Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Amesbury and Steve Brine

Tuesday 27th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Steve Brine]

It will soon be Christmas.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

3. What recent representations he has received on the potential merits of increasing public health funding to local authorities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Brine)]

We have had lots; it is just that none come with any idea of how that might be paid for. The Government have a strong track record on public health. Local authorities in England have received more than £16 billion in ring-fenced public health grants over the current spending period. Decisions on future funding for that area of spending are of course for the next spending review.

[Mike Amesbury]

On current projections, over £800 million will have been cut from public health budgets by 2021, £2 million of which has been cut from vital services in my constituency relating to sexual health, and to tackle obesity and smoking. Will the Minister guarantee that the new NHS long-term plan will reverse the cuts to public health budgets?

[Steve Brine]

I know that Opposition Members like to pretend that the past eight and a half years did not have to happen, but there is a reason why they had to happen—the economy was crashed—and eight and a half years is not a long time to clear up the mess of the last Government. But we are very clear, as the hon. Gentleman should know, that a focus on prevention will be central to the long-term plan. He mentions child obesity—[Interruption.] Opposition Members may wish to listen. The public health grant remains ring-fenced and protected for use exclusively on improving health, but local government spending on health is not just about the public health grant. The Government spend money on many other things, including around the child obesity plan and vaccinations, and that is all around prevention and public health.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Amesbury and Steve Brine

Tuesday 23rd October 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Brine)]

We certainly will. I do not wish to pre-empt what the long-term plan will say, but it is an excellent opportunity for us to look at how the NHS can best support people who have or are at risk of developing diabetes, and that includes transformation funding beyond next spring and how technology can be used to help people better manage that long-term condition.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

T10. Will the Minister provide an update on the revised capital bid by Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to provide Halton General Hospital with a secure future?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Amesbury and Steve Brine

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Steve Brine]

It is not a complacent answer; it is a factual one. That is an important point to make. The Circle contract has been uplifted by approximately £10 million because of the increases in tariff costs, as the hon. Gentleman rightly says. That increase would have been applied to any provider, not just Circle. I am sorry that he does not support the new MS services across his constituency. My understanding is that, previously, those services were delivered by a number of different providers, with a wide variation in clinical outcomes for his constituents, in costs of care and in-patient experience. This is a step forward.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

11. What progress he has made on the contaminated blood inquiry and on providing people affected with financial support.