Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Helen Hayes

Wednesday 5th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I am very happy to offer my sincere congratulations to those students, who thoroughly deserve their graduation ceremony. I know what a difficult course is required for someone to qualify as a doctor. Health Ministers would be happy to meet my right hon. Friend to discuss exactly that proposal.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

Q11. One of my constituents, who was a first-year university student, tragically took his own life in May. He had signed a private sector tenancy for his next year’s accommodation, with his parents as guarantor. The tenancy includes a clause which states that the responsibilities of the guarantor are unaffected by the death of a tenant, and the lettings agency is disgracefully insisting on enforcing that abhorrent requirement. My constituents not only have to live with the devastating loss of their son, but face terrible financial hardship because of this cruelty. Will the Deputy Prime Minister support my call for the inclusion of a clause in the long overdue Renters (Reform) Bill to outlaw that practice and protect bereaved families?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

What the hon. Lady has described sounds totally abhorrent, and I shall be very happy to look into the details and discuss what measures might be brought forward to address it.

Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Helen Hayes

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 3rd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Oliver Dowden]

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I know that she, like me, greatly values the work of our public sector workers. With respect, I was seeking to respond to interventions from other Opposition Members, and if they will refrain from making political interventions, I will happily refrain from rebutting them.

The root of this can be traced back to my constituency of Hertsmere, which I proudly represent and in which I was born and grew up. I remember the way in which mental health was treated during my childhood. We are on the edge of London, and London was historically surrounded by very large mental health institutions. In my own constituency, we had facilities such as the very large hospitals at Harperbury and Shenley. In many ways, those institutions had a positive ethos. I am fortunate to represent many mental health nurses who worked in those institutions and who still live in the constituency, and there was certainly a positive ethos of rehabilitation and providing a safe, calm space for people. However, the flipside of that was a tendency to put people in those institutions, shut them away and never think about the problem again. It is absolutely right that, under successive Governments, we have sought to change that approach. We now mainstream mental health problems, certainly in my own constituency and I am sure in many others.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I believe it is important for the hon. Gentleman to acknowledge that there are still far too many young people with autism and learning disability living for the long term in hospitals. Does he acknowledge that that problem is related to the resources available for their care and how those resources are spent? I believe that we need a shift towards properly resourced community settings for people with autism and learning disability, who really should not be in hospital for the long term.

[Oliver Dowden]

The hon. Lady makes an important point. The closer to the community the treatment can be given, the better the treatment will be. I see this with my own constituents. If they are having to travel long distances, particularly with younger children, to access mental health care facilities, that can only add to the disruption in their lives. However, I believe that a journey is taking place in all of this, and I am glad that the Government are addressing the need for that journey.

The experience of many of us is that mental health is now delivered at the primary care level. From speaking to GPs in my constituency, I know that they are now on the frontline of the process. What is the answer? The first thing is to ensure that we have parity of treatment between mental and physical health. A broken limb is a serious injury and the patient is patched up and treated properly—no one doubts that they have had an injury. However, it has been the case for too long that if people have a mental health condition, it is not immediately treated with the same seriousness, and there is a sense that the person concerned has to prove that they have a problem in the first place.