Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and Jessica Morden

Tuesday 8th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

What my hon. Friend says is absolutely right. Of course if someone puts a defibrillator on private land, access to it should naturally be open to anybody who needs it. I will look into the exact legal status, but let us set aside the legal status for a minute. If there is a defibrillator on private land that could save somebody’s life, the landowner should of course allow access to it for anybody who needs it.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

As current Government investment in motor neurone research is not the targeted funding that is needed, will the Minister meet charities, researchers and patients to examine this discrepancy and commit to additional funding of £10 million a year for five years for a virtual motor neurone disease research institute, with a specific focus on helping us to get a world free of MND?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and Jessica Morden

Tuesday 6th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We are making good progress in validating the tests and in doing what needs to be done to be able to use them effectively. I have seen some of these reports from around the world, and I talk regularly to my opposite numbers about how we can get this sort of next-generation testing going.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

With Spina Bifida Awareness Week coming up, can the Secretary of State say when the Government will respond to the consultation on putting folic acid into flour? It is a move that could help to reduce the number of babies born with defects of the spine, and it is important to hear when that might happen.

[Matt Hancock]

I am a strong supporter of the work we have done to look at that approach. The hon. Lady is right to raise it, and I will write to her with a timetable for that response.

Coronavirus

Debate between Matt Hancock and Jessica Morden

Tuesday 7th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I would love to get swimming pools open as soon as safely possible. As my hon. Friend knows, the emphasis has to be on safety. Alongside gyms, we are working with swimming pools. Of course, there is also some beautiful open water swimming in Derbyshire. Swimming in all its forms—in the sea, in open water and in swimming pools—is very good for your health, and we should try to get it all open as soon as we possibly can, but the nature of swimming and changing rooms means that there are risks, and we have to ensure that those risks are properly taken into account.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab) [V]]

Given the Secretary of State’s earlier comments, will the Government back the campaign by Macmillan Cancer Support and commit to urgently publishing a national cancer recovery plan, to ensure that cancer does not become the forgotten “C” in this pandemic? Will he meet Macmillan to discuss that?

[Matt Hancock]

I would be very happy to meet Macmillan. The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill), who is the Minister responsible for cancer, has been working on exactly this subject, but I would of course be happy to meet Macmillan and other cancer charities, because this is such an important thing to get right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and Jessica Morden

Thursday 10th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

What are Ministers doing to tackle the issue of scam adverts online, as highlighted by Martin Lewis recently?

[Matt Hancock]

I have seen with interest Martin Lewis’s legal action against Facebook. We are following that with great interest. The internet safety strategy will be coming out in the coming weeks, and that will address these issues.