Health and Social Care Leadership Review

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Wednesday 8th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I agree with my hon. Friend: that recommendation for a standard appraisal system, which, remarkably, does not exist at the moment, is of particular importance, like all of the recommendations. I agree with the emphasis he puts on that.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

The focus that the Health Secretary is giving to leadership management training must be right. We all know that in a Care Quality Commission report on a hospital or an Ofsted report on a school, one of the key differences between adequate and outstanding is the quality of leadership. All credit to the report for focusing on that; I think we would all benefit from understanding that it is one of the key characteristics of hospitals whose internal staff surveys show strongly positive morale—often a key leading indicator.

Will the Secretary of State say a word or two about the point raised by the hon. Member for Easington (Grahame Morris)? The report and what has come out of the North East Ambulance Service are truly shocking and highlight what I think Sir Gordon Messenger called a need for a change of culture. How can we encourage all our NHS trusts to be open and transparent about what has gone wrong, so that we do not have future scandals like that?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend will see when he has had the opportunity to read the report in full that it does rightly talk about the importance of that particular issue: ensuring that people within the NHS and care feel comfortable coming forward when they see wrongdoing, so that we can act much more quickly. That is why we will be implementing all the recommendations. Regarding the North East Ambulance Service, I hope he heard what I said earlier about the need to look at that again very carefully.

Public Health

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I must make some progress, but I will take further interventions in a moment. I wish to talk about the importance of what we have learned about omicron and the vaccines. Vaccines have proven to be highly effective against previous variants, such as the alpha and delta variants. That has weakened the link between cases, and hospitalisations and deaths, and it has allowed us to reopen our country once more. But recent analysis from the UK Health Security Agency has shown that two doses of a vaccine provide much lower levels of protection against symptomatic infection from omicron when compared with the delta variant. More encouragingly, effectiveness rose considerably in the early period after a booster dose, providing about 70% to 75% protection against symptomatic infection. This data starkly shows the importance of booster doses and why we are working so hard to get many more boosters into arms. I will say more about that in just a moment. Our strategy is to take proportionate action now, to come down hard on this virus and strengthen our defences, rather than waiting until it is too late.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Surely the whole point is that we cannot be complacent and assume that this likely huge increase in infections is all going to result in very mild symptoms. What the Government are doing, therefore, is taking modest steps to ensure that if that does not happen, we will be prepared. Will he promise that if this situation does not materialise, he will be able to relax again?

[Sajid Javid]

We all want to relax. I wish I was more relaxed now than I already am. My hon. Friend is absolutely right on that, and I agree with him.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Monday 13th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Over the past hour or so we have, understandably, talked a lot about the importance of the booster programme, but it is still hugely important that we continue to focus on those that currently remain unvaccinated.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

I welcome the news that a daily lateral flow test will replace self-isolation for those in contact with a covid case. I welcome the extension of the travel pass to 12 to 15-year-olds. I especially welcome the Secretary of State’s confirmation that a lateral flow test is the clear alternative to being jabbed for access to any venue and any event, so there is no reason for anyone to contact us asking us to vote against a “vaccine passport”. What would he say to those who have recently had covid, been told by the NHS that they should not have a PCR test for three months and then need to travel abroad for work purposes? What should they say when asked for proof of a negative PCR test?

[Sajid Javid]

I very much agree with my hon. Friend’s first remarks. This House is not being presented with a vaccine passport. That is not on the table. It is not in any regulation. The Government have been absolutely clear that when we talk about access to nightclubs or large and very large gatherings—very targeted events—the requirement is to take a free lateral flow test and make sure it is negative. If people do not want to do that, they can prove their vaccine status. It is up to that individual. That is what it is. It is not a vaccine passport, and the sooner we get rid of that misleading description of what the Government are proposing, the better. On the question that my hon. Friend has asked, I want to ensure I get the answer right, so if he will allow me, I will look into that and get back directly to him.

Knife Crime

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Monday 4th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I mentioned earlier that the issue of serious violence and what more can be done to tackle it was discussed in Cabinet this year, so very recently. The Prime Minister herself is making sure that all Government Departments are playing their role and is very supportive of the measures that have been set out, and also the measures I am taking to make sure that we are listening to the chief officers, police and crime commissioners and others to see what more can be done.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Just over five years ago, Hollie Gazzard was murdered in the hairdressing salon where she worked in Gloucester city centre. In an extraordinary act of courage and determination, her family created the Hollie Gazzard Trust, which worked with the police, the Gloucestershire constabulary, to learn lessons from their handling of the incident and then to fund and deliver an education programme to schools, to advise young people on the early warning signs of abusive relationships. So positive things can be and have been done at a local level to share best practice.

I am particularly interested in what my right hon. Friend had to say about Dame Carol Black’s forthcoming report, because it seems to me that, in Gloucester, as elsewhere in the country, there is this huge link between drugs and drug dealing and serious knife crime that leads to deaths. The more we can learn about what best practice is in the handling of such incidents, the better we can try to tackle it in our own constituencies.

