Coronavirus
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(4 years, 6 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
The hon. Lady asks an important question. We have been increasing funding to mental health services, which are an incredibly important part of the response. Our mental health services, certainly across England, the area for which I am responsible, have risen admirably to the extraordinary challenge presented by coronavirus and I pay tribute to their work.
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
I represent a number of aerospace manufacturing companies; the whole sector is currently very hard hit and is particularly worried about the impact of the 14-day quarantine. The Secretary of State will know far better than I, but is it not possible to do very simple temperature checks on people as they come into this country?
Acquired Brain Injury
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(4 years, 10 months ago)
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Several hon. Members rose—
Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)
Order. I want to start the Front-Bench speeches at half-past 2; please bear that in mind. We must also allow a couple of minutes for Mr Bryant to wind up at the end.
Oral Answers to Questions
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Jackie Doyle-Price
My hon. Friend is knocking on an open door, because this issue is very close to my heart. The public outcomes framework does include a measure of reported domestic abuse incidents and crimes that is intended to give an indication of the scale of the issue in each area, and we expect CCGs to commission services as a response to exactly those issues. I have written to CCGs to remind them to commission appropriate sexual violence services, as well as those already commissioned by NHS England so that we have proper support for people who have been victims of these terrible offences.
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)
It is the goal of the Department to support everyone to live longer, healthier lives. I will be working right across the health and social care sector to deliver the goal of five years of extra healthy life for people in the UK. In doing that, I am delighted that we will now have on the ministerial team the enthusiasm and assistance of the Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Seema Kennedy).
Mr Robertson
In achieving those goals, the Secretary of State will be concerned that while many patients can obtain GP appointments for emergency cases on the same day, quite a lot of people have to wait three or four weeks for non-emergency appointments. Can the Government do anything to improve that situation?
Matt Hancock
Yes, I entirely understand my hon. Friend’s concerns. We are acting to make sure that there is better access. We have a review of access to primary care. But, more than that, the biggest increase of the £39.9 billion of extra taxpayers’ money that we are putting into the NHS is in GP access, primary care and community care to make sure that we get ahead of the curve and help people to stay healthy rather than just treat them in hospital.
Oral Answers to Questions
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Caroline Dinenage
Most people are diagnosed and treated successfully by GPs and recover uneventfully, but in a few cases people who are diagnosed late or are not treated adequately may develop significant complications. That is why the National Institute for Health Research welcomes applications for research funds.
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
Caroline Dinenage
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this: we do need to do more in this space, and that is why we are investing over £1 billion a year in health research through the National Institute of Health Research.
Diabetes
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(5 years, 11 months ago)
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Mr Howarth
Yes. I will not labour the point, but the hon. Gentleman is right. I would add that quite often teachers are left with such responsibilities, although they have enough challenges in their working life, but there is a need for someone in the school to have the expertise and to be trained to deal with young people with type 1 diabetes.
I know that I assured you, Mr Robertson, that I would try to be briefer than I have been, but I am coming to the end of my remarks, and the matter is important. I join the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings in saying that it would be useful to have a meeting with the Minister to discuss the matter in more depth and get his thoughts on how to move forward. There is much that we can do to make people’s lives better. I hope that the debate will inform that process, and that we will be able to move forward on the basis of consensus across the House. The Minister faces challenges, and Members of this House will want to share the burden of them.
Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)
I am looking to call the Scottish National party spokesman at 10.28, and we have two more hon. Members wanting to speak, so please bear that in mind.
Oral Answers to Questions
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(6 years ago)
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Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
The Minister for Health (Stephen Hammond)
The latest UCAS data from October 2018 show that demand for nursing courses remains strong, with applications exceeding the number of places available this year. The number of acceptances to nursing and midwifery courses in 2018 is consistent with earlier years at approximately 22,000. The final data will be published in December 2018.
Mr Robertson
Does the Minister accept that student nurses face pressures from the long hours they have to study and the long hours they spend on placements, which makes it very difficult for them also to carry out paid work? Is there any more the Government can do to support student nurses financially as they go through college?
