Health Bill
06 Sep 2026 · Commons Chamber · 136 speeches · Official record
Commons debate API. Not a paper. A named member links to their Institrace record when we hold that seat.
I thank my hon. Friend for his powerful speech, and for bringing his personal experience to the Chamber. I am sure that he will agree with me that the ‘H’ in EHCP stands for health; we need to see the health service doing its part. Does he agree? Full speech
I commend the hon. Lady for all her endeavours in this regard. Does she share my concern that when a child is diagnosed with cancer, the parents are instantly overwhelmed by medical jargon, by appointments and by sheer panic? Does she agree that the Minister, and the Government, should accept the common-sense duty to ensure that no family faces those critical first two weeks completely alone? Full speech
I am also a member of the APPG, and I was also at that meeting. On the Health Committee, we raised the point about these short-term pilots, and we managed to get an extra year’s funding. I have to say-I will say this as the person I am-that I feel that if this was a problem that predominantly affected white people instead of black people, it would be taken a lot more seriously. I think that the Government need to reflect on that when they are deciding whether to accept this amendment and whether... Full speech
Order. After the next speaker, there will be a four-minute time limit, but I will not reduce it further than that. Full speech
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(d) ringfenced maternity service development funding, and Full speech
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“(1) The Secretary of State must ensure that every NHS maternity unit is rated “good” or Full speech
I rise as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on spinal cord injury to speak to amendments 103 and 104, new clause 160 and amendment 105 in my name. I thank the Minister for meeting me during the passage of the Bill and for her subsequent letter. I also thank the Spinal Injuries Association for its support for the APPG and, crucially, for people living with spinal cord injury. These amendments are not about preventing reform; they are about ensuring that when responsibility for highly... Full speech
The hon. Gentleman is giving a powerful speech on behalf of rural and coastal areas. One word that he has not used yet is “age”. Age is the clearest proxy for health need that there is. It is not deprivation or anything else-it is age. The distribution of health funding in this country has, under successive Administrations, failed to recognise that and allocate funding accordingly. That is why cancer patients in his constituency and mine find themselves with chronically less spent on them than c... Full speech
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This new clause would place a duty on the Secretary of State to create a scheme to ensure that every maternity unit in the country achieves a “good” or “outstanding” rating by the CQC. Full speech
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“(4) In section 271 (territorial limit of exercise of functions), in subsection (3), after paragraph (a) insert- Full speech
In Dorset, we have lost 44 dentists in the last five years, and there has not been a single new contract for 10 years. Is my hon. Friend suggesting that his new plan would reverse that by enabling us to see exactly where the gaps are in the system? Full speech
On interpreting statistics, does the hon. Gentleman agree that when it comes to data, GP confidentiality-in respect of the Palantir federated data platform, for example-is critical, certainly when we come to the single patient record, and that the Bill should not reduce confidentiality or data privacy to achieve the single patient record? Full speech
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Government new clause 97- Care and support: involvement of others and visitors. New clause 1- National Maternity Commissioner - “(1) The Secretary of State must, within six months of the passing of this Act, appoint a National Maternity Commissioner, situated within the Department of Health and Social Care. (2) The functions of the National Maternity Commissioner are to- (a) oversee NHS maternity services; (b) act as an independent voice ... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for making such a powerful speech, and for all the work that she does in this regard. These long waiting times are particularly difficult when children are involved, because a child's life is so attenuated. If a parent is waiting for 18 months, that amounts to one and a half or two school years. Does my hon. Friend agree that the key to prevention is to ensure that these matters are dealt with as quickly as possible? Full speech
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(3) Within 12 months of the commencement of the scheme under subsection (2), and every 12 months thereafter, an annual report should be laid before both Houses of Parliament on the effectiveness of the scheme.”- (Helen Morgan.) Full speech
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee -I can assure her that I am Karin, not Claude. She tempts me to go further on the rest of the Bill, but I genuinely thank her and the Committee; I hope she would agree that I spent a lot of time over the past months, before Report stage and Committee stage, meeting her, members of the Committee and many hon. Members from across the House. We have some provisions-we might call them simple provisions-in the Bill to democratise the NHS’s accountability, to ... Full speech
I am going to move on, because there is a lot to get through. My hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) made a powerful speech, based on his own experience and the terrible experiences of his constituents. I will write to him about what we want to do with ICBs to make that situation better. I now turn to new clause 56, tabled by the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett). I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for her ongoing... Full speech
I congratulate my hon. Friend and others on the Select Committee who did the work on strengthening local authority representation on integrated care boards. Does he agree with the sentiments of my new clause 106, which says that we need a stronger duty to co-operate, both within the NHS and between the NHS and local authorities? Full speech
