Business of the House

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Thursday 6th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her welcome. I am also grateful for her very warm tribute to my predecessor. I know that the House will very much appreciate the intention that he should be further honoured, as a Companion of Honour. It is a rare honour, but one that reflects the regard in which we all hold him.

The hon. Lady is quite right: I recall at the last business questions before the recess that the House was looking forward to the Olympics and Paralympics. In truth, I think all our expectations have been wonderfully exceeded. It has been a most inspirational event, and not only inspirational for a generation, as it was intended to be, but a fabulous showcase for what this country can achieve. We, the Government and the people of this country will be able to depend on that reputation across the world in years to come.

The hon. Lady asked a number of questions and made a number of points. Let me tell her that the changes in the Government are all about ensuring that we take forward our reforms and our focus on growth. All of us, as the Prime Minister absolutely said, recognise the difficulties that we encountered when we came into government. We know—and have known for two and a half years—how difficult they are. In a sense, they have been added to by the problems in the eurozone and the international economic situation. We are not alone in the problems we have to face, so we are focused on growth, and that will be true, as the Prime Minister has rightly said, in every Department—whether in the Department for Education, in developing the skills, the qualifications and the standards that are required; in the Foreign Office, which has been focused on delivering trade and investment, and business relationships across the world; or in the Department for Communities and Local Government, in using the powers that the Localism Act 2011 gave to local authorities and the new planning arrangements to deliver increased growth and build jobs. That is what it will mean in all those Departments. The difference between the Government and the Opposition is that the Labour Government were responsible for the mess that the country was in in 2010, whereas this Government are focused on getting the country out of that mess.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Millions of law-abiding citizens will be outraged that Mr and Mrs Ferrie spent three days in custody after defending themselves against burglars, one of whom turned out to be a violent career criminal out of prison early on licence. May we have a statement from the Home Secretary on the urgent need to include common sense in the training of police officers, and may we have a debate about the rights of householders to defend themselves and their property?

Care and Support

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The total number of delayed discharges is broadly the same as it was last year and, I believe, from memory, the year before—I will correct the record if not. Some 29% of the delays in discharge from hospital are due to the inability to access social care. Most of them arise because people are awaiting further assessment or treatment in the NHS. We have all the details of delayed discharges and are working actively to reduce them.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I very much welcome many of the measures that my right hon. Friend has announced, particularly on the improvement that he wishes to see in the dignity and respect accorded to those in our care homes and NHS hospitals, especially older people. Will he say a little more about the minimum standards for staff working in the care sector, and about the qualifications that people who apply for care apprenticeships might require to provide the right quality of care?

[Mr Lansley]

Yes, I am glad to do so. Through the work that we are doing with Skills for Health and Skills for Care, we will set out more clearly the training requirements for those undertaking care work and care assistance in the NHS. In addition, we set out in the White Paper that there should be a code of conduct, and I hope that across the service the philosophy of commissioning for quality, not simply commissioning or contracting by the minute, will help push us towards improvements in the dignity and respect with which care users are treated.

Breast Implants

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I commend the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust on conducting 517 breast implant operations in the decade before 2008 without the use of a single PIP implant.

What this furore has revealed to me is the existence of a growing private sector offering a vast array of cosmetic surgery that extends well beyond breast implants. I fear that the need for tighter regulation of the industry will prove widespread, and I therefore welcome the Government’s commitment to a review. Does my right hon. Friend expect to be able to charge the private sector for the costs of any additional regulation that the review group may deem necessary?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for what she said about the NHS. I think that before considering whether there is a cost associated with regulation and how it might appropriately be met, we should consider what is necessary to assure patients of safety and quality.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 10th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Andrew Lansley)]

My responsibility is to lead the NHS in delivering improved health outcomes in England, to lead a public health service that improves the health of the nation and reduces health inequalities, and to lead the reform of adult social care, which supports and protects vulnerable people.

[Margot James]

My right hon. Friend will be aware that a significant number of private clinics that fitted women with Poly Implant Prothese breast implants are no longer in business. Will he advise the House on how he plans to strengthen not just the regulation of clinics offering cosmetic surgery, but the products that they use?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I not only laid before the House a written statement this morning, but will, with permission, make a statement on the subject tomorrow. We have been very clear about the support the NHS will give to women who have had implants through the NHS, and we expect private companies to do the same. Not all will do so, and to that extent I make it clear that the NHS is there to support women in their clinical needs, whatever their circumstances.

Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Bill

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend think that the previous Government set up the system for private companies so that they could fail without any redress on the part of the Government precisely because the companies had such a favourable financial regime bestowed on them that they could not possibly fail?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend is right in relation to the independent treatment centre contracts. They were constructed in a way that effectively removed most of the financial risk from the operators. For other private sector operators in the NHS that is not necessarily true. For example, most of us would recognise that private sector providers are instrumental to continued access to many NHS diagnostic services. There are providers who could fail and at the moment no regulatory structure is in place for that.

Let us continue down the path of the implications of the removal of part 3, which the Labour party proposes. Part 3 includes clause 60. I am sure that Opposition Members are familiar with clause 60, their having served in Committee for so long. It is the means by which, if the hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) recalls, we can consider the application of Monitor’s functions to adult social care. So precisely when we are legislating to be able to consider whether the implications of an issue such as that at Southern Cross are such that there should be an additional prudential regulatory regime, the Labour party would take away that opportunity.

