24/02/2016 Prime Minister's Questions

The house will be aware of the dreadful accident at Didcot

power station, in which one died and three are missing and the whole

House will want to send our condolences to the family

and friends of the victim, and our best wishes to those

I also want to pay tribute to the quick and incredibly brave

actions of our emergency services, who dealt with the incident

The Health and Safety Executive will carry out a full investigation

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues

and others and in addition to my duties in this House,

I shall have further such meetings later today.

I would like to associate myself and the people of Wiltshire

with the Prime Minister's sentiments on today's occurrence in Didcot.

Wiltshire has successfully integrated a number of Syrian

refugees already, including babies and children that would have

otherwise frozen or starved to death in the camps.

There has been a serious delay by the Home Office,

despite Wiltshire's claims to have tried to introduce more

Can the Prime Minister say what more he can do and can he look into it

and also outline, what can we do to fulfil our moral duty

Let me first pay tribute to Wiltshire Council and many

councils up and down the country who have done a magnificent job

in integrating and taking in Syrian refugees and their families,

finding them homes and schools and, I hope in time,

If you look at what has happened across Europe in terms

of the relocation and resettlement programme, actually,

Britain has done far better than any other country in terms

of this sort of resettlement programme.

We said 1,000 by Christmas and we have delivered

My honourable friend asked what more we can do.

First of all I will make sure she can meet with the Home Office

to talk about how we can make sure this system works well,

we will continue to invest in the Syrian refugee camps,

not least with the $11 billion we raised at the landmark London

conference, and we will continue to do what we can to deliver

the 20,000 Syrian refugees we said we would take into our country.

I want to echo the Prime Minister's tribute to all of the emergency

services in dealing with the major incident in Didcot.

Our thoughts are with the families of the person who died and those

of the families of those who are missing and injured.

We rely on our emergency services and we should always make sure

The NHS staff survey published yesterday shows that nine out of ten

junior doctors already work extra hours beyond their normal contract.

The survey also showed falling morale amongst this

What does the Prime Minister think the Health Secretary's veto

of a deal and imposition of a contract will do

The Health Secretary did not veto a deal.

We have had, for four years, discussions about how important

it is to have an NHS that works on a more seven-day basis.

Let me pay tribute to the fact that so many in the NHS work so hard

already at the weekends, but what matters is making sure

And what I would say to junior doctors is that no junior doctor

working legal hours will receive a pay cut, this contract will not

impose longer hours - in fact has tougher safeguards

to make sure it reduces the hours that are worked.

We are not seeking to save money from the new contract,

and nights and Saturday evenings and Sundays continue to attract

This is a good deal from a government that is putting

This dispute with the junior doctors has been on the basis

of misrepresented research about weekend mortality.

I will read the Prime Minister what the researchers themselves say,

and I quote, it is not possible to ascertain the extent

to which these excess deaths may be preventable.

To assume and they are avoidable would be rash and misleading.

Is the Prime Minister and his Health Secretary being rash

Let me agree with the right honourable gentleman

about something, which is, this dispute has been

plagued by scaremongering and inaccurate statistics.

The British Medical Association, in their first intervention,

In fact, it was so untrue that they had to take their pay

calculator off their website and they never put it back again.

Let me answer very directly the question about excess deaths,

the 6,000 figure for excess deaths was based on a question asked

by the Health Secretary to Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical

Now we have had time to go into these figures in more detail,

The Health Secretary was indeed guilty - he was guilty

The true figures for excess deaths at the weekend are 11,000

So perhaps the right honourable gentleman will now

withdraw his totally unjustified attack on the Health Secretary.

Will he withdraw it now he knows the figures?

It is worth reflecting for one moment, there is no dispute

with the junior doctors in Scotland or in Wales

because their governments have had the sense to reach an agreement

He must also be aware that the vast majority of the public of England

are on the side of the junior doctors, not the Secretary of State.

But the situation actually gets worse.

A Freedom of information request by the BBC today reveals that

when asked for the source of the Health Secretary's

statistics, civil servants in the Department of Health decided

to - and I quote - offer up the most bland statement

possible that would neither confirm nor contradict

Isn't it time that the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary

actually apologised for what they have done and correct

these statements andm indeed, whule they are about it,

reach an honourable settlement with the junior doctors?

I think the best that can be said is that he wrote that question

I have given the fullest possible description of how the figure

for 6,000 excess deaths was arrived at, and now the true

I know that there is no withdrawal of his accusation

against the Health Secretary, even after he gets those figures.