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Integrated care boards: duty as to visiting etc Full speech
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Consideration of Bill, as amended in the Public Bill Committee Full speech
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[ Relevant documents: First Report of the Health and Social Care Committee, Health Bill 2026-27, HC 219; and Oral evidence taken before the Health and Social Care Committee, on the Work of NHS England, 20 May, HC 583.] Full speech
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We should also do more to support GPs. Amendment 51, on rural and coastal GP funding, would recognise the additional recruitment and travel costs faced by practices serving dispersed populations with worse economies of scale. Amendment 52, on primary care estate investment, would establish a dedicated capital investment programme for practices whose premises are outdated, unsafe or restricting the delivery of care. Amendment 54 would expand electronic prescribing and mandate greater interoperabl... Full speech
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The collapse of Jhoots Pharmacy showed us the limits of the current regulatory framework, which was largely designed around independent pharmacies, not large companies controlling extensive pharmacy networks. During my urgent question on Jhoots, there was cross-party support for legislative action, which has not come from the Government. Amendment 55 would give the Secretary of State powers to require an ICB to intervene where there is a serious risk to patient safety or medicine supply-somethin... Full speech
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New clause 74 would ensure that employees were not forgotten when a provider failed. It would protect wages and essential employment rights and help staff transfer to a replacement provider where possible. Amendment 58 would require the Government and ICBs to support new independent pharmacies to open after a large-scale closure and help them secure medicines and supplies quickly. Amendment 59 would mean that funding allocations would reflect rurality, population age, travel costs, recruitment d... Full speech
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All these proposals are designed to improve the Bill, but they will all be rejected and that is a shame. In West Dorset we need a joined-up NHS, accessible NHS dentistry, sustainable GP practices, resilient pharmacies, modern infrastructure and funding systems that recognise the realities of rural Britain and coastal healthcare. I hope the Government will listen. Full speech
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I also want to pick up on what Members have said about the NHS in rural areas. It is really important to understand the size of rural areas and the lack of public transport. A few years ago, my constituents in one village nearly lost their GP surgery. The ICB was not particularly worried because apparently people could get to other GPs in the general area. Well, they could not, because there was no public transport. My constituents kicked up enough of a stink that, fortunately, the ICB changed i... Full speech
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A lot of constituents have contacted me about Palantir-both patients and GPs, who are very worried about how the contract works and how Palantir operates. Medical data is hugely sensitive. People have to be confident that it is being managed by a company that they can trust. Palantir does not meet those criteria. It is an incredibly expensive contract, as we have heard, and it does not deliver the value for money that we need. More importantly, people do not trust it, and we are talking about th... Full speech
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Special Health Authorities: establishment and exercise of functions Full speech
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Joint working and delegation arrangements Full speech
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Conferral of primary care functions on integrated care boards etc Full speech
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On integration, this Bill and our wider programme of reform support the further integration of health and care and beyond. I know that this is a matter of considerable interest to Members across the House, including my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon), who I have met with, and my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales). I can assure them and all Members that we are committed to supporting joint working between local authorities and the NHS, and that th... Full speech
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Turning to SEND and new clause 85, I pay tribute to the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft). I agree with her that we need a much more joined-up approach across education and health, which is one of the reasons why the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has made clear to the Department and the NHS that we must give greater priority to maternity and child health. As we have heard, if children have to wait a long time for the treatment or support they need, th... Full speech
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We are also determined to strengthen accountability, which is another issue that has been raised in the Chamber today. The Department of Health and Social Care will join NHS England and the Department for Education in reviewing this summer’s local SEND reform plans to ensure proper ICB engagement, and the Bill gives the Secretary of State the power to intervene to ensure ICBs are upholding their duties. The framework of requirements on the NHS to provide care across local populations works very ... Full speech
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Proceedings interrupted (Programme Order, this day ). Full speech
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The Deputy Speaker put forthwith the Questions necessary for the disposal of the business to be concluded at that time (Standing Order No. 83E). Full speech
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Question put, That the clause be added to the Bill. Full speech
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Question put , That the clause be added to the Bill. Full speech
