Evidence-based Early Years Intervention

Paul Williams Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2019 Westminster Hall

[Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the Eleventh Report of the Science and Technology Committee, Evidence-based early years intervention, HC 506, and the Government response, HC 1898.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies—for the first time, I think. We are spending this afternoon talking about a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit, and which I hope might unite us.

Last year, the Science and Technology Committee held an inquiry into childhood adversity and trauma and the early-intervention approaches that can be used to address those problems. As I said in a statement in November in Westminster Hall, following the publication of our report, this issue is of significant national importance. Around one in two adults in the UK has suffered at least one adverse childhood experience. That may include abuse, neglect or growing up in some other difficult situation, such as a household where someone suffers substance abuse or domestic violence.

Interestingly, the website of NHS Health Scotland includes a list of typical adverse childhood experiences:

“domestic violence, parental abandonment through separation or divorce, a parent with a mental health condition”—

often that can have a significant impact on the child in the household. It continues:

“being the victim of abuse (physical, sexual and/or emotional), being the victim of neglect (physical and emotional), a member of the household being in prison”—

again, that has a significant potential impact.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

I apologise for interrupting the right hon. Gentleman’s list. He mentioned that being a child of someone in prison is considered an adverse childhood experience. Has he seen the excellent report published this week by Crest Advisory, which identifies that there are many more children of prisoners than previously expected? It recommends that as part of the criminal justice process, those children should be identified and local authorities should be notified to provide them with enhanced support, because they may be at risk.

[Norman Lamb]

I would be grateful if the hon. Gentleman could refer me to that report; it sounds very interesting, but I have not seen it. That prompts the interesting point that many people in prison experienced bad things in their childhood that led to exclusion from school, involvement in the criminal justice system at an early age, low educational attainment and worklessness. There is an awful risk that the cycle will repeat itself. That sounds like a wise set of recommendations, and I would be interested to explore them further.

The final item in the list from NHS Health Scotland is

“growing up in a household in which there are adults experiencing alcohol and drug use problems.”

One in 10 adults has suffered four or more adverse childhood experiences—a disturbingly high statistic that often goes completely unnoticed. I remember visiting Philadelphia and hearing about the impressive work that was being done to confront the problems of trauma that children experience, often as a result of gun crime, in that quite troubled city. Mapping that city shows up areas of concentration where a substantial proportion of children have experienced repeated traumas, which have a clear effect on them.

The trauma that those experiences cause a child is tragedy enough, but we now know that they are also associated with long-term problems such as mental or physical ill health, worklessness and involvement in the criminal justice system. The prevalence of those problems increases with the number of adverse experiences that a person suffers in childhood. Those associated serious problems make the case for tackling childhood adversity as effectively as possible all the stronger.

In last week’s spring statement, the Chancellor said that he was

“in favour of early-intervention approaches where they can be shown to be effective.”—[Official Report, 13 March 2019; Vol. 656, c. 370.]

I welcome the evidence-based approach. From the inquiry undertaken by the Science and Technology Committee, which I chair, I know that the evidence for the effectiveness of early intervention to address adversity is strong. I encourage the Minister to make the case for such intervention to the Chancellor, along with other ministerial colleagues. The hon. Member for Stockton South (Dr Williams) has written—together with me and the Chair of the Education Committee, the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon)—to the Chancellor to ask for a meeting to discuss the clear evidence to support the case for investing in early intervention.

The Early Intervention Foundation—the What Works centre for early intervention that the Government established to promote evidence-based policy in this field—reviewed the evidence for more than 100 early intervention programmes and found that 51 had robust evidence of a positive impact. Several of those have received the Early Intervention Foundation’s highest rating for proven effectiveness, having demonstrated

“a long-term positive impact through multiple rigorous evaluations.”

We have heard from organisations that champion the success of the early intervention programmes that they have delivered locally. One example is the Children and Parents Service in Manchester, led by the immensely impressive Dr Caroline White, who gave evidence to our Committee. Because we were so impressed by the evidence she gave, she ended up acting as an expert adviser to the Committee in the shaping of our report. The service accepts parents and pre-school children with early social and emotional problems. Those parents and children are referred to the service by multi-agency staff from across the early years workforce—for example, by health visitors. The service provides thorough psychological assessment and offers intervention as appropriate.

The service can demonstrate evidence of its positive impact since it started almost 20 years ago, including improvements in child behaviour, parental stress and depression and, critically, the risk that a child will face ongoing abuse or neglect. That is a prize worth grasping. The interesting thing about Manchester is that, despite very strained local government financial resources, it has chosen to prioritise the service. Of course there is an argument about the need to invest more in early intervention, because that is where we can be really effective, but lack of money is no excuse not to target resources in effective interventions. Manchester has shown that it is possible to do that in the most impressive way.

