Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 9th July 2013 Westminster Hall

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight how regional sympathetic dystrophy, now known as complex regional pain syndrome, affects those who suffer from it and to press for more research into the condition, so that a greater number of people may be properly diagnosed and treated. If Members forgive me, I will use the acronym CRPS throughout the debate for brevity and ease of description.

The earliest descriptions of CRPS apparently date back to the American civil war, but I became aware of it only through my constituent, Kevin Scardifield, who suffers from the condition. He contacted me because his experience of CRPS and the quality of care that he received led him to believe that there is neither an adequate understanding of the condition by NHS clinicians, nor good-quality care for sufferers such as him on the NHS.

Before I proceed, it might be helpful if I explain CRPS and its symptoms. The NHS Choices website describes CRPS as

“a poorly understood condition in which a person develops a persistent (chronic) burning pain in one of their limbs.”

It continues:

“The pain usually develops after an injury—which in most cases is a minor injury—but the pain experienced is out of all proportion to what you would normally expect.”

It is through an injury that my constituent developed the condition in 2009. He was undergoing carpal tunnel release surgery when the local anaesthetic failed to work and he broke his hand against the clamp when he jerked so hard because of the pain.

To give a full account of the symptoms experienced by sufferers of CRPS, I will quote directly from a letter that Mr Scardifield sent to me:

“The pain of this condition is so great that there are recorded cases of sufferers self-amputating in a desperate attempt to escape the excruciating agony. Others have had their circulation so badly damaged that they have developed gangrene and have had to have amputations to save their lives. In either case it has caused the condition to spread further into their bodies.

According to the…McGill Pain Index, it is the world’s most painful incurable condition; it is almost impossible for us to understand exactly how painful that is. Try and imagine a 3 bar electric fire with a metal grill—how long do you think you could hold your hand against the grill with one bar on? Now try and imagine that fire is inside your hand, one bar is a good day for a sufferer, three bars is a bad day and there is no off switch.

Try and imagine a pain so great and a grip so weak that you cannot pull open a packet of crisps yourself, a sneeze that turns into a scream of agony. Knowing that you will never be able to pick up and hold or play with your newly born child or grandchild because one hand is useless and they could cause your condition to spread or start somewhere new.”

My constituent recounts that his injury was missed, not only by the surgeon in subsequent visits but by the hand therapists in approximately 50 visits. Eventually, he was diagnosed as having CRPS following a referral to the hand therapy unit of Milton Keynes hospital.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on bringing this matter to the House for consideration. I have a great many constituents who have the problem, which concerns me. Does he believe there is now a greater need for doctors to be trained to tell the difference between fibromyalgia, which some people think CRPS is, and the actual disease itself? If so, does he think the NHS should initiate training among doctors and surgeons to ensure that that happens? Should there be more research on how the pain starts and where it comes from?

[Iain Stewart]

I have much sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman says, and if he bears with me, I will address training and research funding a little later.

The NHS Choices website sets out the quality of care and treatment that CRPS sufferers should receive due to the complex nature of the condition. My constituent should have been provided with a care team comprising a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a neurologist, a psychologist, a social worker and a pain relief specialist. He informed me that he has not received such care, as most health professionals whom he has encountered do not even know the condition’s acronym.

That leads me to my principal argument. If NHS clinicians do not sufficiently understand the condition, how will they be able to diagnose it properly and ensure that patients are adequately treated and cared for? The NHS Choices website says that it is hard to estimate exactly how common CRPS is because many cases go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. I think the hon. Gentleman was referring to that point.

My constituent contends that possibly 250,000 people in England have not been properly diagnosed. He is understandably impassioned about the issue and has been carrying out his own research using American sources—it appears more research is being conducted into the condition in America.

From my own research, I learned from one study that as many as one in 3,800 people in England may be affected by CRPS. Therefore, going by the 2011 census estimates, 14,000 people could either have been misdiagnosed or remain undiagnosed. Although that might appear to be a small number by comparison with my constituent’s estimate, it does not diminish the issue’s importance.

The core principles of the NHS state that good health care should meet the needs of everyone and should be based on clinical need. Kevin Scardifield is unable to do the everyday things that other people take for granted. He was a police officer before the onset of the condition—a profession he greatly loved but had to give up. So debilitating is the condition that, by the middle of last year, he had been able to leave the house only six times, which was just for a few yards to the GP.

I am sure that Members can appreciate why this is such an important issue and why Kevin Scardifield has been campaigning hard for proper diagnosis and treatment. Since he made me aware of the condition, I have made a number of representations to the Department of Health, the local hospital, the primary care trust—now the clinical commissioning groups—and even the Department for Work and Pensions.

I am grateful to the Minister and his predecessor, the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow), for their replies to my constituent’s concerns when I brought them to their attention. Had my constituent felt that his concerns had been fully addressed, however, we would not be having this debate, so if the Minister will forgive me, I will raise a number of specific issues. First, as I have mentioned, people are either being misdiagnosed or remain undiagnosed because NHS clinicians do not appear to have sufficient awareness of the condition.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) on securing this debate on an issue of intense importance to people who suffer from complex regional pain syndrome. The condition can be debilitating, with a devastating effect on sufferers and their families. I know that there are those, including my hon. Friend’s constituent, who campaign tirelessly to raise awareness of the condition. The description that he gave of what people go through—attempts at self-amputation, for example—are unimaginable.

I pay tribute to Mr Scardifield for his persistent campaigning to raise awareness. It is highly laudable that he has chosen to campaign and maintain the pressure for increased understanding. The experience that my hon. Friend described—the diagnosis was missed by several clinicians, and there was no proper care team or personal care plan—is of concern. I am grateful to him for alerting me to the extent of the challenge faced by his constituent. One great benefit of Adjournment debates such as this is that they ensure that Ministers and officials focus on a particular condition that might not otherwise get the attention it needs. I am grateful for this opportunity. I hope that this debate will prove informative for those here who wish to learn more about the condition and be helpful to those affected, as I say more about the help and support that ought to be available for CRPS sufferers and the research into the condition that is currently under way.

