Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

10. What steps his Department is taking to promote a culture of openness and transparency across the NHS.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

We need to change the culture of the NHS so that where there are problems with care or safety, people feel able to speak out. The Government have banned gagging clauses, they are introducing a statutory duty of candour, and they have for the first time published surgery outcomes for 10 specialties by consultant.

[Alun Cairns]

I commend the Secretary of State for his transparency agenda, which has uncovered previously untold horrors. What more can he do to ensure that in future no Minister can ever cover up failure in the NHS?

[Mr Hunt]

I know this is difficult territory for the Labour party, but the most important thing is for regulators to feel that they can speak out about poor care without fear or favour. I am afraid that did not happen under the previous Government, so let me just—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

15. What recent estimate he has made of the potential savings to the NHS of making better use of technology.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that the NHS could save £4.4 billion every year through proper investment in IT, which is one of the reasons I set the NHS the challenge of becoming fully paperless by 2018.

[Alun Cairns]

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his answer, but can he assure me that investment in new technology will release resources for patient care, rather than follow the pattern over the past 15 years, when investment in new technology has detracted from the available resources?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. In encouraging such investment, we are thinking about the nurse who recently reported that in order to admit someone to trauma she had to fill out a 22-page admission form and another 10 forms after that. The whole point of this move is to free up the time of professionals on the front line so that they can spend more time with patients.

Social Care Funding

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Monday 11th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Yes.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

I pay tribute to the Secretary of State for the significant progress he has made on this issue, which was ignored for so long by the Labour party. The shadow Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), has called for a bigger and bolder response. What estimate has my right hon. Friend made of the potential costs of a bigger and bolder response, and does he not think that any such criticism should have allied to it a source of funding in order for it to have any credibility?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. The shadow Health Secretary complained this morning that we have not adopted the precise cap that Andrew Dilnot said he would have liked. That would have cost an extra £2.4 billion a year by 2020, on top of the plans that we have announced. It is up to the Opposition to tell us how they would find that money if that is what they want to happen.

Leveson Inquiry

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I knew about his contact—that was authorised. He was authorised to be the point of contact between my Department and News Corporation. What I did not know was the communications themselves—the first time I saw them was yesterday. Nor did I know the volume of those communications or their tone.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State explain how referring the BSkyB deal to the Competition Commission makes him a cheerleader for the Murdoch empire?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes the most important point in this whole process. If one looks at the evidence of the decisions that I actually made, one finds that it is clear that at every stage I actually made the decision that News Corporation did not want. That includes the final decision, which was to ask whether I should take account of the Milly Dowler revelations, which was what precipitated the collapse of the entire bid.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Thursday 8th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am sure the right hon. Gentleman, as a former broadband Minister, will know that we have committed ourselves to universal broadband coverage, which will be one of the things measured in the broadband scorecard. However, before he criticises this Government’s progress he should show a little humility. He might like to know that the first thing that broadband officials told me was that the amount of money that had been allocated for universal broadband roll-out was half what was necessary.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State recognise the strength of feeling that exists for a 98% coverage clause in the 4G auction that is to come? Will he urge the mobile operators to think long and hard before launching any legal challenge that would merely delay the process and affect the economy?

[Mr Hunt]

I am very keen to get on with this auction, because it is clear that the high-speed broadband revolution that we need must also be a mobile revolution—we must assume that most people will access the internet through mobile devices going forward. We are looking very carefully at the possibility of increasing the coverage requirement to 97% and will await Ofcom’s findings, which we expect shortly.

Phone Hacking and the Media

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am not quite sure that I understand the first and second halves of the right hon. Gentleman’s question, but let me just say that the second inquiry will absolutely concentrate on the ethics of the press. The lesson from last week is that what changed the public mood was the fact that phone hacking moved from being something that affected celebrities and politicians to something that tragically affected members of the public.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State regret that such serious and grave matters have been used for party political point scoring? Will he reassure the House that the investigations from hereon will still contain an invitation to the Leader of the Opposition to contribute constructively to such an important debate that is in all our interests?

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely give that assurance to the House because we want to solve this problem. The Leader of the Opposition has to make up his mind whether he wants to continue with his party political posturing or tackle this problem in the national interest.

BSkyB

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Thursday 30th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am completely satisfied. My hon. Friend is right that the first time the undertakings were proposed to me, my concern was about financial viability. Sky News has a secure financial platform for a long period, which is the envy of all other broadcasters. That will allow it to do precisely what my hon. Friend says. I am sure that with an independent board led by an independent chairman, it will want to diversify its sources of funding, which would give it even more money to invest in news gathering, which is its core strength.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Did Ofcom or the Office of Fair Trading change their initial advice about whether the undertakings addressed their concerns about plurality?

[Mr Hunt]

No, they did not. I could have accepted the original undertakings published on 3 March. I have chosen not to, which is why there is now a further consultation to make the undertakings even more robust.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Thursday 16th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s earlier comments about the importance of mobile broadband and the role it can play. Does he recognise the current imbalance in the market, with some providers having access to better bandwidth or a better spectrum on the bandwidth? What plans does he have to use the 4G auction to correct the imbalance?

[Mr Hunt]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s interest in and commitment to this subject. We recognise that there has to be a competitive market in broadband and that it would be very damaging for the broadband market if we did not have a competitive market in mobile provision. I know that Ofcom is working very hard to structure the spectrum auctions to make sure that we do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Local television offers an exciting opportunity to all parts of the United Kingdom, both socially and economically. What action is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that that becomes a reality, especially given that the interleaved licence has already been sold off in Manchester and in Wales?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend not just for his question, but for his sustained interest in the importance of local television, particularly in Wales. I was especially pleased to learn that Tinopolis, a Welsh independent production company, had expressed interest in running a new local television network channel.

The answer to my hon. Friend’s question is that we must look at the spectrum that is available, and see whether we can find a way of attracting bids for it from a new generation of local television companies. I believe that the local television industry could become a brand-new successful, profitable, dynamic creative industry, creating thousands of jobs for this country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Can the Secretary of State confirm that there will be no change to the chairmanship of S4C? Does he recognise the insecurity that some S4C authority members are causing staff, and can he confirm the Government’s commitment to an S4C that is operationally and editorially independent?

[Mr Hunt]

I can absolutely confirm this Government’s wholehearted commitment to an S4C with its own distinct identity, operational independence and the support and expertise of our most important and largest national broadcaster. I urge the authority to clear up the confusion over the leadership at S4C as soon as possible, because it owes nothing less to the people of Wales.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alun Cairns

Monday 26th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I agree with the hon. Lady about the importance of the BBC spending money on high-quality programming. That is what the coalition Government believe is one of the primary roles of the BBC. I also agree with her that one thing that has made British broadcasting some of the highest-quality broadcasting in the world is that we have a mix of funding streams, including the licence fee, advertising-funded programming and subscription-funded programming. That is why we are happy with that structure and intend to continue with it.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

In the context of reducing the licence fee, what consideration has the Secretary of State given to encouraging the BBC to sell off some of its assets, possibly including Radio 1 and some of its other services?

[Mr Hunt]

We have no plans to ask the BBC to sell off Radio 1. There may be possibilities in the case of some of the BBC’s commercial assets, such as BBC Worldwide, and we await any proposals that the BBC may have. However, we are committed to a publicly funded, publicly owned national broadcaster as a benchmark of quality in the broadcasting system. We believe we are one of the few countries in the world to have competition at the quality end of the broadcasting market as well as the popular end, and we want that to continue.