National Carers Week

Ben Lake Excerpts

Thursday 8th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

Diolch yn fawr, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell). I echo what he said about how moving and inspiring it was to speak with unpaid carers yesterday in Parliament. I agree that even the briefest of conversations with an unpaid carer leaves us in no doubt about the urgency of the situation and the importance of ensuring better support for them.

I will keep my comments brief, as other hon. Members have already outlined the importance of this debate far more eloquently than I could, but there are two points I would like to impress upon the House. The first is that unpaid carers, as well as caring for their loved ones, make an incredible contribution to society, one that I think we need to value more. The second is the need for us to bring about a situation where they are given better financial and practical support.

Others have already mentioned the urgency of the situation, not least due to the rising cost of living and the financial pressures that that is imposing on many families and unpaid carers. In my own constituency, sadly, 72% will be off the mains gas network and reliant on heating oil, for example, to keep their homes warm. For those with caring responsibilities, it is essential that they are able to heat their homes, not just through the harshest of winter months, but through the shoulder months. They already have to pay a great deal more than some of their neighbours who do not have the same requirements and caring responsibilities.

[Hannah Bardell]

My hon. Friend spoke about the importance of local organisations. Will he join me in congratulating Carers of West Lothian, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year? The group does incredible work in my constituency and truly is the backbone of our community.

[Ben Lake]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention and I congratulate the group in question. In Ceredigion I know there are many charitable organisations that do great work supporting unpaid carers, as indeed do local authorities. My own county council does its very best to ensure that the unpaid carers it is aware of are given advice, support where possible, and resources so that they know of the various types of practical and financial support available to them.

Such initiatives are important; in a place such as Ceredigion it is estimated that more than 7,000 people are unpaid carers, equivalent to 10.5% of the population, and they make an incredible contribution. Other hon. Members have mentioned the value in financial terms of the contribution that unpaid carers make to the health and social care system. In Ceredigion alone, our unpaid carers make a contribution worth some £700 million a year. That is an incredible contribution and, to be frank, it ensures that local health and social systems do not collapse under the rising demands they face.

Nevertheless, as has been mentioned, some 73% of those who are caring or who have provided care in their lifetimes do not identify themselves as unpaid carers. That means it is difficult to understand truly how many are in need of support, whether financial support or respite and other practical measures. I very much support the calls of other hon. Members for measures that will force public authorities in particular to seek out and identify unpaid carers in the realms of both education and the NHS. If we do not know how many people living in our communities are unpaid carers, it is difficult to effectively plan for services such as respite and day centres. I know from speaking with unpaid carers in my constituency that those are vital lifelines, but lifelines that, sadly, are being cut back.

I will end my comments by dwelling a little bit on financial support for carers. We have heard about the ways in which the rising cost of living is having a serious impact on their finances and how many unpaid carers are deeply worried about their financial prospects. Just under half already say that they are cutting back on essentials. We also know that more and more unpaid carers are having to spend their own money and resources to procure essential items, such as incontinence pads and other equipment, for their loved ones. I think most hon. Members in this debate would agree that those types of supplies and equipment should be provided by the state and not something that carers should have to dip into their own savings and resources to buy.

I also want to point out the inadequacy of the carer’s allowance. One important thing we should bear in mind about the structure of that allowance is that the thresholds imposed mean that many people are not eligible for or entitled to the support, despite the fact that they give hours and hours of unpaid care every week. The right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington also outlined the inadequacy of the current level of the payment itself.

In a poll conducted by YouGov earlier this year, some 84% of those asked thought that unpaid carers should receive additional financial support. There is clearly widespread public support for increasing the support given to unpaid carers. When we consider the £162 billion contribution that unpaid carers make every year just across England and Wales—£700 million in Ceredigion alone—it is high time we looked again at carer’s allowance and the direct financial support that they are given. They give so much to society; it is now time for society and the state to pay them back.

Food Labelling and Allergies

Ben Lake Excerpts

Monday 15th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Nick Fletcher]

I will be coming on to that point, but I believe that an allergy tsar, which the first petition asks for, will be able to bring those concerns together. That would help the industry immensely.

There are companies out there such as Control Catering that want to work with the Food Standards Agency and the industry to create a single source of truth. They want to work with manufacturers so that all data is seamlessly passed to the end user, the customer or diner. The petitioners believe that that is a sensible idea, as we have over 50,000 products across a huge supply chain going to many different outlets and 60 million-plus people across this land. The British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Allergen Support UK feel it is sensible, too, but apparently the FSA is slow to respond when contacted about it. The industry believes that unless we have a joined-up approach, we could end up putting forward legislation that has the best intentions but turns out to be completely unworkable. I know that there is much more that the petitioners would have me say, but I must move on in the hope that other MPs will add their thoughts on the complexity of the issue.

