Procurement, Slavery and Human Trafficking Regulations: NHS
Debate between Caroline Nokes and Zubir Ahmed(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Dr Zubir Ahmed)
I beg to move,
That the draft National Health Service (Procurement, Slavery and Human Trafficking) Regulations 2025, which were laid before this House on 9 September, be approved.
I am here on behalf of the Minister for Secondary Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth). It is an honour to represent the Government as we bring forward this important secondary legislation, and it is right that it should be given the full scrutiny of the House today.
Slavery is one of the greatest evils in human history. This Government cannot and will not accept that we could be supporting forced labour or human trafficking through our supply chains, however inadvertently. Before I continue, I acknowledge the cross-party support on this issue, both in this House and in the other place. I pay tribute to all hon. and right hon. Members and peers of the realm, such as Lord Alton, who have worked tirelessly to put modern slavery at the forefront of our national conversation.
I begin by setting out why we need the regulations. Many people are taken aback when they are told that there are more enslaved people now, in absolute terms, than at any point in human history. It is estimated that around 50 million people worldwide are living in some form of modern slavery. Globalisation has provided near-limitless opportunities for trade in goods and services, but also, unfortunately, in human beings. Though we on these isles would like to think that we are insulated from the highways of human trafficking, we are not.
In late 2023, the previous Government published a review into NHS supply chains that covered 60% of medical consumables. It accounted for £7 billion of spend across 1,300 suppliers, representing 600,000 products, and a fifth of those suppliers were deemed to be high risk. Imagine my horror when I read that some of the tools of my trade—surgical instruments, facemasks—could be contaminated by modern slavery. As someone who still practises as a surgeon, I know that I share that revulsion with my colleagues across the national health service. I ask my colleagues in this place to keep all our NHS staff in mind over the course of our proceedings.
The review also recognised the wider benefits to the NHS of a better understanding of how our supply chains work, noting how we could improve the quality of products supplied and the resilience of supply. It gave us clear recommendations for us to act on and today I am proud to come to the House with landmark modern slavery legislation to put those policies into practice. This is a first on these isles and I sincerely hope that our colleagues across the devolved Governments can follow suit soon.
I now turn to what the regulations will do. The NHS is one of the largest public sector procurers in the world, with an annual spend of £35 billion, doing business with over 80,000 suppliers. We have a duty to ensure that no products we procure could be tainted by forced labour, and an opportunity to use our immense purchasing power for global good.
The regulations we bring forward today will require all public bodies to assess modern slavery risks in their supply chains when procuring goods and services for the health service in England. They give effect to a duty established by the Health and Care Act 2022, which requires the Secretary of State to eradicate modern slavery wherever it is found in NHS procurement processes. We are asking public bodies to take reasonable steps to address and eliminate modern slavery risks, especially when designing procurement procedures, awarding and managing contracts and setting up frameworks or dynamic markets.
Reasonable steps may include enforcing robust conditions of participation in our supply chains, with assessment criteria built into every stage of that process. They may include monitoring suppliers’ compliance and reassessing risk throughout the lifetime of a contract. They can also include writing terms that require immediate mitigation where instances of modern slavery are discovered. The regulations will also require public bodies to have regard to any relevant guidance issued by the Department of Health and Social Care or NHS England for consistency and accountability across the system. The updated version of the guidance has now been published by NHS England and is publicly available.
Colleagues might be worried about legislative overlap. They might ask themselves why we need new regulations when modern slavery is already illegal, but these regulations have been carefully drafted to fit with existing statute, and I can assure the House that contradictory duties have been avoided. We are building on existing measures, such as the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Procurement Act 2023, not replacing them. We are bringing all NHS England’s procurement into scope and creating a stronger legislative footing for enforcement. The point is to introduce a single, enforceable risk management approach to modern slavery across the NHS, and we will continue to review our arrangements to ensure that they remain effective for years to come.
I do not pretend that this will be easy. If there was a button somewhere in Whitehall or inside the national health service that could eliminate modern slavery at a stroke, I do not doubt that all of us would push it, but our supply chains are vast, making it difficult to fully assess the scale. Although the 2023 review was just a snapshot in time, it is likely that more than a fifth of our supply chains are still at high risk of modern slavery. Items include cotton-based products, surgical instruments and PPE gloves—all products that are vital for the day-to-day functioning of hospitals and clinics up and down the country. That is why we will back NHS organisations with clear guidance and support to root out the scourge of modern slavery wherever we find it.
There is an argument that we could procure these items on the cheap if we could just turn a blind eye, but that way of thinking is abhorrent and fundamentally un-British. We cannot simply weigh such things on the scale of a tradesman behind a counter, and we must remember our historical responsibility in eliminating slavery wherever we find it. But even if we could do that, ethical supply chains have been proven to be cost effective in the long term. There is a strong case that they help to avoid litigation and, more important, supplier collapse. Even if that were not the case, I know the will of the British people, and I have not a shred of doubt that decent people across our country will not think modern slavery a price tag worth paying. This place, the mother of Parliaments, is here to answer a call today and to send a message to all enslaved people across the world: what is happening to you is unjust, but we have not forgotten, and we will do our utmost to ensure that our money does not go to those that exploit you and keep you in chains.
British Indian Ocean Territory: Negotiations
Debate between Caroline Nokes and Zubir Ahmed(1 year ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)
I do not think the hon. Gentleman was standing throughout the statement.
Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower
Debate between Caroline Nokes and Zubir Ahmed(1 year, 2 months ago)
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Dr Zubir Ahmed (Glasgow South West) (Lab)
I congratulate you on your election, Madam Deputy Speaker.
