Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robert Halfon and Charles Walker

Thursday 28th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

5. What steps the Commission is taking to improve the apprenticeship programme in the House of Commons.

[Sir Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)]

We have recently appointed a dedicated apprenticeships and early career manager in our in-house resourcing team to focus on building, developing and improving the current apprenticeships scheme. An example of work already under way is the development of our apprenticeships strategy. We are looking at various potential streams of apprentices, including school leavers, targeted external new starters and the upskilling or reskilling of existing staff. We have set a target of 100 apprentices across a variety of disciplines, and we are working to build awareness among existing staff of the career development opportunities available to them.

[Robert Halfon]

It is very welcome news that 100 apprentices are being employed across the House of Commons. What is my hon. Friend doing to ensure that we employ apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds, so that they have a chance to climb the House of Commons ladder of opportunity?

[Sir Charles Walker]

My right hon. Friend is respected across the House for the work he has done on behalf of apprenticeships, so I shall say to him that he is going to join me in a meeting with the apprenticeship and early careers manager at the earliest opportunity, so that we can drive forward this House’s shared agenda to get more people from disadvantaged backgrounds working in this place and enjoying this place.

Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow

Debate between Robert Halfon and Charles Walker

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank you for your support for a new hospital in Harlow, as my constituency neighbour.

I want to update the House on the desperate need for a new hospital in Harlow that is fit for the 21st century. The hospital would bring together A&E services, GP provision, social care, physiotherapy and a new ambulance hub in state-of-the-art, purpose-built facilities. Success in securing the capital funding, for which there is already a bid in place, could make this a reality for Princess Alexandra staff and patients in Harlow and across the region.

When I debated Harlow’s hospital last October in Westminster Hall, it was in special measures. In March, following the Care Quality Commission inspection, we heard the amazing news that the Princess Alexandra had left special measures. In fact, two thirds of services were on their way to a good or an outstanding rating. I said it then and I will say it again: this is a testament to the extraordinary hard work of all Princess Alexandra Hospital staff, including the cleaners, porters, nurses, doctors, kitchen staff, support staff and, of course, the leadership and management. I would like to give a particular mention to Nancy Fontaine, head of nursing and one of the most remarkable NHS workers I have ever met. Nancy will soon be leaving the Princess Alexandra to help another hospital, but I take this opportunity to thank her for her work. It is people like her who make the NHS what it is.

The Health Secretary congratulated PAH staff in a video—a sentiment seconded by the Prime Minister. In his message, the Health Secretary not only noted the impressive CQC report and the outstanding work in the neonatal department, but made it clear that it is the staff who make a hospital and that good care is the result of their instinct to do the right thing for patients. The Health Secretary and the former Hospitals Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Mr Dunne), have both visited the Princess Alexandra a number of times, speaking to the staff and the leadership there. I know that the Health Secretary and the current Hospitals Minister—to whom I am hugely grateful for engaging with me regularly on this issue—are aware of the capital funding bid in place.

The leadership team, headed by chief executive Lance McCarthy, have been developing their case for capital funding since the Health Secretary made the request in autumn 2016. The team are due to resubmit the final plans next month. I understand that the trust is one of seven schemes requiring more than £100 million of capital and that funding for some schemes will be announced in the autumn. I ask the Minister, when will we learn of the progress of these capital funding bids?

[Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that Princess Alexandra Hospital has a great future if it is allowed to have that future?

Lea Valley Greenhouse Glass Industry

Debate between Robert Halfon and Charles Walker

Tuesday 18th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to lead this Adjournment debate on the Lea valley greenhouse industry. You know, Madam Deputy Speaker, because you represent a large part of it, what an industry it is. There are 350 acres of glass greenhouses in the Lea valley—a magnificent sight to see. The industry employs 2,500 people and has a turnover of £500 million a year.

