Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Victoria Atkins and Lilian Greenwood

Tuesday 23rd April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

14. What steps she is taking to improve healthcare for women.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Victoria Atkins)]

We are focused on delivering our women’s health priorities for 2024. Recent successes include new women’s health hubs opening across the country, with £25 million of investment; the investment of nearly £35 million over three years in improving maternity safety, on top of the extra £186 million already being invested each year; the success of the hormone replacement therapy prepayment certificates; and research into the important issue of maternity disparities, which I have already mentioned.

[Lilian Greenwood]

House of Commons Library figures reveal that one in four women with suspected breast cancer are waiting more than two weeks to see a specialist. The waiting list for gynaecological treatments has risen by 40,000 in a year, which means that there are now almost 600,000 women waiting, which is up by a third over two years. Labour has pledged to tackle that backlog, so that more women are seen faster. How much pain, misery or worse do women have to endure before this Government start prioritising their health?

[Victoria Atkins]

As the hon. Lady will know—she saw the statistics published very recently—we are in fact treating more people at earlier stages of their cancer. I want to take on her point about gynaecological waits, because that is important. We are spending more than £8 billion in this spending review period on additional elective activity, and investing in additional capacity, including community diagnostic centres and surgical hubs, many of which provide gynaecological tests and procedures. She may have missed it, but the latest published management information for March shows that the longest waits for gynaecology services have reduced by nearly 95% since their peak in September 2021. Of course there is more to do, but we are making progress. I thank all the doctors and teams who are involved in that important work.

Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Debate between Victoria Atkins and Lilian Greenwood

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend. I will genuinely come to that, because I know that that is a concern that colleagues have. I will develop my arguments, if I may, but I also remind him of my declaration of interest and, believe you me, I have no interest whatsoever in making life easier for smoking gangs. That is why as part of the package I will announce further funding and investment for law enforcement agencies both at the border and at local level.

Some have said that it is concerning that we are banning things. I totally understand the concerns of fellow Conservatives. We are not in the habit of banning things—we do not like that. We will bring these powers in only when we are convinced—following a no doubt robust debate, with the intellectual self-confidence that we have on the Government Benches—that there is no liberty in addiction. Nicotine robs people of their freedom to choose. The vast majority of smokers start when they are young. Three quarters say that if they could turn back the clock, they would not have started. That is why, through the Bill, we are creating a smoke-free generation that will guarantee that no one who is turning 15 or younger this year will ever be legally sold tobacco, saving them from the misery of repeated attempts to give up, making our economy more productive and building an NHS that delivers faster, simpler and fairer care. It is our responsibility—indeed, our duty—to protect the next generation. That is what the Bill will do.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State is right that we should protect the next generation. Labour proposed the smoke-free generation legislation in January 2023. We voted to crack down on marketing vapes to children in 2021, but the Tories blocked it. I welcome this Bill, but does it not show that where Labour leads, some Conservatives follow? Is she not concerned about the number of her colleagues, who we see lined up in the Chamber, who will vote against this legislation today?

[Victoria Atkins]

That is a brave submission from the hon. Lady, given the debate in the Chamber yesterday. I certainly will not take lectures from Labour on this legislation. We are bringing it forward because we have looked carefully at the evidence. What is more, we have tempered it so that existing adult smokers will not be affected. If the message from the Labour party is that it wants to ban smoking for adults completely, it should make that argument. We have tempered this carefully to ensure that it only deals with future generations.

Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme

Debate between Victoria Atkins and Lilian Greenwood

Thursday 6th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

May I pay particular tribute to the good people of Stoke? They have been incredibly welcoming not just to Afghans but to many other immigrants to the country and looked after them. I very much acknowledge my hon. Friend’s point that it is for us all to play our part and to ask our councils to offer homes where they can and to identify properties. The quicker that we can get properties on our books, as it were, the sooner people can move out of bridging accommodation and build real, permanent futures for themselves and their families.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

I am clearly not alone in dealing with large number of constituents with family members trapped in Afghanistan. They are increasingly desperate, because until today they did not have any further detail about the resettlement scheme’s operation. Will the Minister now publish advice and guidance that we can provide to constituents with family members in Afghanistan whose lives are at risk? Having listened to the statement and knowing about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the dangers of travelling to a third country, I fear that those constituents will be losing all hope.

[Victoria Atkins]

Again, we have been clear from the start—it was clear in the 13 September statement—that this is not a process open for applications. It is a referral process precisely because of the numbers involved. We know that an enormous number of the population of some 40 million will feel unsafe, and we do not have an unlimited capacity to help all 40 million citizens. I encourage the hon. Lady to help her constituents who are looking at the family reunion rules and the schemes to see if there is a route for them.