Carers

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andy Sawford (Corby) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this important debate, which affects so many of our constituents around the country. I add my appreciation and congratulate the Members who requested the Backbench Business Committee to provide time for this debate, and indeed the Backbench Business Committee itself on recognising the significance of this issue. This debate is timely because many Bills and other measures either before the House or to be debated over the coming weeks and months will have a huge impact on carers.

Before dealing with that, I want to speak about why this issue is so important to many of my constituents. There are 14,980 carers in Corby and East Northamptonshire —a rise of 23% over the last 10 years, which is higher than the 11% rise nationally. There are nearly 3,500 carers in Corby and East Northamptonshire who care for more than 50 hours a week—a rise of 40% over the last 10 years, which is far higher again than the national average increase of 25%. Of those nearly 15,000 carers in my constituency, more than 8,000 are juggling work and caring, which presents many issues.

I support the points that other hon. Members have made about the need for employers to demonstrate really good practice in this area and support employees who have caring responsibilities. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) in deploring the fact that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is not prepared to set a good standard in this place, where Members are not allowed to grant their staff compassionate leave. I think we should be an exemplar in this and should work together across the House to urge IPSA to change its practice.

In my constituency, many people are employed through employment agencies. Even where there are opportunities for employers to show their employees that they are good and caring, many of my constituents will not be touched by that. They will find that they are not able to continue working and caring. My hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie) referred to the amount of the carer’s allowance. It does not compare well with jobseeker’s allowance, for example. We should have an aspiration to improve it. In recognising the significant number of people involved and the huge cost implications of trying to increase the support for carers out there, we must also recognise that the carer’s allowance provides a very small amount for our constituents to live on. The financial challenges, as other Members have said, are getting much tougher at the moment.

I attended various events during national carers week, including the event here in Parliament. I want to congratulate all the organisations that came together to organise national carers week. I met people from the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Marie Curie and other organisations, who told me about their experiences. I think they were absolutely right to bring carers themselves to talk to us here in Parliament about their experiences. They reflected many of the conversations I have had with my own constituents. I met a carer who cares for his wife who has MS and a former carer who cared for her husband who had cancer. They both asked me to champion raising the carer’s allowance. That is what I want to do today.

Carers UK’s analysis of the recent census shows that the fastest-growing group of carers are people over 65 with caring responsibilities. There has again been a much more significant rise in those numbers in my constituency than nationally, with a 35% rise of older carers nationally compared with a 62% rise in Corby and East Northamptonshire. I am determined to engage with local organisations—including charitable and voluntary organisations that work with carers, but also local authority and local health bodies—to try to understand why the rise is so significant in my constituency, the extent to which those bodies have been able to respond to it and whether that trend will continue.

Carers over 65 who receive the state pension are, as hon. Members have said, unable to receive carer’s allowance—despite the fact that they still face additional costs as a result of caring and have often lost earnings from retiring early to care. What plans do the Government have to provide more practical and financial support to people who spend their retirement caring for their partners, adult disabled children or their own older parents? My own parents are approaching retirement and they, like many people nowadays, find themselves part of what is called the sandwich generation. They not only help me to bring up my children, providing lots of extra help and support for child care, but increasingly find that they are taking on a care and support role for their parents. That matter should concern all of us. It is particularly important in the context of our full knowledge that we have an ageing population, which will present a growing challenge for us.

Carers UK figures show that carers are out of work for an average of five years as a result of giving up work to care for an older or disabled loved one. Many struggle to return to work afterwards, yet find that their carer’s allowance stops very quickly. What support can be provided to help carers when caring comes to an end to ensure that they do not fall into financial hardship as a result of losing carers’ benefits? What can we do to help them return to work, retraining where necessary?

I recently met a lady who came to my surgery in Raunds to talk to me about her experience. Her particular concern was about the impact of the bedroom tax, but she also told me how her life of caring for her husband had come to an end as he sadly passed away. She told me how unsupported she felt in the months afterwards, as some of the help and support she had hoped for—previously in place in part because of her caring responsibility—was taken away from her. She then found she had to contend with the bedroom tax on her large family house. She had no choice—either move from her family home quickly as she grieved for her husband or face financial destitution. I felt incredibly sad that she faced that situation.

