Stephen Kinnock MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As I said earlier, we are giving pharmacies a record 19% uplift to £3.1 billion, and I am pleased to confirm that of all the sectors in the NHS they received the best uplift in the 2025-26 settlement. We have also maintained the pharmacy access scheme, which provides £19 million to support pharmacies in areas where there are fewer of them, including the rural areas that the hon. Gentleman mentioned.

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will know that we have hired 1,500 more GPs, which will help with access. We have also renegotiated the contract, so there will be online booking systems in every practice in the country, and we have changed the contract to incentivise continuity of care in order to bring back the family doctor. There is a suite of reforms coupled with investment, which I hope will deliver for my hon. Friend’s constituents.

• 6 May 2025 · Eye Care: 10-year Health Plan · Hansard source

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  ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of these services, which are clearly extremely important, and the early intervention side of eye care is particularly important. I would be more than happy to look into that issue with the hon. Lady’s ICB if she wrote to me and made further representations.

• 6 May 2025 · Eye Care: 10-year Health Plan · Hansard source

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  I think that the right hon. Gentleman is referring to the single point of access digital technology, which is game changing in terms of improving the interface between high street and secondary care. It is probably worth reminding him that the question is about eye care. We are absolutely committed to single point of access technology, which we believe can be game-changing technology and is a vital part of our shift from analogue to digital.

• 6 May 2025 · Eye Care: 10-year Health Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is an outstanding campaigner on this issue, as I am sure everybody across the House is aware. She will know that the NHS England accelerator pilots have shown how improved IT connectivity and a single point of access can speed up eye care referrals and allow more patients to be managed in the community. That is a great example of the shift we want to make from analogue to digital. We are developing the 10-year health plan with input from the public, our partners and health staff, and that of course includes the eye care sector.

• 6 May 2025 · Eye Care: 10-year Health Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right that early intervention is crucial, and the interface between the high street and secondary care is a vital part of that. That means having a joined-up eye health strategy. The 10-year plan will have that joined-up strategy at its heart. She will be pleased to know that, since July, ophthalmology waiting lists have dropped by 24,000, so change has begun. There is still a long way to go to dig us out of the mess left by the Conservative party, but it is thanks to the decisions that the Government have made, opposed by Opposition parties, that we are beginning to see that change gaining traction.

• 6 May 2025 · Eye Care: 10-year Health Plan · Hansard source

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  Although the independent sector clearly has an important role to play in tackling waiting lists and backlogs, we will not tolerate any overpriced or sub-par care, and we will not tolerate any distortion of patient choice. The recently published partnership agreement between NHS England and the Independent Healthcare Provider Network commits to ending incentives that can lead to that, and to supporting equal access and genuine choice for all patients. We are working together to deliver on that.

• 6 May 2025 · GPs: Time with Patients · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady raises what sounds like an extremely interesting scheme. She will know that we have a strong commitment in our 10-year plan to shift from hospital to community, and indeed from analogue to digital. The digital aspects of that scheme sound very interesting, so I would be more than happy to take further representations from her.

• 6 May 2025 · GPs: Time with Patients · Hansard source

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  I absolutely share the frustrations of my hon. Friend and his constituents. The investment made today was in response to GPs telling us that they needed more space; the investment will lead to more capacity and better access and outcomes for his constituents. Today’s announcement was only possible thanks to the decisions made in the October Budget, which were opposed by every party opposite. The choice is clear: investment in our NHS with Labour, or cuts with the Tories and Reform.

• 6 May 2025 · GPs: Time with Patients · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend that we have recruited over 1,500 additional GPs since October through an investment of £82 million, helping to fix the front door to the NHS. Today we have announced £100 million to unlock new capacity and more appointments in GP surgeries. We have also launched a red tape challenge and scrapped unnecessary targets in our new GP contract to cut down on bureaucracy and free up time to spend with patients.

