Oral Answers to Questions

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. I know that his constituents are anxious for the building work to get under way as soon as possible, but I also know that the Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with NHS England and the trust to support the development of the scheme. The trust is due to submit plans to the Department in the coming months, and the Department will work apace to review those plans.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

Q5.   Leaseholders in Battersea are trapped in an outdated and unfair leasehold system. The Secretary of State has said that the Government will “absolutely” maintain a commitment to abolish the leasehold system and will “bring forward legislation shortly”, but we now know this is no longer the case. Why have the Government done yet another U-turn and broken yet another promise to leaseholders by scrapping their plans to end the outdated leasehold system?

Oral Answers to Questions

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We know that we will have to rely on hydrocarbons for decades to come as we transition to net zero, and consuming oil and gas from the North sea means less than half the carbon footprint of importing that same oil and gas, so it obviously makes sense to do it here and in the process support tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland. I can reassure him that the Scottish oil and gas industry has this Government’s wholehearted support.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

Q7. The Tory crisis in the NHS includes ophthalmology, the largest and busiest out-patient service. There are more than 650,000 people waiting to see an eye care specialist. Will the Prime Minister back my Bill calling for a national eye health strategy that would ensure that nobody waiting to see a specialist will go without, potentially leading to a complete loss of sight?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for her campaigning in this area. We are taking action to improve things. Over the past five years the National Institute for Health and Care Research has invested more than £100 million to support research into eye conditions, but I know there is more we can do and my hon. Friend the Minister is, I believe, sitting down to talk to the hon. Lady in due course. I look forward to hearing about those conversations.