Rural Affairs

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

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

Another point we need to consider is the impact on food security if farmers decide to hand back their farms or have their farms broken up, as my right hon. Friend suggests. Does she have any thoughts or has she seen any evidence about the possible impact on food security? I have not seen any such evidence, which is a concern in itself.

[Victoria Atkins]

It most certainly is a concern, and I thank my hon. Friend for raising that. He represents a very rural constituency and knows only too well the concerns his constituents are facing. It is a good point, which I will develop later in my speech.

NHS Performance: Darzi Investigation

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I will finish this point. That transition must begin with the language that the Secretary of State is choosing to use about the NHS. Interestingly, we have heard a little bit of nuance for the first time tonight, perhaps because health leaders are raising concerns that his “broken” narrative is damaging public confidence and will lead to people not coming forward for care, as was reported on the day that the right hon. Gentleman gave his speech to conference. That narrative is hurting the morale of staff who are working tirelessly for their patients. As the confected doom and gloom of the new Chancellor damages business confidence, so too does the Health Secretary’s relentlessly negative language risk consequences in real life.

Let me say what the Health Secretary refuses to acknowledge: the NHS is here for us and is ready to help. Its dedicated staff look after 1.6 million people per day, a 25% increase from the days of the last Labour Government. That is why I am always a little concerned whenever the right hon. Gentleman harks back so far; I do not think he has quite understood the change in capacity and scale of the national health service since we inherited it from the last Labour Government. The majority of those 1.6 million people will receive good care. [Interruption.] These are just facts, but I know the Health Secretary finds them difficult to receive.

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

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Victoria Atkins]

In one moment.

Of course, it is important that we focus relentlessly on those patients who do not receive good care, but that will not be achieved by writing off the 1.5 million people who work in the NHS. In fact, the NHS has more doctors, nurses and investment than at any point in its history. It is delivering millions more outpatient appointments and diagnostic tests and procedures for patients than in 2010, and NHS mental health services are supporting 3.6 million people a year, a 10% increase in one year alone.

[Dr Evans]

rose—

[Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

rose—

[Victoria Atkins]

I will give way to the doctor behind me, and then I will give way again.

[Dr Evans]

It is interesting that Lord Darzi chose 2010, because there were some good points in what the Labour Government put in place, but there was also the problem of Mid Staffs. We had the Medical Training Application Service fiasco around medical careers, for which Patricia Hewitt had to apologise, and we had the £11 billion IT project that was put in place and has now failed as well. These things shape the NHS, and when we are trying to come up with solutions, they impact on the way that doctors, leaders and politicians come together. Does my right hon. Friend have suggestions for how we can take the politics out of this debate, enabling us to have a sensible debate on reform, which I think both sides of this House would like to see?

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my hon. Friend, who brings his clinical experience and expertise to this debate. I say frankly to the Secretary of State that I wish he had taken the approach of the Defence Secretary, who has set up a cross-party commission on defence spending. Indeed, he has invited my former colleagues to sit on that review, because he understands that we bring an enormous amount of knowledge, experience, and—dare I say it?—some hard knocks from working in those massively complex Departments.

The right hon. Gentleman knows me. We have done good-humoured battle over the Dispatch Boxes for a long time now, and had he come to me and asked me to help him, I genuinely would have. [Interruption.] The public are hearing this. They want politicians to cut all the flim-flam and the bluster and work together, and had the right hon. Gentleman been serious about the Darzi report, he would have done exactly as his colleague around the Cabinet table has done and conducted a cross-party review of the NHS to ensure that we can make real progress. It is interesting that the Health Secretary does not appear to agree with the approach that his Cabinet colleague has taken.

Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Victoria Atkins)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

Before I start, I should declare an interest: before I was elected to Parliament, I used to prosecute serious and organised crime, including organised crime gangs who attempted to import illicit cigarettes.

For a moment, I would like us to imagine that we are not in this historic and magnificent Chamber but instead standing at the entrance of a local hospital. A patient comes through the doors, struggling to breathe; smoking sent their asthma spiralling out of control. A minute later, another patient passes by; smoking caused the heart disease that they are battling. A minute later, another person comes in, and then another. That vicious cycle repeats itself nearly every minute of every day in our national health system, because here in the United Kingdom almost one hospital admission a minute is the human cost of smoking.

Smoking leaves people with premature dementia. It puts them in care, attached to oxygen, for the rest of their life. It increases the risk of stillbirth by almost 50%. It is responsible for 75,000 GP appointments every month, and it takes about 80,000 lives every year.

