Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Andrew Bingham

Friday 16th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

Absolutely, my hon. Friend is completely right.

The Minister will be pleased to hear that I have been working closely with some of the excellent officials in his Department to ensure that there is a little more detail in the Bill specifically to deal with some of the concerns that have been raised with me. First, after a great deal of thought and research, I suggest that the database is held by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. The HSCIC has experience of dealing with big data, and although a number of details would have to be worked out, it seems that it would be the obvious place in the existing health infrastructure to hold such a database.

How the database would work would be detailed outside my Bill by those best placed to do so. However, it is envisaged that a registered medical practitioner, having consulted with his or her patient, would flag up on the patient’s notes that they were innovating. I recognise the pressure that medical practitioners are under, so I am determined that this database should not add much to their already heavy workload, and, hopefully, through this system it would not.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre already has in place a strong set of legal safeguards to protect privacy and confidentiality, which, again, makes it an ideal organisation to host the database. Clearly, privacy issues will be a core part of any consultation that takes place on the detail of the database.

Importantly, the Bill stipulates that outcomes, not just the process of innovation itself, will be on the database. Successes and failures would be recorded on an ongoing basis. There are a number of very, very good reasons for doing that. Of course sharing success is simple to explain. Sharing ideas is in itself a great idea. Letting others see that a treatment has been a success when that treatment might not be widely known is clearly helpful, perhaps even lifesaving. When we know that treatments can differ between NHS trusts and between individual surgeries, it seems clear that we should be encouraging a spread of the good innovation that comes from every individual medical practitioner, such as the surgeon I mentioned earlier and his use of the drug, Glivec.

We must also realise the potential of transparently sharing all outcomes of innovation—not just successes, but failures too. Critics of Lord Saatchi’s Bill were rightly concerned about “quackology”—their term, not mine. There are some doctors who sell to desperately sick people treatments that do not work and that, in some cases, are dangerous. Having a database on which the whole of the registered medical practitioner community can see what an innovation is and then watch the results come in removes quackology from the database in a stroke.

I might well be on the lookout for someone who can cure my male-pattern baldness. Undoubtedly, it would require an innovative treatment; some would say a miracle cure. Currently, there are many treatments on offer to people such as myself. Many adverts will offer me an innovative cure, but there is no way of checking on the successes or failures of the treatments on offer.

[Andrew Bingham (High Peak) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making quite a powerful case. I do not wish to dwell on his receding hairline, but let me touch on the adverts that we all see for receding hairlines or whatever. Does he envisage an advert carrying a quality mark to say that the treatment is on the database with results that are proven, which would give it more credibility?

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I am not particularly worried about what is going on up top, but what I would envisage is that if I wanted to get an extra bit of thatch put on I could go to my doctor, have a conversation with him and he would be able to look on the database and say, “There is nothing there. This is all pie in the sky, hokum pokum stuff and not worth going for.” The database gives people a way of checking on the success or failure of the various treatments on offer, and if innovations such as this miracle cure for baldness are not there at all, there must be questions to be asked.

Perhaps some of the treatments on offer do work, but I doubt that the quacks out there would want their supposed innovations placed under the spotlight of transparency in both practice and outcome that the database would offer. There is another much more compelling reason for having a database that records the outcomes of medical innovation, be they successes or failures. It is impossible to learn, to move forward or to spread best practice if innovation is conducted in a silo and if no one else in the health community knows what is going on.

Non-league Football

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Andrew Bingham

Thursday 4th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bingham]

I can assure my hon. Friend that it was pure luxury!

We also had cup runs. I mentioned Glossop North End, who got to the final of the FA Vase in 2009. That gripped the town of Glossop. There was a train that went from Glossop, with seven or nine carriages. We got on the train at Glossop and—for those whose geography is pretty good—we got to Manchester after about two hours. Then we had to come all the way down to Wembley. The sense of occasion on that train was fantastic. At the time, I was a member of High Peak borough council. It was the first time I had been to the new Wembley stadium and, regrettably, there were not quite as many people there as there were last night, although we were not far short. Afterwards, we decided to organise an open-top bus parade for the team, even though they had not won the trophy. I remember that the streets were lined with people, and there was a fantastic community spirit. We just do not get that with the glitz and glory of the premier league.

For those who cannot sleep tonight, if they read my profile on any website they will see that I prefer football at non-league level because it is the glory game, the people’s game—call it what you will. That is what football is about. Whether it be Glossop North End or Buxton or New Mills in my constituency, it is all about the proper game of football. The premier league has its place and it does a great job, but I prefer non-league football because of what it does for communities. We hear a lot about local activism and people helping each other. My hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) has just walked into the Chamber; he has been to Buxton with me, and I am sure he remembers it with fondness.

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

indicated dissent.

[Andrew Bingham]

My hon. Friend shakes his head, but it is the people’s game, the glory game. It is about the lads and the dads. It does not cost a father and his son £100 to go and watch a match. They can go to a match and have their Bovril and their pie and peas at half time. Anyone who watched non-league football knew that the best pies were at Frickley Athletic, and that Horwich RMI was the place to go for hotpot. We knew all those things; that was what football was all about.

That is why it is crucial that non-league football should survive. As the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) said, it gives young lads who want to play football a chance to rise to their level, and they might make it. They might be another Ally Pickering who goes on to play first division or premier league football. They can play football at their level, and they can play it for love. People can also watch non-league football for love, and they can afford to do so.

The contrast with premiership football is huge. We hear of premiership footballers earning £300,000 a week, but we need to get more money down to the non-league clubs to help support them. I heard the earlier comments about VAT and community amateur sports clubs. In my days on the committee in Buxton, I remember having to wrestle with the vagaries of the tax system and all the rest of it. Many people who are involved in non-league football, particularly lower down the pyramid, are doing it for the love of the game. If we can make it easier for them to run these clubs, it is better for the communities and better for the game.

I know which non-league teams I have watched. I can pretty much name the Cheshire league winning side of 1973—apart from a couple whom I am not sure about. It is in the blood; people find it stays with them. They still look for their local team’s results. It is different with premiership footballers. I notice when Chelsea are doing well because there are a lot of Chelsea shirts about. I am a Manchester City fan and have been for a long time. There are a lot more City fans now than there were when they were playing in the old third division. Non-league football always stays with its fans, which is why its future is incredibly important.

Before I sit down, let me just mention football for people of a more senior age. The Minister will no doubt say this, but only this week we had a walking football match here in London between the Glossop Gentlemen and the Parliamentarians. Again, it is something that gets people involved in the game and pulls communities together. Non-league football is incredibly important and we must do all we can to support it both for us and our constituents. I hope, in a few years’ time, to be able to stand up and remind the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde how, once again, Buxton have given Stalybridge Celtic a good thrashing.