Business of the House

Debate between Lord Lansley and Ian Swales

Thursday 3rd July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady will be aware that the provision that Ministers refer to is in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill. There will be an opportunity, as I announced in the provisional business, for that to be debated.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

Control of discretionary social funds passed from the Department for Work and Pensions to local councils on 1 April 2013. In the first year, my local Labour council, Redcar and Cleveland, turned down 91% of applications from people in need and spent only £256,000 of its £765,000 allocation. May we have a debate on how councils are making use of these discretionary social funds?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point, which might benefit from an application for an Adjournment debate, not least because there may be other Members elsewhere in the House who feel strongly, as he does, about this and their local authority’s decisions.

Business of the House

Debate between Lord Lansley and Ian Swales

Thursday 27th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady raises an issue of the greatest importance to Members, and indeed to people across the country and especially to parents. I will, of course, talk to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. I was not present at the summit meeting with internet companies, but I know that she is working very hard on these issues. I particularly welcome the additional support given to the Internet Watch Foundation, which was previously based in my constituency and continues to operate out of Cambridgeshire. I hope that we will be able to work together across the House to ensure that we take every practical measure we can to reduce child exploitation and abuse.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

Sixth-form colleges are a vital and highly successful part of our education system, but they are treated by the Government as orphans of the further education sector. This means that they face issues that school sixth forms do not. May we have a debate on sixth-form colleges, and which Department does the right hon. Gentleman think should respond to such a debate?

[Mr Lansley]

I cannot promise an immediate debate, although I must say that in due course such a debate would be useful and would be appreciated not least by myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert), in whose constituency are two very successful sixth-form colleges at Hills road and Long road. My hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Ian Swales) makes a very important point, and I hope that we can take it up at some point. If we had a debate specifically about sixth-form college teaching up to A-level, it would be the responsibility of the Department for Education to respond, but if the debate related specifically to apprenticeships and skills-based learning, it would engage the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Lansley and Ian Swales

Tuesday 21st February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Gentleman is going to have to explain why the NHS’s performance is improving, and why it is better than it was at the election. We have cut mixed-sex accommodation, more people have access to NHS dentistry and hospital infections are at a record low. He talks about waiting times. The number of people waiting over a year for treatment has halved since the last election. The total number of people waiting beyond 18 weeks is lower than it was at the election, and the average wait for patients is lower than it was at the election. I am afraid that the premise of his question is completely wrong.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

Following the closure of a specialist ME clinic in Bolton, will the Minister review the narrow NICE guidelines on the treatment of ME, so that patients can get the outcomes that work for them, and so that the doctors providing such treatment are not placed at risk of losing their licence?

[Mr Lansley]

My recollection is that NICE itself is undertaking a review of the guidelines relating to the commissioning and provision of services for ME. I will check to ensure that that is the case, and if I am wrong I will of course correct the record. I will write to the hon. Gentleman in any case. It is not for Ministers to write NICE guidelines; that is a matter for NICE to deal with independently.

Breast Implants

Debate between Lord Lansley and Ian Swales

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

As I hope the hon. Lady will appreciate from what I said to the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), the Health and Social Care Bill introduces for the first time a comprehensive continuity of service regime for the NHS, and it also creates, through the health sector regulator, the potential for us to consider whether such continuity of service needs to be extended beyond the NHS.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

If the NHS stands behind private providers in such cases, it is effectively providing free indemnity insurance. Will the Secretary of State look at the insurance position of providers of such services and ensure that the taxpayer does not face open-ended liabilities?

[Mr Lansley]

As my hon. Friend points out, to that extent the NHS has always stood behind the private sector provision of health care. If things go wrong, people have the right to access NHS treatment as they must be looked after on the basis of clinical need. Referring back to points I made earlier, the Health and Social Care Bill gives us an opportunity to look more systematically at continuity of care for patients both in the NHS and the private sector and at the responsibilities of providers under their licence.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Lansley and Ian Swales

Tuesday 7th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

We have been very clear that we are asking the whole of the NHS administration—we are applying the same discipline inside the Department, to arm’s length bodies and across the whole of government—to secure a reduction by a third of real-terms administration costs over four years. In the NHS in particular, I am looking for a reduction in management costs of 45% in cash terms. By that, I mean specifically the costs of managers and senior managers. By definition, that does not include clinical staffing.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

T3. In the light of the recent damning report by the Care Quality Commission into Redcar and Cleveland council’s adult social care services, what steps is the Secretary of State taking to improve adult social care and will he meet me to address the issues raised in the report?