GP Services

Debate between John Howell and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 5th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

On the development of local plans, in east Hertfordshire and elsewhere, the problem is that our rather nice, but historical and inadequate, premises restrain the ability of practices to provide modern facilities. Is that my hon. Friend’s experience of the local planning process in his constituency?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. May I make a suggestion? The Speaker suggested a time limit of about 10 minutes, and the hon. Gentleman has now had 13 minutes. I hope there will not be too many more interventions, and that the hon. Gentleman is coming to the end of his speech.

[John Howell]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am coming to the end, but let me respond to my hon. Friend’s intervention. It depends on where the practice is and what its buildings are like. Some are quite modern, and one would not want to change their facilities. Even those practices may need to add an extra surgery, if the village is going to grow by several thousand people, so they need to plan for where it will go and for the doctor that will use it.

The trend in the population has been towards more elderly patients and more patients with long-term, chronic or multiple conditions. That leads to an increase in the number of patients per year. There is no doubt that the age profile is having an impact. The Government’s allocation of a named doctor to a patient is useful for the co-ordination of services, even though in an emergency the patient may not be able to see that doctor on the day when they require them.

Yes, there is a need for money to be provided for GP services, but this is possible only if we have a strong economy. The Government have evened out the payments between practices so that they do similar things in similar parts of the country and there are not wide variations between them. That has to be the right way to go. It also has to be right to increase the strength of the economy in order to provide these services.

Forensic Science Service

Debate between John Howell and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 27th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[John Howell]

I fear that this is turning into a debate about who has got what television show—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we will have no more Dr Whos or anything else. We will stick to the subject before us.

[John Howell]

I am grateful for those comments, Mr Deputy Speaker. I intended to head in that direction anyway.

In 1991, we had a major change with the FSS that attracted new entrants to the market, including companies such as LGC Forensics. It ushered in a period of investment and scientific innovation that has driven up quality and ensured that prices and turnaround times have reduced dramatically. That move has resulted in a safer and more secure society together with better value for the police and taxpayers. That is an important combination of factors.

But what confusing signals the previous Government sent to this emerging sector! We had just encouraged the sector to be innovative and to invest, but then, as I mentioned in my intervention, in March 2009, the Labour Administration agreed to a £50 million subsidy to support business transformation. That was a major subsidy for a company that existed in a competitive market, and it sent a very confusing signal. No one in the private sector wanted to see the end of the FSS. Indeed, some of those private companies have said that they wanted the FSS to continue because a healthy competitive market is good for all. However, doing that through this sort of heavy-handed subsidy was not the way to go.

There are good private sector providers, as even Opposition Members agree, and they have a crucial role to play. I am glad that my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton North (Michael Ellis) mentioned the Stephen Lawrence case, because it illustrated the importance of the current investment in technology. It was not available at the time, and I do not think we would have had that result otherwise.