NHS and Social Care Funding

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I agree that staff numbers are critical, but we have, since 2010, 1,500 more doctors in our A&E departments and 600 more consultants. Across the NHS, we have more than 11,000 additional doctors, so we do recognise the pressures that the NHS faces. Indeed, we have 1,600 more doctors than this time last year, so we are doing a great deal to solve the problem.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to learn best practice in the NHS? The hospitals that manage to integrate health and social care, such as those in Wigan and Salford which have managed to create those beds, are providing examples of best practice from which the whole NHS can learn.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is a mistake in this debate to try—as I understand Opposition parties want to do—to boil this all down to the issue of Government funding when there is actually a lot of variability in the country. At this time of year, which is always difficult, some hospitals are doing superbly well in extremely challenging circumstances. We have just heard about some of the hospitals that are doing well, and there are a number of them.

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[Dr Whitford]

The whole prevention and public health message is crucial, and that is one of our other challenges. I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for no longer talking about a figure of £10 billion, because the increase in the Department of Health’s budget is actually £4.5 billion. Part of that relates to the reduction in public health funding, just at a time when we need to move it on to a totally different scale. Whether that is children or, indeed, adults doing the daily mile—perhaps we should run up to Trafalgar Square and back every lunchtime, which I am sure would do us all a power of good—we need to invest in such preventive measures. One of my points is that when we end up desperate—patching up how the NHS runs, or dealing with illnesses we did not bother to prevent—we always end up spending more money.

[Graham Evans]

The hon. Lady knows how much I respect her and what she says. As the chairman of the all-party group on running, I endorse the daily mile and encourage all adults to do it. Park runs, which happen across the nation, are a good example. There is huge expertise in Scotland, so can NHS England learn from Scotland? What is best practice, and will she give us some examples of it in hospitals and hospital trusts in Scotland that we can take away and learn from?

[Dr Whitford]

The whole issue comes down to sustainability, which is obviously the idea behind the sustainability and transformation plans. As those who have heard me speak about STPs will know, I support the idea in principle. The idea is to go back to place-based planning on an integrated basis for a community. The difference in Scotland is that we have focused on integration. We got rid of hospital trusts in 2004, and we got rid of primary care trusts in the late 2000s—in 2009 or 2010. Since April 2014, we have set up integration joint boards, where a bag of money from the NHS and a bag of money from the local authority are put on the table and a group sit around it and work out the best way to deal with the interface and to support social care. Anyone in the Chamber or elsewhere with family members who have been stuck in hospital will know that people get into a bickering situation: Mrs Bloggs is in a bed so the local authority is not interested, because she is safe there, and the local authority is instead busy with Mrs Smith, who has fallen off a ladder trying to put up her curtains and who is not considered safe because she is leaving the gas on. Such boards get rid of all that perverse obstruction.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is right that I sprinted here—I was a little concerned that Defence questions might not last the full hour, although they did, and I am sure Mr Speaker is pleased about that. The point I would make about the ballot, which did receive the overwhelming support of junior doctors, is that it happened before they knew what the deal on the table was. On the heated issue of Saturday premium rates, we ended up with a proposal where the Government agreed to pay premium pay on Saturdays for any doctors who work one Saturday or more a month. At the moment, therefore, we have this extreme step—the withdrawal of emergency care—to boost the pay of doctors who work less than one Saturday a month. I think many members of the public will say that that is not proportionate.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

Let us be clear: this is an old-fashioned wage dispute, run by one of the most militant long-standing trade unions. My constituents are asking why the highest-paid NHS workers should be paid extra for working Saturdays when some of the lowest-paid NHS workers are not.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right. Doctors who strike will need to explain that to paramedics, healthcare assistants and nurses working in their own operating theatres. In the end, that issue is why this strike is happening. The BMA said in writing in November that it would negotiate on Saturday pay; it went back on its word in February. As a result, this is the only outstanding issue, and we now have this extreme step—the withdrawal of emergency care. I find that very hard to justify.