• 6 May 2025 · Emergency Dentistry: Access · Hansard source

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  We are already rolling out our manifesto commitment of 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year. These appointments are available across the country for those experiencing painful dental issues such as infections, abscesses or cracked or broken teeth. We are committed to reforming the dental contract and making NHS dentistry fit for the future.

• 6 May 2025 · Emergency Dentistry: Access · Hansard source

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  There is no perfect payment system. We have to look at the issue around units of dental activity, and at options around capitation and sessional payments, and come to a conclusion about what works and about how to ensure that everything that we commit to NHS dentistry is spent on NHS dentistry. We are in a mad situation in which, although demand for NHS dentistry is going through the roof, we have an underspend every year on the contract. We have to fix that. It will take some time to work that out with the British Dental Association and other key stakeholders. What is tragic about this situation is that the Conservatives had 14 years to fix the situation and left it in a terrible mess.

• 6 May 2025 · Emergency Dentistry: Access · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is right to say that the dental contract is fundamentally flawed and needs reform. I met representatives of the British Dental Association on 8 April, and had a productive discussion with them about dental contract reform. Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care are working hard with the BDA and other stakeholders to develop a dental contract that works for patients, for dental professionals and for the public purse. I will of course keep her and the House updated. I know this issue is of huge importance to the country, and to every Member of this House.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Community Health: Manchester Rusholme · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Rusholme (Afzal Khan) on securing this important debate. Before I begin my remarks, I would like to pay tribute to some of the stellar charities that are working to reduce health inequalities: the Health Foundation, which is leading the way with its Health Equals mission; the People’s Health Trust, which is providing funding and support to left-behind communities; and the BHA for Equality, which was founded in 1990 to address the lack of quality information and services for black communities in Manchester. I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Public Health—the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton)—but I am more than happy to take this debate because I recognise many of the issues that my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Rusholme mentioned from my own constituency. I am responding not just on behalf of the Government, but as an MP from a constituency with some of the highest levels of deprivation in the United Kingdom. I agree with my hon. Friend that the levels of inequality between the better-off and worse-off in our country are a national scandal. Fourteen years of austerity measures and stagnant wages have disproportionately affected lower-income households, exacerbating both income and regional disparities. Places such as Manchester and Port Talbot have borne the brunt. The life expectancy for Mancunian men and women is significantly worse compared with their compatriots in the rest of England. A baby boy born in the Manchester royal infirmary can expect to live for just over 75 years, which is four years less than the English average. A baby girl born in Manchester can expect to live to the age of about 79 and a half, which is also four years less than in England as a whole. My hon. Friend raises some issues that are not within my Department’s remit, including housing, knife crime and fly-tipping, but I completely understand why he has done so, because the determinants of ill health are wide and it is much more than a single factor that predicts healthy life expectancy. The Government know that we cannot address the challenges we face in the north-west with each Department in Whitehall siloed one from another, so we are taking a whole-of-Government approach to tackling inequalities through our health mission. That is chaired by the Prime Minister, who is lending his weight and authority from the centre of Government. We have a laser focus on addressing the social determinants of health in a truly strategic way, and addressing the wider determinants of health to improve healthy life expectancy for all, while halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between different regions of England. We are prioritising prevention, shifting more care into the community and intervening earlier in life to raise the healthiest generation of children in our history. Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of our 10-year health plan to ensure that the NHS is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it. We have established 11 working groups to take forward policy development that will feed into the plan. That includes working groups focused on how care should be designed and delivered to improve healthcare equity, alongside ensuring that access to healthcare services is effective and responsive. We look forward to updating the House once the plan is published in June. Proximity to fast food outlets is strongly associated with obesity. Kids living in the most deprived communities are in proximity to twice the number of fast food outlets compared with wealthier areas. Nearly 3,500 schools across the country now have a major food outlet within 400 metres; that is 1,000 more schools than 10 years ago. We have an outstanding mayor in Andy Burnham. Devolution gives him and other leaders in Greater Manchester the freedom and flexibility to set priorities locally. In December, the Government published the revised national planning policy framework for local authorities, which gave them stronger, clearer powers to block new fast food outlets near schools and where young people gather. This will stop the relentless targeting of children and young people by the fast food industry. I am delighted that just last week, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill passed its Second Reading in the other place. Smoking is a scourge on deprived communities and contributes to poverty, ill health and a lower life expectancy. Britain is leading the world through landmark legislation to break the cycle of addiction