I was recently visited by my constituent, Mags Maguire, who told me about her mum, Mrs McKay. She asked for my help in trying to ensure that a care package was in place for her mother. I have tried on her behalf; I have, unfortunately, not made sufficient progress, but I will keep trying. Mags herself is a resourceful person. She recently contacted the occupational therapist again to describe the situation she faced. The occupational therapist replied:

“Hi Mags, just to let you know...We rarely prioritise cases as critical, as this is for cases where if something is not done immediately it will be a case of life or death and if there is nothing else that can be done and provided to reduce that risk in the interim and the major adaptations are the only way to reduce risk. We can still be waiting 12+ months for works to be done under a ‘critical’ priority as the amount of funding available will affect the waiting list times.”

Mags is merely requesting some small adaptations to the home in which her mum lives, and it seems to me that that ought to be possible.

The occupational therapist continued:

“I could not prioritise the case as urgent as Mrs McKay has a care package to meet her personal care needs and meals and also family to support.”

The “care package” is, in fact, the family support. The family get Mrs McKay up in the morning, and the family provide the meals. The “care package” is not provided by anyone other than the family members themselves.

I have personal experience, in that my granddad cared for my nan for many years. He died on the day after Boxing Day, 18 months ago. He undertook those caring responsibilities without any help or support—which, of course, saved the taxpayer a huge amount of money—and he undertook them willingly because he loved my nan hugely and they had spent their whole lives together, but by the end of his life his own health had suffered greatly because of the extra responsibility that he had taken on as a carer. He would have been happy to continue that responsibility, but an intervention should have been made earlier to provide him with at least some additional help and support.

What was even worse was that after granddad died, we tried to arrange care and support for my nan, but for a long time were unable to do so. Then, late last year, I walked up her garden path to find that she was not sitting in her usual chair. I tapped gently on the window, as I always do, in order not to alarm her, and saw that she was lying on the floor. Fortunately there was a key in a safe and I was able to get into the house, where I called 999. My nan was unconscious for four days, and only after that were we able to obtain the care and support package that she needed. It should not take a stroke to secure a decent package of help and support, it should not take such a long time, and it should not be at the huge cost of the health of a partner, children or other carers.

I think it important to look at the opportunities with which Parliament will be presented in the coming weeks and months. The Care Bill will consolidate and simplify decades of social care legislation in England, and I welcome some aspects of it, but it is disappointing that the new rights that it confers will apply only to adults. I was a member of the Committee that considered the Children and Families Bill. We pressed the points about young carers, and we were given some assurances. We received the same assurances on Third Reading, but the Government have still not explained fully how young carers will be supported in the same way as adults. I should like to see the details of their amendments as soon as possible.

There are, of course, significant areas of disagreement between Government and Opposition on both those Bills, but we also welcome their positive aspects, which are due in no small measure to all the outside organisations that have helped to inform Parliament throughout the passage of the two Bills. Those organisations have contributed a huge amount, but I fear that, unless we see those amendments soon, they will have no real opportunity to contribute to the shaping of measures to help young carers.

I want to say something about social care funding, but I must be briefer than I intended to be, so that other Members can speak. I should like the Government to think about the fact that the Dilnot cap does not cover charges for carers’ services. They may say that they do not intend local authorities to charge for those services, but we must recognise that all authorities face a huge funding challenge, and charges are therefore quite possible.

As for the Welfare Reform Act 2012, the carers to whom I have spoken welcome the Government’s decision to retain carers allowance as an independent benefit rather than subsuming it in universal credit. However, there is serious concern about other aspects of the Act. Following the introduction of personal independence payments, 600,000 fewer disabled people will be entitled to support—600,000 people whom I think we should be trying to help. Moreover, 10,000 fewer carers will be entitled to carers allowance and about 5,000 will be subject to the household benefit cap, losing an average of more than £100 a week.

Two thirds of those affected by the bedroom tax are disabled, but the discretionary money set aside for councils to support disabled people would be sufficient to support only one in 10 of them. Local authorities are in a very difficult position. I have been in touch with my own council in an attempt to secure discretionary support, but it simply does not have the money to provide the help that it knows is needed.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Government constantly say that their aim is to help those who play by the rules and do the right thing. It is clear from what he and other Members have said that carers are people who do the right thing—who are motivated to do the right thing—and who play by the rules. Why should they be victimised by cruel rules that are being introduced as part of the Government’s welfare reform measures?

[Andy Sawford]

I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman. Some of my constituents who are affected by those measures do feel victimised. What the hon. Gentleman said about fairness is absolutely right. We all want changes to be made in a fair way, but many of my constituents—not just the disabled people and carers who are affected—recognise the unfairness of the measures. The Government should think again about many of their proposals. I urge them in particular to take account of what Members have said today about the bedroom tax.

