Cass Review

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s powerful statement and the Cass report. However, we have to acknowledge that the report would not have been commissioned without this Government, with the support of some other parties. So many Opposition Members just stayed silent and thought the report was pretty much a waste of time, and to see the lack of any appreciation of that today is shocking and shameful.

On the timetable to enact the wider findings of the Cass report, I am grateful for what the Secretary of State said about meeting the GMC over the weekend, but there is work to be done. Secondly and really concerningly, what steps are—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I am sure the hon. Lady does not mean “secondly”, because she is not making a speech. She has one question to ask, and I would be grateful if she could ask it.

[Anna Firth]

What are we going to do to provide emotional and psychological support for those who have already undergone this treatment with irrevocable consequences?

--- Later in debate ---

[Victoria Atkins]

Not only have I tried to espouse those principles in every ministerial role that I have held, but it is the guiding light of this Government to try to ensure that we get the right healthcare and support to patients as quickly as possible. We also want to ensure that we are treating not just the condition, but the patient as a whole. As some of the complexity of the debates that we had this afternoon shows, young people are at the very heart of this. I think this is the final question, Madam Deputy Speaker, so I will end with the young people that we are concerned about. [Interruption.] I am so sorry; I have one more question from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). The children and young people who are the focus of this report have to be, and will be, the focus of our work going forward. We want to get the right services to the right children at the right time.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I do not want to say that the Secretary of State could ever be wrong, but on her last judgment I have to say that the show is never over until the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) has spoken.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

You are most kind, Madam Deputy Speaker. I know that I have now caught the Secretary of State’s eye.

May I thank the Secretary of State for her fortitude and determination, and Dr Cass for all her endeavours? Both ladies—honourable ladies, I believe—have been incredibly impressive and capable. We should be taking on board Dr Cass’s report in Northern Ireland. Indeed, I will make it my business to ensure that the Minister in Northern Ireland takes this in, so I shall be sending him a copy of the report. What help and support is available for all those patients who have been in the Tavistock since its inception? Importantly, what steps can be taken by the Government to stop this malpractice and to stop the movement of the vulnerable—some have called this tantamount to abuse—into privately funded abuse? How quickly can that protection be put in place?