Although it has been recognised as a medical condition for more than 100 years, diagnosing CRPS at its earliest stages remains a problem, as my hon. Friend rightly said, because it is often misdiagnosed or completely undiagnosed. The explanation is threefold. First, CRPS is relatively uncommon and patients do not routinely present to GPs with it. When the Department looked at the representations that we have received on the subject over the last few years, the number of individuals who have approached us is small. The fact that the condition is relatively uncommon and that GPs do not come across it that often creates a problem in terms of their capacity to diagnose it accurately.

Secondly, the range of symptoms associated with CRPS are shared with a number of other, more common conditions, so that when patients do present, they may not be correctly diagnosed in the first instance. Thirdly, there is no single diagnostic test that accurately identifies the condition; a diagnosis is made primarily by excluding other conditions with shared symptoms that can be accurately diagnosed. Those difficulties also mean that there are no reliable figures for the number of people living with the condition, and estimates produced by researchers and clinicians vary considerably, as my hon. Friend said in his speech.

I understand his concerns about having a clear picture of the number of people affected by CRPS. I will approach NHS England to ask whether there is any scope to improve our understanding of how many people are diagnosed with the condition. Ultimately, I think that we can all agree that a better understanding of the extent of the condition and the numbers affected would be a considerable advantage. Let us explore whether it is possible to achieve greater accuracy.

As my hon. Friend may be aware, since 1 April 2013, NHS England has been responsible for delivering improved outcomes for people with long-term conditions such as CRPS.

[Jim Shannon]

On the subject of statistics and information, does the Minister intend to make contact with the regional Administrations, whether in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly, to ensure that all the information comes together so we can galvanise action and respond better?

[Norman Lamb]

I will certainly explore the possibility of understanding how much information is available to the devolved Administrations to increase our understanding of the prevalence of the condition. They may be in exactly the same position as England, where our understanding of the prevalence is ultimately still limited, but let us explore that further.

NHS England draws on a wide range of clinical advice when developing commissioning policies and statements. It has a specialised pain clinical reference group to provide expert clinical advice on pain issues. I will therefore put forward my hon. Friend’s concerns about the need for CRPS expertise.

Turning to the identification of CRPS, an increasing range of guidance is available to improve awareness of it among members of the public and health professionals to support early diagnosis. NHS Choices, to which my hon. Friend referred, provides comprehensive advice on the causes, symptoms and treatment of the disease. More detailed clinical guidance is provided via the NHS Evidence website.

In May last year, the Royal College of Physicians published a guideline for clinicians on CRPS, setting out best practice on the identification and management of the disease. The guidance was developed with the involvement and endorsement of 21 key organisations involved in the care of people with CRPS, including the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Orthopaedic Association, the British Pain Society, the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine and the British Society for Rheumatology, to name but a few. I am confident that that collaborative guidance will prove useful in supporting clinicians to identify and treat patients with CRPS more effectively. When such guidance, produced by clinicians, is developed, one does not achieve a sea change in understanding overnight. It takes time to get the message across, in particular throughout the whole of primary care. The production of the guidance, however, is the starting point, and it will aid clinicians in diagnosing and treating appropriately.

Once a patient has been diagnosed with CRPS, a range of treatment options is available. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the condition, but many patients with pain disorders can be managed through routine primary and secondary care once they are appropriately diagnosed. For patients with CRPS, treatment can involve: physiotherapy; occupational therapy; a neurologist to examine the effect on the nervous system; sometimes a psychologist, who may be appropriate, because of the psychological problems caused by living with CRPS, as well as with a host of physical health conditions; a social worker for advice about what extra help and services are available; and a doctor or other health care professional trained in pain relief, which is critical.

NHS England is aware that more needs to be done to identify those patients with the most severe and complex chronic pain who need access to nationally commissioned specialised services. NHS England’s specialised pain clinical reference group is working with the royal colleges and the British Pain Society’s guidelines to ensure that the needs of those patients are appropriately met.

I am aware that the absence of clinical guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is a real concern of patients with CRPS. I am advised, however, that NICE is consulting on a short clinical guideline on the pharmacological management of neuropathic pain, including CRPS. The draft guidance, setting out recommendations for further research, highlights the need for more research into CRPS. Final guidance is expected for publication shortly, in October of this year. In addition, a quality standard topic on pain management in young people and adults has also been referred to NICE for development. Quality standards are a concise set of statements designed to drive and measure priority quality improvements within a particular area of care; they support commissioners to be confident that the services they are purchasing are high quality, cost-effective and focused on driving up quality.

My hon. Friend specifically raised research into CRPS. The Government are supporting a range of research projects into the condition, including a major trial of low-dose intravenous immunoglobulin treatment, funded via the Medical Research Council and costing more than £650,000. The investigators involved have previously treated patients with IVIG and reported encouraging results on pain relief in a pilot trial. IVIG may provide pain relief for patients for whom classical treatments are not satisfactorily effective. If IVIG treatment is proved effective, the trial may also stimulate research on the efficacy of IVIG in treating other chronic pain syndromes.

The National Institute for Health Research clinical research network is also supporting a multi-centre international study to define recovery and the priorities for recovery from the perspective of patients with CRPS. The NIHR welcomes high-quality funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including CRPS, and judges them on an objective basis.

More generally, I reassure my hon. Friend of the Government’s commitment to improve outcomes for the 15 million-plus people in England who are living with a long-term condition, including those with CRPS. Through the mandate—the set of Government priorities for NHS England—we have asked NHS England to make measurable progress towards making the health service among the best in Europe at supporting people with ongoing health problems to live healthily and independently, with much better control over the care that they receive.

Through the NHS outcomes framework, we will monitor the performance of the NHS in supporting people with long-term conditions, such as CRPS, to live as normal a life as possible and to improve their quality of life. Improvements will be measured in three main areas: how well the NHS is performing in supporting people to look after themselves; how well a person is able to live as normal a life as possible; and how successfully the NHS manages long-term conditions by looking at unnecessary hospital admissions and excessive lengths of stay in hospital. The improvement areas are mirrored in the clinical commissioning group outcomes indicator set—apologies for the jargon—which will be used to hold CCGs to account for and to provide information for the public on both the quality of services and the health outcomes achieved through commissioning.

