Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(7 years, 2 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend has been following this issue closely over recent years. I think he recognises that this is an important and complex area of law, and we want to make sure that proposals are considered properly. That is why the Ministry of Justice is carefully examining the differences in treatment that already exist within marriage law, alongside the humanist proposals, so that the differences can be minimised. I am sure that my hon. Friend will agree that it is both right and fair to approach this in that way.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman raises a very important point that is obviously of particular relevance in the case of the constituent to whom he refers. As he says, pancreatic cancer is one of those cancers that it is very difficult to deal with and treat. There has been a lot of attention over the years on certain cancers, such as breast cancer increasingly, as well as bowel cancer and prostate cancer, but it is important that the appropriate attention is given to cancers that are proving more difficult to deal with, such as pancreatic cancer.
Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(7 years, 5 months ago)
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James Wharton
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We will continue our efforts and continue our commitment. The UK Government are supporting 300,000 girls in Afghanistan to complete a full cycle of education. The drop-out rate for girls in Afghanistan is running at around 50%. We have to do what we can to tackle that—to help countries develop, to help address these imbalances and to secure a better future for those who live there, but for UK interests as well.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
James Wharton
The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. We need to ensure that people get the education they need and can benefit from, so that those economies can grow and those countries that have often suffered so much can develop their way out of poverty with our support. In this Parliament, the Government will be supporting over 11 million children—including, separately, 6.5 million girls—into education, including in sub-Saharan Africa. There is more work that needs to be done, but we are focused on the task at hand, and we shall ensure that we get the maximum value and benefit from the work that UK taxpayers contribute to.
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
Nic Dakin Excerpts(8 years, 3 months ago)
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Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
I am pleased to follow the speeches that we just heard, which set out clearly the need for action to ensure the delivery of sustainable development goal target 3.3 to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. We need the political will to do so, and we are already beginning to see it in this Chamber.
The fund does not implement programmes but raises and invests $4 billion a year to support programmes run by local experts in communities most in need. Countries therefore take the lead in deciding where and how best to fight disease, as well as how to work with international partners. That enhances countries’ ownership and, as the right hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) ably sketched, it increases domestic resource mobilisation through counterpart financing, which is important. I saw for myself on a visit to Cambodia with Results UK how our leadership, through the Global Fund, empowers directors in the countries by allowing them to sort things out themselves. It is a powerful model.
Using a country’s health and wealth to determine funding is indicative of the Global Fund’s model. It sees health as key to improving economies, and as a country’s wealth increases, its reliance on international support should decrease. With that in mind, the UK Government should press the Global Fund board, of which the UK is a member, to introduce a transition strategy to ensure that, when recipient countries move away from the Global Fund, they are still supported sustainably. For example, statistics show that 94% of gene expert diagnostics for TB and two thirds of second-line TB drugs within the World Health Organisation Europe region are provided through the Global Fund. It is imperative that those recipients continue to receive Global Fund support so that people who fall ill have access to diagnosis and treatment.
In short, the Global Fund should remain global, and support should be provided to middle-income countries to transition sustainably. Successive UK Governments have supported the Global Fund, and we can all be extremely proud of that, but the UK kept its contribution during the last replenishment in 2013, hoping that others would respond to the challenge of meeting the target. We have heard from the right hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs that that does not appear to have worked as a strategy, so I hope the UK Government will revisit and reconsider it.
The rationale given for the cap was that it would incentivise others to donate. Ahead of the replenishment, have the Government conducted any assessment of whether it has done so? It has been suggested that the cap has served only to limit our own contribution. The UK Government should commit to that important global initiative, on which so many people’s lives rely. That is clear and unambiguous. The Government should take steps other than a cap to ensure contributions by other donors. The UK should maintain its leadership role, continue to show strong support for the Global Fund and push for the $13 billion ask to be met by making its own substantial contribution, leveraging other donors to invest and expanding the donor base. By doing so, the Minister and his colleagues will show the word leadership that we have shown in the past and match it, which is something of which we can all be proud.
Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(8 years, 4 months ago)
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Greg Clark
I will certainly do that. I recognise my hon. Friend’s constituency experience, and, indeed, his expertise as vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on flood prevention. However, the national planning policy framework states that any new application in an area of flooding risk
“must demonstrate that the development will be safe for its lifetime…without increasing flood risk elsewhere, and, where possible, will reduce flood risk overall.”
That test must be passed for the development to be permitted.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
Is it not time to recognise the fantastic work that firefighters do in dealing with floods, and to make it a statutory duty for fire and rescue services to respond to flooding?
Greg Clark
I am grateful for the opportunity that the hon. Gentleman offers me to pay tribute again to the fantastic work that is being done in the north of England, and which has, over the years, been done throughout the country at times when such emergencies occur. I will bear in mind what he has said, and it will be considered during our future discussions.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
T9. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with the Business Secretary to explore how councils in steel communities can use imaginative and creative approaches to business rates to support the steel industry through this difficult time?
Greg Clark
I have had discussions with the Business Secretary and his colleagues. It is very important that we empower those local communities to be able to act in support of the businesses and the employees of those industries. Through the extension of the enterprise zone in Teesside, for example, the hon. Gentleman will see that practical support has been given to make sure that the prosperity of those regions continues to grow, despite these challenges.
Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(9 years, 1 month ago)
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Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
9. World Vision tells me that there are 168 million child labourers worldwide. An investigation by The Guardian has revealed that child labour was used in a DFID-funded project in Nepal. Will the Minister tell us whether that is correct and indicate what will be done to ensure that it does not happen again?
Mr Swayne
The hon. Gentleman is right about the figure of 168 million. The only positive thing that one can say is that it has fallen by a third since 2000. The World Food Programme was involved in the project in Nepal, and the services of the supplier were discontinued. None the less, it reinforces the message—we must get this through using our international ethical trading initiative—that producers must take control of their supply chains.
Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(10 years ago)
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Justine Greening
We do want malaria to be eradicated. It is one of the key issues African leaders raise in relation not just to its impact on individuals and families, but its economic impact. The recent Bali World Trade Organisation deal was worth about $10 billion a year to the African economy—that is also the cost of malaria every year regionally.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
3. What recent steps she has taken to ensure the future funding and effectiveness of the GAVI Alliance. [R]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)
The UK is the largest donor to GAVI. Our support will help fully immunise nearly 80 million children and save around 1.3 million lives during 2011-15. We are working closely with GAVI and partners to ensure that their 2016-20 strategy, currently being developed, provides a sound and cost-effective basis for delivering their mission and saving children’s lives.
Nic Dakin
May I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests? To reach every child with immunisation requires not only vaccines but staff. Do the Government support the GAVI 15% to 25% spending target on health strengthening in the international community?
Lynne Featherstone
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that, because strengthening health systems and the capacity of health workers is a key answer in addressing the immunisation deficit.
Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(10 years, 2 months ago)
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Justine Greening
When we came into government, we had a bilateral programme with 43 countries. We have now targeted that on 28. My hon. Friend will also be aware that I have announced the ending of our financial aid programmes to both South Africa and India.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
T8. Notwithstanding the Secretary of State’s answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), will the Government support the inclusion of a specific target to increase women’s participation and influence in public life in the post-2015 international development framework?
Justine Greening
The hon. Gentleman will know that the Prime Minister co-chaired the high level panel that did a huge amount of work in that area and produced what could be a draft framework. It had much more focus on women and girls, and significantly develops the original MDG on gender equality. We will fight to make sure that we get as many specific targets on women’s rights and participation as we can.
HIV and AIDS
Nic Dakin Excerpts(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
It is a pleasure, Mr Dobbin, to contribute to this debate, which I congratulate the hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Pamela Nash) on bringing to the Chamber. She has been a champion of the issue here and in the House, and it is clear from the questions being asked that there is interest in and compassion for those who most need help.