Stephen Hammond
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said earlier, we recognise the vital role that nurses play, and we are determined to support them. We are determined to have more nurses in training and more nurses treating patients. At the moment, a student on the loan system typically achieves 25% more in their pocket than they would have had on the bursary, but the Government recognise that there are still pressures, which is why we have the learning support fund, the exceptional hardship fund and support for mature students.
Phenylketonuria: Treatment and Support
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(6 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)
Given the number of Members who will seek to catch my eye, I am imposing a four-minute time limit on Back-Bench speeches.
Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered access to treatment, support and innovative new medicines for phenylketonuria patients.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship in this important debate, Mr Robertson. It is just over 12 months since I was elected Member of Parliament for Blaydon, and only a few days less than that since I first heard of phenylketonuria—commonly known as PKU, which is easier to pronounce. One of my constituents, Barbara McGovern, had called at my office and spoken to a member of my staff about whether I would attend an event in Westminster on 28 June. Barbara’s son Archie has PKU, and she described his condition and some of the restrictions that he has to cope with every day. Her explanation of what PKU means, and her determination to get the best for her son, impressed my staff, who made sure that I attended the reception to learn more about the condition. Barbara and her husband David, and Archie, have travelled from the north-east to listen to the debate, and I welcome them.
Since that first encounter, I have been lucky enough to be introduced to the officers of the National Society for Phenylketonuria, and have had the chance to work with them and its other members to raise the profile of PKU, get people to understand it and its effects, and press for access to treatment and support. I will give a few of the many names that I could mention. Kate Learoyd and Caroline Graham both have children with PKU, and they have dedicated much of their time to talking to Members about the condition and the need for action for people who live with PKU. Professor Anita MacDonald OBE, of Birmingham Children’s Hospital, also does much to raise awareness of the condition and goes above and beyond in advising families affected by PKU on diet.
Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) on securing this important debate. We have heard some heartrending accounts from hon. Members about the impact of PKU on their constituents.
My constituent, Denise Clayton, whose family I have known for 30 years, has lived with PKU for nearly 70 years, so she was born long before any real screening programme was in place. Consequently, she did not receive the required treatment, and the treatment she did receive was too little, too late to avoid neurotoxicity. Her family have done everything they could to support Denise. A few weeks ago, I spoke to her father, Norman, who recounted some of the traumas and difficulties that they experienced down the years. His view was that nothing could be done for Denise, but it seems that a treatment is now available.
I join hon. Members in their pleas with the Minister to use his good offices to ensure that the new life-changing drug Kuvan is made available so that the sufferers of PKU in the UK—like sufferers in other countries—can obtain the benefits of it and lead something approaching a normal life. Let us remember that we live in a wealthy nation; we are the sixth-biggest economy in the world.
PKU is a very rare condition that affects only a very few people in total across the country. The cost of the drug would be minimal in comparison to the life-changing impact it could bring about for young people—our fellow citizens. I plead with the Minister to listen to the impassioned pleas we have heard from Members today. He should use his good offices to ensure that the drug is made available so that we can change the lives of so many young people in our country who are suffering from this terrible condition.
Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)
We now come to the wind-ups. I would like to leave two minutes for the mover of the motion to wind up at the end.
Liz Twist
What can I say in less than one and a half minutes? I thank all hon. Members who have taken part today. I thank the hon. Members for East Renfrewshire (Paul Masterton), my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan), the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous), my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin), the hon. Members for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford), for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon), my hon. Friends the Members for Warrington South (Faisal Rashid), for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West) and for Derby North (Chris Williamson), the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Martyn Day), my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) and the Minister for his reply.
I am rather disappointed that we did not have a bit more promising news on the future of Kuvan, but we will be back; we will ensure that the Minister hears from us again, and we will continue our campaign. Finally, I thank all the families who are here today to show how strongly people feel about the issue. I thank everyone for attending. The issue will not go away. We will be back and will keep pushing this agenda.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered access to treatment, support and innovative new medicines for phenylketonuria patients.
Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)
Would hon. Members leaving please do so quietly? Thank you. We have another debate.
Francis Report: Update and Response
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
In calling the hon. Gentleman, I congratulate him on his wedding. We wish him a long and happy marriage.
Mr Robertson
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
A good friend of mine, a consultant cardiologist, had his career ended and his life completely disrupted after he blew the whistle on the unnecessary deaths of patients at a hospital he worked at. It has taken him more than 12 years to win his case at a tribunal, and he still awaits compensation. These cases often manifest themselves in employment disputes, with trumped-up charges brought against the individual. What can the Secretary of State do to ensure that such things never happen again?
Mr Hunt
I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend, who makes an important point. The heart of the problem of whistleblowing is the confusion between employment law and patient safety. We need to divorce those two things and put in place a proper procedure to ensure that the right thing happens if someone raises a concern about patient care, and that it can be externally investigated to ensure that the trust did the right thing. Issues of employment law and someone’s professional behaviour should be pursued on a completely different track—those things are rightly and properly a matter for the courts. It is precisely because of the kind of issue he talks about that people are afraid to speak out. They worry that if they do, even if they win at an employment tribunal, they might never get a job again. For that reason, we welcome the shadow Secretary of State’s commitment to work with us and put on the statute regulation-making powers making it illegal for NHS organisations to discriminate against former whistleblowers.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Frank Dobson
No, I will not give way, because I do not want to take up more than my allocated six minutes.
The question arises: will it be safe and will it work? The answer is that no one can make any guarantees, but that is the nature of scientific development. The thing to remember is that mitochondrial disease is horrible and that there is no treatment for it. I remind people that the team at Newcastle university did not start off with this riskier novel approach. It has been studying and trying to come up with treatments for mitochondrial disease for the best part of 20 years, and is still doing so now. Some 90% of its work is trying to come up with a treatment. The best that it has managed to come up with after all these years is helping parents cope with the horrible symptoms before their children fade away and die. As has already been said, the team has decided that if it cannot come up with a treatment—and it is still trying—it would be better to prevent the disease arising in the first place because prevention is better than cure. That is why I hope the regulations will be passed and handed over to the HFEA. Members should realise that it is a credit to this country and to this House that the HFEA was established. We must find a middle way between the free-for-all, which a few nutters want, and the total ban, which some others want because they are opposed to embryo research on principle.
The system that has been established is well regulated through the HFEA. Despite all the predictions to the contrary, there has not been a single scandal in all the time that the HFEA has been in existence. There has been no sign of a slippery slope. These people with great reputations at Newcastle think the time is right to take risks and to risk their reputations—
Aerospace Industry
Laurence Robertson Excerpts(10 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
The hon. Gentleman is making a good speech. However, the biggest employer in my constituency is GE Aviation, an American company that has been visited by ex-Ministers. There was concern about its plans when it took over the plant, but it has heavily invested in it.
Mark Tami
I clearly welcome that. As I have said, it is good that we have American companies over here, but I would like to see more British companies buy companies in America, although that often seems difficult. There are great opportunities for us, but there are threats as well. We must learn the lessons of the past. We have lost many manufacturing companies that we thought would go on for ever, and many will never return. Aerospace is a great opportunity and we must grasp it and invest, not just let it fall by the wayside.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (George Freeman)
It is an absolute pleasure to start my Front-Bench work in Westminster Hall under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Sir Peter Luff) on securing this debate. I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to his work on this sector and on industrial strategy more generally, in what has been a very distinguished career in this House and in Government. From our work over the past few years, he knows that I share his passion for making sure that we use every pound of Government money to support a wider, more balanced long-term economic growth agenda for this country. This debate has played an important part in highlighting those issues.
My hon. Friend has raised a number of excellent points about the civil aerospace sector in the UK: the role of innovation in driving long-term growth; whether the current strategy is sufficient to rise to the international competitive challenge; how we can improve linkages between the defence sector and the space sector; whether both we and the supply chain sufficiently understand the views of the major US players; the case for improving export support; the need to support companies in the supply chain, both small and large; whether the approach to skills is adequate; and the importance of maintaining the momentum of the AGP.
