Parliamentary Standards

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

My right hon. Friend will understand that I cannot anticipate the contents of the Queen’s Speech at this stage. I simply repeat that we are committed to the introduction of proposals for a recall Bill.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

I thought that we had got rid of self-regulation after the expenses scandal, and not before time. Given the doubts about the strength of the recall proposals and in the light of the current saga, what can the Leader of the House say to reassure the public that the reform process, which must be a process without a full stop, has not stalled under this Government?

[Mr Lansley]

I would reassure the public by saying that, yes, there is a small number of legacy cases, but we now have a fully independent system that has all the powers it needs to take the necessary steps when anything goes wrong, now and in the future. Echoing the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West (Sir Peter Bottomley) about the retiring chief executive of IPSA, Andrew McDonald, objectively speaking, IPSA has come a long way in creating a situation that should command greater confidence about expenses.

So far as the regulation of Members’ other conduct is concerned, the public have to look at individual cases—for example, those relating to the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and conflicts of interest, or to a Member behaving in a way that brings the House into disrepute—and decide whether the independent Commissioner for Standards has pursued the matter robustly. It is certainly her job to do so, and I hope that Members and the public will agree that she does. When we read the reports following her investigations, they are often very detailed and thorough. The public also have to decide whether the decisions are proportionate. That is a matter of judgment, but I believe that the Standards Committee has put in place robust sanctions in recent cases involving that kind of poor behaviour.

Business of the House

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Thursday 27th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Can the Leader of the House explain why the Government have still not sent the royal charter on press regulation, which was passed overwhelmingly by this House, to the Privy Council? The motion on which we voted stipulated that it should be sent in May. Can he reassure the House and the victims that it is not because the Government are planning to do some kind of grubby backroom deal with elements of the press and to further water down Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations?

[Mr Lansley]

As I understand it, this is simply a matter of the proper processes relating to the approval of a royal charter by the Privy Council being pursued, in circumstances in which other proposals are also being presented. The Privy Council Office has gone through a process of securing the examination of other proposals as well, but these are matters of continuing discussion among my colleagues and I will ensure that the House is updated as soon as we are clear about the timing.

Business of the House

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Thursday 14th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend makes a good point well. I confess that I cannot immediately identify when such a debate might be possible, but much can be discussed during the Budget debate. I noted, as many other Members will have done, remarks this morning from the House of Lords Committee underestimating what this Government have done to anticipate and create a more sustainable structure to support people in old age. We have made public sector pensions more affordable and sustainable, and auto-enrolment could give an additional 11 million people access to their own pensions in retirement. The draft Pensions Bill will make the state pension system simpler and more affordable, and I would never neglect to mention the many measures in the draft Care and Support Bill that will provide support for vulnerable and frail people in old age.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has pulled the plug on the all-party Leveson talks today. He now expects this House to implement his version of press regulation, which would have no teeth and would not be independent. That would be a gross betrayal of the victims and a craven surrender to the perpetrators. Should we not have a full statement from the Prime Minister or the Culture Secretary, so that Members know exactly what they are voting for on Monday?

[Mr Lansley]

Members will know the structure of the debate on Monday, and what is important is that, as was made clear yesterday and has been confirmed today, they will have the opportunity to have that debate. I took the trouble to repeat what the Prime Minister said at the Dispatch Box, so that Members are aware of what is now planned.

Business of the House

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Thursday 25th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The Government very much support equal pay—yesterday’s decision seemed a bit of a “Made in Dagenham” moment, did it not? Although the circumstances of that case are particular to it and relate to time limits and jurisdiction, I hope that it conveys a message about how to ensure equality and equal pay in every work force, which should be in every employer’s mind.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

May we have a debate on plans by the NHS in south-west England to introduce regional pay? Those plans are opposed by south-west MPs from all political parties, and we are still waiting for a delegation to see the Minister. I have asked for a debate several times, and we need to have one urgently.

