Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(12 years, 4 months ago)
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Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Demand at Trussell Trust food banks has gone up 800% under this Government. When can we have a debate on this cost of living crisis?
Mr Lansley
We are continually engaging in a debate on the issues relating to cost of living, and how families are able to cope with the consequences of the reduction of wealth in this country by 7.2% under the last Government, in the most serious recession we have faced in a century. It is inconceivable that such a reduction in wealth would not have consequences across society. Fortunately the number of workless households is now at its lowest level, and those who are in work are increasingly finding that their tax bills are going down. Inevitably and rightly, there are charitable and other endeavours to help those people who are in hardship, just as the benefit system should. We will have further opportunities to debate how we can target that support to best effect, and I look forward to those.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(12 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Lansley
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I am sure the House will appreciate how she has pursued that case, and share her hope that successful pursuit of that treatment will be of great benefit to Ms Williams. I cannot promise a debate, but it is important for the NHS to be able to pursue innovative treatments. CyberKnife—a brand name—is a form of interventional radiotherapy, and other forms of interventional radiotherapy were agreed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to be effective. From my experience in these matters I know that, along with others, CyberKnife was increasingly being adopted across the NHS, and rightly so.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Real wages for men have dropped in Blaenau Gwent by £30 a week. May we have a debate in Government time on how the Government’s two-nation policies have failed so many parts of the UK?
Mr Lansley
What is clear is that the coalition Government are pursuing what I regard as a genuinely one-nation policy, and restoring the economic health of this country after the appalling circumstances in which it was left—I referred to that earlier—in a way that gives proper support to those in need and helps people back to work. The Work programme is among the most successful initiatives. As I said, people in work will inevitably find that across the whole economy we are not in a position to pay ourselves more than we earn, or to carry on doing so, as we did for a long time. As a country, however, we are increasingly earning our way, winning in the global race, getting contracts and exports, investing for the future, and putting in place infrastructure and business investment that will enable us to earn our way to rising living standards in the future.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Payday lenders Wonga lend £1 million a year in Blaenau Gwent borough, so may we have a debate in Government time on support for the better value credit unions, to help vulnerable families?
Mr Lansley
The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the Backbench Business Committee has selected a general debate on high-cost credit to take place on Thursday 5 September, and I am sure that will afford him an opportunity to make his points.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(12 years, 7 months ago)
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Mr Lansley
Many Members in the House will have sympathy with what my hon. Friend says. Many Members will also remember the long struggle that took place to secure access to the BBC for the National Audit Office. When one sees, for example, the report that the NAO published recently in relation to severance agreements at the BBC, that entirely justifies the openness that resulted from its access. I am sure Members will be looking to the Public Accounts Committee’s hearings with the chairman of the BBC Trust and looking to the BBC Trust which, as regulator of the BBC, must take responsibility now for ensuring that the cultural changes that are required in the BBC are seen through.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
It cost £73,000 to help prepare three NHS chiefs for a recent Public Accounts Committee hearing. May we have a Government statement on how and why consultants were hired for 52 days in advance of a two-hour PAC hearing, and who will be called to account for this gross misuse of taxpayers’ money?
Mr Lansley
As far as I am aware, that should not have happened and it was an excessive use of resources for that purpose. I am sure my hon. Friends at the Department of Health and in particular its permanent secretary will want to examine precisely why that happened. [Interruption.] I think it happened after I was Health Secretary. Rather than rehearse or receive training, civil servants and others who give evidence to Select Committees would be well advised simply to think through what their responsibilities are and how they discharge them. That is the most important thing they can do and the proper preparation they should undertake.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Could we have a debate on alcohol pricing and the cost of antisocial behaviour on our high streets?
Mr Lansley
The hon. Gentleman will have heard me remind the House that the Home Secretary will answer questions on Monday. He could also discuss alcohol pricing in the Budget debate, especially in the light of the Chancellor’s decisions on alcohol duties, including the reduction in beer duty. I am sure that the House would welcome the hon. Gentleman’s contribution.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(13 years ago)
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Mr Lansley
I will of course be glad to see if there is anything further that needs to be said to my hon. Friend in relation to these matters. I answered questions in the latter part of November, I believe, relating to Spanish incursions and made it very clear that we would not allow those to impinge in any way on the integrity of the position of Gibraltar.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
The Royal College of Physicians says that by 2050 half the population will be obese, at a cost of £5 billion to the NHS. May we have a debate on how to deal with this public health time bomb?
