Covid-19

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement earlier, and in particular I welcome his honesty in recognising that we cannot pursue a zero-covid strategy. We have to face up to the fact that this virus will be with us forever and find ways to live with it. Thankfully, the vaccine provides us with exactly that.

Some us wrote to the Prime Minister to ask him to take advantage of the vaccine to relax restrictions as quickly as possible; I chide the Leader of the Opposition, the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), for describing those of us who did so as pressuring the Prime Minister to

“throw caution to the wind.”

We were expressing genuine concern about the wider impact of Government policy on restrictions on the welfare of our nation, and particularly on lives and livelihoods. The truth of the matter is that the burden of fighting this disease through social restrictions is not being felt fairly. Frankly, a middle-class white-collar professional can work from home. It is a bit inconvenient and they cannot go out for dinner, but it is just tiresome; it does not have an adverse effect on their health.

We should also reflect on those workers who have carried on going to work, for little thanks, yet they have been in harm’s way. I am referring to our postal workers and refuse collectors—all those people involved in delivering the services that every one of our constituents needs and expects. I do not see any of them demanding to be further up the queue to get a vaccine. We all owe them a great deal of thanks.

My biggest concerns are for those people who will lose their jobs. For each and every day that this lockdown continues, more jobs will be lost. That is my concern. There was a time when the Labour party was bothered about workers and jobs, but that is now left to us, and we will continue to fight that fight. My fundamental concern is that with each day that passes, we really must make sure that we lift the restrictions as soon as possible.

The truth of the matter is that no Government should restrict the rights and liberties of their subjects without being able to demonstrate the outcome, and I am afraid that demonstrations of the effectiveness of these lockdowns have been rather poor. There is no evidence that the curfew saved any lives. We know that 2% of transmission has taken place in what are now covid-secure venues. We know that we entered into the November lockdown but came out with higher rates because schools remained open and they were the agents of transmission into people’s households and businesses. The truth is that lockdowns do not work, but we have the key to deal with this virus through the vaccinations. The Government need to be much more ambitious than the route map that has been laid before us today, so that we can take full advantage to secure our freedom again.

Mental Health Act Reform

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I am very happy to do that. One of the most striking and out-of-date things about the current legislation is that if somebody who is unmarried is incapacitated through illness, decisions on their behalf are automatically, in the first instance, taken by their father, rather than by their choice of who might take those decisions. That is one of the things we want to change, along with the wider point about support for the community and voluntary services that the right hon. Gentleman rightly suggests.

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

I wish to add my voice to the tributes paid to Sir Simon Wessely who, as my right hon. Friend will know, drew extensively from the lived experience of those who have been through detention under the Mental Health Act. Will he join me in paying tribute to those individuals, who often had to relive harrowing and distressing experiences so that we might improve our services through this legislation, recognising that their contribution will pay dividends to those who follow their treatment in future?

[Matt Hancock]

I would very much like to pay tribute to those who bravely put forward their testimony of their lived experience of what it was like to be a service user under the existing Act, which formed so much of the evidence for what we need to do to make it better.

I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend. She was the Minister responsible for mental health during much of the framing of the review, and the initial turning of that review into this White Paper. She did that with such sensitivity, thought, and—crucially—by actively listening to what people want when they are at some of the most vulnerable points of their lives. It is not easy to do that; it requires skill and compassion, and my hon. Friend has both of those in spades.

Public Health

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

This time last year, I was really looking forward to 2020, as the year when we finally get Brexit done. Everything was looking so positive, but what an appalling year it has been. It is nice to end it on a bit of a high, not least having passed the Bill today, but with the welcome news about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will transform the way in which we will handle this disease. I pay tribute to everyone who has been involved in all the missions to find an appropriate vaccine—it has been a trial. I was not confident that we would ever achieve it and it is a blessing that we finally have done so. It will transform our ability to manage this disease, but we still have a long way to go, because the logistical task of vaccinating a critical mass of the population in order to stop the spread of the disease and save lives will take a number of weeks.