There is much more that I could say, but I know that other Members wish to speak, so I shall end my speech.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Anna Soubry]

And it was all going so well. I will take no lectures from Labour Members, who had 13 years in which to resolve this issue, but did not do so because they knew that these were difficult and tricky matters, and that it was important for all the evidence to be considered properly. I do not know what peculiar gestures Opposition Front Benchers are making, but they are clearly not listening and understanding when it comes to stuff that they themselves must have considered when they were in government.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

11. What steps the Government plan to take to ensure that patients with rare and very rare muscle-wasting conditions have access to high cost drugs when such treatments become available.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

Our priority is to ensure that patients in England, including those with rare and very rare muscle-wasting conditions, have access to new and effective treatments on terms that represent value to the NHS and the taxpayer.

[Mark Durkan]

The all-party parliamentary group for muscular dystrophy, which has been conducting an inquiry, was told recently that patients who are experiencing muscle-wasting conditions, and their families, are concerned about the possibility that they will be denied access to potential treatment because of regulatory barriers, and/or on cost grounds. Will the Minister meet the all-party group to discuss measures for the removal of any such impediments?

[Norman Lamb]

I am certainly willing to meet the all-party group, but I think that significant new opportunities are emerging. For example, from this month the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will be responsible for the evaluation of new drugs for the treatment of rare conditions, and I think that that is a very good thing.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend knows that I have a different view of the level of responsibility of Sir David Nicholson, but I agree that everyone working in the system at that time shares some responsibility for what happened. We must make sure that it can never happen again. The accountability that we are introducing, including criminal sanctions for boards that fail in their statutory duties, will be a significant change. The body that was responsible for what went wrong at Mid Staffs, according to Francis, was the board of the hospital, so that is where our focus must be. Today is also about getting the right structures outside the hospital to make sure there is accountability there too.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

The Secretary of State has referred to the fact the chief inspector will inspect hospital performance at specialty or department level. How will that be done? If records, paperwork and bureaucracy are being reduced in hospitals, will hospitals’ own records be used to make those assessments or will the inspector use other information?

[Mr Hunt]

Of course we need to rely on good information being supplied by hospitals, and that is why we have said today that it will be a criminal offence for hospitals knowingly to supply wrong information. This goes back to an earlier question, and we will work closely with outside bodies, such as the royal colleges, to ensure that we establish the best way to judge, for example, cancer survival rates. One of the lessons of the success of measuring heart surgery survival rates is the importance of having a good risk-adjustment process in place. We will do that across the other 10 specialties that I announced today.

Suicide Prevention

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Wednesday 6th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Moon]

The Ministry of Defence commissioned a study by Dr Nav Kapur of Manchester university on suicide in the armed forces. He found that the largest number of suicides were by young people leaving the armed forces, usually without having completed their basic training or shortly after they had passed it. Further research is needed to confirm this, but the indications were that there was a feeling of hopelessness with regard to attempts to build a family in the armed forces, that a sense of success and of identity had been lost, and that that was perhaps one of the motivations towards suicide. Additional funding is needed for that research to be completed, but that was the outcome of the best study that I have seen so far of suicide in the armed forces.

The all-party group has discussed how coroners record suicide and the importance of accurate suicide reporting. I cannot stress that enough. One of the problems is narrative verdicts, which were introduced as an addition to a statutory verdict. If someone died in the custody of the Crown, for example, they allowed for a narrative of that death to teach lessons about how it had happened. Instead, however, they have replaced the verdict and become a verdict in their own right. Often, the death of someone who takes their own life by tying a ligature around their neck is not recorded as a suicide, because the appropriate word has not been used. The Ministry of Justice needs to work on this area. I know that it is doing so and I hope to meet the chief coroner soon to see how we can make progress.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mrs Moon]

I will certainly give way to the hon. Gentleman, who regularly attends the all-party group, for which I thank him.

[Mark Durkan]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. The number of narrative verdicts in England is growing. One of the ways in which they are avoided in Northern Ireland is the decision taken five years ago by the coroners service not to hold inquests on suicides, but to just record them and not put the families through an inquest unless the public interest or another family requirement demands it. That means that there has been more sensitivity than the false sensitivity accorded to narrative verdicts, which then lead to flawed statistics.

