Business of the House

George Freeman Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

He does correct me. I will look at the precedent and we will discuss internally whether a debate of that kind is appropriate. Clearly, in the run-up to the NATO summit, which we are pleased the United Kingdom will be hosting in Wales at the beginning of September, those issues will be important in themselves, and the UK-US defence relationship is an instrumental part of that.

On the point about a statement following the G7, the fact is simply that this Prime Minister has made more statements than any of his predecessors and is always willing to come to inform the House. However, at this point I am not in a position to confirm a statement or its timing. In part, that will depend—as all statements do—on the nature of the event to which the statement refers. We are waiting to see the outcome of the discussions taking place in and around the G7 meeting, to see the extent to which it is necessary to announce changes in policy, or events, to the House.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

I welcome, and thank Ministers for, the news that the Government have adopted in a Government Bill a number of the key measures in my ten-minute rule Bill on patients’ rights to patient data, which hon. Members lucky enough to be drawn high in the ballot next week might like to consider—a Bill for the integration of health and care records for all patients across the NHS and the care sector, which is key to raising standards and preventing some of the appalling events that we saw uncovered through the Francis report. May we have a debate on the importance of medical records in three key areas: supporting research for 21st-century medicines; driving the revolution of accountability and transparency; and the revolution of empowerment, which is key to 21st-century medicine?

[Mr Lansley]

I hope my hon. Friend knows that I share his sense of how profoundly important the proper use of the UK’s asset, or in this instance, England’s asset—NHS data—can be. When patients and the public generally are asked whether they are content for their data to be used to enable treatments and research to be promoted for all patients in future, as long as we give them the proper protection for their anonymity and confidentially, they are very much in favour. That is the point we are trying to get to.

My hon. Friend mentions something that will be important this coming week: that Back-Bench colleagues take every opportunity to put their names forward for the private Members’ Bill ballot. He instances one issue, but it would be very much in the interests of the people of this country if a number of others were brought forward under the banner of a private Member’s Bill.