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

I urge everyone who has come to the debate to go to a respiratory ward—I served on one for a year in my first junior doctor role—to watch people gasp for breath, struggle and fight, with their relatives asking you as a doctor to do something and you simply cannot. If the Bill is a step forward in stopping that situation, I am very much in favour of the Secretary of State taking it forward.

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing to the Chamber his professional experience and the real-life consequences for his patients. If I may, I will unpack some of the details behind that invaluable intervention. The premise behind the Bill is exactly as he says—to stop the start—because there is no safe level of smoking and no safe tobacco product. In fact, it is the only product that, if consumed as the manufacturer intends, will kill two thirds of its long-term users.

The Bill is not about demonising people who smoke or stopping them from buying tobacco if they can do so today. It will not affect current smokers’ rights or entitlements in any way. Indeed, we want to help them to quit. We are supporting them by almost doubling funding for local stop-smoking services. Instead, the Bill is looking to the future, to give the next generation the freedom to live longer, healthier and more productive lives.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

T9. My local practice, on Heath Lane in Earl Shilton, released its “did not attend” figures. Between 20 November and 24 November, 69 appointments—including 36 GP appointments and 28 nursing appointments—were missed. That was 12 hours lost in five days. If that is happening up and down Hinckley and Bosworth and across the country, that is thousands of hours being missed. I know that the Government are keen to see more on data, so will they consider statementing patients on how much missed appointments cost, because clinically that would make a big difference to the awareness of what people are cashing out on?

[Victoria Atkins]

May I thank my hon. Friend for bringing his professional expertise to the Chamber? Of course, minimising “did not attends” is a critical part of ensuring that clinical time is optimised, and I will take his suggestion away and mull it over.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

If the hon. Gentleman would like to write to me about this, I will look into it, but I remind him that I issued a written ministerial statement recently, extending the deadlines precisely to help women in the situation he describes.

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

The Chancellor and I sat for three years on the Health Committee hearing evidence of just how restrictive the pension rules were for the likes of doctors. The fact that he has now been able to make that change is fantastic. Will he take that approach to dealing with some of the other red tape around retention and recruitment for other professions in the health service because, as the British Medical Association said, it is making a real difference?

Racist Abuse on Social Media

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

Wednesday 14th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I am very happy to do that. I should point out that a huge programme of work continues, including the online crime hub run by the police, which we help to fund. Campaigns that help to tackle racism are clearly in our country’s interests, so I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss those issues further.

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

Sunday night should have been a celebration of achievement. Instead, we woke up the next morning with racism aimed at three men simply doing their job. That is not acceptable. We know that social media is at the centre of the storm and has a growing influence across our lives, from bullying and racism to my interest, which is in body image. Does my hon. Friend agree that social media campaigns and companies have a duty and responsibility to work proactively with Government and the police to better our society?

[Victoria Atkins]

I most certainly do agree. In fairness, as the House would expect, I should say that we do a lot of work with online companies across a great range of subjects. Indeed, only yesterday I met business leaders, including tech leaders, to discuss how we can create opportunities for our hardest-to-reach young people who are at risk of serious violence. I am grateful to them for those activities, but the message is coming out loud and clear not just in this country but across the world that somehow we must tame the wild west of the internet so that these more hateful practices are not dominating our national headlines and taking away from the great achievements of our England team.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Luke Evans and Victoria Atkins

Thursday 23rd January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

11. What steps the Government are taking to support women in (a) Bosworth constituency and (b) the UK who experience domestic violence.

[The Minister for Women (Victoria Atkins)]

There are more than 2 million adult victims of domestic abuse in England and Wales, and last year in Leicestershire—my hon. Friend’s county—there were 21,000 domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes. The Government are determined to bring forward the landmark domestic abuse Bill and to enact that legislation as quickly as possible to protect and support the victims of domestic abuse and bring perpetrators to justice.

[Dr Evans]

As a GP, I find that domestic violence cases are one of the hardest types of cases: they are difficult both to identify and to deal with, and that is sad. What are the Minister and her Department doing to help to educate those who work in primary care not only on how to identify people who suffer with domestic violent but on how to signpost them to the correct services?

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question and welcome all the experience and expertise that he brings to the House. All staff who work in the NHS must undertake at least level 1 safeguarding training, which includes domestic abuse. We have published an online resource for health professionals, to improve awareness of domestic violence and abuse. NHS England is developing a four-year action plan specifically on domestic abuse to raise awareness among NHS staff to ensure that they have the skills to identify and refer patients, where appropriate, and also, of course, to address the issue of NHS staff who are themselves victims.