Dementia Care Services

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Wednesday 9th September 2015 Westminster Hall

[Edward Argar]

In addition to the hon. Gentleman’s many talents, which are well known in this House, he appears to be a mind-reader, as I was about to come on to that subject, having visited a similar memory café on Monday. He is absolutely right to highlight and pay tribute to the work of such places. On Monday, I went to the Syston community centre, where our local Alzheimer’s Society group was holding its regular Poppies memory café session for about 30 carers and people with dementia. As I am sure the hon. Gentleman did on his visit to his local memory café, I met some amazing people and it was a fantastic session. My memories of that session, and the lessons I learned from it, remain with me; I continue to reflect on them. However, across the UK, including in my region—the east Midlands and Leicestershire—the access to and coverage of such vital services remains patchy; that was a message I got loud and clear from the people I spoke to. As I suggested, that session left me in no doubt about the vital role of dedicated and passionate carers, including the amazing people whom the hon. Gentleman and I met, in helping people with dementia.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate, and he has made some powerful points. I would like to share with him some things that we are doing in Cheshire, and indeed in Weaver Vale. Dementia awareness is so important. My staff have received dementia awareness training, so that we can identify people with dementia. Also, our local town centres are dementia-friendly, which is significant. It enables people to come out as families and they are made most welcome in town centres, such as that of Northwich. Does my hon. Friend agree that town centres across the country should be dementia-friendly?

[Edward Argar]

Yet again, it appears that another hon. Member has the facility of reading minds and anticipating speeches, because I was about to say that there remains too little understanding of dementia in our communities, despite the progress made, and dementia-friendly communities and workplaces can play a hugely important role in supporting both those who have dementia and those who care for them.

I encourage the Minister to push all Government Departments to become dementia-friendly workplaces, and to keep talking about dementia and raising awareness of it. I also encourage her to keep the NHS talking about it. I know that other hon. Members—not least the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth, who is chair of the all-party group on dementia and possibly the only dementia champion in this House—will continue to raise these issues, as the shadow Minister has done over many years.

A recent survey showed that 25% of 18 to 25-year-olds are keen to learn and understand more about dementia, as opposed to only 15% of those aged 55-plus; that was a 2012 YouGov survey, so it is relatively recent. While it is encouraging that young people are keen to understand and learn more about dementia, those figures are still far too low.

NHS Reform

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I do not blame doctors; I do not blame the unions. I blame Ministers from the hon. Lady’s Government who gave consultants an opt-out at weekends that has had a catastrophic impact on patient care. I am delighted that she supports seven-day care, but it was not in the Labour manifesto; it was in the Conservative manifesto, and we are putting in extra money—£5.5 billion more than Labour was promising—to ensure that we can pay for it.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

I welcome the changes that my right hon. Friend has announced today in turning the NHS into a learning organisation rather than a denial machine. Does he agree that there should be a best practice industry standard for healthcare in this country, which learns and compares itself with other countries’ healthcare systems, such as Germany, France and Canada?

[Mr Hunt]

That is a very interesting idea, and I am happy to take it away. I am a strong believer in learning from best practice all over the world. Sometimes it is difficult to gather the data, but it is an interesting idea.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. Briefly, there is a £1 billion fund to improve, over the next five years, GP surgeries and premises and access to GP practices. It is an important part of the process of improving access to GPs, which is good not only for patients but for GPs, who can feel fully engaged in their work without being overburdened. This support should certainly help.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

5. What steps he plans to take to improve dementia diagnosis and care.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

Following a sustained effort to improve dementia diagnosis rates in the last Parliament I am pleased to report that in England we now diagnose 61.6% of those with dementia, which we believe is the highest diagnosis rate in the world. But there is much work to be done to make sure that the quality of dementia care post diagnosis is as consistent as it should be.

