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Opposition day on Wednesday, 23 May 2007, in the House of Commons, led by Lord Lansley. The answering member was Patricia Hewitt.

Secretary of State for Health

To reduce the salary of the Secretary of State for Health by £1000. Twelfth opposition day debate (part 2). Motion negatived on division (219 to 282). Amendment agreed on division (269 to 207).

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
460 c1347-99 
Session
2006-07
Department
Department of Health
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Norman Lamb | 460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) We have consistently supported the Government on increased investment in the health service, but the...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) That is a ludicrous suggestion. We oppose over-reliance on PFI, as do the Conservatives. We entirely...
Show all contributions (170)
Andy Burnham | 460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may be aware that there has been a lot of controversy about Leeds children’s hosp...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1370 (Link to this contribution) I am not in a position to answer a question about one local hospital. Does the hon. Gentleman disagr...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) I will not give way again on that point. Spending on PFI schemes is projected to be £17.8 billion b...
Simon Burns | 460 c1370 (Link to this contribution) Thanks to the help of the Prime Minister, the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Bur...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1370 (Link to this contribution) My point is simply that we have relied entirely on PFI. The National Audit Office and the hon. Gentl...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1370 (Link to this contribution) I am told by doctors in accident and emergency departments that they follow protocols in those circu...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1370 (Link to this contribution) That is a very opportune intervention, and I entirely accept the point made by the hon. Gentleman. I...
John Bercow | 460 c1369-70 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has just highlighted an unwelcome imposition from the centre, and it would be fai...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1369 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful that the hon. Gentleman at least acknowledged that there have been frustrations. I rep...
Andrew Miller | 460 c1369 (Link to this contribution) Yes, that is what it says in my notes. The article reports progress so far on the national programme...
Andrew Miller | 460 c1369 (Link to this contribution) May I commend to the hon. Gentleman a recent article in the British Medical Journal, which reported ...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1368-9 (Link to this contribution) I am very much aware of that, and every time there is a change of organisation, another group of peo...
Lord Stunell | 460 c1368 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend aware that health workers in my area were employed by three different trusts in th...
Natascha Engel | 460 c1374-6 (Link to this contribution) I shall try and restrict myself to 10 minutes and take out all the digs at the Tory Front-Bench team...
Speaker | 460 c1374 (Link to this contribution) It is true that all three Front-Bench speeches have taken more than half an hour. That is a matter f...
Speaker | 460 c1376 (Link to this contribution) Order. I want to underline the point I made a few moments ago. Everyone can see the number of hon. M...
Grant Shapps | 460 c1377 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree. We like the idea of foundation trusts and we want to go further and faster with ...
Meg Hillier | 460 c1376-7;460 c1377 (Link to this contribution) I will be brief. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman should visit constituencies like mine, where the Homerto...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1374 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point. The impact has not just been on junior doctors, but on all those ...
Graham Stuart | 460 c1374 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I am not seeking to catch your eye in this debate, but it o...
Eric Martlew | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?
Norman Lamb | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) No, I want to make some progress. Cuts have been made to mental health services in many parts of the...
Eric Martlew | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Norman Lamb | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) It is remarkable that Labour contributors appear to have swallowed the idea that the only way in whi...
Speaker | 460 c1373 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) has indicated that he will not give way. I al...
Eric Martlew | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point, then?
Norman Lamb | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) No, I shall not. Training budgets have been cut, with thousands of posts lost and newly qualified nu...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1371-2;460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes the point that there are other ways of financing new build. Health bonds ar...
Lord Beamish | 460 c1372 (Link to this contribution) As someone whose constituency is served by two brand new PFI hospitals, let me emphasise that they n...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman recall that, at the last general election, the Conservative party issued a d...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1384 (Link to this contribution) As we supported the spending plans of the current Labour Government at the last general election, an...
Lord Austin of Dudley | 460 c1384 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may say it is not true, but his leader and the shadow Chancellor have promised to...
Lord Austin of Dudley | 460 c1383-4 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friend says, we have the best paid nurses in Europe. Furthermore, 116 hospitals have alre...
Lord Austin of Dudley | 460 c1382-3 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to speak in this debate, which gives us the opportunity to set out some of the dividi...