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Amendments made: 60, page 15, line 34, at end insert “- Full speech
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Amendment 61, page 16, line 1, leave out from “for” to “as” in line 3 and insert “nominating the ordinary members mentioned in sub-paragraph (2). Full speech
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Amendment 62, page 16, line 9, at end insert- Full speech
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Amendment made: 63, page 20, line 13, at end insert- Full speech
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Amendment made: 64, page 29, line 5, leave out subsection (8).- (Karin Smyth.) Full speech
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Amendments made: 70, page 73, line 33, leave out from “for” to end of line and insert- Full speech
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Amendment 71, page 74, line 6, leave out sub-paragraph (5).- (Karin Smyth.) Full speech
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“The Secretary of State must, within 30 days of the day on which this Act is passed, publish the Government’s response to the Hughes Report.” -( Dr Johnson.) Full speech
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““NHS England may recognise a committee formed for an area which it is satisfied” substitute “An integrated care board may recognise a committee formed for an area that includes the whole or part of the integrated care board’s area if it is satisfied that the committee”.”. Full speech
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(a) at least one member nominated jointly by the local authorities whose areas coincide with, or include the whole or any part of, the integrated care board’s area, and Full speech
One of my concerns about the abolition of NHS England is that highly specialised services for treating the rarest and most complex conditions-of which there are only 79 in the country-currently sit directly with NHS England. It is not clear whether those services will continue to be commissioned centrally. Does my hon. Friend think it would be helpful if the Minister could clarify that? Full speech
I could not agree more. That is one of many respects in which rural and coastal communities around the country have much more in common with each other than with their inland neighbours just a few miles away. Theoretically available treatment becomes practically inaccessible if it requires a journey to be made without reliable toilet access, as in Ian’s case, and in cases where access to private transport is more limited, as in the cases that the right hon. Gentleman raises. Kelly, Samantha, Ian... Full speech
I rise to speak to clause 1 on the abolition of NHS England and clause 6 on promoting innovation. What characterises the first of those is an announcement without any clear plan. That is what has driven the cost and confusion that a number of Members across the House have spoken about. Those in any doubt about that can just look at NHS England’s own 2025-26 annual accounts, which show that the costs are already more than £100 million higher than forecast and now sit at above half a billion pound... Full speech
I will not, because I am going to run out of time. Roughly 40% of people have paid privately for therapies, and many are forced to fundraise for the vital medical equipment to which their child is legally entitled. It is worth noting that beyond the direct costs, many parents are forced to miss work because the right support is not available for their child to attend school. Around 40% report cutting back their hours, and 35% have left the job market completely. Before I became a Member of Parli... Full speech
I wish at the start to take a moment to thank the Members on both sides of the House who served on the Public Bill Committee during what was a very hot end of June and July-if we can remember back that far. As part of that process, the Committee scrutinised every clause of the Bill and debated over 195 amendments, and we on the Government Benches are grateful for their diligence. The implementation of the Bill is better for all that hard work. I also welcome the spirit of collaboration that has ... Full speech
Let me start by taking up the theme of maternity, which has already been mentioned by a number of Members. I welcome the Government’s commitment to instating a maternity commissioner. I sit on the expert reference group-that is what we are called-that feeds into the maternity and neonatal taskforce, so I see how the Government are trying to pull all these different issues together. The Health and Social Care Committee has heard repeatedly, and across a number of inquiries, how important this iss... Full speech
As my hon. Friend knows, I spoke from the Opposition Benches for many years about the lack of accountability of our local systems to local members of Parliament. I think that that was a great loss in the Lansley Bill. It was one of the things that drove me to become a member of Parliament, and in my role as the Minister of State I have endeavoured to make sure that local Members of Parliament have- Full speech
In my constituency, only 40% of adults have seen a dentist in the past two years, and only 54% of children have seen one in the last year. The impact of that is that 12.5% of children in East Cambridgeshire have tooth decay by the age of five. We are in a dental desert, and it is incredibly difficult to get an NHS dentist appointment. When I talk to the dentists, the most frustrating thing is that it is the contract that prevents them from treating people, not their intentions. The contract is b... Full speech
I will not. We have heard a lot from the hon. Gentleman, and I want to make some clear points to the House this evening. We have heard a great deal of discussion about commercial processes, and Members-including the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley)-have raised important points about data security, governance and ethical standards of contracts, and support for domestic suppliers and for voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations. Contracts involving NHS data and digital... Full speech