[Mr Lansley]

I attended Health questions earlier in the week, and thought that that issue was ably responded to by the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter). What he said is clear: the Government support the “Agenda for Change” framework and, like NHS employers, we support the reform of that agenda to provide the flexibility that employers are looking for, so that it can be achieved within a national framework. That is what we are looking for.

Business of the House

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Thursday 6th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving me an early opportunity to understand the encyclopaedic nature of business questions. The limits of my knowledge I have always been aware of, and it does not extend to morris dancing. I will draw the point that he raises on behalf of his constituents to the attention of my colleagues at the Department for Communities and Local Government, and ask them to respond to it.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

May we have a clear statement from the Government on their policy on regional pay? In May the Deputy Prime Minister said:

“There is going to be no regional pay system. That is not going to happen.”

Yet 20 health trusts in south-west England have announced that they intend to abandon the NHS’s national “Agenda for Change” pay structure and adopt just such a regional pay system. This is causing great concern and anger among thousands of NHS workers and their families across the south-west.

Health and Social Care Bill

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 28th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Yes, absolutely right.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given that the right hon. Gentleman inherited an NHS with record short waiting times, record high public satisfaction and improving competitiveness, does he ever in his darkest moments wish that he had not embarked on this damaging and costly upheaval?

[Mr Lansley]

At the last election the average waiting time for in-patient treatment was 8.4 weeks. In December 2001, when the most recent data were published, it had come down to 7.7 weeks. The right hon. Gentleman might like to reflect on the fact that the number of people waiting more than a year for treatment in the NHS is now more than half what it was at the last election.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 21st February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I will indeed ensure that that happens. We work closely with the cancer charities. We are working with them as we roll out the campaign that was piloted in the east of England to encourage the awareness of symptoms and the earlier diagnosis of bowel cancer. I hope that we will ensure that the services, such as endoscopy services, are available to support that.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Is the Secretary of State aware of this week’s report from the distinguished health academic at Exeter university, Dr Mike Williams, which states that his NHS upheaval is putting patient safety at risk and making a Mid Staffordshire-style hospital scandal more likely? Given that, will he assure the House that he will publish the findings of the Mid Staffordshire public inquiry in time to inform the final outcome of the Health and Social Care Bill, if it ever gets through this place?

NHS Future Forum

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 14th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

In fact, the last Labour Government left record low waiting times and record levels of public satisfaction with the NHS. I welcome the fact that Professor Steve Field has said what many of us in the Opposition have been saying for at least a year. How much has this year’s shambles cost the NHS, and how much has it damaged patient care?

[Mr Lansley]

It has not damaged patient care. The right hon. Gentleman should not denigrate the NHS. In May 2010, at the last election, patients waiting to be admitted to hospital waited 8.4 weeks for their treatment; on the latest figures, that went down to 7.9 weeks. Out-patient waiting times for May 2010 were 4.3 weeks on average; that went down to 3.7 weeks, and that in the midst of rising demand on the NHS and continuously improving performance.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

In the past, the only measure of activity and performance in A and E departments was whether patients had been discharged from the department within four hours. That meant, for example, that the emergency department at Stafford hospital was able to tick the box marked “Four-hour target met” in circumstances where patients were discharged completely inappropriately and patients suffered and died. We have now published, for the first time, quality indicators agreed with clinical professionals across emergency services that indicate what A and E quality should look like regarding not only time waited but the time before patients are seen by a qualified professional, re-attendance rates for the same problems, and mortality and related outcomes.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State is using a highly selective reading of waiting times. Will he confirm that breaches of the four hour target for A and E waits and the 18 week target for operations have increased massively in the past year? If they have not, why did the Prime Minister today confirm his support for those Labour targets?

Future of the NHS

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Monday 9th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I will give way in a moment. That strategy made it clear that what matters to patients is not only how quickly they see a consultant, but whether they survive.

