday and about two in five before they were 16. Every day the Government delay in introducing regulations, hundreds more children start smoking for the first time. The younger the age at which smokers start, the greater the harm is likely to be, because early uptake of the habit is associated with subsequent heavier smoking, higher levels of dependency, a lower chance of quitting and a higher chance of death from a smoking-related disease.
While the wheels of government seem to be turning more slowly than usual, the tobacco industry and its small band of remaining parliamentary allies and recipients of its hospitality have been busy, spreading lies and misinformation through bogus research and grotesquely biased opinion-polling, and creating a climate of fear for retailers. Their objection is quite simple. The tobacco industry believes that its claimed “intellectual property rights” trump the requirements of public health—or, to put it more sharply, that its right to design products intended to get children addicted is more important than the children’s right to be protected from that addiction and the health damage it causes.
Cigarettes are the only legal product that kill their customers when used exactly as the manufacturer intends. Why should any company be allowed to promote such a product through advertising and marketing— especially to children and young people? When you see what they get up to in the third world, blatantly promoting their products to the poor and vulnerable—so brilliantly described by Peter Taylor in his two BBC2 television programmes last week and the week before—you wonder how their executives can sleep at night.
The noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, has the opportunity when he replies to this debate to convince us that we have no reason for concern and that the Government’s policy on this subject is on track and as unequivocal as it was when he spoke on the Anti- social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill. He stated then that,
“The Government are determined to try to stamp out smoking as a habit, particularly among young people”.—[Official Report, 14/1/14; col. 141.]
I say “hear, hear” to that, and I hope that he is able to say the same thing tonight.
Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (LD)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester. I am pleased to contribute to this important debate. It has been very interesting and it will be quite difficult to sum up because so many subjects and topics have been covered.
I start by declaring an interest in that I am the chair of the superannuation committee of the General Medical Council. The noble Lord, Lord Faulks, now knows what is coming next, because we had a very good debate in the Moses Room recently on a Question for Short Debate on medical regulation. He was as good as his word and took the message back from that. The noble Lord, Lord Patel, and others in this debate expressed dismay—I think that is what it was—that this opportunity to deal with the modernisation of medical regulation, not just for doctors but nurses and other professions allied to medicine, will now be missed. There is a real fear that, with the election upon us next year and the manifesto priorities of an incoming Government, the chances of slipping something as sensible as medical regulation into an early programme within the next five-year Parliament is remote. The 1983 Act—which is, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, said, completely unfit for purpose now—will have to prevail for that length of time.
My plea again to the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, and the Minister who will wind up is that they take the message back from this debate. It may well be that we have had enough health legislation in this Parliament—we have had our fair share—but I think this would probably be susceptible to cross-party or all-party support. I do not mean by that there would not be robust debates. We would all promise to be very well behaved under the guidance of the noble Earl, Lord Howe, as we always are. My spies tell me—my spies are everywhere—that this is a failure of political will and that the Government are frightened of having a health debate in the year running up to an election. That seems to be the height of cowardice, if true.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
My Lords, I understand that the Department of Health is telling regulators that it is due to lack of parliamentary time—which rather defies all logic.
Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope
That is a helpful intervention and if that is what they are trying to tell people it is nonsense. The 11 Bills in this Queen’s Speech could easily have been 12. The 11 are workaday measures and are all sensible and useful. To be honest, as a former business manager, in the fifth year of a five-year Parliament I would leave a little leeway at the end on the grounds that you might get more than you bargained for. I put that marker down. I notice that there are Oral Questions and I will add my name to those who continue to argue for that addition to other measures that will be laid before the House.
I have two minutes left and want to make two points. I am not an expert on migration or immigration. All my parliamentary experience was in the fastness of the Scottish Borders. There are colleagues in this place who know much more about immigration and migration than I. However, over the last three months, I have become really concerned about the mood of the country in this particular field. I have always believed that it was the conventional wisdom that everybody realised that Britain had to be an open not closed society. Actually, former Prime Minister Blair made a very good speech about that in relation to the European Union on 2 June at the London Business School. The noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, made a powerful speech concentrating on the academic and student side of things, but we should not just end there. There are all sorts of deeper problems in communities that have more than their fair share of immigration. But I will now spend some of my time in this Parliament trying to understand that problem better because we all have to come up with better answers. We must all be more positive about Britain being a more outward-going country. If I had more time, I would develop that thought because I feel it quite deeply.
The other thing that concerns me a lot is the uncertainty of the mood of the electorate which really feels left behind. An increasing minority of our communities are feeling more and more left behind. It is the lower 15% to 20% end of the income distribution that feels it hardest. My plea to both my Front-Bench colleagues—both are sensible men who have influence in this Government—is that of course deficit reduction and the removal of the national debt have to be priorities, but we have to be careful that there are not indirect and unintended consequences from the diminution of public services that in turn exacerbate the tension in some of our communities which bear large numbers of immigrants. That would be a false economy. My plea to them both is that, in all these important areas of public policy—home affairs, law and justice, health and education—very careful thought is given to the distribution and allocation of resources, some of which will need to go to deficit reduction but some of which should be used to deal with some of the downstream consequences in education in the communities that are affected most.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)
My Lords, perhaps slightly quirkily, I begin by congratulating Michael Gove—not, I may say, on the subject of today’s Statement, but because he has pledged to change Britain’s appallingly low level of reading attainment, as shown in international school league tables, by ensuring that in future, from their first day at school, every child must be taught to attain the basic standard required. Above all, that will mean that children with special needs must have the specialist support necessary for them to reach the required level. So, well done Michael Gove. Just in case he is not in the job at the appropriate time, I should be very grateful if the Minister, when he replies, can confirm that the Government will indeed honour that pledge.
I intend to continue to focus on online child safety, which perhaps will not surprise your Lordships. To date, I have introduced three online safety Bills, and tomorrow we have the First Reading of the latest, new and improved version. I will continue to raise the issue until the problems are properly addressed.
Of course, I congratulate the Government on the progress that they have made since I introduced my first Bill. In his first NSPCC speech last July, the Prime Minister announced that, from January, the four big ISPs would be introducing filtering options and that if customers seek to avoid the filtering questions during the setup, the filters would be turned on by default.