At service level, the new NHS improvement body, NHS Improving Quality, has made the development of evidence-based tools for the management of long-term conditions a key improvement programme for 2013-14. Interventions will involve care plans, care co-ordination, use of technology, risk stratification, self-care and, crucially, the role of carers. That work will be evaluated and best practice identified to help drive improvement in the management of long-term conditions such as CRPS in every local area.

I thank my hon. Friend once more for securing today’s debate. I very much hope that our discussion has been helpful to him and to his constituent. I am more than happy to discuss further how we can improve outcomes for people suffering from such a pernicious condition.

Question put and agreed to.

Health and Care Services

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter)]

It is a pleasure to close this debate and to respond to my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell) and to his Committee’s report. I had the great privilege of serving under his chairmanship before I was appointed as a Minister, and he has been perhaps the greatest advocate of joined-up and integrated care, both as a distinguished member of previous Governments as Secretary of State for Health, and in all the work he has done as Chair of the Health Committee. His work has helped to lead to the great emphasis that the Government are placing on integrated and joined-up care, both through the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and in the statement by the Chancellor last week.

Friday marks the 65th anniversary of the NHS. I am proud to work in the NHS and to look after its patients. I think every Member in this House wants to see a health service of which we can all be proud. We are proud of our health service, but this 65th year of the NHS has also been marked by many challenges, which were outlined in the Mid Staffs report, the response to Morecambe Bay and in the comments on Tameside hospital made by the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne). We have to respond to those challenges, and the Government are taking strong steps to ensure that we deliver and stamp out the small pockets of poor care in the care system.

If we are to deliver a health service that is fit for the future, it has to be a joined-up health and care service. We can no longer afford to see the NHS and the social care sector as silos in their own right: we have to have a joined-up integrated approach. It is for that reason that we are proud to have increased the NHS budget by £12.7 billion. We are driving integration with that budget increase. We are encouraging local authorities and the NHS to collaborate in treating the needs of patients, and to address the problem highlighted by the Select Committee of people being passed, like pass the parcel, from one part of the system to another without any joined-up thinking or integrated care. I know that Members on both sides of the House want an end to that. In the spirit of consensus, we all want a health and care system that truly looks after the needs of individuals and is not run by the different financial and cultural silos of the whole.

We have heard strong contributions from hon. Members on both sides of the House in what has been a consensual debate. If we are to tackle the challenge outlined by Sir David Nicholson in 2009, when the previous Government were in power, to make 4% efficiency savings year on year just to stand still and to meet the increasing demand of an ageing population and the increasing health care expectations of patients, then we need consensus. To meet the challenge, we have to see a fundamental service transformation and redesign. We also have to see a far more productive NHS. Productivity gains and efficiency savings have to be made, while the challenges outlined by the Mid Staffs case and others are just as true today.

My hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel) outlined clearly the importance of cutting back on bureaucracy and waste in the NHS where possible. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, £1.5 billion of bureaucratic savings will be put back into front-line care on an annual basis. She was right to highlight the importance of clinical leadership in delivering better services. There is good evidence that clinical leadership is not just about improving patient care. We can improve productivity through clinical leadership by improving the procurement of services and goods in the NHS. Procurement of services and goods makes up £20 billion of the NHS budget. There is good evidence that strong clinical engagement and leadership will help us to deliver greater productivity.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (David Tredinnick) talked about a number of other opportunities that the Health and Social Care Act offers to drive integrated care. I am pleased, as late converts, that the Opposition are now supporting the arguments we outlined during the passage of the Act about the importance of integrated health and social care. He also looked forward to the debate, which I will not enter into today—I hope he will forgive me—about the importance of complementary and alternative therapies. I look forward to furthering that debate with him next week.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for giving way—I asked to make an intervention beforehand, so he knows the subject matter. In the last year health tourism cost the NHS some £24 million, ranging from £100,000 in some trusts to £3.5 million in others. The Secretary of State made an important statement this morning about addressing that issue. Is the Minister in a position to set out the time scale for saving the NHS that £24 million a year?

[Dr Poulter]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to highlight the fact that health tourism presents challenges. We need to look at them, which is why we have launched a consultation on exactly how to do so. We should recognise that we hugely value the fact—it is very beneficial to the British economy—that students come here from overseas to train and, sometimes, to work. Part of ensuring that they do so in a responsible manner and do not short-change British taxpayers and British patients means making provision for their health care needs, if necessary, and ensuring that the NHS does not pick up the tab. That is something we have opened a consultation on. It will report back later this year, and I am happy to discuss the matter further with the hon. Gentleman away from this debate.

In opening the debate, my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood was absolutely right to ask how we would deliver greater productivity in the NHS and to say that pay plays a part. Improving procurement, driving greater productivity and, crucially, service reconfiguration all play their parts too. It is worth highlighting the fact that the NHS needs to become more efficient at how it manages its estates, with £3.1 billion or so spent on NHS estates annually. There is much that can be done to improve the energy efficiency of those estates, which is why the Government launched a £50 million fund to support that work. A lot also needs to be done to reduce the £2.4 billion temporary staffing bill. That is something we will be talking about when we launch a paper later in the summer. There also needs to be greater focus on good leadership at board level—something we have touched on before—and engaging clinical leaders in helping to drive productivity and improvements in patient care.

It is also worth outlining the role of tariffs, which were touched on in the Committee’s report and in today’s debate, in driving more joined-up care. It is true that tariff change in itself is not good enough to drive improvements in patient care. Tariff change must drive service change and transformation at the same time, driving the more integrated care model that we all believe in. When my right hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley) was Secretary of State, he initiated a review of the tariff system and looked specifically at best practice tariffs. We are now seeing the emergence of tariff change in a way that not only reduces costs, but drives service transformation. In the case of fragile hip fractures, day case procedures—such as cholecystectomies and similar procedures—and major trauma, we are seeing service change and transformation being driven by improved tariffs, which often cut across primary and secondary care.

If we are to deliver an NHS that is fit for the future, both financially and in human terms, that will be down to major service transformation and moving towards a system that provides integrated health and care. That is why last week my right hon. Friend the Chancellor outlined in his statement a £3.8 billion fund that will be shared between the NHS and local authorities to deliver integrated services more efficiently for older people and disabled people, ensuring that health and social care work together to improve outcomes for local people. Importantly, the Health Committee’s calls for health and wellbeing boards to play a vital role in overseeing the fund is something that we envisage becoming a reality.