Lord Austin of Dudley | 460 c1384-5;460 c1385 (Link to this contribution) What I have knowledge of is the proceeds of growth rule, which commits the hon. Gentleman’s party to...
Lord Austin of Dudley | 460 c1384 (Link to this contribution) I am just a comprehensive schoolboy from Dudley, so the hon. Gentleman must forgive me if I cannot w...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1384 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. The Labour Government’s spending plans run only ...
Grant Shapps | 460 c1377 (Link to this contribution) I can provide the Minister with the data—
Grant Shapps | 460 c1377-8 (Link to this contribution) I will provide the data to the Minister. In fact, I have already provided them to the Secretary of S...
Stephen Dorrell | 460 c1381-2 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I do, as long as it is understood that we are looking for the maximum possible health gain for ...
Eric Martlew | 460 c1378-80 (Link to this contribution) Certainly her record compares very well with that of the right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr. Dorrel...
Stephen Dorrell | 460 c1380-1 (Link to this contribution) First, I shall respond to the closing comments of the hon. Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew) by refe...
John Bercow | 460 c1381 (Link to this contribution) Given that the advances in medical science mean that whenever one devises a new cure, one effectivel...
Andrew Miller | 460 c1387 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Jim Devine | 460 c1387 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Tim Loughton | 460 c1387 (Link to this contribution) I will not. We saw the shambles of the collapse of the home oxygen service in February 2006 under t...
Andy Burnham | 460 c1389-90 (Link to this contribution) The first responsibility of any Secretary of State for Health is to NHS patients. As much as we have...
Tim Loughton | 460 c1387-9 (Link to this contribution) I will not. The independent advisory group on sexual health and HIV found that substantial parts of...
Andy Burnham | 460 c1390-1 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman shakes his head; I think that he had forgotten. I am afraid that that idea would ...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1391 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State confirmed earlier that she agrees with Sir George Alberti, as her aim is that...
Andy Burnham | 460 c1391-2 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman had been listening, he would know that she had said that it was for specialist...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) I will give way again to the hon. Gentleman if he will explain why the Secretary of State has not de...
Andrew Miller | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) Had the hon. Gentleman attended the meeting last night, he would have seen that more than 8,000 prac...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1350-1 (Link to this contribution) It is always a help if interventions are accurate. The hon. Gentleman mentions choose and book, whic...
Speaker | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman knows that interventions must be brief.
Lord Lansley | 460 c1351 (Link to this contribution) If we look at the hospital episode statistics, I acknowledge that the proportion of patients waiting...
Meg Hillier | 460 c1351 (Link to this contribution) It is instructive about the pace of change in the health service that, in 1997, people were waiting ...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1352 (Link to this contribution) The Prime Minister said at Prime Minister’s questions today, and it is stated in the amendment, that...
Angela C Smith | 460 c1352 (Link to this contribution) If things really are as bad as the hon. Gentleman makes out, how is it that we have enjoyed signific...
Stephen Dorrell | 460 c1352 (Link to this contribution) Although it is undoubtedly welcome that we have seen improvements in premature mortality from cancer...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1349 (Link to this contribution) I understand my hon. Friend’s point. Indeed, the same can be said of Cambridgeshire primary care tru...
Lord Deben | 460 c1349 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend realise that the Great Yarmouth and Waveney primary care trust—which was created...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) Oh dear. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that digital imaging and the transfer of digital im...
Andrew Miller | 460 c1349-50 (Link to this contribution) Unfortunately no Conservative Member who is present today attended a meeting that I had the honour t...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1349 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes an important point. When Ministers consider the consequences of dealing w...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way to the hon. Gentleman shortly but let me tell him something else if he is intereste...
Speaker | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) Order. The House must come to order.
Lord Lansley | 460 c1350 (Link to this contribution) I shall not give way to the hon. Gentleman again. [Interruption.] Five years ago, Addenbrooke’s hosp...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1365 (Link to this contribution) Look, just for the sake of accuracy, let me say that a consultation is under way on Hinchingbrooke h...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1365 (Link to this contribution) Of course I agree with him that for the most serious—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman was complain...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1367 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention, but the simple fact is that there has been s...
