Speeches by Smyth.

“I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution and her service in that role. She is absolutely right to highlight not just the people who come forward, but the people who run that local infrastructure. As I said in my opening remarks, much of this work is done at a local level. The learning we must take from what the nat…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for what he has said, and I thank the Butterfly Volunteers. Supporting people at that really important end of life stage is hard and critical work, and I commend them for it. The local link is also critical: we need to ensure that people can be directed from the national system to local systems, …”

“I am afraid that I have to disagree with the hon. Gentleman—it is not muddled. The analysis undertaken by NHS England indicates that the current system is not providing good value for money, and we are making sure that we produce something better for the future. This Government will continue to act in the best interest…”

“I agree with the hon. Lady about the roles that people play, particularly by having conversations and connecting with people who feel disconnected. To be very clear, this decision is about particular arrangements: it does not mean that things are stopping across our country or with local health systems ensuring that vo…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Medical Devices and Blood Safety and Quality (Fees Amendment) Regulations 2025. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. Before I turn to the detail of the statutory instrument, I would like to highlight the important role that the Medici…”

“I am happy to answer any questions, but as far as I am aware, they are NHS-employed staff, so they will be dealt with in the usual way. I am happy to write to the shadow Minister with any specifics if that is helpful. In conclusion, the draft regulations are important to ensure that the MHRA has the resources that it n…”

“I thank the hon. Members for Sleaford and North Hykeham and for Chichester for their comments, which I will try to address. As I think everyone agrees, the MHRA provides essential services that play a crucial public health role, and it is important that it recovers its costs, which is what these fee increases are set t…”

“I stand to be corrected, but I don’t think we know the answer to your first point, because I am not sure we have done that, so let me come back to you on that, if that is okay. On your second point, that is a good challenge. This is all public, so everyone can see what questions have been asked. As I said earlier, it d…”

“I am very happy to take that. I have answered questions and/or correspondence, but absolutely take that if people are not feeling that there is something. We know that your purview is not correspondence, but there are some backlogs and things that have not come out properly. We are conscious of that as MPs, because obv…”

“I know I have answered some questions on that particular issue, but as Tom alluded to, it is about going to someone else in the time, and making sure that we get the answer back correctly. Obviously, we have a lot of arm’s length bodies, NHS England being the largest. The questions go out to local systems, if it is a p…”

“And Westminster Hall.”

“May I add to that? I know that your purview is the Commons, but my colleague Baroness Merron has sight of what comes down from the Lords. Where a Commons question is asked on an area that she leads on—for example, on life sciences, women’s health or mental health—then it needs to be her and me, because she is the polic…”

“Tom, do you want to go through the process?”

“It is quite competitive in the ministerial team.”

“As I alluded to earlier, having been on the other side as a manager, I like to look at the process behind things and look at the target to see what has happened. I do think that is important. My interest was heightened by looking at this and meeting the team, which I did quite early on, to have them talk to me about th…”

“In one sense, it is very difficult. I think we are all conscious of the difficulty for staff in an uncertain environment. There are the teams in NHS England. In some cases, they need to go to through their parliamentary team into all our local systems to find out information and make sure that you get the right informa…”

“It is a very strange business turning up to the Department and doing this new work, as some of you will be aware. Certainly, when it was first brought to my attention, I was turning them around and signing them off very quickly. Some of you might know that I am a former NHS manager, so I look at targets. I said, “I’m s…”

“On the post-election response, the volumes are really significant. Obviously, policy has changed with the new Government. That takes a bit of time. The redraft issue, which we also alluded to, is significant. I think I speak for all Ministers who respond when I say that it was our feeling that, as a new Administration,…”

“What we see every time the Department puts out something major—and we are putting out an awful lot of change—is that that understandably results in a spike in what comes in. That is part of what has happened, despite us putting in those measures from July, at the beginning of our term in office. We have seen spikes aro…”

“I can, but if it is in order, I would like briefly to make a few comments. I am really pleased to be here this afternoon. You said that WPQs are an important tool for parliamentarians. I absolutely get that, and the Secretary of State absolutely gets that; we understand how important it is for us all as MPs to respond …”