In conclusion, we know that there are big challenges to the NHS in driving up productivity, and we know that we have already met some of them by cutting out, through our reforms, £1.5 billion of bureaucracy in the NHS—money much better spent on patient care. Crucially, in the years ahead, we will focus on the service transformation that is required to deliver a more integrated health service, continuing to develop those best practice tariffs that drive integration and bring together health and social care. It is not just about finances, because it is also about good care, which is why it is important to deliver the integrated system that patients deserve.

HPV Vaccine

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mike Freer]

Yes, I will raise the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine as compared with the treatment costs of many cancers, including oral or pharyngeal cancer, which is throat cancer.

In 2009, just after the HPV vaccination programme started, there were over 6,500 cases of these cancers, with 47% of penile cancers and 16% of head and neck cancers thought to be HPV-related. Today, however, overall rates of HPV-related cancer and warts should—should, I stress—subsequently come down in heterosexual men, because of so-called herd immunity.

Herd immunity is where men have sex with vaccinated women and thereby get protection against warts, as well as other cancers including penile, anal, oral and pharyngeal cancers. However, they get such protection only if they have sexual contact with UK-born women who have been vaccinated, or with Australian women or those of the very few countries that have had a mass vaccination programme.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. Does he agree it might be better if we had a regional vaccination programme not only for England and Wales, but for Scotland and Northern Ireland as well, so we can address issues of education and intervention UK-wide first, and also globally?

[Mike Freer]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. On a small island such as ours it is important that men who are having sex with women, or men having sex with men, are having sex with partners who are vaccinated, and I believe that is a matter not just for England and Wales, but for the whole of the United Kingdom, and we would also then be setting an example for the rest of the world.

Herd immunity is valuable, but it is not foolproof for heterosexual men. I have mentioned that it is valuable where heterosexual men are having sex with vaccinated women, but men who have sex with men are not subject to herd immunity, and that is another element of inequality. Evidence from other countries suggests herd immunity will eventually prevent most, but not all, cases of HPV-related cancer in heterosexual men. There is still work to be done, therefore, on all men having vaccinations against HPV-related cancers.

Some HPV-related cancers are on the rise in the UK, despite the vaccination programme. Throat cancer has overtaken cervical cancer as the leading HPV-related cancer in the UK. Men who have sex with women who are not vaccinated remain at risk. This is of concern to men who, for example, have sex while on holiday or while living outside the UK, or who have sex with unvaccinated migrants to the UK—but men, straight or gay, remain at risk.

The current programme is inequitable, as those men who “stray from the herd” by having sex with unvaccinated women or men will remain at risk. That is why I am seeking a commitment for the HPV vaccination programme to be widened.

The key issue I wish to press is the health inequality in respect of gay men and anal cancer, an inequality perpetuated by the current vaccination policy. Gay men already experience poorer sexual health as a group; they are at an increasing and far higher risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections compared with the wider population. Rates of anal cancer in gay men are now equivalent to those for cervical cancer in women before the cervical cancer screening programme was introduced in 1988. HPV is associated with 80% to 85% of anal cancer in men, yet it is not yet possible to screen for or effectively treat anal pre-cancer, as it is for cervical cancer; HPV vaccination is the only effective form of prevention, and it is being denied to men.

Gay men with HIV are particularly susceptible to HPV-related anal cancer and as the number of gay men with HIV continues to rise year on year, so will cases of anal cancer, other HPV-related cancers and warts. In addition to having a disproportionate effect in HIV-positive men, HPV can increase the risk of HIV transmission. HPV can increase skin fragility and overt anal warts can bleed, which enhances the risks of acquisition or transmission of HIV infection. This health inequality between gay men and the general population will continue to widen as long as gay men remain unprotected against HPV. I stress this point as it relates to gay men, but it also affects heterosexual men who are equally unprotected.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anna Soubry)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Mike Freer) on securing the debate and bringing this important subject before the House. He speaks, as ever, with considerable knowledge and makes a powerful argument. I would not expect anything other than that from my hon. Friend.

I shall not rehearse the statistics on vaccination— they were well explained by my hon. Friend—and the success that it has had in its take-up among young women. It has been a success. Seven million doses have been given so far in the United Kingdom, and we have achieved one of the highest rates of HPV vaccine coverage in the world, with 87% of the routine cohort of girls completing the three-dose course in the 2011-12 academic year. That contrasts with 35% take-up in America. The very low take-up in America explains why America has extended the vaccination to boys as well as girls; it is only 35% in girls.

As my hon. Friend explained most ably, because of the high uptake of HPV vaccine among girls, it is argued correctly that many boys are indirectly protected against HPV-associated cancers, such as anal cancer and head and neck cancers, as transmission of the virus between girls and boys should be substantially lowered. But of course, my hon. Friend is making the point that it does not protect men who have sex with men, and men who have sex with women who have not had the vaccine.

[Jim Shannon]

In my intervention on the hon. Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Mike Freer), I made the point about conducting campaigns regionally and UK-wide. Has the Minister had any discussions with the Health Minister in Northern Ireland, for instance, or the Health Minister in Scotland to ensure that we have a UK-wide strategy to address this issue?

[Anna Soubry]

I am going to repeat everything that has been said, and I agree; that is a very important point. As my hon. Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green argues, the vaccine does not protect men who have sex with women who have not been vaccinated, because they may have been in a country where the vaccine was not available to them. So I completely take the point, which is well made, and ask my officials to take it back to the Department.

As hon. Members know, the Department of Health is advised on all immunisation matters by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation—an independent expert advisory committee—and our HPV vaccination policies are accordingly based on the advice of the JCVI. When the committee considered the introduction of the HPV vaccine in relation to cervical cancer, it did not recommend the vaccination of boys because with high vaccine uptake among girls, as is the case in the UK, it is judged that there would be little benefit in vaccinating boys. With the high uptake of HPV vaccine among girls, we would expect many boys to be indirectly protected against vaccine-type HPV infections and associated diseases, including anal cancer, head and neck cancers and penile cancers. However, the JCVI recognises that under the current programme, the same protection may not be provided to men who have sex with men, and of course men who have sex with women who have not had the vaccination.

