Business of the House

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I applaud my hon. Friend’s work as vice-chairman of the all-party group, which I understand was founded by the Deputy Leader of the House. About 900 million prescriptions are issued each year for about 16,000 medicines, some of which, as my hon. Friend said, are in short supply. The Government will want to respond to the report. Contingency arrangements are in place whereby if a pharmacy cannot get a medicine from the wholesaler, it can go direct to the supplier. We do all that we can to prevent shortages, but as I said, we will want to respond to the suggestions in his report.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

Please may we have a chance to debate the Government’s thoughts on regional pay? Last week, the Welsh Government produced an excellent response to the Government’s consultation, and it would be fantastic to have an early opportunity to articulate just how unfair, divisive and damaging these proposals will be for areas such as Newport in my constituency.

[Sir George Young]

It might be in order for the hon. Lady to raise that issue on the amendment that her party has tabled to today’s debate. The Government are consulting on the matter, and I welcome the contribution to that process to which she referred. I think that the consultation ends later this year, at which point it might be sensible to have a debate to indicate where the Government are going, having initiated the consultation process, and to see whether there is a case for differential rates of pay in the public sector to reflect regional cost variances.