There are, however, some significant problems. First, there is the remaining 5% to 10% of the market not covered by the filtering announcement made by the Prime Minister in that speech last year. One thing is sure: some of the remaining providers will embrace such an approach only if required to do so by law. Andrews & Arnold is one of the larger of the smaller ISPs. Its website proudly proclaims “uncensored internet for all” and markets itself on the basis of its dedicated opposition to filtering.
Secondly, there is considerable public concern that filtering standards are determined by multiple companies and there is no commonality of approach or sense of public accountability. Again, that can be addressed only if we embrace a statutory approach and invest a publicly accountable statutory body such as Ofcom with the responsibility of determining common standards. Then there is the fact that although self-regulation may have some success while we have a Prime Minister who has made this a personal priority, where will we be in 10 or 20 years when we have a different Prime Minister with different priorities? There would be far greater certainty if this was dealt with through law.
What disturbs me most about the current arrangements, however, is the inconsistency that they generate and what that says about how we value children. The Prime Minister has said that few things are more important than keeping children safe online. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that, in the offline world, the law does protect children. It is an offence both to sell an 18 certificate DVD to a child and to allow a child into a cinema showing an 18 certificate film. We cannot claim that child safety is sufficiently important to require legislation in an offline context but not in an online one. If the Prime Minister is really serious about addressing this problem, he surely cannot allow self-regulation to be anything other than a very short-term solution.
I have two questions for the Minister. First, what action has been taken in the remaining 5% to 10% of the ISP market that has not embraced the ISP code introducing the default-on approach to filtering announced in the Prime Minister’s speech last July? Secondly, what action have the Government taken specifically in relation to those smaller ISPs that have sought to develop a marketing strategy clearly defining themselves against the Prime Minister’s announcement?
Another important development with respect to child safety online with direct bearing on the Government’s legislative intentions for the coming Session relates to the call made in March by ATVOD requesting that the Government tighten up the law defining its remit in relation to video-on-demand adult content. It made two specific requests. First, it asked that the laws defining its remit should be amended to put it beyond doubt that it is its responsibility to police adult websites to ensure that those providing R18 material online must do so only on websites with robust age verification. Secondly, it asked that the law be tightened to make it absolutely clear that material deemed to be too controversial even for an R18 rating should not be shown online at all.
I understand that the Government have responded positively to those suggestions, although no legislation has yet been produced. Happily, however, my Bill once again assists in addressing both points.
Lord Colwyn (Con)
My Lords, for the past 20 years I have been able to use the debate on the gracious Speech as a vehicle for my comments on the state of the NHS and dentistry. I hope that noble Lords will forgive me for extending that personal tradition this evening.
Progress towards the introduction of a new, more preventive, contractual basis for dentistry has been welcomed. Work continues on contractual reform, which forms a key component of the vision for the direction of NHS services. In April, my noble friend Lord Howe attended the BDA annual conference and announced the Government’s intention to move to a more advanced stage of reform, with selected practices—prototype pilots—testing whole variants of a possible new system, preceded by an engagement exercise. This exercise, aimed primarily at the dental community, is an opportunity to widen understanding of dental reforms within the profession and for it to contribute to the shape of the prototype pilots planned to start during 2015-16 and manage expectations about the pace and scale of change to be expected. He stressed the need to “get it right”. At first, different elements will be adopted by a select number of practices, with a view to rolling them out later on. He also stressed the importance of improving access and quality, and the need to take this into account. Capitation will be a central part of remuneration together with some payment for quality, related to activity in order to deliver a balanced system.
The pledges made to dentists and dental patients by successive Governments must now be confirmed and the final stages of contract reform completed. The work of the task group launched in 2012 to look at care for vulnerable and hard-to-reach patients must also be implemented. Care in settings such as residential homes and through reaching out to those who might not otherwise avail themselves of dental care is vital if we are serious about reducing the oral health inequalities that persist in this country. A focus on preventive treatment may not only yield long-term savings but improve the quality of life across the country. NHS England has a legal duty to commission dental services to meet local needs. More than 29.9 million people were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24-month period ending on 31 December 2013.
Searching questions have also been posed this year by the dentistry call for action. This consultation, which closed on 16 May, was intended to stimulate debate about how we could achieve the necessary transformational change if debate about the NHS is to go forward fit for the future. Vital in delivering that future will be the dental students of today, a group facing difficult challenges in recent years. The department must take the necessary steps to ensure that 2015 does not see a repeat of what has become the annual shortage of dental foundation training places for new graduates. This problem, which year after year denies new dentists the chance to pursue careers in the NHS, must be a priority.
Levels of pay for dental foundation trainees must be sorted out. It has been deeply worrying this year to see a proposed 8% reduction in the salaries, a proposal first ventured as one of a number of efficiency savings being sought by NHS England at the start of April 2014. The BDA moved quickly to condemn the proposal, warning that it would be seen as an attack on the most vulnerable members of the profession. Despite that warning, the Department of Health has signalled its intention to press on with the cut. The dental profession will be stressing in the strongest possible terms that the proposal is absolutely unacceptable. Cutting the salary for those beginning DFT in September 2014 is particularly unfair to those who have already accepted their place, expecting a higher salary than they now stand to receive. Dentists themselves face a postcode lottery on their earnings. An independent review body’s call for an across-the-board 1% rise for salaried and hospital dentists was rejected. Recent years have seen support for salaried primary care dentistry ebb away, with staff posts not being filled and facilities left to decline.
The workforce of consultants in dental public health requires strong positive action. In Answer to a Question that I put down on a possible extension of the current 12-month fixed-term contracts, answered as HL7006, my noble friend Lord Howe announced that Public Health England has commenced,
“a review of the number of dental public health consultants required to meet its statutory and non–statutory functions”.—[Official Report, 13/5/14; col. WA 476.]
Public health issues are crucial in the fight for improved oral health. Water fluoridation—a measure recognised among the dental community for its ability to improve oral health and narrow inequalities—is one whose full potential remains untapped, with many communities in England that might benefit from its introduction still going without it. It is important that we also reaffirm our commitment to the fight against oral cancers. There is growing recognition among the dental community of the value of extending vaccination against HPV to boys, and I encourage the Government to listen to that advice.
My time is up but the BDA agrees with the principle of business regulation. There must surely be a stronger role for the GDC in the regulation of bodies corporate. Since 2010, much progress has been made in the field of oral health and dentistry; that momentum cannot be allowed to falter. A new contract, a focus on prevention rather than cure and appropriate regulation could be essential in delivering a cost-effective and patient-focused dentistry, with stronger health outcomes for the British people.
