Phenylketonuria: Treatment and Support

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 26th June 2018 Westminster Hall

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) on securing this important debate. We have heard some heartrending accounts from hon. Members about the impact of PKU on their constituents.

My constituent, Denise Clayton, whose family I have known for 30 years, has lived with PKU for nearly 70 years, so she was born long before any real screening programme was in place. Consequently, she did not receive the required treatment, and the treatment she did receive was too little, too late to avoid neurotoxicity. Her family have done everything they could to support Denise. A few weeks ago, I spoke to her father, Norman, who recounted some of the traumas and difficulties that they experienced down the years. His view was that nothing could be done for Denise, but it seems that a treatment is now available.

I join hon. Members in their pleas with the Minister to use his good offices to ensure that the new life-changing drug Kuvan is made available so that the sufferers of PKU in the UK—like sufferers in other countries—can obtain the benefits of it and lead something approaching a normal life. Let us remember that we live in a wealthy nation; we are the sixth-biggest economy in the world.

PKU is a very rare condition that affects only a very few people in total across the country. The cost of the drug would be minimal in comparison to the life-changing impact it could bring about for young people—our fellow citizens. I plead with the Minister to listen to the impassioned pleas we have heard from Members today. He should use his good offices to ensure that the drug is made available so that we can change the lives of so many young people in our country who are suffering from this terrible condition.

[Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)]

We now come to the wind-ups. I would like to leave two minutes for the mover of the motion to wind up at the end.

NHS Major Incidents

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Let me make two points to the hon. Lady. When I talk to the House about the number of major incidents, we make no distinction between internal and external incidents. We talk about them all as major incidents. There is no benefit, if one looks at it in that way, to Ministers from it being either an internal or an external incident. What matters is the right thing for patients. Rather than trying to politicise the issue and turning it into a political football, the Opposition should listen to Dame Barbara Hakin, chief operating officer of the NHS, who said clearly today that the decision was nothing to do with Ministers, they did not know about it and it was not taken at the request of Ministers. Labour should concentrate on supporting the NHS where it could do with its help—in Wales today.

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State singularly failed to answer the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris) when he asked whether it would be more or less likely that a major incident would be declared as a result of the new guidance. Clearly, if it is less likely, that is bound to have an impact on patient safety. Can the Secretary of State confirm whether this issue was raised in his meeting with NHS England on Monday?

[Mr Hunt]

It was not raised by NHS England on Monday because I did not know about this local guidance, as I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Hospital Mortality Rates

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I agree with that. One reason why it is so important to reform the regulatory structures that we inherited is that they tried to identify only poor care—not terribly successfully—when we need a system that identifies outstanding care as well. We need such a system for the benefit of the general reputation of the NHS and the morale of the service. We also need one so that a failing hospital can have an organisation on which it can model itself, just as a failing school can model itself on a school that has received an outstanding Ofsted report. That provides a solution to the problem: we identify a problem transparently and we sort it out.

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State said that he was proud of the NHS, yet he and his Ministers have supported a top-down reorganisation of the national health service that will lead to 49% privatisation and cut 4,000 nurses. We know from the Francis report that staffing levels are key to the whole agenda, and the Secretary of State has just said he acknowledges that, so will he reinstate the 4,000 nurses he has cut from the NHS?

[Mr Hunt]

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to acknowledge that more money has gone to the front line as a result of the reorganisation that this Government have introduced. We have 8,000 more clinical staff now than when the Labour Government were in office.

Tobacco Packaging

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Friday 12th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Anna Soubry]

Forgive me; I do not have that information at my fingertips. I am more than happy to supply it to my hon. Friend by way of a letter, or any other mechanism.

The position I have set out is what we now need, and if there is a criticism that I would make, it is that we went to consultation first. All good legislation needs a good, healthy debate, followed by, perhaps, wider consultation. We now need to have that debate, and I am very happy to lead it.

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

Does this not represent a shameful capitulation to the merchants of death who want to recruit more children to smoke, who will go to an early grave as a consequence? Can the Minister therefore confirm to the House whether or not Lynton Crosby has had any conversations at all with any Health Minister on this issue?

[Anna Soubry]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that Mr Crosby has not had any conversation with any Health Minister on this issue. This really is a complete red herring. I can also inform him that I am very proud of the fact that we have banned cigarette vending machines, which will mean that people under the age of 18 in particular no longer have access to cigarettes by virtue of that site of sale, and I am also pleased that by 2015, we shall be ensuring that the ban on displays of cigarettes, which are currently banned in supermarkets without the provision of shutters, will be extended to smaller shops.

Health and Social Care Bill

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 13th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Andrew Selous]

I will make a little progress.

I also say to Opposition Members that the GPs of Bedfordshire are thoroughly behind these proposals. Dr Paul Hassan, a long-standing Dunstable GP, will be the leader of the clinical commissioning group in my area. He is an excellent GP who has the interests of his patients at heart and he will do an extremely good job.

