Childhood Obesity Strategy

Will Quince Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson). I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) for calling this important debate. I am sure that Members can all see that I am a man who likes his food, and that I am not particularly in a position to lecture others on obesity. At the same time, I cannot ignore the fact that too many children in this country are obese, that poor children are more likely to be obese than rich children—boys and girls in the lowest quintile are three times more likely to be obese as those in the highest quintile—and that those living in towns are more likely to be obese than those living in rural areas. Those are unpalatable facts. It is right and proper that we investigate, and, where we have clear evidence, take the appropriate action.

However, the evidence does not suggest that childhood obesity is a problem that is getting significantly worse. The proportion of obese children in year 6 is higher than it was in 2006-07, but for reception children the proportion has fallen over the same period. Moreover, there has been a significant decrease in the proportion of British children, aged two to 10, who are obese.

[Dr Wollaston]

Will my hon. Friend go back and look at those figures in more detail? What he will see is that, although those figures are falling for the wealthiest children, they are rising for the most disadvantaged children. We are seeing a widening of the gap, which masks the underlying problem.

--- Later in debate ---

[Will Quince]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I will come on to that in a bit more detail. The important element is that any approach we take must be evidence-based. I absolutely agree with her that we need to look at all the evidence.

I stated that the proportion of those aged two to 10 who were obese had gone from 17% in 2005 to 13% in 2013. The evidence suggests that childhood obesity rose quickly in the mid-2000s and has slightly fallen ever since. That is an important fact for two reasons. First, it suggests that our education programmes in our schools and the Government-backed campaigns on obesity within the last decade have had a positive impact in halting the increase in childhood obesity. Secondly, it undermines the scaremongering that suggests that childhood obesity is rocketing year on year. It simply is not; the reality is much more complex.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes has already mentioned, there is a growing clamour for a sugar tax on soft drinks to combat childhood obesity. She has called in a recent article for a 20% tax on sugary drinks as part of that overall solution. Her calls have been echoed by the British Medical Association and other public health campaigners. I have huge respect for my hon. Friend, but I think that a sugar tax is completely the wrong answer. A sugar tax is illiberal and patronising —in my view, nanny statism at its worst.

Given how sugar tax campaigners argue, one might think that consumption of sugar in the UK is at a record high. It is not. Consumption of sugar per head in the UK is falling, from a high of more than 50 kg a year in the 1980s to less than 40 kg a year now. What is more, soft drink consumption in the UK is falling. The latest household food survey from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows that household soft drink consumption purchases have fallen by 5.2% since 2011 and by 19% for high-calorie soft drinks in the same period. Regular soft drink purchases are now at their lowest level since 1992.

[Geraint Davies]

Does not the hon. Gentleman agree, though, that a sugar tax would be eminently fiscally responsible? It would gather revenue, increase life chances, increase health and reduce health costs. From the point of view of the Exchequer, it would be very sensible. Can he not come up with other sensible ideas like that?

[Will Quince]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point and, of course, that would make sense if the evidence suggested that a soft drink tax implemented anywhere else in the world had actually worked and had the effect that he suggests. He is right to suggest that there are a lot of other measures that we as a Government and that businesses and organisations can take to address this issue; I do not believe that the sugar tax is the right one.

Sugar tax advocates have pointed out the introduction of a sugar tax in Mexico and the corresponding 6% decline in soft drink sales since the tax was introduced. However, research in The BMJ does not show evidence of a link between the introduction of the tax and the small decline in soft drinks consumption. Further taxes on non-essential energy dense foods were also introduced at the same time as the sugar tax, and they accounted for a higher proportion of Mexicans’ daily calorific intake. As the authors of the research admitted,

“we cannot determine the independent role of each”

of the taxes. The research even acknowledges that there is a lack of information on nutritional data for packaged drinks in Mexico, which means that researchers cannot see what the fall in soft drink consumption meant for a decline in sugar intake.

As many Members may know, Mexico does not have safe drinking water. As a high-profile advocate of the sugar tax in Mexico, Alejandro Calvillo, stated:

“We know that there are people who drink a lot of sodas and they don’t have access to drinking water.”

How can we possibly compare the results in a developing country that has unclean, unsafe drinking water with how a tax might operate here in the United Kingdom? Instead, let us compare like with like. When sugar taxes have been tried in developed nations such as France, they have had a negligible effect on reducing consumption. Denmark scrapped its sugar tax on soft drinks in 2014 and labelled it an expensive failure. The Danish Ministry of Taxation labelled food and drink taxes as

“misguided at best and may be counter-productive at worst”.

They even described it as an expensive liability for business, and, as we all know, a sugar tax would be a very bitter pill for British businesses to swallow.