It is of relevance to the spending review that effective early intervention offers the opportunity to save precious public resources and help those who have suffered adversity. Tackling the problems associated with adversity as a child—ill health, domestic or substance abuse, low educational attainment and so forth—costs public bodies enormous sums of money over the course of a person’s life. Imagine someone who has low educational attainment, perhaps after being excluded from school, and ends up as an adult without work and potentially in the criminal justice system. Just imagine the total cost to the public purse of maintaining and supporting that person through their life. Just imagine what they could contribute to society if those problems were addressed at source, stopping the trauma becoming entrenched and giving them the chance of a good, productive life that contributes to the common good.

It is estimated that the annual cost of late intervention is at least £16.6 billion, but that does not capture the economic benefit of people living more fulfilled and successful lives. This is a clear case of investing to save over the long term, but between 2010-11 and 2017-18, local authority spending on early intervention fell from £3.7 billion to £1.9 billion. That coincided with an increase in spending on late intervention, which rose from £5.9 billion to £6.7 billion. It seems daft to me that we spend more on coping with the fallout from children being excluded from school, which of course is associated with the horrific violence we are seeing on our streets. Surely it would be so much better to invest early to prevent those problems from happening in the first place.

Regrettably, we have heard that the provision of effective, evidence-based early intervention is not uniform across the country. Pockets of good practice exist—I mentioned Greater Manchester—but the Early Intervention Foundation told us that there are

“lots of examples where we see a gap between what we know from robust, peer-reviewed literature and what happens in local services and systems.”

Given that early intervention is left to local authorities to deliver, without any clear national support or scrutiny or even data collection, that is perhaps unsurprising.

Bluntly, we have no idea as a nation how substantial sums of public money are spent and whether that has any impact at the most critical stage of a child’s life. We are in an extraordinary position, as a country. We collect lots of data from the point at which a child goes to school, but for their most critical, formative years, we have no national data of any substance that we can scrutinise to understand how money is spent nationally and whether it is having any impact.

That fragmented and unco-ordinated approach to early intervention is why we called on the Government to develop a national strategy—incidentally, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government have already taken that approach—to empower and encourage local authorities to deliver effective, sustainable and evidence-based early intervention. Unfortunately, in their response to our report, the Government largely dismissed our recommendations. I must say to the Minister that we are deeply disappointed by the response from the Department of Health and Social Care. We really hope that a more considered view will be taken, and that the Government will review what we are actually saying and the case we are making. I hope the Minister—as the Science Minister, he is acutely interested in the application of evidence—will champion this issue in Government.

In its response, the Department of Health and Social Care argued that

“local areas are best placed to understand the needs of their local communities”

and

“to commission early intervention services to meet those needs”.

The national strategy we call for would not run contrary to that locally led approach. Instead, a new strategy could raise awareness and ambition among local authorities, provide guidance to them, and describe best practice and establish metrics against which local authorities could be held to account for the early intervention they deliver—without dictating from the centre exactly what each local authority does, because that is not the approach we argue for. Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, who represents local directors of public health nationally, told us during our inquiry that an overarching national strategy would benefit those working to provide early intervention locally. That is exactly the opposite of what the Government said in their response.

More positively, however, the Government have established an inter-ministerial group to look at how families with children from conception through to age two can best be supported. I really welcome that. Although early intervention can support children of all ages, we know that that early period is critical to brain development. I urge that group to seize the opportunity presented by early intervention. Having highlighted my Committee’s recommendations to all the members of that group individually, I am disappointed that they are not here to respond to the debate. None the less, I welcome the Science Minister and hope very much that he responds positively to what we are saying.

I should also say that I have been encouraged by the reactions of many of the Ministers on that inter-ministerial group. I know that the hon. Member for Stockton South, who led an inquiry of the Select Committee on Health and Social Care into early years, is happy to work with my Committee to find a way of holding an evidence session with members of that inter-ministerial working group about the work they are doing. When does the Minister expect that group to report its findings? How will the Government move forward with its recommendations? Does the group intend to act on my Committee’s recommendations?

Let me briefly set out what my Committee believes a national strategy should contain. First, awareness of the impact of childhood adversity and how it can be addressed could be greater among those who work with children. The early years workforce needs to be defined, and its training reviewed, to ensure it has the knowledge it needs. We spend a lot of time talking about the prevalence of mental ill health among children and young people these days, but we do not spend nearly enough time talking about its causes. If we focused more on the causes, we might be more effective at reducing the prevalence of the problem, which is very disturbing.

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[Norman Lamb]

I will come on to that, but the hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point. I mentioned earlier that investment in early years preventive services has fallen. That does not seem very wise in the long run.