[Graham Evans]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his answer. A long-standing Weaver Vale constituent, Mrs Gladys Archer, successfully looked after her husband for many, many years at home until he was admitted to hospital for a routine operation. Following a misdiagnosis, he has had to go into a care home with all the personal cost and trials and tribulations that that involves. Will my right hon. Friend look into that case, and highlight what measures are in place and how we can improve matters so that we can stop patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia suffering when they are admitted to hospital?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that case and I will happily look into it. That is a perfect example of why we need to change the way we look after people with long-term conditions, such as dementia, out of hospital. If we can improve the care that we give them at home and give better support to people such as that man’s wife, we can ensure that the kind of tragedy my hon. Friend talks about does not happen.

NHS

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

With great respect to the hon. Lady, it was under her Government that we had the horrific tragedy of ambulances circling round hospitals because hospitals did not want to admit them in case they missed their four-hour A and E target. There is a lot of pressure in the system, but the fact is that 3,000 more people every day are being seen within four hours than when her Government were in power. That is something that A and E departments up and down the country can be rightly proud of.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

I have had reason to visit my accident and emergency four times with my young son, who is 10 years old and an enthusiastic rugby and football player. On those four occasions—for a broken nose, a damaged knee, damaged ankles and damaged elbows—we were seen within minutes for pain relief and were out of A and E within two hours.

[Mr Hunt]

That is exactly what is happening in so much of the country. Despite a lot of pressure, our A and E departments are holding up extremely well. I wonder how the staff in that hospital would feel about the constant running down of the NHS that we get from the Opposition.

Let us look at the figures that the right hon. Member for Leigh quoted in more detail. How does he get the number he quoted for the worst winter for a decade?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I have to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend, because he has been talking about the integration of health and social care for a lot longer than I have, and he is absolutely right. I would add to his list one other really important thing we are doing: we are making sure that whatever part of the system someone is in, doctors can access their GP medical record—with their permission—because that information is vital in showing their allergies, medical history and previous admissions. Breaking down the barriers that prevent that from happening is one of the things that has not been picked up but is in the GP contract.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

7. What steps his Department has taken to ease the short and long-term impact of winter pressures on NHS services.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

In the short term, a record £400 million has been assigned to help the NHS cope with winter pressures this winter, with £250 million announced in August—much earlier than before. For the long term, we will provide better out-of-hospital care for the frail elderly, by restoring the link between GPs and older patients, and looking to integrate the health and social care systems.

[Graham Evans]

Will my right hon. Friend join me in praising the outstanding work of Age UK and, in particular, Age UK Cheshire, which serves my constituency? It is raising older people’s awareness of seasonal impacts on health and offering support to prevent unnecessary pressures on the health service.

[Mr Hunt]

I am delighted to do that. As these are the last Health questions before Christmas, all of us would want to pay tribute to the voluntary organisations that do an extraordinary job of making sure that vulnerable older people do not get lonely over the Christmas period. It is heroic what they do—when we are with our families, they are looking after other people—and we should salute them all.

NHS Risk Register

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Andy Burnham]

Let me make this point, and I will give way in my own time.

People talk of confusion and drift, of a huge loss of experienced staff and established relationships and of an NHS in which no one knows who is making the decisions. That leads to concerns about the risks being run with our NHS—risks to patient safety, service standards and in relation to the efficiency challenge. The chief executive of the NHS confirmed that to the Public Accounts Committee when he said:

“I’ll not sit here and tell you that the risks have not gone up. They have.”

So, that is a fact. The Prime Minister who promised to protect the NHS has put it at risk. That much is clear, but what are the precise risks that the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister are taking with the NHS, and how serious are the risks? Does not the public have a right to know what they are? You would think so, would you not, Mr Speaker, given how much the NHS matters to people and how utterly so many people with long-term illnesses and disabilities depend on it.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

When the right hon. Gentleman was Secretary of State he refused a freedom of information request to publish risk registers in September 2009. Why was that? Was he aware of the request, and why did he not publish?

[Andy Burnham]

I will come to that in a moment. If the hon. Gentleman is patient, I will answer his point directly.