The second part of Owen’s law would be for all servers to start a discussion with customers about allergies so that customers do not have to ask. My own experience is that that is happening anyway. However, I am fortunate enough to be able to answer no, so I am unsure how deep the conversation goes if the answer is yes. Stakeholders feel that training is required for all servers, but I understand that the industry suffers from a high turnover of staff, so that is not an easy task.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for introducing this important debate. There is very often a high turnover of staff in the hospitality trade, but does he agree that technology such as electronic forms and QR codes might help? Even though staff members might work in a restaurant for only a couple of months at a time, such technology would enable them to quickly check when asked what ingredients are in the food they are serving.

[Nick Fletcher]

The hon. Member is right. As we move forward in the digital age, we will be able to put options on menus that the server can discuss with the diners and things like that. Maybe the conversation should always be instigated, but if the answer is yes and the server is not adequately trained, they should be assisted by a person with higher authority or even the chef. Again, that may be difficult to implement, but a conversation must take place with an outcome that protects anyone who suffers with allergies.

Before I move on from this point, though, let me say that I believe that there is a responsibility on people who suffer with allergies to make that known. They must play their part. I know many are young, but I am a firm believer in personal responsibility and we must give the catering industry a chance. We must help it to help us if the system is not quite working as it should. All of us who are fortunate enough not to suffer should support those who do by being patient, by showing a caring attitude when ordering our food with guests and, if it is our child who suffers, maybe even by ordering what they order. That would help our children and the restaurateur, and it would show some skin in the game. If we want change, we should be prepared to bear a little cost ourselves and to make ourselves a little uncomfortable for the cause. The state cannot and should not be the answer to everything. We should all play our part.

Finally, Owen’s law asks that we maintain a list of all people who have died from anaphylactic shock. It would not necessarily be for the public domain or even name where the tragedy occurred, but it would be recorded to make the Government and all stakeholders aware of the size of the problem and to aid work on prevention as well as a cure. Professor Adam Fox believes that there should also be a list of near misses. Near misses are recorded in the construction industry; they should be recorded here, too. If we know the size of the problem, it may focus our attention on why there is a problem. Why are 40% of the population suffering with some kind of allergy? To me, that is the real question.

We can now see why the petitioners believe that the introduction of a tsar could help with the second petition’s aim of instigating Owen’s law. They believe that if we do nothing, we will see more tragedies, and if the industry simply states, “All our food may contain certain ingredients,” people with hypersensitivity will stay away. Some stakeholders believe that if we move too quickly with poor regulation, we will damage the industry and no doubt close businesses. So do we do nothing? Well, the petitioners and the industry at large agree that there should be a change, and appointing a tsar who could lead on solutions may just do that. It may help to bring forward legislation or ideas that will not only save lives, but save an industry that is battling on many fronts simply to stay afloat. I look forward to listening to what colleagues and the Minister have to say.

Procurement of Evusheld

Ben Lake Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2022 Westminster Hall

[Robert Jenrick]

Yes, there is, and I hope I will be able to shed further light on that in my remarks, but given that there is relatively little time, sadly, for this debate, let me set out first the process that we have been through; I hope that that will give some comfort to those in the Chamber and listening to the debate that the issue has been handled in a very rigorous way.

Our regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, gave conditional marketing authorisation to Evusheld in March 2022, but—this is an important point to note—it did so noting a lack of data regarding how it responds to the omicron variant. The lack of supporting data has been noted by other respected regulatory authorities, including the European Medicines Agency and the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. Although the MHRA licenses drugs, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence assesses the clinical and cost-effectiveness of them. The normal process would therefore be that NICE proceeds to investigate Evusheld, and that is happening as we speak. As the hon. Member for St Albans said, that process is due to conclude in April next year, but yesterday, I met NICE’s chief executive, Sam Roberts, to review her work and to seek reassurances that her work could proceed at a faster pace, and she has committed to reverting to me as soon as possible with a new timetable.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

I welcome that development. I want to place it on the record that of course the devolved Governments also depend a lot on the advice of RAPID C-19. I am sure that the Welsh Government, along with the others, will welcome an accelerated timetable, if it is possible. I congratulate the Minister on doing that.

