Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising a really important point. May I, through him, thank the new Northern Irish Health Minister, who has been very collaborative in bringing forward what needs to be brought forward as quickly as possible, given the historical context, so that we can have the Bill aligned across the United Kingdom? Our intention is absolutely as the hon. Gentleman describes: it applies throughout the United Kingdom. Of course, if he or his colleague in Belfast have concerns that there may be ways in which it could somehow be circumnavigated, we will listen carefully, but I should be clear that our intention is that the Bill applies to all children and young people across the United Kingdom, because we want to protect children living in Northern Ireland just as much as those in England, Wales and Scotland.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

On the Secretary of State’s point about tackling illicit tobacco, I raised that question with the then Prime Minister in 2016, because in Medway we had one of the highest rates of illicit tobacco sales. The maximum sentence that can be given for the supply and sale of illicit tobacco is seven years. As part of the strategy to deal with illicit tobacco, will the Government look to increase sentences for its sale and supply? The Secretary of State is right to say that the Conservative party is committed to lower taxation, but tax avoidance and evasion costs this country £2 billion. If we do not get things right with regard to the banning of cigarettes, which I do not agree with—I think we should do it through education and awareness—we will get more people buying illicit tobacco. That cannot be right.

[Victoria Atkins]

My hon. Friend gives me the ideal opportunity to talk about my favourite criminal offence: cheating the public revenue, which is a criminal offence with very settled law. It has a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and I have deployed it myself against the organised crime gangs to which I referred at the beginning of my speech. A sensible prosecutor will always look at that criminal offence, because it is settled law and good law, and it has a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who indulge in it.

Eye Health and Macular Disease

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Westminster Hall

[Steven Bonnar]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. He is absolutely right. The optician can highlight so many things. We know the burdens across the NHS, particularly on our GPs and this can lighten the load. However, as he correctly outlined, unfortunately, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the situation can sometimes be difficult. Optical practices are not so fortunate in that there is no governmental support and provision for free eye tests for the general public.

In England, a typical eye examination costs between £20 and £25 for all, except children, the elderly or people registered as partially sighted or blind. Having a monetary value attached to an eye examination would undoubtedly deter those unable to afford the crucial health test and endanger their long-term health and hamper the early prevention tactics that so evidently work. This in a country where health care should be free at the point of need is unacceptable. I believe it is unacceptable to administer a charge. The rest of the UK should follow suit. We have heard repeated calls for a national strategy—the example set by Edinburgh should be followed. Scottish citizens do not have to pay to have their eyes examined. Seeing is a privilege that so many of us will struggle to appreciate, but ensuring that there is universal access to eye tests means that those who require them do not have to think of any cost ramifications.

Scotland not only leads the way in the universal accessibility of eye tests but is the first country in the UK to enable access to important treatments for macular disease. Treatment depends on the type of AMD. Dry AMD accounts for 80% or 90% of cases. There is no treatment, but vision aids can help reduce the effects on day-to-day life. Wet AMD, which affects 10% to 20% of sufferers, may require regular eye injections and, very occasionally, as we heard from the hon. Member for Great Grimsby, a light treatment called photodynamic therapy, to stop vision getting any worse.

The other nations of the UK are missing a trick not only in determining new treatment methods for macular disease, but when it comes to understanding the importance of addressing such issues in terms of the impact on the wider health and social care system.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for all that he is saying with regard to macular degeneration. From speaking to surgeons such as James Neffendorf at King’s College Hospital, I know that treatments are absolutely crucial, but what will help to save people’s eyesight, whether in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland or Wales, is the public awareness of macular degeneration, so that those signs can be picked up earlier across the United Kingdom. Will he agree that the Government should ensure that there is a public campaign across the country to pick up those signs earlier, so that people can know when those symptoms arise and get best treatment early on?

[Steven Bonnar]

That is a fantastic idea. Any attention that we can draw to this, we must.

Macular degeneration, both wet and dry, leads to visual impairment, which can in turn lead to depression in many patients. The loss of one’s sight is so catastrophic that it often leads to clinical depression or other mental health issues—up to a 50% increase compared to non-affected patients. Furthermore, sufferers also have a 25% increased risk of developing dementia. The role of optometrists in administering primary care in the community is therefore critical to identifying these conditions at an early stage and minimising the impact on other areas of healthcare. If the protection of the wider health service is not a reason to address the shortcomings in eye care, I am not sure what is.

Eye care and macular health is vital. It is important that we, as a Parliament of the people, address needs in this area and remove any barriers, financial or otherwise, to affording our constituents the ability to access sufficient care on a regular basis. Universal free eye examinations enable optometrists to detect sight-threatening and other medical conditions without depending on how much money a person has or the ability to pay. Let this Parliament follow the example of the Scottish Parliament; let this Parliament put healthcare at the heart of everything that we can achieve. Only by doing so will we fulfil our duties to protect all citizens and communities within our reach.