Given the risks that are being taken, and given how much the NHS matters to people and how utterly they depend upon it, particularly those with long-term illnesses and disabilities, one would think they had a right to know about the risks that the Secretary of State is running with their health service. Well, one would be wrong. Instead, Members of this House and of another place have been asked to approve the most far-reaching reorganisation of this country’s best-loved institution by a Government who have not had the courtesy to give them the fullest possible assessment of its potential impact on the NHS.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Tuesday 10th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

As far as I am aware, no assessment has been made to analyse the number of unpaid interns. What is very clear, however, is that when NHS organisations are using people to provide services as volunteers, that is clearly separate from what would be regarded as paid employment. That is clear in the strategy we set out last year and clear in the advice and guidance provided by the Cabinet Office as well.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

2. What recent representations he has received on access by NHS patients to drugs invented and developed in UK laboratories; and if he will make a statement.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Andrew Lansley)]

Representations received have strongly supported the Government’s “Strategy for UK Life Sciences”, which was published on 5 September. Speeding up clinical trials approval, enabling the unique NHS clinical databanks to support research, the early adoption of new medicines and other initiatives will bring NHS patients the fullest benefit from innovation and will promote growth in UK biosciences.

[Graham Evans]

What steps are being taken towards closer collaboration between the NHS, industry and our world-class universities to drive improvement and innovation in the NHS for the benefit of current and future NHS patients?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He rightly highlights an area where we are clear that innovation can be considerably supported, and not only by the academic health science centres, which were established under the last Government. As the life sciences strategy set out in early September made clear, we want to create academic health science networks across the NHS so that higher education, industry and the NHS can work together to bring about the greatest possible innovation to the benefit of patients.

Manufacturing

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of the future of manufacturing.

Manufacturing should be at the heart of any long-term plan for economic growth. It is a sleeping giant that, if revived, would become the backbone of a strong UK economy. It is entirely right that, five days before the autumn statement, we should have the opportunity to debate the subject in broad terms in the House. I thank the Backbench Business Committee and the House of Commons staff for their assistance in bringing this matter before the House and, in particular, I pay tribute to my co-sponsors, the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) and the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle), who have adopted an all-party approach to this problem which affects us all.

It is well known that I used to be a jockey and a lawyer, so it is legitimate to ask how on earth I can have any credibility in speaking about manufacturing. All MPs do, because we all have small and medium-sized enterprises that make something in our constituencies. We all have credibility on this issue.

My family came to this country as immigrants. They were engineers, specialising in gears. In May 1924, in the depths of a very bad recession, they set up Opperman Gears in a basement in Albemarle way in Clerkenwell. It had four staff—my great-grandfather and his three sons—who worked in the basement on two lathes, three milling machines and a couple of tools. They had borrowed £110 from a distant relative to set up the business. It grew rapidly and by early 1939 it moved to Newbury, where my family set up a larger firm that was able to produce the parts for the Wellington bomber with its long-term partner, Vickers.

We do not run that company any more, but I should declare that I am a shareholder in the small manufacturing business run by my father and that my family members are involved in a number of different manufacturing businesses up and down the country. I should also make it clear that I resigned my directorship of the family business in 2009 and am not paid by it in any way.

I should also declare that I am a wholehearted supporter of my local manufacturing businesses in the north-east, notably Kilfrost, EGGER, SCA, Agma and others, and their financial support allowed the charitable functions I ran this summer in the constituency. I should declare an indirect link, in that a director of one of those firms made a contribution to my association.

I hope I am doing my bit to try to create jobs. I was the second Member of this House to employ an apprentice and I urge those Members who have not to do so. She is a young lady who works in my office in Hexham and who has been with me now for nearly a year, and is doing extremely well. Members of all parties can take on apprentices—it is allowed under the rules—and I urge them to do it.

The scale of the manufacturing deficit is huge. The nations that expanded post-war specialised in and pushed manufacturing. Those nations—Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China—knew what they were doing. Today, the services sector alone can prop up Britain no longer, and there is a strong argument for greater industrialisation and changing things. We have seen the demise of manufacturing—it accounted for 20% of gross domestic product in 1997 and now accounts for 11%—and there is a strong argument for specialising not just in high-tech industry but in other industries, which are often derogatively labelled “metal-bashing”. Their products are unassuming, even if they are created by some of the most precise machines on the planet.