I thank the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) for his contribution. Not many people can say that they belong to the Kilimanjaro club, and I do not believe any other hon. Member can do so. I also thank the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) for her valuable contribution.
It is good to make a contribution on such an important issue because MPs and parliamentarians have a role to play not just here at home, but internationally. The debate is about the international response to HIV and AIDS, and sometimes when looking elsewhere in the world, it is good also to look at home. HIV is prevalent in other parts of the world but, unfortunately, it is also an issue at home: during the past 12 years, there has been a 384% increase in Northern Ireland, which is a large increase. When focusing on the issue internationally, we must always remember what is happening in our own country.
More than 35 million people live with HIV/AIDS, and in the past year 2.3 million were newly infected. That is the magnitude of the issue. Every hour, 262 people die from AIDS. In a debate here last year, I and others asked what can be done to halt the epidemic, and the reason for this debate today is to ask what steps the Government are taking. Are they addressing the issue effectively?
There was an increase in the number of under-15-year-olds diagnosed with the disease last year, and although diagnosis is good because treatment can start, it is not good that more people are being so diagnosed. We must look at that issue. The hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts referred to a large drop of 50% in HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa and that is good news, which arises from steps taken by Governments internationally in the global war against AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
When addressing the international response to HIV/AIDS, we must remember groups such as the Elim church mission in Newtownards in my constituency, which works hard on issues such as health, education, house building, business, farming and orphans. It addresses such issues in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Malawi, three countries where there has, unfortunately, been a large increase in the diagnosis of AIDS. In the last couple of years, I have had the opportunity to meet some young people from Swaziland who have AIDS, or are orphans because their mums and dads died of it. No one could be other than impressed by the smiles of those young people and their zest for life, which was a result the Elim church mission and many other groups and individuals from other churches making financial, physical and practical contributions to help such people and to give them hope and a chance in life. The hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts talked not just about medical help but about the hope that can be given, and I too will focus on that.
When we saw and heard those young people, I thought that African choirs are some of the most wonderful. Ours are also good, but African choirs have a different flavour, especially those with young people. Their zest for life and interest in others impresses me. Their Christian belief sustains them, and makes one humble.
Just last month, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria confirmed £12.07 billion to fight those diseases. The bigger countries have pledged to address the epidemic throughout the world, and that sum was an increase on the 2010 figure but falls short of the £15 billion that is estimated to be needed for the next three years. We have made a commitment, but it has not been significant enough to address the total issue, and we must look at that again.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Pamela Nash) on securing this timely and important debate. Given that last year, 320,000 HIV-positive people died from TB, which is the leading cause of death in people with HIV, does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is crucial that TB REACH be properly resourced in future so that innovative solutions are not sacrificed as we try to tackle these dreadful diseases?
Jim Shannon
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. HIV cannot be considered alone; TB and malaria must also be considered because they incapacitate people who are HIV-positive. A joint strategy is required.
It has been disclosed that the Government will add £1 billion to the overseas aid budget in the next year due to an increase in Government spending. Will the Minister confirm that that money will be earmarked specifically for dealing with HIV/AIDS? We cannot ignore the overseas budget, and although some people may have concerns about increasing it, I believe that it is right to do so.
Will the Minister respond to the suggestion that the UK will deliver its contribution dependent on other countries doing their bit, and that if their pledges fall short—I hope they will not—the UK and USA may not deliver their commitment? Will she confirm that the Government’s contribution is ring-fenced and will be delivered, whatever amount other countries may deliver under the global health fund? At meetings and summits such as G8, Governments make commitments to respond to world disasters, but when looking back a year later, I sometimes wonder whether they actually delivered on their commitments. Delivery is important, particularly this year, and the present momentum of reducing HIV/AIDS must be maintained. The disease ravages those in third-world countries, makes children orphans, condemns mothers to sickness and destroys communities.