East of England Ambulance Service

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Westminster Hall

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend’s assessment of the culture in the NHS is absolutely correct. Let us not forget that the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, alluded to the rotten culture in the NHS. I will come to the fact that cultural change is required and that we must stop this revolving door and this recycling of people in the NHS.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing this matter to the House. Although the debate is specifically about the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, the same rationale applies across the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The response by paramedics relies on data and modern technology, so it is important that funding restrictions do not limit what they can do. Does the hon. Lady feel that it is essential that funding is always available so that they can do the work they need to? Does she also feel that training is important?

Cross-border Health Care (England and Wales)

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman]

It is interesting to have the parallel case, and I thank my hon. Friend for bringing it to the attention of the House.

Let us look at the issues in more detail. The relevant NHS regulations state that legal responsibility for these patients remains with the relevant clinical commissioning groups in England, but that local health boards in Wales take day-to-day responsibility for their care. The English and Welsh NHS take their guidance from the protocol for cross-border health care services, the latest version of which was agreed by Welsh and English Ministers in April this year. However, it appears that the protocol does not give full effect to the law. Specifically, point 14 of the current protocol implies that patients from England who are treated in Wales are to be seen and treated within the maximum waiting time targets of the NHS in Wales, which are of course rather different from those of the NHS in England. Why does this matter? It matters for three particular reasons.

First, as we have seen, these South Herefordshire patients struggle to get referred to the hospital of their choice. The Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Health and Social Services has openly stated that choice is not the basis of the health system in Wales.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The hon. Gentleman will be well aware of the land border between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There is co-operation, although it is not full blooded, between the health service in Northern Ireland and the health service in the Republic. Perhaps the Minister should look at that to see how it can work for the situation on the border between England and Wales.

[Jesse Norman]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. There is co-operation at the moment between England and Wales, but I think that it would absolutely benefit from further examination of the situation he describes between Northern Ireland and Eire.

The fact that the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Health and Social Services does not believe that choice is the basis of the health system in Wales means that my constituents do not have the choice of health care, hospitals or consultants that is their proper legal right.

Secondly, the Welsh NHS’s performance in meeting its own waiting time targets continues to deteriorate. In England the waiting time target is 18 weeks, but in Wales it is 26 weeks, and that is regularly missed. Some patients are not even treated within 36 weeks. For example, some 4% of patients are not treated within 36 weeks at Cardiff and Vale hospital, according to recent Welsh Government statistics for April this year.

Thirdly, the current set-up is giving rise to serious clinical concerns. Earlier this year, in evidence to the Silk commission on devolution in Wales, the Royal College of Surgeons, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing made the following submission:

“The Panel... acknowledged that increasing policy divergence between health services in Wales and England was a challenge, especially in regards to cross-border services. The Panel added that there was a need to strengthen commissioning arrangements to improve current delays for processing individual cases... It was also agreed that it made sense for some specialist facilities to be shared by both England and Wales; and to work together to deliver economies of scale and efficiency savings, including cross border sharing of procurement and use of high-tech equipment.”

However, as I have mentioned, that ban on hospital access for those patients is not merely grossly unfair to them but places further financial pressure on Hereford hospital.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

I agree with my hon. Friend and the sooner we can make a decision and announce it, the better. This issue is of huge importance to the people of Leeds and I want to do all I can to expedite the process.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

When a patient is ill and visits their GP, they will do as the doctor orders. One hundred thousand people will die of lung cancer this year. When will the Government do as the doctor orders and bring in plain packaging for tobacco?

[Anna Soubry]

I refer my hon. Friend to answers that I have given beforehand. I know the great work that he does on lung cancer and I am pleased to see that, yet again, we will have a national campaign following the great success of the last one. We can talk further.

111 Telephone Service

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 5th June 2013 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I had not expected to be called quite so early. First, I should like to put on the record that health in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter—I understand that—but I am observing the 111 system from my position as a parliamentarian. I congratulate the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh) on securing this debate. She has encapsulated many people’s concerns. I appreciate the Minister’s efforts on health issues. I am sure that she will, in her response, deal with some people’s issues.

I support the idea behind this phone call triage, as it is called, and its being free to contact, bearing in mind that many GP surgeries have an 0844 number, which costs a great deal from mobiles—we have discussed that in Westminster Hall previously on many occasions, and will continue to do so—but there are clearly major issues with it. Although I accept that sometimes the girls in my office have to stay on the phone for an hour or more to fix some computer glitch with the printer or scanner, we are talking about lives in respect of this service. There have been too many difficulties to ignore.

We have background information on many areas, including those the hon. Lady touched on. Yorkshire and Humber provide examples of the figures and information, which state that there were three deaths and 19 potentially serious incidents coming through the system, clearly underlining the problems.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that NHS 111 should immediately answer the phone to all those who contact it—that is obvious—offer direct, accurate communication and provide people with reassurance that they are getting an accurate diagnosis? Those things will be the judgmental touchstones upon which people will base the success, or otherwise, of 111.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, which clearly outlines exactly what the 111 system should be trying to achieve. Sometimes, when hon. Members ask if I will take an intervention, they are looking over my shoulder to see what I am going to say next. My hon. Friend made exactly the point that I was going to make.

There have been lots of complaints about calls going unanswered and poor advice being given, which reiterates the point made by my hon. Friend. That follows concerns prior to the national roll-out, after pilot schemes showed disastrous results, with tales of patients waiting hours for advice and others being asked to call back later. That situation is quite unsatisfactory and must be addressed. NHS England stated:

“The safety of patients must be our paramount concern”.

So it should be, and if it is not, we want to ask why. It also said:

“NHS England will keep a careful eye on the situation to ensure NHS 111 provides not only a good service to the public, but one which is also safe.”

Examples mentioned by all hon. Members—we have them in front of us—provide information that contradicts that. In Greater Manchester, the 111 service was started and then abandoned. Dr Mary Gibbs, a GP providing out-of-hours cover when the system crashed there, said:

“Calls just weren’t coming through.”

Quite clearly, that is the issue. She stated:

“It was totally inadequate. Patients’ health was put at risk.”

