Speeches by Dixon.

“It was quite a large-scale scandal. Thank you.”

“Another aspect of people and money is special severance payments. Again, the protocol is that these should all get Treasury approval. It seems, again, that NHS providers made some 51 special severance payments, totalling over £900,000, in 2023-24. Five were not approved. Can you just update us on progress on addressing…”

“Yes. Similarly, on mental health, I was pleased to see on page 22 of your annual accounts that all ICBs did meet the mental health investment standard. I believe there is a commitment to continue with the mental health investment standard. Could you just confirm until what date that commitment has been made?”

“In that typology of the breakdown of costs—my apologies if I have missed it—I did not really see anything that gave a sense of how much we were spending on palliative or end-of-life care. Indeed, in the performance report, which goes into great detail on many topics with pages of information, there are but four lines, …”

“You can learn best practice from the local authority. You probably do not need to respond to that, Julian.”

“Likewise, I just have a couple of quick supplementaries. Following up on the point on social care, there does seem to be a breakdown on page 278 of the accounts. I always get my noughts muddled up, but I think the purchasing of social care by the NHS is about £1.4 billion. The feedback from a lot of social care provide…”

“Could we have that in this follow-up note?”

“I have a very small supplementary question, if I may, just to get this on the record, particularly given the data coming back. I realise there are a lot of different assumptions behind future liabilities. The Cumberlege review, “First Do No Harm”, looked at the pelvic mesh implant scandal, which affected a number of my…”

“Thank you very much, Sir Chris. I could go on; I would love to discuss patient safety all day.”

“I would also just concur with your point about the lawyers. Certainly, I would hope that NHS Resolution would look more closely at how it could reduce the legal component and, indeed, consider no-fault compensation. Is that something that is on the agenda for NHS Resolution?”

“I am sorry, Chair. For this part of the discussion, I should have made a declaration of interest that I am an officer of the all-party parliamentary group for patient safety. Certainly, I was going to draw attention particularly to maternity outcomes. As you say, Sir Chris, while they might not be the largest number, t…”

“Behind this monetary figure lie tragic incidents of patient harm. We would like to see the NHS really recognising that it should do no harm. I would be grateful if you could say a little more than is in some of the performance reports about what you are doing to reduce patient harm and advance patient safety. Will this…”

“It is very important that all those who were victims of this scandal have a right to compensation. Thank you for that. Moving on to clinical negligence, in the accounts we see very large numbers in terms of the liabilities and costs relating to risks to do with clinical negligence. The provisions here were £58.2 billio…”

“So it was error rather than fraud.”

“Who is the accountable officer? We need to make sure there is real clarity on who is accountable for this.”

“So they are not all out of date and wasted.”

“No, it is more about the typology. There is more than enough information on some subjects. It just does not truly reflect the priorities that the public and patients have. There are many more things that we could discuss, but I am sure we will have other opportunities, through the Public Accounts Committee, to come bac…”

“There is a mismatch, in a way, between the areas where we are interested in knowing what we are spending and what you have in the accountability report, and your typology breakdown, where there are some large categories that just say “clinical services” or “community services”. From a transparency point of view, it is …”

“The hon. Gentleman may know that I am the co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on carers. We are very pleased that there are now unpaid leave requirements for carers; on other occasions, I have urged the Government to look into going further with paid entitlements for carers. There is a real opportunity to ena…”

“Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. Very briefly, I am delighted that the Government are strengthening statutory sick pay. During covid, many care workers were forced to go into work—at their own risk, and risking those they were caring for—because they were not eligible for statutory sick pay, so strengthening …”