Stephen Dorrell | 460 c1367 (Link to this contribution) With great respect, the constant reassertion of something that is untrue does not make it true. It i...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1366-7 (Link to this contribution) The Liberal Democrats will support the motion this evening because of the palpable loss of confidenc...
Stephen Dorrell | 460 c1367 (Link to this contribution) In the spirit of setting the record straight, which is what the hon. Gentleman is trying to do, he m...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1367-8 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way on that point. I now turn my attention to the Labour party, and the question...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1367 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman has made his point, but the record speaks for itself.
Neil Turner | 460 c1363 (Link to this contribution) The Conservative party has prayed in aid the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1363-4 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. Frankly, the message to NHS staff that we are hea...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1364 (Link to this contribution) Professor Sir George Alberti and Professor Roger Boyle—
Lord Lilley | 460 c1364 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. On the subject of weasel words, does she und...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1365 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State waved around Sir George Alberti’s document on emergency access. He has told c...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1365 (Link to this contribution) Professor Alberti has said consistently that the most specialist services need a larger catchment ar...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1365 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Lady agree with him?
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1363 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way again. That is exactly the policy that the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1362 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, although Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer,...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1363 (Link to this contribution) Of course I will. We have believed in the values of the NHS ever since we created it. The Conservat...
Lord Lilley | 460 c1363 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1363 (Link to this contribution) But I shall give way to the hon. Gentleman because I have considerable respect for him.
John Bercow | 460 c1363 (Link to this contribution) I am extremely grateful to the right hon. Lady for giving way. In September 2006, in response to pr...
Crispin Blunt | 460 c1362 (Link to this contribution) I think the Secretary of State betrayed herself earlier in her speech when she talked about a Labour...
Evan Harris | 460 c1362 (Link to this contribution) Would the right hon. Lady care to comment on the extent to which changes in coronary heart disease d...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1362 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point and I hope that it is one on which the Opposition ...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1360-1 (Link to this contribution) That was not worth giving way for, I am afraid. As I said a moment ago, we needed that four-hour A ...
Lord Mann | 460 c1361 (Link to this contribution) After visiting a GP, one member of my family had to wait only three weeks for cancer surgery; anothe...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1361 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes his point very graphically. That is another real tribute not only to NHS staff ...
David Kidney | 460 c1361-2 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend accept the credit for giving greater responsibility to more NHS staff, suc...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1359-60 (Link to this contribution) For the first time ever in the history of the NHS we are now collecting information on how long it t...
Meg Hillier | 460 c1360 (Link to this contribution) The Conservatives seem to be confused about the role of the Secretary of State. The Government shoul...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1360 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is one of the many contradictions in the Conservatives’ so-ca...
Grant Shapps | 460 c1360 (Link to this contribution) Does the Secretary of State provide the same advice to the right hon. Member for Salford (Hazel Blea...
Graham Stuart | 460 c1359 (Link to this contribution) Can the Secretary of State explain why children in my constituency with major jaw problems are waiti...
Lord Redwood | 460 c1359 (Link to this contribution) Can the Secretary of State explain why so many patients have been dying of killer bugs on her watch?...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1359 (Link to this contribution) Hospital-acquired infection is a serious issue. We take it very seriously and we were the first Gove...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1358 (Link to this contribution) Of course I listen to staff. I listened this morning to the midwives at the Royal College of Midwive...
Simon Burns | 460 c1358 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. As she will not take any lessons from the Co...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1358 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was shown around the brilliant acc...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1359 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. I pay tribute to her for the leadership role that she played in ensuring th...
Kali Mountford | 460 c1359 (Link to this contribution) Is it not also the case that although specialists tell us one thing, sometimes the community wants s...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1358 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. That latest survey by the independent Commonwealth Fund confirms what patie...
Andrew Gwynne | 460 c1358 (Link to this contribution) This point is not only to do with patient satisfaction—nine out of 10 of them are satisfied with the...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) I will take no lectures from a party that starved the NHS of funds and left patients waiting 18 mont...
Simon Burns | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) No. I want to make some progress before I give way again. It is no accident that patients are more ...
Rob Marris | 460 c1357-8 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend share my astonishment that the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. L...
Graham Stuart | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1356 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, To leave out from ““House”” to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:"“...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) Not yet. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) specifically mentioned junior docto...