We are therefore still facing restrictions on our behaviour for some time yet, particularly as the Government are using the tools in these motions to tackle the transmission. I still have serious concerns about whether these measures are effective, and I say that as the representative for Thurrock. We are at the top of a league that no one wants to top, as we currently have the highest incidence of covid cases at 1,411 per 100,000 people—the figure for the over-60s is 1,012. We are at that stage despite going into the November lockdown in tier 1. We came from such a good place; we had had no deaths since July and the disease was being managed, yet lockdown has seen it mushroom.

So what has happened? The truth is that closing down businesses clearly was not effective in stopping the transmission of the virus, because it grew in our schools. We had asymptomatic transmission, with schoolchildren taking it home and then from the homes it was going into the workplaces. In Thurrock, we have particular workplaces where the disease has just spread. For example, our local Royal Mail depot has had to close because of the extent of the infection, and in Grays, where I live, we have not had any postal delivery for three weeks. You can imagine, Mr Deputy Speaker, how upset our constituents get at Christmas when they do not receive their post. I have not been a very popular Member of Parliament when I have asked people to be patient at this time of year. That illustrates that there is a question about whether we have really been using the right tools to tackle virus transmission. Putting Thurrock—home to Lakeside shopping centre, a major employer—in tier 4 in the last week before Christmas has frankly done nothing to stop the spread, but it has caused significant economic harm to all who work in retail in my constituency. I urge the Government to focus please on whether the measures that we are using to tackle this virus are effective and delivering the outcomes that we want.

In previous debates on these matters, I have paid tribute to particular staff involved in delivering our healthcare, most notably pharmacists, paramedics and ambulance workers. Today, I want to thank all those in our care homes who have given real care, particularly over Christmas, to vulnerable people who are in the twilight of their lives and who are experiencing severe distress at the inability to spend time with their families. For an elderly person in the twilight of their life to see their loved ones through plastic screens and wearing masks—frankly, it ain’t much fun. It is made bearable only by the real dedication of those who look after our elderly people, and I really pay tribute to those staff today.

Finally, I come back to businesses. Once the March lockdown was lifted, 25% of our independent retailers did not reopen. We know that the retail sector depends heavily on Christmas to sustain businesses for the rest of the year. I have severe fears about what will happen to the retail sector after we emerge from this period, because businesses will have lost that Christmas. They will emerge debt-ridden, with no cash flow. What this Government have done has hastened the decline of the high street, and the economic costs will be severe.

Covid-19 Update

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Contrary to the way that the hon. Gentleman described it, the Government have put forward the same proposals in Greater Manchester that were agreed in Lancashire and in Liverpool. Unfortunately, the Mayor of Greater Manchester walked away from the table, but the offer is there. I urge all local leaders, including the hon. Gentleman, to take forward that offer to resolve this and for us all to work together for the benefit of the people of Manchester.

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend told the House that these measures are about the increase in infection among the over-60s, who are more vulnerable to this dreadful disease. What assessment has he made of whether that infection is being spread in the community, as opposed to care settings? If it is in the community, what messages should we give to the rest of the community about the need to make sure that they protect their loved ones?

[Matt Hancock]

I think there is a duty for all of us to send messages to the communities that we serve that people need to take personal responsibility to try to reduce the spread of the virus. There have recently been some cases in care homes, but far fewer, and it seems that the actions that we have taken and the very hard work of the care home sector over the summer—the staff who work in care homes—has reduced transmission. In most care homes there are more staff than residents, and they live in the community, so it is almost impossible to stop any infection getting into all care homes when the level of infection in the community rises. Having said that, the core of this second peak is in the community, where every single one of us can act to take more responsibility to help to slow the spread of the virus.

Public Health: Coronavirus Regulations

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

Clearly, if we are going to live with this virus, which we obviously will at least until—if ever—a vaccine is found, we need to influence individuals to behave in a way that not only keeps them safe, but makes them discharge their responsibility to keep safe other people in society and in their families. There are many tools that Governments can use to do this. They include rules, regulations and restrictions on activity. They also include messaging. We must give positive incentives to do these things, as well as negative consequences if the rules are not followed. However, I have to say to the Government that more rules will just mean that the compliant, who are not engaging in risky behaviour, will continue to comply, but that those who are reckless will find ways round the rules.

