Karin Smyth MP: speeches

Speeches

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for what he has said, and I thank the Butterfly Volunteers. Supporting people at that really important end of life stage is hard and critical work, and I commend them for it. The local link is also critical: we need to ensure that people can be directed from the national system to local systems, through NHS England and perhaps—if it is appropriate, Mr Speaker—through the House. It is in the interests of local Members of Parliament for us to ensure that what we have learnt from the national scheme is continued into the local scheme, and, as my hon. Friend says, we need the local co-ordination and infrastructure about which we have heard this afternoon.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  We are learning so much about each other this afternoon, are we not? I am pleased to hear that that is how my hon. Friend started her journey, and I am so impressed that she is continuing to do that. I was out with the ambulance service last week talking to staff, who highly praised those community first responders. The work that she and others are doing is valuable, and I know she will continue to use that knowledge to feed into the work we want to do in the future.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is right to highlight the tremendous effort that went into establishing the programme very quickly at a time of great crisis, and to thank the hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country who took part and stepped up. It was a huge effort to get the scheme running and we were all very grateful for it. Everyone learned a great deal from that; as I outlined in my initial response, we will be taking forward those lessons as we look at the role of volunteering in the future. The hon. Lady says that the changes have come out of nowhere; they have not. We are looking critically across the piece as we fix the foundations of our NHS and ensure that it is fit for the future. We are looking at the most cost-effective means of delivering the same outcome, which is why we will be moving to a centralised portal for part of this work. We have emailed people about that; some people may not have scrolled to the bottom of that email, where there is an option to push a button to register their details, so that they will be updated as new systems come online and we can make sure that we do not lose that great volunteering spirit. That is about digital techniques for the future, using the most cost-effective means and developing clear outcomes.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her work, expertise and knowledge. She is absolutely right—she almost pre-empted my answer—that embedding knowledge where it is needed in the frontline in our communities is exactly what we need to look to do, and we need to recognise where we can use volunteers well. We have micro-volunteering these days, which can help people to link in where it suits them, so that we can take advantage of people—I do not mean “take advantage”; that sounds bad. We can utilise people’s opportunities—perhaps they are working different or irregular shifts—so that they can give more, because we know that there is a great appetite out there to support the system more.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I am afraid that I have to disagree with the hon. Gentleman—it is not muddled. The analysis undertaken by NHS England indicates that the current system is not providing good value for money, and we are making sure that we produce something better for the future. This Government will continue to act in the best interests of volunteers, patients and taxpayers in setting up the NHS of the future.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady makes an important point: it is important to make sure that people do not suffer from changes and that the impact is minimised. As I said, the programme was not delivering effective value for money, and we think the future system will. We encourage more people to come forward, to increase the sustainability of volunteering in local systems.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I am happy to give my hon. Friend an absolute assurance. Volunteers support and complement the existing workforce; they do not replace it. Including volunteers signals a recognition of the important role they play in supporting staff, services and patients. Many hon. Members are volunteers and we have all seen how those volunteers can support the wider system. However, it is important that we keep our staff and respect their important roles.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for giving me the opportunity to speak about this topic and highlight the important role that volunteering plays in our health and social care system. The NHS has always benefited from the generous contribution made by volunteers, who play a vital role in supporting our patients, staff and services. We are grateful to the thousands of volunteers who donate their time to support the NHS in a wide variety of roles, from helping patients to leave hospital faster and settle in at home, to supporting emergency cardiac incidents and providing companionship to patients during end-of-life care. The national NHS and care volunteer responders programme was first established as part of the covid response, and then adapted to respond to other organisational pressures. However, a model that worked well in that national crisis is no longer the most cost effective way of facilitating the important contribution of our much valued volunteers, so NHS England has recently taken the decision to close the current programme. Instead, a new central recruitment portal for NHS volunteers will be fully launched this year, providing opportunities for the current pool of volunteer responders to continue to play their part. Volunteers will have had that information emailed to them recently. NHS England will also work with NHS providers that draw on the support of the volunteer responders programme to ensure that they are helped in developing other volunteering interventions that meet their service needs. The roles of 50,000 additional volunteers who are recruited and supported by NHS trusts directly will be unaffected by the closure of this programme. That is in addition to many more thousands of volunteers who support the NHS either directly or indirectly via other local and national voluntary sector organisations. Successive volunteering programmes in the NHS are primarily run locally by individual trusts and integrated care systems identifying the best opportunities for volunteering interventions that meet their specific service needs. That means local NHS action to build relationships with voluntary sector organisations and co-developing volunteering programmes and pathways that support patients, staff and NHS services. There will continue to be opportunities to strengthen and encourage innovation in NHS volunteering at national level. The Government recognise the need for sufficient and agile volunteering capacity and capability of support in particular scenarios, such as pandemics and flu seasons, when the health and care sector is particularly stretched.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for her work volunteering and supporting the scheme during covid. The announcement is about NHS England. The organisation will continue to work with the NHS and voluntary organisations to ensure that where people are volunteering, that will continue, and that volunteers continue to be recruited, ahead of a fuller launch of the recruitment portal later this year. On her wider point, this Government are not dropping talks with other parties about social care, which is being taken forward by the independent commission under Louise Casey.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point on behalf of his community, as well as rural communities more widely, about the role of volunteer drivers. We need volunteer drivers across a range of areas—in fact, my husband is out volunteering as I speak, driving for another charity. We need more of these people. There are plenty of opportunities for people who have time, and NHS England will continue to work with ICBs to make sure we take forward the best of what we already have into the rest of the NHS.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We want to make sure that people in her constituency and all our constituencies who have volunteered or who want to—those who perhaps could not at the time, but want to in the future—can do so. Those who are already on the system and have received an email can register via that portal, and we will make sure it is easy for people to do so in future. I have been reminded by a note that people who volunteered in the very early weeks of the pandemic might have been on a slightly different system from those who volunteered later on, so I think there will be a slightly different process for them. We do not want to lose them. Those who have received an email can register through that portal, but we will make sure that more opportunities are available when that is launched, and I will be happy to update the House when that happens.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  Well, we could— [ Interruption. ] Sorry, the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) is chuntering from a sedentary position. I partly agree with my hon. Friend. Yes, the Conservatives did run down the NHS and we inherited a broken system, but volunteering has always been a really important part of the NHS and the care system, so I pay tribute to those people who come forward. It is both good for the system and the people they help, and for many individuals. We talked earlier about people feeling disconnected, perhaps as receivers of volunteering, but we know how valuable it is for individuals themselves to be giving and volunteering, and we want to see more of that.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Lady about the roles that people play, particularly by having conversations and connecting with people who feel disconnected. To be very clear, this decision is about particular arrangements: it does not mean that things are stopping across our country or with local health systems ensuring that volunteers are still available. We want to ensure that we use that knowledge in building systems for the future. I was very pleased to host a roundtable with organisations as part of our 10-year plan process. There are some fantastic ideas and opportunities out there to use the knowledge we have learned, particularly during covid, to use technology to link with people and to recognise where people are not linked by technology and ensure that they remain connected. All of that will form part of our future plans.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution and her service in that role. She is absolutely right to highlight not just the people who come forward, but the people who run that local infrastructure. As I said in my opening remarks, much of this work is done at a local level. The learning we must take from what the national scheme did is how we bring that together in a crisis. We want to make sure that the learning is spread across the country and that we can use digital technology and a portal, where that suits the many people coming forward. She is absolutely right about local infrastructure and people to make sure things happen. They are best placed to know where the service gaps are and where the people are who can support them. They provide an important link. We will make sure that that is part of our 10-year plan.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is absolutely right. We should be clear that the NHS and the care system need people. He is right about many hospitals being a maze and the importance of that friendly face to greet someone when they go into hospital. They are knowledgeable and know that most people go into hospital not for a good reason, so they recognise the anxiety people have when they enter those places. We know the cheer that is brought by hospital radio and so on. I just gently correct the hon. Member: we are not losing the volunteers. This is a change to a contractual arrangement, so the volunteers are still there. We still want to make sure that they come forward, as we have discussed. Volunteering is more generally handled by local situations, and this is about the best way we can get the national system to spread into a local system. We need the local infrastructure, and we need to keep encouraging people to come forward. I hope that, as a result of this urgent question this afternoon, we are highlighting the role of volunteers and that more people will come forward.

