Speeches by Hatton.

“We are going to see this huge change, with the abolition of NHS England and a lot of the duplicated work that it did subsumed into the Department of Health and Social Care. Can you explain how we can make sure, with that huge process taking place over the next couple of years, that we meet those recovery targets at the…”

“In paragraph 2.10 of the NAO Report, there is an explanation or something as to why there was that shortfall of 3.6 million diagnostic tests. One of the problems pointed out is ministerial delays. Could you go into a bit more detail as to what those ministerial delays actually were?”

“Just building on that, if you could give us a bit more detail, with the loss of NHS England and it all being run from the Department, will there be that ability to reach out and engage in a clinical setting with those areas that perhaps are struggling most to meet their performance targets, particularly in terms of mee…”

“I have one very final point on that. In terms of being able to do that from a cost point of view, delivering it close to the patient often will not be cheaper, particularly in rural and coastal areas such as mine, where there is a very sparsely populated community. A lot of people are a long way away from a larger hosp…”

“Looking at the mistakes that were made there, how do you think NHS England could have done things differently to ensure that we got closer to, or better still actually met, that key 95% recovery target?”

“To press that point again that the Chair rightly made, with things as routine as a blood test, when you are looking at rural and coastal areas where public transport is not great, the journeys that patients are making are often ridiculous, particularly in my part of the world, where someone might be travelling in exces…”

“That leads me quite nicely to where I wanted to go next in terms of questions. A theme that has come through in today’s session, which many members of the Committee have picked up, is that there have been some areas where, when there has been a transformation programme with significant additional resource and funding, …”

“I would like to start with community diagnostic centres, which in some ways have been a success story in the way that they have delivered tests and scans for patients closer to home rather than further up the road at an acute hospital. Could you set out, Sir Jim, where you feel there has been a success in building up t…”

“Particularly in my constituency, I have a community diagnostic centre in Weymouth Community Hospital. I am pretty certain that it is one of the ones that is operating seven days a week. It is leading to certainly much higher patient satisfaction and I think GPs like the way it works as well. Moving on, I suppose my con…”

“On that point quickly, Sir Jim, looking at the chart in the NAO Report, which looks at where we are in terms of meeting that 5% recovery target, do you see it as flatlining or do you think we will see a significant drop in the short to medium term? Is it going to keep stubbornly remaining around 20%?”

“Building on what you have shared with us today, at the moment the vast majority of diagnostic tests do not happen in a CDC. They happen elsewhere, in an acute hospital. If we are to drive down and meet that 5% recovery target, do you see CDCs as playing a much larger role, not just over the next year or so but longer t…”

“There is just one final question from me. Again, it would be really helpful to understand what the thinking is at a time of significant change in the NHS with the 10-year plan and the abolition of NHS England. Figure 4 in the NAO Report shows that meeting the 5% target by March 2025 did not happen. When do we project t…”

“Yes, diagnostic waiting time performance.”

“Do you know how many?”

“When you answered my colleague Michael Payne’s question about how many have been identified and contacted, we never got a figure. We just got “a handful”. Does the MOD have a figure?”

“Sorry to interrupt, but 80% is quite a considerable proportion of that maximalist figure of 7,355. When do you think we will reach that approximately 80% figure, and how long do you anticipate it will take to complete that relocation as part of the Afghan response route?”

“Moving on to my main, substantive question, in figure 3 of the NAO Report, the estimated number of people who are eligible for resettlement here in the UK as part of ARR as a result of this breach is 7,355. How confident are you that you will be able to relocate all of those 7,355 individuals here in the UK?”

“So the MOD is confident that it will be able to be successful here and complete that relocation for everybody who wants to. Could you give us a bit of detail there? Could you then explain to the Committee whether there have been any obstacles to this being a successful roll‑out up until now, and what work the MO…”

“With that review, and in line with the buses Bill going through Parliament now, what do you think are the timeframes for when we can start to see LTAs feeling like they can deliver an effective, enhanced partnership, which so far has not been that effective, or pursue other routes, whether franchising or indeed somethi…”

“And you are currently reviewing enhanced partnerships to see whether or not they work.”