There is no better example of that than the curfew. We know that there is no scientific basis for doing it to protect people’s wellbeing. We have penalised restaurants, which now have to close at 10 pm and cannot do two sittings in an evening, although they have made massive investments to make their premises covid-secure. We are punishing the compliant. Meanwhile, publicans in the high street can comply with the rules and close at 10, but they are offering take-outs at 9.45 to the massive crowds of people spilling out of the pubs. That is reckless behaviour, and I really think the Government need to take stock. It is clear that this is not a good measure to influence behaviour in any positive way. There are much better ways of doing it. Considering the powers that the Government have already taken, I think we should look at more enforcement of fewer rules and regulations, rather than creating new ones when there are issues.

In the time I have left, I want to pay tribute to my community and to the local authority officials and health officials in Thurrock for the fantastic effort they have made in tackling this virus. We are currently 134th out of 149 local authorities in terms of cases. We have a local contact tracing capability that has kept rates down, and we have had no deaths since July, so it has come as some surprise that Public Health England has been lobbying my local authority to move from tier 1 to tier 2. That makes an absolute nonsense of this tiering policy, because we should be asking for additional restrictions only where there will be a material benefit to public health. My director of public health advises me that further restrictions will actually jeopardise public health, and that there will be no benefits from them. We must not be complacent, given the current rise in cases, but please will the Minister resist any attempt to put Thurrock into tier 2?

Covid-19

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Monday 28th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael). I agree with most of what he said; the mood of this House is reflective of the mood of the population. There is still good will on the part of the public, who want to support the Government to get this right, but the faith that was invested at the beginning of this process has been gradually undermined by things that have not gone as well as might have been expected. He is right to highlight things that were not foreseen. This is quite a moment for the Government; to continue to maintain the good will from the public, they need to reflect on how they do things in future. As a country, we are prepared to make sacrifices with our liberties to support our fellow human beings and do the right thing, but we will lose that commitment if we do not see that those things are effective. When the Government introduce a 10 pm curfew with no solid rationale for doing so, it undermines the trust that the public put in us and thus their compliance will be reduced. If the public choose not to be compliant because they do not trust the Government’s advice, we are in a difficult place. My message to the Government is that they think about how they employ their tactics.

My criticism is not with the Department of Health and Social Care. Health Ministers are doing the best job they can, to make the most of the resources at their disposal. This is an issue for the Government as a collective, because we are expecting our Health Ministers to deliver the best possible health service and meet all those challenges, and the Treasury to come up with an economic package that deals with all the fallout. Those are two huge challenges and it is for the Government to make sure that they are in balance. I am not sure that that balance is right at present, but I am confident that, with challenge from Parliament, Ministers will think again and get it right. That is what Parliament does; the effect of scrutiny makes for better decision making. What sort of Government are scared of having these debates in this place? Once you start to be scared of that, where is the moral authority for you to lead this country?

The past six months have been unprecedented, and the Government were right to take charge and use fleet of foot to try to take action, but we know a lot more now and we must take country with us. We need to think more carefully about how we do that in future. I am pleased that the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill) is on the Front Bench. Having heard many people talk about the thanks we owe to public sector workers, I wish to pay tribute to the private sector workers in the NHS who have also kept it standing—I refer to our pharmacists. She has heard me say this before, but our pharmacists are independent providers at the sharp end of delivering healthcare; when the GP surgeries close, the pharmacies are still open. The current situation has been a huge challenge for them, as they have had to deal with GPs sending them extended prescriptions, which they have had to honour, and with pharmaceutical companies upping the price of drugs with no extra budget. I know that there has been a loan—an advance payment from the NHS of £300 million—to help with cash flow, but £300 million for keeping our NHS standing is small beer. We can make so much better use of our pharmacies as we continue to deal with this crisis, so I ask the Minister to demand from NHS England that it ensures that the right resources go to our pharmacies to allow them to continue to do the fantastic job they have been doing to date.

This is such a big subject, and it is such a shame that this is the first proper chance we have had to air these issues. That is reflected in some of the irritation and passion that Members in some parts of the House have shown. My final message to the Government is that they have nothing to fear from scrutiny. Their decisions will have more respect and credibility if they are shared in this House. I hope that as we move forward we do so in the spirit of openness to Parliament.