[Sajid Javid]

I am pleased that my hon. Friend mentioned the work of the Hollie Gazzard Trust and reminded us of how, through that tragedy, the family and friends came together to try to turn it into something that could help others. Indeed, I think the victims Minister met Mr Gazzard as well.

My hon. Friend asked me about the work that is being done to look into the drugs markets and drugs misuse. That is vital work because one thing that is clear is that sadly the changes in drugs markets seem to be driving much of this violence. If we can understand those changes better, we can come up with even more policy responses.

Windrush Scheme

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Tuesday 5th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I agree with the hon. Lady. I know that she has asked our Department a question, and we are looking into that. I hope she knows that, because I believe that we have communicated to her that we are looking into it. She is right that if any Member of Parliament has a question about any constituent, we will of course help in any way we can.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

All of us who have Jamaican and other Afro-Caribbean communities will have apologised deeply, as I did, for the shameful, inadvertent mistreatment by successive Governments of some of the Windrush generation. I thank the Home Office’s Windrush help desk for its work in quickly resolving the immigration status of my two affected constituents. One has a strong case for compensation. Will my right hon. Friend confirm whether my constituent can file his application before the end of this financial year?

[Sajid Javid]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, which I welcome. He was right to put things the way that he did. We will issue more details on compensation shortly, but we want to ensure, in the case of his constituent and others who are affected, that it is as generous as it can be.

Offensive Weapons Bill

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

2nd reading: House of Commons & Money resolution: House of Commons
Wednesday 27th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: ultimately, only so much can be done by the centre. The centre can set the laws and provide funding in certain cases, but much of the work being done, as we have seen with the serious violence taskforce, is community and locally led, and I join him in commending the work in Hertfordshire. We are very much aware of that in the Department, and it sets an example for many other parts of the country.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Building on the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker), there is an important leadership role for police and crime commissioners working alongside the local constabulary and the other partners that have been mentioned. Will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State or his colleague, the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, share with us, if not today, at a later date, what they consider to be best practice in terms of real leadership on the ground and partnership building to help tackle the problems that we all face?

[Sajid Javid]

In the serious violence strategy published in April there were some examples of good practice, but my hon. Friend makes the point that since then, because of the use of some of the funds for example that were in that strategy, we have seen other good examples. We will be very happy to share them with my hon. Friend.

Windrush

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Monday 30th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye, was a fantastic leader of the Department. She did some great work that I hope to build on.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Key to putting wrongs right will be the work of the new Windrush hotline, which has already responded very quickly to my efforts to help one of my constituents to get British citizenship. There is a wider opportunity for my right hon. Friend to recognise the migrant contribution to our nation, so may I invite him in principle to come to an event at the Gloucester history festival at which we will celebrate the arrival of the Empire Windrush this September?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend can invite me in principle.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Monday 27th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

2. What steps he is taking to build and develop more homes.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

9. What steps he is taking to build and develop more homes.

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Sajid Javid)]

The Government are committed to building the homes that our country needs. Measures in the recent White Paper will ensure that more homes are planned for where they are needed most and that homes are built more quickly once they have planning permission, and they will diversify the housing market to make sure that it works for everyone.

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of the broken housing market in London. I know that he takes the issue seriously and has done much to help in his own area. My hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning, who co-chairs the London Land Commission, is working on identifying new opportunities to release public land for housing. My hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) may also be interested to know that the last autumn statement allocated £3.15 billion to affordable homes in London. The Government have done their very important bit; I now expect the Mayor of London to step up and do his.

[Richard Graham]

Gloucester City Council and Gloucester City Homes have put together a strong bid, with my support, to the estates regeneration programme, which will transform the old estates and wards of Matson and Podsmead in my constituency. Will my right hon. Friend agree to meet us briefly to hear our case, and when does he think decisions will be made on the bids?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is a strong advocate of regeneration for Matson and Podsmead; he has talked to me about the issue a number of times and I am pleased that he has raised it again. My Department has received a number of bids for regeneration funding across England. We will make funding announcements shortly, but I would be more than happy to meet him and a delegation to discuss the issue further.

UK Steel Industry

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Monday 11th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady has fought hard for her constituents and is still doing a lot to help workers who lost their job. I and my right hon. Friend the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise have met her and we will continue to work with those who have lost their job—of course we will—but she will also know that the situation at Redcar is not directly comparable with that at Port Talbot and Tata Steel. The business was not viable after hundreds of millions of pounds of investment and no commercial buyers were coming forward. I know it is difficult news, but the hon. Lady knows that. If we look at today’s news about Tata long products, however, we see that it is possible to find a commercial buyer.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

I have no doubt that the Business Secretary is focusing on the key issues for potential investors in Port Talbot, including the pension fund and energy costs. As for a bright, long-term future for steel from Wales, may I encourage him to have early discussions with the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change about an announcement on the chair of the marine energy review, particularly regarding the proposed tidal lagoons in south Wales, which would be an enormous boost, both to morale and in practice, to the producers of steel in south Wales?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. Energy is a big issue, and will remain so for all our energy-intensive industries. The tidal lagoon is an important issue. We have begun a feasibility study, and my Department is in discussions with the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Treasury on that very issue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Tuesday 15th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

5. What estimate he has made of the UK’s balance of trade in services.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (Sajid Javid)]

The balance of trade in services has increased from a surplus of £54.3 billion in 2010 to a surplus of £88.7 billion in 2015.

