Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Tuesday 28th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I reiterate what I said in my Answer to the Question: we are fully committed to funding PIPCU. As the noble Lord knows, when PIPCU was set up in 2013, the intention was that the Government would fund it for a short period of time and that subsequently it would be funded by the rights holders as the insurance industry organised itself. This is not the case, so we are having to look at alternative means of supporting the unit. However, as I have said, those who work in PIPCU need have no concerns about whether the Government are fully committed to it.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interests in both policing and trading standards. Could the Minister tell us how many prosecutions this highly successful PIPCU has carried out in the past year and what proportion of those prosecutions was directed at the producers and wholesalers of fake goods, as opposed—simply and more easily—to those caught trading in counterfeit goods?

Healthwatch England

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Tuesday 26th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why, when advertising the post of Chair of Healthwatch England, the Department of Health stipulated that the successful candidate would require private sector experience, and why the governance arrangements for Healthwatch England have been changed so that its Chief Executive is subordinate to the Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

My Lords, the chair appointment was open to applicants from all backgrounds. Public appointments benefit from a diverse mix of skills, experience and backgrounds. In some cases, private sector experience may be sought to bring a different perspective that adds real value to the work of the board or committee. The Healthwatch England CEO has always been a CQC employee and this will not change. They will also continue to be responsible for delivering the committee’s priorities.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his Answer. However, it is a fact that when the post of the chair of Healthwatch England was advertised, it specifically—I think in the first line, virtually—said that the Government were particularly seeking somebody with private sector experience. Why was that given preference over and above somebody with, perhaps, a background in consumer representation? The CQC chief executive had a direct line of accountability to the Secretary of State. That has now changed. Perhaps the noble Lord can tell us why he thinks his right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health has acquired a reputation for not wanting to hear contrary views about the state of the health service.

Psychiatric Units: Child and Adolescent Patients

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Wednesday 13th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of deaths amongst child and adolescent patients in psychiatric units, in the light of the investigation conducted by the charity Inquest.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

My Lords, every death of a young person in in-patient psychiatric settings is a tragedy. It is essential that each case is fully investigated and lessons learned. Four children have died in in-patient child and adolescent mental health services since NHS England came into existence in 2013. The Minister of State for Care Services plans to meet Inquest to consider what more can be done.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that response. It is obviously at odds with the comments made by his honourable friend the Minister of State, who told “Panorama” that the department simply did not know how many young people had died in psychiatric care. Does the noble Lord accept that he and his ministerial colleagues have a duty of care under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights towards those in their care in psychiatric units? If so, as he said he was in favour of the principle of all those deaths being adequately investigated, will he ensure that in future there is a requirement on psychiatric units to report on premature deaths of all patients and that they are independently investigated by a body separate from the psychiatric unit concerned? He and I have discussed that in the past in his previous incarnation as chair of the Care Quality Commission.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My honourable friend Alistair Burt, the Minister for Care Services, and I accept that the lack of clear knowledge on how many deaths there have been in psychiatric care settings is not satisfactory or acceptable. I think the difference from the figure of nine in the “Panorama” programme is partly because the figure of four is from 2013 whereas the figure of nine probably goes back to 2010. Nevertheless, it is essential that we clear that up and get those facts straight. Alistair Burt has agreed to meet Inquest to do so.

As far as investigating these awful tragedies when they happen and learning from them, where someone is detained under the Mental Health Act and a suicide happens there is a requirement to inform the CQC, as the noble Lord will know. For example, where a child is not detained under the Mental Health Act, there is no such requirement. We are looking at this very thoroughly and when my honourable friend in the other place has completed his work I will write to the noble Lord with our findings.