Social Care

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

I feel like I am in groundhog day. It is approximately two years since I responded to a very similar debate secured by the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley). It is disappointing that we are still debating the very same issues that we were then. Of course, there has been much water under the bridge since then in our broader politics in that time, but in respect of social care, to coin a phrase, nothing has changed. The questions we need to settle are exactly the same as they were then. I say very gently that with Brexit done and with a majority Government, there is no excuse for continuing to kick this can down the road. It is time that we genuinely took action.

At the heart of this question, we need to establish to what extent the cost of care should be met by the individual and by taxpayers. We need to establish a consensus on the balance between those two. From my perspective, it is not fair that at the moment that cost is met almost entirely by individuals. Equally, it would be unfair for it all to be met by taxpayers when people have some assets. We therefore need to settle that question properly. I would also gently say that our politics has not been entirely honest about that. It is worth reminding the House that at the moment only £14,250 of capital is protected. As the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South mentioned, that means those with very long-term care costs, particularly those who suffer from dementia, can face catastrophically high bills. There are, therefore, very strong arguments for a cap.

There are other reasons why we have to grip this issue now. As the hon. Lady mentioned, local authorities cannot plan their long-term finances. That also brings a real threat to financial stability within local councils. It is fair to acknowledge the challenges within the care sector, too. Many providers are finding the marketplace challenging, not least because of workforce challenges, but also because local authorities are insisting on paying low rates for residential care. That brings with it an additional injustice—people who are deemed able to pay for their care find themselves paying higher rates for the same product than local authorities do for those who do not pay for their care. I think that is a major injustice in the system.

[Alex Cunningham]

Would the hon. Lady support the Government funding local authorities so that they can pay the proper living wage to careworkers?

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

The issue is that local authorities are commissioning care from local care providers and paying the rate that the individual resident is incurring. It is about what they are prepared to pay for that bill and not the local authorities paying living wages directly to employees. However, that is pushing the risk on to care providers, and we need to acknowledge that there will be workforce challenges for those providers. They will be competing more and more for people. While there is that downward pressure from local authorities on what they are prepared to pay and the upward pressure on wages, the risk is being borne by providers.

Part of the solution is also not just about who pays. We need to be a lot more imaginative about this. We all know that we will live longer—beyond 70—and that we will have more years in life in retirement. Just as we make plans for our pensions, we need to make provision for our homes and how we are going to live in old age. The simple fact is that our housing requirements when we are in our 40s and are raising a family are rather different from what we might require in our 90s. We know that falls are one of the biggest burdens on the NHS, so the fact that we are not encouraging people to make sensible lifestyle decisions about their homes is causing additional cost to the NHS, as well as, potentially, the need for more long-term residential care. One reason why we have that issue is that we have allowed, collectively over decades, so much wealth to be stored in our housing stock that we have encouraged people to behave in a way that makes them want to cling to it. I would like us to look more imaginatively at incentives through the tax system to encourage people to downsize and look at different ways of living. We want to use the planning system to encourage the development of retirement villages where people can purchase extra care.

[Dr Caroline Johnson]

Some people like to care for relatives at home, and it is not uncommon to create a small annexe within or adjacent to the property for an older relative to be cared for, but currently, the council tax system means that if that relative passes on, after that—within two years—people will be charged double the council tax for that part of their dwelling. Does my hon. Friend think that that is something that we can improve on and change to encourage people who wish to look after their relatives in their properties to do so?

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

I completely agree. That is exactly the kind of incentive that we should encourage. The longer that we can encourage people to live independently, the better their quality of life and the better it is for the taxpayer, because there will not be those ongoing bills. The point is exactly that as we live longer, we will spend many years in a condition of frailty, and that needs to be properly managed through the system.

Every parent, with the best will in the world, will wish to hand on as much of their assets to their offspring as possible, but that could also encourage behaviours that are bad for their health. I want my parents to realise the value of their assets rather than protect their inheritance for me. I am sure that most people would think that about their parents, but there is a lot we can do on the tax system and incentives to encourage families to manage those issues collectively and in a way that is good for people’s welfare as they become elderly and enables them to do more for their children.