The 111 service tends to be busiest when local surgeries are closed. Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association GPs committee, stated:

“We are still receiving reports that patients are facing unacceptably long waits to get through to an NHS 111 operator and suffering from further delays when waiting for calls back with medical advice should they manage to have their call answered… The quality of some of the information being given out appears, from anecdotal sources, to be questionable in some instances.”

The advice that people are being given does not always seem to have been up to scratch and is not of the quality that it should be. He added:

“If any area of the country is failing to meet high standards of care, then its NHS 111 service needs to be suspended.”

This is what the experts in the field are saying. NHS England needs to be more transparent about how the system is functioning across the country.

[Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)]

I met one of my local ambulance service chief executives just last Friday, who told me that, in his experience, the implementation of NHS 111 was going well and was helping to reduce demand on the ambulance service locally—and they were quite happy with the service. Although there have been problems, which the hon. Gentleman is right to highlight, plenty of people have been treated well and professionally by this service, and some health service professionals think that the service is working okay.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I have stated that the focus of the new system was on trying to make it better. Every hon. Member accepts that. The idea behind it is great, if it works. We elected representatives will always get the complaints. Not often do we get the wee card saying, “Thank you very much for what you’ve done for us,” but we always get the ones saying, “It’s not working well.” The hon. Gentleman is right. I accept that there will be many examples throughout the United Kingdom where the system has, perhaps, worked, but equally there are a lot of examples of where it has not worked. That is the point that I am trying to make.

We highlight such issues for a purpose, not to be dogmatic, angry or always to be negative in our comments, but to try to look towards improvement. I always try to think that my comments will be constructive criticism, which can be taken on board to make things better. My idea as an elected representative over the years, as a councillor and a Member of the Legislative Assembly in a previous life, has always been to try make comments in that way.

I am conscious of my position as a Northern Ireland Member of Parliament, because health is a devolved matter and I am ever mindful of the cuts in funding faced by all Departments in an effort to reduce the deficit—every pound spent must be well spent—but, from my perspective, I urge that the Northern Ireland Direct system continue until the kinks are ironed out here. On health, we will follow, as we often do, what happens here on the UK mainland, so, from a Northern Ireland perspective, I want to make sure that the system’s fall downs and problems are ironed out and sorted out before we take on the system—if we take it on.

I have been looking at the system with great interest, because one of my jobs here as MP for Strangford and my party’s health spokesman is to consider the systems across on the mainland. Many of my queries to Ministers here in questions on health and to my Health Minister back in Northern Ireland come from what colleagues say to me and from what these debates bring out. I am interested in seeing how this system works or will work, or does not work. If it does not work, I will convey that to my Minister in Northern Ireland, to ensure that when making a decision there we will look at how it can happen. I will certainly not be urging our Health Minister in Northern Ireland to use his precious funding to implement this scheme as it stands.

A and E Departments

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 21st May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We absolutely need better alternatives to A and E, but let me remind the hon. Lady that if we followed her party’s Front-Bench policy of cutting the NHS budget from its current levels, many more urgent and walk-in centres would have to be closed.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

In Northern Ireland as in England there have been lots of problems with increasing numbers presenting at A and E. The Northern Ireland Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety introduced the triage system, which enabled more effective processing of patients and allowed people to get the level of care and medical attention they needed. Will the Secretary of State agree to discussions with that Northern Ireland Minister to see what can be learned from what has been done in Northern Ireland?

[Mr Hunt]

I always welcome discussions with the devolved Administrations to see what we can learn. Better triaging at the point of entry to A and E is certainly one of the things that makes a difference between A and E trusts that are managing to meet their targets despite very high pressures and those that are not.

Health and Social Care

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Will you confirm, Mr Deputy Speaker, that I may speak until 9.40?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

The hon. Gentleman has eight minutes, and if two interventions come along that will give him 10 minutes.

[Jim Shannon]

I am sure that my colleagues will intervene.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opening of Parliament. It always fills me with a sense of optimism to look forward to another Session and what we can do. As the DUP Health spokesman, that optimism was dulled when I noted, with some dismay, that the Government had not included standardised cigarette packs in the Queen’s Speech. It would have been great to see essential measures on that.

I am reminded of the dance, the hokey-cokey: they are in for packaging, they are out for packaging, they are in for packaging, they are out for packaging, and they swing it all about. I cannot do the hokey-cokey, but I know who can. The Government can do the hokey-cokey and nobody can do it better. Bruce Forsyth often says, “Didn’t they do well?” If he ever retires, there are two hon. Members who will be vying for his position.

I am encouraged that some hon. Members have had the courage of their convictions. The hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) has taken a clear stance on plain packaging, as have other Members. I appreciate that.

I have received many e-mails from constituents on this issue. One stated:

“Since tobacco advertising became illegal in the UK, the tobacco companies have been investing a fortune on packaging design to attract new consumers. Most of these new consumers are children with 80% of smokers starting by the age of 19.”

Other Members have made it clear that we must stop smoking being an attraction for young people. About 200,000 children as young as 11 years old are smoking already and the addiction kills one in two long-term users. A recent YouGov poll showed that 63% of the public back plain packaging and that only 16% are against it.

Last week, I asked the Prime Minister whether he would introduce plain packaging. He said:

“On the issue of plain packaging for cigarettes, the consultation is still under way”.—[Official Report, 8 May 2013; Vol. 563, c. 24.]

That is not exactly accurate because the standardised packaging consultation started on 16 April last year and ended nine months ago on 10 August 2012. I am keen to hear from the Government just what is happening.

[Chris Ruane]

I am just doing Mr Deputy Speaker’s bidding by intervening to give the hon. Gentleman an extra minute. When plain packaging was introduced in Australia, the tobacco industry fought the longest, dirtiest battle it had ever fought against any Government proposal to curb smoking. Why does the hon. Gentleman think that was? It threatened that triads would come over from China and take over Australia, but that never occurred. Why did it threaten so much and fight so hard? Is he pleased that it lost?

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I perceive and am of the opinion that companies saw such measures as a loss to their profit margin, and we would like to see what happened in Australia happen here.

The former Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley),was quoted in the media saying that the Government did not work with tobacco companies as they wanted them to have “no business” in the UK. Has that changed? The current Health Secretary stated that one of his key priorities is to reduce premature mortality. His call to action on premature mortality commits to a decision on whether to proceed with standard packaging. He also stated:

“Just because something is not in the Queen’s Speech doesn’t mean that the Government cannot bring it forward in law.”

