Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 25th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The noble Lord is correct. I have two good examples of that, BioNTech and Moderna, where as part of commercial arrangements for us to buy large amounts of Covid vaccines from them they are making investments in UK plants. It will not always be practical, but those examples are billion pound-plus investments which I think we all agree are welcome news.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, following the previous Question, it is great to have a Minister who knows what he is talking about. Does he agree that it is important that we have the same kind of policies in all parts of the United Kingdom in relation to vaccination and immunisation? What discussions is he having with his counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

First, I thank noble Lord. That is the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me; I think I want to go on holiday at this point. This is a devolved matter, but it is something on which we are working very closely with the devolved Administrations. I must admit, as we discussed yesterday, that there is concern about the Northern Ireland Administration. Obviously, the Executive and Assembly not meeting at the moment makes some areas more difficult. We had examples of that yesterday, and we are about to have one in a minute when we talk about the fortification of bread. However, where we can, we are working closely with our colleagues.

GP Appointments

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 23rd February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My understanding is that the new GP contract is part of live conversations with the BMA that we are about to get into—I think it is over the summer that those negotiations will start to take place. Within all of that, we will be looking at all those sorts of things in terms of how we want to see the GP service evolve. At the same time, we will be talking openly to the BMA about what it wants for its doctors, so that we get an outcome that works well for both sides.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, has the Minister seen the report produced today by the Auditor-General for Scotland? It is devastating about every aspect of the NHS in Scotland, including access to GPs. How much of this is because of underfunding by the UK Tory Government and how much because of the devastating administration of the Scottish Government?

[A noble Lord]

Go on.

Hospitals: Maintenance

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

We have eight cohort 1 hospitals, which all have full planning permission and are in various stages of construction. We have 10 cohort 2 hospitals, of which two have full planning permission, seven have outline planning permission and one is awaiting approval of outline permission. All have had the preparation works done. So that is 17 where massive progress is being made. We then have cohort 3 schemes: the new hospital 2.0 projects, which are introducing modern methods of construction to standardise production and get cheaper and more efficient hospitals at a quicker rate of output. That is what I invite noble Lords to come and see for themselves over the coming weeks. This programme is very real and I will happily take people through whatever detail they want because, believe me, it is all there.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Is the Minister aware that, from time to time I have asked his predecessors to discuss with Scottish Ministers how they can help each other? However, in this area I am not going to do that because in Scotland, the children’s hospital in Edinburgh was delayed by a year and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow has had enormous problems. Is there a competition between the English Tories and the SNP to see who can bring the NHS to its knees first?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I can speak clearly on the subject of the new hospital programme, which I think the noble Lord will find is world-class. I will happily demonstrate that to him; indeed, people will see how ground-breaking this project actually is. We will see standardised designs with improved clinical standards, and more efficient productivity and costs as a result. It will be world-class, and we will export it around the world.

NHS Dental Contract

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 1st December 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am aware of some of the dental deserts. Some 700 urgent care centres have been set up to try to cater for such cases, and they have seen 4 million people. In total, there were about 26 million treatments last year. About 75% of patients who wanted to get an appointment were able to. Clearly, that leaves 25% who were not. We need to work further on that, including in Cornwall.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, the Minister’s replies have been exceptionally helpful. I wonder whether he and the Government could consider what might be done to get non-practising dentists back into practice.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

It is a good question. I will take the noble Lord’s compliment of being exceptionally helpful; I hope I can give another helpful answer. We need to look at everything we can do to attract dentists. The contract is fundamental to that, because, unless it is attractive for them financially, it will not help.

Tobacco Control Plan

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am not sure whether that question is for me, but I will try my best. As ever on these things, there is a carrot and a stick. Cross-party, we have introduced carrot measures—the anti-smoking campaigns—and stick measures such as pricing and restrictions. That has worked very well to date. We have halved the smoking rate over the last 15 years, and we must continue to work on carrot-and-stick measures to reduce it further.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that the tobacco industry is very adept at getting round regulations. In 1986, John Home Robertson’s Bill made illegal the use of tobacco pouches that people put in their mouths as substitutes. I understand that synthetic nicotine pouches are now being used to get round that law, so what are the Government doing to stop this?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I will need to write to the noble Lord on that. I am aware that different methods exist, but I think we are all united on the need to do everything we can to prevent any circumvention.

