Speeches by Streeting.

“Rather than adding to it, I think it will be my job to try to fend off various attempts by different hobbyhorses, campaign groups and corners of Parliament to try to hang more reorganisation on this Bill. I will do my best to proceed in a very disciplined way to make sure that the Bill delivers this change, rather than…”

“This goes perhaps to some of Mr Robertson’s questions; one of the challenges we will have as a Bill goes through Parliament is that I am sure lots of people have lots of ideas about NHS structural reform.”

“I will definitely not fall foul of the Leader of the House of Commons or the Leader of the House of Lords by saying what I would like or not like to be in the King’s speech. Suffice it to say that in order to conclude this process in its entirety, it will require primary legislation, and I have already begun to sociali…”

“It is a sacking offence now if I say it will be in the next King’s speech. First, it is His Majesty’s speech, so it is certainly not for me to preannounce it.”

“I would like to see that but—and this is such an important but—decisions in this area do need to be evidence-based and evidence-led, and that is why we have a National Screening Committee. I have asked the National Screening Committee to look at this and they are. There is an even more compelling case around groups tha…”

“I think it is more like Buckaroo, where the more and more you hang on it, at some point the thing buckles, and I am afraid that is exactly where we have been. Certainly, as you have seen in the Government’s health mission, we want to reduce the number of lives lost to the biggest killers. You are absolutely right about…”

“No. I totally understand why, and not just on dementia but on a number of other fronts, we had voices particularly from the voluntary and community sector saying, “Well, hang on a minute, something that we care about has not appeared in the planning guidance”. I genuinely think that one of the problems that we have had…”

“I certainly expect any board of any ICB in the country to have people with skills, experience, knowledge and insight of the breadth of the system that they are responsible for leading.”

“That is an interesting governance question. On any board you want a range of experiences, perspectives and insights to make informed judgments. I always resile a bit when people start demanding a representative structure where you have to have a person from this background, that background or the other background. What…”

“No, not necessarily. These are all subject to where we land in the 10-year plan. Do I believe fundamentally in more freedom and more flexibility for frontline system leaders and provider leaders? Absolutely. Do I think we need to make sure that that freedom comes with appropriate quality assurance and accountability? C…”

“In the sense of a Monitor?”

“And to provider organisations, and rationalising the regulatory landscape and making sure that we are measuring the right things in the right way, doing quality assurance and improvement in the right way. There is not just devolution of power to ICBs but more freedoms and flexibility closer to the frontline across the …”

“We want to devolve power, resources and responsibility from the centre and closer to the frontline, and indeed at the frontline. I can understand why, when we announced that NHS England would be abolished and rolled into the Department, there was a cautious welcome from some quarters, saying that they got the case on d…”

“That work is already well under way, as Jim Mackey has reported, and plans will be submitted and considered on their merits and viability. I have been very clear, right back to the NHS Providers’ speech that I gave towards the tail end of last year. We want ICBs to focus much more on strategic commissioning and making …”

“Certainly the draft, yes, but it is not only subject to internal kicking of the tyres; I also need to take it to colleagues across government, not least the Prime Minister, to make sure that they are happy with it. Yes, I am very clear about where we are going with the 10-year health plan.”

“That is what we are going at. Those are the plans that will be coming in. We will look at the plans that come in on their merits.”

“It was about reducing duplication and inefficiency, bringing the NHS under financial control and making sure that we have the right spend in the right places, which is closer to the frontline.”

“Because we are going after waste, duplication and inefficiency. If we are asking ICBs to focus on strategic commissioning, by definition that also means asking them to stop the duplication, which I think has been allowed to build up unnecessarily and avoidably.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”