[Mrs Moon]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I was not aware of that development in Northern Ireland, and I would like to spend some time examining it. The root trauma for many families who have experienced such a death is sometimes renewed, along with the publicity, up to a year later, which makes it very difficult for them to cope and which sets them back in the progress that they have made in grieving. Many have found it extremely difficult, so I will look at the information he provides, for which I thank him.

The all-party group has looked at the cross-Government strategy to prevent suicide in England. I will come back to that later, because it is a most important issue. We have also looked at suicide and bereavement. We talked to a number of families who have been bereaved by suicide and every one of them mentioned the importance of a Department of Health document called, “Help is at Hand”. Sadly, many Members do not know about this fantastic resource; it is not appropriately distributed and many families never get access to it. We have to find a way of getting that booklet out to people. The Welsh Assembly is looking to translate it and produce a Welsh language edition for Wales. We are also considering whether coroners and the police force would be appropriate groups to distribute that information.

We have also looked at the impact of police investigations. As Members will be aware, when a sudden death is reported, the police investigate initially under the murder manual. Families are therefore further traumatised by the feeling that they are under suspicion for the death. Once it is decided that it is a suicide, the police sometimes walk away and the family are left with no help or support and no sense of where they are supposed to go.

A suicide death is a lonely death because people stay away; they do not know what to say or how to approach the family. Often, the support that families desperately need is not there. That isolation and lack of information add to the risk of further suicides. It is important that people have ongoing support from within their community and from statutory services to see them through the grieving process.

We have also looked at the use of sport to reach out to young men. This point refers back to the question asked by the hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) about the deaths of young men. It is important to give young men role models who have had difficulties in their life and who have contemplated suicide, despite success. Sports personalities have been particularly effective. We spoke with Ernie Benbow from State of Mind Rugby and Greg Burgess, the Choose Life co-ordinator for north Lancashire. They demonstrated how successful the use of sportsmen had been.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

Like other hon. Members, I congratulate the hon. Member for South Antrim (Dr McCrea) and his colleagues on giving the House the opportunity to discuss this very important issue, which, as we have heard, touches many people in many ways, and in ways that they find hard to express or represent. For all the reasons that we understand, it is important that we in the House—again, in our own inadequate and inarticulate way—not only try to express our feelings and represent the feelings of those who have lost people through suicide, but try to feel our way towards some sort of policy answer and structural response to a very serious problem that is growing in many ways.

It is not just because the statistics are better collated that we can say that the problem is growing. There are issues, and people can analyse and compare the different statistical bases over the years. It is a problem that has gradually been able to express itself a bit more. Reference has been made to the fact that it has been a taboo subject. The first time that I heard of suicide was when I was in primary school in the late 1960s, and a family friend committed suicide. She was a great friend of my mother—she was great to all my brothers and sisters whenever we were in her fruit and vegetable shop—and I remember that my mother’s distress as a friend was based not only on all the usual questions that arise from suicide and the loss of a lovely friend. It was also based on the fact that her friend was denied a Christian burial and denied the rites of her own Church. That is what taboo meant then. Luckily, Churches have become more enlightened and many people have helped them to become more enlightened. So we can celebrate the fact that spiritual enlightenment can inform Churches in different ways, and their response to something that they class as a sin can change and develop. That has been very positive and has helped all of us as a community in many ways.

I have found the debate hard. I agreed with many of the points, and I also felt many of the points. I have experienced suicide in my family more than once. I also have experience of suicide by people whom I regard as close—good friends, family friends and so on. All the things that all the right hon. and hon. Members have said are so, so true. We are stuck with that—the questions that will never leave, and the answers that will never come. There are people finding and developing answers, however. Maybe they are not answers to the particular suicide that has grieved me or grieves other members of my family and extended family, but answers as to how we may be able to get on top of the problem and as to how we can avert such tragedy and prevent it from afflicting other people as well.

In many cases some of those answers are being driven by the families and the very people who have experienced suicide, and by the professionals who have witnessed that, provided support and said, “There has to be a better way. There has to be more that we can do. There has to be more that we can do together.” The hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon) referred to the work of the all-party group and the report. I do not speak often at the all-party group, for reasons that people will understand; I find it hard to contain my emotions on these things. One thing struck me as I was listening to people give evidence to the group—people who did not know which area I represented. A few times when people from parts of England were giving evidence about their experience and the things that they were trying to do in their area with their trusts and well-being boards, they referred to what they called the Derry model, which they wanted to see in their area.