My constituency is in Northumberland and my four biggest non-public sector employers are all manufacturers. The north-east might be the birthplace of ships and steel, but we have reinvented ourselves. I was pleased to see SCA recognised in the Government-backed “Made by Britain” awards, which were so ably organised by the hon. Member for Huddersfield. That company employs about 435 local people in Prudhoe, including 60 apprentices. It could not be doing any more to support its local community. It does not make glamorous, eye-catching products—or perhaps some people think it does—but it produces one in every five toilet rolls in this country, as well as vast quantities of paper towels. I am sure we all agree that those are essential products.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

Flushed with success.

[Guy Opperman]

It is, indeed, flushed with success, as my hon. Friend so ably quips from the sidelines—as always, he is on the money. The wood pulp goes in at one end of the factory and paper products come out at the other. The machinery is highly technical; this is modern manufacturing in the modern age.

In this time of austerity, I am extremely proud that the north-east has a positive balance of trade and is the only region consistently to do so. We should trumpet the fact that the North East chamber of commerce is the only regional chamber of commerce in the country. It represents more than 4,000 businesses and covers more than 30% of the region’s work force. If I had to single out one local concern that it has highlighted to me from the multitude of things it would like to be done, it would be to urge the Minister to conduct the review that it is hoped will be undertaken of the planned carbon floor price and other climate change and energy-related matters.

How are we to address the manufacturing deficit? I have three main suggestions. First, we need a Minister for manufacturing. That is not to decry the efforts of the Minister with responsibility for business or the Business Secretary, both of whom are worthy men, or those of any parties in that Department. However, the fact remains that, according to the House of Commons Library, there has not been a Minister for manufacturing since 1945.

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[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) on securing the debate. Apart from a brief spell stacking shelves in my local Co-op in Poynton, I have worked in the manufacturing industry for my entire career. Interestingly, my first manufacturing job as a young man was working for BAE Systems on the mark 3 airborne early warning Nimrods. After a lot of taxpayers’ money, that was rightly cancelled because it was over budget and out of date and did not work.

When Britain was described as the workshop of the world nearly a century and a half ago in 1870, the UK accounted for almost half—46%—of the world’s manufacturing output. Today, that title has been bestowed on China, which produced a fifth of the world’s manufactured trade in 2007. The term seems to have lost some of its meaning over time, as has the notion of Britain as an industrial nation.

Everyone appears to believe that the UK is doing fine when it comes to manufacturing, citing the fact that we are the fifth largest manufacturer in the world in terms of value of output. That attitude has bred complacency and allowed successive Governments to believe that they are doing enough to maintain that position. However, that belies the truth. If we measure manufacturing in terms of per capita value added, we realise that Britain is only around 12th in the international league tables, and suddenly the picture changes dramatically.

It is clear that if we are to rebalance our economy, much more must be done to push us up the rankings. That means providing support for all forms of manufacturing, rather than just the high-tech sectors that seem to be so fashionable at the moment. It has been calculated that those sectors make up only 14% of British manufacturing and it has been argued that the support for manufacturing should be based on value, not the complexity of the product. For example, the UK still produces basic metal turbine blades, but they are cut by some of the most precise machines on the planet. The product is simple but very high value, thanks to the advanced production process.

There is no question but that such a shift must take place. The financial crisis made most people aware that the UK cannot rely on the financial services trade surplus to prop up the industrial trade deficit. However, it is less well known that, according to the Office for National Statistics, even the financial sector’s maximum export volume of £55 billion in 2008 was eclipsed by manufacturing’s £195 billion of exports.

The problem is twofold. First, our manufacturing ability is only rivalled by our insatiable appetite for other people’s goods. That has led to the latest trade in goods deficit of almost £100 billion—a new record. Secondly, Britain has grown complacent. Our manufacturing output has remained constant for the past 13 years under Labour, which is a reduction of £3.5 billion per annum in real terms.

