Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts
Tuesday 27th November 2018

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Steve Brine Portrait Steve Brine
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The hon. Lady—my shadow Minister—knows that I have a great deal of respect for her. She mentioned smoking; smoking rates in England are at their lowest ever levels. We hear spending commitment after spending commitment from the Labour Government; it is like the arsonist turning up at the scene of a fire. I will take very seriously, as I am sure will the Treasury, her bid towards the spending review discussions, but yes, prevention is better than cure and it will be at the heart of the long-term plan.

Jim Shannon Portrait Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
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4. What steps he is taking to support people to lead healthier lives.

Robert Neill Portrait Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)
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17. What steps he is taking to ensure that people take greater personal responsibility for leading healthier lives.

Matt Hancock Portrait The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)
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Prevention is indeed better than cure. As well as having a right to expect NHS services to be free at the point of use, we all have responsibility for our own health, and to use the NHS responsibly.

Jim Shannon Portrait Jim Shannon
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I recently met Breast Cancer Now—the Secretary of State will be aware of it. It has 10 priorities for the NHS long-term plan. Has he made an assessment of the impact of the real-terms 5% cut in public health budgets on reducing the incidence of cancer?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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There are many things we need to do to diagnose cancer early, and of course public health is part of that, but there is a much bigger agenda, and that includes more screening. We have seen an increase in the number of people invited to screening, but we need to get the screening right, so I have instituted a review of all our screening processes for cancer and other diseases.