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  This is a good opportunity, which I very much welcome, to highlight again how important volunteering is to the NHS and the care system. It will remain an important part of our plans going forward that. People may have had an email and thought that something is stopping and that there is not more to do, but they should ensure that they press that button and register for upcoming opportunities and are in contact with their local NHS systems. As I said, volunteering is done locally, and it is important that we support those local systems and encourage more and more people to come forward to undertake this important work.

• 12 May 2025 · Draft Medical Devices and Blood Safety and Quality (Fees Amendment) Regulations · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Medical Devices and Blood Safety and Quality (Fees Amendment) Regulations 2025. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. Before I turn to the detail of the statutory instrument, I would like to highlight the important role that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency plays in safeguarding public health, and the importance of the agency’s continuing to be properly funded to deliver its role. The MHRA is a world-leading regulator of medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the UK. It charges fees for its services; the fees are set to recover the cost of delivering a service, in line with His Majesty’s Treasury’s guidance, “Managing Public Money”. To ensure that it continues to recover its costs, it aims to update its fees every two years, which is standard practice for Government bodies that operate on a cost recovery basis, and for other regulators, here and abroad. All fees are set by taking into account various factors to reflect the cost of the activities involved in delivering a service, such as the time taken and the number and grade of staff involved; this is also informed by staff activity recording. In addition, in line with “Managing Public Money”, the MHRA includes the cost of services, of necessary corporate overheads and of system investments. Regular fee uplifts are necessary to ensure the MHRA’s long-term financial sustainability and enable it to deliver the responsive, innovative and efficient regulatory service that its customers expect, and one which protects and improves patient and public health. The draft instrument will do three main things. First, it will update the fees that the MHRA charges for its activities regulating medical devices and blood components for transfusion. These fees were last updated in April 2023. The implementation date for the proposed changes is June, and they will ensure cost recovery until 2027. Secondly, the draft instrument will introduce a fee for a new optional service: a regulatory advice meeting for medical devices. This new service will support manufacturers in interpreting regulations and requirements, particularly for complex, innovative products. Finally, the draft instrument will introduce a new payment easement for small and medium-sized enterprises for clinical investigation fees. The easements will not reduce the overall fee, which would require cross-subsidisation, but will enable the fee to be paid in two instalments, providing some flexibilities for SMEs. I should note that the draft instrument will not change the MHRA’s fees for activities relating to medicines regulation. Given the different legal positions in relation to the powers to make regulations about fees relating to medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion, the MHRA has used two instruments for this fees uplift. A second instrument for human medicines fees has already been laid before the UK Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly and has already come into force.