Let me put some more numbers into the record. You will know these, Madam Deputy Speaker, but many people will be ignorant of the facts and I want to inform their thinking about this great industry. Our glasshouse industry in the Lea valley produces 80 million cucumbers a year—75% of the UK’s total cucumber production. It produces 70 million sweet peppers a year, which is more than 60% of the UK’s sweet pepper production. But it does not end there. The industry produces thousands and thousands of tonnes of tomatoes, lettuce, baby leaf salad and herbs, as well as bedding plants, trees, shrubs and flowers—a smorgasbord of great things.

The Lea valley glasshouse industry also produces a huge number of aubergines. I am not particularly familiar with aubergines, but I was given a few by a greenhouse owner a few weeks ago and they were turned into moussaka by Mrs Walker. I had always thought that moussaka was an impossibly exotic dish left over from the 1970s, but it has a lot going for it. If anybody out there wants to try moussaka—a lovely, evocative word that rolls off the tongue—I advise them to get to know aubergines from the Lea valley.

I have visited these amazing greenhouses, and it is just extraordinary to see the labour and effort that goes into growing this fresh produce. One of the most beautiful things about going there is getting to see the boxes of bumblebees that are used to pollinate crops. Bumblebees are lovely creatures anyway, but to see them beetling around—if that is not mixing a metaphor—the greenhouses and pollinating really is a wonderful sight. The glasshouse industry is hugely important to the economy of the Lea valley and it is a hugely important part of this country’s overall farming economy, which is why I am so pleased to see the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food here to respond to the debate.

I want to pay tribute to those who run the greenhouse industry in the Lea valley. All of them are fantastic people, and many of them are of Italian extraction. First generation Italians or their children and grandchildren run many of these amazing businesses, of which there are about 85 in the Lea valley. I am so lucky to have more than 10,000 Italians and their descendants living in my constituency. They throw a great party, we have a great town twinning event with Sutera every year and they are an absolutely fantastic group of people to know, work with and represent.

I want to discuss a couple of issue that may threaten the future of our glasshouse industry. The first relates to the vote on the EU. I am a committed Brexiteer and I know the Minister is a committed Brexiteer, as are many people in the farming community, but that is not to say that they do not have concerns. Our industry is reliant on seasonal workers, many of whom come from eastern Europe, and they play a very positive part in the production of these amazing crops. I hope that the Minister will work with the National Farmers Union, the Lea valley glasshouse industry and other interested parties to make sure that the industry can still access the labour it needs to put this wonderful food on our tables.

There is, however, another and far darker cloud on the horizon, which is the proposed incinerator in the Rye House and Fieldes Lock area off Ratty’s Lane in my constituency of Broxbourne. The planning application is for an incinerator that will burn 350,000 tonnes of rubbish. The incinerator was originally going to be on the New Barnfield site in Welwyn Hatfield, but in 2015 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government threw out that application. In doing so, he said that the alternative sites, one of which is the proposed site in my constituency, were wholly unsuitable as locations. Those were not his words, but the arguments put forward by Veolia. In 2013, Veolia identified the Ratty’s Lane site as

“a safeguarded strategic rail aggregate depot”

located on a floodplain and opposite a Ramsar site, which is one of the highest designations for a protected and treasured environment. It said the site was too compact to house a 350,000 tonne incinerator, let alone the recycling part of the operation, and was not easily accessible from the road network for more than 280 lorry movements a day. However, having said all that against the site, Veolia, when it lost its planning application for New Barnfield, suddenly changed its tune and decided that the area in my constituency was after all the perfect site for its incinerator.

As the Minister will be aware, this is causing huge concern to the 85 businesses that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) and I represent. This is a serious business. The interests of a French multinational such as Veolia are not unimportant, but its interests are certainly less important than those of the 85 businesses, many of which have been established for 50, 60, 70 or 80 years, that are contributing to our communities in the Lea valley.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate, among others, and on the remarkable work he has done on this issue. Is he aware that many people in Roydon and Dobbs Weir in my constituency of Harlow have expressed numerous objections against this waste installation that we are all threatened with, yet all their objections seem to have been ignored?

