01/02/2016 Monday in Parliament

Good evening and welcome to Monday In Parliament,

Labour claims the NHS is buckling under the strain of low budgets.

I say to the minister, it is time to stop the NHS

A plea for women disadvantaged by changes to the state pension.

A window to senior on Friday. She has worked hard all life. She says

she is going to lose up to ?55,000. And the mother of Stephen Lawrence

says the British black and Asian community will bear

the brunt of new police powers powers to stop and search

suspected illegal immigrants. Provision allowing for intrusive,

discriminatory stops have continued to be one

of the greatest flashpoints But first, Labour says the NHS

in England is struggling to cope and cited the cases of ambulances

waiting for hours to hand over patients and cancer patients

being told there are no appointments Labour accused the government of

financial mismanagement of the NHS. But the health minister said the

performance had improved beyond question.

In the last few weeks, it has become abundantly clear

that hospitals across the country are buckling under the strain

of providing healthcare with an inadequate budget.

Four out of five hospitals are now predicting a deficit.

Monitor are reportedly assembling teams of management

consultants, to dispatch to up to 25 trusts in need of

turnaround, and now we learn, along with the TDA, they have

written to every hospital, asking them to take

urgent steps to regain control of their budgets,

including, and I quote, "Head count reductions

We now have a situation where, on the one hand,

where the Care Quality Commission is telling hospitals

they are unsafe, and on the other, Monitor is telling them

PRESENTER: And she said the Government had lost control

The only way ministers are going to make

their planned ?22 billion of efficiency savings will be to cut

I say to the Minister, it is time to stop the NHS

Were she to look at the actual outcomes of the NHS,

this year, compared to the last year when

her party were in power, she may consider that,

actually, the performance of the NHS has improved

It is not only the fact that we have 1.9 more A attendances,

1.3 million more operations, 7.8 million more

outpatient appointments and 4.7 million more diagnostic tests.

This is an NHS which is performing more

procedures, helping more patients, doing more for the people of this

country than at any time since its foundation.

The delivery of quality and efficiency are two sides

Those hospitals that are providing the highest quality of care in this

country tend to be those which are also in control

Likewise, those that are struggling with quality also

tend to be those which cannot control their own finances.

If she were to somehow suggest there is a

binary distinction between the two, a choice to be made between quality

and efficiency, I would gently say to her that she is a decade behind

more current thinking on how you run a successful health service.

It is about making sure quality and efficiency go hand-in-hand.

Devon NHS had no deficit in 2010 when we

It now has the worst deficit in England.

What assurances can he give my constituents in Exeter and elsewhere

in Devon that services and waiting times will not

I thank the right honourable gentleman.

I thank him for his cooperation and help in trying to trying to form

This will only work if it is a cross-party

effort, as it is on a national level.

We have particular problems in Devon.

They are a very urgent and it will mean the deficit will increase

unless we take significant local action.

ten ambulances were parked outside A outside the Royal Infirmary.

Ten out of 25, in the whole of Leicestershire,

trying to hand over patients to the staff.

On 856 occasions in the past year, they had to wait between two

and four hours to hand over those patients.

more consultants, but a better system of management.

My constituent contacted me earlier today.

She had a scan last Tuesday and was told,

the following day, that she required an urgent referral

and would be provided ith an appointment within 48 hours.

This morning, Mr Speaker, I was told by the NHS

that there were no appointments anywhere and no idea

The minister, in an earlier response,

Minister, this is the reality of the NHS in 2016

for my constituent and millions like her.

No funding or staffing available, not just a routine appointments,

but for urgent appointments related to cancer.

The minister replied that the NHS had made rapid improvements

in cancer treatment, but that he would was happy to look

Now, the age that women qualify for a state pension is increasing.

First, to 65 and then, to 66. It means that thousands

of woman born in the 1950s, who were expecting to

retire at 60, will have to work for longer.

Many have not got an occupational or private pension to

Calling themselves Women Against State Pension Inequality,

or WASPI, campaigners are urging the government to introduce

transitional measures while the changes are introduced.

THe WASPI women also say the government did not

Will the Minister apologise formally for the art shambles as department

has made of communicating these changes. They also made the same

mistake with pensioners over national insurance contributions.

How does he expect the house and the public to have confidence in the

department 's ability when they have failed so spectacularly to deliver

the message? Mr Speaker, the issue the honourable member of Registry is

isolated and should be regarded as such. The matter has been convicted.