[Robert Jenrick]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for that comment. Given the urgent need—we all agree on that—to protect lives during the pandemic, we also expedited processes by creating RAPID C-19 as a multi-agency initiative made up of the UK’s main healthcare agencies. It was established in 2020, in response to the pandemic, to get treatments, such as Evusheld, to NHS patients quickly and safely. Therefore we did not simply leave the matter in the hands of NICE; we asked RAPID C-19 to review the evidence base for the use of Evusheld and to consider whether the evidence merited patients having access to it ahead of the normal NICE appraisal. The evidence has now been published and is available on gov.uk; any emerging evidence will continue to be kept under review. That includes the Crick data that the hon. Member for St Albans mentioned, which was published in May and in August and is now being reviewed by RAPID C-19, and also the Lancet study that she referenced, which was published on 6 October, relatively recently.

Three types of evidence have been considered. The clinical trial data is generally the strongest source of evidence. However, in this case, the trial was carried out before omicron became dominant, so it does not confirm efficacy for omicron variants. It would be, I think, concerning to deploy a drug on the NHS that had not been considered in the light of omicron.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 13th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I am grateful for the hon. Member’s question. Our mental health recovery action plan will allow us to deliver additional support for 22,500 more children to have access to community health services—I know that the Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health would say that community access is incredibly effective—and for 2,000 more children to access eating disorder services. It will also help to increase the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges from 29 to 400 by April 2023. That makes it all the more important, as the Secretary of State has outlined, that we get to step 4: it is critical to delivering the recovery action plan.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the effect on patients of the VAT treatment of patient transport service providers.

[The Minister for Covid Vaccine Deployment (Nadhim Zahawi)]

While the Department of Health and Social Care takes a keen interest in any tax situation that may affect patients, any discussions surrounding the VAT treatment of patient transport services would need to be conducted with relevant officials in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Services for the transportation of the sick and injured are exempt from VAT.

[Ben Lake]

Non-emergency patient transport services provide vital support to those who have no other way of reaching hospital and medical appointments, in addition to those who require specialist transport. An inconsistency in the VAT treatment of providers currently means that some can claim VAT relief while others cannot, despite providing the same services in the same type of vehicles. Would the Minister consider meeting representatives of the sector to better understand the impact and, hopefully, find a way forward?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I am very happy for myself and the Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill), to meet with others about that. Of course, I cannot comment on specific cases, and I would recommend that the services in question take up their concerns with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs as well.

Covid-19 Update

Ben Lake Excerpts

Monday 5th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is right to raise that matter. He points out—certain Members of this House sometimes miss this—that the pandemic has caused many other non-covid health problems, and he mentions two of the most important. We are seeing plenty of evidence of increased mental health problems, and departmental officials think that at least some 40,000 people who would have come forward for cancer referrals in a normal year have not done so. That is a reminder of why it is important for us to move back towards freedom and to learn to live with covid.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC) [V]]

The Welsh Government have suggested that an easing of Welsh restrictions is unlikely before 19 July, and any divergence in the rules applicable on either side of the border will raise questions of enforcement. The responsibility for enforcing social distancing rules on trains lies with the British Transport police, so what discussions has the Health Secretary had with the Secretary of State for Transport and, indeed, the Welsh Government regarding the status of restrictions on cross-border rail travel?

[Sajid Javid]

It is understandable that there has been a difference in approach between Wales and England, and clearly that will continue, but we will continue to co-ordinate. I know that my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock), co-ordinated on a regular basis with his Welsh counterpart, and when it comes to transport, my Welsh counterpart and I will work carefully with the Secretary of State for Transport.

NHS Staff Pay

Ben Lake Excerpts

Monday 8th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I am smiling, because it is not the first time that he has mentioned to me a German-style social care system. I absolutely appreciate the work he has done to look into that and say to him, as I have before, that we will bring forward proposals for social care reform. He is absolutely right that we also need to look at the whole health and social care system as we consider these difficult questions.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

The efforts of NHS staff during the pandemic have been nothing short of heroic, and, although deserved, recognition and good will are no substitute for proper pay and investment. Given the current level of vacancies and the fact that the use of agency staff in Welsh health boards costs nearly £70 million a year, does the Minister not agree that a substantial pay award would not only be fair but would constitute an investment in the NHS workforce that could help recruitment and retention of staff, thereby reducing reliance on agency staff?