and disadvantage by gradually ending the sale of tobacco products across the country. The Bill contains powers to extend the ban on smoking indoors to certain outdoor settings to reduce the harms of second-hand smoking, particularly around children and vulnerable people. Over the past 14 years, a two-tier health system has emerged in our country. People who can afford it are increasingly going private to skip the queue, while those who cannot are left behind. We are determined to end two-tier healthcare in this country, so whether someone is the richest or the poorest person in Manchester, they get timely, quality treatment that is free at the point of use. Our elective reform plan will see more NHS patients able to choose to be treated in a private hospital, where there is capacity, paid for by the state. More capacity will be available for people in working-class areas of the country and for women stuck on waiting lists for gynaecological care. Where we can treat working people faster, we will, and we will make no apology for doing so—working-class patients in this country deserve the same choice, control and convenience as the wealthy expect—and I am delighted that waiting lists have been falling now for six months in a row. The previous Labour Government did so much to reduce inequality: lifting millions of children out of poverty through Sure Start; giving a lifeline to working families through child tax credits; creating the minimum wage; and fixing the NHS after almost two decades of under-investment. It is a matter of profound regret that so much of that legacy has been undone over the past 14 years, but the people of Manchester don’t just want us to look back in anger; they want us to get on with the job of building homes, fixing the NHS and putting more money in people’s pockets. My right hon. and learned Friend the Prime Minister has spoken about the “class ceiling” that prevents children from getting ahead. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Rusholme to shatter the class ceiling that hangs above his constituency and mine. Question put and agreed to.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I am glad you recognised me from the Chair, Mr Speaker. I have lost some hair since we last spoke. I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “it” to end and insert: “also notes that the Chancellor has announced new fiscal rules to ensure capital budgets can no longer be cannibalised, with transfers from capital to resource budgets not permitted; recognises that the previous Government left a New Hospital Programme which was unfunded, unrealistic and undeliverable; welcomes that the Government has taken action to review that Programme and has published the New Hospital Programme Plan for Implementation, to put the Programme on a sustainable footing; supports the Government’s investment in the Plan, which will increase to up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging around £3 billion a year from 2030; and further supports the work being done to bring forward construction of the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete replacement schemes wherever possible, to ensure that patient and staff safety is prioritised.” The amendment on the Order Paper is in the name of my right hon. and learned Friend the Prime Minister. I thank the Liberal Democrats for using their Opposition day to address a matter of vital importance for so many Members, including many colleagues right across the Chamber and their constituents. I sincerely hope that the Liberal Democrats will work with us on solutions, not on soundbites, because we need to be realistic about the problems we face and serious about how we tackle them. The new hospital programme was announced by the last Government to much fanfare in October 2020, with a promise to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. We were told that there was a plan and a timetable, and we were glibly assured that it was fully funded, but from the outset it was clear that there were not 40 new schemes—some were just refurbishments or extensions. To put it simply, there were not 40 projects, they were not all new and many of them were not even hospitals. The spin around the programme was widely questioned and challenged before the general election, but nevertheless we were truly shocked by what we found on entering the Department of Health and Social Care. The programme was hugely delayed, by several years more than had already been revealed by the National Audit Office. There was no credible plan to deliver the building projects, let alone to deliver them all in the next five years, and there was not even enough construction capacity in the UK to build all the hospitals in the new hospital programme by 2030. That is why when the hospitals with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete were brought into the NHP in 2023, even the last Government had the sense to admit that nine schemes would have to be delivered past 2030 in order to prioritise the RAAC hospitals. Perhaps most shocking of all, the funding for the programme was due to run out a month ago, with no provision whatsoever for future years: the money simply was not there. The programme was built on nothing more than false hope, dodgy claims and disingenuous press releases.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is absolutely right that community hospitals play a vital role, and I share her disappointment with the decisions that are being made. The fact of the matter is that we are in a hole, and we have to dig ourselves out of that hole. It is going to take some time to do that. We are getting the public finances back on an even keel, we are getting our public services back to where they need to be, and we are getting the economy back on a sounder footing. As we make those achievements, I hope that we will be able to reverse some of the decisions that are being made—decisions that are, of course, damaging to the hon. Lady’s community—but we are in a very difficult position, and it will take some time for us to get over that.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a doughty champion for her constituents, and she is absolutely right. The point she makes raises the even bigger issue of trust in politics and the trust that her constituents have in this place. That trust was fundamentally undermined by the disingenuous nature of what went on with the previous hospital programme. The British people are grown up enough for us to be able to level with them, be straight with them and say, “This plan is credible and affordable. It’s based on facts, not fantasy.”