He says there is no dispute in Scotland and Wales

The reason for that is that in Scotland and Wales they are not

trying to create more of a seven-day NHS.

That seven-day NHS was not only in our manifesto -

because I want to make sure that hard-working people can access

health services at an equal rate right through the week,

because you don't just get ill in the weekdays -

but also, if he reads his own party's report into their election

defeat, they admit that the concept of a seven-day NHS was a very

What I would say to him is, you can see in England

we are putting ?10 billion more into the NHS, we have

10,000 more doctors, 10,000 more nurses,

we are treating more patients, we now have a settlement of the GP

contract, we have a settlement now of the junior doctors contract,

we are building a strong NHS for patients, and that's

We all want a strong and successful NHS.

You don't achieve that by provoking industrial action,

misrepresenting research, or failing to get a grip on the cost

of agency staff in the NHS which now amounts to ?4 billion.

Indeed, in the Prime Minister's own local NHS Trust,

it has overspent on staffing costs by ?11 million this year,

yet has spent ?30 million on agency staff.

Will the chair of the Oxford anti-austerity campaign,

writing another letter to himself, asking his local...

On behalf of his constituents for the Health Secretary

to intervene and support his local NHS?

I am very proud of the NHS in Oxfordshire and everyone

who works in it and, having met recently with the head

of the Oxford Radcliffe trust, I know that he supports this move

My mother would look across the dispatch box and say,

put on a proper suit, do up your tie, and sing

If we are talking of motherly advice, my late mother would have

said, stand up for the principle of a health service free

Because that is what she dedicated her life to,

We are three quarters of the way passed into this financial year,

the NHS deficit is already ?2.26 billion.

53% of NHS Trust finance directors say that the quality of care

in their local area has worsened in this year.

What will the deficit be by the end of next month?

We will get deficits down because we are clamping down

on the staffing agencies, on expensive management consultants,

and introducing better public procurement.

The honourable gentleman has to recognise this -

we said we would back the Simon Stevens plan which means

that at least 8 billion more into the NHS, although we put

At the last election and subsequently, Labour have

And when you look at the NHS today, my mother is equally proud

And I know she would be pleased to know 1.9 million more people go

to A, 1.6 million more operations, 10,700 more doctors,

And if Nye Bevan was here today he would want a seven-day NHS

because he knew the NHS was for patients up

Nye Bevan would be turning in his grave if he could hear

the Prime Minister's attitude towards the NHS.

He was a man with vision, he was a man with vision who wanted

a health service for the good of all.

I tell you, our health service is run by brilliant people,

brilliant doctors, brilliant nurses, brilliant staff.

But I have got a question for the Prime Minister from one

His name is Ashraf and he sent me a question saying this.

As a doctor, I know full well the stresses on the NHS

We already have a seven-day emergency service.

How does increasing elective work improve safety at the weekend?

If a truly seven-day NHS is wanted, we need more nurses,

more admin staff, more porters, radiographers, physios -

Will the Prime Minister now today commit to publishing the Department

of Health's analysis of the real cost of introducing a seven-day NHS?

And will he be prepared to pay for it, rather than picking a fight

with the junior doctors who want to deliver it?

What is not clear is whether or not Labour support a seven-day

We do support a seven-day NHS and that is why we are putting

in the ?10 billion, why we are putting in 10,000 more

putting in 11,000 more nurses and crucially,

yes, that is why we are looking at the contracts in the NHS to make

sure it can work on a more seven-day basis.

You can go to hospitals today in our country,

like the Salford Royal in the north-west of England,

operating on a seven-day basis within the existing budgets.

This is good because they are using all their equipment on a seven-day

basis, carrying out consultations seven days of the week,

they carry out some operations seven days a week.

That is good for the hospital, good for the staff working

in it and, above all, good for patients.

We don't just get ill on Monday to Friday.

We've got world-class people working in our NHS,

and together we are going to build that seven-day NHS.

With such a large number of schools in Brecon and Radnorshire facing

what can my right honourable friend do

to encourage the Welsh Assembly to convert state schools

in order that my constituents can benefit

from the improvements to education that English pupils are

seeing and hopefully save these excellent schools from closure?

The issue of education is devolved in Wales -

it's a responsibility for the Welsh Assembly Government.

But I would urge them to focus that a good education

depends not only on a finance, which is there, because of the way

the Barnett formula works and because of the decisions

we've taken about funding NHS in England, it also requires high

and the publication of league tables so people can see how their children

are doing, and crucially it requires these structural reforms.