Study after study on soft drinks taxes in the USA also shows that they have a negligible impact on sugary drink intake and calorie consumption. What is more, the small decline in sugary drinks is almost entirely offset by consumption of other sugary products.

[Dr Wollaston]

My hon. Friend is very generous to give way again. I wonder whether he has had an opportunity to look again in detail at the article in The BMJ to which he refers. He is citing the figure of 6%, but the article makes it clear that by the end of the year the decline was 12% overall, and—more importantly, if we are to address the issue of health inequality—17% among the heaviest users. He might wish to update himself. I am happy to share the paper with him.

[Will Quince]

I thank my hon. Friend and I would be delighted to take another look at that piece of research.

My hon. Friend has made a case for the sugar tax to protect the poorest, and I think that that was the point that she was just making. As I have mentioned, and this is a good point, the poorest children are the most likely to be obese. However, the statistics show that, in low-income households in Britain, soft drink purchases dropped by 14% between 2007 and 2013. Perhaps a 20% sugar tax on soft drinks is not very much to celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and some of those who are pushing the idea of a sugar tax, but for those on the lowest incomes—who we know, proportionally, buy these products—about 12p a can or 37p per 2 litre bottle is a massive amount of money.

[Maggie Throup]

I think that the point is that we are talking about a tax on sugary drinks and there are alternatives, such as drinks with artificial sweeteners. We are not making it so that these people do not have a choice. There are two different sides of the argument.

[Will Quince]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. As someone who spent five years working in the soft drinks industry, I think she makes a valuable point. We need to question what we want our children—and adults —to drink. Do we want them drinking sugar or sodium benzoate, acesulfame and aspartame? That is a whole separate debate that we can have. I tend to choose to drink diet variants myself, but those options are there and the industry is driving people towards those lower calorie drinks. Let us take Britvic Soft Drinks as an example. Members will notice that they can buy a 600 ml bottle of diet Pepsi or Tango for the same price as a 500 ml full-sugar variant. The industry is already encouraging behavioural change.

To return to the Mexican experiment, 63% of sugar tax receipts have been collected from low-income households and 37.5% of receipts came from those in poverty. As I mentioned before, particularly with soft drinks but across the board, labelling has never been better, nor has the choice for consumers. The industry is doing a huge amount of work to encourage behavioural change and do the right thing.

I am conscious of the time and that lots of Members would like to speak, so I will conclude. I welcome a debate on childhood obesity and a clear strategy to reduce it. There are a huge number of measures that we as a Government could take ourselves and that we could encourage businesses and organisations to take, but let us ensure that the strategy is based on solid evidence. I strongly believe that a sugar tax is not the answer.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[Will Quince]

I am interested to know why sugary soft drinks, in particular, are being targeted. Why are we not looking at cereals, biscuits and cakes as well? Why is it just sugary drinks?

[Jim Shannon]

I am happy to look at sugary drinks because we have to start somewhere, but I will happily look at cornflakes and other foods as well, so they should not think that we are going to let them off. The issue is that there are nine teaspoons of sugar in a can of fizzy drink, so we need to address the issue where it starts.

We cannot ignore the statistics, because they are very clear. The fact that by age 11 a quarter of children in Northern Ireland are not just overweight, but obese is an alarming statistic. I think that a comprehensive and robust approach will be required if we are to address that. One way to doing that is through education in schools. I think that we need to bring that education in at an early stage. I think that the Minister will probably respond along those lines.

I fully support having a tax on sugar, which I think would be a step in the right direction. If we do that, we can move things forward and address the issue of obesity and people being overweight very early. Without addressing this serious health issue at the earliest stage possible, it will lead to problems for the health of the person in question, and for public health and society as a whole. I found some statistics on obesity the other day. The obesity epidemic in Northern Ireland has led to a doubling in just three years in the number of callouts for firefighters to help obese people. Those are startling figures. We can sit and ignore those and say, “No, we’re not going to tax sugar,” or we can address the issue early on. I say that we should do it early on. Let us do it now.

Dr Hilary Cass, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, has said that if the problem is not tackled now, it will rapidly get worse. She said:

“We should be worried because if we do not fix this problem now, we will see unhealthy kids turning into unhealthy adults with diabetes, heart disease and kidney problems.”

Why is it that it tends to be those on low incomes who are overweight or obese? It is quite clear to me, but perhaps it is not clear to others. I think that it is because their income dictates what they buy. If they do not have much money, they will buy the cheapest food they can, even if it is not the healthiest food, and more often than not cheap food contains levels of fat and sugar that are far too high. The issue of low incomes is therefore something we have to address as well, for those whose food choices are dictated by what is in their pockets.