Baroness Meacher (CB)
My Lords, I shall say a little about the modern slavery Bill and the Serious Crime Bill and refer briefly to the Government’s drug policy reviews.
I welcome the modern slavery Bill and applaud the commitment and hard work of my noble and learned friend Lady Butler-Sloss and Frank Field in the other place in convincing the Government to introduce the Bill, and indeed I congratulate the Government on recognising the importance of the issues raised. I understood when we debated the need for independent legal guardians for all trafficked children, in the context of the Immigration Act, that the Government would be reviewing the need for guardians in the context of this Bill. I understand that the Government are running trials, but can the Minister explain whether these trials will provide guardians only for children identified as having been trafficked? If so, that will only scratch the surface of the problem, as I am sure he recognises.
The Minister will know that trafficked children are generally not recognised as such until they have been through the criminal justice system—indeed, often not until they become adults. In the mean time, many become embroiled in immigration and criminal proceedings due to the actions of others. If guardians are available only to the minority of trafficked children who are recognised as trafficked from the start, the provision will exclude the great majority. The inclusive provision of guardians for all unaccompanied children assessed as needing them would include those children who are vulnerable for a variety of reasons, including those who are not immediately recognised as having been trafficked when they arrive in the country.
Of course, children fleeing war and persecution, as well as those who are victims of trafficking, cannot cope alone with the complex legal and social systems that they face on arrival. They probably do not have the language, and do not have anyone about—it is a very frightening situation for all of them. All these children are likely to suffer mental health problems and should be regarded as vulnerable. The UNCRC has made clear the responsibility of signatory states to provide guardians for unaccompanied and separated children, not specifically trafficked ones. I hope that the Minister can assure the House that the modern slavery Bill will provide for independent legal guardians with statutory powers to be allocated to all separated migrant children.
The Children’s Society has provided a most helpful briefing raising a further point. Can the Minister give us an assurance that the Bill will create a specific offence of child trafficking and exploitation, spelling out the most common forms of these crimes? I believe that these are just not familiar to a lot of the professionals who will be involved in these cases.
Turning to the Serious Crime Bill, I applaud the Government’s decision to clarify the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 to make explicit that emotional cruelty which is likely to cause psychological harm to a child is an offence. This recognition of emotional cruelty is long overdue and very important. In the past, a physical assault on a child has rightly been recognised and action taken, but the sad reality is that long-term emotional neglect or cruelty, often in fact by mothers, can be even more damaging to a child’s mental health. The UK has been one of the only countries in the world failing to recognise emotional neglect as a crime.
However, recourse to the law for emotional or physical abuse should of course be the last resort. The Children’s Society rightly points to the need for preventive measures, including support in developing parenting skills and better interventions with parents with drug or alcohol problems. As the Minister knows, this is an issue close to my heart. If a parent is found to have a drug addiction or other mental health problem, treatment must be the right answer, not a resort to the law. While I welcome the new proposals, I am very concerned that people who are addicts are then subject to criminal action not only for the addiction but also for this other aspect of their lives.
It is important to welcome the Government’s review of international drug policy developments and the review of policy in relation to new psychoactive substances. Neither of these two pieces of work is complete, so I understand that there is nothing on those issues in the Queen’s Speech. However, I am sure that the Government are undertaking the reviews for a purpose, and I hope that the Minister can give the House some hope that before the election they will introduce sensible evidence-based reforms that would provide a safer world for our children.
Lord Sheikh (Con)
My Lords, Her Majesty’s most gracious Speech contains some very welcome measures that will protect the most vulnerable in our country and advance the cause of a fairer society. One such measure that I particularly welcome, and the subject on which I will speak today, is the inclusion of the modern slavery Bill.
Modern slavery is an appalling crime that has no place in today’s society. The modern slavery Bill, the first of its kind in Europe, represents a historic opportunity to get new legislation on the statute book and reflects the Government’s determination to lead the global fight against this evil. Human trafficking is an issue that is of great concern to me. I have raised it on a number of occasions in your Lordships’ House. I was born and brought up in Africa, which was ravaged by slavery. I have always appreciated the work of General Gordon and David Livingstone. About four weeks ago, I went to Zanzibar and visited the site where the slaves were kept and sold. Some 200 years since the abolition of slavery, it is depressing that there is a continuing need to confront this evil.
Human trafficking destroys lives and its effects damage communities. It is an international organised crime, with the exploitation of human beings for profit at its heart. Vulnerable women, men and, most tragically, children are trafficked for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation or to be used in criminal activity. This is something that no civilised country should tolerate. Victims often travel to the UK willingly in the belief that they are destined for a better life.
Despite concerted efforts in this country and across the world, the appalling reality is that human trafficking is one of the fastest growing international criminal activities. The International Labour Organisation estimates the number of slaves worldwide to be 21 million, with the slave trade generating £150 billion of illegal profits annually. I am pleased that the Government have shown that they will not tolerate slavery and human trafficking within, or into, the UK, and are taking the lead on combating these awful crimes. Human trafficking is a truly international crime, with potential victims identified from all over the world. We must work more closely with our international partners to stop this terrible crime.
The modern slavery Bill will be a significant step in Britain’s approach to combating this evil. The main provisions of the Bill relate to the committal of offences, the introduction of slavery and trafficking prevention orders, the creation of an anti-slavery commissioner, the protection of victims and stricter law enforcement powers at sea. It brings together, rationalises and simplifies existing laws that are dotted around in other Acts, bringing clarity and focus to Britain’s approach. I am pleased that there is cross-party consensus on this issue. We must continue to work together on this so that the Bill is the strongest it can possibly be. I look forward to the modern slavery Bill’s passage through your Lordships’ House and hope that this will be an effective step on the road towards ending this most heinous of crimes at home and abroad.
Finally, I welcome the United Kingdom’s intention to lead efforts to prevent sexual violence in conflict worldwide, which was included in Her Majesty’s most gracious Speech. I have spoken in your Lordships’ House several times on this matter, and I am very glad that a global summit, which will be co-chaired by the Foreign Secretary, is being held in London this week on the subject. I do not have the time to talk about the subject in any detail, but I would like to say it has been reported that rape has been used as a weapon by certain Muslims, and in this regard I would remind them that Islam strictly forbids this evil practice. Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, instructed Muslims not to lay hands on women, children and elderly people in any form of warfare.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I will concentrate my comments this evening on the Government’s proposals for education, an issue referred to in the gracious Speech in terms I can best summarise as “more of the same”.