He should take on board all the other arguments on this issue rather

than one solitary individual mistake. It has been corrected. I

fully accept that these are huge sums of money we're talking about. I

was feeling 1995 when we first announced the changes. Would my

honourable friend tell me that he has taken significant action to

communicate these changes so that pensioners can make arrangements for

their retirement? Can I just see, the initial changes were made in

1995 until 2010, when the Coalition Government came into place, there

were at least ten ministers who came back twice and made absolutely no

effort to meet improved communication. As far as the act of

2011 is concerned, women who were affected where written to. The

information is available on the government website for those who

want to seek more information. The main issue is that,

for many women, working for several Many of the people we are talking

about killing four elderly parents or young grandchildren. Will the

Minister of these women some hope and make transitional arrangements

by Alan women affected to draw the pension credit airily through this

difficult time? I would see to the honourable lady that provision was

made in 2011. The Secretary of State said he would go away and think

about the matter and he came back, made a concession of ?1.1 billion,

ensuring that the two-year stage was reduced to 18 months. In the case

of, 81% of women affected would have to work no more than 12 months.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Of the 2.6 million women at by this change,

more than 5000 in the minister's own constituency. The least they deserve

is the fact be a long and honesty beat. The government looked at ?3

billion of allocated protection, only 1 million of which was actually

allocated. Will the Minister read to the house the options of

transitional prepare protection for the women. Perhaps the apology

should come from the honourable lady. There was no such

communication when her people were in power. The honourable lady says

1995, in two years, there was a Labour government. They were in

charge for 13 years. There original element throughout that transitional

arrangement concerned. I responded to the Lady Elliot on when they said

the concession was made for over ?1 billion. The waiting time was also

reduced. A Conservative called for an end

to political hostilities. I am not sure it helps these ladies,

some of whom are in very difficult circumstances, for both front

benches to trade insults. The fact is, although

everyone accepts there should be equalisation,

a widow came to see me on Friday. She is a widow, she

has no occupational Because she was also paying

into Serps, up to ?55,000. Is there no way we could look

at further transitional changes, maybe a cap, changes

so we could help some of these The Minister agreed

it was important to discuss the issue in a measured way,

which meant there were many other Over in Westminster

Hall, there was a three-hour debate, triggered

by a petition to MP, It was standing room

only as a succession of speakers accused the government

of failing the women in question. It broke the contract

with its citizens, that citizens pay If this was a private provider, we

would be accusing them of mis-selling.

So it is time, after these many debates, for the Government at last

to listen to these women, to bring forward proposals

for transitional arrangements that can be properly debated in this

House so that this injustice can be put right.

It is time for them to listen to the women of this country,

and I hope that the Minister, when he stands up, after so long

In March 1953, Mrs Jones gives birth to twins,

Jack will get, on the single tier pension, ?155 per

Jill will get ?131 because she was born a woman.

Where is the justice in Jack getting 20,000 more in 20 years

Somebody born in February 1954 is not going to now retire

That is two-and-a-half years after somebody born a year earlier.

The position of the SNP on this has always been interesting

because they are in the happy situation of being able to really

say, and, if need be, to promise, whatever they like without any

danger of having to fulfil any commitment whatsoever

The great news is we are all living longer but we cannot possibly expect

that not to affect the age at which we are able to retire,

because surely it cannot be sustainable for us to be able

to live longer on retirement than we are in employment.

A member of my constituency, Lillian, this year had the honour

of receiving an MBE but also was told the same week she isn't

You could not meet a more loyal and a more honoured person but also

The honourable gentleman makes his own point in his own way

but I think we are trying to take some of the emotion out of this

debate to get to some of the facts, and I think we owe it to those

people who are heavily engaged in this debate through

This parliament will see a lot of centenary landmarks about faults for

women. I be having to take the flak for deficit reduction by having the

pensions spirit back? They will not just be passing accidental casual

casualties, this will be Gilbert. This parliament will have conspired

against them. We have to change this.

The Work and Pensions Minister, Shailesh Vara, insisted that women

today were receiving a higher pension than anyone before them.

You're watching Monday In Parliament with me, Kristiina Cooper.

The Prime Minister's National Security Adviser has described Libya

as a major concern for terrorism, migration and regional stability.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant, who has been in the post for five

months, was appearing before the Joint Committee

on National Security Strategy, made up of MPs and peers.

Reports suggest that Britain is considering sending up to 1,000

troops to Libya as part of an international intervention force.

Downing Street says no decision has been taken.

Today's newspapers are suggesting we are about to go back

I wonder whether, by illustration, you can tell us how

you and the council are then involved in managing this

as an issue, so far as you reasonably can.

As I say, I don't want to stray into policy issues in this evidence

session, but we have discussed Libya in the national security council -

I'm trying to look at the list here - certainly two or three times

It is an issue of major concern in a number of different contexts,

in a counterterrorism context, in a stability context,

When we discussed migration, Libya was a feature.

But we have also discussed Libya itself in terms of the instability

We take into account all those issues as the national security

Would it not be helpful to define the prime risk to the lives

of people in this country and work backwards from there?

If we broaden this too much, I think we will end up completely

And it seems to me that a mass terrorist attack,

probably on London, is the thing we should be really

I think we have seen a sort of warm-up in what has happened

in Paris and it seems to me to be very likely that,

one day, the terrorists will get through and will succeed,

where to date they have been thwarted.