That is because in my constituency, in my city of Derry, as other hon. Members have said, we have grave levels of suicide, but there has been a strong community response and the local Western Health and Social Care Trust has tried to engage strongly on it. The trust has a suicide liaison officer, Barry McGail, who does not just work well locally, but is globally active and is part of progressive policy-pushing networks on the subject. When people spoke about the Derry model, part of what they meant was that suicide liaison service.

The service is notified of a suicide by the police within 24 hours and its staff make family contact. They are there at the wakes, able to talk to the family and friends. They are able to bring leaflets and draw attention to other services in a sensitive way, so the issues are immediately picked up and the people who might be most emotionally affected or vulnerable after the suicide—other family members, friends, classmates and so on—can be identified and supported. That has worked well and has helped families through and has helped them feel that they are helping others, which is so important.

More widely in Northern Ireland, we have a self-harm register, another positive development. It is run now by the Public Health Agency and is co-ordinated on a north-south basis. The register provides up-to-date information on people who may have attempted suicide or have self-harmed, so that the right services can be in touch with them or they can at least know that services such as counselling and other opportunities are available for them. Again, that is important in prevention. It is also important to learn the lessons of experiences and making sure that things that are known to one service are not lost to the knowledge and intelligence of another service that may be the right one to provide help.

Some hon. Members have referred to the media in this regard. Of course, the media have particular responsibilities. They need to be very careful and sensitive in how they present any film or TV storylines depicting suicide. If they make suicide simply the natural conclusion to a narrative, that is completely wrong. Unfortunately, too often in the media it seems as though the suicide itself makes the statement, and that is very dangerous. Equally, the media, whether the print media or any other kind, need to be very sensitive in how they cover deaths by suicide. If they treat speculation about clusters—the hon. Member for Bridgend, who is unfortunately no longer here, has experienced this directly in her constituency—in an insensitive, invasive, exploitative and sensational way, that can add to the problems. It can not only add to the suffering and stress of families, but put more families at risk of loss and distress.

Over a dozen years ago—this is not a new problem in Northern Ireland—people like Barry McGail worked on developing guidelines for the local media to use. One of the guidelines in circumstances where a suicide took place was for the media not to treat it in a way that linked it to a single dramatic event. I found myself in a situation where there was a suicide in another family that followed a death in my own family. With the support of education professionals, people like Barry McGail, and other people in the Western health board, I tried to prevail on the media not to treat the young man’s suicide as a “Romeo and Juliet”-type story. It was a struggle to get the media to comply with guidelines that had been drawn up sensitively with their own co-operation, and unfortunately we did not succeed in all instances. The media do have responsibilities in this regard.

Then there is the new media, with the digital age and all the opportunities that are there. In relation to the sites that offer methods and techniques of suicide and appear to be encouraging it, Barry McGail says that although most young people will engage in social media, most of them will want to do so positively. As well as trying to police and shut down all the negative, dark sites, we need to think of more ways of making sure that there are far more positive connections and real pathways of assistance and communication. We need to develop new things such as apps that will be suitable for young people, in particular, who could be at risk.

That is not to say that only young people are at risk of suicide. In my constituency and elsewhere, it affects the old and the young—mothers, fathers, and children. However, one of the things that gives me heart is that people who have been through these dark difficulties, and who are still not out of all that darkness, are desperately trying to remedy the situation through different networks, charities and support groups. In my town, they are supported by people such as those at Foyle Search and Rescue, who do such a good job in helping families who suffer following suicide in the river. When we were building the new iconic peace bridge in Derry, they worked with us to prevail on the architects to understand that it needed to be designed in a particular way with rails shaped so as not to lend themselves readily to suicide attempts.

Foyle Search and Rescue houses and accommodates various groups of families who have come together. We also have groups such as Zest for Life, which work so well to counsel people who are suffering from problems, and HURT (Have Your Tomorrows), which particularly helps people who have been suffering from addiction or dependency and have specific vulnerabilities. These groups are succeeding in helping to reduce and to solve the problems, but they constantly come up against funding difficulties. There is also the issue of making sure that all the policies and services can mesh together.

Finally, another positive feature in Northern Ireland is the ASIST—applied suicide intervention skills training— model, which has been borrowed from Canada and is working well where people engage with it. The big problem, however, is getting GPs to engage with it—they are not—because they are the vital cog and the key people. The issue has come up in the work of the all-party group on suicide and self-harm prevention. As the hon. Member for Bridgend will know, one of the questions that constantly comes up is: how do we get GPs involved in and engaged with this? Their input is vital and they are vital channels, but in their absence, people’s sense of purpose starts to wane and get weaker.