• 12 May 2025 · Draft Medical Devices and Blood Safety and Quality (Fees Amendment) Regulations · Hansard source

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  I am happy to answer any questions, but as far as I am aware, they are NHS-employed staff, so they will be dealt with in the usual way. I am happy to write to the shadow Minister with any specifics if that is helpful. In conclusion, the draft regulations are important to ensure that the MHRA has the resources that it needs to continue delivering reliable services and its public health role. I commend them to the Committee. Question put and agreed to.

• 12 May 2025 · Draft Medical Devices and Blood Safety and Quality (Fees Amendment) Regulations · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Members for Sleaford and North Hykeham and for Chichester for their comments, which I will try to address. As I think everyone agrees, the MHRA provides essential services that play a crucial public health role, and it is important that it recovers its costs, which is what these fee increases are set to do. The main benefit of the draft regulations will be that patients and innovators have the faster and better-delivered service that has been committed to. I meet the MHRA regularly, and I will be meeting with the new chief executive and chair later this week to make sure that the improvement that we have seen recently continues. I know that the whole House is interested in that, because, like all regulators, the MHRA is a huge contributor to the growth that we want to see as part of our growth agenda. I expect patients and the industry to see the impact. Recovering the fees is crucial. It is also right that the regulated bear the cost of regulation, rather than it falling to UK taxpayers to subsidise it. By supporting the draft regulations, we will ensure that the MHRA continues to contribute to the Government’s health mission, balancing the responsibilities to maintain product safety and to champion innovation. It has made progress in responding to the recommendations set out in Baroness Cumberlege’s independent medicines and medical devices safety review. It has listened carefully to the people who gave evidence and to the findings of the independent review team, which are a matter of concern to many Members and constituents across the country, as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Chichester, quite rightly highlighted. The MHRA is committed to bringing about the changes that have been identified and to achieving ambition to be a regulator that absolutely delivers for UK patients, as well as delivering at speed to give confidence to the industry. We absolutely do not want to deter innovation; that is why in the draft regulations we are making some changes to support SMEs, which may find regulation more burdensome. We will keep that under review. We expect the organisation to look closely at staff costs and make sure, like all organisations, that it produces the efficiencies needed to deliver a good service.

• 6 May 2025 · Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board: Waiting Times · Hansard source

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  Driving down waiting times is one of this Government’s top priorities, and my colleagues at NHS England continue to keep in regular contact with ICBs on improving waiting times and delivering the ambitions set out in our elective reform plan. Since July, we have cut waiting lists by more than 219,000 across England, and by 6,000 for University Hospitals of North Midlands, and have delivered 3 million more appointments.

• 6 May 2025 · Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board: Waiting Times · Hansard source

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  I am sorry for the experience that my hon. Friend’s constituent has had, and he highlights a really important aspect of the patient journey through the system. I want him and the House to be assured that we are looking at the entire patient journey, both into hospital and between hospitals. We are determined to improve patient experience and quality of care, and to get back the patient satisfaction that was squandered by the last Government.

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am absolutely willing to give the hon. Member that commitment, and I know he worked on this programme in his previous role in Northern Ireland. It is delivering results, and we want to see results. We want to take the best to the rest of the NHS, and we absolutely want to work together across the United Kingdom to make sure that all our residents benefit from the programme.

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right that this is exactly the sort of thing that is being rolled out across the country, and that we are committed to delivering care closer to where his residents live.

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to congratulate the pharmacies that are on the frontline on their hard work, and also to congratulate all those in the Department and elsewhere who ensure that our supply chain is as resilient as possible. I know that this issue concerns many Members and many of our constituents, and we hope to arrange a parliamentary event to ensure that Members have more information. Those people do a great deal of work; we know that the issue is important, and I will update the House on other measures that we intend to take to ensure that Members and their constituents are better informed.

• 6 May 2025 · English Devolution: Integrated Care Boards · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to campaign on behalf of her constituents to make sure that more services are delivered in communities. We want to see services brought out of hospital and into local communities. It is up to the ICB to decide how those are commissioned, but we will certainly make sure that, as part of our commitments under our 10-year plan, we see more of those sorts of services working together in neighbourhoods.