It is high time that we tackled this issue. We should also not look at this entirely in isolation from the issues regarding working-age adults, which are also a major challenge for local authorities as they manage their finances in this area. We must look at the issue of people with learning disabilities and autism being increasingly placed in areas of long-term care. The issue is that, although we have been broadly successful in moving out people with learning disabilities through the transforming care programme, sadly the pipeline afforded by those people moving out has been filled by people with autism. The Government have to give a much clearer challenge to commissioners. When faced with people with complex needs, the first instinct should not be to put them in residential care. Too often we have seen how those kinds of placements do harm. We need to challenge local CCGs and NHS England to put much better care upstream by providing early diagnoses for people with autism and giving them the tools to protect themselves.

[Alex Cunningham]

On the workforce issues, surely the answer to the dilemma the hon. Member is describing is to have a professional, well-paid, well-trained workforce that can deal with people with the most complex needs in their homes and allow them to remain there as long as possible.

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

The key words the hon. Member just used were “in their home”. There is no public policy challenge that does not come back to having the right kind of housing solutions. Many of these issues arise from our not investing in the right kind of supported housing environments that would enable more people to live independently. That has to be part of the solution. Local authorities and the local NHS need to come together to commission the right kind of service.

As we are short of time, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will end there, but it is high time we gripped this once and for all.

Paterson Inquiry

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Ms Dorries]

I am sure we will work with the devolved Administrations in the normal way we do with all healthcare policy. Again, I give my assurances that we will be taking the recommendations and studying them seriously.

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

Ultimately, this is all about behaviour—not just the criminal behaviour of Ian Paterson, but the behaviour of the professionals and the wider health establishment that came into contact with him. I associate myself with the comments of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy Wright) about the behaviour towards the whistleblowers. Frankly, they faced intimidation, and we saw exactly the same thing at Gosport when whistleblowers reported to the Nursing & Midwifery Council. I would like to put it on record that it is high time this Government challenged the self-regulatory aspects of both the NMC and the GMC, if we are really to consider and improve patient safety.

[Ms Dorries]

I thank my predecessor in my post for her comments. She did an amazing job, and I am sure she will have been involved in this at the time. She is absolutely right: whistleblowers, we want you! We want them to speak up and to speak out; we want people to listen; and we want to act. However, she is also right that there is still a culture among staff within the NHS and the independent sector of reluctance to speak out, to listen and to act, and we need to change that culture. The culture now has to be that we want whistleblowers to speak out, and we want trusts to listen and to take their concerns seriously, because we want to act.

Surrogacy: Government Policy

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2020 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David. I want to start in the same vein as the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) by heaping praise on my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy), who is, of course, one of my favourite Members of Parliament. In all seriousness, I want to thank him for his sterling work on this really important issue. For a very long time, he has been a strong, effective and vocal campaigner on it, and he has led the APPG, which has done an enormous amount of valuable and comprehensive work on this tremendously important issue. Westminster Hall debates have played an important role in highlighting the need for Government action in this area. The former Member for Erewash secured a debate on it in 2014, which set in motion a lot of the reforming actions that increased the chance of successful surrogacy arrangements and, importantly, the formation of new families.

There is no doubt that surrogacy can transform the lives of people who want to have their own children. We of course recognise the value of surrogacy in today’s society, where family structures, attitudes and lifestyles are increasingly diverse. It is all about building happy and loving families, and giving people the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful benefits and experiences—and, indeed, sometimes challenges—that that brings.

I thank the hon. Members for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West), for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) and for Washington and Sunderland West for their constructive comments. I also praise my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price), who did some remarkable work in this area; she very much emphasised the positive role of surrogacy. She showed great leadership and commitment, and addled the brass, as my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole said, leading the way to the Law Commission review. I also thank the surrogacy community for the way it has helped to move this important issue forward. It has shared its knowledge and experience, which has been immeasurably valuable.

The UK is one of only a few countries in the world with a legislative framework for surrogacy. It is set out in primary legislation by the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, with some aspects updated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. Although that framework was appropriate for the time at which it was written, we all agree that it is clear that society, family formation and relationships have moved on in the interim.