Mr Lansley
I am sure that, if time allows, it would be helpful to debate that issue. We must understand, however, that it is not just a matter of childhood obesity. Most of the people who will be obese by 2050 are already adults, so we cannot solve the problem by tackling childhood obesity alone. It is adults who must take responsibility, but we must understand that at the same time as we do all the things that we are doing—calorie labelling, calorie reduction, getting rid of artificial trans fats, reducing saturated fats—people need community support and opportunities to get more exercise and to make better decisions. Features such as front-of-pack labelling give them that opportunity, but they must be willing to take it.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(13 years ago)
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Mr Lansley
My hon. Friend makes an important point, not least because he speaks from a Welsh perspective. There was recently a debate in Opposition time on reform of the exam system, which provided an opportunity for my right hon. and hon. Friends in the Department to demonstrate that our reforms are replacing GCSEs with rigorous world-class examinations, for example. We are setting out to ensure not only that standards are set and maintained in core subjects but that our examination system and curriculum match the best in the world.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Ovarian cancer is called the silent killer, as its symptoms go unrecognised and spread quickly. We could save the lives of 500 women a year if our services matched the best in Europe. Can we have a debate on how to improve awareness of the symptoms among both women and GPs, so that we can catch this cancer earlier?
Mr Lansley
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The disparity in survival outcomes for some of the main cancers is at the heart of the improving outcomes strategy for cancer that the Government set out; indeed, I set it out when I was Secretary of State for Health. I visited the very large-scale research project on ovarian cancer. From memory, I think 200,000 women formed part of that trial, which should soon—in the next couple of years or so—start to give us results that might lead to much better options for screening for ovarian cancer, and hence early access to treatment.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(13 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. It is a curious phenomenon in the House that when there are fewer Members standing—and fewer are standing today than is often the case at business questions—exchanges seem to lengthen to absorb available time. May I gently exhort the House to be pithy because there is a statement to follow and other business. If we can treat these matters succinctly, that would help.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
May we please have a statement on undiagnosed cleft palates in new babies? The Royal College of Surgeons has found wide variations across the UK. In North Thames, only 42% of cleft palates are identified at birth, whereas in Oxford the figure is 94%. The Government really must do better by mums and babies on this issue.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(13 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Lansley
My hon. Friend is a man after my own heart. I was chairman of the all-party group on stroke for about seven years before the last election. One of the things that we identified that makes a big difference to stroke outcomes is when stroke patients are admitted to a specialist stroke ward. I am happy to congratulate those at the George Eliot hospital on what they are doing. They are part of a general, substantial increase in the latest data on the proportion of patients who are looked after in that multidisciplinary context.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
The flawed business model of some private car park operators aims to catch out motorists. Over two years, we have seen an eye-watering 63% surge in requests for drivers’ details from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. May we have a debate on how best to protect the motorist and lift the veil on such predatory practices?
Mr Lansley
From memory, this is the Government who implemented the ban on wheel-clamping, which has given motorists protection against some of the worst excesses, but I will, of course, talk to my hon. Friends at the Department for Transport about what more we can do to give motorists a sense of proper security, rather than exposure to abuses.
Business of the House
Nick Smith Excerpts(13 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Lansley
My hon. Friend will recall that the arrangements reducing the accountability of NHS foundation trusts to this House were established in legislation passed under the last Government, but in the future the NHS competition provisions will be transferred from the OFT to Monitor, which should enhance accountability. He raises an important point, however, about the application of the Freedom of Information Act to NHS foundation trusts, and I will ask my colleagues in the Department of Health to respond to that matter.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Health professionals say that 125 amputations occur weekly owing to diabetes, yet 80% are preventable. The National Audit Office says that we could save £34 million annually if late referrals to specialist teams were halved. In the interests of patients and NHS budgets, may we have a debate on how to prevent amputations from diabetes?
Mr Lansley
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I do not recall: does he have an early-day motion on this matter?
Mr Lansley
I hope there will be opportunities to discuss these issues. The hon. Gentleman might talk to his colleagues on the Opposition Front Bench. Instead of a debate on regional pay in the NHS, which is not proposed, he might have invited his colleagues to have a debate on improving outcomes in the NHS, which is what this Government are setting out to do. Where diabetes is concerned, that is one of our priorities.