Karin Smyth MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  Absolutely, and I am committed to working with my hon. Friend and many other hon. Members across the House. I was pleased to meet my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Withington (Jeff Smith) to discuss his amendments concerning medicines. I hope that I reassured him—from his speech, I think that I did—that the Government do support well-designed research into innovative treatments using controlled drugs, where this is conducted safely and appropriately. We also understand the complexities involved, including the need to minimise the risk of harm and misuse. That is why we are working across government to consider how to implement the recommendations from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to reduce barriers to research with schedule 1 controlled drugs. I committed to write to my hon. Friend to set that out further; I will do. A number of hon. Members tabled amendments on issues with their local infrastructure. We have already published the capital plan and improved long-term capital planning to improve local infrastructure. I think that I have addressed most things—

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  As the hon. and learned Gentleman knows—we have spent many long hours in this place discussing the arrangements with regard to our leaving the European Union—there are different regulations, as a result of Brexit, between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As is currently the case, due to the Windsor framework, that results in Northern Ireland following the EU device regulations. This has been discussed with the Northern Ireland and Windsor framework taskforce in the Cabinet Office, and we are content that the provisions are right, given the framework’s application. I know and understand the point that the hon. and learned Gentleman makes, and I am sure that he will pursue it with the Government in other areas. New clauses 95 and 98 update and clarify the Secretary of State’s information-sharing powers for medicines and medical devices. They provide a clearer legal framework for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to share information with UK health systems, organisations and trusted international partners. The current legislative framework does not always provide the MHRA with the powers or clarity it needs to share information quickly and effectively, and this creates barriers to collaboration, including with the NHS. The new clauses will address these challenges, providing a clear statutory basis for information sharing. There is currently no explicit statutory domestic information-sharing power for medicines, whereas there is for medical devices. The new clauses bring information-sharing powers about medicines in line with those for medical devices and updates the list of statutory purposes for which the MHRA may share information. Importantly, these reforms do not weaken existing safeguards. Patient information will not be shared internationally without consent, and domestic protections under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation remain unchanged. These new clauses and amendments will act in the interests of patients, and I commend them to the House.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  It will not be a surprise to the hon. Gentleman that I do not agree with his proposition, although I commend the work that many people have done in Healthwatch. We want to work with people in the other place to make sure that this is the right way forward. I am sorry that we do not have more time to debate HSSIB, because it requires more discussion, although we had a good debate in Committee. We have heard many discussions today. I have met the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin), and I hear what he is saying; I will ensure that he gets a response to his letter from the new Minister for Patient Safety—asap, as they say. It is an issue that we need to get absolutely right. We all know, from our experience with patients and families, about the importance of creating a culture in which concerns can be raised without fear and lessons are learned effectively. The Government fully agree with those objectives. Our view is that patient safety, in line with the Dash review, is best served by clear lines of accountability, effective independent scrutiny, and a relentless focus on learning and improvement. We are therefore transferring HSSIB’s functions to the CQC to ensure that learning from investigations can more readily inform improvement activity across the system. We recognise the importance of ensuring that the investigation arm has the autonomy to investigate the qualifying incidents that it deems appropriate free from interference, and I can give the House the assurance that we will work with the executive of HSSIB and the CQC to ensure that their operating model upholds this operational independence. In response to the Chair of the Health Committee, who is not in her place, let me say that there is obviously no one single metric by which to judge the suitability of the CQC. It is usual in the Department’s oversight of arm’s length bodies and independent regulators to look at things like stable leadership, IT capability, governance and operational effectiveness. This is something I am sure the Select Committee can help with.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  indicated dissent .