Manufacturing

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

I congratulate and thank the hon. Members for Hexham (Guy Opperman), for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White), and for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) and my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) for securing the debate. I have been greatly encouraged by the quality of the debate and the consensus across the Chamber. It gives me some hope that manufacturing does have a future after all.

This country has a wonderful manufacturing heritage, and the constituency that I represent in Derby was the cradle of the industrial revolution. It is home to the world’s first factory, and to Rolls-Royce and Bombardier—the railway industry has a great heritage there. Just outside the city there is Toyota, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, car manufacturer in the UK today. We have a great manufacturing base, a great heritage, and a great reputation in this country, and particularly in Derby, for high-tech manufacturing skills. Promoting manufacturing as an occupation of first choice for our young people is key. We need to do more to encourage young people with skills to go into manufacturing rather than the service sector or finance, as they have done.

I was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s commitment to rebalancing the economy in favour of manufacturing industry, and was particularly pleased when he brought his Cabinet to Derby to emphasise that commitment, but there was a rebalancing of the economy in the 1980s. The Government of the day turned their back on manufacturing to some extent and used financial services—the big bang in the City—as an alternative engine of economic growth. We were fixated on the financial services industry for far too long, and when the crash came we were overexposed as a consequence.

The Government have recognised, perhaps rather belatedly, the importance of manufacturing, and it is important that they demonstrate their commitment to it. I reiterate a good point made by the hon. Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson), who is the new treasurer of the all-party group on aerospace—I am its newly elected secretary, so we are certainly singing from the same hymn-sheet on that issue—about research and development. As the autumn statement approaches, it is absolutely key that the Chancellor seizes the opportunity to demonstrate the Government’s commitment to manufacturing and aerospace.

The UK is the second biggest aerospace centre in the world. If we are to retain that position, the Government need to demonstrate their commitment to aerospace through investment in, and support for, research and development. Although Rolls-Royce has its roots in Derby and is the city’s largest employer—indeed, in the past 12 months it has recruited 900 additional members of staff, which is extremely welcome news—it is, in the end, a global company, and has factories in all four corners of the world. We must not be complacent, and I reiterate the point made by the hon. Member for Pendle on research and development.

The other thing the Government must get right is procurement. I cannot contribute to a debate such as this without mentioning the Government’s decision to appoint a German company as the preferred bidder to build the Thameslink rolling stock, rather than Bombardier. It is not too late to revisit the decision, as they are only at the preferred bidder stage and, despite Minsters’ protestations to the contrary, the invitation to tender documentation gives the Secretary of State the opportunity to stop the process and retender. There is no reason why the retendering process would take two to three years, as he has suggested, because the procurement of new trains before and after privatisation was carried out in just six months.

I urge the Government to reconsider their decision, even at this late stage, because although smaller contracts will hopefully come Bombardier’s way, such as those for Southern trains and the eVoyager carriages, we could still lose the ability to design trains in Derby, and if we lose that we lose the ability to design trains in the United Kingdom as a whole. Winning those two smaller contracts might put off the day when Bombardier pulls out of the UK, but it might not secure the train-building industry long into the future. It is absolutely key that the country that gave the world the railways continues to be able to build the trains that run on British railway lines.

Hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber, myself included, have mentioned globalisation. Globalisation can be a threat or, as I prefer to see it, an opportunity. We need to seize the opportunities presented by growing markets in China, India, Brazil and other parts of the world. Although we should not seek to compete on low wages, we should seek to be ahead of the game when it comes to the high-tech skills that this country has in abundance. We must nurture those skills and invest in them through research and development and investment in education, by encouraging young people to go into manufacturing and by looking not only at the opportunities available through support for our railways, aerospace and other existing industries, but at climate change as another opportunity. Engineering skills could be the salvation for tackling climate change and creating huge new employment opportunities in our country through geo-engineering solutions, which are being spearheaded by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

I am fairly optimistic and delighted at the cross-party support we have seen today. I hope that Government Members will use their influence to persuade the Government to invest in research and development and reconsider their decision on the Thameslink rolling stock programme.

NHS Future Forum

Chris Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)]

Everyone knows that the Conservatives opposed the introduction of the national health service and that they brought it to its knees when they were last in power. Now they are trying to undermine it by wrapping it up in bureaucracy. With waiting lists increasing, what assurances can the Secretary of State give the House that they will not increase further as a result of the measures he is bringing forward in the Bill?

[Mr Lansley]

I do not think that the hon. Gentleman listened to or heard the Prime Minister when he made absolutely clear our commitment to keeping waiting times low. Not only did the Prime Minister make that commitment, but it is in the constitution. In practice, the opportunity for patients increasingly to see the performance of the hospitals to which they can choose to go will help to drive increases in performance. As I told the House in response to an earlier question, waiting times are now lower for in-patients and out-patients than at the time of the last election. I am also old enough to remember that in June 1944, Winston Churchill, as the leader of a coalition Government, went to the Royal College of Physicians and set out an ambition for a national health service that would give everybody in the country access to the highest quality health care, free for all, regardless of means.