Speeches by George.

“You have mentioned VPAG a number of times. Tom, you said that it is a symptom rather than a cause. Richard, why did negotiations break down this summer? I note that you said that the lack of a deal undermines the Government’s plan for the UK to grow in its life sciences sector, arguing that pricing is the “core issue h…”

“Are you not overcomplicating it really? They are saying the door is open, you are saying the door is open, but you are not talking. It is as simple as that, is it not? You just need to be around the same table.”

“The hon. Lady is making a powerful point. She will note that in excess of 90 MPs are taking part, or seeking to take part, in this debate. Given that she is sitting next to the Minister, I hope she will lean on, or nudge, her to recognise that we should not necessarily wait for the provisions of the—no doubt welcome—Wh…”

“Safe staffing ratios, you mean?”

“And what is the target number?”

“So if you had a target, it would be something in the region of another 15% on top of that number. Have I got that wrong?”

“You mentioned 15 associate pilots. Do we know where those are? Can you provide us with a list?”

“I hope we will have some rich answers; I do not know about the questions now. On the theme of lessons learned, and on the back of an earlier question from the Chair, we can learn lessons from successes like Trieste and the pilots, but we can also learn from the not-so-good examples, the failures and where things go wro…”

“Thank you for that response—that is much appreciated. Maybe we could take this up, Minister, separately outside this meeting. Moving on to the workforce, you mentioned earlier the 8,500 additional mental health workers coming into the system. There is a severe shortage of staff within community mental health services. …”

“That would be really helpful. Finally, social workers were not included in the workforce plan, yet they are clearly essential in the workforce that you require. What are you going to say about them? First, will you make sure that social workers are included in the workforce plan? Secondly, what plans do you have to ens…”

“In respect of sanctions, the Minister will be aware that I asked the then Foreign Secretary last week whether he would make sure that the UK has no involvement in the proposed Elbit contract, either commercial or governmental, that there is absolutely no use of the Akrotiri air base in Cyprus to the advantage of the Is…”

“Answering one of the fact-based questions earlier from Beccy, Jim, you said there was a requirement to achieve effective operational balance within three years. Do you mean the end of the year 2028-29, or, in other words, by March 2029? Am I right? Is that the three‑year financial year?”

“Jim, earlier you were explaining the human side of the messaging of cuts to your own staff and the impact of the abolition. How has that affected the way in which you have, in turn, conveyed messages of having to take quite significant cuts and significant structural change to ICBs and their staff?”

“The ICBs will simply be receiving and communicating through that.”

“They will not be collations of the local ICBs, where they come together. It will be your seven offices within the seven Government zones. “Regions” is not the right word. That is what they will be.”

“These will be offices of the centre, really.”

“Finally, I suppose it shows the importance of this Committee that the regional blueprint was published yesterday in time for the Committee. I understand that in that document—I have not had chance to look at it myself yet—there is a re-creation of the seven regions, a bit like the strategic health authorities of the pa…”

“You are confident that everything is in order and it will be. With regard to the wider issues, talking about the changes to NHS England, are you confident that matters such as pandemic preparedness, aspects that are not currently emergency, urgent issues, are not simply going to be lost or put on the back burner for a …”

“Let us move on to some aspects of services, which are at a fairly critical stage , certainly, as far as the discourse here is concerned, there is a lot of concern. One example is dentistry. To what extent are you confident there will not be any slip-ups in the move from one system to another, that it is not going to sl…”

“The cost-cutting plans for each ICB have gone through what is called a moderation process. To what extent has that enforced a national uniformity of approach? Have you used that as a learning opportunity to see how the creativity and ideas of some localities could be shared in other areas?”