Free Schools, academies, introducing some diversity,

some competition, and getting organisations that are passionate

about education to provide state education.

We want all the best organisations in there,

providing the best education for our children.

May I begin by associating the Scottish National Party

with the comments of the Prime Minister and the leader

of the Labour Party in relation to the tragedy in Didcot.

Our thoughts are with all of those who have been affected.

Will the Prime Minister congratulate the Scottish Government

and his own colleagues who secured a deal on financial arrangements

for the next phase of Scottish devolution?

The Treasury position initially endangered ?7 billion of public

At the beginning of this week, that was reduced to ?3 billion.

Yesterday morning, it was ?2.5 billion.

What changed the mind of the Treasury and helped them

agree to a deal that will make Scotland no worse off?

Well, let me agree with the Right honourable gentleman,

It is an excellent deal for Scotland but it is also an excellent deal

For those of us who want to keep the UK together, what we've just

demonstrated is that you can have full-on devolution with a powerhouse

parliament, with a fair fiscal settlement, inside the UK

and I think that is something to be celebrated.

Now we are going to move to a situation where

the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament

will have to start talking about policies and decisions

But I'm happy that the negotiations went as they did.

I'm happy we have a good outcome and I'm happy that Lord Smith,

who was responsible for so much of this work, without a statement

saying this delivers Smith and the principles in full.

So no more grievance, no more fussing about process,

no more arguments about the arrangements.

We're indebted to Scotland's Finance Secretary, John Swinney,

and to Nicola Sturgeon for securing a no-detriment deal for Scotland.

The Prime Minister is right that all parties will have to lay

out their plans in advance of the May elections

so could he answer this question - is it actually true that in this

time of austerity, his party, the Conservative Party,

is planning tax cuts for high earners in Scotland?

It will be Ruth Davidson, who is the only proper opposition

figure in Scotland, who will be setting out the plans.

If you are worried in Scotland about having a bit of a one-party

state and a lack of accountability, if you think that the Labour Party

in Scotland has lost its way, there is only one choice

I think there are opportunities to cut taxes, there are opportunities

to sharpen incentives, there are opportunities to attract

businesses and people into Scotland and I'm sure that Ruth will be

making those arguments and whatever she decides,

she'll have my full and unequivocal support.

A recent survey undertaken by Blaby District Council showed

that 96% of the 1000 100 residents survey were satisfied

Would my right honourable friend join me in paying tribute

to the leader of the council, Conservative leader

Terry Richardson, his councillor colleagues and all the officers

in Blaby District Council who, whilst making savings that

are necessary, are continuing to deliver a first-class service

to the residents of South Leicestershire?

I'm happy to join my honourable friend in doing that but he does

make, I think, an important point which is, yes,

we had to make difficult spending decisions, not least over the last

five years, but satisfaction with local government services

actually went up and I think this proves a larger point,

which is you can reduce spending levels, find efficiencies

and provide better services at the same time.

My constituent Frank is on long-term sick leave due to severe depression

but he is no longer entitled to sick pay, He was turned down for ESA

and cannot claim JSA due to his job being kept open for him.

He cannot leave his highly skilled job as a chef due to the threat

of punitive sanctions, leaving him with no income.

Will the Prime Minister look at this case specifically but also the wider

issue of people with mental health issues who are unable to work

I'm very happy to look at the individual case

because the way our benefits system should work is clear,

that if you are unable to work but, with help, could work,

you should go on to employment and support allowance

on the work-related activity group and get that help.

If you are unable to work, you go onto the support group,

It's not means-tested or time-limited.

For people who have mental health issues and difficulties you have got

the new personal independence payment system, which can address

So quite rightly for a generous and compassionate country,

we have a benefit system that supports those who cannot work

while making sure that those who can work are encouraged to do so.

It's fantastic news that unemployment in my constituency has

However, I'm committed to helping even more residents back into work

as we work towards our target of full employment.

That is why on March 18th I will be holding a community and jobs fair,

being together employers and the voluntary sector,

for residents to find out the many ways they can get suitable

employment and support from charities.

I would like to invite the Prime Minister to come along

to this event and see for himself the resourcefulness

Let me thank my honourable friend and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot

of touring the country in the weeks to come and perhaps a visit

to the constituency would be worthwhile.

We have now a much lower unemployment rate, our rate of just

above 5% is one of the lowest in Europe but even at that rate,

there is still much more to be done to match the jobs that

are being created to the people that want to work and job says

and apprenticeships and training programmes are absolutely

essential so that we deliver on what we promised,

The Prime Minister likes to go on about the importance of returning

Can I remind the Prime Minister that on the 7th of January,

we debated the issue of women's state pension and the fact that

women are being discriminated by the state pension increase?