Covid-19 Vaccine Update

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Thursday 4th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

The hon. Lady raises an important point. The vaccines that we are currently deploying will work on the variants that are in the United Kingdom. Both the deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, and the chief scientific adviser have said that they would be very surprised if the current vaccines have no impact on the variants of the virus, so we continue to vaccinate at speed, at the same time, of course, as being vigilant by sequencing the new variants. Of course, we are able to react, with the manufacturers, to any future need in respect of the vaccination programme. At the moment, the vaccines are exactly the right thing to do, including because of the protection against severe infection and hospitalisation that they offer, which remains incredibly high with both vaccines.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con) [V]]

Further to my question to the Prime Minister last week in which I called for a mass vaccination centre in Medway—also called for by fellow Medway Members of Parliament—I welcome the proposals by Kent and Medway CCG to increase capacity at Medway Maritime Hospital, which now needs to be added to the national booking programme. However, the Minister knows from conversations with Members of Parliament from Medway that we urgently need a mass vaccination centre in Medway. We have a population of 280,000 and are one of the areas hardest hit by covid in the country. I need the Minister to ensure, now, urgently and swiftly, that we get a mass vaccination centre in Medway, in line with our needs. Linked to that, will the Minister join me in paying tribute to the fantastic NHS staff throughout Medway and at Medway Maritime Hospital, and to the great work that the CCG is doing in Kent?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

My hon. Friend and I have had conversations about this matter because he is a great champion of his constituents. He will be aware that there has been a huge amount of work to step up vaccination services in Medway in recent weeks. Each primary care network site receives its own supply, and work has been carried out with the local CCG to ensure that the vaccine supply aligns with the number of registered patients in the priority cohort groups—groups 1 to 4. When some sites progress through their supply more quickly than others, we work with them to ensure that supplies are replenished as quickly as possible so that they can continue to vaccinate the most vulnerable. We are keeping a close watch on my hon. Friend’s area because, as he quite rightly points out, it has gone through some difficulties. I reassure him that the latest numbers I have for the Kent and Medway STP show that 86.3% of over-80s have had the first dose.

Mental Health Act Reform

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We have put extra funding into those services. I absolutely appreciate, of course, that they are under pressure, especially with the pandemic. The hon. Lady is right that we must have the community services in place. Whether those are NHS community services or community services provided by councils, it is very important that they are provided in as seamless a way as possible. In fact, the best commissioning is often joint commissioning between local authorities and the NHS. I hope that a wider set of reforms to the provision of local services that have initially been set out by the NHS, but that we will be taking forward, will help us, combined with this legislation, to ensure that the link-up that she rightly addressed is much stronger.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con) [V]]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and Sir Simon Wessely for the fantastic work that he and the team have done on the review. Personally, I would like to give a big thank you to Sir Simon Wessely, who helped me with two private Members’ Bills on improving mental health care.

May I ask the Secretary of State this specific question: will there be proposals to have a review timeline in these measures—say, two years? As we often find in Parliament, putting forward legislation and how it works in practice are two separate things. Linked to that, will he clarify, with regard to parity of esteem between physical health and mental health, what proportion of NHS frontline staff dealing with individuals suffering from mental ill health have had the covid-19 vaccination, as well as patients suffering from mental ill health themselves?

[Matt Hancock]

I do not have the exact figure on the last question, not least because it goes up every day, I am glad to say, but the total number of NHS staff who have had the vaccination is now in the hundreds of thousands.

I am grateful for the broader point that my hon. Friend makes. There are NHS staff on the frontline who have supported people through very traumatic experiences over these past few months, during 2020 in the first peak, and then even more intensively, in some cases, over the past few weeks—and it is even harder this time round, because it has happened after a whole year of dealing with this pandemic. Making sure that we support the mental health of those working on the frontline in emergency departments and in intensive care units is incredibly important.

We have put extra resources into making sure that people get these services. Often with the NHS it is about encouraging people to come forward to access the services. Of course, Sir Simon Wessely first came to prominence working with the Army in supporting it on dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. We have to make sure that we put in all possible support for frontline NHS staff who have suffered trauma because of what they have seen and what they have had to do in looking after us all in this covid pandemic. We have to make sure that they are looked after, and I make a personal commitment today that we will do all we can to look after them.

Coronavirus Vaccine

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind words. It has been a big team effort. I echo his thanks to the whole team.