[Dr Williams]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way again. Will he comment on the Government’s prevention strategy? Last November, the Government launched a consultation document on that strategy, saying that prevention was better than cure. Will he reflect on the adequacy or otherwise of the Government’s proposed approach to the kind of primary prevention in the early years that he talks about?

[Norman Lamb]

I welcomed the fact that the Secretary of State had identified the importance of prevention, although I noted that there was not much reference to mental health in the prevention strategy, and I have raised that with him. As I understand it, he plans to publish a Green Paper on prevention sometime in the spring, although the concept of seasons is elastic in Whitehall. I welcome that, but of course it has to have substance to it. We have to think about the social determinants of ill health, on which there generally is not sufficient focus. Poverty, poor housing and so forth are also critical factors, not only in our physical health but in our mental health.

I was going to mention that the Secretary of State has identified prevention as something that he wants to prioritise. It is up to us to guide and encourage him along a route that could reap real rewards, not only for individuals but for Government, in the longer term.

The next part of the proposed national strategy would be the collection and analysis of appropriate data. We believe that can help to identify families who would benefit from early intervention, to provide insight into how well different early intervention approaches are working, to drive continual improvement and to allow local authorities to be held to account. The national strategy should identify what data should be collected and support local authorities in delivering data-driven services. If a service is based on data and its analysis, it is more likely that evidence will be applied effectively and that we will make better use of public money. If we use public money in a way that is not based on evidence, we waste it; we cannot justify that to taxpayers, for whom the amount that they are expected to pay is often a strain. They demand that money be spent effectively in government.

The strategy should make use of the growing field of implementation science—a point that we were struck by in Dr Caroline White’s evidence. She focused on not taking an off-the-peg evidence-based programme and assuming that it will work effectively, and made the point that any programme should be properly implemented by trained staff who are supervised effectively, and that data should be used to monitor performance. Those factors are critical in ensuring that a programme can be effective in its application.

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[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I wholeheartedly welcome the excellent report by the right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) and his colleagues. I thank them for their attention to detail and their superb recommendations. I recently chaired a Health and Social Care Committee inquiry into “First 1000 days of life”—it is listed on the Order Paper as a connected report—and I will talk about some of our findings. I also chair the all-party parliamentary group for the prevention of adverse childhood experiences. The debate has real relevance to both.

In my 27 years’ experience of studying and then working in health services, as I still do, I have realised that if our society wants the most effective interventions that improve health and reduce inequalities, we have to act in the early years—particularly in the period from conception to the age of two, but generally the earlier, the better—because the real seeds of health inequalities are sown during that time. Good physical, emotional, social and language development during that time is crucial to building healthy brains and healthy children, which leads to our having a healthier and better society.

The Health and Social Care Committee’s “First 1000 days of life” report, which I recommend to colleagues—they may not get the chance to read it, so I will highlight a few recommendations later—sets the Government the ambitious challenge of kick-starting the second revolution in early years services, as recommended in the 2010 Marmot report, so that our country can become the best place in the world for a child to be born into. Almost all the research into this subject demonstrates that our path in life is set during the crucial early years. Healthy social and emotional development during that time lays the foundations for good physical and mental health.

However, our current political system invests a fortune in reacting to problems later on in life but is currently disinvesting in early years, leaving a gaping void where we should be warriors and champions for a healthier society. During the first 1,000 days of life, from when a baby is conceived until the age of two, more than 1 million new brain connections are made every single second. Imagine that: a million new brain connections made every single second.

Brains are shaped by their interactions with society, but tragically, more than 8,000 babies under the age of one in this country live in households where the trilogy of domestic violence, alcohol or drug dependency and severe mental illness are all present. More than 8,000 developing brains under the age of one—a crucial age—are exposed to that environment. More than 200,000 children under the age of one live with an adult who has experienced domestic violence or abuse. We have already heard powerful arguments for intervening to reduce that cycle of abuse. Two million children under the age of five live with an adult with a mental health problem.

We know that many children who experience such adversity become happy and healthy adults, but adversity in childhood is strongly linked to almost all health problems and many social problems. Children exposed to adverse childhood experiences such as those that my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones) talked about are much more likely to get physical health problems, such as heart disease. Exposure to ACEs as a child increases the chances of getting heart disease, cancer and mental health problems in adulthood.

[Norman Lamb]

And obesity.

[Dr Williams]

And obesity.

Children exposed to four or more ACEs are 30 times more likely to attempt suicide at some point in their life. They are 11 times more likely to end up in prison. They are even three times more likely to smoke in adulthood than people who did not experience any ACEs. Our politics is currently failing many of these children, and it is failing other families in which children and young people are still living in poverty.

