Speeches by Murray.

“Very quickly, I don’t think it is fair to say that the Department has not given it a second thought since, because I think that if you look at everything it has been doing around nutrient profile modelling and pushing for bans on advertising, all those are really important steps forward. I think that it is not credible…”

“We are in the process of finalising them at the moment.”

“As I said, I cannot give you a date.”

“I do not want people to feel that. I want people to know that I can easily imagine how frustrated they must feel and how they must want to have a public response. I can totally understand.”

“I take that very seriously. One of the things about being in this role as Secretary of State for Health is that every day, in every decision, I am thinking about how the people who will be affected by that decision must be feeling as a result of a decision being taken or not being taken, or of the decision we take. It …”

“We are still committed to that, and we are focused on investing in new scanners. There is a lot of capital investment going into DEXA scanners, which can have a huge benefit. They can identify potential fractures early and give people a good overview of what is happening in that regard. But yes, we are still—”

“You and I have spoken about the relationship between the Secretary of State, the Department and the Committee being one of trying to share information wherever possible. I am happy to go away and come back to you with what information we may be able to share in the future. But I think it is right that you recognise the…”

“I need to get agreement across Government, so I will come back to you on that.”

“As I and Sam said, a lot of modelling goes on at the Department for Health of the various scenarios over the coming years. The pilots, which we have announced, are an important part of contributing towards the evidence base—”

“The Department will model different scenarios for what happens with the finances—”

“Let me take that away. I am not going to commit to what we are going to do now. But let me take that away as a suggestion that you have put to me. I would not dismiss the commercial implications of having figures in the public domain, but, as I said, within the boundaries of what is appropriate I am keen to make sure w…”

“That is interesting phrasing, Josh. Thank you for the question. We all know that the provision of social care—particularly adult social care—has not been addressed by many politicians over many years. The Casey commission is at the moment trying to get cross-party consensus on a way forward for the long term—a long-ter…”

“I was just gently suggesting that if we are talking about the costs and benefits, it is worth putting down a marker for the benefits.”

“The part of this conversation that has been missing so far is about the huge benefits that innovative medicines can bring.”

“Pay across social care is something that is really important for the Government to address, and I think the fair pay agreement has been a critical step forward in that regard.”

“I think we need to recognise the amazing compassion and skill of our care workers. For too long, care workers have not been valued in the way that they should be, given the work that they do and that so many our families rely on, in a way that does not get acknowledged by society more generally. The hard, difficult and…”

“I am not going to get into decisions taken in the past around that. I think where we are now is that there is a strong recognition of the importance of urgency here. As I said, one of the first questions I raised when Minister Kinnock and I were catching up on my first few days in the Department was, “What can we do to…”

“Thanks for having me along to the Committee this morning. Having seen it from both sides, I recognise that the extra investment put into the health service and into social care as a result of decisions that the Chancellor has taken in the first two years of Government has been critical to improving the performance of t…”

“There is extra funding—£500 million—behind that.”

“I am not going to give it an exact rating like that. It would be too much of a simplistic response for me to give, but I can talk about it in detail.”