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I know that many hon. Members want to talk about the provisions in the Bill covering many important issues. I will therefore speak briefly about two Government amendments relating to medical device licensing and information sharing. I will first address new clause 94 regarding medical devices licensing, and consequential amendments new clauses 99 to 101 regarding medical devices disclosure. These amendments are about ensuring that Great Britain’s medical devices regulatory framework remains fit for the future. As we know, medical technology is evolving rapidly, particularly in areas such as software and artificial intelligence, while our current framework was designed for a very different technological landscape. This set of amendments establishes the statutory foundation for a future medical device licensing regime, applying to Great Britain only. EU medical devices legislation will continue to apply in Northern Ireland. Such a regime would require medical devices to be licensed and certain persons operating within the supply chain to hold a licence. By placing the detail in the regulations, the amendment allows us to work with patients, healthcare professionals and the medical device sector to create a regulatory framework that protects patients, supports innovation and strengthens the UK’s life sciences sector.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I am going to press on a little bit, if I may. I remind the House that we are doing this within the existing legal structures, and that our approach is not to put in place additional duties and layers of detail and specificity in primary legislation. I think we should avoid the temptation to create separate statutory obligations for each condition or patient group, particularly in an age where people are living longer and very often with more than one health condition. Instead, we should commit ourselves to tackling inequalities for everyone, everywhere. We have again heard from the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan), about corridor care. The Government have been consistently clear that corridor care is not an acceptable standard of care and should not be normalised, and it is our intention to reduce and ultimately eradicate it. I think it is worth reminding the House that corridor care does not occur everywhere; some places have made huge steps to avoid it, and we want to share that learning. I particularly commend Barnsley foundation trust, South Warwickshire foundation trust and the Dudley group foundation trust, where there have been zero incidents in the last reporting. We must recognise that corridor care is one of the most visible and distressing symptoms of systemic pressures across the urgent and emergency care pathway, and our focus is on taking action now to tackle those underlying pressures. We are improving patient flow, strengthening discharge arrangements, investing in urgent and emergency care services, and providing targeted support to the systems and trusts facing the greatest challenges from corridor care, so that improvements can be delivered where they are needed most. To ensure that we can understand where these challenges are, we have already introduced a national definition of corridor care, and strengthened reporting and oversight arrangements.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  We have genuinely had a wide-ranging and thoughtful debate, and I want to try to address all the points that have been raised. I think there is broad agreement across the House on the goals that we are seeking to achieve with the Bill: safer care, better outcomes and a stronger voice for patients. Every patient deserves safe and high-quality care, every community deserves to have its voice heard, and everyone should be able to access the care they need, when they need it. The question before us is how best to deliver those ambitions. In general, we do not believe that the current landscape works, and that better outcomes are always achieved through new reporting requirements, additional layers of statutory process or more bureaucracy. Instead, we are committed to devolving responsibility and to empowering leaders in the NHS, while also holding them directly accountable, so that the NHS is focused on delivery and improving care. I will begin with Healthwatch. I think there is broad consensus that we want to see patient voices heard strongly at every level of the healthcare system—it is something that all MPs feel strongly about, dealing with constituents as we do. Hearing the patient and user voice results in better decisions in a system that is designed around them—a system that is better able to correct when things go wrong. Our ambition is to ensure that insight and experience from patients, service users and communities is part of commissioning and service planning decisions, rather than being held at arm’s length and outsourced. Our ambition is that this is done effectively everywhere. It is about strengthening the power of patients’ voices inside the NHS, where decisions are taken, not silencing criticism of those decisions. Within our approach, integrated care boards and local authorities will be expected to engage with people in their areas and will have a statutory duty to obtain their views. That is a core part of the new strategic role of ICBs, and it involves transparency about what people have told the system, what the system has done in response and how learning is shared across partners. ICBs will be held to account if they do not demonstrate those elements. However, we have heard the strength of feeling in this place and in Committee, and as the Bill moves to the other place, I can commit to working closely with colleagues across this House and in the other place in order to review these provisions and ensure that our approach sufficiently empowers and devolves to local populations. We all want to ensure that the changes deliver for patients and service users, building public trust and ensuring that their voice is embedded in the care they receive.