Speeches by Smyth.

“This amendment would require publication of the number of patients validated off waiting lists each month and the reason for their removal.”

““(3) The regulations must include a requirement for the Secretary of State to publish the number of patients validated off of treatment waiting lists each month, and the reason for which they have been removed.”—(Dr Caroline Johnson.)”

“Amendment proposed: 52, in clause 16, page 12, line 10, at end insert—”

“”

“”

“Question put, That the amendment be made.”

“Taken together, these four powers provide the basis for a number of key regulations underpinning the operation of ICBs, and as such I commend the clause and schedule 2 to the Committee.”

“New section 14Z45D allows the Secretary of State to continue to set regulations creating a formal appeals process, so that patients can contest decisions about their care made by their ICBs. It enables the creation of independent panels to review cases, sets rules for how appeals work, including timelines and the power…”

“New section 14Z45C makes provision for the enforcement of patient choice requirements. It enables the Secretary of State to investigate whether an ICB has failed or is likely to fail to comply with regulations made under section 14Z45B. It also enables the Secretary of State to accept an undertaking from the ICB to tak…”

“New section 14Z45B requires regulations to be made for the arrangements that ICBs must make when exercising their commissioning functions to enable people to make choices in relation to specified treatments or services. The regulations may make other provisions for ICBs to protect and promote patient choice rights, inc…”

“New section 14Z45A of the National Health Service Act 2006 will allow the Secretary of State to continue to set regulations to impose duties on ICBs in relation to waiting times for the treatment or other services that they arrange as part of their commissioning functions. That provides a clear statutory mechanism to s…”

“”

“Before I finish, I draw the attention of the Committee to other aspects of clause 16 and associated schedule 2. Clause 16 allows the Secretary of State to make regulations to inform the commissioning activities of ICBs. Those regulations can cover matters relating to waiting times, patient choice arrangements, the enfo…”

“We are well aware that radiotherapy performance is below that of other treatment types. There is much work to do, and we are committed to it, but I hope that the hon. Member agrees that it is important not to duplicate efforts already in train to improve oversight of cancer treatment and radiotherapy services. I hope t…”

“The plan makes specific commitments to improve radiotherapy services’ productivity, including by using artificial intelligence to streamline treatment planning. We have allocated £70 million of funding for state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines and to streamline, improve and incentivise the use of the latest treatments…”

“Amendment 63 was tabled by the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale and spoken to by the hon. Member for North Shropshire. Improving timely access to cancer treatment including radiotherapy is a firm priority for the Government. That is why we published the national cancer plan in February this year. The plan is dr…”

“Clause 12 inserts new section 3B into the National Health Service Act 2006, re-establishing the responsibility of the Secretary of State to commission services. Although we intend ICBs to commission the vast majority of services, as we discussed this morning, we will use this regulation-making power to set out the smal…”

“Primary care is the front door to the NHS and is critical to delivering our neighbourhood health agenda. The neighbourhood health service will bring care into local communities, ending fragmentation and preventing unnecessary hospital admissions. To support that, alongside clause 14, which I will discuss shortly, we ha…”

“The changes here, as I have outlined, are bringing practices in line in terms of the regulation. I think the issue my hon. Friend really addresses is the arrangement between those local practices and the ICB as the commissioner on where the service is provided. Ordinarily a commissioner would seek to make sure that a r…”

“I have enjoyed the “back to the good old days” of the Lib Dem-Tories. They tell us we live in fractured political parties, but I quite like the old days. On new clause 2, I understand the intention that GP provision is important to us all and to our constituents. We have recruited over 2,000 more GPs since 2024—the hig…”