Reform of Social Care

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Gentleman should be aware that the maximum reduction in local authorities’ spending power this year compared with last year is 8.8%. We removed the ring fence from Department of Health social care grants but we did not reduce the scale of those grants. In addition, he must remember that, as is not always recognised, the NHS is making specific provision to support social care. This financial year, £150 million will go to support reablement, and £648 million will be transferred, as I said, to support social care, which will also have health benefits. That will be spending power in the hands of local authorities to support adult social care.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I welcome the Dilnot proposals, but does my right hon. Friend agree that he should resist the demands from the shadow Health Secretary to rush into a White Paper this side of Christmas? It is more important to get it right, and there may well be ways to improve on the Dilnot proposals, particularly with regard to the cap and by making provision more affordable and fairer.

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend makes a fair point. It was clear that had we sought to publish a White Paper before Christmas, the net effect would have been that we did not give the public, stakeholders or the official Opposition the time needed to discuss the issue and to do the job properly .

NHS Reform

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Monday 4th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I reiterate the point that I made a moment ago. There is nothing in what I have said today that should do other than give people on the ground confidence that they are building the improvement of services that they need for the future. At the heart of that is the integration of health and social care. We as a Government have made available in this new financial year £648 million through the NHS specifically to build that kind of integration between health and social care. It has been insufficient in the past; we are building it now. As the hon. Lady knows, the Bill allows care trusts to continue in formation, but it is also possible for care trusts to redesign around commissioning consortia on the one hand and health and well-being boards on the other.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

The Leader of the Opposition stated his willingness to work with the Government on the NHS reforms. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a good place for him to start would be with a re-reading of his party’s manifesto at the last election, which supported virtually every principle in our NHS Bill, with one important difference—it was without the additional funding to match?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I am not sure which Labour party we would be expected to engage with—the one whose manifesto agreed with us, the one for which the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne spoke at a King’s Fund meeting in January when he agreed with us, or the one that we saw in Committee, which opposed everything, tried to wreck the Bill and clearly has gone back to the Holborn and St Pancras view of the NHS.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 25th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

No, I do not. I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has asked that question, because I think that there is a world of difference between the question of the exercising of clinical leadership by general practices as members of a consortium in an area and the question of from whom they derive management support. I believe that many will derive it from existing PCT teams, the voluntary sector and local authorities. Sometimes the independent sector will be involved, but it is a question of the consortium choosing where to go rather than being taken over.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

T2. Some care homes that have received critical reports from the Care Quality Commission are reopening under the same management but with different names. The CQC’s practice is to remove earlier poor reports from its website, leaving potential customers in the dark about the poor record of those homes. Will the Minister remind the CQC of its responsibility to highlight poor practice in care homes, and request that it change its practice?

Public Health White Paper

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Tuesday 30th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I entirely agree with what my hon. Friend says. I appreciated visiting a children’s centre in Roehampton just this morning to see how it was bringing together all the opportunities. Important among those was the relationship with health visitors and their signposting role in relation to that service and others. Through the White Paper, we will, in a number of respects with which I shall not detain the House now, focus on how we can work with social enterprises, the voluntary sector and charities in order to deliver health improvements. As that will involve factors such as behaviour change, the ability of charities to work with people at a personal level and to be highly innovative will be important in making it successful.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I welcome the liberation of public health from its ivory tower. It will be able to do much more good in the real world. Can my right hon. Friend say a little more about how the health and well-being partnerships might work with businesses, the police and other relevant agencies to reduce alcohol-related admissions to hospital?

[Mr Lansley]

When we publish the alcohol strategy, there will be more to say about that, but it is already clear that we can do much more on local community alcohol partnerships, which have demonstrated their success in places such as St Neots in Huntingdonshire, so that enforcement and work to prevent young people from purchasing alcohol when they should not do so is much more successful. We can also work much more effectively on improving alcohol labelling, and we are working through the responsibility deal to look at those opportunities, too.

NHS Reorganisation

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Wednesday 17th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Lansley]

Of course. I will give way first to my hon. Friend.

[Margot James]

The Secretary of State was discussing the disappointing cancer survival rates. A National Cancer Intelligence Network survey was conducted earlier this week, and I was shocked to learn that it found that one in four cancers were diagnosed only when a patient was rushed to hospital experiencing symptoms. Does the Secretary of State think ring-fencing the public health budget and co-ordinating it better with local authorities will enable us to make a swifter impact in respect of the preventive aspects of cancer management, in order to reduce that figure?

NHS White Paper

Debate between Margot James and Lord Lansley

Monday 12th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Older people and people with long-term medical conditions have not been well served by the division between health and social care, which has lasted many years. I congratulate the Secretary of State on his plan to give local authorities control over local health improvement budgets. Can he say any more about how those reforms will break down the barriers between health and social care?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question. There is an unprecedented opportunity for local authorities and the NHS to create a much more integrated and effective strategy for health and social care working together. That is partly about focusing on outcomes, partly about listening to patients, and partly about extending personal budgets for patients, so that they themselves can break down such barriers. However, critically, it is also about local authorities exercising the responsibility that we will give them, plus their existing powers in relation to well-being right across their areas, to seal that working together, to deliver better public health and better integration between their social care responsibility and NHS commissioning plans.