Lord Soames of Fletching | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) The debate is not about national health service nurses, who do a magnificent job; it is about the ri...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1357 (Link to this contribution) Not on that point, no. I will deal with it in my oral statement tomorrow. The most important judges...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1355-6 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I remember that Sir Thomas More was a Chancellor of the Duchy of Lanc...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1355 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. We need a re-engagement of GPs with, for example, out-of-hours servi...
Speaker | 460 c1355 (Link to this contribution) Order. We must not have interventions from a sedentary position. Hon. Members would expect the Secre...
Speaker | 460 c1355 (Link to this contribution) Order. I do not think that the hon. Gentleman intends to give way for the time being. Until he indic...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1354-5 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman participated fully in the Opposition debate on 24 April, which explored those iss...
Evan Harris | 460 c1354 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept that the problems of training posts for junior doctors extend beyond ...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1354 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris)
Graham Stuart | 460 c1354 (Link to this contribution) Following the last piercing question from the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris)...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1354 (Link to this contribution) The answer is in the mid-1990s. There has been a sustained reduction in productivity in the NHS sinc...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1353 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, ...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1353 (Link to this contribution) I am going to make some progress. The latest and one of the most serious failures of the Secretary ...
Rob Marris | 460 c1354 (Link to this contribution) I would like to take the hon. Gentleman back a little to when he was talking about a crisis. Can he ...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1354 (Link to this contribution) From my recollection—I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong—it was 1999. That was the last time...
Dari Taylor | 460 c1353 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman seriously telling the House that the 35,000 extra doctors and 80,000 extra nur...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1352-3 (Link to this contribution) Yes. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. That is indeed what should happen. I say ““we”” advisedl...
Speaker | 460 c1347 (Link to this contribution) We now come to the second debate on the Opposition motions. I must inform the House that Mr. Speaker...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) The Labour Government do not understand that it took years to get back to a range of policies that w...
Speaker | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) Order. It is clear that the hon. Gentleman is not prepared to give way.
Lord Lansley | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) We need payment by results and the tariff to be delivered quickly, but what have we had under the Se...
Tom Levitt | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. Of course, the Tory Government were no stranger to deficits. Is...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker. I had not even noticed the hon. Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt),...
Lord Bellingham | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend aware that the new Norfolk and Norwich PCT started its operations with a massive £...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1348 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman does not seem to understand that last year a deficit of more than £1 billion with...
Lord Stunell | 460 c1374 (Link to this contribution) One of my constituents, who is a consultant, drew to my attention last weekend the huge amount of co...
Eric Martlew | 460 c1378 (Link to this contribution) I was first elected a member of a health authority in 1974. In 1977 I was appointed chair of Cumbria...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1364 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman.
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1362-3 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is talking absolute nonsense. Appointments to primary care trusts are made by a c...
Speaker | 460 c1353 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Lady asked a question of the Opposition spokesman. Perhaps she ought to listen to th...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1347-8 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That the salary of the Secretary of State for Health should be reduced by £1,000." T...
Andrew Miller | 460 c1370 (Link to this contribution) May I follow up that point? The hon. Gentleman, who lives in Norfolk, will accept that if he were ru...
Grant Shapps | 460 c1376 (Link to this contribution) I shall try to adhere to your guidance, Mr. Deputy Speaker. If we are discussing the health service...
Norman Lamb | 460 c1373;460 c1373-4 (Link to this contribution) There is the threat to so many community hospitals around the country, including in my county of Nor...
Speaker | 460 c1392 (Link to this contribution) Order. I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delays in the Lobbies, starting with the Aye Lo...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1366 (Link to this contribution) The local primary care trust and the hospital have made it perfectly clear that the right way forwar...
Patricia Hewitt | 460 c1364-5 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman should talk to Health Ministers in the Governments in Africa, with whom we ...
Lord Lansley | 460 c1353 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady need not take it from me. The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing—[Inter...
Lord Austin of Dudley | 460 c1371 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is wrong to say that all the new hospitals have been funded through PFI, but I am...
Tim Loughton | 460 c1385-6;460 c1385-7 (Link to this contribution) That was another good debate—at least until the last contribution—and another health debate in Conse...
Subjects
Accountability Health NHS Ministers Department of Health Hewitt, Patricia
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
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