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I was very pleased to see the £102 million capital investment in GP primary care. I encourage the hon. Gentleman’s ICB to look very carefully at that fund and to explore the potential that it offers. We are in conversation with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about ensuring that section 106 processes are working properly, so that when there are new developments, there is proper wraparound in the social infrastructure required to make them sustainable. In the space of just nine short months, we have gone from a charade based on smoke and mirrors to a programme based on serious, systematic delivery.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend, who is a relentless campaigner for her constituents, is right: it was simply government by press release, with so many aspects of policy based on making announcements and unfunded spending commitments. When we came into government, we discovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, largely based on promises that had no funding whatsoever attached to them. That is the sort of behaviour that undermines trust in politics. On the Liberal Democrat proposal to create a taskforce, we have excellent teams working on the programme, and they are getting on with the job. We do not have a second to waste. Setting up a new taskforce would simply mean further delay and distraction through process, rather than a laser focus on delivery. I know that Members across the House share my outrage at the almost £14 billion backlog maintenance bill facing NHS trusts after years of historic under-investment. I understand that many in the Chamber are concerned about the condition of the health facilities that serve their constituents, and I reassure them that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has given us the funding to begin immediately reversing the trend of decline that started under the last Government. This financial year, we are backing NHS systems through over £4 billion in operational capital; a lifesaving cash injection of £750 million of targeted estate safety funding, as a vital first step towards fixing our crumbling estate; and £440 million to tackle crumbling RAAC, keeping staff, patients and their families safe. We are empowering systems to manage their capital allocations locally and assign funding to local priorities, ensuring that money is spent as effectively as possible, as soon as possible.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is an outstanding champion for his constituents. I noted the point he made about A&E; that was nicely done. He is right in what he says about the motion. The broader point to make is that thanks to the necessary decisions that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made in the autumn Budget, we have generated the revenue that we will need to rebuild public services, and in particular our NHS, which was brought to its knees by the previous Government. I cannot claim to be a careful student of the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the last election, but I did notice that the revenue that would be generated by their measures was, I think, about £8.4 billion. Last time I checked, that was significantly lower than the £23 billion raised by the Chancellor’s Budget. The Liberal Democrats should probably get their calculators out and figure out exactly how they will generate this revenue, rather than criticising us constantly for the decisions we have taken.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  If hon. Members will bear with me, I will make a little bit more progress and then come back to them. Many Liberal Democrat colleagues have made the argument that with hospitals in the state they are in, it is more important than ever to have a robust social care system in place. As the Minister for Care, I agree with them wholeheartedly, but it is simply not true to portray the Government as sitting on their hands while Baroness Casey gets cracking on her vital work. In fact, we have hit the ground running through a plethora of measures. We have legislated for the first ever fair pay agreement for social care in order to tackle the 130,000 vacancies we see today. We have delivered an extra 7,800 home adaptations through the disabled facilities grant to change the lives of thousands more disabled people for the better. In the Budget, the Chancellor provided the biggest increase in carer’s allowance since the 1970s, worth £2,000 a year to family carers and with an extra £3.7 billion for local authorities. We are not hanging around on more structural reforms, either. We are introducing new standards to help people who use care, their families and providers to choose the most effective new technology as it comes on the market. We are joining up care and medical records, so that NHS and care staff have the full picture they need to provide the best possible care, and we are training more care workers to perform more health interventions, helping people to stay well and at home. Just two weeks ago, we announced a new qualification for social care staff, training them in artificial intelligence to automate routine tasks and motion sensors to detect falls. We are seizing the opportunities of care tech and harnessing it for the benefit of thousands who draw on care across our country.