I completely agree with my hon. Friend. As I will come on to, there is an inconsistent set of data across the country. This inconsistency is not just between ICBs but, in the case of my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham and Chislehurst (Clive Efford), between neighbouring London boroughs, which may have the same ICB but different frameworks. I also welcome the support for the amendment from the Children’s Commissioner, who has said: “Across the country, children wait ... Full speech
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This broadly requires an integrated care board to promote appropriate opportunities for those who are provided with accommodation in pursuance of arrangements made by the board to receive visitors and the option for outpatients and day patients etc to have someone accompany them. Full speech
We all often have a common memory that is so incredibly important and special: holding our child for the very first time. Sadly, so many people up and down this country cannot have that memory because of their difficulty in having children. In 2004, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended a way forward on IVF, which was to give all a minimum three cycles of IVF treatment. That was set out 22 years ago, so we would hope that over time all ICBs would have moved towards de... Full speech
I rise to speak to amendment 32 and new clause 39 tabled in my name, which seek to address the problems facing community equipment and wheelchair services across the country. I declare my interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary groups for wheelchair users and for access to disability equipment. As the parent of a wheelchair user, I know just how important getting such services right is for disabled people and their families, and the consequences and long-term impacts when it goes wrong.... Full speech
I strongly welcome this landmark Bill, which will protect and strengthen our health service for decades to come, but for children with special educational needs and disabilities who are disproportionately impacted by not getting the healthcare that they need, I believe that it should go further. That is why I tabled new clause 85, which seeks to address the fundamental imbalance in the provision of health services for disabled children and young people. Currently, the statutory duty to deliver e... Full speech
Does the hon. Member agree that it is a fundamental principle of anything like the SPR that it must have privacy by design at the centre of it, and that therefore a firm such as Palantir-which has a US, slightly cavalier and somewhat casual attitude to how data privacy should be controlled-should not be allowed anywhere near it? Full speech
The hon. Lady is making a most powerful speech. We will all have experienced the frustration of parents with a child whose EHCP lacks the health element. Does the hon. Lady share my concern that, furthermore, the abolition of Healthwatch might remove one of the few elements that externally and independently marks the homework of the NHS, and that we are moving to a situation in which the NHS itself, and Ministers, will collect the data and mark their own homework, and we will lose yet another of... Full speech
My right hon. Friend is giving a typically punchy speech. Does he agree that every signal suggests that this measure has not been thought through? While the Government have conceded by saying, “Oh we’re going to have local government coming back onboard,” how could they have conceived of health and social care without local government being engaged? On every front, it looks as if they have not thought it through, abolishing everything from the safety inspectorate to Healthwatch England. We have ... Full speech
Labour Members who had that commitment in their manifesto may want to reflect on how much more commitment we have to constituents because they are our constituents than we would if we shared constituents from day to day. We often go out of our way-I hope-to look after our constituents because of that sense of ownership and obligation. It is only because we are allocated those people and they are our responsibility that we go that extra mile. Why would doctors not be the same, and can colleagues ... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution. Having worked in neonatal care services and areas of specialised services in the NHS for 10 years, I understand that one of the benefits of NHS England was that it brought together highly specialised services, ensured consistent service specifications and uplifted the quality and availability of care across the country. I hope that when we make decisions about which specialised services will be devolved to ICBs, consideration will be given to that po... Full speech
My right hon. Friend is speaking wisely. Of course, this is not just about massively improving care for patients-it is also about improving motivation for doctors and GPs, who are among the most demoralised groups in the NHS. There is a GP surgery in Horfield, in the Bristol area, that kept the old GP list system, as 10% of surgeries have done. When I chaired the Health and Social Care Committee, I interviewed Dr Lee from that surgery and he said that because around 60% of the patients they see ... Full speech
I am grateful to the hon. Member for his intervention, and for the work of that Committee. We are doing work together right now on children’s mental health, so I am sure we will continue to pursue this theme. The point is that the impact was not just on that child; it was also on the mother, who could not work, and there was also the distress of having to battle the system. The mental health of both parents was affected. It does not need to be this way, and I genuinely believe that accountabilit... Full speech
I thank Members across the House for their contributions. As we would expect for a Bill of this size, it has been a wide-ranging debate, and I will not be able to address every single amendment, but I will try to cover them all in the time I have. If necessary, I will get back to people afterwards. As a Government, we know that what we have set out to do through this Bill is ambitious. We do not resile from that; we want to be ambitious. We are determined to make a real and positive change for p... Full speech
I agree that there needs to be better accountability in the health service. It currently does not work, and the mechanisms by which we can hold healthcare bodies to account are few and far between. I believe that it is most acutely felt in paediatric care and in the special educational needs and disabilities system, where a mechanism for holding public bodies to account already exists: EHCPs. The idea that the responsibility should fall entirely on local authorities is misguided, because roughly... Full speech
