Speeches by Smyth.

“The hon. Member and I discussed this issue before he brought a debate on it to Westminster Hall, and I know that he has campaigned hard on it for local women. He raises an excellent point: we must ensure that what is happening on the ground with regard to maternity and the changes that people are proposing line up adeq…”

“I am coming to the hon. Gentleman’s point. We will keep the current system under review—I think the Secretary of State was clear about that—but we think that any change is best made through established guidance rather than through legislation. Many Members raised the issue of our relationship with Malta and Queen Mary,…”

“It is a pleasure to close on behalf of the Government. I welcome the support of the Opposition spokespeople and the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran). I put on record my thanks to them for meeting me in advance of the Bill and for airing their conc…”

“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Third time. I will not use this time to rehearse any of the arguments made today. We have had some good discussions. I want to thank the Leader of the House, the Chief Whip, parliamentary counsel and business managers, the public servants in my Department and NHS England, who …”

“I am going to make some progress. Time is of the essence, I am afraid, but we can pick up more in Committee. When I was a manager in the NHS, I worked alongside many overseas doctors, and I want to make it clear from this Dispatch Box this afternoon that they are, of course, welcome here. The NHS is and always will be …”

“I am grateful to Members for their contributions to the wider debate at this hour and for their considered amendments. I will respond briefly to their points and the amendments that have been tabled. Amendment 6 and 7 would widen the scope of who is prioritised for specialty training starting in 2026 by prioritising ap…”

“In the interests of time, I will address the amendments at the end of proceedings, when I have heard from them—I think we have the gist of most of those issues. I restate our firm commitment to the Bill and all clauses. Let me turn to clause 4 and clarify how we are defining “UK medical graduate” and “the priority grou…”

“It is a pleasure to respond to this debate, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for securing it and raising in a constructive way the important matter of urgent care in Staffordshire. It is always good to have more proud NHS non-clinical bureaucrats in this place to pursue th…”

“When I became a Minister, my hon. Friend was one of the first through the door to share some of the issues in Stoke. In my meeting today, in which I had my map in front of me to point out some of the journey times, his comments were in my mind. As I said, it is really important that we take local people with us as we m…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship this morning, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing the debate and, as others have said, for sharing his direct experience as a practitioner—he is still a jobbing GP, among his other roles. His expertise was apparent throughout his …”

“I think all Members across the House are concerned about the distress with which young people are coming forward for all of these services, and the need to support them and their families. Again, it is important that all parts of this trial follow clear ethical and clinical guidelines.”

“We need to be very careful about our language, in line with Dr Cass’s report. We are talking about children who are presenting with gender dysphoria and in gender distress. The Government support moving away from the medical intervention model towards a holistic approach to care based on the evidence, and that has cros…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question and his constructive work in this area on behalf of young people. I think there is a further question on this topic on the Order Paper. The Government are looking at how we can best use the data linkage study from that previous work. As I think hon. Members understand, that data …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her constructive approach to this difficult issue. She is right to challenge; we must have open and transparent debate. To be very clear—and to refer to my previous answer—the Secretary of State will use that power. We will have a retrospective data linkage study to identify the associations …”

“I know that this is of great concern to my hon. Friend and his constituents. It is a matter for the commissioning officer at his local ICB. I recommend that he keeps talking with them about the best provision for his constituents.”

“My hon. Friend and the Secretary of State are right to address the fact that we need to look across the whole span, and at people moving between those workforces. As he will know, the fair pay agreement, with the £500 million increase to support it, is part of our work to ensure those issues are addressed across the pi…”

“Yes, because those issues are a result of the shocking staff morale as a result of the policies of the hon. Gentleman’s Government. As highlighted by Lord Darzi, staff morale, and issues around staff sickness and the huge increase in agency spending on their watch, are all signs of a system that is not functioning for …”

“The services my hon. Friend outlines cover a number of different areas in different locations, and I think it is very important that the workforce plan we are bringing forward reflects a different model of care. We have seen more services going into secondary care and particularly hospitals, at the expense of community…”

“I thank the hon. Member for her almost support for the Bill that we will present later to address much of this problem. Again, we are clearing up the mess we were left by her party, which, by changing the rules in delivering a workforce plan in 2023, essentially ramped up the supply of staff by extrapolating existing t…”

“The Government will publish the 10-year workforce plan in the spring. This plan will ensure that the NHS has the right people in the right places with the right skills for patients when they need them, and we are engaging extensively with partners to ensure that this plan delivers for staff and patients.”