Even at this late stage, may we hear a commitment to bringing forth such a measure in law? If we do, that will be good news and we will welcome it.

Some 10 million adults smoke in the UK and more than 200,000 children start smoking at a very early age. More than 100,000 people die from cancer-related smoking diseases across the UK, which is more than from the next six causes of preventable death put together. The immensity of the number of deaths from smoking cannot be underestimated. Many Members have spoken about that, and I believe the fact we are all saying the same thing is something we should underline.

We cannot remove people’s choice to smoke—that is a decision to be made by any adult—but we can, and must, ensure that everyone knows they are doing harm to themselves and those around them. Evidence that standardised packaging helps smokers quit and prevents young people from taking up the habit and facing a lifetime of addiction is clear, and we should encourage more people to stop smoking and not to become addicted.

[Frank Dobson]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the argument sometimes put by defenders of the tobacco industry—usually paid defenders—is that people are exercising free choice? In fact, they are not exercising free choice because they are addicts who took up the addiction when tobacco companies persuaded them to smoke when they were teenagers.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention and for clearly underlining the stand we are all taking on this issue. We hope that Ministers will respond positively. I believe that plain packaging is a major step in this informational and educational journey to end smoking, and I ask the Minister to commit today to begin that journey that has been planned for so long.

Another disappointment in last week’s speech was the lack of reference to the minimum pricing of alcohol, although there has been some indication that there may be a change of heart, which we hope will be the case. Last week I was sent a copy of a study containing numerous sources, and there are certainly some shocking statistics. Its findings, among other pertinent points, demonstrate that alcohol is 45% more affordable today than it was in 1980. Men and women can currently exceed the recommended low-risk daily drinking guidelines for £1. That is hard to believe in this day and age, but it is the truth. Data from Canadian provinces suggest that a 10% increase in the average minimum price would result in about an 8% reduction in consumption, a 9% reduction in hospital admissions, and—this is the big one, Mr Deputy Speaker—a 32% reduction in deaths caused wholly by alcohol, which is even higher than the figure suggested in the Government’s impact assessment.

Alcohol Health Alliance UK stated:

“The case for introducing minimum unit pricing is clearer than ever, yet despite committing to the principle of minimum unit pricing, it appears that the Government are going to drop the measure from their alcohol strategy.”

Perhaps Ministers will comment on that, but I sincerely hope it is not the case. Minimum pricing of alcohol is not to ensure that those on low incomes cannot have a drink, but to ensure that people of all incomes are aware how much they are drinking and conscious of the health implications of excessive or binge drinking. When it comes to minimum pricing for alcohol, we can all take note and take advantage of it.

Every year there are 1.5 million victims of alcohol-fuelled violence in the United Kingdom, and it is clear that community safety is threatened by the misuse of alcohol. Police superintendents have advised that alcohol is present in half of all crimes committed, and a 1990 study for the Home Office found that growth in beer consumption was the single most important factor in explaining the growth in crimes of violence against the person. The figures are clear. Statistics show that 37% of offenders had a current problem with alcohol; 37% had a problem with binge drinking; 47% have misused alcohol in the past; and 32% had violent behaviour related to their alcohol use. When we mix young people, who have not had time to develop their moral standards and ideals, with alcohol, we have a generation who are fuelled by the desire to live in the moment, with no thought of the consequences. Alcohol changes personalities, and young people are only learning who they are. Adding alcohol to the mix means that they will never have a good understanding of who they are. A minimum price for alcohol will lessen the number of young people who drink copious amounts of it. Hopefully, it will also mean a lessening of crimes that are aggravated or exacerbated by alcohol.

My third point is on diabetes, which is a ticking bomb in our society. We had a debate on it in Westminster Hall, when the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) made the point about diabetes and obesity among children. The figures are overwhelming. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland diabetes strategy ended in April, but perhaps the Minister can tonight commit to its continuation. I believe the strategy was working. Had it not had an effect, the figures would be much worse. Even given the strategy, the number of people living with types 1 and 2 diabetes has increased by 33% in Northern Ireland, 25% in England, 20% in Wales, and 18% in Scotland. The numbers are rising. A commitment to the continuation of the strategy would be helpful. The statistics are scary—3.7 million people in the UK are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. However, we are talking not only about statistics, but about people’s lives. We need to prevent and control as well as we can.

I am aware that the health portfolio is not an easy one. Everybody needs something urgently. I understand the restrictions that apply, but does the Minister understand that the three issues that I and others have raised affect every corner of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? I believe we could have reform on those issues if the Government put their hand to the plough and disregard all but the health and safety of our population.

Childhood Obesity and Diabetes

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 24th April 2013 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to take part in the debate. I have several things in common with the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), not least that we support the same football team. I have done so since 1969, and I hope we shall be in the premier league next year. The second thing is that we are type 2 diabetics, as a result of our lifestyle—from about the same time, as I became a diabetic some five years ago.

I acknowledge that I am a diabetic because of the lifestyle I had. Hon. Members may know the experience of being offered a well man check by the doctor, who always says there is good news and bad news; we say, “Tell me the bad news first.” The doctor five years ago told me, “The bad news is you are diabetic. The good news is you can manage it if you really want to.” That was the thrust of it. He said “You can ignore this, and shortly you will be on tablets, and then on injections.” He was not scaremongering, but just wanted me to know exactly what the condition meant. He said, “Your diabetes will not kill you, but what will kill you will be all the things that come from it: your blood pressure and heart, or amputations and stress levels.” I know fine rightly that I became a diabetic because of my lifestyle five years ago. The fact is I love Chinese food; five days a week I had a sweet and sour pork and two bottles of Coke. It never changed—I like it, and so that was what happened. As well as that there was all the stress of the job—previously I was an Assembly Member in Northern Ireland, and a councillor. I love long hours, and they do not bother me at all—and that probably applies to every other hon. Member; the hours were not an issue, but the stress is.

