Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(9 years, 8 months ago)
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Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(9 years, 11 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
It is very good also of the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) to drop in on us. I do not know whether he is aware, but he has a question on the Order Paper and we want to hear him. It is a topical question—anything the hon. Gentleman likes. I will give him a moment or two more to dream something up. Come on, Mr George—let’s hear you!
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
T4. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I apologise: I was in conversation. On renewable projects, particularly large-scale solar and large-scale onshore wind, is the Secretary of State making sure that community benefit is being assured in terms not just of the energy created, but of the share in the resource?
Points of Order
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(9 years, 11 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Well, he might have a wider concern. However, there are people in the Government who would be happy to table a money resolution for the Bill he wants to see progress, but not for another Bill, and the Liberal Democrats take precisely the opposite position. The Leader of the House will correct me if I am wrong, but I think the thrust of what I have said is accurate.
Mr Speaker
The hon. Gentleman is an interested party in these matters, but I hope he is not seeking to continue the debate. If he has a genuine point of order, we are all agog.
Andrew George
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you for the intro. I think there is a matter at stake here that should detain this House because the pre-eminence of Parliament is being challenged, in the sense that the Government are defying the will of Parliament by refusing to grant, or rather to table, money resolutions in respect of private Members’ Bills. What the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) and I are seeking to achieve through your advice and support, Mr Speaker, is to ensure that the will of this Parliament is respected, and that the Government can be challenged when they refuse, as they have chosen to refuse, to table a money resolution in support of private Members’ Bills that have the clear support of this Parliament.
Mr Speaker
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. The short answer is that I would be very sympathetic to somebody else being able to table the money resolution in compliance with, and following on from, the Second Reading approval by the House. However, such a right does not currently exist, and the Speaker cannot create it. I think the fairest thing I can say, with very considerable sympathy for the hon. Gentleman and for the hon. Member for Wellingborough, is that Leader of the House is in place and has, appropriately enough, an air of gravitas about him. He has heard what has been said and he is weighing the matters in his scholarly cranium, and we may hear further and better particulars in due course—or not, as the case may be. We will leave it there for now.
Points of Order
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow
Mr Speaker
If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will take the point of order from Mr Andrew George first, and then I will come to him.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. In respect of the provision and tabling of money resolutions, and further to your advice a moment ago, can you please tell the House on what previous occasions there have been circumstances where, on Second Reading of a private Member’s Bill, the will of this House has been clearly demonstrated through a desire to proceed with that Bill but has been frustrated by an Executive who are clearly abusing the privilege of their Executive power in the way that they are with the private Member’s Bill on affordable homes?
Mr Speaker
I do not wish any discourtesy to the hon. Gentleman, but it is not for the Chair either to be subject to, or the purveyor of, a history lesson on these matters. I would say to the hon. Gentleman, who is nothing if not an eager beaver, that he should consult the Journal Office, and I think that he will go away, as a result of so doing, significantly better informed.
Health
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. I say to the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), who has just published an extremely cerebral tome on the history of Parliament, that he should not be yelling and exhorting from a sedentary position as though he is trying to encourage a horse to gallop faster. It is not an appropriate way to behave.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
The Secretary of State mentioned the importance of integrating secondary and primary care. He will be aware that the chief executive of NHS England recently addressed the large number of community hospitals with a sword of Damocles hanging over them and whether or not they will continue to exist. He said that that issue should be revisited and, indeed, has argued that community hospitals should be developed and that we should protect that area of care. Does the Secretary of State believe that the chief executive of NHS England is calling for the retention and reopening of community hospitals?
Mr Speaker
Interventions should be brief—the hon. Gentleman is experienced enough to know that.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
As the Clerk Assistant has just pointed out to me, Members’ approach to Question 2 might best be described as “broadband”.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
On the same theme, it is important to recognise that to have a resilient wi-fi service on our rail service, we need to have a resilient rail service. In view of the Secretary of State’s earlier reply, does he not accept that if we are to invest properly in a resilient service down to Penzance, in my constituency, we need to ensure that there is funding comparable to the money being spent on HS2 and other services?
Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill [Lords]
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Andrew George
The hon. Gentleman is, in truth, arguing for the abolition of all the competition authorities. That seems to be the direction that his argument is taking. In fact, clause 4 makes it clear that the decision to investigate would be made if the adjudicator had reasonable grounds for suspecting a breach of the code, and clause 10 makes it clear that any supplier who brought a complaint that was “vexatious or…without merit” would be required to pay some or all of the costs involved. Paragraph 48 of the Competition Commission’s final report stated that it envisaged that the groceries code adjudicator
“would prioritize the resources of its office to focus on those disputes and complaints concerning suppliers without market power over and above those concerning suppliers of major branded products that have market power.”
It is clear that such decisions must be made by the adjudicator, and I am perfectly content that the Bill has the capacity to ensure that that description—
Mr Speaker
Order. I am loth to interrupt the hon. Gentleman in mid-flow, but interventions seem to be becoming progressively longer. There is no problem about their frequency, but there is about their length. We must now hear from Mr Philip Davies.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. I am extremely grateful to the Secretary of State, but questions and answers are, frankly, too long. I am sure we will have a short—that is, single sentence—question from the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George).