Previous speakers have referred to technology. Scientific progress has been significant. The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North referred to drugs and their availability. They can preserve life and communities. We must translate that into making a difference to the world’s population. I believe, as do many Members, that a person is measured by their compassion and interest in others. This great nation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will also be measured by its compassion for others. I know that our Government are delivering physically and practically, and I hope the Minister, whom I have the highest respect for, will outline in detail what the United Kingdom will do in the global war against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Oral Answers to Questions
Nic Dakin Excerpts(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Duncan
The UK is leading by example. We are taking action to put our own house in order on this issue. We have announced that the UK will introduce new rules that require companies to obtain and hold information on their beneficial ownership. That information will be held in a central, publicly accessible registry maintained by Companies House.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
7. What progress has been made on the most recent replenishment round for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)
I am pleased to say donors have pledged $12 billion, which is an impressive 30% increase on the amount that was pledged at the 2010 replenishment conference, demonstrating global confidence in the fund. The global fund provides excellent value for money and delivers life-saving results on a global scale.
Lynne Featherstone
The significant increase in DFID’s contribution to the global fund to £1 billion will contribute to the scaling up of proven TB REACH programmes that are included in the national strategic planning process. We have reviewed the mid-term evaluation of TB REACH, which shows that it is effective and that it reaches very important populations. However, given that there are so many small projects, there are concerns about sustainability and about the ability to scale up. We will obviously keep that in mind.
Tuberculosis
Nic Dakin Excerpts(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
Let me start in the past. In 1821, Maria Brontë died of consumption. Two of her daughters died of the disease in infancy and her four older children—Bramwell and his famous sisters, Anne, Emily and Charlotte—also died of it. According to the history books, they became
“ill from dampness and terrible living conditions”.
Consumption, or tuberculosis, is a disease that many people believe belongs to the past. Nothing could be further from the truth. TB kills more people in the world today than any other infectious disease. Every day, 3,800 people die from it. Sunday is world AIDS day, so it is worth remembering that TB is the leading killer of people living with HIV. At least one third of the 35.3 million people living with HIV worldwide are infected with latent TB. People co-infected with TB and HIV are about 30 times more likely to develop active TB disease than people without HIV. Given the devastating synergy that exists between the two infections and the impact that they have on people living in the developing world, it is absolutely vital that resources are stepped up now so that we not only effectively tackle TB-HIV co-infection but ensure that the health-related millennium development goals are achieved. The Department for International Development is about to launch its policy review paper on HIV/AIDS. I hope that it will make clear the importance of linking the approaches to TB and HIV, and that it will have clear commitments to tackle those diseases.
In the UK, we can be tempted to believe that TB no longer poses a threat to public health. There is a widespread belief that the BCG vaccine is effective and that today TB only affects other countries. However, in a connected world of global travel, TB is never far away. That came home to me forcibly when an English student returned from foreign travel with the disease and subsequently infected other students attending the college of which I was principal. Students and staff found dealing with the anti-TB drugs to be an ordeal. For a standard, non-drug-resistant case, the treatment regime can require a six-month course of a cocktail of four drugs. Those “front-line” drugs are more than 40 years old now and have unpleasant side-effects. It was a challenge for me as college principal, working with the local NHS, to get people to take the drugs they had to take. It must be an even bigger challenge to help patients in the developing world who not have access to the type of care and support offered by the NHS.
The stigma attached to the disease here was a barrier to patients accessing treatment. In sub-Saharan Africa, the stigma is even greater. Dr Simon Blankley, a Voluntary Services Overseas chest physician working in Uganda, reported that patients could often be locked away in cupboards or forced to leave their villages, and that health care workers were worried for their own health when TB patients were admitted to wards. TB needs to be tackled in a sustainable way that reassures people and builds community resilience. Dr Blankley was able to use a team of VSO volunteers to provide education and reassurance, and to get TB patients in and around Kampala to complete their eight-month course of treatment. The team’s work drastically increased completion rates. He then expanded the work, adding work on TB to the community health education that was already in place. That sustainable approach can be replicated elsewhere.
Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the global TB programme at the World Health Organisation, said just last month, when he launched the WHO’s global TB report in partnership with the all-party group on global tuberculosis, that
“at the current rate of progress, we will not be rid of TB for over a century.”
The efforts of the global health fund and its partners have made fantastic progress against TB, HIV and malaria, and the Government are to be applauded for their recent pledge of up to £l billion for the fund. However, we need absolute urgency, unremitting determination and co-ordinated effort to tackle TB.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. I also warmly applaud the Government on the contribution and the commitment that they have made to the global health fund, which continues the work of the previous Government.
The hon. Gentleman mentioned the HIV position paper, which in fact was published only moments ago. He may be disappointed to note that the Government appear not to be putting quite as much emphasis on ensuring that they make the connection between HIV and TB. Will he insist that the Government continue a commitment to TB REACH and other programmes that address that serious problem?
Jim Dobbin (in the Chair)
Order. I suggest that when we have interventions, they are short.
Nic Dakin
Thank you, Mr Dobbin, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for his contribution. I am sure that the Minister will reflect on his point when he responds to the debate. It reinforces the point that I made earlier about the importance of the Government taking the opportunity to co-ordinate their efforts in relation to both HIV and TB, and the Minister will have heard those points.
Mr Peter Hain (Neath) (Lab)
Is my hon. Friend aware that 750,000 TB cases—the most lethal ones—come from South Africa’s gold mines, and contribute 9% of the global total of TB cases, which are often linked to HIV? If so, does he agree that it is vital for the British Government to talk to British-owned companies that are mining gold in South Africa to try to resolve that terrible epidemic?
Nic Dakin
I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention. He is absolutely right that the Government have a leadership role to play both globally and in relation to British companies involved in South Africa and elsewhere. I am sure that the Minister will also pick up on that point when he responds to the debate.
Dr Raviglione said that it would take more than a century to get rid of TB. Waiting a hundred years to get rid of this disease is just not good enough. Dr Raviglione also drew attention to the shameful fact that one in every three TB cases on the planet is not properly diagnosed or treated, which equates to 3 million people every year going undiagnosed, the majority of whom will have infectious pulmonary TB. Many of them are estimated to have drug-resistant strains. That is 3 million people a year going undiagnosed for the past six years—that is not good enough, either. Until everyone in the world with TB is diagnosed and correctly treated, we will never succeed in bringing the global TB epidemic under control and it will continue to blight our world, ruining millions of lives every year.
TB has killed more people than every other pandemic in history combined, by a margin of several hundred million. It is a global disease of the here and now. It affects every country, and every country must have a role to play in tackling it. It requires global leadership from our Government and every other Government. Tackling it requires support and investment through multilateral organisations such as the global health fund, as well as through targeted interventions. We need important technical and co-ordinating agencies, such as the WHO’s global TB programme and the Stop TB Partnership, to work together to enhance co-operation and cohesion across the world’s responses to TB. We need the brightest and the best of the scientific and business communities to work with high-burden countries, in order to step up the fight against this disease and save as many lives as possible.
Consumption, or TB, is a disease of the present. It is a scourge on our humanity and deserves the full force of all our efforts. Although new tools to tackle HIV and TB are badly needed, if we scale up the use of the tools that are already available we have the opportunity to save an additional million lives in the next few years.
I hope that the Minister, when he responds to the debate, will take the opportunity to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to ensuring full replenishment of the global health fund; to continuing to fund TB REACH to a level that allows it to carry on supporting new and innovative projects to find “the missing 3 million”; and to continuing to push for the development and uptake of better diagnosis, treatment and prevention treatments for TB, in a way that can be sustainable.
Finally, let us recognise the work done by all those people across the globe on the front line of the fight against this terrible disease. Their effort is a call to arms for us and a call for us, as policy makers, to step up to the mark and provide them with the tools and the wherewithal to eradicate TB and place it firmly in the past.