Speeches by Beales.

“The UK has shocking vaccination levels. There have been a number of outbreaks and deaths from preventable conditions. On 26 January the country lost our measles elimination status, which should be a real stain on our reputation globally and domestically. We investigated this issue as a Committee and questioned the prev…”

“Okay. Well, we are not hitting the targets, and you do not know when we will hit the targets. I would argue that spending is quite crucial: more vaccinations and outreach are the things that seem quite crucial to achieving that aim.”

“When will spending on vaccination stop falling, as it has done in the last three years for NHS England? Is there a commitment that spending on vaccinations will stop declining?”

“Will it affect the new hospital programme? Will it affect the neighbourhood health hub roll-out?”

“The last Government raided capital budgets to plug short-term revenue pressures in the NHS. We committed as a new Government to ending that approach, which I believe is right. Is this a similar strategy—plugging another gap by raiding capital budgets?”

“Who will be held accountable if there are other outbreaks like those we have seen in the last two years, and people die from preventable, vaccinatable conditions and the vaccine rates in those areas are far below target level and have not been improved? How does accountability work? How will it work?”

“We are very supportive of that, but we are trying to understand whether local areas are being held accountable. You cannot currently tell me how many local areas have a vaccination lead or a plan. In your responses to us over the last two years, you have leant on the key things that the system should be doing, but you …”

“It feels as if we have heard about lots of initiatives, pilots and health visiting. That is a great idea, and we support health visitors delivering the programme, but I believe this is taking place in something like six areas. It is painfully slow, having taken two or three years to get a small number of areas doing it…”

“I have only two minutes left and I have one last question about the 1% contribution of departmental capital budgets to the DIP. Do you know yet what a 1% reduction in the capital budget for the NHS will mean practically, in terms of delivery of the 10-year plan, neighbourhood health and the digital switch?”

“You talk about responsibility and accountability. I think you are right; that is how we understand the landscape of responsibility. My concern is that I am not sure where accountability currently falls. We are not seeing improvement quickly enough. We are not yet able to know when the UK is aiming to get its eliminatio…”

“Wave 1 of the new hospital programme—fine. Current neighbourhood health hubs—fine. But what about future, not yet committed to projects?”

“There is “flexibility” in the capital budget. Is that projected underspends? Is it ringfenced contingency in the capital budget? What is the flexibility in the capital budget that you are talking about?”

“As the details become firm, will you write to the Committee to outline exactly the currently committed-to programmes, their status and where this money would come from in the existing capital budget?”

“Thank you very much, Secretary of State.”

“We have asked this before. Is there a commitment to do it and by when?”

“Several of my constituents have been failed by Capita; with the support of my team, they have been battling to get the pensions that they are owed and deserve. Frustratingly, for some the June milestone has come and gone. Just last Friday I met Barbara, whose husband passed away in January. On top of that grief and sor…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) and the members of her Committee for their excellent pre-legislative scrutiny work, which we have heard about today. Since becoming an MP, one of the most common issues I hear from my constituents is the poor quality of service prov…”

“But do you not generally have any software like that? It sounds like it is a manual process.”

“Are there ways of using AI and video technology, rather than more manual ways, to understand the utilisation of rooms?”

“You talked about the need for spaces being different. Dr Hynes, you mentioned the age of the estate predating the NHS. Are there clear, up-to-date design guides for what different sorts of neighbourhood health services should look like in the 21st century? You mentioned floor space or ICB footprint, but is there a clea…”