I congratulate hon. Members on discharging their responsibilities and delivering their maiden speeches, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton)—I am sure he will correct my pronunciation and give me some honest feedback. I also welcome the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), to the Front Bench. It is timely that I am making my maiden speech on a day when we are discussing how Scotland might shape the energy needs of these islands for many decades to come.
I thank and pay tribute to my predecessor, Chris Stephens, for his dedicated service to our community over the last nine years. His commitment to social justice and workers’ rights is inspirational and will leave a lasting impact. I am particularly thankful for his advice and counsel during the handover process that is currently taking place.
Glasgow South West is a synthesis of many different communities, each with recurring contributions to the 850-year-old second city of empire. If you will allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will give the House a short synopsis of the place where I live, work and play.
We start in Darnley, Deaconsbank and Pollok, much of it occupying the old Pollok estate, the laird of which —Sir John Stirling-Maxwell—was a Member of this place and founded the National Trust for Scotland in 1931. In more recent times, these areas have demonstrated the transformative possibilities of their co-operative spirit through the Rosehill housing co-operative and the Pollok credit union.
Moving north, the ruins of Crookston castle come into view. Built by the Stewarts of Darnley in the 1400s, it is the only medieval castle standing in Glasgow, and it is possibly where Mary, Queen of Scots, was betrothed to Lord Darnley. It remains an underutilised community asset, but I commend the friends of Crookston castle for their efforts to bring this space back into the service of the people of Glasgow.
A short distance from the castle, the wonderful communities of Mosspark, Dumbreck and Cardonald are nestled around the great expanse of Bellahouston Park, which has played host to numerous music concerts, papal visits and the empire exhibition of 1938.
As we head further north, we come to Ibrox, which is synonymous with Rangers football club. Now, I must stress, Madam Deputy Speaker, that other Glasgow football clubs are available; my hon. Friends the Members for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) and for Glasgow East (John Grady) can take you for a tour around them. Govan is the birthplace of Sir Alex Ferguson, a footballing legend, but also a friend to Members on the Labour Benches; he has often given wise counsel to my party. It is also the location of the Queen Elizabeth university hospital, formerly known as the Southern General, one of Britain’s largest hospitals and the place where I honed my skills in surgery and practice as a transplant surgeon. My research leads me to conclude that I am the first transplant surgeon to be elected to this place.
Govan’s shipyard history is, of course, world famous, and the Fairfield Heritage Trust and Govan Workspace have brought that to life. More importantly, it continues to serve the defence of our realm even in the modern day, and to be part of Glasgow South West’s story; we have BAE Systems and Thales, alongside fintech and medtech companies such as Barclays and Cohesion Medical, as well as award-winning TV and film companies such as Firecrest Films. We can see the kind of high-quality jobs of the future that can be available to local people. These are the kinds of jobs I want to grow as part of this Labour Government.
As we head towards the edge of the constituency, we find the BBC Scotland headquarters. The BBC has an important function in the fabric of our national life, not only in informing, educating and entertaining, but as a beacon of our soft power on the world stage—something I wholeheartedly support. Just as national broadcasting is important, so is the local, and nothing encapsulates that better in Glasgow South West than Sunny Govan radio station. It provides an eclectic mix of music, but also, more importantly, runs sobering stories and is a source of comfort on some of the challenges in our community.
We end our Glasgow South West journey in Pollokshields, an area my hon. Friend the Member for Brent West (Barry Gardiner) knows well. It is a true melting pot of cultures and ideas, and the place where my father’s one-month road journey from Pakistan ended in April 1963. He would go on to drive buses in the city, and then black cabs—he is in his 80s and he still does.
In the undergrowth of this rich history and potential, however, there are some worrying signals. There is the weariness of working ever faster and longer just to stay still, the anxiety of wondering how secure that work is, and the trepidation at the end of a day of work that you may not be able to pay for the odd treat that makes life worthwhile, or even the essentials. It is against that backdrop that we on the Labour Benches were sent to this place to make the economy work for working people, and to restore the intergenerational covenant —the promise that the lives of the generations after us will be better in every sense than our own. Politics for me is not, therefore, about the indulgent combative tweet, or even the theatrical amendment. It is the about seeing the world through the long lens. It is about having the stamina for diligent analysis, the patience to articulate policy and then, when in power, the discipline to deliver enduring change. That has always been the Labour way.
Every Member elected to this place recognises electoin for the singular honour that it truly is, but it also takes a village to be elected to this place. That includes, of course, the tireless staff and activists who are in many ways the DNA of our democracy, but there are also, for all of us, those who shaped our life and now shape our politics. When I reflect back, I think of my parents and my extended family, who, from a cradle in a Govanhill tenement, instilled in me the raw ingredients to do my utmost in every walk of life. I think, too, of my teachers and my mentors, who moulded those ingredients into the art and craft of a widely practised surgical career, and of my wife and children, who keep me connected to the earth and in contact with reality, particularly when it is much needed.
Out of all those people, I think of my maternal aunt, Matloob Mohammad, who stands out. She had no children of her own and considered us her children. Like too many in our Labour family, she was taken by glioblastoma—as was my father-in-law, Tony—in 1997. Her patient journey through our NHS inspired me to become a doctor and then a surgeon. She also, in many ways, inspired my political journey. She quite inadvertently introduced me to this place 29 years ago. After queuing outside, we found ourselves in the Strangers’ Gallery watching a combative Leader of the Opposition by the name of Tony Blair taking on the then Prime Minister. If she were here today in that Gallery, she could not fail to notice the changes in the make-up of this Parliament reflected back up at her.
We have our challenges in modern Britain, but it is important to be unashamedly proud of the fact that we are demonstrably the most successfully ethno-religiously diverse legislature in the world. In these volatile times, I believe the world looks to us in this place, the mother of Parliaments, for guidance, and for the solace that democracy can still deliver. I am confident that it will.