Coronavirus: New Cases

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

We continue to monitor the situation. The Secretary of State and I have regular meetings with the UKHSA, which tells us about the various issues of concern. Noble Lords will know about the outbreak of monkeypox in certain communities and the discovery of the polio vaccine in sewage, though not leading to cases. Clearly, we constantly talk about Covid cases. We are monitoring numbers, and the UKHSA looks at the ONS numbers as well. We are planning for the autumn, but we also have plans should the number of infections start leading to hospitalisations and possibly deaths.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Merron is absolutely right: this appears to be creeping up on the Government unawares. The level is going up and is particularly high in Scotland. The last time around, there was a lot of confusion, because different reactions were evident in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. In order to deal with this quickly and in a co-ordinated way, can I ask the Minister to get together the Chief Medical Officers of all four countries as quickly as possible to come up with a plan?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The noble Lord will be aware that health policy is devolved. There are times when the devolved Administrations want to go their own way and not follow England—

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

That does not matter.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I am sure the noble Lord will have been in meetings with the devolved Administrations; sometimes they want to go their own way. For example, when we reduced some of the measures in England, the devolved Administrations were sceptical of what we had done. When the data showed that the measures left in place in Scotland were no more effective than us removing some of those restrictions, it demonstrated exactly why, although we talk to the devolved Administrations all the time, we also respect the devolved settlements. We have to agree to disagree at times.

Personal Protective Equipment: Waste

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I am not aware of detailed proposals on that but I know that there are many British companies who sourced from abroad and others that tried to manufacture. If you look at the relative costs and skills in the value chain, you will find that for many of the entrepreneurs in this country it is not cost-effective to manufacture here.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Returning to the Question and putting it in some perspective, as my noble friend Lady Merron said, £9 billion has been wasted in this exercise. Is the Minister aware that that is half of the cost of Crossrail, the biggest and most complicated civil engineering project in the whole of Europe? Is this not a national scandal?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I think we should look at the context of this £9 billion or £12 billion figure. We must remember that, at the time, market prices were inflated. We could not have bought the equipment at the prices you can pay for it today. The Government at the time had to make an estimate. If they had bought too little equipment, they would rightly have been criticised. Given that you can never make absolutely accurate predictions, on balance it is better to procure more than less. I was speaking to a Democrat politician from United States the other day. He said, “I just made the decision to procure as much as possible, but I knew I would get the flak afterwards. Lives were more important.”

Covid-19: Lateral Flow Tests

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 10th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I will try my best to answer the questions, but if I do not, I hope the noble Lord will accept a written response. Some 25% of approved devices are from UK manufacturers, but it is important, as a fair and neutral regulator of market access that all applicants are treated equally. The Government are working to review applications for devices submitted by the process. At the same time, while we want to make sure that the British tests are of the highest standard, we are determined to harness the power of the UK’s leading diagnostic industry. We will continue to be enormously engaged with UK manufacturers and trade bodies to support a thriving domestic diagnostic industry.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I wish the Minister a speedy recovery. He has been working late hours and deserves our total sympathy. I wonder, however, whether he could give us some indication of how much was wasted in preferential procurement of this kind of equipment. How much has all the equipment that is now out of date and has to be destroyed cost? I do not blame him for any of it, because he has relatively recently become a Minister, but will we have some kind of inquiry into preferential procurement and the wastage of all this equipment?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

It is interesting that an earlier question asked if we are looking at British-based manufacturers. We want to be very careful that there is no preference, it is all based on merit and we have tests that meet all standards. To answer the question about the wider procurement process, there was a Question last week when I gave some detailed answers about the write-down of some of the value. We bought some of that equipment at the height of the market when people were desperately trying to buy equipment all over the world. Ships were being redirected en route when people thought they were receiving goods. That is why we paid the market price at the time.

Public Health: Night-time Working

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 6th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

It depends on why people are working at night—it really ranges. For example, when I was a student, I did a night shift from 10 pm to 8 am to pack the shelves for the next day. Sometimes drivers decide to work at night; some Uber or Bolt drivers tell me that they prefer night-time working because the roads are clearer then. There are different reasons—as the noble Lord indicated, sometimes it is the only job available to some people. It is really important to make sure both that customers and others are getting the services they want and that workers are treated decently and with dignity.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Does the Minister agree that if the start time of this House on Tuesdays and Wednesdays were brought forward to 11 am, it would save some elderly people from late-night work?

Covid-19: PCR and Lateral Flow Test Providers

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 13th December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I am not sure I completely agree with the premise of my noble friend’s question, but I will double-check. The decision had to be made that if people are contacted by test and trace, it is only right that they are sent a PCR test. But if they are travelling, should the taxpayer bear the burden of the cost of their PCR test, or should they? A number of travel companies are now recommending PCR tests for their passengers.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, it is not just Matt Hancock and Randox, or Rupert Soames at Serco: a large number of these companies that have multimillion—even multibillion—pound contracts for testing have links with Tory members, MPs and Peers. Is this just a coincidence? Is it serendipity? Or is it something more sinister?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I suggest that if the noble Lord would like to take a PCR test before he travels, he goes through a number of price comparison websites and chooses the one he feels is more suitable for him.