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is also a doughty champion for his constituents. With each brick we build in the new hospital programme, I hope that we will start to rebuild some trust between his constituents and this place. He is absolutely right to point out that it is much better to have a realistic programme, rather than one built on smoke and mirrors. Officials reported on the review in the autumn and set out a range of options for a more realistic timetable for delivery. In January, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced five-year waves of investment, backed by up to £15 billion of investment over consecutive five-year waves, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Our programme is a balanced portfolio of hospital schemes at different development stages, being delivered now and into the future. It is the most efficient and cost-effective way of giving our NHS the buildings it needs, while also giving the construction sector the certainty that it needs to deliver.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. Baroness Casey is working at pace to get the commission up and running, and that will be launched this month. On her point about Think Ahead, the fundamental challenge we had with that programme was its relatively high unit costs. We are aiming to ensure that we deliver value for money for the taxpayer—I am sure that the hon. Lady shares that objective. We have to ensure that we deliver a programme for mental health social care work that delivers not only the best possible outcomes for our communities, but the best possible value for taxpayer money. A lot has been done in the nine months since the election, but there is a huge amount more to do, and this Government are getting on with the job. Alongside the work I have described, the Government are putting record levels of investment into healthcare, with capital spending rising to £13.6 billion over this year and the next. That includes £1.5 billion for new surgical hubs, diagnostic scanners and beds across the NHS estate, as well as new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatment; over £1 billion to tackle RAAC and make inroads into the backlog of critical maintenance, repairs and upgrades across the NHS estate; and over £2 billion to be invested in NHS technology and digital. We are also taking the pressure off our hospitals through care in the community, and I am sure the whole House will welcome the fact that we have recruited 1,500 extra GPs on to the frontline.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  These decisions are the responsibility of ICBs, and the ICB is having to balance a range of pressures, as the hon. Member points out, created largely by the neglect and incompetence of the previous Government. It is now a question of ICBs having to cut their cloth to make the finances work with the limited resources they have. I am afraid that is symptomatic of the mess we found when we took over on 4 July.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I will just make a little more progress, if I may. We are committed to rebuilding our NHS and rebuilding trust in Government. We will never play fast and loose with the public finances, and we will never try to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. Everyone in this House remembers, or should remember, that the last Labour Government cut waiting lists to their lowest level in history, raised patient satisfaction to the highest level in its history, and brought in historic health interventions, such as the smoking ban. What is less remembered is that they also delivered the largest hospital building programme in NHS history. All that meant that when the coalition took over in 2010, it was presented with a strong national health service that was firing on all cylinders. Tragically, that coalition Government and their successor Governments set about weakening and undermining every aspect of our precious NHS, to the extent that by the time this Government took over in July, the NHS was well and truly on its knees. Today, it once again falls to a Labour Government to take the necessary and right decisions for the future. We have now put the new hospital programme on a sustainable footing. It has a timeline that can be met, and a budget consistent with our fiscal rules. That is how we have turned the programme from empty rhetoric into reality, and in doing so, we have provided the construction industry and its supply chains with vital certainty, while also restoring confidence in public sector procurement. We are on the side of the builders, not the blockers. Our plan is credible, achievable and fully funded. It is a programme grounded in fact, not fiction. I was born in Tredegar, the very same town as Aneurin Bevan, so it is the privilege of a lifetime to be part of a Government who are carrying his torch into the 21st century, building a generation of hospitals that would do Nye proud.