Ebola

Nick Harvey Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The Royal Free hospital has provided world-class treatment for the patients whom it has looked after, and I pay tribute to it. On the restoration of health services, it is important that there is a Government-owned strategy in Sierra Leone on health care priorities. Perhaps some of the most pressing priorities right now are malaria—we are about to enter another rainy season, which is a high risk—getting vaccinations back up to combat diseases such as measles, and maternal health, making sure that women are able to give birth safely.

I had a chance to visit a hospital that just about managed to keep going through the crisis, but we know that teenage pregnancy, which is partly due to the fact that children have been out of school, has been a huge problem that will need to be addressed. It is important that the NGO community works as part of that overall Government of Sierra Leone-owned health care strategy and we will play our part in helping to deliver it. It has to focus on some short-term imperative deliverables and look at the longer term. That includes making sure that the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone has the capacity to continue to develop policy.

[Sir Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD)]

I welcome the statement, commend the work of all those combating the crisis, and echo the good wishes to the British military in its work of flying personnel home for emergency treatment at the Royal Free hospital. The Secretary of State mentioned the figure of 12,000 orphans created during the crisis, which is probably a vast underestimate, particularly in the rural areas. There will be so much to do afterwards—getting the health system and the transport links sorted and getting the economy going again—but can we make a particular commitment from the UK to help clear up the profound legacy that those orphans will represent?

[Justine Greening]

I can reassure my hon. Friend that we are already working on that alongside prioritising work to get health care systems back up and running. Interestingly, as part of the response, we have had to improve water, sanitation and hand-washing. We now hope that some of the health care workers whom we trained to be part of the response who were originally teachers can take that into schools, so that as children get back into school we can keep embedded those positive behaviours that are good for health.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Harvey Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

First, as I have said, we all want to see a peace conference come about. The question is: how are we most likely to put pressure on the parties to attend that peace conference? I have to say, going back to the very first thing that the right hon. Gentleman said about the Russian decision to arm the regime, the Russian regime has been arming it for decades and, frankly, it is naive to believe anything else. That is important.

On safeguards, we are not supplying the opposition with weapons. We are supplying them with technical assistance and non-lethal equipment. We have made no decision to supply the opposition with weapons, so that is the answer to that question.

On the issue of the House of Commons, as the Foreign Secretary and I have made clear, I have always believed in allowing the House of Commons a say on all these issues. I think that was right when it came to Iraq, it was right when we made the decision to help the opposition in Libya, and it would be right for it to happen in the future as well. Let me stress again, however, that we have made no decision to arm the rebels in Syria.

[Sir Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD)]

On the Government plan to double the size of our reserve forces, has the Prime Minister considered the role that retired Ghurkhas might play? Now that they are allowed to settle here, many Ghurkhas have told me that they would welcome an ongoing connection with the British Army, but there is no real routine or tradition of recruiting them. I do not think there is any impediment, but it will not happen by magic. Will the Prime Minister authorise an initiative to recruit them?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent suggestion. One of the ways that we can best build up the fully funded and fully equipped larger reserve of 30,000 that we want to see is to make sure that there are better opportunities for those who have served in the regular Army to serve in the reserves. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary will look at my hon. Friend’s point about the Ghurkhas and see what can be done.