Where did it all go wrong for UK industry? Contrary to popular assumptions, although some deindustrialisation did occur under Margaret Thatcher, the bulk of the factory closures came later. Indeed, when Labour took office in 1997, manufacturing comprised exactly a fifth of the UK economy. By 2007, it had declined to an eighth. In comparison, under the whole of the Thatcher Administration, the decline was 3.3%. The loss of our manufacturing capabilities is a very recent concern, which should fill us with a certain level of optimism.

[Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)]

So far, the debate has been conducted on a reasonable cross-party basis. However, given the fact that the hon. Gentleman has made a political assertion, can I point out that in the black country, at least four huge manufacturing employers—Round Oak steelworks, Patent Shaft steelworks, Bean Cars and Cannon—were closed during the Thatcher era? That had a devastating impact on the level of employment in the black country.

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[Graham Evans]

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. At the beginning of my speech, I made the point that all Governments of all political persuasions have contributed to the overall decline. I take on board the closures in his constituency. All Governments need to learn the lessons of the past, but that does not mean that we should underestimate the problem.

Let us consider energy-intensive manufacturing sectors, which include the chemical, steel, glass and paper production industries among others. The chemical industry is of particular importance in my constituency, where Tata and INEOS Chlor are still major employers in Northwich and Runcorn. According to Waters Wye Consulting, policies such as the EU’s emissions trading scheme and the unilateral carbon price floor mean that the average energy-intensive company’s energy bill will rise from £3 million now to £17 million in 2020—an untenable level for the majority of these firms, which simply cannot afford to continue production in the UK. Proponents of these policies argue that energy-intensive sectors account for only 1% of GDP and so do not matter. If we quantify that figure, it equates to a potential loss to the UK economy of £15 billion and 290,000 jobs. More widely, the Royal Society of Chemistry claims that £220 billion of GDP and 5.1 million jobs are partly reliant on UK chemical research alone. Clearly, the visible threat to UK manufacturing is only the tip of the iceberg, but the problem is that most people do not realise that.

British industrial decline, relatively speaking, is in sharp contrast to the experiences of our neighbours—in particular, Germany. German long-term support for manufacturing means that it now possesses the economic clout to dominate Europe. Given the UK’s and Germany’s widely different starting positions 60 years ago, it is clear that it has done something that we have not, and that something is valuing industry. From post-war restructuring to reunification, Germany has always recognised that manufacturing was the backbone of its economy and therefore never enacted policies that would endanger it. Indeed, political infrastructures were set up to nurture industry, especially mittelstand—or, as we refer to them, small and medium-sized companies or SMEs. Foremost among those tools stands KfW, the state-backed bank that ensures that mittelstand can access funding even when the commercial banks are unwilling to lend. The value of such an institution was seen in the financial crisis. According to its accounts, in 2010 KfW financed a record €28.5 billion for SMEs, amounting to approximately 94% of all its commitments for the year. Without KfW, the potential for many extra jobs and exports would have never been realised for Germany.

It is hard to understand how far the value of German industry goes. Youngsters are encouraged from an early age to appreciate the importance of making things.

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the key elements of Germany’s success is its investment in research and development? We need to be encouraging that. Jaguar Land Rover is building a new factory in my constituency and investing in R and D, and the Government could go a long way towards helping that by reviewing R and D tax credits, which the Treasury is considering at the moment.

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[Graham Evans]

I agree with my hon. Friend. We have a reputation for very good, world-beating research and development, but it goes beyond that—when we have discovered these things, we still have to ensure that we make them in this country.

The Germans try to ensure that their young people appreciate manufacturing. Eliciting such a response from British children, compared with their counterparts in Germany, is increasingly difficult as they grow up. Initial curiosity about industrial work might be dismissed as selling themselves short by parents and teachers, and by the time the most able leave school, university is the only option, with apprenticeships considered by some to be second rate. The closest many of the next generation get to manufacturing is printing off a computer document. Little wonder that youth unemployment hit 1 million last week; many do not have the skills needed by manufacturers, thus further encouraging those manufacturers to relocate their businesses elsewhere, to the increasing detriment of British growth. As I have repeatedly said in this Chamber, we need to educate our children in a manner that will enable them to become the engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs that this country needs to pay its way in the world.