Very large numbers of people may be killed in one of the cities

When you think of that as the primary threat,

it strikes me that virtually all else pales into insignificance.

I have some sympathy with that view and I think the strategy does

We have identified terrorism as one of the four major risks.

It is up there in lights throughout the document,

precisely because of the high likelihood and high impact that

Likewise, we've reflected that in the overall objectives.

Protect our people is the number one objective.

I wouldn't want to just restrict it to that and say everything else

is subsidiary because I think there are other threats that

are important and need to be taken into account.

But we do have precisely protecting the British people and the terrorist

threat right up there as the number one issue.

We were caught asleep at the wheel over Russia's invasion

Other things come up where we don't seem to anticipate them.

Even if we were able to, we don't seem to have the capabilities

For example, the Foreign Office had almost no Russian-speaking expertise

The failure to predict the Russian invasion of Crimea is linked

Unfortunately, that strategy was driven off track rather

That is why you will see that the strategy on Russia in this

new national security strategy is rather different

Staying with security matters, peers have criticised new powers

in the Immigration Bill for the authorities to stop

The bill gives the police the right to search someone's car or home

if they have reasonable grounds for believing the driver

Peers warned that black and Asian drivers will bear the brunt

When I was a police constable in the years leading to the Brixton

riots in 1981, police officers would routinely stop motor vehicles

being driven by black men in particular and frequently arrest

them on suspicion that they may be illegally in the country.

The usual reason given was that they were a suspected overstayer.

These arrests routinely happened simply because the person

who was being stopped was evasive or did not appear to be cooperative.

Together with the use of the offence of being a suspected person

loitering with intent to commit an indictable offence under

the Vagrancy Act 1824, commonly known as Sus,

and the disproportionate use of stop and search,

a problem which continues to this day, relations between the police

and the black community deteriorated to such an extent that the Brixton

These powers are disproportionate and could have a significant impact

on what are in some parts of the country already strained

relations between the police and the black community

and they should not be part of this bill.

PRESENTER: Lady Lawrence is the mother of Stephen Lawrence,

who was killed in a race attack in 1993.

The National Black Police Association has warned that the bill

could return the UK back to the bad old days of the Sus laws and create

the condition of making every person of colour in the UK a prime suspect

Many members of this house have lived through times when relations

between the police and the BME community were in a critical

It is often in the area of powers of stop and search.

Inevitably, black and Asian groups will bear the brunt.

Provisions allowing for intrusive, discriminatory stops have continued

to be one of the greatest flash points for police

The effect of alienating youth born and bred in this country results

in them choosing to leave this country and to fight with groups

who accept them, be it in terms of their creed or their colour.

It actually creates active enemies of this country.

It really is unwise to do that to young people who are raised

with hope in this country and then find themselves treated

This House is entitled to ask the noble Lord,

the minister, to consider that there will be circumstances

where to exercise such judgment will involve the very real danger

of identifying individuals who have leave to remain or who are not even

Surely, my Lords, that would be an intolerable imposition.

We know all too well that our fellow citizens do not take

to being stopped for unfounded reasons.

The Government is clear that this provision will not undermine

the police stop and search powers and as such will not

The police will first have to have cause to stop a vehicle and,

at this point, I could perhaps turn to the Bishop of Southwark's point,

where he asked for examples of those circumstances.

A reasonable suspicion may occur where a vehicle has been stopped

for a suspected driving offence and the police have checked

the circumstances of the driver as appropriate and those checks have

revealed a match against a Home Office record.

The search is therefore intelligence led, not a random search of a member

The House of Lords, scrutinising the Immigration Bill.

Now, ever since the financial crash, regulating the banks has been

a controversial subject, and there were some strong views

on the Bank of England and Financial Service Bill,

which had its first airing in the House of Commons.

One of the things we see here is the Tory government

circling their wagons to protect their friends and funders

It gives us no hope of introducing the separation between retail

and investment banking which we so obviously need

The bill will result in less documentation,

less awareness by the bankers of their responsibility,

less examination of the relationship between the risks they take

This government continues to believe it is acceptable for banks

to privatise their profits and socialise their losses.

Let us never forget the cost to all of us, to the British

taxpayer, the ?133 billion which we had to stump

I think it's a bit rich of the parties opposite to be

going on about this as though it is some kind

Everybody, and I'll explain to you why, everybody shares

the frustration at what happened in the lead-up to the banking crisis.

And you can't get away from the fact that the Labour Party had a large

part to play in that because, even though the regulation

was there, and the actual powers were there, these regulations

These practices weren't pursued assiduously enough and financial

PRESENTER: He recalled some advice he heard when he started work

Any time you see the separation of retail banking and investment

banking weakened, that is going to cause a problem.

So he admitted he did have some sympathy with what Helen Goodman had

Alicia McCarthy will be here for the rest of the week but,