[Richard Graham]

The Secretary of State’s answer highlights the fact that, while exports in goods are vital, especially to manufacturing cities such as Gloucester, our surplus in services might be more vulnerable if we leave Europe. What assessment has he made of sectors such as insurance and investment managers, whose businesses are passported across Europe, and other service sectors, such as advertisers, accountants, animators, designers and film producers?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend speaks with experience: he is a distinguished former pension fund manager—a very important service that the UK industry provides. He is right that the EU’s financial services passport means that financial services firms authorised in the UK can provide their services across the EU, without the need for further authorisations. That is, of course, a significant benefit that they receive. Services represent almost 80% of our economy, and access to the world’s largest single market helps them to create thousands of British jobs.

UK Steel Industry

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Monday 29th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I know the hon. Lady feels passionately about the matter, but it is important to get the facts right. On rebar, the European Commission has so far come up with tariffs of between 9% and 13%. The industry is asking for 20% to 30%, and we support that. I hope she will also support that.

The fifth and final ask was lower business rates. A Treasury review of those is ongoing, and I hope that it will be concluded ahead of next month’s Budget.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Before my right hon. Friend comes to his last point, in answer to the question raised earlier about MOD procurement, my understanding is that on the two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, 77,000 out of 82,000 tonnes of steel was UK-sourced. Will he confirm that figure?

[Sajid Javid]

I think those numbers are right. Well over 90% of the steel was British, and that is exactly what we want to see. National Rail is using 98% British steel in major infrastructure projects, and more than 95% of the products used in the Crossrail project—the largest infrastructure project in Europe—are British. That is exactly what we all want to see.

Cost of Living

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. The House cannot hear the Minister. If hon. Members want to argue with him, they must hear what he has to say first.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

rose—

[Sajid Javid]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I give way to my hon. Friend.

[Richard Graham]

I am very grateful to the Minister for giving way—he has been gracious throughout the debate. It is appropriate that we follow Madam Deputy Speaker’s advice and listen to him carefully. I would reinforce his point from my experience in Gloucester. Under the previous Government, 6,000 people in business lost their jobs, but since the last election, 3,000 new business jobs have been created and four times the number of apprentices have been employed, and unemployment and youth unemployment are lower. Does the Minister agree that this debate should not be about the cost of living, but be about the cost of having a Labour Government to people with jobs in my constituency?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is right. Hon. Members know—I am highlighting this as much as I can in the debate—just how many lives and aspirations the Labour Government destroyed in their time in office.

The House has just heard the shadow Treasury Minister. His speech was more interesting for what was not in it than for what was. There is no talk today of plan B—[Interruption.] What the shadow Treasury did not mention was predictable. Let me say what it was, because four or five months ago, we heard what he did not say today in virtually every single speech from Labour Front Benchers. We heard no talk today of plan B. I did not hear anyone say, “Too far, too fast.” There was no mention of a double-dip, let alone of a triple-dip, because Labour Members know that there has been only one dip in recent times: Labour’s dip. They have comprehensively lost the economic argument. They have no plan and no answers for the problems they helped to create.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I respect the hon. Lady for caring passionately about this issue. She served as a commissioner on child poverty in London and has considered the issue deeply, so I hope she agrees that there is no sense in having a measure of child poverty that just looks at relative income. It is far more important that we all come together and look at education, jobs and access to health services, and have a proper measure of child poverty if we are to truly eradicate it.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

The Minister is surely right to focus on the most important elements for our young people, which include considerable Government investment in apprenticeships and taking so many people, including many of those apprentices, out of income tax altogether. Four thousand people, including many young people in my constituency, will be taken out of income tax in April. Does he agree that it is extraordinary that no one on the Opposition Benches realises the importance of this measure?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue and the help it brings, particularly with regard to apprenticeships. In fact, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali), there has been a more than 100% rise in apprenticeships because of this Government.

Beer Duty Escalator

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)]

I congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) and for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) on securing what has been an excellent debate, and on the excellent work that they do through chairing the all-party beer group and the all-party save the pub group respectively. I also thank all Members who have contributed to the debate—I, too, counted 20 Back-Bench colleagues—as well as the 104,000 people who have signed the e-petition and all Members who are in the Chamber today.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the British brewing sector, British pubs and the British people have paid a heavy price for the previous Government’s beer duty escalator? May I urge him to hold a review and then do what Treasury Ministers have done to the previous Government’s fuel duty escalator, which is to stop it? In that way, he will deserve a celebratory pint from all my constituents in Gloucester, a pint of beer from the—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The Minister will not have time to drink the pint if we have such long interventions.

NHS Risk Register

Debate between Sajid Javid and Richard Graham

Wednesday 22nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

rose—

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

rose—