Summer Health and Resilience

Debate between Yvette Cooper and Danny Beales

Wednesday 9th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I thank the hon. Member for her questions, and for drawing on her expertise and interest in this area. On capital funding, that is exactly why we are allocating £32 million as part of the capital fund that we have set out specifically to deal with repairs and safety issues that have become acute across the NHS estate as a result of more than a decade of capital underfunding of the NHS. Ara Darzi made it clear in his report that this has had a huge impact on patients and staff, but also on the NHS’s productivity, because we have facilities that cannot be used because of that capital underfunding.

That £32 million will be targeted at measures to improve cooling systems, but I have asked the NHS to look further, as part of the second wave of funding, at other areas across the country where there will be particular needs as a result of buildings needing to deal with extreme heat, which they were never designed for. As a result of the announcements I have made today, £1.5 billion is now going into improvements to existing facilities, to upgrade them and ensure that they reach the right quality and standards.

On the hon. Member’s point about corridor care, nobody should have to be seen or treated in a corridor, or have to wait for a long time at one of the most distressing times of all, when they need emergency care and support. I have seen some phenomenal examples and have discussed the work that hospitals such as Watford have done to eliminate their corridor care challenges. We have introduced reporting and publication of those statistics for the first time, exactly to ensure that we have that priority. But I pay tribute to the work done by A&E teams to improve performance, despite the huge increase in demand that they saw in July—they are doing a really important job.

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

I welcome the new Secretary of State to her place and look forward to working with her. Over the summer I visited a number of GP practices, and they reported frequent instances of racism, abuse and even violence against staff. This summer we also saw a horrific stabbing of a doctor at Hillingdon hospital. I therefore welcome the Secretary of State’s comments about the unacceptable levels of abuse that we are seeing in our health system. The practices think that more could be done, with panic alarms, cameras, increased security staff and speeding up some of the regulatory processes. NHS Property Services can take a long time to make even the simplest improvements, such as a security door or additional CCTV. Will the Secretary of State join me in condemning in no uncertain terms the abuse faced by NHS staff in Hillingdon and across the country, and outline what more action could be taken on this issue?

[Yvette Cooper]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this. He is right to stand up for the staff at Hillingdon but also right across the country. These people are doing the most important jobs in the country: caring for all of us at the time when we need them most, at the time when things go wrong in our lives—when we are sick and we need help and support. It is a total disgrace that, while doing that job, they should face abuse, violence, discrimination or racism. It is totally appalling and unacceptable. I am keen to work with staff groups, trade unions and NHS organisations right across the country to uphold strong standards, stand up for our staff and ensure that they have the support they need, and I look forward to working with him on this.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Yvette Cooper and Danny Beales

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

23. What steps she is taking to improve safety in town centres.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Yvette Cooper)]

Too many town centres and high streets have been hit in recent years by soaring levels of shoplifting and street crime, and damaging antisocial behaviour, at the same time as neighbourhood police have been heavily cut. The Government are introducing new powers to tackle antisocial behaviour and shop crime, and rebuilding neighbourhood police on our streets.

--- Later in debate ---

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes a really important point. As well as our plans to increase neighbourhood policing and introduce respect orders, we are going to get rid of the ludicrous £200 rule that we inherited from the Conservatives, which means that shoplifting is very often not properly investigated. That needs to be taken much more seriously.

[Danny Beales]

This morning I had the pleasure of meeting Sunny, the new store manager at the Hotel Chocolat in Uxbridge, which opened today. Unfortunately, during that joyous occasion, he told me all-too-familiar stories about the shoplifting and antisocial behaviour that blight our high streets. Will the Home Secretary assure me that the 19% of the Met Police’s time that is taken up with London-wide and national policing issues will be taken into account when allocating the Met’s budget, so that we have the resources we need and, crucially, the police we need back on our high streets?

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes an important point; I can tell him that we have already provided Met Police with an initial £30 million this year to fund the police pay increase that was not funded by the previous Conservative Government. We are also supporting neighbourhood policing right across the country and much stronger action, not just on shop theft, but on assaults against shop workers—a truly disgraceful crime.