Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Benyon Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Barclay]

As it happens, I will be at an event with NHS providers—chief execs—this evening, when I am sure that this will be one of a number of issues that we will discuss. The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the very high private finance initiative costs that many trusts face due to contracts signed under the previous Labour Government. That is a real pressure faced by many trusts.

[Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)]

4. What the outcomes were of the October 2018 London global ministerial mental health summit.

[Adam Afriyie (Windsor) (Con)]

16. What the outcomes were of the October 2018 London global ministerial mental health summit.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)]

This month, we hosted the world’s first ever global ministerial mental health summit. Over 60 countries were represented, and they were united in the ambition to achieve equality for mental and physical health. The legacy of the summit will continue, with the baton now passed to the Netherlands, which has committed to host next year.

[Richard Benyon]

At the summit, I hope that the Government were applauded for appointing a Minister for suicide prevention. Will my right hon. Friend reflect on the fact that many people contemplating taking their life end up in A&E or in police stations, and will he look at James’ Place in Liverpool? That non-clinical centre catches young men in particular, who are very often the victims of this problem, and deals with their mental health issues.

[Matt Hancock]

Part of the purpose of having a cross-Government suicide prevention Minister is to bring together all these issues. I pay tribute to the work of James’ Place and its founder, Clare Milford Haven. We are spending £30 million of taxpayers’ money to increase the number of health-based places of safety for people experiencing a crisis, and I look forward to working with my hon. Friend on that.

Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill

Lord Benyon Excerpts

Report stage: House of Commons
Friday 15th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

May I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon North (Mr Reed) on progressing this extremely important Bill to this stage? I had the pleasure of speaking to it on Second Reading back in November. I am sure that the past seven months have felt pretty long to him, particularly as there were delays outside his control with the money resolution, and I am sure that that feeling was present again at times this morning. I hope that his diligence and persistence will pay off. We all know how much it will mean to see this Bill finally enshrined in statute. Nothing can demonstrate better the positive impact that a constituency MP can have in such circumstances, where there are clearly shortcomings in the current law, which we hope to put right.

I congratulate all hon. Members who have contributed so positively to the progress of the Bill, and the Minister on her constructive approach. I also echo the tributes paid to the Lewis family for the dignified and helpful way in which they have assisted in shaping this legislation. It has been evident from contributions that hon. Members have made during the passage of the Bill just how united we all are in our determination to do something to ensure that the tragic case of Seni is not repeated.

It is shocking to hear that, according to the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody, 46 mental health patients died following restraint between 2000 and 2014. Victims of restraint in these circumstances have said that face-down restraint by groups of men adds to the trauma that in many cases led to their mental illness in the first place. As well as bias towards women, there is evidence to suggest that members of the BAME community are disproportionately more likely to experience restraint, so we strongly support the Bill, which we hope will reduce the use of force and address the unconscious bias currently reported in the system, by increasing transparency, evidence, accountability and justice.

In terms of transparency, data is not currently collected consistently, so it can be hard to collate accurate data on how often restraint is used and on how restraint is used disproportionately against certain demographics. We hope that the Bill will create a level of uniformity that is currently missing. Recording how and why restraint is used, who it is used on and what steps were taken to avoid its use will inject much needed transparency and consistently into the system. We will then be in a much stronger position to tackle the issues of unconscious bias or overuse of restraint to which hon. Members have referred throughout the passage of the Bill.

We need to ensure that if tragedies of this nature occur again, they are independently investigated and that justice is not only done, but seen to be done. As my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon North has set out, new clause 1 would make it compulsory for an independent investigation to be carried out whenever a death occurs in a mental health unit. He set out the thinking behind the new clause very well. The Minister set out why it is not something that she can take on board, but she did give a clear view of some of the safeguards that will be needed regarding independence, particularly when it comes to potential conflicts of interest or, as she said, appearances of conflicts of interest. She was clear and strong about the need for the ownership and involvement of the families in any investigation. That is of paramount importance. I look forward to hearing whether my hon. Friend considers that a satisfactory response.

In conclusion, the Bill is a step towards a model of care, rather than one of containment. Of course, it does not have everything that we would want, but it is an important step in the right direction that will support patients, their families and emergency service workers. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon North on his hard work in reaching this stage and look forward to Seni’s Bill becoming Seni’s law.

[Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I seek your advice, because I have heard conflicting views. It is quite clear that we are not going to get to my Armed Forces (Statute of Limitations) Bill today. Would I be right that, if I were to not move it today and were to go to the Public Bill Office to seek another date, we would then have a better chance of having a debate? Many Members on both sides of the House want to debate the Bill, and there are 250 veterans in Parliament Square who particularly want the matter aired on the Floor of the House. I seek your advice on the best way to make that happen.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle)]

If it goes wrong, it is obviously going to come back on me. In the end the right hon. Gentleman must make the decision, but overall I would say yes; my view is that the actions he mentioned would lead to more time for a better debate.

If there are no further points of order, I call Sir Christopher Chope to speak—briefly, I presume, because I know that he wants to get on with the amendments.

Community Pharmacy in 2016-17 and Beyond

Lord Benyon Excerpts

1st reading: House of Commons
Thursday 20th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[David Mowat]

The scheme that we are putting into place is blind to ownership, so we will not take into account whether a pharmacy is a Boots, a LloydsPharmacy or something smaller. Given the gross margins that are currently being made by the average pharmacy, including smaller ones, I do not believe that the efficiency savings that we are asking for will cause widespread closures. It is scaremongering to imply that.

[Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)]

Those of us who represent constituencies with both remote rural and urban communities understand the difficult issues that the Minister and his Department have wrestled with. Does he agree that this decision is one that would have to be taken by whichever party was in government at the moment because it is right to ensure that the service is modern, efficient and that it represents security for people in rural communities?

[David Mowat]

Yes—modern, efficient and oriented towards excellent patient care.

Vaccine Damage Payments Act

Lord Benyon Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2015 Westminster Hall

[Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)]

I apologise for not being here for the start of the debate; I meant no disrespect to the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr Brown), who has been a tireless campaigner on the issue. I will take only a brief amount of the House’s time, partly because I must again be rude and leave the debate before the end—it is that stage of the parliamentary process.

I want to express my gratitude and that of my constituent. The hon. Gentleman spent two hours going in great detail through the difficulties suffered by her daughter, a 24-year-old girl, as a result of the HPV vaccine Cervarix. The anti-NMDA receptor antibody effect on her is massive. My constituent’s daughter will require financial support for life—disability benefits and a range of other support to get her through her difficulties. Those difficulties result from a reaction to a vaccine that has been an enormous success in this country in protecting young women from a viral condition, but which, in certain circumstances, has the effect I have mentioned. There is more evidence not just in this country but abroad, and there is emerging research.

I hope that the Minister will recognise the circumstances, and recognise also that more needs to be done, including looking at research from abroad. We should understand the difficulties of the individual concerned, who must go to endless meetings that require explanation of a complex medical condition not understood by people in the benefits world—and why should it be? It requires someone with a detailed understanding of a narrow field of clinical work to understand it. It is a question of constantly having to explain it again to someone new, and recognising that the situation will last a lifetime.

Perhaps a miracle cure or a way to reverse the condition will be found, but we cannot say. At the moment we need the Government to recognise—through the benefits delivery networks, as well as in terms of the Minister’s responsibilities—that there are people who acted for the right reasons and who need support. They need support in their battle to get their condition recognised and understood. There is a growing experience across developed economies, where the right measures are taken to protect young people from disease, of people being affected in the wrong way in certain circumstances. I hope that in future the system will permit greater protection for people such as my constituents. I applaud the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway for calling the debate.

Health

Lord Benyon Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure, but a daunting prospect, to follow the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd), who is a model of dignity for the House and has shared some truly horrific experiences with us. I want to talk mainly about public health, but before I do so, I should like to raise an issue that is not unrelated to what the right hon. Lady has mentioned.

I have been fascinated by the fact that the Mid Staffs issue has not resonated as a major concern with the vast majority of people in this country. Perhaps I missed it; perhaps it is there just under the radar. To me, it should be seared on our collective conscience as a nation. If 1,200 had wrongfully died, say, in police custody or in some other area of direct Government responsibility, there would be crowds of people out on the streets. Yet this was a collective failure and a national failure. Irrespective of what has been said in certain journals by certain Members, this was not a local issue, but a national one in which neglect, incompetence and something called cognitive dissonance was allowed to fester—and people died in large numbers.