We have also heard important contributions from my hon. Friends the Members for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth), for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) and for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson), from the hon. Members for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson), for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami) and from the shadow Minister. There is a strong consensus in the room on the importance of the sector and its need for cross-party support. I will strive to respond to all the points raised as best I can in the time available. If I fail to do so, I will write to Members to deal with points in detail.
The Government know well that the aerospace industry is vital for the UK economy. It is one of our key industrial sectors and, like the life sciences sector, a key driver of long-term growth. I was struck by the recent figures from ADS showing that since 2011 the sector has grown by 14%. That is a real success story for the UK and something we should be rightly proud of. There is a huge opportunity for the UK to benefit from the forecast growth in aerospace, with forecast demand for 29,000 new passenger aircraft, valued at over $4 trillion, between now and 2032.
The sector has achieved so much, through a combination of good management, a skilled, innovative work force, supportive trade unions and long-term Government policy. The recent aerospace sector strategy provides long-term stability for the UK. It is particularly important for sectors such as aerospace and the life sciences that we lay out a programme for long-term support to secure investment.
The Aerospace Growth Partnership, set up in 2010, was designed to transform the way in which Government and industry work together. The AGP led on developing the industrial strategy published in 2013 and is now taking forward its implementation. It is not something that we can take for granted. In early meetings with the aerospace industry’s business leaders, it was striking that our national success is dependent on investment in research and technology. The UK’s No. l position in Europe was built on heavy investment in the ’70s and ’80s. However, over the years, public funding reduced significantly, resulting in some of our research capability going overseas, followed, inevitably, by some manufacturing jobs. That had to be addressed. It was through those honest, frank conversations that the seeds were planted for what became the aerospace industrial strategy.
It quickly became apparent that there was a need for Government to operate strategically over the long term. For critically important sectors such as aerospace, that is essential. For example, all hon. Members here will know that the Airbus A320 family was launched in 1984 and first flown in 1987, and is still selling strongly in 2014, with over 6,000 delivered so far and an order backlog of 1,200. Like the other sectors for which the Government have set out industrial strategies, the aerospace sector has long-term product development time scales that last well beyond a single Parliament and require a stable environment where industry and Government pull in the same direction. In that context, I warmly welcome the shadow Minister’s comments.
At the heart of the industrial strategy was a commitment to set up the Aerospace Technology Institute and for industry and Government to invest £2 billion over the next seven years in new technology and manufacturing—the largest and longest commitment on aerospace in a generation, creating funding certainty through to the end of the next Parliament, to give industry the certainty it needs to invest in the UK. It is a new way of working that avoids the piecemeal, ad hoc, hand-to-mouth approach of the past. It matches industry time scales that allow new technology to be developed and harnessed into game-changing products.
I am pleased to say that industry and Government have made good progress in setting up the Aerospace Technology Institute. Key posts have been filled, the office has been established in Cranfield and the institute has been fully operational since the beginning of April. A key part of the ATI’s work in the months ahead will be to develop a technology strategy for the UK that will take into account the international competitive challenge of which my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire spoke.
We have wasted no time in putting that work to good use. To strengthen critical parts of infrastructure, we have already committed £60 million to the manufacturing technology centre in Ansty and £15 million to upgrade wind tunnels in research organisations. In total, we have announced well over £300 million of collaborative research projects, involving companies of all sizes working alongside academic and research institutions. Over 100 UK companies and 26 universities are now involved across the UK.
Knowing that long-term research funding is available gives business the confidence to invest. I was delighted at the announcement at Farnborough air show that Airbus will develop a new version of the A330, which will exclusively feature the new Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engine. With over 120 orders already, the new aircraft will support jobs in Airbus, Rolls-Royce and the wider supply chain.
I turn now to skills, another issue raised by my hon. Friend. A big success story has been the jointly funded initiative to create an additional 500 masters-level postgraduate places. Last year, as planned, 100 bursaries were awarded; this year we have awarded a further 200 bursaries and the remainder will be awarded next year. I am delighted to report that industry has just opened up a portal on the Talent Retention Solution website so that bursary holders can link up with companies of all sizes.