My belief is that we need to devote more attention to and provide more protection during the early years. As we have seen today, many people from across the political divide share that belief, even though we do not seem to have a politics that ends up delivering more resources in this area. It is an area in which politicians should be working together. It was really encouraging to see the announcement last year of the early years family support ministerial group, led by the Leader of the House. That has the potential to take forward some of the Science and Technology Committee’s recommendations.

To conclude, I would like to reflect on some of the parallel and supporting recommendations made by the Health and Social Care Committee following our inquiry. We also, and independently, identified the lack of a long-term cross-departmental strategy for the early years. The lack of strategy means that it is extremely difficult for local authorities to know what they should be doing. That results in some local authorities excelling, and it may well be that they are the ones that most come to the attention of Government, but many local authorities really would appreciate more central direction on this and would welcome it if the Government set some demanding goals to reduce ACEs, improve school-readiness and reduce infant mortality and child poverty. We have to consider all this in the context of increasing levels of child poverty, too.

Our report recommended that a Cabinet-level Minister, possibly the Minister for the Cabinet Office, should have specific Cabinet-level responsibility for the oversight of a national early years strategy. However, it is not enough just to have strong central leadership, although that is necessary; the Government are right to say that all the delivery must be local. The Committee that I chaired heard evidence of fantastic local community collaboration—the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary and community sector, and normal members of local communities working together. They should be the people bringing the Government’s national strategy to life at local level, inspiring improved support for children, parents and families in their areas.

However, that requires money and it requires organisations to pool budgets. We have seen health services and local authorities pool budgets into the better care fund in order to deliver on shared objectives for older adults. I think that we should have a better start fund, whereby local authorities, health services and the voluntary and community sector are pooling all their financial but also human resources around a set of shared objectives for the start of life.

There should also be a named, nominated individual in every local authority who is accountable to Government for that, because without accountability there is a real difficulty in ensuring that every local authority is meeting the required standards. There needs to be accountability and ring-fencing of money. There will always be urgent problems that demand attention and resources. We need to be able to secure this strategic shift from reaction to prevention, from constantly dealing with the urgent problems that are in front of us to investment in tackling the important problems that will reduce the urgent problems in subsequent years.

The Health and Social Care Committee’s report also calls for the existing and very good healthy child programme to be improved and given greater impetus. We think that it should be expanded to focus on the whole family, including fathers, rather than just the child, and that it should begin before conception. At the moment it does not begin until there is a child developing in a mother’s womb, but more work could be done before conception. The science of epigenetics is teaching us that what happens before conception can have a lifelong impact. The healthy child programme also needs to deliver more continuity of care for families. Having a different point of contact every time often leaves vulnerable families feeling isolated and confused. Health visitor engagement should be extended beyond the age of two and a half to ensure that all children are school-ready.

Our Committee heard from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and other parts of the United Kingdom that had enhanced the healthy child programme. However, as the right hon. Member for North Norfolk has identified, there are many parts of the country where the healthy child programme is inadequate. At the moment there are five mandated contacts, and we heard that for some families that contact involves just sending a letter. How can a mum who is experiencing mental health problems, with all the associated stigma and the difficulty of disclosing that, possibly disclose it in the context of filling in a form rather than of having a supportive and engaged individual who is building a relationship with her? We were also told that 65% of families do not see a health visitor after the six to eight-week check. That clearly is not good enough.

Like the Science and Technology Committee, the Health and Social Care Committee identified the need for much better information sharing. Information needs to be shared among the different organisations. One problem is that there are often many different organisations helping to support a family and they are not talking to one another and do not use the same computer systems. Information governance rules can be an issue. Even though we know that the seventh Caldicott principle—sharing information when that is in someone’s best interests—is often the most important one, individuals working in those organisations often think that they are doing the right thing by not sharing information.

We also need to share information to make it possible for the long-term impact of interventions, perhaps in pregnancy or in early childhood, to be tracked to measure their effectiveness. At the moment, because we do not use a single identifier such as the NHS number, we cannot see whether a pregnancy intervention is having a desired outcome.

[Norman Lamb]

On the point about information sharing, it always strikes me that the tragedies that happen, such as that of Baby P, often happen because of a failure to share information and never because too much information has been shared. It is vital to change the culture, so that people understand the principle of the Caldicott rules about the importance of sharing information.

[Dr Williams]

I agree wholeheartedly. The right hon. Gentleman is right to use the word “culture”, because even though the guidance and rules are clear, and there are many circumstances in which it is in a person’s best interests for information to be shared, and actually the public expect us to be sharing information, the culture in health and care services is often one in which very well-intentioned and well-meaning professionals feel that they are acting in a patient’s interests by not sharing information. Perhaps the leaders of organisations are not permissive enough and encouraging enough about such sharing.