[Mr Walker]

My right hon. Friend makes a number of excellent points. This application is hugely contentious. It is on the edge of Hertfordshire. I do not want it in my backyard, and up until 2015 Veolia did not want it in my backyard. However, what Hertfordshire County Council, the sponsor of the facility, is actually proposing is that all the smoke ends up in Harlow’s backyard and Epping Forest’s backyard, so it is your constituents, Madam Deputy Speaker, and the constituents of my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow who are downwind and will get the fallout.

The critical point is that we have an industry that is turning over half a billion pounds a year and producing huge amounts of fresh produce that graces the restaurants and cafeterias of the House of Commons and is to be found in the homes of millions of people up and down this country, and the producers of that food get very nervous when half of the 350 acres of glass might fall within a 5-mile radius of a 350,000-tonne incinerator. Their concerns need to be heard.

It is simply unacceptable for Hertfordshire County Council, the sponsor of the incinerator, to be the determining authority for the application. Hertfordshire both owns the contract and is the determining authority for the contract, and if it does not determine in Veolia’s favour it has to pay a break-up fee of £1.2 million. This cannot be a safe decision. It cannot be a safe decision for my constituents, but it certainly cannot be a safe decision for your constituents, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the constituents of my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow or for the 85 businesses that risk suffering the fallout from the facility.

It is no good for the Environment Agency to say, “There’s no worry here. These are tall chimneys. This is not a problem.” I am not saying that it will say that, but it does not matter what the Environment Agency says about this. The fact of the matter is that 85 producers are concerned that if they are downwind of this facility, they will lose contracts with supermarkets. That could be devastating. There are 2,500 jobs on the line and a half a billion pound industry.

I know that the Minister is not a miracle worker—he is pretty good, but he is not a miracle worker—and it would be unfair of me to suggest that he was, but what we do have in this Minister is a champion for the farming industry and a champion of our industry in the Lea valley. My simple request to him this evening is please to engage with the concerns of the Lea valley growers and our greenhouse industry, and please to reflect those concerns to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, because we need this application to be called in.

We need the chance to argue our case before an independent planning inspector—not just me, not just my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow and not just you, Madam Deputy Speaker, but the NFU, the Lea valley growers, my constituents, my right hon. Friend’s constituents and your constituents. We need the chance to argue our case before an independent inspectorate. That is what we are asking for today. Please, as our voice for agriculture, will the Minister listen to the concerns that I and my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow are raising today and take them to the Secretary of State, because this is a very important industry? No doubt he will have received representations from Madam Deputy Speaker, who is not allowed to speak in this debate. If she could, I am sure she would join me on these Benches.

I do not want to go on for too long. I said that I would be brief and I want to get home for my moussaka— I genuinely am having moussaka tonight. I thank my colleagues who have remained in this place for attending and for listening so intently and politely to what I have had to say on behalf of 85 businesses in the Lea valley that do an outstanding job, produce an outstanding product, employ 2,500 people and make a huge contribution to farming and agriculture in this country.

Schizophrenia Care

Debate between Robert Halfon and Charles Walker

Monday 10th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I have had an extremely good paper from St Mungo’s dealing with that very issue.

We also need to do more listening. We must stop talking over people who suffer with psychosis or schizophrenia. They are warm, live human beings. They exist. We tend too often to talk over them and about them, not to them. Certainly there will be times when they are in crisis, but when they are we need a crisis plan so that they can tell us how they want to be treated, looked after and cared for—how we can help to secure their dignity. Then we need to ensure that they have advocates who can sit alongside them and be their voice—someone they trust at a time of crisis, illness and distress.

We need more support for carers—the people who love them, the people who stand by them day in and day out, trying to do the right thing, trying to get them the care that they deserve and require—their champions. Let us not forget in this place the important role that carers play in being the champions. We need much more talking and listening to carers, involving them in the process. They will know so much more about the individual being cared for than probably anyone else.