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I will carry on. As the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham knows well, provisions are already in place to appropriately control access to puberty-suppressing hormones for children and young people presenting with gender incongruence or dysphoria. Children and young people with gender incongruence deserve evidence-based care. The Cass review recommended a clinical trial to provide high-quality comparative evidence on the potential benefits and risks of the medicines. That is now under way. I agree with the comments from the hon. Member for North Shropshire, but I have to disagree with the view of the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham that, uniquely, access to these types of medicines must be subject to the scrutiny and approval of Parliament. I think that, as a clinician, she understands that. I would also like to address new clause 143. As the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham knows, the EHRC’s updated code of practice for services, public functions and associations commenced on 5 August. It provides guidance on how sex-based distinctions in the Equality Act can be applied, including in the NHS. This new clause is unnecessary. This legislation is the law and the law is clear. The NHS will obviously follow the law. New guidance has been drafted and will be published imminently. For the record, I am due next week to meet the Darlington nurses who she spoke for. I agree that they were brave; they should not have had to go through what they went through. I want to address new clauses 41 and 42 on funeral regulation in the name of the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage), who spoke powerfully on behalf of the whole House; I commend the work that she has done. My hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy) has spoken to me in great detail about this issue, as has my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds South West and Morley (Mark Sewards). The Government were appalled by the offences committed by Robert Bush and the profound harm caused to bereaved families. Every deceased person must be treated with care, respect and dignity. We are undertaking urgent work to develop comprehensive proposals, including formal regulation of the funeral sector to drive out rogue operators and strengthen protection for bereaved families. As the hon. Member for Gosport said, operators that work well will also want to see this. We will begin sharing proposals shortly, and I am very happy to include hon. Members in the discussions.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I apologise, but I am going to press on. There is a lot to get through. We are committed to tackling health inequalities wherever they arise. There are strong duties on both ICBs and the Secretary of State to tackle these inequalities, and we remain firmly committed to doing so. We continue to drive forward improvement plans including the national cancer plan and the mental health strategy, which will transform mental health care into a system that responds and intervenes early, reduces waiting times for support, and ultimately supports people to participate fully in education. I note in particular that the Government are already making record investment in mental health. All ICBs are expected to meet the mental health investment standard over the next three years, and all are forecast to meet it for 2026-27. We are also committed to delivering the national cancer plan and focused on driving improvements, including on diagnostic capacity, which is key to addressing waiting times and tackling variation in access to better treatment, as we have heard today from my hon. Friends the Members for Easington (Grahame Morris), whose work in this area I commend, and for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist).

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I am so sorry; I will to talk to my hon. Friend later. The debate has been wide ranging. If there are things that I have missed, I commit to getting back to hon. Members. I know that my noble Friend Baroness Merron is committed to working co-operatively with all Members as the Bill proceeds through the other House.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her best wishes and commend the work that she and many other Members are doing directly with their trusts to understand the impact of the work that we are doing to bring down those waiting lists and improve access for patients. As I have said, corridor care is a sign of systemic failure in the system and is unacceptable. I think we have all witnessed it in our local trusts, but it is coming down in places, and we want to continue to see it eradicated. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) for his championing of the families of children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. I know that Members on both sides of the House recognise the profound impact that receiving a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition has on a child and their family. It is vital that all these families feel supported, informed and cared for, and I wholeheartedly recognise that the support that they are offered now is often not proactive or joined up, with the onus, as he said, being on families to navigate the system and seek support themselves. With that in mind, the Government commissioned a report on the mental health impacts of life-threatening childhood illness on families, named in the memory of Hugh Menai-Davis. I pay tribute to Hugh’s parents for their campaigning and offer them my deepest condolences. The report process is progressing well, and I can commit to the report being published in this Parliament, with a full Government response issued within three months of publication. For too long, children’s health has not been a priority, which is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has directed the Department to make maternal and child health central to its work. We know that a child’s health has ramifications for the wellbeing of the whole family, and there must be better solutions to join up support for parents of unwell children. The new cross-Government mental health strategy will also address how we better support parents and families, and the Government intend to work closely with parents, families and campaigners to identify workable solutions and make available more proactive support. I turn now to the Opposition amendments, starting with new clause 142, in the name of the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson).

