Justin Madders
Main Page: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)Department Debates - View all Justin Madders's debates with the Leader of the House
(6 years, 7 months ago)
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Andrea Leadsom
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point, and he will be aware that my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley South (Mike Wood) almost died of sepsis. This subject is live in the Government, and we are looking at it carefully. An estimated 37,000 people die every year as a result of sepsis, and every death is a tragedy. We need to get much better at spotting sepsis right across the NHS, and the NHS England commissioning for quality and innovation scheme for sepsis incentivises providers to improve identification and timely treatment. As the Prime Minister said in Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, we will be doing all we can to encourage better identification and early diagnosis.
Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)
This week, the Government announced a badger cull in Cheshire. The scientific evidence shows that a vaccination programme would be far more effective, but the Government insist on carrying out this cruel and barbaric practice contrary to the science. Can we have a debate, please, on why the Government insist on operating in this way?
Andrea Leadsom
I know from my time as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that the science is not entirely clear. There is very clear qualitative evidence that culling badgers reduces the incidence of bovine tuberculosis. We know that badgers carry bovine TB, and that there is a worldwide shortage of the vaccine that could be used for badgers. World guidelines state that we should not be using that vaccine—it is a human vaccine—on badgers for the time being.
There is a lot of work going on in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make sure that the culling is humanely carried out under very strict conditions and supervision. I think that we must allow the best science to prevail, because bovine TB is destroying farmers’ livelihoods and their lives. It is heartbreaking to see the stories of farmers who are trying to deal with having to have their whole herd culled as a result of one breakout of bovine TB. It is not something that we can just ignore.