Then we need to provide more training for people working in the mental health arena. It is a demanding environment. In the acute settings people tend to be admitted who are very ill. The threshold for admittance is so much higher now. The staff need to be trained to deal with and to care for these people. It is no reflection on the staff that I am asking for this. I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with the staff. We want to stand alongside them and help them to deliver the care that they want to deliver, and that their professional pride demands that they deliver.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate and on his knowledge of the subject. He talks about early intervention. I recently visited the North Essex Partnership NHS Trust, which works on mental health. It puts people into schools to identify children and young people who are developing such problems, which has a huge impact and manages to stop more serious problems developing later.

[Mr Walker]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point on early intervention. It is about getting there before the crisis occurs and making sure that people who are at risk have the support they need to manage their illness so that they end up in a good place, not a frightening place.

We need more peer support. When someone goes through a mental health crisis, many people tell them that it will get better, but they might not be believed, as things can look pretty dark and desperate at the time. There are many professionals around, but perhaps that person wants to talk with someone who has been there, travelled through the fire they are going through and come out the other side, someone who can sit with them and say, “We’re going to work through this together. I’m not just saying this; I’ve actually done it. I’ve been where you are and I’ve come out the other side. I’m going to take you by the hand and we’re going to walk through this together.” That is peer support, and we need to encourage it and see more of it.

We need more intermediate services, because many people are terrified of going into acute care and too often the experience is not a good one. Being hospitalised is frightening. They do not want to go into acute care because they are terrified by that prospect. Let us think more about intermediate care. When things are getting on top of someone and they are feeling stressed out, that perhaps the ground is going from underneath them and that things are getting out of control, there should be a place they can go in the community, a crisis house, where they can say, “I need help, because I feel that I’m going to have some troubled times ahead.” There they can be told, “Come on in. We’re going to work together for the next couple of weeks. We’re not going to be a crutch and you aren’t going to be here indefinitely, but we will work together for the next five or 10 days or two weeks to get you back on your feet and out there again.”

We also need uniform reporting. I want diversity of provision, because out of diversity comes innovation, but I also want to know what is going on. I want to know when we are successfully meeting the needs of those with psychosis and schizophrenia, but I also want to know when we are not, because that is when we can start doing something about it. With heart disease, cancer or stroke, we can check the league tables and know exactly what is going on, but it is much more difficult with mental health problems, particularly psychosis and schizophrenia, so we need uniform reporting. I am concerned that the Care Quality Commission is stopping its in-patient surveys in mental health wards, which I think is a mistake. I think that it is regressive and that it needs to be revisited. I hope that I can bring the focus of the House to bear on that issue.

Patients need a voice. They need to be able to tell us what is and is not working. Most of all, we need to ensure that people have a chance of living fulfilled and complete lives and that a diagnosis of psychosis or schizophrenia is not the end of the road. They should not hear, “That’s it. Society will now turn its back on you. You’re in real trouble and you’re going to be removed.” We must have absolutely no more of that. We have an obligation to work together on mental health problems in this place and with the NHS and to say to people, “We’re going to work together to get you through this. You have a right to have a chance for a fulfilled, happy and productive life. What has gone before is not good enough, but what will come will be better.”

I have said that I am an enthusiast and an optimist, and I am optimistic. We have the bit between our teeth, we are moving ahead and mental health is being talked about, but schizophrenia and psychosis is a difficult area for politicians and for the public, because so much misinformation and nonsense has been talked about it for so many years. It is going to be the hardest mountain to climb, but climb it we must, because we have an obligation and a duty in this country to take everyone with us. We must not leave people behind because they are ill but take them with us on a journey together—a journey towards wellness.

I have spoken for far too long and I am now much more interested to hear what the Minister has to say. I conclude by saying this: I speak a lot about mental health, but I am fully aware that an army of people out there, professionals and charities, do mental health and do it extremely well. Mind and Rethink are fantastic organisations that campaign daily, hourly, by the minute to ensure that people with mental illness get a voice. As a result of their hard work, those people are getting a voice in here, and that is a good and positive thing.