We should be tackling these issues now not only because that is the right thing to do morally, but because it makes economic sense. The right hon. Member for Leicester East referred to the supermarket that had all the chocolate and sugary foods in one aisle in the middle of the shop. That is where they should be. They should not be at the checkout, where kids will see them and want their chocolate bar or their bottle of Coke. We have to address that issue as well.

Despite greater education on food and nutrition, there is still an obesity epidemic. Children are getting too many of their calories from sugars—on average, three times the Government’s recommended amount. That only contributes to an overall overconsumption of calories. One in three children are overweight or obese by the time they start secondary school, and that is a very clear problem that needs to be addressed. Childhood obesity is associated with conditions such as insulin resistance, hypertension, asthma, sleep problems, poor mental health—we cannot ignore that in children; we cannot think that they do not have it, because they do—early signs of heart disease, and an increased risk of developing cancer. The hon. Member for Colchester (Will Quince) referred to the need to have more physical activity in schools, and that issue could be addressed. Ministers mentioned it during this morning’s Culture, Media and Sport questions, so they recognise it as well. I have mentioned just a small number of the health costs of not acting to address this epidemic.

It is not just health that suffers because of inaction on this epidemic. Health problems associated with being overweight or obese cost the NHS more than £5 billion annually. Poor dental hygiene costs the NHS £3.4 billion a year, of which £30 million alone is spent on hospital-based extractions of children’s teeth. The total societal cost of obesity in the UK in 2012, including lost productivity, was £47 billion. The evidence is clear.

There can be no one solution to this complex issue. We need to enhance our nutritional education strategy, tackle poor diets through legislation, and encourage greater physical activity among our children. Given the shocking statistics that we have all spoken about, it is clear that despite health being a devolved issue, obesity, and obesity in our children, is truly a national problem. As such, it will require a national solution and a comprehensive approach.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Gwynne]

That may well be the case, but we must of course ensure that any income raised by such a tax is reinvested in public health.

It is also important to increase levels of physical activity among adults and children throughout the United Kingdom. Inactivity is a key factor in ill health, and it is important that we encourage children to maintain active lifestyles from an early age. I believe that increasing the opportunities for young people to get involved in physical activity is just as important as improving diets. Treating obesity and its consequences alone currently costs the NHS £5.1 billion every year. Given that nearly 25% of adults, 10% of four to five-year-olds and 19% of 10 to 11-year-olds in England are classified as obese, the human and financial cost of inaction is significant. We must do much more to ingrain physical activity in our daily lives, whether that means walking instead of driving or taking the stairs instead of the lift. Every little helps.

A number of Members have touched on a point that is crucial to the debate. Many people have argued that the Government should introduce some form of tax on sugary products, particularly soft drinks, and the debate on that issue goes far beyond the Chamber. Public figures such as Jamie Oliver have come out in support of a sugar tax, and he has made a compelling case. However, the issue is complex, and I do not think that the answer is necessarily straightforward. Labour Members have always feared that a sugar tax, in itself, could be regressive, and that it would focus attention on consumers, many of whom are addicted to sugar, rather than manufacturers, who should be reducing the amount of sugar in their products. That said, however, I suggest to the Minister that it is right for us to look at the emerging evidence from other countries, which has shown that where similar taxes have been introduced they have had a positive effect, not least in changing behaviour.

[Will Quince]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am afraid not. I do not have time.

It has not escaped my attention that the Prime Minister has effectively gone from ruling out a sugar tax to not ruling out a sugar tax. I hope that the Minister will clarify the Government's position, but, in any event, it seems that the forthcoming strategy will mark a departure from the ineffective voluntary approach that they have favoured in recent years. The public health responsibility deal has seen firms making all sorts of promises and then hijacking the agenda to promote their own products, ultimately failing to fulfil their pledges. At the time of its introduction, organisations such as the Royal College of Physicians and Alcohol Concern complained that the pledges were not specific or measurable, and that the food and drink industry had simply dictated the Government’s policy.

I hope that the Government will take a much stronger line with industry than it has taken previously, because it must be incumbent on industry to reduce the amount of sugar in products, including comparable products in the European Union that are boxed in exactly the same way, but contain significantly different amounts of sugar and other ingredients. I also hope that if the Government are forthcoming with a fiscal solution, that is part of a much larger and comprehensive strategy of measures. I do not think anyone would try to argue that a sugar tax on its own is a silver bullet. I want food and drinks manufacturers to reduce sugar in their products, and we need to ensure that that happens.

