Autumn Statement

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Thursday 17th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

My right hon. Friend is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in this House when it comes to the social care sector, and he campaigned very hard for it in government. He is absolutely right: we do need a long-term plan for the social care workforce as well, and I will do what I can to turn my attention to that when we have set one up for the NHS.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Two thirds of children living in poverty also live in working households. That is before the drop in income that is being projected, which my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) raised. By the end of this Parliament, will that figure be greater or lower than it is now?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I would hope it would be lower, but I point out that the needs of people in that situation have been at the front of our mind in making today’s decisions. Uprating the national living wage means up to £1,600 extra for people on low incomes. The extra £900 that people on means-tested benefits will receive next year will make a big difference, and the increase in the pension rate by inflation is £870, so we are very much thinking about those people.

Economic Update

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I always listen to my right hon. Friend carefully on these issues. Let me say to him this: I do not think we will solve the growth paradox of this country, raising our long-term rate of economic growth to 2.5% from under 1%, unless we tackle the skills issue—that is central. I do not promise that I can give him an entire solution to that in two weeks’ time, but it is something I would very much like to talk to him more about.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Government insiders are busy telling the press that the Bank of England is “playing roulette” with the British economy. Is that helpful or unhelpful?

[Jeremy Hunt]

Those comments have not been coming from the Government since I have been a part of the Government. I cannot talk about what happened before, but what I will say is that I am working extremely closely with the Bank of England, and we are both absolutely aligned on the need for stability.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 22nd January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Subject to other parliamentary business I will welcome the opportunity to do that, because it is a very important issue. The timetable we are provisionally working to is that the interim report will be published before Easter, which will outline the issues faced by Christians all over the world, with the final report later in the year.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

We were told earlier that the Foreign Secretary has raised the brutal treatment of Muslims in China. I am interested to know what possible excuse his Chinese counterpart came up with for their medieval behaviour.

[Mr Speaker]

Let’s hear it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

First, I should like to thank my hon. Friend for her campaigning on maternity safety, which has engendered huge respect on both sides of the House. She will obviously understand that I cannot comment on that particular police investigation. None the less, immediately after the issues surfaced, safety measures were taken so that the hospital does not now provide care for babies born before 32 weeks, and it is implementing 24 recommendations from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The shortfall in midwives and the financial crisis in the NHS are threatening the “safety, quality and sustainability” of midwifery services. Those are the words of the Royal College of Midwives. How will the Secretary of State restore the confidence of the RCM and the other professional bodies?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that we need more midwives. We have 6,000 midwives in training, and we have 2,000 more midwives than we had in 2010. It is also important to recognise the progress that is being made. Stillbirth rates were down 14% between 2010 and 2015, and neonatal death rates are down 10%, so there is some really important progress happening.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

With respect, I really think the hon. Gentleman needs to get his facts right. The number of nurses has gone up, not down, since this Government have been in office. The number of nurses in our hospitals has gone up by more than 11,000, because this Government are supporting safer care in all our hospitals.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The number of unfilled nursing posts in London is now more than 10,000—whatever the Secretary of State’s figures say, it is more than 10,000. When will they be filled?

[Mr Hunt]

When we have put through the biggest increase in nurse training places in the history of the NHS—the 25% increase that I announced last week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Is the Minister satisfied that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence procedures for the approval of anti-cancer drugs are sufficiently speedy, because the waiting times for approvals can be months or even years, and there is a widespread feeling that that is too slow?

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

We have tried to speed this up with the cancer drugs fund, which helped 84,000 people in the last Parliament, but we always keep the NICE procedures under review and I take on board what the hon. Gentleman says.

NHS Funding

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Monday 31st October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my right hon. Friend, whose passion and commitment to higher standards for the constituents he serves have inspired me in this job, just as I know they have inspired many others in the education field. There are indeed parts of the United Kingdom that allow us to make a very good comparison of the commitment to and funding of the NHS. In Wales, funding went down in the first four years of the previous Parliament. In Scotland, funding went down over the course of that Parliament. Both the Scottish National party and the Labour party like to talk about the NHS, but when it comes to writing the cheques, they are nowhere to be seen.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Can the Secretary of State guarantee that every A&E department in north-east London, with a rapidly rising population, will remain open for the rest of this Parliament? If he cannot guarantee that, how many will close and which ones? What is his hit list?