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not. The right hon. Member was Secretary of State for Health twice, so he had his chance to put all the right things into legislation. [Interruption.] I am not helping my own sore throat. As my hon. Friend mentioned, the Bill is about returning that democratic accountability directly to the Secretary of State. We have had a lot of pushback in different places, but that is what this Bill does. It returns accountability to the Secretary of State, it devolves that responsibility for delivering on the ground to NHS organisations, and, crucially, it empowers patients. Our new clause strengthens the Bill, and I commend it to the House. Question put and agreed to . New clause 96 accordingly read a Second time, and added to the Bill. New Clause 97 Care and support: involvement of others and visitors “In section 1 of the Care Act 2014 (promoting individual well-being), in subsection (3)— (a) after paragraph (e) insert— “(ea) the importance of the individual being able to involve other people in such decisions and of those people receiving the information and support necessary to facilitate that involvement;”; (b) after paragraph (f) insert— “(fa) the importance of the individual having appropriate opportunities to receive visitors; (fb) in the case of a person who is provided with accommodation in a care home, the importance of them having appropriate opportunities to take trips outside of the care home;”.” —(Karin Smyth.) Section 1(3) of the Care Act 2014 lists matters to which local authorities must have regard when exercising functions under Part 1 of that Act. The amendments refer to the importance of an individual being able to involve other people in decisions and to receive visitors etc. Brought up, read the First and Second time, and added to the Bill.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher)—with his example of the sore throat—for his help in driving down demand for healthcare. Indeed, I thank Members in all parts of the House for their contributions to what has been an interesting and helpful discussion. Their expertise and their scrutiny will continue to strengthen the Bill.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I will give way to my hon. Friend. [ Interruption .]

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank Members across the House for their contributions. As we would expect for a Bill of this size, it has been a wide-ranging debate, and I will not be able to address every single amendment, but I will try to cover them all in the time I have. If necessary, I will get back to people afterwards. As a Government, we know that what we have set out to do through this Bill is ambitious. We do not resile from that; we want to be ambitious. We are determined to make a real and positive change for people up and down the country who use the NHS, and throughout the Bill, we have remained focused on the key objectives. Those are to strengthen democratic accountability, strip back bureaucracy and empower patients.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not. We have heard a lot from the hon. Gentleman, and I want to make some clear points to the House this evening. We have heard a great deal of discussion about commercial processes, and Members—including the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley)—have raised important points about data security, governance and ethical standards of contracts, and support for domestic suppliers and for voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations. Contracts involving NHS data and digital services must be subject to proper scrutiny. The Government’s approach is to assess risks on the basis of the nature of the data, service and supplier access. Crucially, we already have the tools that we need to carry out appropriate due diligence through legal powers and robust contractual provisions. I agree with the spirit of new clause 108, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne). I fully recognise the importance of ensuring that the NHS does not inadvertently support exploitation or rights abuses. UK legislation already incorporates some international laws: for example, the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates the European convention on human rights into UK law. Similarly, we can use existing legislation and guidance to exclude suppliers from NHS procurements. Both the Procurement Act 2023 and the provider selection regime allow us to exclude providers when there has been serious misconduct or illegality. For instance, we could exclude a supplier under the Procurement Act for breaches of modern slavery and/or human trafficking laws. We have very high standards and expect all suppliers —including whichever companies go on to provide the single patient record—to meet them. On a related note, the Chancellor has already written to the Secretary of State to ask that the NHS procurement better support British industry. In the light of that, the Secretary of State has commissioned, within the health family, a review of strategic procurement pipelines to find opportunities for the new social value model to support more British jobs, skills and innovation. The First Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Heeley (Louise Haigh), who is leading work on procurement across Government, would be happy to meet my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby as part of this important work as it progresses, and I can assure him that the actions that we take will be fully in line with the principle of international law.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend knows, I spoke from the Opposition Benches for many years about the lack of accountability of our local systems to local members of Parliament. I think that that was a great loss in the Lansley Bill. It was one of the things that drove me to become a member of Parliament, and in my role as the Minister of State I have endeavoured to make sure that local Members of Parliament have—