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
I shall do my best, Mr Speaker.
If British farmers are to compete on the world market, support systems must not simply allow British farmers to avoid creating the ranch-and-prairie environmental deserts that we clearly do not want. Does my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State believe that the common agricultural policy reforms are currently moving things in the right direction?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
When the Government introduced the Health and Social Care Bill a year ago, they did so with the claim that the NHS fails in comparison with its European counterparts with regard to patient outcomes. Now we know that that is not the case, will the Government withdraw the Bill?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(13 years ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. The House must come to order. Members must not keep shouting at the Deputy Prime Minister simply because they do not like what he is saying. It is called democratic exchange, and the hon. Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) should be used to it.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
T10. The Deputy Prime Minister will be well aware that Cornwall is a distinctive region within the UK, with its own unique language and history, and that it has modest ambitions for devolution, not to cut itself off, but to cut itself into the celebration of diversity. Will he meet a delegation from Cornwall so that we can explore how Cornwall can help the Government to make better and more efficient decisions there?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow
Mr Speaker
Order. I had been advised that the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) had withdrawn his question, but a simple nod of the head will suffice to reinstate him. We are grateful.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
17. What contribution he expects the private rented sector to make towards future housing need.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Andrew Stunell)
The private rented sector has already responded flexibly to housing need over the past few years. By 2010 it had expanded to house some 3.4 million households in England, an increase of 1 million since 2005.
Provision of Hydration and Nutrition for the Terminally Ill
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(13 years, 2 months ago)
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Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey) for ensuring that this issue is raised in the House and that the debate on it is advanced. She approached the matter with characteristic thoughtfulness and great articulacy, as she has done on many occasions.
It was clear from the title of the Bill that this issue would bleed into the debate about the appropriate role of the Liverpool care pathway. Just as we debate many other issues, it is appropriate for this House to reflect on and debate the ethical questions that arise from this particular issue. As Benjamin Franklin said:
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain”—
Mr Speaker
Order. I apologise for interrupting the hon. Gentleman, but this is not a debate, as such; it is a consideration of a specific and narrowly drafted Bill. What I seek to ascertain at the outset is whether the hon. Gentleman is opposing the Bill.
Andrew George
I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker. Having heard what my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal said, I have no intention of pressing the motion to a Division. However, the narrow title of the Bill relates to patients’ rights to hydration and nutrition, which raises the question of contradicting the General Medical Council’s advice—that is a medical decision rather than an issue of basic care.
Mr Speaker
Order. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his clarification, which for my purposes I will take as a yes.
Andrew George
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
As I was saying, Benjamin Franklin said:
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
As the House debates and comes to conclusions on taxes, it is also appropriate for us to consider—and to consider deeply—ethical questions such as the manner and process of death. We should ensure that end-of-life care and the ethical questions surrounding it are carefully considered.
It is my intention to deal not with the legal case surrounding the death of Tony Bland, but with the implications of the Bill on the GMC and on other guidance on the application of the Liverpool care pathway. Like others, I have been confronted by those issues, with the loss of a very close family member in recent months. Such questions inevitably and sadly confront us all.
Medical treatment of the terminally ill should be in the patient’s best interests. We should recognise that a blanket policy—of always providing, or of always not providing, artificial nutrition and hydration—would be ethically indefensible. Therefore, all decisions on medical interventions, which is what we are debating, should be based on sound, clinical judgment.
I agree with my hon. Friend that these matters should be kept under review. It is absolutely appropriate that the current guidance that applies is kept under review, and that the House of Commons and the House of Lords should be involved in debates on it.
The Liverpool care pathway is used in hospitals as a plan of care for patients in the last days and hours of their life. The pathway is recommended as best practice in the end-of-life care strategy. Patients should be involved in decision making wherever possible, and they have a right to refuse treatment in person, or in advance of a loss of capacity. Health care professionals should seek to provide the highest standards of care possible to dying patients. On occasion, that will involve recognising that a patient who is hours, or at most days, away from death, will be harmed rather than helped by the application of artificial nutrition and hydration.
The GMC guidance to doctors on end-of-life decision making states:
“All patients are entitled to food and drink of adequate quantity and quality and to the help they need to eat and drink…You must keep the nutrition and hydration status of your patients under review. You should be satisfied that nutrition and hydration are being provided in a way that meets your patients’ needs, and that if necessary patients are being given adequate help to enable them to eat and drink”,
hence the application of the artificial intervention to assist them.
The guidance also states:
“If a patient is expected to die within hours or days, and you consider that the burdens…of providing clinically assisted nutrition or hydration outweigh the benefits they are likely to bring, it will not usually be appropriate to start or continue treatment.”
Similar advice is provided by the National Council for Palliative Care.
The benefits of artificially provided nutrition and hydration include the potential to prolong life and improve general well-being. Artificial nutrition could prolong life in patients with obstructing tumours, such as throat cancers, or those with diseases that prevent them from swallowing, such as motor neurone disease. Artificial hydration could in certain circumstances also relieve thirst.