[Mr Hunt]

What I can guarantee is that the decisions about the future of A&E departments will be taken locally by clinicians who have the best interests of their patients at heart. I think that the hon. Gentleman and I would be able to agree that these decisions are not best taken by Secretaries of State. It is much better that they are taken by people who do not have any party political axe to grind. Any decision to change service provision at an A&E has the opportunity, if it is so wished, to be reviewed by the Secretary of State when it goes through an independent process. That is exactly what would happen in north-east London, were the local community to wish it.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My right hon. Friend speaks wisely. A whole chorus of senior doctors, from Professor Sir Bruce Keogh to Dame Sally Davies to Lord Darzi, have urged doctors to think hard about the ethics involved. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that consulting the ethics committee in the trust is a wise thing to do. Doctors might also take note of what the General Medical Council said about it being increasingly difficult to justify the withdrawal of emergency care and about the ethics involved. In the end, this is a personal decision for doctors, and it is about whether it is right to withdraw emergency care from patients in an industrial dispute about pay. This is a bridge that the NHS has never crossed before. It is a very big decision, not only for the NHS, but for every single doctor inside it.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

On the basis of the Secretary of State’s previous comments, and particularly his opening comments, is he absolutely confident that he has the legal power to impose the new contract?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I shall tell the hon. Lady how I expect to do it. We are, in fact, making very good progress. By March next year, a third of the country will be able to access routine GP appointments at evenings and weekends. We do need more GPs. I agree with her that it takes too long to get a GP appointment, but we are doing something about it. That is why we have announced plans to recruit an estimated 5,000 more GPs. That will be a 15% increase in the number of GPs, the biggest increase in the history of the NHS.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

It is widely known that there is a serious lack of doctors who want to go into general practice. At the same time, the Secretary of State is guilty of an abject failure to engage with the British Medical Association in negotiations on junior doctors’ practices. On that basis, how the hell can he promise to increase general practice?

[Mr Hunt]

Just look at our track record in the previous Parliament: we increased the number of GPs by 1,700—a 5% increase. We are, on the back of a strong economy, putting in funding that will make it possible to increase that number even more. The hon. Gentleman talks about the BMA. I simply say that the people refusing to negotiate are not the Government, but the BMA.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating Herefordshire Housing. One of the key things about people with dementia is that relatively small adjustments to their homes can make it possible for them to live at home healthily and happily for much longer under the care of a husband, wife or partner without having to go into residential care. Those are precious years that we should treasure and do everything we can to facilitate, so I am delighted that that is happening, and he will be pleased to know that, thanks to the Government’s initiative, it is happening all over the country.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Figures from the House of Commons Library show that £1.8 billion has been cut from social care budgets since 2010. Does not that imply that delayed discharge among older people will be driven upwards because the finances are just not there to look after them?

[Mr Hunt]

I think the figures the hon. Gentleman is talking about are efficiencies and not actual cuts. [Laughter.] Well, Members should look at the figures carefully. If they are the figures from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, that is what they will find. If the hon. Gentleman looks more specifically at the figures related to delayed discharges, he will find that, year on year, the number attributable to the social care system went down by 50,000 bed days in the last year.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Further to the question from the hon. Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie), Ministers often—quite rightly—mention the importance of whistleblowers, so why have the Government weakened protection for whistleblowers through the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013?

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

We are strengthening protection for whistleblowers and are going much further by creating a culture of openness and transparency in the NHS, where people are not bullied if they speak out about poor care.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State said earlier that 1 million extra people are attending A and Es annually, but a few minutes later he said that the figure was 4 million. Which one is it?

[Mr Hunt]

It is an additional 4 million since the disastrous changes to the GP contract and an additional 1 million since the last election.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Thursday 14th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is precisely what we are currently looking at. There is a consultation under way and we are looking at the problem carefully. We take it very seriously and welcome any representations made by my hon. Friend or any other Members to ensure that we get this right.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Has the Secretary of State found time to explain the ministerial code of conduct to his new special adviser, and if so, when?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman can be sure that I will be finding plenty of time to explain the ministerial code in a great deal of detail to my new special adviser.

Phone Hacking and the Media

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Cryer

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The Prime Minister is not here because today we have had an incredibly important development in a decision for which I am responsible. I therefore thought it important, as did he, that I came to speak to the House.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will be aware that, in his statement last Friday, the Prime Minister said that he commissioned a company to do a basic background check on Andy Coulson, but he omitted to name the company. I am sure that it was a perfectly innocent omission, but will the Secretary of State place those details in the Library of the House this afternoon?

[Mr Hunt]

I will pass on the hon. Gentleman’s request to the Prime Minister.