Regional Pay (NHS)

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy). I apologise for not attending the earlier Westminster Hall debate secured by the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw); I will read the Hansard report to see what was said. I want to talk about the background to the debate and the south-west pay, terms and conditions consortium, which affects my constituency. We heard the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) and a few other Opposition Members talk of cartels. It is rather unfortunate that such language has been used, because we want trusts to work together to come up with productive solutions to the problems we face in the NHS.

I have heard from constituents, many of them nurses, who are concerned about what is happening. To be honest, I think that they are concerned because there is a lot of scaremongering and a lot of knowledge has not been put out in the open, partly because the unions that are driving the campaign are refusing to speak to the consortium and engage. We need that engagement from the unions, so I urge them to get around the table.

I wrote to the chief executive of the south-west pay, terms and conditions consortium, Chris Brown, to ask for his reasoning as to why the consortium was formed and why it has put the measures on the table—they are not definite and are there to be discussed by individual trusts. This is about flexibility for individual trusts. As has been discussed, the previous Labour Government provided that flexibility. It will be up to the trusts to decide. We should have faith in local foundation trusts to make the decisions that need to be made.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for breaking down the language that has been used, because one of the worries my constituents have is that Swindon is right on the edge of the south-west region. The prospect of a wholesale regional pay structure causes them real concern. Is not the issue local pay bargaining and how local trusts run their services to the best of their ability?