The house decided by 158-0 and asked the government to mitigate

Why has the government not respected the sovereignty of the vote of this

I would argue very strongly we are not discriminating

What we are making sure is that there is an equal age

of retirement and that's right and to women who have been

discriminated against in the pension system in the past, the single tier

pension means many more will be retiring with a full pension

and as they do so, they have the triple lock of knowing

pensions will always go up by wages, prices or 2.5%,

That's why pensioner poverty is at a record low and that's why

pensioners know they can live in security and dignity

South Thanet lags behind much of the south-east

I've launched a new body locally, the Ramsgate Regeneration Alliance,

that brings together businesses and community groups.

Can I invite my right honourable friend and the Coastal Communities

Minister to this gem on our doorstep to see for themselves what it

I'm very happy to put Ramsgate on my tour list for the coming

months and we all remember the historic battle that he fought

We have set up the Coastal Communities Fund.

We have a dedicated minister in the government to try to help

coastal communities and I will make sure that officials from his

department meet with this new alliance and look

at the Ramsgate coastal community team and what they can do to help.

For two years my constituents and I campaigned against development

The local council has listened and rejected the plans but then

the Conservative Minister for Local Government called

in the decision and overturned the wishes of the community,

showing utter disrespect for local democracy.

The Prime Minister preaches localism but will he finally admit

that his government only believes in the devolution of blame for cuts,

not the devolution of actual power for local communities?

We have a long-standing system for local planning but also

being able to call in decisions and that operated all the time under

If anything, our local planning system is actually putting more

power in the hands of local people because once they've

completed their local plan, it is then much easier to say yes

to developments that are within that plan and no to developments

Last Friday I made separate visits to three families,

all of whom have a child suffering from acute mental health

difficulties, which the families felt had not been adequately

assessed at the early stages by CAMS.

Colleagues from across the chamber will be all too familiar

I welcome the Prime Minister's recent commitment to reform mental

Can I ask him to consider reviewing the provision of initial stage

treatment and ask that he continues to be the champion for these

Let me thank my honourable friend for his question.

He is right that children and young people's mental health is a priority

We can all agree across this house this is not an area that has had

adequate attention or investment the many years.

I would highlight particularly the problems of psychosis,

sometimes caused by drug use, I would also raise the huge problem

of eating disorders, where we see a rapid increase

We have come a long way in increasing the number of talking

therapies, something like 740,000 more people are accessing those

therapies than when this government came to office but we recognise

there is more to be done and that's why we are investing ?1.4 billion

in systemwide transformation across children's and adolescents'

Last week, ScottishPower refused to attend and evidence session

with the cashback APPG where crucial evidence was uncovered.

As a former litigator I am mightily convinced that over 2,000

by constituents and over half a million people in the UK are owed

people perceive the cash that they were promised

I'm glad the honourable gentleman has raised this because it has been

raised on previous occasions by the honourable member

for Aberconwy and I know the cross-party group has done some

Any alleged wrongdoing should be fully investigated.

Ofgem can impose fines if they find companies have breached

their licence and I'm very happy to arrange for a meeting between him

and other members of the all-party group with relevant ministers

Does my right honourable friend agree with me that with the Nato

summit in Warsaw pending, with the threat of expansionism

from Putin's Russia and the threat from Daesh, we are right in this

government to support 2% of our GDP towards defence?

Isn't he shocked at the failure of the party opposite

He makes an important point which is that we do face an insecure

and unstable world, particularly with what Putin has done

in the Ukraine, particularly with what we see in Syria and that's

why I think 2% spending on defence and making sure we renew our nuclear

To be fair to the Labour Party, they have got an answer.

They are not going to spend 2%, they are not going to renew our

Trident submarines, but they've come up with a brilliant answer.

They are bringing back as their spokesman and spin

Six months after saying - and this is the Leader

of the Opposition - we could win in 2020,

but only if we spent the next five years building this movement

and putting forward a vision for the kind of politics,

Six months on, Damian McBride is back.

Last week I visited Palestine along with several of my honourable

friends, where we visited the home of Nora and her family,

who have lived in the old city of East Jerusalem since 1953.

However, Israeli settlers are now trying to force Nora from her home

of over 60 years, and there are many other cases.

Does the Prime Minister agree with me that illegal settlements

and constructions are a major roadblock that hinder peaceful

negotiations, and what is this government doing to help prevent

the infringement into Palestinian lives and land?