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I wish at the start to take a moment to thank the Members on both sides of the House who served on the Public Bill Committee during what was a very hot end of June and July—if we can remember back that far. As part of that process, the Committee scrutinised every clause of the Bill and debated over 195 amendments, and we on the Government Benches are grateful for their diligence. The implementation of the Bill is better for all that hard work. I also welcome the spirit of collaboration that has greeted the main provisions of the Bill from both sides of the House, most notably on Second Reading but also in Committee, and I hope that we can continue in that spirit at this stage. For our part, we remain committed to working with MPs and peers across the House and other stakeholders to ensure that the end result is a Bill that strengthens the NHS. I know that we have a large number of amendments on a variety of topics, so I will keep my remarks short. New clauses 96 and 97 relate to visiting rights. They strengthen the role of integrated care boards and local authorities in promoting visiting, supporting people to have someone with them and ensuring the involvement of family, friends and carers in decisions. They complement the existing legal requirements and the work already under way to drive a change in culture and practice by embedding visiting at the heart of the responsibilities of commissioners. New clause 96 explicitly places duties on integrated care boards to promote opportunities for visiting and accompaniment, while new clause 97 builds on local authorities’ existing wellbeing duties by emphasising the importance of involving other people in decision making, receiving visitors and maintaining opportunities to take trips outside the care home. Maintaining meaningful contact and connection with family, friends and carers is critical to the health and wellbeing of so many people in our health and care settings. They provide invaluable practical help, emotional support and advocacy for their loved ones in accessing care and treatment, and commissioners should do what they can to support these relationships. I turn to Government amendments 60 to 62. The question of who is required to sit on ICBs has raised comments from all across this House. I am grateful to all Members who have raised the importance of local government having a voice in ICBs, including my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) and the other members of the Health and Social Care Committee, who have continually advocated on this issue. We agree. It was never the intention to weaken the voice of local government in the NHS. We recognise that local authority board members are an important voice for commissioning on the ICB, and often provide helpful challenge and a very different perspective on commissioning decisions.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I am going to move on, because there is a lot to get through. My hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) made a powerful speech, based on his own experience and the terrible experiences of his constituents. I will write to him about what we want to do with ICBs to make that situation better. I now turn to new clause 56, tabled by the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett). I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for her ongoing work on, and interest in, carers throughout the passage of this Bill. I can assure the House that the Government fully recognise the importance of supporting carers’ health and wellbeing, including ensuring that they can take breaks from their caring responsibilities where needed. The Care Act 2014 already includes duties to assess and address carers’ current and future needs, and of course, we want to ensure that carers get the full benefit of the single patient record. To achieve this, we intend to use our regulation powers, which are already in the Bill. The topic of inequalities has been highlighted a lot today. We are committed to ensuring that local areas are empowered to make decisions, tackle the specific health challenges they face and make real progress on health inequalities. I want to reassure the House that reducing health inequalities remains a priority for this Government. I know that the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, and the Committee as a whole, takes a great interest in this issue, and we are committed to working with them. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) and for Uxbridge and South Ruislip for their championing of this important issue and for our meeting last week. I am not, however, convinced about new clause 91. Our focus is, and must remain, on delivering improvements in health outcomes, supporting prevention and tackling the causes of ill health, rather than creating additional statutory red tape. We already have a wide range of duties from the 2006 Act, and we have a new duty on combined authorities. There was a duty on ICBs in the Health and Care Act 2022, and there is a duty on foundation trusts. We have the public sector equality duty, as well as our commitment in the 10-year health plan. Again, the issue is making it work and empowering local leaders to do just that. I commend the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) on the APPG on sickle cell and thalassaemia, and I will write to her specifically on the issues