[Mr Bradshaw]

If things were so terrible under the Labour Government, why was public satisfaction with the NHS at record levels when we left office, and why were waiting times at record lows? Both are now going in the wrong direction. Will the Secretary of State please tell us—we have not yet received an answer to this question—what will happen in those areas now that GP consortia are to be voluntary? He has already abolished the primary care trusts, so who will be responsible?

[Mr Lansley]

It was also a period during which complaints to the NHS reached their highest ever levels. If we ask the public who they think are best placed to design the services patients need, we will find that the answer is their general practitioners, hospital doctors and nurses, not politicians on either the Government or the Opposition Benches. This is about doctors and nurses being in charge, not politicians.

It took this Government to focus on cancer outcomes. It took this Government to provide the drugs patients need through the cancer drugs fund. Under Labour, patients went without new cancer medicines that patients in every other European country were getting access to. It is this Government who are investing in more diagnostic equipment, and more screening and early diagnosis, so that we get better outcomes.

NHS Reform

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Monday 4th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. He knows and I know—and past Secretaries of State, with the exception of the right hon. Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Frank Dobson) also knew—that in order to deliver the best possible care in the NHS, we needed to engage clinical leadership more effectively. That is what these reforms are about. The modernisation of the NHS is about better and stronger clinical leadership delivering better commissioning of care and thereby helping to deliver better provision of care, and about allying that with democratic accountability at a local level. Neither of those things has happened sufficiently in the past, but both are at the heart of our Bill.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Contrary to what the Secretary of State has claimed, waiting times are already lengthening and the quality of service to patients is already deteriorating as a result of his ill-conceived upheaval of the health service. Why does he not abandon it, rather than just pausing for the Easter holidays, before he squanders all the improvements that were achieved under Labour Governments?

[Mr Lansley]

I am sorry that the right hon. Gentleman should denigrate what staff in the NHS have achieved over the past year. He will not have read the deputy chief executive’s report on NHS activity, which shows improvements in breast screening rates, improvements in bowel screening rates—[Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 8th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given that the Prime Minister has ordered his new communications director to order a shake-up of the health team because he is worried that they are losing the argument on the Government’s health upheaval, would it not save us all a lot of trouble if the Secretary of State admitted, not least to the Prime Minister, that it is not the public relations that is the problem, but the policy?

[Mr Lansley]

The right hon. Gentleman should not believe what he reads in the newspapers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 7th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. In Milton Keynes, GP Healthcare MK and Premier MK consortiums are shaping their services in order to be able to deliver better and improved services for their patients. We do not intend that all GPs individually should become managers, by any means; there will be clinical leadership, but the consortiums should have commissioning support. The primary care trust in Milton Keynes has had some good commissioning support arrangements, as I know from having visited it in the past. It is open to the new commissioning consortiums to take teams from the primary care trust into their new consortium support arrangements, but they can go elsewhere. They can look to the local authority and to the independent sector to provide them with the commissioning support that they need so that clinicians provide leadership but continue to be responsible for clinical care.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

What impact does the Secretary of State think that this change and the rest of the upheaval that he is inflicting on the health service will have on hospital waiting times?

[Mr Lansley]

I think that the reforms will have a positive impact on performance right across the NHS, because they will enable patients who want to exercise choice to see the quality and standard of services, including waiting times. Unlike in the past, they will be able to see waiting times for individual hospitals, rather than just a single target. They will be able to make choices based on information about the quality of services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Since when has handing over the running of any service to a powerful producer interest been good for the consumer—that is, the public? In the absence of primary care trusts, who will do the difficult but important job of performance-managing underperforming GPs and, where necessary, weeding out incompetent ones?

[Mr Lansley]

The right hon. Gentleman was a member of a Government who said that they would introduce practice-based commissioning, but who then let primary care trusts override the general practice role in determining not only the proper care of patients, but how resources should best be used to make that happen. If he is defending primary care trusts, he is making a very sad choice, because in reality they know that they simply increased their management but did not succeed when it came to commissioning. The right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron), the former Health Committee Chairman, produced a report showing that, and it is very clear that—