[Helen Whately]

I am absolutely committed to increasing the NHS workforce. As I mentioned in my statement, we already have 10,000 more nurses than a year ago; and 6,500 more doctors and over 18,000 more health support workers. We saw fantastic growth in the number of students starting nursing degrees last autumn—nearly 30,000—and nearly 50,000 have applied to study nursing this autumn. I am absolutely determined that we will continue to increase the size of our NHS workforce to meet the healthcare needs of the population.

Vaccine Roll-out

Ben Lake Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

That is absolutely fantastic to hear. Across Greater Manchester as a whole, 187,947 vaccines have been done. It has been a huge effort, and I am very grateful for my hon. Friend’s support.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

Frustrations with the Welsh Government’s roll-out programme are well documented, and health boards in Wales have this week had to contend with some supply issues. Can the Minister reassure me that any supply issues are being addressed? Given that Wales has the largest proportion of people aged over 70 in the UK at over 17%, can he give us some reassurance that Wales will receive a vaccine allocation that reflects the level of relative need?

[Matt Hancock]

All the three devolved nations are getting their vaccine according to fair shares and at the same speed as England. While supply is the rate limiting factor across the board, the same supply is going in the right proportions across all four nations.

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 8th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I could not put it better than my right hon. Friend, who speaks with such power on this subject. I truly believe that it is only because we, as a United Kingdom, went in so early to be buying and developing these vaccines, using all the strength of our United Kingdom, that we have been able to get to this point before any other country in the world.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

Like many others, I welcome today’s developments and agree with the Secretary of State that we can look forward to the new year, when, we hope, further vaccines will come online. He will be aware that there has been some discussion of the relative effectiveness of different vaccines, so will that influence the Government’s distribution strategy in any way? Specifically, will certain vaccines be prioritised for certain groups?

[Matt Hancock]

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, should it be approved, does have easier logistical and distributional qualities—it does not have to be stored at minus 70°—so that helps. Of course, the JCVI will consider the clinical properties of any vaccine that comes forward when deciding who it can be distributed to, so that is taken into account. Finally, the hon. Gentleman is right to say that this has been an international as well as a UK success. I had a text exchange with my German opposite number this morning to thank, through him, the German scientists who have done so much to make this possible.

Covid-19 Update

Ben Lake Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The challenge of how to keep people in care homes safe is a really tough one, because visits to care homes are important not only for our wellbeing and our desire to see our loved ones but for the mental and physical health of those who are in the care homes. However, we also need to protect them from the disease, because they are among the most vulnerable to it in the whole of society. There are covid-secure ways to have visits to care homes, including indoors. Again, once we get to a position of mass testing, this is the sort of thing we will be able to deliver in order to enhance that support and make it easier. My hon. Friend is quite right to raise this, and it is something that I long to be able to provide a solution to.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

I agree with the Secretary of State on the importance of mass testing. However, I am afraid to say that a number of residents in Ceredigion are being directed, under the current system, to travel much further than the 6.4-mile average he referred to in his statement. Indeed, in some instances they have been asked to travel as far away as Birmingham, over 100 miles away, while we know that Londoners are being told, in turn, to travel to Aberystwyth to get their tests. My question is a simple one: how does he intend to work with the Welsh Government to address this problem?

[Matt Hancock]

The solution, as I have mentioned a few times this afternoon, is to ensure that we continue the expansion of capacity—as the hon. Gentleman knows, there is now record capacity in the testing system—and, at the same time, ensure that those who are eligible for tests come forward to get those tests. Some people have been asked to travel, but the vast majority of people get tests close to home and get the results back very quickly.

Coronavirus

Ben Lake Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I agree 100%. The need to level up is no greater than in health inequalities. The differences in life expectancy between different parts of our country is stark and has been laid bare further by this crisis. The crisis has been like sheet lightning that has laid a light on some of the health inequalities that were there before but which must with increased urgency be addressed. That is one of the big learnings from this crisis. It is something we all knew before but which we must redouble our efforts to resolve after this crisis is over.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

Last Friday, it was confirmed that the UK was eligible to participate in a European scheme to place advanced orders for vaccines currently in development and to ensure priority access to any successful vaccine. What is the Secretary of State’s assessment of the potential merits of UK participation in such a scheme?

[Matt Hancock]

We are having such discussions—I have had conversations with my German, French and Italian counterparts on exactly this subject—but the most important thing is that we will not let those discussions get in the way of the much more advanced discussions we are having directly with the vaccine producers to make sure that even if the two great British vaccine hopes do not come off, or if one from somewhere else in the world comes off first, we have access to a vaccine for citizens across the UK.