she raised. She talked about specialised commissioning, a topic that was also raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald). We know that this is an ongoing concern across many areas, and I commit to keeping in touch with them and with other Members. Turning to women’s health—including mental health—and maternity services, again, I can assure the House that this is a priority for the Secretary of State. That is why we published the action-focused renewed women’s health strategy. It is why we are undertaking a single national action plan on maternal health, overseen by the national maternity and neonatal taskforce, to drive improvements where it matters to families, clinicians and other experts. I know that many Members of this House are committed to improving mental health, but I take this opportunity to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) for all her work in this area as the national maternity adviser. Opposition Members mentioned the Hughes report, and I assure the House that the Government recognise the importance of providing a response. I do not have time to go into all the ongoing work at the moment, but I commit to doing so at the earliest opportunity. [ Interruption. ] The Conservatives had a long time. The hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) says that they were about to do it before the election, but that is not what we found when we came into power. The Conservatives left us a lot of work to do in this and many other areas, but we are committed to doing it. Fertility services and reducing inequalities in maternity services has been raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) and the right hon. Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson), who has been a tireless advocate in this area, as have many others. I have recently written to him. NICE guidelines inform how ICBs should commission in this area, but I know that things are not uniformly implemented. We will continue to work with ICBs to evaluate the next steps. There was a lot of discussion on primary care, and dental access across the country in particular. We are committed to rebuilding dentistry in England, but actions speak louder than words. We are making great strides in improving access, ensuring an urgent care safety net across the country, reforming the dental contract and developing a 10-year workforce plan. More broadly, we think it is right that under this Bill, primary medical services become the responsibility of ICBs. They have the right knowledge of their areas to make commissioning decisions, and that includes on eye care. They have responsibility for all primary medical services, but rightly they will be accountable to the Secretary of State for their performance. The right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt) is right that we will say that he could have dealt with the issues he raises while he was in power, but we do not always say that, and he is absolutely right about continuity of care. I have also visited the practice he talks about in Horfield in Bristol, and not just because I was on the primary care trust board when the 2004 changes happened. Broadly, Bristol does have different standards on some of these issues, and that highlights our point. We do not need to put some of these provisions in legislation. Exactly this sort of good practice can be shared in local systems through neighbourhood care plans, neighbourhood work and the work in primary care networks. The single patient record is fundamental to the Government’s mission to create a modern, joined-up NHS that puts patients at the centre of their care. On amendments 26, 42 and 43, I assure Members that the overarching purpose of making regulations to create and operate the single patient record is limited to the direct care of patients, and clause 51 is already explicit about that. Crucially, the clause does not create any new data sharing gateways for secondary purposes such as planning and commissioning, so these amendments are not necessary. On data safeguards, the security and privacy of people’s health and social care data are paramount. As Members would expect, we will build the strongest safeguards into the record. On new clause 32, I can assure Members that the SPR will be designed to protect personal data by default, with the highest standards of cyber-security and information governance ensuring that only the right people can access the right information at the right time and only for the right reasons. Finally, I have heard how important it is that the single patient record is accessible and inclusive. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) for amendment 87 and the important work she is doing to publicise this hugely important area. I assure her and Members that we are confident that the Bill is drafted to enable information related to support needs and reasonable accommodations to be included in the SPR. The Department will have regard to the accessible information standard as the SPR is developed. We are also committed to tackling digital exclusion. We have considered that as part of the single patient record equality impact assessment, and work is already under way to help address barriers around connectivity, skills and confidence. I heard what my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East said about the need to engage him and others about the single patient record as we go forward. On the federated data platform, decisions about public contracts must be made through fair, open and non-discriminatory processes. That is governed by UK procurement law, which recognises certain international treaty obligations. NHS England is reviewing the federated data platform contract to determine whether it should continue with standard contract management processes. It will look at evidence of delivery and the impact of the platform, and that should be the basis on which a contract continuation is decided.