I want to start by thanking the Minister for the emphasis that the Bill places on a single patient record. Despite many problems in NHS care, that is an area where the NHS is a world leader, but putting a single patient record on the right legal footing, making it possible to share data with proper governance, gives the NHS an opportunity to become a world leader in artificial intelligence, and it creates the opportunity to transform care for patients, so that has my full support. I speak in sup... Full speech
I absolutely agree. The single patient record is so important to make the NHS work efficiently and effectively, and to help it treat patients better. To achieve that, patients have to trust that the data is being well protected, and I am afraid that a lot of the people I talk to, including GPs-who are obviously critical in convincing patients that Palantir is safe-do not trust it. We have to pull out of the contract with Palantir. Will the Minister please consider that, please consider the issue... Full speech
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(1) Each integrated care board must, in the exercise of its functions, promote appropriate opportunities for anyone provided with accommodation in pursuance of arrangements made by the board to receive visitors. Full speech
On that very point, does my hon. Friend agree that the recent NHS cost-benefit analysis showing that the Palantir project will cost £1.1 billion and deliver benefits of £800 million-a net loss of £300 million for the NHS-underlines the fact that we need to get rid of it now? Full speech
I will give way to my hon. Friend. [ Interruption .] Full speech
I think the hon. Member’s point about health inequalities is really important. The number of cancer cases is expected to rise by about 30% by 2040, and England already has fewer radiotherapy machines per head than comparable European countries. Weston-super-Mare does not even have one, despite being the size of the city of Bath. Does he agree that that needs to come in conjunction with the rest of the investment he is talking about? Full speech
I agree with the point that the hon. Member is making. To add the voice of a member of the Education Select Committee, the Committee’s report equally found that we have to have a system where ICBs can be held to account for delivering on EHCPs. Full speech
I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson. Full speech
Amendment 19 closes a dangerous gap in the Bill and commands the support of Members from across the House. It is right that clause 4 calls for the Health Secretary to reduce inequality of access to health services, but the Bill must explicitly cover rural and coastal health inequalities, or else less densely populated communities will always lose. At face value, it makes sense to measure success by the greatest number helped; however, in the long run, that is a false economy, as delayed diagnosi... Full speech
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: the Government are spending millions of pounds and there is no plan. The measure was announced without working that out, it came as a surprise to many within the system, and it has had a chilling effect on many decisions. That is not isolated. Just today, we had the complete shambles of local government reorganisation. On the last day before the summer recess, the then Secretary of State rushed to the House to push through an announcement, which the new ... Full speech
I thank the Minister for the Bill. I put it on record that I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on sickle cell and thalassaemia. I rise to speak to new clause 162. It is well known that the NHS commissions specialised services unevenly across England. I am confident that this Government’s ambition is to end the postcode lottery of specialised services, and I would like to hear more about that. New clause 162 is designed to do something simple: to ensure that Parliament can identify wh... Full speech
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(c) a Director of Midwifery in every maternity service, Full speech
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“After section 14Z36 of the National Health Service Act 2006 insert- Full speech
I completely agree with my hon. Friend. Owing to the lack of early intervention for my constituent Elizabeth and her son William, he has missed countless hours and days and weeks of schooling at a critical point in his development. At a drop-in that I hosted last week, I met a woman called Annika. Her daughter Winnie has cerebral palsy, and her EHCP clearly states that she requires a physiotherapist, but the family have been forced to arrange that for themselves. Countless other families are in ... Full speech
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This removes an unnecessary amendment to subsections (7B) and (7H) of section 75 of the NHS Act 2006 (those subsections are removed entirely by clause 40(3) of the Bill). Full speech
As my hon. Friend will know, the chief medical officer’s rural health report is due later this year. Rural health cannot be seen as an afterthought. That is why I tabled new clause 120, which would create a farmer-friendly general practice scheme, similar to the veteran-friendly accreditation scheme; it would recognise GPs who proactively reach out to isolated farming communities. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government must treat the rural health report’s recommendations as a genuine test... Full speech
I rise to speak to my new clause 108, because the public rightly expect any company entrusted to operate within our national health service to meet basic standards of ethical conduct, both inside and outside the NHS. In my experience as parliamentary lead on the Hillsborough law, I regularly met members of the public who were shocked that a duty of candour that would compel public officials to tell the truth to the people they served did not already exist. I believe that many of my constituents ... Full speech
