Speeches by Evans.

“My right hon. Friend is making an excellent observation on the impact of these costs. We know from the surveys that 75% of businesses will pass on the costs to the very people who use them. They will have an inflationary impact on the public. Does he agree that it is imperative that we think about that?”

“Talking of basic principles, does the hon. Gentleman therefore believe it is right to tax education—yes or no?”

“As the Chancellor flew east, the pound plummeted south and Government debt rocketed north. Why? The markets do not believe her plan for growth; that is the fundamental issue. To pick up the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson), what is she going to s…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) for securing this debate. I was going to test the patience of the House by reading out all the hospices that have been named, but we got to 45 and I realise that time is short, so I will not do so. It is, however, a testament to those hospices’ services that so many Mem…”

“I declare an interest as a Leicestershire MP. Leicestershire looked at joining the East Midlands combined county authority but decided not to. Given what the Minister said about this Friday, if Leicestershire decided that it wanted to go into D2N2, would we need further legislation to change the borrowing that is set a…”

“To improve access, the Government have announced a planned expansion of advice and guidance, and GPs will be paid £20 per advice and guidance request they make for further expert advice from consultants. How do the Government expect this expansion to take place? Will they be mandating it given that the current position…”

“Going back to advice and guidance, GPs use advice and guidance when they have come to the summit of their knowledge and need specialist input. For example, as a GP, I may see a rheumatology patient and ask for advice from a rheumatologist, who may advise specialist blood tests. The problem is that, as the inquiry clini…”

“As it is Christmas, will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating Chris Middleton, who wrote a charity song to support Age UK that has already raised £10,000? What is even better is that it is likely to beat the leader of the Lib Dems’ single to No. 1 this year, proving yet again that the Lib Dems cannot win—someth…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“When it comes to social care and GPs, there is a situation that has been described to me as Schrödinger’s care. Providers are seen by the state as being private, yet their services are commissioned solely by the NHS, which means that they are caught both dead and alive when it comes to NICs. This has happened either by…”

“The hon. Lady has always been an advocate for childcare. One way the previous Government tried to address the issue was to try to stop the cliff edge for childcare by looking at households rather than individual parents. In the last Budget, the Government were looking at the proposal to consider households as one unit.…”

“I am grateful to my fellow Leicestershire MP for giving way. One of the ways that we can judge the market is by looking at vacancies. James Reed, who runs the Reed recruitment agency, has seen a 13% drop in advertisements on the company’s website. He has sounded the alarm that that could be a sign of recession, and tha…”

“On a point of order, Ms Nokes. We are debating the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill, in which I am not sure that Brexit is mentioned. I look to your leadership to decide whether the hon. Gentleman is in order.”

“I am very grateful. The hon. Lady makes a fantastic point about wanting to set out the tax base. The difficulty is that the Government are also spending on the NHS. Fundamentally, GPs are private contractors to the NHS. Care providers are private contractors. Therefore, the Government have to make a choice: are they go…”

“My hon. Friend is an astute man, and he has picked up on something that I fear. According to S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index, this has been the third consecutive month of job losses; December has seen the highest number since 2021, in the pandemic. It has said: “Barring the pandemic, the survey has not seen…”

“My hon. Friend has hit the nail on the head, and the Treasury really needs to answer this question. Did it knowingly implement these tax rises on these industries, which would be a travesty in itself, or did it do so by mistake because it does not understand these issues? If that is the case, will the Government look t…”

“I am enjoying the hon. Member’s exposition of his thinking on this matter. Will he set out how this works for national insurance contributions, which is what we are talking about? Those on the frontline—the likes of GPs and care homes—are private, but they are commissioned only by the NHS. Is he aware of where the fund…”

“The hon. Member has hit the nail on the head. The Labour Government say that they want to deal with this situation, and that they effectively protected secondary care, but the NI applies to GPs at the front end and care homes at the back end. That means that it will be the hospitals who hold the responsibility—the acut…”

“The Minister is espousing brilliantly what community pharmacies do. That all comes under a contractual framework, and one of the key things that pharmacies are asking for is when the negotiations will start and what the terms of reference will be. Will the Minister address that point?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts, and to speak across the Chamber from the Minister for the first time. As a GP, I am grateful for the fact that 38 million GP appointments are saved each year. Although the temptation is to try to thank everyone—it can feel like doing a set of prescriptions ag…”