Last but certainly not least, the workforce are crucial to this. There must be a workforce strategy to tackle the reduction in the number of health visitors. I do not think that was a deliberate strategy, with the Government saying, “Let’s cut the number of health visitors by 2,000.” I think it has happened by accident. I think it has happened because the commissioning of the healthy child programme for the 0-to-19 age group was taken away from the NHS and given to local authorities, and that happened to coincide with a time when we had a Government who perhaps had less central control of that, and austerity. Of course, austerity was deliberate, but I do not think that anyone ever sat down and said, “It would be better for our country to have fewer health visitors.” Nevertheless, the consequence has been that there are fewer health visitors, and we need to make sure that those massive gaps are plugged.

We also need to make sure that the skills and knowledge of existing health visitors are improved. That is not to say that they do not have high levels of knowledge, but I have met many health visitors in the past year who had only recently become aware of the concept of ACEs, and who perhaps still lacked some skills around motivational interviewing and the ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes—to move towards where people are, rather than following the traditional, slightly more paternalistic approach of health services, which has been to try to persuade people to move to where we are.

If we get early years right, there will be huge benefits for everyone in our society. As politicians we should try to get them right, not just because it makes financial sense, but because every one of us knows that the evidence shows that doing so will create a better society. We should do it because we have a moral responsibility to our country’s children. Every child deserves the best start in life.

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[Chris Skidmore]

I appreciate the right hon. Gentleman’s point, and I agree with what he has said about data collection; I will return to that topic later on. I am also a new Minister in the Department for Education, covering the universities sector. I recently set up a higher education data advisory committee, because I value the importance of such evaluation at both local and national level— for example, when we look at university access and participation. We have also set up the Evidence and Impact Exchange in partnership with King’s College London and Nottingham Trent University, to examine the methodology behind encouraging more disadvantaged pupils to have access to, and opportunities at, university. That is at one end of the scale, but today we are talking about what we need to do at a far earlier stage of a child’s education.

When it comes to scientific research, and early years research in particular, we must ensure that we listen to the scientific community when it comes to neuroscience and cognitive behaviour; that we are careful about how we use that scientific research to make public arguments and develop public policy; and that we work with those scientists. I am sure that they will develop new innovations and scientific research, which may even challenge our understanding of these policies. It is important that we work together as a community, understanding that evidence base and drawing on the good work already conducted at national and local level.

I welcome the recent establishment of the early years ministerial group on family support, which is reviewing how to improve the support available to families in the first two years of a child’s life, identifying opportunities for co-ordination and improving cost-effectiveness. I look forward to the valuable contribution of that group, which will provide specific recommendations to the Secretary of State. I am unable to provide a timetable for that, as the hon. Member for Batley and Spen asked me to, but I will ensure that the group is aware of today’s debate. I am sure that its members will all wish to engage with the Science and Technology Committee regarding specific issues raised in its report, and on any future work that the Committee does. The Government value the work of that Committee and recognise its place in public discourse. As we proceed, we will make sure that we engage with some of the recommendations that the Committee has made.

[Mike Gapes in the Chair]

Turning to the role of Government in early intervention, the model for adverse childhood experiences gives us a helpful focus for action on early intervention. We must also ensure that there is an overarching model for care and support. Fundamental to that is the belief that local areas are best placed to understand the needs of their local communities, and to commission early intervention services that best meet those local needs as part of a whole systems model. We have heard about some excellent examples of local innovation, such as the one given by the hon. Member for Bristol North West, who talked about the work of Bristol City Council. The fact that the council had to hold its conferences twice clearly demonstrates the demand for those services. We also heard about the work in Greater Manchester. It is important that we allow that innovation and creativity to flourish as part of future work, but, importantly, we should not expect local areas to do that work alone. The matter is a serious and complex one, and our approach, which reaches across all Departments and Governments, reflects that.

Our approach is based on a number of principles, which are as follows. First, early rather than late intervention is key; secondly, the role of central Government is to support, facilitate and work with local government and other partners to tackle these issues together; thirdly, our solutions should be focused on outcomes and underpinned by evidence; and fourthly, successful strategies should be identified and shared widely within the sector. With that in mind, we have prioritised three key areas for central Government focus to build resilience to adversity and trauma. Those are: physical and mental health in pregnancy and childhood; protecting vulnerable children through effective children’s social care; and improving social mobility, supported in the early years by high-quality early education settings and learning in the home. That is underpinned at all levels by our work to improve services and partnerships locally, and to build the evidence base for what works.

I will address each of those areas in turn. First, when it comes to supporting physical and mental health in pregnancy and childhood, the Government recognise the serious impact that adversity in early childhood can have on children as they grow up; the hon. Member for Stockton South set out some striking examples. Support must begin as early as possible, and maternity services have a central role to play. The NHS long-term plan will make the NHS one of the best places in the world to give birth by offering mothers and babies better support. It will also expand the provision of quality mental health support for new and expectant mothers and their families. The evidence shows that this is a key opportunity to improve outcomes for mothers and children.