On safety, does my hon. Friend agree about the gravity of the national maternity review, which found that Musgrove Park hospital was the “most challenging” estate in the country? If it is the most challenging estate in the country, does my hon. Friend agree that that needs to be addressed sooner than 2033, so that mums get better treatment sooner than the 2040s? That is unacceptable if it is the most challenging estate in the country. Full speech
I absolutely agree, and I was a Labour councillor and leader of the council’s Labour opposition back then. I was also married to a special educational needs co-ordinator who was employed by the local authority. I was employing my own professionals to get through this process and ensure that the health aspects of the EHCP were upheld. The situation is absolutely abhorrent. Many parents who do not have the opportunity and insight that my wife and I had cannot ensure that accountability for their c... Full speech
I thank the Minister for accepting our amendment on this issue. We pressed her and her colleagues over and over again-to the extent that we got a letter back that we honestly thought had been generated by AI, because the logic in it had no follow-through at all. I am delighted that she has listened. On what else does she intend to listen to us? In particular, there are amendments on the Health Services Safety Investigations Body, Healthwatch and health inequalities, which we will consider tomorr... Full speech
I have tabled several amendments to the Bill, but I will hopefully keep my remarks focused so there is a good opportunity for other Members to make their speeches. The Bill should be about fixing the front and back doors of the NHS. It offers the opportunity to bring in tangible changes for patients to address pressing problems and introduce desperately needed improvements to patient safety and experience. The primary care and social care crisis, in particular, are millstones around the neck of ... Full speech
I thank the hon. Member for that comment. He is right. NHS and GP data is a massive resource for our scientists in this country, and I agree with him that it should be owned by the UK. It should be a sovereign wealth issue. I would like to ensure that we realise that over time. I will return to over-medicalisation. I would like to try to divert patients with mild to moderate mental health symptoms to social prescribing, such as access to nature, arts and culture and exercise-and indeed comedy. L... Full speech
My remarks will focus mainly on new clause 69, which is in my name. Getting rid of NHS England is one of the best things that this Government have done. As working clinicians, we can at least now get away from so much admin and management. My amendment is a simple one about self-care and health literacy. Demand for healthcare has increased enormously. Since 2019, for example, GP consultations in Stroud have gone up 30%. When I started work as a GP, patients saw me on average three times a year; ... Full speech
Before I call the shadow Minister, I must tell hon. Members that this debate is heavily oversubscribed; Back Benchers will immediately be on a speaking limit and not everybody will get in. I call the shadow Minister. Full speech
New clause 82 refers to the family mental health pathway, but from diagnosis right through to treatment and, tragically for some, bereavement, mental health support for families cannot be an afterthought and must be a statutory proactive duty. Does the hon. Lady agree that the Government and the Minister should take that on board? Full speech
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. Full speech
I worked as a civil servant for the coalition Government, and I saw at first hand some of the duplication and confusion caused when NHS England was set up, so I welcome this Bill and the decision to abolish NHS England. However, reversing the fragmentation caused by the Tories’ failed reforms of the NHS will not on its own create a more integrated and joined-up service for patients and carers. That is why I have tabled new clause 106, which would require the Secretary of State to report to Parli... Full speech
I rise to speak to amendment 97 in my name, which would remove clause 10 from the Bill. Clause 10 gives powers to the Secretary of State to vary the proportion of public and private provision of health services if they consider that to do so is in the interests of the health service. In evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee, the chief executive of the Nuffield Trust said that clause 10 “seems to make it more possible for the Secretary of State to explicitly set out to increase private... Full speech
I do agree. The hon. Gentleman has made a very good point about the impact of childhood illness, not only on the child but on the family. I also agree that support for families is crucial. They are part of the care team for children when they are unwell, and that acknowledgment needs to be strengthened and acted on. As I was saying, the statutory duty to deliver EHCPs sits solely with local authorities. In practice, that means that councils are the only bodies that can be held legally responsibl... Full speech
I fully agree; I have signed the hon. Gentleman’s amendments and we have been in many Committees speaking on this issue. New clause 108 provides a proportionate and evidence-based mechanism to address this issue. The new clause does not name or target any individual company. It would establish a clear and principled test, rooted in international law and internationally accepted standards, that every contractor must meet. If a company such as Palantir cannot meet that test, it should never hold c... Full speech
I will try to keep my remarks brief. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Stuart Andrew) for all the hard work he has done over the past year in holding the Government to account on health and social care, the whole Conservative health team for their support, and every member of the Committee that, as the Minister said, scrutinised the Bill in detail in such a hot and sticky room before the summer. I also thank my parliamentary team for their support. Finally, I congratulate the... Full speech
I rise to speak to new clause 108, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne), and new clause 34, tabled by the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley). Countless numbers of constituents have contacted me about Palantir Technologies, telling me their concerns about the company’s involvement with Israel’s military and Trump’s ICE. Over 35 Members from across the House have signed my early-day motion calling on the Government to activate the break clause in the ... Full speech