However, there are also risks. In some circumstances, artificial nutrition and hydration will only prolong the period of suffering, and there could be complications associated with having tubes inserted. Fluids given via drip can exacerbate oedema—swelling—and increase leakage into body spaces that can lead to a more distressing death, for example if fluids get into the lungs.
It is important, therefore, that in debating this issue, which I hope the the House will have time to do—because it needs to be kept under review—we will have an opportunity to consider the risks of continuing to apply artificial nutrition and hydration. That issue has been well covered by the General Medical Council and others in the clinical guidance that needs to apply here. The Liverpool care pathway has been accused of encouraging a tick-box culture that does not consider the whole patient and their needs. We have to ensure that the highest-possible clinical standards are applied when the LCP is administered. Equally, as my hon. Friend said, we have to strike a balance between the patient’s best interests and wishes and the wishes of the family close to the terminally ill patient. She emphasises, in the title of the Bill, that this is a matter of the right to treatment, but it is also a matter to be balanced with the right to ensure that medical interventions are in the best interests of patients. On that basis, I wish to ensure that we strike a balance when we debate the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That Dr Thérèse Coffey, Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt, Harriett Baldwin, Jim Dobbin, Thomas Docherty, Mr Andrew Turner and Dr Julian Lewis present the Bill.
Dr Thérèse Coffey accordingly presented the Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 25 November, and to be printed (Bill 230).
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
My right hon. Friend mentioned the review of the renewables obligation certificates. He will be aware of the great opportunity presented by the wave hub project located off the north coast of my constituency. In respect of the review, however, what reassurances can he give me and the House that there will be an even playing field north and south of the Scottish border?
Waste Review
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
I welcome the publication of the review today. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we are to address the challenge of the regularity of waste collection, we need particularly to look at pages 58 onwards of the report in relation to the management of food waste? What will the Government be doing to reassure people that we will meet ambitious targets to reduce food waste going into the chain?
Mr Speaker
Order. I ask colleagues to ask short questions. There is a lot of interest and there is little time.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(14 years ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. There is a lot of interest and little time. From now on, we need short questions and short answers.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
T3. What assurance can Ministers give my constituents in west Cornwall that the legal aid reforms published last week will not adversely affect the coverage of, or reduce access to, legal aid, particularly in civil and family proceedings?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(14 years ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. I am grateful, but the Minister must cut it short. Work needs to be done on these things. The answers are often far too long.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
As the Minister said, the current Government strongly support, as did the previous Government, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. What is the Minister’s assessment of the success of the country co-ordinating mechanisms, and particularly the efforts to ensure that co-infection of HIV and TB is well managed on a country basis?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
T2. The Chancellor promised that the vulnerable would be protected from budget cuts, but I know that Ministers will be well aware that there has been much speculation about the future viability of the bus service operators grant, which is clearly essential to many marginal rural services, the sustainability of which would be called into question if that were to be in any way cut. What reassurance can Ministers give me and my constituents that those rural services, which are essential—
Finance Bill
Debate between Andrew George and John Bercow(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Kilburn) (Lab)
I am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way, and I admire his mea culpa—is it St Sebastian, the man who stands there with all the arrows? Certainly the hon. Gentleman has portrayed that for us this evening. However, with respect, the issue is not simply VAT. In his opening remarks he said he supported the Budget and the Finance Bill because we are all in this together, but we are not.
No one sitting in this Chamber or within the environs of this Chamber is in danger of losing their home because of the changes that his Government are bringing in with regard to housing benefit, but 303 of my constituents are in danger of losing precisely that. They are not alone in London or the country at large. The hon. Gentleman gave a very good mea culpa on VAT, but the complicity of his party with what the Conservatives are going to do to our country is not absolved, however long his sentence.
Mr Speaker
Order. May I just say to the hon. Lady that I could listen to her, almost without interruption, for some hours, but that shorter interventions would be helpful? It is always a pleasure to listen to her fantastic enunciation.
Andrew George
I think that we are all competing in sentence length—perhaps the hour is causing us to use sub-clauses. [Interruption.] I know that I am not the most articulate Member—I have a speech impediment; please bear with me.
The hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Glenda Jackson) made a decent point. If she listened carefully to my opening remarks, she would realise that my reference to the “we’re all in it together” theme was intended to criticise us all for being in it together by missing the point and making tribal remarks about the other side, but not being in it together with the country at large, which will suffer through some of the Budget measures. She made further points about my keeping narrowly to the subject of VAT. Interventions in my speech have been only about VAT, and I wished to make a brief contribution, which turned out to be much longer than I expected, on VAT. It is important, having commenced on that path, to continue on it and examine that provision in isolation. I know that it cannot be taken in isolation by the families, businesses and charities that it will affect. However, I still believe that it is important to consider it on its own.
The other issues, such as housing benefit, that the hon. Lady mentioned, are not in the Bill. I hope that the House will have a good opportunity to debate public sector spending and benefits, including disability benefit issues, which were announced in the Budget and clearly need to be debated later, with all the facts made available to us. We currently have a translucent position with regard to the evidence before us.