I can also report that industry has submitted a bid through the AGP to the Government’s employer ownership programme to tackle its priority skills needs. It includes actions to boost apprenticeship numbers, and improve early career opportunities and the flow of high-level skills into the sector. That bid, for over £10 million of public funding, will leverage in additional investment by industry. I will take the opportunity to set out my support—as my hon. Friend invited me to—for the flagship apprenticeships and the STEM programme, which he talked of earlier.
Mr Laurence Robertson
Will the Minister be so kind as to look into any possible effect that the changes in funding of apprenticeship schemes might have on the industry—not necessarily now?
George Freeman
That is an important point. I will be delighted to look into it and come back to my hon. Friend.
We have also opened a dialogue with industry about the potential to create a national college for aerospace to help the sector tackle its long-term skills needs. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire also mentioned the importance of promoting women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. I pay tribute to him for his campaigning work on increasing the flow of STEM skills into the economy and increasing the number of women working in STEM jobs. As in the life sciences, that is a key strategic priority for the future of our country. I want particularly to take the opportunity to support the STEM ambassador scheme.
To boost the pool of potential engineers, the Government are making a series of interventions across the spectrum, within vocational and higher education and with employers. In response to Professor Perkins’s review, we are putting in £30 million for employers to address engineering skills shortages in sectors, £18 million of investment in a new elite training facility at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry and £250,000 of seed funding to encourage children in schools to consider engineering careers through the Tomorrow’s Engineers initiative. In addition, last year my right hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr Willetts) announced a £400 million boost for English universities to promote science and engineering —a £200 million fund from Government that will be matched by universities on a one-to-one basis.
The Government cannot tackle this agenda alone: engineering employers, the profession and educators need to work together with Government to increase the supply of engineers in the UK. Companies such as QinetiQ, based in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire, are taking a leading role through initiatives such as the 5% Club.
The AGP is also working to increase the competitiveness of our supply chain. The ambitious Sharing in Growth programme is part of that work and a great example of how the sector is raising the capability of our aerospace suppliers, mainly at mid-cap and smaller business level. Sharing in Growth is an ambitious £120 million performance improvement programme tailored to the specific needs of the participating companies. The programme is backed with £50 million from the regional growth fund and aims to secure or create up to 3,000 UK jobs. The Aerospace Growth Partnership has also created the National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme, a £40 million programme backed by £23 million from the advanced manufacturing supply chain initiative, to help smaller companies innovate and expand.
I will also pick up on my hon. Friend’s comments on Boeing. Although Boeing was not a formal part of the Aerospace Growth Partnership, given that it has no civil manufacturing presence in the UK, we have made it clear that initiatives coming out of the AGP, such as R and D funding, are open to Boeing when working with UK suppliers.
As time is running short, I shall conclude by touching on the issue of the Washington state tax breaks. I am pleased my hon. Friend has taken this opportunity to set out a balanced description of the WTO disputes. We continue to work with EU counterparts and I will be happy to write to him in detail on that ongoing work.
My hon. Friend also touched on the importance of links between the civil and defence aerospace sectors. Again, I will write to him in detail, but I emphasise that the Government are looking at that crucial area.
I conclude by highlighting once more the work the AGP has done and congratulating it on what it has achieved so far. It is already beginning to make a difference, which was summed up in a recent interview in The Sunday Telegraph with Fabrice Brégier, CEO of Airbus, who said—I will not use a French accent:
“I must say the UK has an approach which is to support industry, to support the economy and to be very pragmatic…We would like at times for other parts of Europe to have the same pragmatism and support.”
The signs are that there is increasing confidence in investing in the UK, and we are seeing fantastic new aerospace facilities. In less than four months, we will all be in election mode, but the best test of all this work will be if we can maintain sufficient unity of purpose. Today’s debate has suggested that that unity does indeed exist, which is important and to the benefit of us all.