I have listened carefully to the debate. May I refer to my new clause 57? The challenge of the NHS is that so much significant, unaccountable power is being held that we, as Members of Parliament, cannot even deliver for our constituents. Will my hon. Friend look at her my new clause, and work with me to ensure that we get the Bill in the right place with regard to accountability before it goes to the Lords? Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend. He could not have said that more clearly. This is absolutely about inequalities in the health service. He has explained and expressed that extremely well. I know that he, like me, will continue to advocate for people from ethnic minority and diverse backgrounds. New clause 162 would require the Secretary of State to do two things: first, to lay an annual report before Parliament on the performance of specialised services against national standards; secondly, to ensure the... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for his work on the all-party parliamentary group; he is a real champion of this cause. AJM Healthcare, the contractor in my constituency, has a similar level of failure. People are left for months-sometimes six months-without a wheelchair, bed-bound and unable to get out of the house. Does he agree that ICBs seem completely at sea on this issue, and are totally unaccountable? Does he agree that we need much tougher measures, such as those he suggests, to hold them to acco... Full speech
Crumbling estates are a big part of the problem across the whole NHS and in maternity, and my hon. Friend is right to highlight the state of his own local hospital and advocate for its quick remediation. Amendment 10, which I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers) will outline in more detail, would reintroduce the mental health investment standard. That is a crucial investment to avoid failures further down the line if interventions are not made for patients early on. Now... Full speech
This Government aim to shift the focus from treatment to prevention, and it is in that spirit that I have tabled new clauses 90 and 91, which would strengthen the frameworks around health inequalities and address the wider determinants of health. New data from Health Equals reveals a shocking reality: there is a gap of up to 18 years in life expectancy between different parts of the UK, and indeed between nearby neighbourhoods. Health Equal shows that in my constituency just a golf course separa... Full speech
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a practicing optometrist and an officer for the APPG for eye health and visual impairment. Sight is precious and none of us would like to lose it-but, sadly, 2 million people in this country are living with some form of sight loss today. On the Department’s own projection, that figure will rise to 2.7 million by 2030. Every day, 250 people in the UK start to lose their sight-one person every six minutes. Left una... Full speech
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Response to the Hughes Report: options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh Full speech
I broadly agree with the hon. Gentleman, and I am about to come to mental health. It is right to modernise the NHS and end some of the duplication that we see between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, but the way it has been handled has been chaotic. It has been combined with 50% cuts to ICB budgets, unfunded redundancy payments, and chaos through the system. I was alarmed to read the report in The Times at the weekend about advice to the Secretary of State that the chang... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher)-with his example of the sore throat-for his help in driving down demand for healthcare. Indeed, I thank Members in all parts of the House for their contributions to what has been an interesting and helpful discussion. Their expertise and their scrutiny will continue to strengthen the Bill. Full speech
Only half the children in my constituency have seen a dentist in two years. There has been a 20% decrease in NHS dental practices, and some constituents have written to me recently to say that they have been quoted in excess of £7,000 for the most basic of treatments. Amendment 47 would require the Government to establish training hubs in Dorset. It would ensure that dental hubs trained dentists for the future, and would mandate final-year trainees to provide supervised treatment to NHS patients... Full speech
Does my hon. Friend agree that that element of trust is even more important when we get the single patient record, and critical to enabling GPs and medical professionals everywhere to use it, and patients to trust it? Full speech
Order. Back-Bench speeches are on a five-minute speaking limit. Full speech
There is much to support in the Bill, and I support its ambition to enable many of the provisions of the welcome 10-year plan for the NHS. The plan is the right one; the three shifts are correct, and we have to fundamentally reform the health system if we are to meet the modern health and care challenges that we all see in our constituencies. To some extent those challenges are not new, and neither are these ambitions-we have seen similar initiatives before-but the systems, the structures, the b... Full speech
My hon. Friend might have read my speech, because I was about to turn to her amendment’s proposal of a report on integrating health and social care. It is an interesting idea that has a great deal of merit, and I hope that the Minister, in her response, will outline the Government’s approach to enabling more progress on integrating health and social care, particularly with the ongoing Casey review. Inequalities have already been mentioned in the debate. Obviously, one of the Government’s key amb... Full speech
I would like to start by welcoming the commitment from the Minister at the Dispatch Box to bring forward a maternity commissioner, and by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for her tireless campaigning on this issue. When I worked for her many years ago, I was all too aware of the scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, after sitting in on surgeries with her. Indeed, in my own constituency of Harrogate and Knaresborough, I have ended up with ... Full speech
