NHS: Financial Performance

Debate between Ben Gummer and Peter Bone

Monday 12th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

My hon. Friend identifies precisely the action we in the Department need to take. It would be a dereliction of duty to pour money into an unreformed system, as it would mean money being spent on administration, bureaucracy and waste, and not on the changes we need to improve patient care. We need to move at pace to bring in the changes necessary to transform the system if we are to get the NHS we all want to see.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

I congratulate the shadow Secretary of State on an excellent urgent question and the Minister on how he has responded. It is interesting that there are more Government Members who want to ask questions. With regard to deficits, we have very expensive and highly paid management and accountants. They set their budgets and then a deficit develops. What action can be taken against these highly paid individuals for not keeping to their budgets?

[Ben Gummer]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. There are trusts that are being managed exceptionally well which hit the budgets they set at the beginning of the year. That is the normal course of business for other organisations. This is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State introduced the clawback on new chief executive contracts, which mean that if they do not perform according to plan then a proportion of their salary will be docked at the end of the year. That is an important reform, one not introduced by the previous Administration but by us, the party of the NHS.

Contaminated Blood

Debate between Ben Gummer and Peter Bone

Monday 20th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

I hope the hon. Gentleman will pass the message on to his constituents that we were doing the House a courtesy in explaining that we were making progress and outlining a consultation timetable, and that the substantive statement will come in due course owing to the amount of work needed to make sure it is as full and thorough as possible. That is why we made the written ministerial statement. We intend to move as quickly as possible, as we have promised to do.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

With all due respect, that is not good enough. There should have been an oral statement in the Commons, which was what the House was led to believe would happen. The fact that there was not a lot to say was not a reason to put out a written statement in the Lords on a Friday afternoon.

Will the excellent Minister, whom I have a lot of time for, confirm the position on the drugs? I have constituents who need drugs that are available but that the NHS is not granting at the moment. There cannot be much money involved; there is just red tape. Can we clear the red tape and let constituents get those drugs?

[Ben Gummer]

I thank my hon. Friend, and I have taken note of his comments. NHS England has just announced an accelerated review into hep C drugs, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences will give my hon. Friend further details on that, but we are moving quickly to ensure that the new range of drugs for hepatitis C in particular is brought into service as quickly as possible.

NHS Success Regime

Debate between Ben Gummer and Peter Bone

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. We are now repeating discussions we had in the previous Parliament, because I am afraid that the Labour party still does not understand that these decisions are not being directed from Whitehall. I know that is uncomfortable for them, because what they want to do is pull a lever and hope that something happens at the other end, but that does not work. The only way to get success is by having local clinicians, supported by national bodies, providing the solutions that local people deserve.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

In North Northamptonshire we had a problem with the A&E at Kettering hospital. Local commissioners and three hon. Members—my hon. Friends the Members for Kettering (Mr Hollobone) and for Corby (Tom Pursglove) and I—all worked together to produce a plan, which the Minister has taken up. That is a precursor to the success regime, and it shows that local commissioners, local hospitals and MPs can solve problems by working together. Will the Minister continue to look on that favourably?

[Ben Gummer]

The care of my hon. Friend’s constituents, including Mrs Bone, is always a prime consideration. He has shown what Opposition Front Benchers should understand, which is that working across parties, as he did in his part of the world, can bring about co-ordination and success. I only wish that those on the Opposition Front Bench, on what should be a clean slate, would do the same.

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Debate between Ben Gummer and Peter Bone

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bone]

I want to make a few brief points. I voted against the original Bill on Second and Third Reading because I wanted to see boundaries equalised but not a reduction in Members. I lost that debate and that vote, and I accept the will of the House. I also accept that Labour Members have been consistent in their views.

I thought today that I would be speaking in support of the Government, but I have since learned that I am speaking in support of Conservatives in the Government, which makes me feel a little better. My problem is very simple. If one reads the debates on Second and Third Reading, the Deputy Prime Minister, who led for the Government on this issue, made sensible remarks about equalising the size of constituencies, with which I thoroughly agree. However, when something is said as a matter of principle—this is where I think politics is brought into disrepute—whether it is about an in/out referendum on the EU or voting against tuition fees, and when a deal is done and a pledge made in coalition that there will be a vote on the alternative vote and in return the boundary review will be supported, that pledge must be kept.

The only honourable thing the Liberal Democrats can do tonight if they do not vote with Conservative Members is resign from the Government and cross the Floor of the House. If they have any principle, any honesty, that is what they must do. I remember when the aspiring new Prime Minister spoke to the Conservative party in the 1922 committee when the coalition came into being. The only issue that the party had to decide on was whether it would allow a vote on AV in return for Liberal Democrat support on boundary reviews. That was the deal. The Conservative party kept to that deal but the Liberal Democrats have gone back on their part of it. They are a disgrace and should be on the Opposition Benches.

[Ben Gummer (Ipswich) (Con)]

I rise briefly to express my regret on three points. First, I regret that the other place has seen fit to ride through the conventions that have held it secure in its position for many centuries. It has done so on the basis of Members who have gone to that House, precisely—Opposition Members have referred to this—through a packing of the House of Lords under the previous Government. Those Members have then ridden through their conventions in order to place us in this position, with a constitutional change foisted on this democratically elected House.

I also regret that we will not have boundary review until 2018 if we disagree to the motion. That will mean that many Members will not be equal. Mr Speaker, you said in response to an earlier point of order that all hon. Members are equal, but they will not be equal in the representation they bring to the House.

Rail (East Anglia)

Debate between Ben Gummer and Peter Bone

Tuesday 3rd July 2012 Westminster Hall

[Ben Gummer]

rose—

[Mr Peter Bone (in the Chair)]

Order. Before the hon. Gentleman replies, I remind the Chamber and people who may have arrived late that the winding-up speeches are to start in about a minute’s time. The hon. Gentleman might like to bear that in mind.

[Ben Gummer]

Thank you for your guidance, Mr Bone. I am glad that I have no more than a minute left to contribute to the debate.

I will make one final point because I agree with every point my hon. Friend the Member for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss) made. It is important that the line from Ipswich should benefit towns nearby, such as Colchester, and continue across the east-west link, from Cambridge to Bedford and thence to Oxford, creating an arc of knowledge across the country.

The Minister knows that travellers in East Anglia pay some of highest premiums in the railway industry. That money goes out of the region to subsidise loss-making lines elsewhere. We need to retain some of that money to invest in our area. It is only right that our constituents— not only the fortunate and well-off, but those who lack opportunities—can retain a bit more of that investment in our area, so that we can improve our rail links and make the contribution to our local, national and European economy that we aspire to make.