[Dr Williams]

I thank the Minister for highlighting the importance of maternal mental health, in particular. However, the National Childbirth Trust has identified that half of all women who experience mental health problems during the perinatal period say that they were never asked about their mental health, and that their mental health problems remain undiagnosed. Given what the data and evidence show, will the Minister commit to looking at that issue and making representations to the Department for Health and Social Care? Although the Department has acknowledged the problem, it has failed to adequately adhere to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, which states that all new mums should have routine assessments in their general practices at six to eight weeks, to better identify perinatal mental health problems.

[Chris Skidmore]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue, which I am happy to raise with the relevant Minister. I am meeting the Minister with responsibility for mental health shortly to discuss mental health issues surrounding students, and I will make sure the issues are placed on the agenda for my discussion with her.

Nissan in Sunderland

Paul Williams Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

The hon. Gentleman will know that there is no one in this House more familiar with the importance of the car industry across the country and in the north-east. Within 10 days of having been appointed Business Secretary, I flew to Japan to meet the chief executives not just of Nissan, but of the other investors. I have always had a clear understanding of their requirements regarding future prosperity, and I have always applied that. If he looks at the automotive sector deal that I negotiated with the whole industry and at the investment that we have made in the Faraday challenge, he will see that we are working well and closely with the industry to do what it says is necessary to drive the take-up and innovation in the sector that will secure the future of the motor industry in the north-east and right across the country.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

North East England chamber of commerce tells me that, as the Prime Minister’s deal does not nail down our future trading relationship, Brexit uncertainty could continue for years. What certainty can the Secretary of State give now to the 600 workers in the Nissan supply chain at Nifco in my constituency, for whom this decision is a massive missed opportunity to improve their job security?

[Greg Clark]

The hon. Gentleman should, in fairness, reflect—as I have done—on the renewed commitment that Nissan has made to Sunderland by putting more cash into the plant than was originally intended in 2016. It has made a decision not to expand out of Japan the production of a model that does not have any other production lines around the world, and I regret that, but it has made a big commitment to Sunderland. That is something that we should respect and recognise the importance of.

Former Steelworks Site in Redcar

Paul Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 14th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Mr Simon Clarke (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to see you in your place, Mrs Moon.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Redcar (Anna Turley) on securing today’s debate. It is on a very important issue—one that goes to the heart of what is happening on Teesside at the moment—and I join her in celebrating the achievements of so many local businesses, large and small, which we get to see week in, week out. They are brilliant and inspirational. I never cease to be amazed at the sheer range, scope and skill of the industrial base of the Tees Valley. It is remarkable; indeed, it is a national asset of the first order.

The hon. Lady’s constituency and mine lie at the heart of the project to deliver growth, jobs and prosperity in Redcar and Cleveland, which centres on the former steelworks site. There is no downplaying the social and economic magnitude of the closure of the steelworks in 2015. Everyone on Teesside felt the consequences, and everyone on Teesside was devastated for the workforce and their families. The closure was not their fault; the truth is that the headwinds confronting steelmaking at Redcar were strong and kept blowing in.

The mothballing of the site was announced in 2009, and after SSI reopened it in 2011 it made a loss in every subsequent year of operation. Amid the desolation that followed liquidation in October 2015, the Government made a promise, which I am proud to say is being honoured. That promise was that a new beginning would be made on this iconic site, underpinned by huge Government support to secure and remediate the land, and anchored in private sector-led growth and investment.

A vast amount of taxpayers’ money has been pledged, with £137 million awarded to the site in the 17 months that I have been a Member of this House. A further £74 million for transport improvements across the Tees Valley has been pledged, which the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) will know well, as he is the shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

This funding is being directed through true local devolution, in the form of the Tees Valley mayoralty. The Tees Valley Mayor has a set of powers that are the most extensive of any devolved region of England outside London, backed by the personal commitment of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who grew up in South Bank, and supported by the Prime Minister, who came up in person in August 2017 to launch the South Tees Development Corporation, which covers the steelworks site. Over the past year, the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister have been joined by a whole series of ministerial colleagues, all of whom came away from the area with renewed understanding of, and enthusiasm for, the scale of the opportunity represented by the largest brownfield regeneration project in Europe.

The development corporation’s master plan is to create 20,000 skilled jobs on the site over the next 25 years. We are just into the second year of that plan. Surveys of the 2,200 acres of developable land are now 90% complete and 1,500 exploratory holes have been drilled and analysed—the land proving much cleaner than had originally been anticipated.