Let me say, I think the question the honourable gentleman raises

I am well known as being a strong friend of Israel but I have to say,

the first time I visited Jerusalem and had a proper tour around that

wonderful city and saw what has happened with the effective

encirclement of East Jerusalem, it is genuinely shocking.

What this government has consistently done is saying

we are supporters of Israel but we do not support

illegal settlements, do not support what is happening

in East Jerusalem and it is very important that this capital city

is maintained in the way it was in the past.

One of my constituents, Alex Bagnall, is fighting

to have his son brought back to the UK after he was taken

to Poland by the mother illegally, as per the Hague treaty.

Will the Prime Minister outline what representations,

are being made to the EU and Polish authorities with regard to the Hague

convention in order to help British families with the safe return

of their abducted children, to offer hope to devastated families

My honourable friend is right to raise a case like this and sadly

there are far too many of them in our country.

The straight answer is that the return decision

is for the Polish court, and governments can't interfere

in the decisions or processes of another country's justice system,

but we do have the international child abduction and contact unit

They've been in constant touch with Mr Bagnall,

they are processing his paperwork, chasing their counterparts in Poland

for information, and I will make sure the Foreign Secretary is aware

of this case and does everything he can to help her

Oil and gas has contributed over ?300 billion to Treasury coffers.

The Scottish Government, trade unions and Oil Gas UK

are calling for reductions to the headline rate of tax

to support the industry in its hour of need.

Yet instead of the so-called broad shoulders of the UK,

what we see sloping shoulders of the Prime Minister repeatedly

Will he commit to reduce the tax level of oil and gas and support

What I would say to the honourable gentleman is, first of all,

in the Budget last year, we reduced the burden of tax on oil

and gas - something we were able to do because of the broad shoulders

And now let us examine what has happened since that time.

If there weren't the broad shoulders of the UK Government -

if instead this was a genuinely fiscally independent Scotland -

there would be a massive black hole in your budget.

You would be cutting welfare, you would be cutting spending,

you would be putting up taxes, you would be facing

Every week, two women are killed in England and Wales by a current

The question is not "Why doesn't she leave?"

The Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner is piloting a programme

called Drive, which aims to change the behaviour of offenders.

It is part of his new strategy to tackle violence against

Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating Katy Bourne

for tackling domestic violence across Sussex?

My honourable friend is right to raise this.

We have got better at tackling the crime of domestic violence,

but there is still so much more to do.

I think Katy Bourne, who I know, does an excellent job as the Police

I think this is a good example of the sort of thing that Police

and Crime Commissioners, with their higher profile

than police authorities ever had, can give a real lead on,

and I would urge others around the country to do exactly that.

We also need to make sure we are policing

But I think PCCs like Katy Bourne can help lead the way.

As the Prime Minister knows, resources were ring fenced

following the fresh start agreement in November to help Northern Ireland

Will the Prime Minister consider releasing some of that money,

as has been hinted at by the Secretary of State,

to help the Police Service of Northern Ireland as they face

increasing pressures in front-line policing,

and will he take the opportunity to reaffirm that there will be no

rewriting of the past in Northern Ireland to legitimised

terrorism or to promote a pernicious narrative that is about making

equivalent the security forces and terrorism?

What I say is that the fresh start agreement was a good agreement

and an important part of it was dealing with these legacy

cases and making sure they were dealt with more quickly.

To me, it's always been about trying to heal the hurt of the legacy

cases, rather than trying to write new narratives.

I'll look carefully at what he says about resources because we need

to make sure that the policing of Northern Ireland continues to be

properly resourced, not least because we still face

The United Kingdom endorses the code of good practice on referendums,

published by the European Commission for Democracy through Law.

It says equality of opportunity must be guaranteed for the supporters

and opponents of the proposal being voted on, and equality must be

ensured in terms of public subsidies and other forms of backing.

Yesterday, Sir Jeremy Heywood sent a letter around the department

preventing ministers from having access to civil service briefing.

Can the Prime Minister check whether that letter was compatible

I'm very happy with the letter that was sent out for this reason,

which is that the government has a position on this issue.

The government's position is that we would be better off

Ministers are able to depart from that position and campaign

It is right in terms of how we go about it,

but it does not mean the government is neutral.

It doesn't mean the civil service is neutral.

The government has a policy, from which people can depart.

As for the funding of the referendum campaign, we now have very clear

laws in place and rules in place and the Electoral Commission to make

sure that both campaigns are funded properly,

and I think that is good for our democracy.