NHS: Independent Investigation

Debate between Wes Streeting and Harriett Baldwin

Thursday 12th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I am so grateful to my hon. Friend. I enjoyed visiting her Carlisle constituency ahead of the general election campaign, and I look forward to working with her to improve health services there and across the north-west, especially in the rural and coastal communities that rely on the hospital in Carlisle, as well as on more local neighbourhood services. I must warn new Members that one of the most depressing things about the last nine years has been constituency advice surgeries, where people would come to see us about the consequences of the failure of Government and the failure of this place. We owe it to them to do better—better integration of health and care services, better access and outcomes, and better joined-up care. As she has painfully described, if we do not tackle the problems early, they become multiple, higher-cost and personal tragedies. We have seen enough of that.

[Dame Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

Famously, the House has not seen an impact assessment of the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance from frail 85 and 90-year-olds on low incomes. Has Lord Darzi or the Secretary of State seen an assessment of the impact of that decision on NHS bed capacity over the coming winter?

[Wes Streeting]

The hon. Member is an experienced Member of this House, as both a former Chair of the Treasury Committee and a former Treasury Minister, so she knows how impact assessments are done at the Treasury. She knows that impact assessments of all the Chancellor’s fiscal decisions at the Budget and the spending review will be published at that time. She also knows, I suspect, that despite the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance from some pensioners—it will be targeted at those most in need—they will still be better off because the Government have committed to maintaining the triple lock and to extending the warm home discount scheme and the available hardship support, so that pensioners are not left behind as we clean up the £22 billion mess that the Conservatives left behind.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Harriett Baldwin

Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

The NHS dental recovery plan was launched earlier this year, and the Secretary of State has on his desk news about the impact that it is having. Could he share with the House how much the plan has increased appointments in the Worcestershire and Herefordshire integrated care board area?

[Wes Streeting]

The Conservative party lauded that plan during the general election, when I think the public delivered their verdict on the progress that it had made. NHS dentistry is non-existent in huge parts of the country. We will stick with some aspects of the previous Government’s dental recovery plan because they are the right solutions, but there are gimmicks that we will not proceed with. We will come forward with a serious plan to reform the dental contract, which the Conservatives committed to in 2010 but failed to do in every single year of their 14 years.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Harriett Baldwin

Tuesday 30th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming the announcement and highlighting the work of that team of experts, who have now been deployed, I think, to 26 countries on a wide range of cases, have helped to train 17,000 people to make sure that evidence is secured and have worked extensively on this important issue in a range of situations around the world.[Official Report, 12 November 2018, Vol. 649, c. 2MC.]

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

The use of sexual violence was an ugly characteristic of the Sri Lankan civil war under the stewardship of Mahinda Rajapaksa, and now the very same man is back in office, illegitimately, as the Prime Minister of that country. Will the Minister now, and the Foreign Secretary shortly during topical questions, condemn unreservedly the turn of events in Sri Lanka and make sure we never see a return to those dark days of appalling human rights abuses under the Rajapaksas?

[Harriett Baldwin]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise this issue, which I know has captivated the attention of my right hon. Friend the Minister for Asia and the Pacific. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the Foreign Secretary will be calling the President today, I think, to discuss this very matter.

Yemen

Debate between Wes Streeting and Harriett Baldwin

Tuesday 24th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I draw the hon. Lady’s attention to the points that I have made earlier. It is important that the UK backs the work of the United Nations special envoy.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

The UK’s ability to uphold the values of a rules-based international system will be undermined unless the UK is shown to call Saudi Arabia to account for its indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Yemen. So I ask the Minister, as so many other colleagues have today, to treat with urgency the need for a new UN Security Council resolution to make sure that all ports in Yemen are open to humanitarian aid to deal with the catastrophic situation already in place on the ground. Finally, if the Government of Saudi Arabia are not prepared to show appropriate restraint when exercising the country’s legitimate right to defend itself, I ask that the UK Government be prepared to––and will––suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

[Harriett Baldwin]

Of course, in addition to backing the work of the United Nations special envoy, the UK will continue to maintain the very rigorous combined arms sales criteria, in terms of arms exports from the United Kingdom.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Harriett Baldwin

Monday 27th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

5. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for International Trade on promoting Hawk aircraft overseas.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Harriett Baldwin)]

The Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Trade continue to work closely with BAE Systems to promote and secure sales of the world-leading Hawk advanced jet training aircraft.

[Wes Streeting]

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Unite and GMB members about the importance of a consistent flow of orders to maintain jobs throughout the supply chain for Hawk. In a recent debate on defence aerospace strategy, the Minister referred to 12 Hawk aircraft for Qatar. Has this figure changed from the six initially announced? Could she update us with progress on getting further orders on the books?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I can absolutely confirm that the Government are working wholeheartedly in every way they can to ensure that we put that order from the Government of Qatar on the order books by the end of the year. That includes—

[Wes Streeting]

Is it six or 12?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I can write to the hon. Gentleman if there is some confusion. I thought it was six.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Harriett Baldwin

Tuesday 16th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I can give my right hon. Friend the assurance that the Government want people who work hard and want to buy their own home to enjoy the security of owning their own home. The equity loan scheme will last until 2020, which should support another 120,000 households in Basingstoke and elsewhere to get on to, and up, the housing ladder. In addition, as my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced in his recent Budget, the Help to Buy ISA is expected to help over 1 million first-time buyers save for a deposit.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

The Government’s policies were not popular in every part of the country, in particular in my constituency. May I therefore ask the Minister, as this has been a week for U-turns, to listen to the National Housing Federation, the CBI and the Institute for Fiscal Studies and revisit right to buy for housing association stock, which will lead to a decrease in the availability of affordable homes for rent, and to deal instead with the fundamental problem of housing supply?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to the House. This Government are firmly on the side of those people who want the right to buy their own properties, and that includes extending the right to buy to housing association properties. Perhaps he will agree with the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Frank Field), who published a report with the Institute for Public Policy Research in recent years calling on his party to do exactly the same thing.