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chair of the Select Committee —I can assure her that I am Karin, not Claude. She tempts me to go further on the rest of the Bill, but I genuinely thank her and the Committee; I hope she would agree that I spent a lot of time over the past months, before Report stage and Committee stage, meeting her, members of the Committee and many hon. Members from across the House. We have some provisions—we might call them simple provisions—in the Bill to democratise the NHS’s accountability, to reinforce the single patient record, and to improve the patient experience and patient safety landscape. We recognise that there is a lot of complexity within those simple propositions, and we will continue to listen to hon. Members. We want to ensure that the NHS is strengthened. In relation to the ICBs and local authority voice, it was particularly significant over the summer to have heard from my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister about his commitment to rewiring the state and our ongoing reform to social care. With that in mind, I am pleased that amendments 60 to 62 will re-establish a requirement for ICBs to have at least one board member jointly nominated by local authorities in their area. That will sit alongside the existing duty to have a member nominated by the mayor of each mayoral strategic authority, as well as duties on ICBs and local government to work together, including on health and wellbeing boards. In Committee, we had a useful discussion about health and wellbeing boards, neighbourhoods and local accountability. I should also note that ICBs can appoint other people to their boards if they would benefit from their expertise. That is a decision to be taken locally. Finally, let me briefly pre-empt the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) by making a few comments about new clause 1. I thank her for the way she worked with me in Committee on the issue of a maternity commissioner—an issue that I think unites the House. As the hon. Member knows, we have accepted the recommendation from Baroness Amos’s national investigation into maternity and neonatal care. I can announce that, to deliver on this commitment, we will table an amendment to the Bill in the other place to establish a statutory maternity and neonatal commissioner. We are determined to get this right. For too long, too many women, babies and families have not received the care and support they deserve. The establishment of a commissioner represents a significant opportunity to strengthen accountability and champion their interests across the system. I hope that will give the hon. Member the reassurance she needs not to press her amendment.

• 16 Jul 2026 · Health Bill (Seventeenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend and the shadow Minister for their comments about NHS managers. I agree that they often get a bad press, and often from politicians as well. We cannot run the health service without both clinically and non-clinically trained managers, so we need to ensure that they have the right support to do their difficult job. My experience is that when the partnership with clinicians works well, it is really powerful. I have certainly learned a lot from working with some fantastic clinicians in my career. We are absolutely committed to introducing a statutory barring system. We will do that by introducing secondary legislation within this Parliament to enable the Health and Care Professions Council to operate that barring system. We intend to do so as part of the planned secondary legislation to modernise the framework that governs the Health and Care Professions Council. Changes to this legislation are subject to a statutory three-month consultation period, in addition to which this legislation will be novel and complex. It will require extensive stakeholder engagement to ensure that we develop a barring system that is proportionate and operates efficiently alongside existing frameworks, codes of practice and other regulation governing the work of NHS senior leaders. For those reasons, a 12-month timeline to bring forward the section 60 order is unfeasible. The new clause also sets out prescriptive duties on the content of the section 60 order; we would not wish to pre-empt the outcome of detailed policy development and consultation. I welcome the support of the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham for the broad programme of initiatives to professionalise and increase the accountability of managers and leaders in the NHS. Although we do not agree that it would be proportionate to set a requirement in primary legislation to lay before Parliament a timetable to which those measures will be delivered, officials in the Department of Health and Social Care and in NHS England are already working in partnership with organisations across the health sector and will set out more on the individual timelines in due course. For those reasons, I ask the hon. Member to withdraw her new clause.

• 16 Jul 2026 · Health Bill (Seventeenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for her kind comments. As the former Minister, the right hon. Member for Melton and Syston, recognised, I have been on the other side when considering a previous Bill. Opposition is hard work—the process is quite hard work on this side—and I commend Opposition Members for conducting that important scrutiny. I thank Members for their contributions and I think the Bill is stronger for those efforts.

