Speeches by Robertson.

“I do agree with the hon. Member. Indeed, it is in the tourism sector that a lot of young people in my constituency and, I am sure, in his—and in constituencies up and down the country—find their first job. It is the flexibility in the tourism sector and the fact that there is work to do when young people have the time …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Sir Jeremy. I will speak generally about the amendments on health inequalities, and specifically about some points that the group of amendments homes in on. On the general principle of dealing with health inequalities, the sentiment behind amendment 13 is im…”

“I will finish by talking about the use of data. Clearly, there are different uses of data when assessing where there are gaps—in this case, gaps or issues around health inequalities. Different Governments can and do use different data, and they reassess and re-evaluate the sort of data that they want to rely on; this G…”

“For example, on the adoption of electronic record-keeping systems, certain trusts used a number of them that did not speak to each other. There was a cultural barrier—if by culture, we mean work culture—in that some NHS trusts were very good at embedding and adopting an electronic patient record system that was uniform…”

“My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. Although all these amendments come from a very good place, they are so obvious that they should already be happening, and are too obvious to be enshrined in some overriding duty in a Bill.”

“Sometimes, the reason why innovation does not spread is not lethargy, apathy or neglect, but because there are various structures within the NHS and procurement and regulatory barriers that, although not set up or designed to restrict innovation, nevertheless have a tendency to do that. The focus of the amendment is on…”

“I thank my namesake for his intervention. I do not completely understand what he says, because the amendment refers to cultural barriers. He is absolutely right that we have to be careful when we mandate things, but the strength of the amendment is that it has a broad application and does not seek to mandate specific d…”

“I note that the amendment mentions “cultural barriers to change”. In my previous career working for a national health charity, part of my role was to roll out specialist nursing services, working in partnership with NHS organisations and others operating in the health and social care space. We embedded new practices th…”

“The clause, and amendment 58, deal with innovation. Although the NHS is responsible for some great healthcare innovations, not only in this country but around the world, unfortunately, it is often an example of a complete failure to innovate, or even to use fairly basic technology that has been around for a long time—I…”

“My detailed knowledge of the way in which data is used within the Department of Health is probably too scant for me to say anything particularly meaningful in the context of this debate, but I will use an example that again relates to my local area and to health inequalities: MHCLG’s use of data to assess local governm…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. Clause 7 says—I abbreviate: “The Secretary of State must exercise functions…with a view to ensuring that…there are sufficient people with appropriate education and training to meet the workforce needs of the health service, and…there is an effective system i…”

“The amendment would also require that the Secretary of State must”

“But even then, within one Department, MHCLG, different data is used to assess the connectivity and remoteness, of, for example, the Isle of Wight when funding the Isle of Wight council and the way it delivers adult social care and children’s services. I have yet to find a logical explanation why the remoteness of the i…”

“Using one dataset to decide funding from one pot of money, and another for another pot of money seems quite arbitrary—or at least not joined up. If that happens within one Department, there is greater scope for it happening across different Departments—indeed, it is certain that it will. By my reading, that is what ame…”

“The NHS can be excellent at innovating, but the adoption and take-up of those innovations across the health service can be frustratingly slow. Indeed, there are numerous examples where it does not happen at all. Expressly referencing the taking of steps to ensure the spread and adoption of effective innovations is a st…”

“Of course, innovation, and the environment that leads to innovation, does tend to thrive in a competitive environment, but I have some concerns without further context about whether incentivising competition through prize money is the way to go. Certainly, if we asked the great British public the straightforward questi…”

“Turning to amendment 58, there is consensus that innovation is a good thing and that the Department and the Secretary of State should promote it. The advantage of the amendment is that it provides more detail on what innovation means and how it should be targeted, promoted and delivered.”

““identify and seek to remove barriers to the uptake of innovation”.”

“At a time when the Government and the Minister talk about efficiencies and saving money and when excellent organisations such as Healthwatch, which delivers its work for a surprisingly limited amount of money, are to disappear, it is rather remarkable to see these provisions without greater context, although I do wonde…”

“For example, the amendment would require that the Secretary of State must”