Allied Health Professionals: Training

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Monday 8th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I entirely agree with the noble Lord that the role of speech and language therapies, particularly in treating people with stroke and other serious conditions, is absolutely vital. Perhaps I may correct a previous answer that I gave to the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. Therapeutic radiographers have gone down slightly but diagnostic radiographers will go up slightly.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister told us that the increase is among paramedics, which presumably balances the cuts in other areas. Is this the Government’s strategy for sorting out the problems in the ambulance service, which around the country is failing to meet emergency targets? Do the Government hope that by training some more paramedics, they will somehow solve the problem and money will magically become available for the ambulance service to function?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, having more paramedics is part of the solution, but the major part of the solution is to treat more people outside A&E departments, so that people do not require ambulances to take them into A&E departments but are treated at home.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Thursday 10th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I do not think anyone was told that no one was to blame as a result of the investigation into Mid Staffs. There were failures at all levels within the NHS with the regulation, the professions and the management of that particular trust. I believe that transparency is the right way to deal with the systemic problems that we have in many of our hospitals.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, if you are to achieve transparency, is it not the case that, first of all, as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has suggested, there should be an independent element in deciding whether a particular death is going to be investigated at all, and, secondly, there must be some independence in the nature of that investigation? Too often those investigations are too close to the establishments concerned. Does there not also need to be some oversight of those independent investigations so that general conclusions of a systemic failure can be picked up, acted upon and brought to his attention as a Minister?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health is committed to having a blame-free, independent investigation service looking at incidents of this magnitude in the NHS. That is why, on the recommendation of the PASC, he set up the investigations branch which will be up and running in March.

Police: Ambulance Support

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Thursday 16th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and draw attention to my interests in the register.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

The public deserve the right service from the right organisation at the right time. Only ambulances should be used to transport patients to A&E as only ambulances are clinically equipped and staffed to do so. Incidents where the police transport patients to hospital are very rare and the emergency services continue to work together to reduce them further.

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer; however, I think he is incorrect in saying that it is a very rare occurrence. Freedom of information requests have shown that the number of cases of people being taken to hospital to accident and emergency departments runs in the thousands in recent times. He is also aware, because he sent the figures to me, that, for example, in London the ambulance service has failed to meet its emergency target in terms of time in every single London borough in each of the last three months. What exactly do the Government think they are doing about making sure that there is adequate coverage for the emergency services? Is the intention that, despite all the Minister’s fine words about the importance of ambulances, the reality is that the police will have to act as paramedics?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I do not think that the noble Lord is right. The actual number of times that police transport patients to A&E is less than 0.1% of all such conveyances. I agree that there are some particular problems in London. There is a shortage of paramedics and they have an active recruitment plan to correct that. There have also been management problems in the London Ambulance Service and its performance, to which the noble Lord correctly draws attention, has not been good enough. There is now a new chief executive of the London Ambulance Service, who is fully aware of the issues. She has recently published the report about the levels of bullying in the London Ambulance Service, which are very distressing. The fact that that has been published and that she has acknowledged it give me hope for the future.

NHS: Whistleblowing

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Lord Harris of Haringey

Tuesday 30th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Baroness has probably read The “Snowy White Peaks” of the NHS, which sets out very clearly for all to see the really shocking lack of representation of people from BME backgrounds at senior levels of the NHS. This is an absolute priority. NHS England has appointed Yvonne Coghill to look at all the racial inequality issues, and she and NHS England have my full support in their endeavours.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as having two family members who work in the NHS. Further to the answer that he has given, will the Minister reflect on the fact that many trusts have contracts in which staff are warned that if they bring the trust into disrepute, they are likely to face disciplinary action? This has a stifling effect on whistleblowing and people raising issues of legitimate public concern with the media. Will he comment on that practice and what is going to be done about it?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

In Robert Francis’s report, Freedom to Speak Up, he specifically mentions—I think it is in principle 13, from recollection—that there should be no such clauses in NHS contracts unless it can be demonstrated that there is indeed a true public interest. In any severance package in which there is a gagging clause of any kind, CQC is entitled to inspect those agreements during its inspections.