Speeches by Robertson.

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“I agree with the points that my hon. Friend’s is making. The train to my constituency runs through his constituency, and he has referred to it already. Unfortunately, my constituency is reliant on entirely privatised ferry companies in order for us to get there. Does he agree that if this Government’s outlook on transp…”

“The hon. Member mentions ferries. Perhaps she will show a little sympathy to me and my constituents, because we are entirely reliant on ferries that are unregulated and privatised, so neither the local authority nor the Government have any say over those services, whereas her local authority does have a say over her fe…”

“6. What steps she is taking to include ferry services in the integrated public transport strategy.”

“Presumably, there are some objective criteria around assessments. No matter how keen an area is to implement the model, sadly the areas where it might not be happening so well are those where the leadership is lacking, and they are not coming forward to you—“We have a problem. We would like to explore this.” I want to …”

“Presumably, that work is under way if pilots have been set up to assess how good the model could be and any ways it could be improved. Presumably, the work is already under way to identify the areas that could benefit from new mental health centres. Otherwise, you will have a model that might be ready to go, but you ha…”

“I understand the need and the desire not to replicate good services that have been provided in particular localities. What work is being done to identify where services are lacking, so that when the time comes, I hope, to scale up neighbourhood mental health services, there is a priority list of areas where Government …”

“Putting to one side for the moment the questions around timescales, is it the Government’s intention that at some point everyone will have access to a neighbourhood mental health centre?”

“In the 10-year plan, there is a plan—indeed, it was one of the main planks that the Government were promoting—for 50, I think, neighbourhood health centres to be set up across the country, starting with need first. There are then pilots for neighbourhood mental health centres, and at the moment we have no figure for ho…”

“May I suggest that if 50 neighbourhood health centres are rolled out according to the 10-year plan, we must expect at least 50 neighbourhood mental health centres, because it would be bizarre to have a situation where you have a neighbourhood health centre that does not cater for mental health?”

“I want to pick up on the Chair’s question about the timeline and criteria for scaling up the pilots. You say that it is dependent on the three-year spending review. How does it tie in with the neighbourhood health centres generally that are referred to in the 10-year plan? I think the figure in that is for 50 centres. …”

“I hope the Government can take away, and be aware of, your wider point that freeing up local decision making to get things right for their area also gives freedom to get it wrong. When they do get it wrong, the Government, NHS England and the Department do not have the degree of control they once had to ensure that sta…”

“It sounds as if devolution is also deregulation because targets disappear, and it is targets by which you measure success or lack thereof for local systems. If things such as the mental health investment standard are not being mandated to local health systems, that looks to me like devolution is also deregulation, whic…”

“So there is no confirmation that local health systems will still be required to meet that standard? It is a concern if the Government cannot confirm that.”

“Can you confirm that local health systems will still be required to meet the mental health investment standard after this financial year?”

“How do you deal with the wider issue that, in devolving decision making, you open up the possibility of a postcode lottery and a very uneven provision of services across the country?”

“Given that it will now be local decision making on how to allocate and spend this money, there could be areas where the end to service development funding is exactly that, because of local decision making about how equivalent money is spent. Are you monitoring the impact at all, regarding local differences?”

“So you would not accept any concerns that its ending could jeopardise progress in transforming community mental health services?”

“How are you monitoring the impact of the end to the service development funding for community mental health services?”

“And there are some objective criteria to assess the need rather than the willingness.”