We rightly revere the NHS. As with my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Sir Peter Luff), I have had recent experience of a close relative being treated in the NHS, and I have nothing but praise for the staff who treated him. Where there is failure, and when people are treated in the sort of way mentioned by the right hon. Lady and dignity and care fall by the wayside, we have to act. I believe that the implementation of the Francis report is a major step on that road. I applaud the Secretary of State for his determined approach to put patients first, by putting in place measures, individuals and safeguards so that Mid-Staffs does not happen again.

As I said, I want to talk about public health, which I believe is so important to how we are going to be able in the long run to afford a national health service. So much of that is about diverting people away from needing it. It is also about addressing inequalities. I have worked hard with other Members to make sure, for example, that rural areas are not left aside. When I was the Minister with responsibility for rural affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart) raised the issue of stroke treatments in his constituency. It is, of course, much quicker and easier for a stroke therapy consultant to spend all their time in Hull, dealing with many more cases in one day, rather than getting out into the rural areas. Addressing those health inequalities is now, however, for the first time a statutory requirement. That is a major step forward. It does not just involve national bodies such as NHS England and Public Health England; local care commissioning groups and local authorities are ensuring that inequalities are addressed.

[Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that there is a specific need in rural communities. Does he support the Government’s action in taking need out of the assessment for public health funding, which has meant that areas such as mine in the north-east have lost funds that have been redistributed to wealthier areas in the south?

[Richard Benyon]

I do not know what happens in the hon. Gentleman’s part of the north-east, but I can tell him that there is now a real drive to deal with the problems in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness. My hon. Friend felt that his constituents were getting a raw deal under the old system, and there is now a statutory requirement for that to be addressed.

The new responsibility for public health means a great deal to us as constituency Members. The West Berkshire health and wellbeing board, ably led by Councillor Marcus Franks, is taking the initiative locally, not just dealing with massively important issues such as reducing smoking but encouraging, through a partnership approach, lateral thinking and the tackling of disease and illness before they happen. We must ensure that that happens at local level as a result of legislation that has been introduced in the past.

I was pleased to be one of the authors of the natural environment White Paper. We worked closely with the Department of Health, with the aim of helping people to understand the healing benefits of nature and the great outdoors. Initiatives such as Walking for Health have created a virtuous circle. Improved health has led to greater companionship and less isolation, and organisations such as the University of the Third Age have improved the quality of life for lonely and, in some cases, elderly people—and, of course, there is the additional benefit of a lower health care bill for the taxpayer. All that is crucial to our objective of diverting people from health services.

About 20 years ago, a health service manager said to me, “The trouble is—from my point of view—that clever people keep inventing expensive new cures which we have to fund. People survive longer as a result, and that means yet more costs, because they will need the NHS at a later stage.” I think that he was being light-hearted, but it was probably just a half-joke. His point was this: if we, as a society, are to be able to afford the NHS that we want in the future, whichever party is in government, we must continue to divert people from it by keeping them healthier. The lateral thinking to which I referred earlier has never been more important.

I applaud the housing association that, working with its local health and wellbeing board, identified a large number of elderly people who were being admitted to hospital following accidents in the home. Simply employing a handyman to do some work in their sheltered accommodation resulted in a reduction in the number of injuries, particularly serious injuries such as broken hips, from which many people do not recover.

Another initiative in my area is “brushing for health”. Good oral health is vital, and my local health and wellbeing board has launched a programme involving Sure Start and other children’s centres, encouraging children to adopt diets that are lower in sugar and to brush their teeth more regularly, and ensuring that they will have access to a dentist. Promoting that initiative will mean that less national health dentistry will be required in the future.

On Saturday, I was delighted to launch the Newbury dementia action alliance. We know that 800,000 people in this country are living with dementia, and that it is costing the country £23 billion a year. It is great to hear that the G7 world leaders are getting together and making dealing with dementia one of their priorities, but what does that mean in our constituencies? It means, at local level, stimulating the minds of dementia sufferers, supporting their carers, ensuring that healthy living is part of the norm and involving organisations such as the fire service and the police.

That was a very quick canter around the importance of public health. I am running out of time, but let me end by saying that when we talk about health, we must not just talk about the important factors that surround the core of the national health service. We need to prevent people from becoming ill in the first place, and that is why the Government’s concentration on public health is so welcome. There is, of course, much more to be done, but a very important change has been made.