Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill [Lords]

Debate between Victoria Prentis and Matt Rodda

Committee stage
Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Prentis]

That sounds like a very sensible suggestion from the former Minister, and if I am charged with this policy area when departmental briefs are fully worked out, I will ensure that I keep up a close dialogue with the Scottish Government on how the two systems are working, both separately and together.

We will also continue to work with the Department of Health and Social Care to assess the impact of these changes on the end of life care provided by the health and social care system as a whole. If at any time a more comprehensive evaluation of the policy is required, we will, of course, commission one, as we did in 2019. The Government want to do all they can to alleviate the pressures on those nearing the end of their lives, and on their families. Our priority is providing people with financial support quickly and compassionately. We are determined to ensure that people have certainty about when they can expect to receive their state pension and that the state pension system is fair to future generations. I hope that this answer has helped to address some of the questions that the hon. Member for Glasgow North may have had, and I understand that he does not intend to press his amendment.

[Matt Rodda]

May I support and associate myself with the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition about how we are thinking about the royal family at this difficult time?

I have already outlined our support for this Bill and highlighted several areas in which I believe the House seeks further clarification. I thank the Minister for her responses on some of those, and I look forward to further clarification. As we consider the next stage of the Bill, I would like to share a few case studies from people whose lives have been impacted by the rules, so that we can consider this issue more fully. I also wish to thank Marie Curie for highlighting these cases.

The first case is that of Lorraine Cox from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. When Lorraine was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2018, she applied for personal independence payment to help mitigate the impact the disease was having on her daily life. Sadly, to her shock, her claim was declined. Lorraine took her case to judicial review and it became influential in convincing the Department for Work and Pensions to change the law through this Bill. Sadly, Lorraine passed away in July 2022, while the Bill was still awaiting its passage through the Commons. Lorraine spoke to Marie Curie in 2019 about her experiences, and I will share some of her words with you now.

Lorraine said:

“From the moment I started the application process, I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously. Just because I don’t look ill—I still wear make-up and dress well every day—that doesn’t mean that I’m less entitled. People don’t realise the impact MND can have on your life. It’s the little everyday things that become a struggle.

I’ve completely lost the feeling in my left hand. I can’t make my own bed, my children help me get dressed, I have a cleaner, I can’t cook the way I used to. My balance is off, and I can now feel my foot starting to go too.”

As part of her PIP application, Lorraine had a face-to-face consultation with a disability assessor. It was after this consultation that she was told her application had been declined. She said:

“I felt so angry when I was assessed as not fitting the criteria. It’s very disheartening and I just don’t understand why it has to be so difficult. Work is very important to me as it gives me some independence and allows me to focus on something else. It’s a bit of escapism from my condition.”

Badger Culling

Debate between Victoria Prentis and Matt Rodda

Wednesday 13th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Farming, Fisheries and Food (Victoria Prentis)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd, and to participate in this important debate secured by my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch). She is extremely well supported in her long-running campaigns on these issues by the Badger Trust and the Save Me Trust, which are the sources of much of the information she shared. I agree that we have moved forward. The tone of the debate has become far more measured, and indeed better for tackling the problem.

This is a very personal problem for me. My grandfather died from TB, and I gave up my Longhorn cattle 10 years ago because of the prevalence of TB up our valley. I was keeping cattle for pleasure rather than serious business purposes, and I really did not want to infect next door’s precious Jersey herd. For me, TB has very personal connotations, and I know well that it is a very dangerous disease in all species—human, bovine or badger.

Bovine TB definitely represents a threat to the cattle industry. Over the past 12 months, we have compulsorily slaughtered 26,000 cattle in England to control the disease. We all agree that badgers are implicated in the spread and persistence of bovine TB. We know, and we have seen the evidence in the Downs study—although not all agree—that the badger cull has led to a significant reduction in BTB in the areas in which it has been carried out. We also know that many people hate the idea of culling badgers, and of course nobody wants to see a protected species culled more than necessary.

As my hon. Friend said, there is no single answer to the problem of bovine TB. It is a very costly problem for the taxpayer: we spend about £100 million a year on testing, compensation and culling cattle. We are open-minded in DEFRA about how we should continue to tackle the problem, and of course we work closely with the devolved Administrations and scientists further afield to look at what solutions are available to us. It is important that we retain that open-minded view as we look to the new stages of this dreadful disease.

[Matt Rodda]

I am pleased to hear that the Minister and DEFRA are working with the Welsh Labour Government and that there can be a process of learning from how they have moved on from culling. I appreciate the economic pressures that farmers are under at this very difficult time. I hope there can be consensus so that we can move forward, and I am grateful to the Minister for working on that basis.

[Victoria Prentis]

It is important that we continue to work with our partners in the devolved Administrations wherever we can. There has been a certain amount of angst up the border between England and Wales as a result of the difference in policy—it is a very high-incidence neighbourhood—so it is very important that we work together wherever possible.

The tools available to us include culling where necessary—I have no doubt that it will be necessary during outbreaks; I make no secret of the fact that, where there is an outbreak, culling may be the only answer for both badgers and cattle—and vaccinating cattle, which for me is the goal. Many of us received the vaccination in school; it is not that different in humans. What we need to do is develop a test that does not give a false positive reading if a cow has received a vaccine. The test is currently being trialled and worked on. We started field trials in June last year and hope to have them completed this winter. The results are not yet published. We are still hopeful, though, and we are very much working towards 2025 as the date for having a real vaccine for cattle that can be rolled out widely. For me, that will be the game changer.

Vaccinating badgers is also a solution. The hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) said that the Government need to put some welly into this, if I may put it like that. I say politely that the Animal and Plant Health Agency now has 28 full-time vaccinators working hard to vaccinate badgers in the vaccination window, although not all badgers need to be vaccinated. We need to be clever about this.

As hon. Members can imagine, vaccinating badgers is a very difficult process. Initially at least, it has to be done annually, to make sure that the vaccination is effective. If there has been a significant cull, the badgers that are left can be vaccinated in a targeted way. We vaccinated about 1,500 badgers last year and expect that figure to be higher this year. We have introduced a simplified licence to cut the administrative burden for those who wish to vaccinate badgers.

Vaccinating badgers is definitely one of the tools in the toolbox, but is not a simple thing to do, nor is it entirely great from an animal welfare perspective, because badgers need to be attracted, trapped, vaccinated and then released, and then trapped again, which is not without its difficulties.