I am not blaming GPs. Obviously, there are a lot of pressures and demands on them, so they need time out of their practice to do this. We need to see what locum support and other things are available to allow them to play their part in the very good efforts that are being made and to make good the investment being provided by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Other Members have been right to acknowledge the work of that Department, including that of the current Minister, Edwin Poots, and his permanent secretary, Andrew McCormick. We should also acknowledge the work of the previous devolved Ministers. It is a pity that the ministerial group did not meet for about 18 months, but that does not mean that other good work was not going on. For that work to be done, it needs to be supported, and I hope that today’s debate will help to support and encourage those people who deserve it in their important work on such a huge issue.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

To resume his seat no later than 5.35 pm, I call Kevan Jones.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Antrim (Dr McCrea) on bringing this matter to the House. I also congratulate my hon. Friends and everyone else who has spoken. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to sum up.

Today is an example of this House working at its best. All Members and all parties have come together and issued a joint call from the Floor of the House for better services. The contributions that Members have made have shown that the House is an immense fount of knowledge. In the short time I have, I intend to highlight the main issues that have been raised.

My hon. Friend the Member for South Antrim introduced the subject very well. He referred to the bereavement caused by suicide. That is an interesting point, because people have to come to terms with what has happened and how it affects them. I had not thought about that until my hon. Friend made the point and I realise that he was right. Other Members have talked about how suicide affects a person’s entire family and their friends. The hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon) spoke about anniversaries in particular. I will return to that point in a moment. Those issues have been raised over and over again.

My hon. Friend spoke about the vulnerability of people on coming out of prison. He spoke about the drug and alcohol culture among young men. That is not only an urban problem, but a rural problem. My hon. Friend’s constituency covers both types of area.

Members have said that this must not be a taboo subject and that it is time that we faced up to it. Hopefully we have faced up to it in this debate. The contributions have been immense. We have all met people who hide their depression and anxiety. Members have raised the fact that the suicide rate is higher in Northern Ireland than in other parts of the United Kingdom.

Prevention was a key theme in what my hon. Friend the Member for South Antrim said. He referred to the impact that computers and websites can have on children. He challenged us to address these issues. That set the scene clearly for me.

The Minister referred to the steps that are being taken to reduce suicide in England. He referred to the figures for the past year. His commitment to working with regional Assemblies is good news because it means that all parts of the United Kingdom, which are represented here today, are working together.

Some 75% of those who take their lives are not known to Government agencies. I did not know that before this debate started. We can look for the signs in people, such as whether they have depression. Like all hon. Members, I have met people over the years who unfortunately fall into that category.

The hon. Member for Bridgend gave a detailed, decisive and, I would say, masterful contribution to the debate and I thank her for that. She displayed great knowledge about the rates of suicide among 30 to 40-year-olds and among females.

The question that everybody asks themselves—I have asked myself this question when friends of mine have died—is, “What could I have done to prevent it?” You search your heart, you search your soul and you almost put yourself into the grave worrying about what more you could have done. Every Member who has spoken has mentioned that. Behind that question there is perhaps a bit of guilt as well.

The right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) spoke about the vital importance of support groups and Papyrus in particular. I am conscious that I am summing up and not making a contribution, but I just want to say that the LINK group in Newtownards does a magnificent job to help people who are considering suicide and those who have depression.

The hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) spoke about suicide prevention and the moneys available in Northern Ireland, which gives that leadership, as well as the moneys that are set aside. The hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) spoke on behalf of soldiers who leave the service and feel vulnerable, and as Members of Parliament we have all heard such cases.

In an intervention, the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) mentioned the sensitivity surrounding the coroner’s report, and there is a lesson there for other parts of the United Kingdom after what has happened in Northern Ireland. The hon. Member for Bridgend spoke about the use of sport for young people and the importance of correct wording in dramas and soaps, and that valid point was also made by the hon. Member for Foyle in a passionate and real way. A “suicide champion” was referred to, and the need to extend that across the United Kingdom, and the comments and points of view expressed contain lessons for all regions in the United Kingdom.

[Mark Durkan]

I am entirely comfortable with everything the hon. Gentleman is saying about how we need better to co-ordinate and mesh this work across the UK and use all means to do that. Of course, the problem is wider in these islands. Recently, Shane McEntee, a Government Minister in the south of Ireland, took his own life, and there are serious problems that need to be addressed even at school level. Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that this issue should perhaps be prioritised at the level of the British-Irish Council? Perhaps a debate such as this could take place at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly so that we gather all the experiences and good practice that has come out of the bad experiences in all parts of these islands?

