Speeches by Streeting.

“I completely agree with myself.”

“We always take into account the recommendations of the pay review body. I would say to NHS staff that the best way for us to deal with the pay erosion they have suffered over many years, and to make sure that we have a competitive rate of pay for NHS staff and a decent standard of living for all our staff, is to make s…”

“First, we have an independent pay review body process. I think that process is working largely well. I recognise that trade unions have a number of criticisms about the way the process works, and I am always happy to talk to them about how the process could be better. For example, the criticism that the PRBs reported f…”

“We are working with those unions on “Agenda for Change” pay structure reform. That is what we have agreed to do. So long as we fulfil our end of the bargain, everyone will be happy and we can move forward, building on that progress. If this Government broke our commitments to nurses and “Agenda for Change” staff, I thi…”

“I hope that we are not going to get to that position with nurses, not least because we have a reasonable dialogue and relationship with the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and others—”

“First, I do not hold resident doctors responsible for the productivity challenges we have in the NHS; many aspects of the way they are treated at work are fundamentally unproductive. I do not regret the deal we struck with resident doctors, but I do regret that they are in danger of squandering the opportunity of partn…”

“I did not say that the BMA was entirely reasonable throughout the entire period. That would be out of keeping with its history.”

“As far as I am concerned, we have done the right thing. When we came in, the strikes had been ongoing for a considerable period of time, at great cost to the taxpayer and to patients. We recognised the arguments that the BMA had been making about pay erosion, and about the conditions that resident doctors were working …”

“I think that the strikes before the general election were avoidable.”

“I felt that the previous Government were unreasonable by refusing to sit down and negotiate with the BMA for extended periods of time.”

“I should probably bring in Jim as well on operational planning, but I will just say a couple of things. We can mitigate the impact of strikes—and we will—but what we cannot do is promise that there will be no consequences, no delay and no further suffering. There are lots of people whose procedures are scheduled over t…”

“I am pleased to report that the BMA has taken up my offer of meeting this week. We will be meeting to see if we can find a way to avert strike action. I have to be clear with the Committee, as I was with the House last week, that there is no more room for manoeuvre on pay, but there are lots of other things that we can…”

“Oh, loads of stuff. Even on prevention, we went in asking questions very much about the NHS, and while I know that the public do care about health and wellbeing more generally, we did not expect the visceral reaction we got from people. They were saying, “If you’re not doing public health and you’re not doing preventio…”

“Yes; especially as a former cabinet member for health and wellbeing in local government, I very much see DPHs and the public health teams as part of our team. We are also improving all the time the relationships between my Department, directors of adult social services, directors of public health and elected members. O…”

“Yes. One of the exciting things about the Deputy Prime Minister’s commitment to build 1.5 million new homes is that one of the biggest challenges we see is the number of children living in temporary bed-and-breakfast accommodation without decent space to live, learn and play. They are often in accommodation that does n…”

“Yes, I think the out-of-home sector has a role to play, and I think you are right; that is potentially the way in which we can help to improve the picture in the SME part of the sector. Government—rightly, in my view—takes a much more cautious approach when it comes to regulation of small businesses, and we recognise t…”

“I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Looking back at all the contributions this morning, I have been struck by the fact that, quite extraordinarily, the entire House, on both sides of the Chamber, has spoken with one voice. There has been total unanimity across this House during these exchanges that the proposed strik…”

“We will not be reopening this year’s pay award because we simply cannot afford to, and it would not be fair on others in the NHS workforce, regardless. I honestly do not regret the deal that we struck last year, without which we would not have made the progress that we have on NHS waiting lists, which are now at their …”

“The hon. Gentleman makes an entirely reasonable point. Pay is important—people have to be able to pay their bills and lead a good life—but so too are their working conditions. I am absolutely determined to work with resident doctors to make progress not just on pay, which we have already done, but on the conditions in …”

“Quite aside from the fact that I offered to meet the entire resident doctors committee back in January, although it has never taken me up on that offer—I would definitely be outnumbered in that meeting— I can reassure the House, in all seriousness, that I met its co-chairs on Tuesday afternoon, immediately after the pu…”