This approach shows a deeply worrying level of complacency, given the problems which are causing discontent among parents, teachers and educationalists. The Trojan horse scandal in Birmingham, which we were debating this afternoon, has highlighted the failures of government policies, but it is not the only one. Only last month, a damning Public Accounts Committee report accused the Department for Education of spending £240 million on free schools in areas which do not need them, and of then being unable to give a consistent explanation of how it approved or rejected free school applications. Take the case of Steiner Academy Five Valleys free school in Stroud, which is seeking to open in an area which already has a surplus of places and is therefore threatening the existence of some excellent village schools in the area. This is not unusual.
All this is taking place against a backdrop of a crisis in school places which has led to a doubling in the number of infant class sizes of more than 30 pupils since 2010, amid persistent reports that parents are struggling to find places in local schools. Meanwhile, sadly, the Government have no effective system for school improvement. Michael Gove’s strategy is to let schools sink or swim and, to be frank, many of them are sinking. According to Ofsted, nearly 1.5 million children are being taught in schools that require improvement, and nearly 250,000 pupils are languishing in inadequate schools. Goole High School, recently converted to an academy, is a good case in point. Having been judged inadequate in all categories, its recent plan to get out of special measures was judged “not fit for purpose” by Ofsted. Meanwhile, the children at the school continue to suffer. Of course, Michael Gove famously and repeatedly denigrated the very people he needed on side to turn the situation round, describing teachers as “the enemies of promise”, and introducing reforms at a pace that has frequently caused administrative chaos in the classroom. I would therefore describe the Queen’s Speech as a missed opportunity to drive up standards in all schools and to deliver excellence for all young people.
In contrast to the abrasive, singular ideology with which Michael Gove has approached reform, our party is developing a different approach. Our education agenda is centred on a “what works” policy that draws on the best of best practice, takes account of evidence, works with the practitioners and prepares the country for the future, not the past. This is why we are committed to introducing local directors of school standards to ensure oversight and accountability at community level. This will allow us to address underperformance up front and decisively, rather than waiting for whistleblowers or Ofsted reports to ring alarm bells in the department.
Secondly, we will build on the concept of school autonomy first developed by David Blunkett in 1997, extending the freedoms of academies and free schools to all schools. Importantly, however, we will differentiate between autonomy and isolation. The lesson from the highly successful London Challenge programme, introduced by the previous Government, is that the schools which are most effective are those which collaborate and work in partnership. This will be a clear expectation.
Thirdly, we will address the skills gap, a frequent concern of business leaders, by creating genuine parity between vocational and academic education. This will be built on a national baccalaureate framework for all pupils aged 14 to 19. In addition to A-level or high-quality vocational qualifications, all learners would study maths and English to 18, undertake an extended study or collaborative project and develop their character and resilience through individual programmes of work or community service.
Finally, and crucially, we will reverse the Government’s hostility to the teaching profession by recognising that the most effective way of improving children’s attainment is by raising standards of teaching to deliver a world-class teacher in every classroom. We will begin by ending the wrong-headed policy of encouraging unqualified teachers. Instead, qualified teacher status will be the bare minimum. In addition, we would expect all teachers to undertake regular professional development.
Unlike this Government, our approach would be a collaborative one, which learns from the best and delivers the best for every child. This coming legislative programme was an opportunity for the Government to learn from their mistakes and put their education programme back on course. Sadly, they have chosen not to take up this opportunity, so we on these Benches stand ready to take up that challenge.
Baroness Hamwee (LD)
My Lords, I thought that after about 50 speakers, a change of pace might be welcome. I had planned to read to your Lordships the poem “Deportation”, by Carol Ann Duffy. The time constraints mean that I can only give noble Lords a taster:
“Love is a look
in the eyes in any language, but not here,
not this year. They have not been welcoming.
I used to think the world was where we lived
in space, one country shining in big dark.
I saw a photograph when I was small.
Now I am Alien”.
We do not have an immigration Bill; we will have rules—we seem to get new Immigration Rules almost every week. I will continue to raise the problems of restrictions on family migration, although not as effectively as the Poet Laureate. I note the irony of those restrictions, and how families are split up when according to the Queen’s Speech we are to have tax benefits for married couples—support for marriage.
Without a Bill, there is still a lot to be said about immigration. From the negatives, last week a report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons said that deportees are treated as commodities by security staff; and from the positives, recent reports on immigrants’ contribution to the economy have come from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the OECD, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
By way of legislation we have the modern slavery Bill, to which many noble Lords referred, which is one of those Bills which we will all welcome and strive to make even better. The focus, as other noble Lords have said, has tended to be on the trafficking of children and young women for sexual exploitation. I agree with the points made by other noble Lords that it is important to extend our focus to all victims: domestic workers, boys and young men, vulnerable people, and people who have left the services. I very much welcome the comments made by the pre-legislative scrutiny committee on supply chains.
Of course, legislation is not everything, as other noble Lords have said. We need to increase support for victims as witnesses and to help them rebuild their lives. I very much liked the phrase of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford that we need affirmation to live well. There is the functioning of the national referral mechanism, the work of witness protection, the work and resources necessary for social services and for the criminal justice system—in that case, how it operates—and not criminalising victims. I know that the Government are very well aware of those and other issues. The challenge is to achieve changes in practice. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby asked whether we can afford all this, or at least said that that would be the question. Is not the question: can we afford not to focus on this?
This week the Government are hosting the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict—an admirable initiative. Some of the issues to which I have referred are the international ones found in different contexts, including the appropriate response by authorities and services, identifying victims as victims and treating them appropriately. As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle said, I have decided to refer only to the Bishops’ Benches in my speech.
We recently debated problems police forces have in recognising victims of domestic violence—there is a read-across there. The Howard League recently reported on children within the criminal justice system. It told us that a child was arrested every four minutes in the past year in England and Wales and recommended a reduction in arrests for trivial matters. That is a matter of appropriate responses.
It is ten to nine now and we will be back in less than a week to debate the Serious Crime Bill. I will not say more now than that I welcome, as others have done, the statutory recognition of psychological injury to children, putting it on the same footing as physical injury. It is extraordinary that it needs to be spelt out but clearly it does, as was done—again I mention domestic violence—some months ago.
