Reform of Social Care

David Nuttall Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend’s point relates to the degree of uncertainty and insecurity that the current system tends to engender. It is important that we deal with that, and that people understand the circumstances in which the state pays and will continue to pay. We should not give people who have no assets the sense that they will be required to pay when they have no means of doing so. The state will be there to support them. There will be a safety net, and the commission makes recommendations about how further to develop it in future. Beyond that, we must arrive at a place where people are able to understand better the nature of the care costs that they might meet, and where there are good, affordable, secure mechanisms through which they can prepare for those costs, so that they do not have the gross insecurity that exists at the moment.

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that improved palliative care will be enormously helpful to those of us who wish to resist the calls for the legalisation of euthanasia, and that a reduction in the number of deaths in hospital could save tens of millions of pounds each year for reinvestment in patient care?