The first new staff are currently being recruited for MGT’s £650 million biomass plant, which is located at the development corporation. It is the world’s largest biomass plant and is nearing completion; it is now looking for around 50 local workers. Likewise, a £250 million energy from waste plant, run by PMAC Energy, has been announced on the Redcar bulk terminal land, 50% of which is owned by SSI in receivership.

I completely agree with the hon. Member for Redcar that clean energy must lie at the heart of our local economy in future, and it would be remiss not to say a word to the Minister about carbon capture, utilisation and storage. We are entering a pivotal month for CCUS and I really hope that when the Government make their announcement they will back the idea of two dedicated clusters to develop roll-out of the technology; if they do so, I think all of us here today would join together in making the case—already so ably made by the hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on carbon capture and storage—that one of those clusters should be located in the Tees Valley. That would be a fantastic opportunity for both our local economy and the UK’s green credentials, and indeed it would be the only realistic way of delivering on our Paris climate commitments.

I return to the issue of the steelworks site. The combined authority in the area has now received more than 100 serious inquiries about investment on the site, with a first-phase pipeline worth upwards of £10 billion. That is being complemented by other enormous economic ventures. I am delighted to see my right hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Mr Goodwill) present in Westminster Hall today. The £3.2 billion Woodsmith polyhalite mine, just outside Whitby, is a transformative economic venture; it will add roughly a sixth to the entire value of the Tees Valley economy, and the mineral that it produces will be shipped underneath East Cleveland and taken through to Teesport for distribution across the world. It is incredibly exciting. I visited the site in the summer; it is truly extraordinary and what is being achieved there will be of national significance.

We also have the prospect of a freeport; I was delighted that the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mike Hill) mentioned that prospect. However, we need to be very clear that it will simply not be possible for us to achieve the type of freeport to which we are right to aspire, if we do not leave the European Union, if we do not leave the customs union and if we do not break free to some degree from the EU state aid rules, which would make it very hard to deliver the freedoms that we want and need to see.

At the heart of all this work, all of which I hope comes off, is Ben Houchen. The leadership that Ben has shown has been transformational. As a colleague, I can testify that he works to the point of exhaustion and displays unceasing commitment to engaging with businesses, foreign investors and the Government, to stand up for Teesside.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman has acknowledged the role that Ben Houchen has played. Will he also acknowledge that the Tees Valley Combined Authority is actually made up of the five leaders of the local authorities and the directly elected Mayor, and that together they are contributing to this plan and this development?

[Mr Simon Clarke]

I absolutely will. It is hugely important that this work draws together the six figures who make up the board. Ben provides exemplary leadership in his role as the first directly elected Mayor of the area, but he would be the first to say that it would be impossible to achieve anything without buy-in from Hartlepool, Darlington, Stockton, Redcar and Cleveland, and Middlesbrough. It is a team effort. The project transcends party politics. It must; otherwise it will fail.

The hon. Gentleman interrupted my thread about Ben’s role. Let me pick it up by saying that Ben led the Tees Valley’s first trade mission to the far east earlier this year. He led a delegation of local representatives in discussions with the three Thai banks that hold an interest in the former SSI land on the development corporation site. An agreement in principle was reached, which expires in February 2019, to transfer that land and its assets to the local public sector. In parallel, compulsory purchase proceedings have begun, to ensure that the land is back under local control as soon as possible. Separately, there is good reason to believe that a good deal to release the half of the site that is owned by Tata can be achieved in short order.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Paul Williams]

Is that the same Steve Gibson who, during my campaign to be elected as the Labour MP for Stockton South, endorsed the Conservative candidate?

[Mr Clarke]

And the same Steve Gibson who endorsed the Labour candidate for the mayoralty of the Tees Valley in those self-same elections that spring. He has done more for our local economy, local football team and local identity than any of us has ever done. He is held in the highest regard and esteem by thousands of people across our area, and he should be listened to on these issues.

Likewise, after the 2017 Budget, the then-managing director of Trinity Mirror, Bob Cuffe, had cause to say:

“Breaking News. Yesterday Teesside was at risk of an outbreak of optimism and hope. Families wondering if potentially good news had broken out. Thankfully Loyal Labour Forces came out quickly with Party Gloom Blankets to try and extinguish the hope.”

Today I add my voice to their pleas: let us draw a line under this before real damage is done. Let us focus on the undoubted opportunity that lies ahead and work together to build a better future for the Tees Valley.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Clarke]

The entire development corporation project and the Mayor’s office are funded publicly, in a manner that is completely open to public scrutiny. As with all devolved administrations across the country, the Mayor’s Office is there to champion the interests of the local area. It requires a certain amount of staffing to do that, but I think that the leadership that is being shown from that office is absolutely integral to our hopes as an area of standing up on the stage alongside big cities such as Newcastle and Leeds, which have traditionally had a much louder voice than areas such as the Tees valley. With the disparate cluster of local authorities, we have not been able to speak with one voice. What has been achieved through devolution has astonished me. I was a sceptic about the devolution model; I thought it might just add another tier of intermediate, ineffective and bureaucratic government. It has done the opposite: it has leveraged an extraordinary amount of localised control and, more than that, has created a platform for Teesside to speak out nationally and internationally. That is a wonderful thing.

[Dr Paul Williams]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way so generously. Does he acknowledge that it was the five Labour leaders of the local authorities who took that bold step in order to achieve the devolution deal, at a time when others were very sceptical about it, and that it is Labour that is making a really good contribution to the future of the Teesside economy?

[Mr Clarke]

I welcome the fact that Labour bought into this achievement. It took real vision; the Tees Valley has shown much greater foresight on this issue than Newcastle and Sunderland, which have proven much more sceptical and have accordingly lost time in the move towards devolution. Of course, it would be very remiss not to pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman’s predecessor as Member for Stockton South, James Wharton, who was the relevant Minister at the time. It was his deal that the local authorities signed up to, and it was only thanks to him that powers of such breadth have been devolved and are there to be enjoyed by the people of our area.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Williams Excerpts

Tuesday 7th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Richard Harrington]

My hon. Friend may be frustrated, and I know the Government have yet to respond to the review, but as I have said this is an extremely complex issue and we need to ensure that we make the right decision. All I can say to him is that we will be publishing our response in due course.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Greg Clark)]

Since we last met, my ministerial colleagues and I have brought three major pieces of legislation to the House: a draft Bill to cap consumer energy prices; new laws to ensure that every home and small business will be offered a smart meter; and the new Nuclear Safeguards Bill to maintain our nuclear safeguards as we leave the EU. We continue to develop new policy that will benefit businesses and wider society, and today we are publishing a call for evidence on Professor Dieter Helm’s independent review of energy. We have reaffirmed our position as a world leader in tackling climate change through the launch of the clean growth strategy, and I take this opportunity to invite all Members on both sides of the House to join us in celebrating Small Business Saturday, which is coming up on 2 December.

[Dr Williams]

Is the Secretary of State concerned that, although October’s figures show continued welcome manufacturing growth, almost half of the net jobs created in the UK since 2010 are in London and the south-east, where only a quarter of the population live?

[Greg Clark]

I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman would welcome the fact that jobs are being created in all parts of the United Kingdom and that we have the highest level of employment since records began. That is a signal of the success of the UK economy, but he is absolutely right that we want to make sure that every part of the United Kingdom reaches the height of prosperity it is capable of reaching, and through the industrial strategy we will have more to say about how we can propel that forward.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Paul Williams Excerpts

Thursday 19th October 2017 Westminster Hall

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate, and to the hon. Members who persuaded it to do so. It is a particular pleasure to follow my co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on carbon capture and storage, the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous).

My interest in the Government’s new approach to CCS in the clean growth strategy goes wider than Teesside, but I am pleased that new colleagues from our region are present, including the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Mr Clarke) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mike Hill). They join the work that many of us have been doing for years to persuade the Government to get serious about CCS. I am surrounded by no fewer than five Teesside MP colleagues; 100% of us are here, and we are 100% behind the debate.

I hope my new Tees colleagues recognise that the Government’s reaffirmed commitment to CCS, two years after withdrawing £1 billion in funding, is only a small step along what will be a very long road if our country is truly to reap the benefits of carbon capture. We need more than tens of millions in investment; we need billions. We need big leaps, not tiny steps. Nevertheless, this new recognition of CCS is testimony not only to the impressive body of evidence that continues to emphasise the key role of CCS in delivering least-cost decarbonisation, but to the energy—no pun intended—and enthusiasm of the industry, which has kept up a steady drumbeat on CCS since November 2015. I pay tribute to the Carbon Capture and Storage Association for its work and for its support of the APPG.

In the clean growth strategy, the Government have recognised what the industry has been saying for years: CCS is vital to broad sections of the UK economy. Power aside, key industries such as steel, cement and refining are increasingly looking for ways to remain competitive in a low-carbon world. CCS offers the only solution for deep decarbonisation in these industries that helps to enable their sustainable future, which is crucial for regions such as the Humber, the north-west and Teesside.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

CF Fertilisers is based in my hon. Friend’s constituency, Stockton North, but also employs people in my constituency and in Middlesbrough. My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) has a long-standing commitment to carbon capture and storage, but cannot be present because of a Front-Bench commitment.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

rose—

[Dr Williams]

My mistake.

CF Fertilisers uses as much gas every year as the city of Manchester. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) join me in calling on the Minister to acknowledge that carbon capture and storage is very much part of the future of CF Fertilisers?