We have a further tranche of flu vaccines ready to go; that is just about to be rolled out. Making sure that flu vaccines are available right across the UK is very important. It is an issue that Robin Swann—my opposite number in the Northern Ireland Administration—and I have worked on extensively. He is incredibly diligent in ensuring that we get the flu vaccines rolled out to Northern Ireland. There is an interaction between the massive flu vaccine roll-out programme, which the NHS does every year but which this year is bigger than ever, and at the same time having to do a covid vaccine roll-out. We have taken that into account in the plans. In fact, before the announcement at 6.30 this morning, I was talking to Robin Swann on the phone, which shows how hard-working he is.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for all his hard work and congratulate him, the Government and all the scientists on the approval of the vaccine. The Secretary of State will know that Medway and neighbouring Swale, both of which are served by Medway Maritime Hospital in my constituency, are currently recording the first and the second highest covid rates in the country. Parts of Gillingham are recording rates as high as 753 per 100,000 people. I thank the Secretary of State for listening to representations from my local authority, myself and other local MPs on providing military assistance with rapid testing in Medway. The Secretary of State also knows that Medway has some of the highest health inequalities in the country, and that health inequalities are linked to high covid rates. Will he join me in paying tribute to the fantastic work of the hospital and its staff in helping local residents?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I will. There is a significant problem with the epidemic in Medway and north Kent, which I know my hon. Friend is concerned about. I pay tribute to those working on the frontline at Medway Maritime Hospital, which is one of the most pressured hospitals in the country at the moment, and also thank other parts of Kent and other trusts across Kent for providing mutual aid. We have to get this virus under control in Medway and across north Kent. The way to do that is for everybody to abide by the tier 3 restrictions and to do everything they can to ensure that they do not pass on the disease, and then we can get these cases coming down. At the same time, we are going to inject a huge number of tests into Medway. We are working closely with Medway Council on this, and we will be using the armed forces to help make it happen, because we have to get this virus under control in Medway.

Covid-19

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Gentleman’s point about research is important. In the places where research has paused because of the virus, the programme of restart is well under way. I am glad to say that although the backlog of cancer cases had increased—because it is not safe to treat cancer during a pandemic and because of some of the surgery that had to be paused—we are now halfway through recovering from that backlog on the latest figures. Obviously that recovery is incredibly important, and it is important to look at the catch-up as well as the absolute drop in overall delivery of cancer services. It is also critically important that people who fear that they may have cancer come forward to the NHS.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. My question today is about support for people with mental health conditions during covid-19. One of my constituents, Nicola Kulawsky, went missing just over a week ago. Thankfully, she was found within four days. During 2018 and 2019, there were approximately 176,000 reported incidents of people going missing. Charities such as Missing People have highlighted the huge strain that the covid-19 pandemic has put on people with mental health issues. Charities working in this sector have had to make budget cuts. Will the Secretary of State do everything he can to ensure that individuals who suffer from mental health conditions during covid-19 get the support they need, as part of the wider covid-19 strategy?

[Matt Hancock]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise these issues, which are very important. I acknowledge and can see the challenges that mental health services face. Some cautiously positive news announced today by the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of suicides during the peak of the pandemic was down from 10.3 per 100,000 to 6.9 per 100,000, but of course we have to ensure that mental health services are there for people as we come out of lockdown, so that they can access them again more easily, and that we do all we can to support those who need them.

Coronavirus Bill

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Monday 23rd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

There will be recourse, and I will come on to that in a moment. The purpose of the social care measures in the Bill, which are very important, is to allow for the prioritisation of social care, should that be necessary. However, there are a number of restrictions on that, because local authorities will still be expected to do what they can to meet everyone’s needs during that period. While local authorities will be able to prioritise to ensure that they meet the most urgent and serious care needs, there are restrictions to require them to meet everyone’s needs and, indeed, to fulfil their human rights obligations to those in receipt of care.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for the excellent work he has done to ensure that individuals get the care they need in these difficult and challenging times.

On the human rights perspective, I thank the Secretary of State and the Government for listening to faith organisations. Initially there were concerns that under part 2 loved ones would have to be cremated. As somebody from a Muslim background and the Prime Minister’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, it was completely unacceptable to consider that if taking account of the views of the Muslim and Jewish communities. I therefore thank the Government for ensuring that the wishes of the deceased will be taken into account in relation to their final rites.

[Matt Hancock]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has worked hard to ensure that we come to a solution in the Bill, through the amendments we have tabled today, that ensures we can not only have dignity in the case of a large proportion of the workforce not being available, but accede to the wishes of families from the many different faith communities who had concerns about the way it was originally drafted. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General, who found a way through that I think everybody can be content with.

Essentially, the Bill gives all four UK Governments a legislative and regulatory toolkit to respond in the right way at the right time by working through the action plan. While I hope that some of the powers never have to be used, we will not hesitate to act if that is what the situation requires.