[Jim Shannon]

I agree, and I think all Members of this House feel the same. I commend the hon. Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew), who referred to bullying at school and the importance of family when he was working in a hospice. He mentioned the difference between death and death from suicide—both very tragic and real issues—and spoke about the red socialist and the blue Tory working together. That is good and the way it should be in this House, doing the best we can.

My right hon. Friend and colleague the Member for Belfast North (Mr Dodds) gave a detailed account of what happens in north Belfast which, along with west Belfast, unfortunately has a reputation for the highest suicide rates in Northern Ireland. He referred to the hard work done by many people in the PIPS group—the Public Initiative for Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm—FASA, churches and many other groups that do tremendous work. Queen’s university has made a study of north Belfast, and if my right hon. Friend ever needs facts or evidence of what is wrong and how to address it, those are issues we must consider.

I have in my notes, “Coping with peace after years of violence”, and unfortunately in north Belfast, and perhaps west Belfast, that is one of the issues, and my right hon. Friend clearly addressed that point. He and other Members referred to copycat suicides, and the hon. Member for Bridgend mentioned anniversaries. The work done by the Samaritans in A and E was mentioned, and, as my right hon. Friend said, there are lessons to be learned for us all.

The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), said that although any death is tragic, suicide is the worst as it poses many questions for the family left behind, and she spoke about the issue very clearly and honestly. She referred to the good work done by Labour when it was in power. I know that to be the case and I look forward to more such work.

My hon. Friend the Member for Upper Bann (David Simpson) referred to the increased number of suicides in Northern Ireland—300—and mentioned Yellow Ribbon and the 400 people helped by that organisation in one year. Four hundred people sought help, and volunteers and groups were there to help.

I thank the hon. Member for Foyle for his passionate, powerful and revealing speech that moved us all, and he put forward a number of ideas. The Maiden City has a suicide awareness day; perhaps it could be a model for the rest of the United Kingdom. He also referred to a self-harm register. Although not many people mentioned that issue in Northern Ireland, the British Medical Association referred to the fact that a third of those who self harm commit suicide, so that issue is important. He mentioned the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Last but not least, I remember when the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) spoke about mental health in the Chamber some time ago—I have never forgotten that speech. He spoke again today with passion and belief, and with the inner knowledge that comes from his experience. He has been able to describe that for all hon. Members in the Chamber.

We should be clear that we need the voluntary services and the Government to work together. I thank everyone for their valuable and sensitive contributions in the Chamber today. The debate has been excellent.

NHS Commissioning Board (Mandate)

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

There is an element of postcode lottery now—there is a huge and unacceptable variation in treatment throughout the country—but the structures we are putting in place have a much better chance of reducing that variation than what went before, which failed to reduce it.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

I think we can all welcome the four stated priorities of the new mandate, not least in respect of cancer, mental health and dementia, and I recognise that the statement will have predictive implications for devolved policy making as well. Is the Secretary of State confident that the means and methodology are there to fulfil this mandate? Are resources sufficient and responsibilities sufficiently clear? Will this be workable in practice, or just a worthy presentation from a Minister?

[Mr Hunt]

The mandate sets some very high ambitions in challenging times, but those ambitions can help to reduce costs and make the NHS more sustainable. Embracing the technology revolution should mean that we give people better care, as should allowing clinicians more time to spend with patients and allowing nurses to spend more time with the people they are responsible for, but those things should also save the system money. There is not an either/or, but I accept the hon. Gentleman’s point that this is very ambitious.

Induced Abortion

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Wednesday 31st October 2012 Westminster Hall

[Julie Elliott]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention.

MPs must act with responsibility, and always consider the impact on our constituents and the wider population of issues that we bring to the House. We must not scaremonger, or involve issues of guilt, which has happened in some contributions today. I am wholly opposed to that.

I return to what I said at the beginning—why have this debate now? I cannot see any medical or logical reason for it now because no new evidence has come forward since it was last discussed in 2008. If there was new evidence, I would be happy to have the debate. My mind is not closed to changing the limit ever, and if medical evidence suggests strongly that survival rates may be lower than at 24 weeks, that would be the time to consider the issue, not now.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Julie Elliott]

No.