Clearly I had to make changes. Looking back into my ancestry, no one—not my mother, father or grandparents—had diabetes. I was the first in my family, so the cause was clearly my lifestyle. I make that point because of the question of heredity and the hope that I would not pass on my difficulties to my children or my wee granddaughter, four-year-old Katie-Lee. The question is how to instil in children and grandchildren the necessary control, so that they eat the right food, in the right way. I was on diet control in January, and am now on two Metformin tablets in the morning, and two at night; there is nothing graceful about growing old. We may need tablets to keep us going, and probably most of us in the Chamber are of that ilk. The question for me is what I can do as a grandfather, and as an MP, to protect my granddaughter and children, and everyone else, from becoming diabetic.

The UK has the fifth highest rate in the world for type 1 diabetes in children. That can lead to serious health problems such as blindness and strokes, to name but two. Some 24.5 children in every 100,000 aged 14 and under are diagnosed with the condition every year in the UK. Statistics are real to those of us who are focused on the disease and how to deal with it. The UK’s rate is about twice as high as the rate in Spain, which is 13 in every 100,000, and in France, which is 12.2 in every 100,000. The league table covers only 88 countries where the rate of incidence of type 1 diabetes is recorded. There are around 1,038 children under the age of 17 living with type 1 diabetes in Northern Ireland, and almost one in four of those reached diabetic ketoacidosis before a diagnosis was made. DKA can develop quickly and occurs when a lack of insulin upsets the body’s normal chemical balance and causes it to produce poisonous chemicals known as ketones. If undetected, those ketones can result in serious illness, coma and death. We all know people who have come through that, and I am aware of people who have succumbed to diabetes.

The number of people living with types 1 and 2 diabetes has increased by 33% in Northern Ireland during the last five years; that is the largest increase in the United Kingdom, compared with 25% in England, 20% in Wales and 18% in Scotland. The total number of adults with diabetes—those aged 17 and over—registered with GPs in our small part of the UK is just shy of 76,000, and 1,038 young people under 17 are known to have type 1 diabetes, which is another significant rise. Prevalence in the Northern Ireland population is now more than 4%. Some 10,000 people have diabetes without having been diagnosed with the condition. It is scary stuff, when we realise what is happening in our region. I had occasion to speak about that with the right hon. Member for Leicester East before the debate.

Through my colleague, the Northern Ireland Health Minister, I encouraged the purchase of insulin pumps for type 1 diabetics, which was done last year; we have also encouraged the provision of training for family members, guardians and health staff in the use of the pumps. When a Minister is committed to the issue, things can happen.

I have every confidence in the Minister who is present for the debate. In my short time here I have witnessed her contribution in her role, and her commitment to change and to taking hard decisions. I do not agree with everything that she does, but I admire her commitment to the job, and many things that she has done have not gone unnoticed.

Approximately 90% of the 3.7 million people in the UK diagnosed with diabetes have type 2. I have brought that issue to the attention of the Northern Ireland Health Minister, as I am very aware of the ticking time bomb that diabetes is, and the key initiatives in operation in Northern Ireland. He is clearly doing a great job, including setting aside funding to employ additional diabetes staff—specialists, nurses, dieticians and podiatrists: all help that a diabetic needs, but perhaps not enough. All the hon. Members who have spoken have done so with honesty; if we put all the ideas together in a big pot, perhaps we will find a way forward. We need to instil good eating habits in children that will not lead to diabetes later in life.

Rates of obesity—because that is the twin thrust of the debate—tend to rise with increasing disadvantage across developed countries, particularly among women. In 2006 in Northern Ireland, 18% of children aged between two and 15 years were reported to be obese. In 2008-09, the child health system reported that 5.3% of primary 1 children surveyed were obese. The hon. Member for Southport (John Pugh) said that when we were young, many years ago, for someone to be of a certain size was unusual. It is not any more. In the survey I mentioned, 22.5% of the children were described as overweight or obese. That is a massive number.

We need to educate parents on what they are teaching their children through their lunches and dinners. Some schools in my area implemented a healthy snack policy, where twice a week children were not allowed to bring in crisps or chocolate, but had to bring in fruit or a healthy option. That is fantastic, and it is good that it happens, but some parents pointed out how much more expensive it was. We should consider how to make healthy food more affordable for young families in the present economic difficulties.

[Mr McKenzie]

On that issue, is the hon. Gentleman concerned, as I am, about supermarkets that employ the tactic of making their fruit ripen as early as possible, so that families have to make several trips to purchase healthy options for their child’s lunch box?

[Jim Shannon]

Many parents have made me aware of that. There is a key role for supermarkets and how they do things. When we go to the supermarket—let us be honest—we can always find a multipack of crisps or chocolate. By the way, there is nothing wrong with that as long as it is done, like anything in this world, in moderation. Children love a treat, and why should they not have one if it does them no harm?

Unfortunately, it is more difficult to find a multipack of fruit juice, or bags of fruit on offer or sliced up. It is much handier for parents to pick up a bag of crisps for their child’s break than to take the time to cut up fruit when they cannot afford to buy the pre-cut fruit that they want. I believe that we need to change that by encouraging supermarkets to put regular offers on healthy options, and perhaps by looking at tax incentives to make such options a realistic lifestyle choice, and not just a fad to go for for a wee while.

One of the community groups in my area, the East End residents association, has put on a cooking class for its ladies group, which showed them how to cook healthily for the family in a quick and cheap way. Women of all ages learned how they could cook on a budget, but still provide a healthy and satisfying meal. That is also key, and I suggest that funding might be set aside for community groups and churches to put on such classes, which could make real lifestyle changes to entire households.

Unfortunately, at the moment there are few homes that can afford to have only one parent in work, with the mother at home cooking and cleaning—that now has to be fitted around another job—but we must educate people and teach them that short cuts can be made so that healthy meals and snacks for families are still provided. Will the Minister kindly address that and explain what can be done to educate and help those who simply do not know how to do the best for their families? A surprising number of families cannot do so, so we should try to achieve that if we can.

In conclusion, it is clear that something needs to be done. If there is one message from every speaker, it is that we all agree that something needs to be done; the question is how best to deliver that. Many children and adults will not be able to live a healthy life because of something that they could have made small changes to prevent. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Leicester East on bringing this matter to the Chamber. Many more hon. Members would like to make a contribution, but I can say one thing—every one of us, as elected representatives, has constituents for whom this issue is key. We look forward to hearing the response from the Minister, as well as the speech from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott).