27/02/2017 Monday in Parliament


27/02/2017

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Hello there and welcome to Monday in Parliament.

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Coming up: The Health Secretary comes under fire after it's revealed

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hundreds of thousands of patient letters were put into storage

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Two months and 2017 and the Health Secretary Bakshi is from one crisis

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to another. There is no evidence so far that any

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patient safety has been put at risk. Peers begin their detailed scrutiny

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of the Brexit triggering bill. And the Speaker pays

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tribute following the death of the Commons' longest-serving MP,

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Sir Gerald Kaufman. It was that fidelity to principle,

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that commitment to causes, that insistence on doing his duty

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by his constituents, But first, the Health Secretary has

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told MPs some 500,000 documents containing medical information,

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including cancer test results, were mistakenly put in storage

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rather than being sent to the GP The error occurred when a mail

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redirection company - NHS Shared Business Services -

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hired by the health service failed to pass on documents that had either

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been incorrectly addressed or needed re-routing because the patient had

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moved to a new GP surgery. Patients in the East Midlands,

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the South West and The Health Secretary confirmed that

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2,000 of the higher risk cases had now been reassessed by doctors -

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at a cost of ?2.2 million - The remaining 500 are

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still being assessed. Jeremy Hunt explained

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in total more than 700,000 200,000 pieces were temporary

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residence forms and further 500,000 pieces

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assessed as low risk. A first triage identified a further

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2,500 items which had potential risk of harm and needed

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further investigation but follow-up by local GPs has already identified

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nearly 2,000 of these as The remainder are

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still being assessed but so far no patient harm

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has been identified. He explained why he hadn't gone

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public with the information sooner. Publicising the issue could have

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meant GP surgeries being inundated with enquiries from

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worried patients which would have prevented them from doing

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the most important work, namely investigating the named

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patients who were This is a catastrophic

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breach of data protection. Over half a million

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patients' data, including blood test results,

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cancer screening results, biopsy results, even correspondence

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relating to cases of child They were languishing

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in a warehouse on It's an absolute

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scandal, Mr Speaker. Time and time again,

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this Health Secretary Well, today he stands

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accused of a cover-up. Two months into 2017 and the

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Health Secretary lurches from Hospitals are overcrowded,

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waiting lists out of control, he can't deliver the

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investment our NHS needs. He can't deliver

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a social care solution. He can't deliver

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patient safety and now he can't even deliver

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the post, Mr Speaker. He has overseen a shambles that puts

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patient safety at risk. Patients deserve answers

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and they deserve an apology. There is no evidence so far that any

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patient safety has been put at risk. The Secretary of State stated

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with great authority I'd be interested to know how

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he could be so certain, given that all of this data was missing

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for a long time What controls are in place now that

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weren't in place then that means he can make that statement

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with such confidence? I don't know she's done a health

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question before but let me say to her that we are assured

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that the data was not lost, it was kept in secure setting

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which means that it was safe. It wasn't breached or

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accessed by anyone else. I used to work in a pathology lab

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and it absolutely pains me to think that those results generated

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by the hard-working pathology staff were languishing in a warehouse

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somewhere unseen by anybody. I know what GPs will do

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if they don't get lab results. They will ring the laboratory

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and ask for them. So has the Secretary

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of State made any estimate of the amount of time

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wasted on phone calls Regrettably, I'm sure that

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because of what happened extra work was created for GPs

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but what I will say is it is because of GP's

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commitment to their own that in the vast majority of cases

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patient harm was avoided because, when results don't come through that

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a GP is expecting, My constituents in Kettering will be

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amazed that for five years no-one spotted that 700,000

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records had gone missing. Can I ask him how was it discovered

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and why is it that in these three areas such

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a large amount of data effectively disappeared

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from public view? I wish I could give him

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the answer to that question. I do think it is completely

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extraordinary that for such a long period of time it wasn't

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noticed that this data It was discovered towards the end

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of the SBS contract. I think there are lessons in the NHS

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which relate very closely to what the other members of said

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about the dangers of overreliance on paper

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rather than electronic systems, where it is much, much easier

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to keep track of what's happening. Let me say to the gentleman opposite

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as he continues to make comments from a sedentary position,

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when it comes to making the NHS electronic, I think people

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will compare his government's record In the Lords, peers were beginning

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their detailed scrutiny of the bill paving the way for Theresa May

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to trigger the UK's By tradition, peers don't vote

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on amendments at committee stage, keeping their powder dry until later

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in the legislative process. But a Labour peer and former Cabinet

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mininster, Peter, now Lord Hain, pushed his amendment arguing

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that the UK should stay Leaving the single market will cause

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untold harm to the economy and people's jobs which will be felt

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most keenly in the already disadvantaged nations

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and regions where I live, A hard Brexit will therefore have

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damaging consequences for the union of our United Kingdom and also

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for the island of Ireland. What's at stake is jobs,

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living standards and rights. Bear that in mind, we are playing

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poker if we go down the government route with people's livelihoods

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on a very big scale. Are we likely to get that

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comprehensive free trade I've not met anybody yet to knows

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anything about trade negotiation Nobody is arguing, I don't think,

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I've never met anybody who says we shouldn't have access to do

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business with the single market. In the same way as they will want

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to do business with us. The question is whether we want

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to be members of it. They've accused my right honourable

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friend the Prime Minister The Prime Minister has not opted

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for a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit or any sort of squishy Brexit,

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she is merely attempting to carry out the wishes

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of the people to leave the EU. And that automatically means

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leaving the single market. Because if we stay in the single

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market we are still in the EU If we believe that no deal was

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better than a bad deal then we are gambling millions of manufacturing

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jobs, 10% of our GDP. Of course the single

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market is not perfect. Notably in its coverage

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of all services. But almost half of British trade

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in goods and services takes place And it should be an absolute

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priority therefore for us to secure the continuity of that trade

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we already have. But Labour's front bench said it

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couldn't back Peter Hain's amendment, saying it had to be...

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Our task is to persuade

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set their sat nav for the wrong destination and that is

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Giving people the unrealistic hope that staying in the single market,

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despite the referendum and our exit is a possibility is, I think,

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and unfair thing to make them think could happen.

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We need to continue to trade as freely as possible with the EU.

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And for that reason we are not able to support this amendment.

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What I would ask is that those of your Lordships who, like me,

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voted to remain stop fighting the battles of the campaign but come

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together to help us think of ways we can continue to thrive,

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The issue raised by this amendment are indeed worthy of debate but,

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with the greatest of respect, this amendment has no place in this

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bill and would undermine the expressed intent

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Because I think he will be judged by history as being on the wrong

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Of forcing us to do something in the Labour Party that we do not

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actually in our hearts really believe in.

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I do not lightly go against my party whip.

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In my 26 years in Parliament, in the Commons and in here,

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or twice but this for me is a matter of absolutely crucial importance

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to this country and to the future of people, their jobs and prosperity

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and the truth is the minister, with all due respect,

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is doing a great job on a sticky wicket but the truth is he hasn't

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a clue and the government hasn't a clue where we are going.

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They have no idea where they are taking us.

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I think for the sake of jobs, prosperity, businesses,

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it is important to pass this amendment and I therefore wish

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rejected the amendment to keep the rejected the amendment to keep the

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UK in the single market. My Lords, they have voted content -

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136, not content - 299. You're watching Monday

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in Parliament, with me, A fund intended to ease

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the pressures on adult social care services and hospitals in England

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has been described by MPs as a "bit of a fraud"

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and "window dressing". The watchdog the National Audit

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Office has said the ?5.3 billion Better Care Fund has not succeeded

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in keeping patients out of hospital or saved any money,

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although the NAO said it had helped join up health and social

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care in some areas. Appearing before the Public Accounts

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Committee senior health figures argued that the fund was working,

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but it was too soon In your report,

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it says it's not working. I'm aware we have

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limited time today. We could go round the Houses

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on the challenges, but this report says that the Better Care Fund,

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the integration that it was supposed to achieve, the safe admissions

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to A that it was supposed to achieve, it hasn't delivered

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and it has actually cost money. I agree with the NAO report

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and I thought it set out very fairly where the Better Care Fund has made

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progress, and it has in some important respects,

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and where it has not... I think my answer to the question

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was I agreed with the rather more nuanced picture

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the National Audit Office presented of where things have improved

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and where they have not. We think, and this is shown

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in the National Audit Office, that local areas report

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that the Better Care Fund, in the vast majority

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of cases, is driving It has shown improvement

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across two of its... Were you overoptimistic in setting

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the targets and savings that And we talked about this back

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in December 2014, didn't we? And I think we had quite a frank

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exchange at that point. The Better Care Fund mark one,

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which is what I regard this, was an initiative by the Government

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to transfer funding from the NHS to social care, in recognition

:14:54.:15:00.

of the great pressures raised on social care, so, did it

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achieve its intended aim of increasing the funding available

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to local authorities So, in that sense,

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it has been a success. It didn't actually achieve

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anything in reducing the number of emergency admissions

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to A, did it? Well, I don't think it was ever

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likely to, as of some sort of magic between March 31 2015,

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and April 1 2015. In fact, I think that's what

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I laid out for you in 2014. You laid it out rather nicely,

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Better Care Fund maths and real-world maths,

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I think in June last year, which we thought summed it

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up perhaps quite well. Actually, so, really, it was