I absolutely agree. In order to achieve genuine equality of access, the Government must go outside-in; in other words, they must design provision around the hardest places to serve-my hon. Friend gives a great example-and then work inwards from there. “If Australia can effectively serve communities living in the remote outback, we can meet the needs of people living in rural and coastal England.” Those are the words of the right hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) when he was Health Sec... Full speech
I rise to speak in favour of new clauses 133 and 134, which stand in my name. The new clauses would require the Secretary of State to work with Welsh Ministers to update the England and Wales cross-border healthcare statement of values and principles, and to bring forward proposals to place those principles on a formal legal footing. For many people living along the border, cross-border healthcare is simply a fact of life. In Powys, at least 40% of people depend on hospitals across the border in... Full speech
I will not. The right hon. Member was Secretary of State for Health twice, so he had his chance to put all the right things into legislation. [Interruption.] I am not helping my own sore throat. As my hon. Friend mentioned, the Bill is about returning that democratic accountability directly to the Secretary of State. We have had a lot of pushback in different places, but that is what this Bill does. It returns accountability to the Secretary of State, it devolves that responsibility for deliveri... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention; he has been a doughty campaigner on this issue, as have other members of the Committee, including the hon. Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman). We also know that much of the data is based on the data being taken from Chelsea and Westminster hospital, and not much else across the country. We have a lot of questions about that contract, hence why we came to the same conclusion. However, I primarily urge the Government please to consider new clau... Full speech
There is lots in this Bill that is very positive, but I want to raise a couple of local issues, including one relating to my local Stepping Hill hospital. I thank the Minister for meeting me and my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart), to discuss the hospital, because it is at the heart of healthcare provision in my town of Stockport. It serves around half a million patients per year and is one of the four specialist hub centres for emergency and higher-risk gener... Full speech
I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman. My hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), who is not here, is campaigning tirelessly on radiotherapy and radiography. The point I was making about those health inequalities is that regions such as Yorkshire have a high incidence of cancer and of poorer outcomes, so we need to close that funding gap to close those inequalities. New clauses 61 and 93, both in my name, pertain to NHS dentistry, and I have also added my name to a... Full speech
I agree with my hon. Friend that we need to see that, and I tabled new clause 93 to get the answers to some of those questions that not just constituents in my patch but those in hers are asking us as Members of Parliament. It is particularly frustrating that we are in the third year of this Labour Government, and although talk of dental contract reform kept cropping up at the outset, we have seen little progress since, so I would press the Minister on what more can be done to make sure those ga... Full speech
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This new clause would require the Secretary of State to publish the Government’s response to the Hughes Report within 30 days of this Act being passed. Full speech
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Section 271(1) of the NHS Act 2006 provides that ministerial functions under that Act are generally exercisable only in relation to England. This amendment creates an exception for powers to establish Special Health Authorities etc since they may be used to carry out certain functions beyond England (eg operating information systems). Full speech
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(2) A person participating in the process for nominating the ordinary members”. Full speech
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(2) The Secretary of State must, within 6 months of the passage of this Act, establish a scheme to support NHS trusts to deliver the requirement under subsection (1), which includes- Full speech
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(2) Each integrated care board must, in the exercise of its functions, promote the option for relevant patients attending hospitals or hospices provided in pursuance of arrangements made by the board to have someone accompany them, so far as appropriate. Full speech
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“(aa) Chapter 4 of Part 2 (Special Health Authorities),”.”.- ( Karin Smyth.) Full speech
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(a) 24/7 consultant obstetrician cover on every labour ward, Full speech
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This amendment restores the requirement for integrated care boards to have at least one member nominated jointly by the local authorities whose areas coincide with, or include the whole or any part of, the integrated care board’s area (as well as any new mayoral nominated member). Full speech
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(3) In subsection (2) “relevant patient” means an outpatient, day patient or other person attending a hospital or hospice for the provision of care or treatment that does not involve an overnight stay.””- (Karin Smyth.) Full speech
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This amendment makes the geographical extent of a local pharmaceutical committee which can be recognised by an integrated care board consistent with the geographical extent of other, similar committees (for other examples, see paragraphs 12(2), 24(2) and 37(2) of Schedule 1). Full speech
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““local authority” has the meaning given by section 2B(5);”.- ( Karin Smyth.) Full speech
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This amendment is consequential on amendment 70. Full speech