Clinical Waste Incineration Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Eddie Hughes
Main Page: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)Department Debates - View all Eddie Hughes's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Clinical Waste Incineration
Eddie Hughes Excerpts(5 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Stephen Barclay
I thank my hon. Friend for that question. There has very much been a Government-wide effort to ensure that waste did not build up, for the reason he mentions—the ability of the NHS to maintain its services and continue to operate if clinical waste could not be removed from the site. There is a varying degree of contingency capacity on different sites, so certain hospital sites would quite quickly exhaust that capacity if it was not cleared. That is why, as my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell) said, the ability to mobilise the contract quickly was so important.
Eddie Hughes (Walsall North) (Con)
Will the Minister assure the House that good governance will be in place to ensure that the new provider can dispose of the waste very safely?
Stephen Barclay
I am very happy to give my hon. Friend that assurance. There are lessons to be learned from the HES contract, and I am keen that we do so, but as I commented earlier, the contract with Mitie—through the use of different logistics firms and different waste sites—will actually build greater resilience into the arrangements for clearing clinical waste.