It seems it is also necessary in terms of legislative lacunae to add to our laws on female genital mutilation. I cannot help noting that this is just a few days after the deportation of Afusat Saliu and her daughters whom she was seeking to protect from FGM in Nigeria.
I had planned to ask the Minister about the extremism task force which started last year after the Woolwich murder to such fanfare and then went very quiet. However, there seems to have been something of a coda or possibly even a new movement in that. It is extraordinarily important to be open-minded and imaginative in addressing the issues around extremism and radicalisation. I guess that many NGOs have less baggage than government institutions in the eyes of the individuals at risk. The NGOs need to be supported.
I wonder whether the time has come to consider extending the role of the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation whose experience might well be used more proactively. Above all we need to talk—Northern Ireland showed us that at home. There must be so many different personalities among the boys and young men at different stages of their development—such a range of reasons for their conduct. Legislation, in itself, will not persuade them to buy into the rule of law. We must be prepared to take risks. It was brave of the American Government to exchange prisoners they were holding for the US soldier whom they retrieved last week.
My Lords, I have one more stanza:
“They are polite, recite official jargon endlessly.
Form F. Room 12. Box 6. I have felt less small
below mountains disappearing into cloud
than entering the Building of Exile. Hearse taxis
crawl the drizzling streets towards the terminal.
I am no one special”.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, like others I wish to focus on the protection of children and our duty to the most vulnerable in our society. The legislation on all child abuse, including female genital mutilation and slavery, must be as strong as possible if it is to be truly effective in improving the lot of children in our society. As the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, so strongly pointed out, shamefully we have turned a blind eye to the most vulnerable far too often. We must respect and legally enforce the rights of children and stamp out cruelty because all too often cruelty breeds cruelty. I hope the Government will support the online safety Bill brought forward by my noble friend Lady Howe of Idlicote.
Others have addressed health issues. I agree with noble Lords who have called for the awaited Bill to modernise the regulation of health and social care professions to better protect the patients and improve care delivery. Will the Government, following this debate, bring it forward for scrutiny? It is a Bill that this House would look at very thoroughly.
Let me turn to legislation that remains uncompleted. This year the clear will of both Houses was to introduce standardised packaging of cigarettes and tobacco products. As Sir Cyril Chantler’s independent review of the evidence supported this, where are the draft regulations for consultation, for notification to the European Union and then to be laid before Parliament for debate? As the noble Lords, Lord Ribeiro, and Lord Faulkner of Worcester have highlighted, if the Government drag their feet, time will play into the hands of the tobacco tycoons.
In November last year the Government amended the Energy Bill to include audible carbon monoxide alarms in a review of the private rented sector. Each year, carbon monoxide kills about 40 people in England and Wales. At least five of those who died last year were young campers and holidaymakers. Regulations are needed now to prevent yet more totally avoidable young people’s deaths over the summer.
Finally, I am glad that England is following Wales’s lead on tackling the environmental damage from plastic bags. Legislation in Wales has decreased the number of plastic bags in retail by more than 76%, but I am concerned that, without tackling all types of bags in all settings, England may see a mushrooming of paper-based bags and so-called exemptions rather than rejoice in reusable bags as we do at home in Wales.
Wales looks forward to hosting the NATO summit in September. In the mean time, I am sure that this House will carefully scrutinise all legislation affecting Wales.
Lord Turnberg (Lab)
My Lords, there was nothing in the Queen’s Speech about the NHS. Past experience suggests that may be a very good thing, but no one can be unaware of the serious financial problems facing health and social care over the next few years. Yet we also have this striking paradox that, according to the Office for National Statistics, we are the fourth wealthiest country in the world and we have more billionaires per square inch than anywhere else. So talk that we cannot afford an acceptable level of healthcare begins to sound just a little hollow. I know that it is unfashionable and distasteful to the Government—and, I fear, to my own party—to say that these services need more money. Furthermore, I have little doubt that we can afford it, as I will describe in a moment.
The year 2015 is frequently talked of as a “crunch” or “financial cliff” year, and after that the years ahead are talked of in even more gloomy terms of crisis and bankruptcy. It is not just me talking but a flurry of reports and predictions that have been produced in the last year or so that describe a fraught future for these services, and they are all accompanied by clarion calls for action of some sort. Yet there is this terrible sense that the Government are not listening and are simply ploughing on with their plans to make unrealistic savings, come what may.
After the Nicholson challenge of the last four years, in which savings in the NHS of £20 billion per annum have been made, mostly by short-term measures that are not sustainable, the long-term plan is to see even more draconian savings—£30 billion a year of them by 2021. Needless to say, no one in the service, where 40% of trusts are said to be already in deficit, believes that this is remotely achievable on current trends. Something has to give; there must be even greater efficiencies or more money. My thesis today is that we need both.
There is a surprising degree of agreement in the message that all the recent reports convey: a rising demand for health and social care by an ageing population with a frightening increase in the number of people with multiple long-term illnesses, including the burgeoning numbers with dementia. The reports point to the need to shift much more care from hospitals and into the community and to the desperate shortage of funds for social care as the severity of cuts to local authorities is being felt.
Of course, the service needs to change, not only in response to the economic pressures but in particular to the changing needs of society. There is little doubt that we should be providing better care in the community, more preventive measures, monitoring of vulnerable people, improving the desperately poor provision of health visitors and access to GPs at weekends and more rehabilitation facilities. These measures should reduce the pressure on acute hospitals, at least in theory. Focusing specialised services in fewer hospitals makes sense too, and providing more integrated hospital services may save money.
Such changes are absolutely vital, but the important point is that they cannot be made with the current level of funding. Where will the patients go when hospitals close and facilities in the community are not yet available? It requires new community services to deliver instantaneous improvements that equally instantaneously reduce the need for hospital admissions. As the King’s Fund makes clear in its report, the so-called Better Care Fund comes nowhere near filling the gap.
There are those who say pouring more money in is not the answer; it just goes into a black hole, they say. They are correct only if the service does not change at the same time, but it cannot change radically without more funds—hence the Catch-22 situation. Furthermore, the black hole idea ignores the evidence that the service improved dramatically when a Labour Government brought up the proportion of GDP for health to match that in the rest of the EU. It also ignores the proposals in the Wanless report of some years before, which concluded that funding for the NHS would have to rise to about 9.4% of GDP by 2021 to keep up with increasing demands.