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all a bit of a fraud, wasn't it? The money was going to go

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from your budget to the local government budgets, but it wasn't

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actually going to achieve anything to reducing costs to the NHS,

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which was one of Well, it was supporting

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social care financing. Mm-hmm, to help save

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pounds in the NHS. Well, to help social

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care funding pressures. I think the underlying problem

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is the shortfall of funding The Better Care Fund is an attempt

:16:03.:16:04.

to put some more money in. The new Better Care Fund

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is an attempt to put a bit more in. Social care would have been cut

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by more without the NHS transfer of funds, definitely,

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because it was used to prevent cuts. So, what you're really saying is,

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actually, this isn't really much It's just moving money

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from pot A to pot B. The problem with always thinking

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that by putting some money in, we'll get some improvement

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and some better things - it's just plugging a gap of money

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that has been taken away, so the population 65-plus has

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gone up by 15% in the period we are talking about,

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and, actually, over 40% of adult social care budgets isn't spent

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on older people at all. 35% is spent on people

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with learning disabilities alone, where the pressures are equally

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great, so there is a huge set of issues here,

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and, although I wouldn't dismiss BCF or improve BCF as an unwelcome

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resource, it's not getting The question is to what budget

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a council but to its social care services, and that's obviously tied

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up with the whole bigger national debate about local authority

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financing and local democracy. A short time later in the Commons,

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MPs debated the next round of funding for health

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and social care in England. The idea that we have an NHS

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that is on a sustainable footing is, I ask Ministers to be realistic

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about the current position, and I ask our Chancellor,

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in his forthcoming Budget, to address this matter by urgently

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giving a lifeline to social care, because that will benefit not just

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social care, but the NHS. She called for a joined-up

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approach for the future - a call echoed by the chair

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of another influential committee. We do need a long-term

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generational shift in how we are going to deal

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with this matter. We cannot just keep lurching

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from crisis to crisis and funding The number of assaults carried out

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on NHS staff in England by patients The day in the Commons began

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with tributes following the death Sir Gerald was the oldest MP,

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and also held the title "father of the house",

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as he had the longest unbroken service as a member of the Commons,

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being elected in 1970. He famously called his party's

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left-wing 1983 election manifesto "the longest suicide

:18:31.:18:34.

note in history". The Speaker, John Bercow,

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led the tributes, saying I will not pretend that he was

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always the easiest of colleagues. If you were lauded or praised

:18:41.:18:49.

by Gerald, you doubtless took If you were attacked

:18:50.:18:51.

or denounced by Sir Gerald, you could be in no doubt

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on the matter. But there was that fidelity

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to principle, that commitment to causes, that insistence

:19:03.:19:04.

on doing his duty by his constituents, by his party,

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and by his country. Gerald will be mourned

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very widely indeed. MPs will get the chance to pay

:19:15.:19:19.

their tributes later in the week. Meanwhile, in the Lords,

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cross-party tributes have been paid to the former Lords leader

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and Home Secretary Lord Waddington, David Waddington served

:19:29.:19:30.

in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet during the final year

:19:31.:19:34.

of her premiership from 1989-90. He was appointed as leader

:19:35.:19:39.

in the Lords by John Major. A tenacious, and committed servant

:19:40.:19:43.

to the British public, who are affected real change,

:19:44.:19:49.

leading the charge from the backbenches on major legislation

:19:50.:19:53.

such as the amendment he carried to the Criminal Justice

:19:54.:19:55.

And Immigration Bill in 2008. I think it's fair to say

:19:56.:20:01.

that he wasn't one of life's But my colleagues did cheer

:20:02.:20:04.

when, as Home Secretary, he referred the case

:20:05.:20:14.

of the Birmingham Six to the Court of Appeal, where,

:20:15.:20:17.

of course, their convictions In some ways, he wrote his own

:20:18.:20:19.

obituary when in an interview for the House magazine some years

:20:20.:20:28.

ago he said, with disarming self-deprecation, I think

:20:29.:20:31.

he was having a joke, but, I would like to be remembered

:20:32.:20:35.

as a decent local buffer who wasn't all that clever but,

:20:36.:20:40.

in his own way, The number of assaults carried out

:20:41.:20:42.

on NHS staff in England by patients or members of the public is rising

:20:43.:20:54.

and now stands at Such is the concern that a petition

:20:55.:20:57.

launched by the radio DJ Nick Ferrari calling for such

:20:58.:21:02.

attacks to be made a specific criminal offence has attracted

:21:03.:21:06.

nearly 117,000 signatures In a debate in Westminster Hall,

:21:07.:21:11.

