NHS and Social Care Commission

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Alistair Burt

Thursday 28th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I just say to the Minister that I did give him the nod. I have been very generous. When we say that he has “up to 15 minutes”, he is meant to take 15 minutes. As he can see from the clock, he has taken a lot longer.

[Alistair Burt]

I beg your pardon, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have tried to accommodate interventions but I entirely take your point. I am just about to finish and am grateful for your generosity.

I take the hon. Lady’s point, but in conclusion, the Government take advice from a lot of sources on everything connected with health. If the right hon. Member for North Norfolk wants to do exactly what he suggested, he can do it, and we will listen very carefully to him, as we do to others. However, I am afraid that, at the moment, I cannot see a Government-sponsored commission. If we have more debates such as this one, the public will be better served and the House will have done its job.

Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill [Lords]

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Alistair Burt

Monday 7th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Unfortunately it is me that makes the decisions—we could do this over two days—but I would have thought the Minister had at least some indication.

[Alistair Burt]

I rest my case with my hon. Friend: I believe that legislation currently provides the reassurance that he seeks. However, I undertake that, before the matter is concluded in the House of Lords, we will ensure that that assurance is there so that he is covered. He is absolutely right to make sure that his local authority has the opportunity to make representations when it needs to. I am sure that the legislation does that, but we will make doubly certain that it does.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

The interventions must be shorter, as I still have to get the Front Bencher in.

[Alistair Burt]

The hon. Gentleman is coming at this from the wrong point of view. He is coming at it from the point of view that the Secretary of State is deliberately pushing something towards an authority, but he is not—the authorities are asking him for something. He would not be doing that unless authorities came to him and said, “We want to do this.” The Secretary of State would not agree unless he thought it was in the best interests of healthcare, because it is not his personal judgment but his duty. If those functions are not performed properly, his ultimate duty, which the House has already agreed, must be to take the powers back. The hon. Gentleman is approaching it from the point of view that there is something malevolent about the Secretary of State which means he wants to challenge the authority. The duties he has, which are contained in statute and which the House says he must retain when NHS powers are devolved, are what impels the amendment, nothing else.