Yet now the proportion of GDP for health has fallen from around 8% in 2010 to about 7%. Furthermore, the proposed further £30 billion a year savings will bring the proportion of GDP spent on the NHS down to 6% by 2021. Given our economic strength, which is fourth strongest in the world, how can we justify a plan to cut not just the amount we spend on health but its share of our national wealth from more than 7% to 6%? That is far lower than in any OECD country. There can be no justification for that and 6% is way off providing the 9.4% that Wanless recommended.
There have been several recent proposals on ways in which it may be possible to provide at least the transitional funds that would allow us to build up community services and then reduce hospital services. However, to my mind the only one that might fly is to have some sort of hypothecated tax, perhaps on the basis of a sales tax. But whatever mechanism is decided upon, it is a decision that must be made soon. We must level with the population now in advance of the election and not prevaricate.
It is unfortunate—and, I believe, disingenuous—that the current Health Secretary and the shadow Minister should run scared of saying anything about money. I fear that well before the next election they will come to regret that and will both have to recognise that it is not only transitional money that will be needed. I know that I will not be popular with my own Front Bench in saying that, but I do not think I am alone in wanting this or any future Government to come clean on what is needed for healthcare funding.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, it is a great pleasure for me to wind up for the Opposition. I start by congratulating our two maiden speakers: the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford and the noble Lord, Lord Glendonbrook. The right reverend Prelate reminded us of how it used to be with selective education, when a small percentage of students went to grammar schools and the rest were consigned to secondary modern schools to do CSEs and often had few prospects in life before them. The right reverend Prelate is a shining example of that system but I hope that we never go back to those days. It is good to welcome the noble Lord, Lord Glendonbrook, who has been a generous supporter of Gilbert and Sullivan over the years. He is the very model of a modern major aviator.
This has been an excellent debate which has clearly exposed the paucity of the Government’s last legislative programme. We have spent more time discussing what is not in the legislative programme than what is in it. We face so many challenges in this country with the disenchantment with politics and politicians felt by so many people, as the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, said, and the sense that too many people in the UK feel let down by the lack of housing and the lack of prospects for children. Above all, I suggest, they doubt whether their work and effort are reflected in their sharing fairly in the wealth of this country. The Queen’s Speech was silent on that. It made no response to the recent speech of the Governor of the Bank of England, who said that inequality was now one of the biggest challenges facing our country. As my noble friend Lady Lawrence said, there was no response to the issue of the huge number of people—more than a million—who are forced to work on zero-hours contracts, with the huge insecurity that that brings. There was also silence on the National Health Service which is crumbling under the weight of one of the most ill conceived measures in the history of Parliament—namely, the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
There are, of course, things in the Queen’s Speech that we welcome, such as the slavery Bill, which many noble Lords have welcomed—although I hope that the Minister will be able to respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, who asked about to whom guardians will be made available.
On the Serious Crime Bill, we of course support measures to tackle child abuse and emotional neglect; but I hope that the Minister will respond to my noble friend Lord Patel and others on the need to protect in legislation mentally vulnerable adults. I hope, too, he will respond to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, who was forthright and to the point; the lack of purposeful activity for offenders in prisons is alarming and undoubtedly is storing up great trouble for the future.
On legal aid, my noble friend Lord Bach spoke vividly about the importance of early access to advice, whereby many problems in the past have been sorted out. The Government have to be held to account for destroying a vital part of our justice system. My noble friend Lord Beecham pointed out the problems in the courts; so many people now have to cope for themselves because they cannot get access to a lawyer that it is having a real impact on the administration of justice. My noble friend Lord Clinton-Davis was right about the dismantling of legal aid, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Scott of Foscote, spoke about the potential diminution of people’s respect for the law. He put a straight question to the Government on the future of legal aid, and I hope that he receives an answer.
On education, my noble friend Lady Lawrence spoke eloquently about apprenticeships schemes, which need to lead to long-term employment. I agree with my noble friend Lady Jones about the current fragmentation of our schools and the need for local accountability. Now is not the time to debate the Statement made by Mr Gove this afternoon but the flawed response shows that the coalition’s policy increases the risk of infiltration and radicalisation. Ever greater fragmentation at local level, more schools with unqualified teachers, no local oversight and the centralisation of power in an unwieldy Department for Education can only exacerbate the risk of further problems.
On higher education, my noble friend Lady Bakewell and the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, who I am delighted is shortly to become chancellor of Birmingham University, clearly illustrated the disaster of the Home Office’s completely obdurate approach to students coming to this country. We all know it is about the target. Ministers claim that it was because of problems with certain dubious institutions, but that problem had been dealt with years ago. This policy is having a direct impact on some of our best universities and is causing horrendous problems in terms of the reputation of this country. We are surely entitled to ask the Government to think again on this matter.
I now want to turn to health. Remarkably, in the fifth Session there is no Bill to modernise the regulation of health professions. The current process, as has been readily identified by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, is slow and out of date, with bureaucratic processes. We have had the work of the Law Commission and the Francis inquiry. Why on earth are the Government not bringing a Bill? If they cannot, why are they not bringing one forward for pre-legislative scrutiny, as was briefed out by the department some months ago? What I find remarkable is that in the absence of a Bill officials do not have time to produce Section 60 orders for the different professions—except for one measure, which, apparently, is to arrange for the regulation of a few hundred public health doctors within the HCPC. This is a measure that nobody wants and will have no impact on public protection, yet this is where the department’s energies are going to be in the next few months.
The Queen’s Speech was silent on public health measures, and I join my noble friend Lord Faulkner in asking the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, whether he is confident that the Government will bring forward regulations as soon as possible on standardised packaging of cigarettes and tobacco. The Government were dramatically defeated in this House on this measure. The will of Parliament is quite clear. The job of the Government is to make sure that those regulations come before Parliament before the election.
The Government are also silent on other public health measures. My noble friend Lord Rooker identified the failure of the responsibility deal, when it comes to sugar, of companies who take action only on the less popular brands. We see the same problem in relation to salt and alcohol. We are entitled to expect a more proactive policy.
