Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

1. What steps he has taken to improve access to patient care for people with Parkinson’s disease in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.

[Mr Speaker]

I welcome the Minister to her place.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his continued support for people with Parkinson’s disease, a condition that I know is close to his family. This Government inherited long waits for neurology services, with only 53.4% of patients, including those with Parkinson’s, waiting less than 18 weeks for a referral in June. Our elective reform plan will free up over 1 million appointments each year for those who really need them, including patients with Parkinson’s, and NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme continues to work with 27 specialised centres in England, including at University Hospitals of North Midlands.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Kinnock]

After the disastrous 14 years that we have had, we are facing a very serious situation in terms of mental health provision. It will take some time to get the workforce in place, but we have a clear commitment to having a specialist in every school. The appointment and training of those specialists will take some time. We are also rolling out open-access Young Futures hubs in every community. I am confident that the combination of those two interventions will get us back to having mental health services that this country can be truly proud of.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.

[Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) (LD)]

I welcome the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), to her place. I look forward to working with her, as I do with other Ministers.

As the Minister for Care will know, 20% of the burden on the NHS is due to mental health, yet only 10% of the budget is allocated towards it. The mental health investment standard has been a welcome maintenance under this Government. However, the Select Committee heard from Amanda Pritchard the other day that the standard is guaranteed for only the next two years. Does the Minister agree that the standard has had a positive effect on mental health community services, and would he commit to protecting it?

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Kinnock]

We in this Chamber should, whenever possible, pay tribute to the people providing those frontline services, who every day work heroically in very difficult circumstances. My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the pressures on the workforce—we are very conscious of that. We will bring forward a workforce plan in the summer, and we are working at pace to recruit the 8,500 mental health workers.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Last week, the Secretary of State issued a new mandate for the NHS in which a number of mental health targets were dropped. I accept that targets that drive perverse behaviours should be dropped and that some sharpened focus is necessary, but mental health waiting lists are at a record high, huge numbers of people are not at work because of poor mental health, and our young people are being let down badly by CAMHS, not least in my constituency of North Shropshire. Does the Secretary of State accept that mental health targets should be reinstated and that mental health should be treated with equal priority to physical health?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

The hon. Member raises an important point. I know that my ministerial colleagues in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office are looking at the investment cases for Gavi and the Global Fund as part of the spending review. I will ensure that her representations are relayed to the FCDO, and she is very welcome to make those points during oral questions to that Department.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Dr Caroline Johnson (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

There were almost 67,000 cases of serious antimicrobial-resistant infections in the United Kingdom in 2023. War is increasing such infections globally; 80% of patients in one Kyiv hospital in Ukraine are said to have such infections. The Conservative Government had a plan to tackle that. Do the Labour Government plan to follow that plan, are they on track to meet those targets, and if not, what will the Secretary of State do about it?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. As we know from the Greens’ experience in local government, they cannot clear the bins, let alone the waiting lists.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

The Labour Government’s elective reform plan says that there are plans for 10 straight-to-test pathways. Can the Secretary of State name them, or give one example?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

I am a product of the welfare state, and I remember the benefit system putting food in the fridge and money in the electric meter. I also know from lived experience that people who are trapped in the benefits system want to escape. The best way out of poverty is not through social security, important though that is, but through fair, decent work that pays. That is the Government’s agenda.

[Mr Speaker]

Just a reminder that we are on topicals, folks.

[Edward Argar (Melton and Syston) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) on her promotion to the Front Bench.

Eating disorders affect over 1.25 million people, and this is the last Health and Social Care Question Time before Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which starts later this month. The Secretary of State will be aware of the amazing work done by the eating disorder charity Beat, which I met a few months ago, and to which I pay tribute. Will he back Beat’s call for broader access to intensive community and day treatment for those with eating disorders—there are limited places currently—and set out a timetable in which that will be delivered?

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

I holidayed in my hon. Friend’s constituency this summer—it is a very beautiful part of the world—so I understand some of the rural challenges. It is a matter for local integrated care boards how they organise ambulance services. There are many problems that we want to resolve, and I would of course be very happy to meet him.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.