Importantly, the current legislation sets out a number of fundamental principles, which my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole mentioned, that will continue to inform any future legislation. The arrangements should be based on altruism and should be coercion-free. They should fundamentally protect the welfare of any resulting children, and respect the rights of the surrogate and the intended parents. Although those basic principles are the right ones, my ministerial predecessors—one of whom is in the Chamber—recognised that the existing legislative framework has not kept pace with a changing society. That has led to tension between the law and current social norms, in many cases creating uncertainty and unnecessary upset. That is why the current legislation has been subject to a number of legal challenges in the courts over the years, including on how legal parenthood is applied in different situations and how the courts apply time limits for applications for parental orders.

To address the issues with the current legislation, in April 2018 the Government asked the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission jointly to review all surrogacy-related law and make proposals for improvement. That large, vital piece of work is a three-year project. To respond to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green, the Law Commissions have not published a draft of the recommendations yet. To respond to the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West, they are expected to publish a report alongside a draft Bill in 2021. As part of the review, they undertook extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders around the UK.

Based on this engagement, the Law Commissions developed a number of provisional proposals to improve surrogacy legislation and published a consultation paper in June—that might be what hon. Members are getting confused about—to provide an opportunity for people to discuss their views. They then ran a series of consultation events across the UK that were open to professionals, surrogates, intended parents and members of the public. It closed on 11 October 2019. The Commissions are now collating and analysing the enormous number of responses. That will inform the discussion and the development of the final recommendations, which will go towards changing the law.

I thank the Law Commissions for their very comprehensive engagement with all those involved in surrogacy in the UK. I intend to meet the lead commissioner to discuss the outcomes and next steps in the project. Of course, I would love to meet the APPG, surrogate parents and intended parents to talk about their views and experiences in the interim. I am thankful to all those who have engaged with the process and provided invaluable feedback.

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

I welcome the Minister’s comments. I want to put on the record the enthusiasm with which the Law Commissions embraced the project. They are clever lawyers, and they fully recognised that a 35-year-old law that is no longer fit for purpose is leading to legal challenges that are potentially having bad outcomes for the child, and certainly for the parents involved in the process. I encourage the Minister, as she has discussions with the Law Commissions, to start to give a nod to the rest of society about how the Government are responding to the issues that they are readily highlighting.

[Caroline Dinenage]

I will very much take my hon. Friend’s advice on this. Hers have been particularly large and glamorous shoes to fill in this role. She makes some excellent points—the Law Commissions’ work is very thorough and is beginning to look at some old and out-of-date parts of the legislation.

My hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole articulated some of the key proposals, why some changes are so needed and where the views of the APPG might differ slightly. I am sure he will forgive me that today I will not comment on specific Law Commission proposals, for obvious reasons. The commission has arrived at its proposals independently, and it would not be appropriate for me to pre-empt the result of its consideration of the feedback that it received in the consultation. I will, however, put it on the record that we recognise the many different voices in this space and that there will be some different views of the proposals.

No formal discussions have taken place, but we recognise that the House may take a view that a sensitive issue such as surrogacy is appropriate for pre-legislative scrutiny of any proposed Bill. We are definitely open to that. I also reaffirm that we are committed to the completion of the review and that we will continue to sponsor it until publication. I hope that that provides my hon. Friend with the reassurance that he wanted. The Government will continue to work closely with the Law Commissions to ensure that the proposed legislative changes offer more certainty, more clarity and real incentives for those involved to seek surrogacy here in the UK.

We have already taken some action to modernise surrogacy arrangements. The Government have enabled individuals to apply for a parental order, to gain legal parenthood after surrogacy arrangements. That was made possible by the remedial order, which was introduced in December 2018. I put on record my thanks to the Committee for supporting unanimously the remedial order, which provides legal certainty for those families.

The Government have also produced guidance on surrogacy arrangements in the UK. It was developed in partnership with surrogacy and professional organisations and published in 2018. The guidance provides authoritative information for people who are considering surrogacy, and emphasises the benefits of undertaking surrogacy in UK-licensed clinics, rather than going abroad. It has been widely welcomed and commended. My hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole also mentioned the guidance that goes to NHS professionals and staff—published alongside the other guidance in 2018—which was updated in 2019. However, I thank him for drawing my attention to ensuring that those guidelines are followed properly and adopted in every case.