• 16 Jul 2026 · Health Bill (Seventeenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Hon. Members have brought to the Committee a really important discussion about women’s health. I am very happy to have that discussion, because the Government are committed to prioritising women’s health. That is why I am so proud that we published a renewed women’s health strategy earlier this year. I say in response to the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman, the hon. Member for North Shropshire, that we renewed the strategy partly because—to be absolutely fair to the Conservative party—we agreed with much of what it put in place under its women’s health strategy. We did not see the need to start it from scratch, so to speak. There had not been a men’s health strategy, so they are very different propositions. Much of the direction had been covered, but the implementation had not. On the point made by the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham, we wanted to go further and faster and acknowledge some things, as the former Secretary of State did, about medical misogyny, as well as the need to renew that strategy. I fully agree with new clause 57 that women should get equal access to high-quality elective care. We are committed to tackling the long waits for services primarily affecting women; I am acutely aware that women can wait disproportionately longer for a wide range of treatments, although none solely impacts women more than gynaecology services. The Government recognise that injustice. That is why we have implemented measures to improve gynaecology services and women’s access to care, including piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with post-menopausal bleeding, increasing the relative funding available to incentivise providers to take on more gynaecology procedures, and using surgical hubs to help endometriosis patients to get quicker treatment. Those measures have helped to improve 18-week referral-to-treatment times for gynaecology by 5.1 percentage points over the past year. We will go further over the course of this Parliament, including by launching NHS Online clinical services from 2027. That will initially prioritise nine conditions, including women’s health conditions such as severe menopause symptoms and menstrual problems that may be a sign of endometriosis or fibroids. Patients will have the choice of getting the specialist care they need from home, and we will provide additional appointments to reduce waiting times. More broadly, we have committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard by March 2029 so that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment across all patient groups and specialties. Delivering against this standard would also require the waiting times for a diagnostic test to improve significantly. We recognise that, which is why in the medium-term planning framework, the NHS target is to ensure that by March 2029 no more than 1% of patients are waiting more than six weeks for a diagnostic test. On new clause 58, we acknowledge that women’s health has been neglected and that women deserve better. We acknowledge that there have been longstanding failings in women’s health outcomes, experiences and access to care. That is why we published the renewed women’s health strategy, making it clear that women’s voices and choices are central in healthcare. We will transform NHS performance in the services that matter most to women, support all women to live healthy, prosperous lives, and create an approach to research and development that works for and empowers women. Reducing inequalities is hardwired throughout the strategy. Actions are targeted by deprivation, ethnicity and unmet need, with a focus on marginalised women, community-based services, neighbourhood health models, and transparent data. The renewed women’s health strategy marks a decisive shift from identifying problems to delivering change. By listening to women’s voices, improving performance where it matters most, and tackling the drivers of poor health and inequality, we will ensure that women and girls receive the care, respect and outcomes they deserve. As a result, we do not think that conducting an independent inquiry into women’s health provisions and outcomes in England at this time would add value. Instead, now is the time to deliver the change that we all know and agree is absolutely needed. I recognise the intention behind new clause 104, but I do not believe that it is necessary to publish an implementation plan. The action summary tables in the renewed women’s health strategy clearly highlight the responsible delivery organisation and the planned timeframe for all 117 actions. Some actions are already under way or funded for this year; others will be delivered over the next two to five years, and more fundamental reforms will be phased in over the next decade, aligned with the 10-year health plan. Progress in the renewed strategy will be judged against three overarching outcomes: reversing the decline in healthy life expectancy since the 2010s, raising healthy life expectancy in the poorest regions to at least 61 years, and reducing the time women spend in poor health, particularly where inequalities are greatest—something I see very starkly in my Bristol South constituency. We will also be transparent on progress through a new women’s health data dashboard, publishing neighbourhood-level data on performance, access, outcomes and experience. This Government have already undertaken extensive engagement to inform the development of the strategy. We had nearly 100,000 responses to the 2022 women’s health strategy call for evidence, more than 400 submissions from individuals and organisations with expertise in women’s health, and analysis from the Change NHS engagement exercise, where roundtables brought together women with lived experience, clinicians, academics and expert organisations. I was part of some of those roundtables and it was very instructive. I thank them for the work they did to get us to this point. We will continue to engage and to listen to women through the new women’s voices partnership and through patient-reported experience and outcome measures, which will help to shape and improve services. Creating a new statutory duty to publish an implementation plan risks diverting attention and resources away from delivering the actions in the renewed strategy, which should now be our priority. It is for those reasons that I ask hon. Members not to press their new clauses.