There is silence on the NHS. When the 2012 Health and Social Care Bill went through Parliament, we warned that it would be expensive and disruptive, and that it would fragment services and attack the NHS’s core values. How right we were. In his opening speech, the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, described it as a profound change—profound disaster, more like. This month, waiting times are at a six-year high. Almost 3 million people are now on waiting lists—up by half a million since 2010. The cancer target of patients starting treatment within 62 days is being missed. GP services have become less accessible and it is becoming harder to get a GP appointment. Mental health services have been cut, despite Parliament enacting parity of esteem between mental health services and other services. Walk-in centres are being closed, the latest being in Worcester. Minor injuries units are being drastically cut back, the latest being the one in Cannock. Dentistry is also being neglected. The failure of the NHS and social care to work together to provide integrated services is readily apparent. Access to primary care becomes more difficult. No wonder accident and emergency departments become more stretched. Hospital beds are then at a premium and the discharge of patients becomes more difficult because adult social care has been decimated.
The Government’s response has been woefully inadequate. They finally produced their Better Care Fund, which does not start until next year, and the fund is in trouble. There is little confidence either locally or, apparently, in the Treasury that the money to be transferred from the NHS—because it is not new money—will be spent on community services, which would reduce pressure on the NHS. Ministers do nothing, just as they do nothing about the shocking failure to implement the recommendations following the Winterbourne View scandal. Ministers guaranteed that those recommendations would be implemented in full by the end of the month.
When the Prime Minister was leader of the Opposition, he promised no more top-down restructuring of the NHS. Some promise, my Lords. Instead, we have £3 billion wasted on this highly damaging change, fragmentation of services, longer waiting times, less accessibility and plunging morale. No wonder the risk register has yet to be published; no wonder the Queen’s Speech is silent on the NHS. It is surely a symbol—is it not?—of a Government who have run out of ideas and run out of steam, putting party before people and so patently failing to meet the challenges of this country.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Taylor of Holbeach) (Con)
I suggest that that is a good point for me to come in to somewhat disprove the final comments of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. However, before I do so, I should like to say to all noble Lords who have spoken that it is a challenge—in fact, almost impossible—to sum up a debate such as this, but it is also a privilege to have been able to listen to such a wide-ranging debate. We have talked about home affairs, law and justice, health and education. All those are important, as today’s debate has shown.
If noble Lords agree, I shall do my usual thing of writing a commentary on the debate and will circulate it to all noble Lords who have spoken. Obviously, in doing that, I shall need the help of my noble friend Lord Faulks. I shall also certainly need the help of my noble friends Lord Howe and Lord Nash, who will provide me with the technical expertise that I shall do my best to demonstrate in my brief comments. However, I am obviously way outside my comfort zone in certain of these areas.
Before I go on to comment, I should like to congratulate our two maiden speakers. It is not often that we have two excellent speeches such as we have heard today. My noble friend and the right reverend Prelate are from extremely different backgrounds and have different callings in life, but both demonstrated a determination to be good at what they felt they were called to do and, furthermore, they did so with a great sense of humour. I am delighted to welcome the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford to this House, and I am sure that we will hear from him; he has a lot to tell us. My noble friend Lord Glendonbrook, as I must learn to call Michael Bishop whom I have known for an awfully long time—before I came here and before he did—said that he is a great supporter of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. In many ways he has shown how one can be successful in business and successful in achieving other things in life that are important to so many other people.
I shall now turn to the matters in hand. The modern slavery Bill is warmly welcomed by noble Lords. I pay tribute to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and her committee. She is not in her place now but she was earlier today. The pre-legislative scrutiny committee has enormously helped the Government to present their Bill. We have been able to hear from two members of that committee today—the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby and my noble friend Lord McColl. I am grateful for the support that the Bill has received. I have little doubt that there will be critiques. I expect that; it is what this House is good at. I thank all those who have welcomed the Bill. It was one of the things that my noble friend Lord Glendonbrook mentioned in his speech. My noble friend Lord Sheikh mentioned how international this phenomenon is and how important our contribution can be to what is a worldwide scourge.
My noble friend Lady Hamwee is right to explain that slavery has a broad definition. It is not confined to the sexual abuse of young girls and women, so I hope that I will be able to answer at least some of the points that people made. It may interest noble Lords to know that the modern slavery Bill will be introduced in the House of Commons tomorrow—10 June. At the same time, we will be issuing a response to the pre-legislative scrutiny committee. The right reverend Prelate and my noble friend Lady Browning asked about overseas domestic workers. The Home Office is focusing on improving domestic protection for vulnerable domestic workers by ensuring that they are informed about their rights and that immigration and border staff are trained to recognise potential victims of abuse.
The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby asked why the Bill would not be legislating on transparency in supply chains. The Government are committed to tackling exploitation in private sector supply and will support businesses to tackle this issue. The Home Secretary will meet business leaders on Wednesday as part of the Government’s commitment to work with business to develop the most effective approach. If businesses take no action, they risk both their reputation and their profit. The noble Lord, Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick—I do not see him in his place at the moment—said that he felt that the Bill perhaps did not go far enough. The Bill will be a critical first step in stamping out this horrific crime, and it is something on which future generations will be able to build. I am pleased that, generally speaking, the Bill has been so welcomed.
The noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, asked about the whole question of child advocates. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, asked that I give a reply. Perhaps I may do so in this way: the Government are committed to improving the protection of incredibly vulnerable trafficked children. We have announced trials of new independent specialist advocates for child trafficking victims. The modern slavery Bill also legislates so that advocates have a statutory basis.
We are also concerned about the welfare of children where there is no evidence that they have been trafficked. All local agencies have statutory duties to safeguard their children and there is a major programme of reform to transform the system in this area. This is an evolving situation and clearly one of the reasons why the details in the Bill which will be produced tomorrow are of an enabling nature is because of the requirement to find out from these trials where we need to be to be effective in this area. However, let there be no doubt that we are determined to make progress on this issue.
The modern slavery Bill must improve support for victims and improve law enforcement, as my noble friend Lord McColl of Dulwich said. I thank him for the perseverance he has shown on this issue over seven years. It is because of individuals that the Government have been persuaded and have taken on this task. It is not an easy task but they have done so recognising that we now have an opportunity to make great progress in the area. We agree with the noble Lord about support.
On the Serious Crime Bill, to which a number of noble Lords referred, the Government welcome the support that the provisions have generally received. As noble Lords will know, the Bill was introduced on 5 June and our Second Reading will be a week today. My noble friend Lord Faulks was asked by the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, about the provisions of the Bill in Scotland and I can confirm that the Proceeds of Crime Act changes will apply to Scotland. Indeed, a large portion of the Bill is designed to deal with Scotland and, it is to be hoped, Northern Ireland. The noble Baroness, Lady Smith, will know that we are determined to see the Proceeds of Crime Act fully implemented in Northern Ireland but we are dependent on genuine co-operation between the Government of Northern Ireland and ourselves to make a success of it.