Members of Parliament must always be aware of the impact of our discussions. I conclude by saying, not just as a Member of Parliament, but as the mother of four adult children, and grandmother of two gorgeous little granddaughters, that for their future—this does not impact on me because I am far too old—we should keep medical evidence under review. We should debate such issues sensitively when they change, not on a whim or for emotional reasons. When medical evidence clearly changes, that is the point at which to discuss the matter. I am sad that this debate is taking place today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is right to highlight this growing issue. One million people will have dementia by 2020, so we have to take it very seriously. It is not an either/or situation, though, because about 25% of patients in hospitals have dementia, and hospitals would like them placed in the community or at home, where they can be better looked after. This is one of those examples where, under the new reforms, we need much greater integration of services to ensure that those people are treated in the way they need to be.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

10. What recent progress he has made on improving early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anna Soubry)]

We are providing more than £450 million during this spending review period to help diagnose cancer earlier. In January, we are planning to pilot a general symptom awareness campaign that will be relevant to a range of cancers, including pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, however, pancreatic cancer is often very difficult to detect in the early stages.

[Mark Durkan]

Has the Minister considered the early diagnosis summit report from Pancreatic Cancer UK highlighting that currently half of diagnoses are emergency diagnoses? It also makes strong cases for new referral pathways, risk assessment tools, direct access for GPs to investigative and diagnostic tools and the development of a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence quality standard for pancreatic cancer. Can we expect progress on any of these before the 2013 cancer awareness campaign?

[Anna Soubry]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his work. I am aware of the campaign that he has been running effectively in his constituency, based on the experiences of one of his constituents. As I say, however, and as he will know, pancreatic cancer is, by its nature, a particularly difficult cancer to diagnose early. We will all, of course, remember the untimely death of Sir Stuart Bell. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed only very shortly before his death. I wish that were not as common as it is, but we are doing everything we can to improve screening. I thank the hon. Gentleman again for his campaign, and I would be happy to meet him to discuss it further.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I understand the issues. Indeed, I was interested to see analysis some years ago of the extent of antibiotic resistance in hospitals in the Netherlands. Resistance was clearly much more prevalent in parts of Friesland where there was much greater antibiotic usage in farming. I therefore completely understand, and my colleagues in DEFRA understand this too. Just as we are looking for the responsible and appropriate prescribing of antibiotics in the health service, my colleagues feel strongly about the proper use of antibiotics in farming.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

When the national advisory council of the Thalidomide Trust recently met Government representatives, no funding undertakings were available on the replacement of the health support grant for sufferers. When can we expect a meaningful commitment in that regard, and is the Department liaising with its devolved counterparts?

[Paul Burstow]

Yes, we are liaising with the devolved Administrations. Yes, we had a productive meeting with the trust and the council, which confirmed that they will shortly submit to us the second-year evaluation of the pilot programme. I undertook to look at that carefully and enter into further discussions with a view to reaching a conclusion and making further announcements this autumn.

Care and Support

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

Without underestimating the inherent challenges, may I welcome the statement and commend the approach of the shadow Secretary of State? The draft care and support Bill makes provision in respect of the portability of care packages between local authorities in England, but it does not yet provide for the “passportability” of care packages to Northern Ireland and Scotland. Historical migration factors mean that many Irish people are lonely and in remote care settings in England who would much rather be in a care setting in which they can enjoy the support and contact of their families—their families want them there too. When will that finally be addressed?

[Mr Lansley]

As I told my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies), I completely understand the problem. I will be entirely open to representations from, and discussions with, the Wales and Northern Ireland Administrations on the scope for achieving continuity of care for those who move between different parts of the UK. There are differing systems, but we can at least try to ensure that we build continuity of care around the needs of the individual care user rather than constantly being obsessed with the characteristics of our own systems.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 27th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Of course. I will be glad to meet my hon. Friend and his constituents. I recall how he has been an advocate on their behalf in the past and a vocal advocate of services in Wycombe. I emphasise to my hon. Friend that we are looking towards not only the clinical commissioning groups, but the local authorities injecting further democratic accountability so that in his constituency and those across the country we see much greater local ownership and accountability for the design of services.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

The Chancellor’s evidence to the independent pay review body chairs last week contained curious if not dubious references to nursing pay and non-nursing pay, and possible outcome linkages of those. Does the Secretary of State understand those and can he explain them?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Gentleman will know that we have asked the pay review bodies to look at the aspects of pay related to market conditions, and I do not want to prejudice that. They will come back with their advice on that.