With the average age of those in industrial employment at 40 and rising—50 in some sectors, such as chemicals—drastic action is required. British manufacturing is at a crossroads. It can grow, bringing jobs to those who need them and contributing to reducing the deficit, or it can decline further, with valuable businesses permanently lost. There is reason to believe that the former positive outcome is more likely if we commit to making it happen. The Government have made a strong start. That this debate is happening is hugely positive and shows that we recognise the seriousness of the problem. The solutions that we need involve major changes both culturally, in widening our appreciation for manufacturing, and practically, in creating a more positive environment for industry. Let us make it in Britain. Let us make Britain great again.

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[Gordon Birtwistle]

I totally agree with my hon. Friend and I will come on to an initiative in my constituency related to that suggestion.

In my constituency we have Burnley college, a joint FE-HE campus working with local firms to train highly skilled youngsters to be ready for the world of work. We are also getting a university technical college that will bring young people into the industrial life. Burnley college has made huge leaps in changing the perception of manufacturing locally among young people, and if the model the college uses were introduced across the UK, it would go a huge way towards really changing the perception of manufacturing at a national level. More schools and colleges need to start joining up with local businesses to provide youngsters with the knowledge and experience that will help them in the world of work. Too many children do not have any experience of working, or of the personal and other skills required. I will continue to encourage the Government to introduce impartial careers advice from the age of 11. Indeed, we should start careers advice long before young people go to secondary school.

[Graham Evans]

Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the Manufacturing Institute’s Make It campaign, which is specifically designed to enable young people in what used to be year 3—now year 9, I think—to experience as they take their options the delights of working in the manufacturing industry?

[Gordon Birtwistle]

Yes, I am aware of that, and it is a great thing. I encourage the Government to encourage such things, and we should also give careers advice to young people at 11.

Manufacturing must cease being perceived as a career avenue for low achievers, and the Government must work harder to ensure that perception and reality are closely matched. The culture in our schools must change, and the Government can help with that. There is so much emphasis on how many children can get to Oxbridge but there is never a fanfare about how many get on to high-skilled training programmes in the manufacturing industry, such as those with Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems or Aircelle in my constituency. Business must recognise that a new role is emerging, and UK manufacturing must ensure that it sells its career and employment possibilities to young people.

Trade finance also plays a huge role in the export cycle, but small and medium-sized enterprises often find raising the finance overly complex because of the myriad requirements on both financial institutions and Government agencies. The manufacturing industry in Burnley would like the Export Credits Guarantee Department to work more with financial institutions on initiatives to support exporters, particularly small businesses, many of which would love to export but find it difficult. For example, What More, an SME in my constituency that makes plastic buckets, washing-up bowls and lunch boxes that are sold widely in Tesco, is taking on the Chinese. The Chinese used to control that market but the company now exports to 38 countries, including China, and would like to export further afield. What More tells me that with an export credit guarantee it could export to another 25 countries. It employs 160 people and has invested £16 million over the past few years.

It is critical that the Government, as a big purchaser of manufactured goods, buy British-made goods. I was extremely disappointed by the decision on the Thameslink contract. I do not know how it happened. I was not a Member of Parliament during the consultation and quotation on the Thameslink trains but I was concerned that the contract was placed with Germany. I do not understand the European rules but I was extremely concerned. Importing trains when we make our own does not stack up. I am pretty sure that the Germans and the French do not import their trains. They seem to find a way around these rules to ensure that the same does not happen there. Furthermore, a £1 billion order for Chinook helicopters was sent direct to Boeing despite there being a helicopter company in this country with a licence to build Chinooks. That would have saved us £500 million on our balance of payments.

I have a couple of suggestions for the Minister. First, we should return the capital allowances scheme to enable companies to invest and get the capital allowances on the new equipment that they buy. There would be a massive investment in new plant and investment if the capital allowances were returned. Secondly, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) said, tax rebates on research and development should be increased in line with the rest of the world and with what is needed in this country.