I was asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, about ISP filtering. She is right that it is an important matter and that there is still more to be done. However, I hope she will welcome the fact that the possession of anything that can be described as a paedophile manual will be a serious crime under the Bill. That in itself is progress and a way forward.
There were a number of other points. The noble Lord, Lord Noon, asked about the penalty for an offence under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act and felt that it was insufficient. We welcome his support for this measure. As he said, the maximum penalty for the offence of training for terrorism is currently 10 years’ imprisonment. We think this is appropriate and we have no current plans to increase it. However, the extension in the Bill extraterritorially will make an enormous difference. I agree that this is a serious problem which requires action and I hope that we have the support of the House in bringing forward these changes.
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, asked whether we would get rid of the requirement to prove wilful neglect. The Government believe that the current offence of child cruelty in Section 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act is still effective and that the courts are able to interpret it effectively. We acknowledge that some of the language is outdated and that the law might be easier to understand if it was updated and clarified. This is why we are amending the 1933 Act to make it absolutely clear that children who are subjected to cruelty likely to cause psychological suffering or injury are protected by the law. I have noted the comments of my noble friend in this regard, and we can examine the detail of the changes when we reach the Committee stage. I am sure that we will have some good debates on the Bill.
A number of noble Lords mentioned policing. I recall a speech by the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, also said that she is concerned about the way the Government are handling police corruption and police integrity. We have already introduced a comprehensive programme of reforms during this Parliament, including a beefed-up IPCC, which will have the capacity and capability to deal with all serious and sensitive cases involving the police. I do not agree with the noble Baroness that the IPCC should be abolished, but I do agree with her comment that the vast majority of officers work tirelessly to serve the public and work to the highest standards. Policing integrity is at the heart of the trust between the public and the police, and we must all work together to make sure that it is maintained.
The noble Lord, Lord Patel of Bradford, mentioned the position of 17 year-olds held in custody. He talked about the large number of people of that particular age. Recently we changed the law to ensure that they must have a suitable adult present and that their parent or guardian must as a matter of course be informed of their detention. We are currently reviewing primary legislation as it relates to 17 year-olds which treats them as adults. I hope that the noble Lord is pleased that we are on the case, one that he presented to us so ably in his speech.
My noble friend Lord Faulks is going to introduce the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill when it comes to this House. It will shortly finish its Commons stages. My noble friend Lord Goschen referred to the whole business of whip-lash claims. It is and will remain legitimate for lawyers to advertise their business in the areas where they practise, but we are primarily concerned about inducements to claim, not information about the claims process itself. However, we may return to this issue when we bring forward our proposals for consideration.
Lord Clinton-Davis
My Lords, I am much obliged. I do not know whether the noble Lord is going to deal with legal aid, but can he indicate in any event how much the Government propose to save through the amendments that they are introducing to legal aid?
Lord Taylor of Holbeach
I cannot do that because I do not have the figures to hand, but I know that a number of noble Lords have mentioned legal aid. I have no need to tell my noble friend Lord Faulks how important the issue is to this House because it has been the subject of lots of debates in the last Session of Parliament. I will make sure that we write with an update of where we are on legal aid—we will be most happy to do that. All noble Lords who have raised the issue can then be reassured on the point.
The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, whose contributions are always good value, made an attack on the concept of the secure college and the lack of rules on the use of force to maintain good order and discipline. I have no doubt that we will have plenty of opportunities to debate this matter. The noble Lord will be aware that time spent in custody can represent a rare period of stability in a lot of young people’s lives. Some three-quarters of young people who leave custody reoffend within a year, so it is clearly an area where we need to be involved. The current system is not working well enough. Secure colleges will have education at their heart, with other services designed in support of educational attainment and tackling offending behaviour. Specifically on the question of force, as the Minister for Prisons has already stated, the Government intend to consult on secure college rules, including those in respect of force, and have committed to publish this consultation during the Bill’s passage. I hope that will give the noble Lord an opportunity to contribute to that discussion.
Many noble Lords talked about health. Indeed, it was helpful to have my noble friend Lord Howe here earlier in the proceedings. The noble Lords, Lord Patel, Lord Ribeiro and Lord Faulkner, talked about standardised packaging of tobacco. I can tell noble Lords that the Government will very shortly publish a final, short consultation, which will contribute to the final decision-making on this policy. The consultation could not be published during the period of the elections because of purdah. It is being finalised and will be published shortly.
I have been told that I have been going for 18 minutes. I am going to try to wind up but I want to try to cover points where I can. The Government are taking early action to introduce a ban on selling alcohol below the price of duty plus VAT. It does not go as far as the noble Lord, Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, would wish but it goes a long way towards it. When further empirical evidence becomes available, we will consider it very carefully.
Why is there no Bill on the regulation of healthcare professionals? The Government remain committed to legislating on this important issue when parliamentary time allows. We are working with the regulators to ensure that key provisions, such as faster fitness-to-practise tests for nurses and midwives, and English language checks for all healthcare professionals, are in place during this Parliament.
A number of noble Lords spoke about residents in care homes being abused. We are introducing a new fundamental standard for care homes. We are bringing in specialist inspection teams involving people who have experience of care services. They will take action and will have the power to bring prosecutions if necessary. Noble Lords asked about the lack of action on carers. I apologise if I have not addressed all the health matters that noble Lords have raised but the Care Act was passed by this House at the end of May, including significant changes for carers, and for the first time there will be a duty on local authorities to meet carers’ eligible needs for support and consider the impact of their caring responsibilities when undertaking an assessment.
The noble Lord, Lord Rooker, made his usual stimulating speech. I cannot give him an answer on the points that he raised.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach
That is reassuring but it says here, “We will write rather than respond now”. Perhaps that will give me time to write one.
I have a few things here on education. Listening to the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Peckham, talk about his role in education, particularly in south London, was remarkable. It shows what has been achieved through the academy principles. The Department for Education has been working closely in toughening up the curriculum to ensure that what pupils learn in school equips them for the future. There were a number of criticisms on the education front. I would like to think that apprenticeships can now be seen as a genuine alternative to university, equipping people for life and for the opportunity of getting jobs in a growing economy, which we now have the prospect of sustaining.
I hope that noble Lords will forgive me for not answering everything at this stage. I intend to do so when I write to your Lordships within the next few weeks.