MPs told horror stories of some of the violence NHS

:21:12.:21:13.

workers had suffered. I'll draw members' attention to one

:21:14.:21:19.

example I was given of a 35-year-old ambulance technician from Cornwall,

:21:20.:21:22.

who was punched in the face by a drunk, aggressive woman

:21:23.:21:25.

whilst at work. She sustained a broken jaw

:21:26.:21:29.

and she's had at least 12 surgical procedures since then,

:21:30.:21:32.

and is still suffering She had a titanium jaw implant put

:21:33.:21:35.

in back in September 2016, but since then she has had to have

:21:36.:21:41.

two further procedures, and cannot open her mouth wider than a finger

:21:42.:21:44.

width at the moment. That's over a decade

:21:45.:21:49.

of agony and suffering. We owe it to people like her,

:21:50.:21:54.

and everybody else attacked just doing their job, to stand up

:21:55.:21:57.

and send a message that attacks on NHS staff

:21:58.:22:00.

are contemptible and we will do everything in our power

:22:01.:22:02.

to stop them. One piece of testimony

:22:03.:22:05.

from an NHS staff nurse describes how in her,

:22:06.:22:09.

quote, 20-year nursing career, I have been spat at, punched,

:22:10.:22:13.

kicked, verbally abused, and even had a cardiac

:22:14.:22:17.

monitor thrown at my head. Another talks about how

:22:18.:22:21.

she works, quote, in an A On a daily basis, I see

:22:22.:22:24.

some sort of aggression, whether this is physical

:22:25.:22:29.

or verbal, towards staff. I can't recall a day that has gone

:22:30.:22:31.

by when we have not had to have security or police

:22:32.:22:34.

in the department. But perhaps even more worrying

:22:35.:22:38.

than this is evidence given to this Petitions Committee

:22:39.:22:41.

by the Royal College of Nursing, which suggests that there

:22:42.:22:44.

is a dangerous perception that some female nurses fear

:22:45.:22:46.

that they are seen as, quote, Now I am quite sure that members

:22:47.:22:51.

will find this quite appalling. It is undeniable that our NHS staff

:22:52.:22:57.

are under a great deal of pressure at the moment,

:22:58.:23:01.

with long waiting lists, patients waiting on trolleys in corridors,

:23:02.:23:03.

and having to deal with angry The Government, with their current

:23:04.:23:08.

handling of the NHS, appear to be creating a perfect

:23:09.:23:13.

storm of unrest and discontent amongst patients and relatives,

:23:14.:23:18.

which is likely to exacerbate tension and ill feeling,

:23:19.:23:22.

and the Government must take some I am the daughter of a retired

:23:23.:23:25.

police sergeant and a nurse, And both parents were subject

:23:26.:23:30.

to abuse as part of their roles as public servants, and so this

:23:31.:23:38.

is an issue that I feel If you are under time pressure, as,

:23:39.:23:41.

of course, we've seen in this winter in accident and emergency,

:23:42.:23:46.

actually that just pours petrol on the flames,

:23:47.:23:50.

because someone is going, excuse me, excuse me,

:23:51.:23:52.

can I speak to you? And people are running past

:23:53.:23:55.

all the time, and then So, this is not always

:23:56.:24:00.

someone who is coming in with the tattoos,

:24:01.:24:07.

you know, "love, hate" or whatever, making it obvious

:24:08.:24:09.

that they are troubled. It is someone who is bright and,

:24:10.:24:11.

but to de-escalates It requires back-up and,

:24:12.:24:14.

more than anything else, But the Minister thought

:24:15.:24:22.

the penalties already available Given the current offences framework

:24:23.:24:25.

and sentencing guide, which, as I say, makes provision

:24:26.:24:30.

for an increase in sentence to be considered where the victim

:24:31.:24:34.

of an assault is a public sector worker, I am not persuaded

:24:35.:24:37.

that there is a need to create a specific offence for this

:24:38.:24:41.

particular group of workers. The new MP for Stoke-on-Trent

:24:42.:24:50.

Central has taken his Gareth Snell held the seat for

:24:51.:24:52.

Labour in last week's by-election. He won the seat with a majority

:24:53.:24:56.

of just over 2,500 - Ukip's leader Paul Nuttall came

:24:57.:25:00.

second - on a turnout of 38%. I, Gareth Craig Snell, do solemnly,

:25:01.:25:03.

sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful

:25:04.:25:07.

and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,

:25:08.:25:11.

her heirs and successors The by-election was caused

:25:12.:25:14.

when the previous MP Tristram Hunt decided to stand down

:25:15.:25:23.

from Parliament to run And that's it from me for now,

:25:24.:25:27.

but do join Keith Macdougall at the same time tomorrow

:25:28.:25:33.

for another round-up of the best of the day

:25:34.:25:35.

here at Westminster, but until then, from me,

:25:36.:25:38.

Alicia McCarthy, goodbye.

:25:39.:25:44.

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