Finally, I want to make it clear that the Government recognise the value of surrogacy, which helps a range of people who might not otherwise be able to have children to create the family for which they so long. In that spirit of inclusiveness and equality, we look forward to updating the legal framework for surrogacy in the UK, to make it fit for the challenges of the future.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Government policy on surrogacy.

Health and Social Care

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Enfield North (Feryal Clark). She has just proved that what she lacks in height she makes up for in her energetic performance, and I have no doubt that she will give the Treasury Bench considerable challenge in the future. So many firsts, but I must congratulate her specifically on being the first refugee Member of Parliament. Does that not show that this country is open and liberal, and welcomes those from all parts of the world, whatever their circumstances, who want to make a contribution and do the right thing? I congratulate the hon. Lady. When I go around schools, I give the message to everyone that if they work hard and take advantage of every opportunity that comes to them, they will get on in life. I now have a new poster girl, and I look forward to hearing more contributions from her.

I was struck by the opening speeches, because it is getting a bit boring that all we hear is, “We’re spending this much money” and “Well, it’s not enough and we would spend more than you.” That will not get the best for our NHS. The truth is that whichever side of the House we sit on, we all want our NHS to be the best it can be. Every Government, of whatever colour, will always make the NHS a priority when it comes to the Budget. Let us not make this debate all about money. When we do, we let those areas in which we are not doing as well as we should off the hook. Getting the best out of the NHS is not just about money; it is about leadership and about behaviour—on the part not just of medical professionals, but of patients too. We need to make sure that we have honest discussions about outcomes, what we need to do better, what we expect from everyone and what patients can legitimately expect from the NHS.

That was very much part of the discussion during the general election. I remember knocking on doors and being asked, “But can we trust you on the NHS?” I would reply, “Conservatives are not aliens from the planet Zog who never get ill. We depend on the NHS as much as anyone else. Why would we ever engage in an act of self-harm by not doing our best for it?” We can be clear that under this Government the NHS will have the investment that the country can best afford, and we will focus on making sure that it delivers the best service possible.

The biggest challenge facing the NHS is not money. The workforce remains a considerable challenge. While we carry on talking about imports and the need for more doctors and nurses, we will continue to feed perverse behaviours and make the labour market in the NHS dysfunctional. Medical staff know that they can earn more as locums, so we have a massive vacancy rate and sky-rocketing salary bills, because of the choices people make. We need to do more to address that issue.

Much healthcare can be delivered by those who are not medical professionals. We need to look at where the NHS can commission services from the voluntary sector and how that could work. It is not just about doctors and nurses: it is about a more holistic approach to wellbeing. I would really welcome it if we could move the political debate away from pounds towards patients.

My right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Jeremy Hunt) spoke passionately about patient safety. Again, we need to focus on outcomes, and no one did more than he did to meet that challenge. When he became Secretary of State for Health, my constituency had a failing hospital, but thanks to the measures that he put in to improve performance, we now have a hospital that provides the service that we deserve. We should not be shy about challenging poor performance. The excellent doctors, nurses and others delivering medical services know when things are failing and would welcome the challenge to the leadership of their institutions to make them better.

We need to do more to help more vulnerable patients. The public services do very well for the pointy-elbowed middle classes who are able to fight for what they want, but the test of a society is how we treat the most vulnerable. In that regard, I welcome the commitment to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. That Act was a product of an era in which people with mental ill-health were an inconvenience to be managed. I am pleased to say that we have moved on very far from that, and we will introduce reforms that will empower patients to look after their own recovery. We should be grateful to people who have been through detention and shared their distressing experiences to make things better.

I can see that you are rightly looking at the clock, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I want to mention one final challenge in an area where, as a Minister, I was disappointed not to be able to do more—the issue of people with autism and learning disabilities being detained in institutions that, frankly, are doing them harm. I was horrified to see a report on “Sky News” only this week that showed that we have lost 10 people in the past year in those institutions. That is a mark of failure of the state: families entrusted their loved ones to that care and then lost them. I hope very much that we will redouble our efforts to make sure that we are not putting people into inappropriate care settings and are giving them the tools to be able to live outside those institutions.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I am delighted to call Florence Eshalomi to make her maiden speech.