I thank everyone who has spoken in the debate, and I hope the Minister will consider the many excellent contributions when the Government put the final touches to the childhood obesity strategy.

Specialist Neuromuscular Care and Treatments

Will Quince Excerpts

Tuesday 15th December 2015 Westminster Hall

[Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs Gillan) on securing this debate on a vital issue that affects many young people throughout the UK.

As the right hon. Lady said, neuromuscular diseases come in many different forms. In fact, there are about 60 different types of muscular dystrophy and related neuromuscular conditions, which makes it difficult for the NHS to provide clear-cut statistics on the number of people affected by such diseases. However, research undertaken by Muscular Dystrophy UK suggests that out of every 1 million of the UK’s population, approximately 1,000 children and adults are affected by such muscle-wasting conditions. On that basis, we can estimate that some 70,000 of our constituents, of whom approximately 2,000 live in Northern Ireland, are affected by those conditions.

Another way of totalling the scale of the issue is to look at the admission rates of those with neuromuscular diseases to accident and emergency departments. Muscular Dystrophy UK undertook work on that issue and found that in Northern Ireland in 2011, 787 people with a neuromuscular condition were admitted to A&E departments requiring emergency treatment, at an estimated cost of £2.2 million. Those figures are broadly in line with the GB average. There were 28,000 emergency admissions in the UK, at a cost of £81 million. Relying on the emergency services to fill the gaps in treatment for people with such conditions robs people of their independence and costs the NHS much more than a well-designed system that helps people to manage their conditions and avoids emergencies.

I am sure everyone in this Chamber is in agreement on this issue and wants the best possible treatment and care to be provided to people living with the effects of this cruel disease. Unfortunately, we are not there yet. There is still much work to do—in particular, on an issue that the right hon. Lady already referred to: Duchenne muscular dystrophy and the need for Translarna to be commissioned by NICE and approved by its guidelines. It is important that that happens, because Translarna is already in use in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Families in those countries can use it, but families here are waiting for it.

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

One of my constituents has two sons with Duchenne. Does the hon. Lady agree that it is deeply regrettable that they are considering moving to France and commuting back to work so that their sons have the vital access to those drugs?

[Ms Ritchie]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I agree. His point illustrates that we urgently need a decision from the Minister. I hope the Minister provides us with some welcome information on that issue. It is deeply regrettable that families will go through Christmas not knowing for sure whether the drug will be approved. In the new year, NICE’s decision must not be delayed further. We must end the difficult wait of those families and children.

In Northern Ireland, there has been a commitment for more adult neuromuscular nurse specialists and adult neuromuscular consultants. I share the hope that, when combined with increased care adviser support, the new specialists will begin to improve our currently overstretched services, although there are still valid concerns about how that can be carried out effectively in the context of broader reorganisation and funding scarcity. If we are to achieve the standard of care we all want, much more must be done to co-ordinate better and join up services to ensure patients with muscle-wasting conditions get the help they need efficiently and effectively.

Before I conclude, I want to mention one of my constituents, a lady called Michaela Hollywood, who is wheelchair-bound and was born with spinal muscular atrophy. She was born without ears and is permanently in a wheelchair. She is now 25 years old. She received a Points of Light award, and on Thursday last week she was with the Prime Minister when the Christmas tree lights were turned on in Downing Street. She is on the BBC’s list of the 100 most inspirational women. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Ulster University, and she hopes to go back to do her PhD. She is a lady of immense capacity. She is a campaigner for young people like her with muscle-wasting conditions and, although she spends every day of her life in a wheelchair, she very much enjoys every one of those days because she is a constant campaigner with enormous zeal for life.

Michaela gave evidence to the all-party group on muscular dystrophy in the Northern Ireland Assembly for its report on specialist neuromuscular care. What she said is most important, because it highlights the need for joined-up Government thinking, whether here at Westminster and in the Department for Health or in the devolved Administrations. She said:

“There’s physiotherapy and hydrotherapy, trying just to cover everything. I do receive physiotherapy but it’s a tricky issue because when you’re under 18, with a neuromuscular condition, you have respiratory physio in the community; when you’re over 18 and in the community, with a neuromuscular condition, you’re with disability physios, even though you’re deemed as having a respiratory problem. So that I think is something that is a prime example of the disjointed care that we’re receiving. If we have one specialist multidisciplinary team…that would make things so much easier. If we had a physio that concentrated on neuromuscular diseases but also had experience within respiratory areas, that would make things easier. Also, if we had a cardiologist who pretty much had a good knowledge all round, that would help too.”

Michaela’s words make the case for a joined-up service better than any of us could, so I will end by simply reiterating her appeal for specialist multidisciplinary teams for the treatment of muscular dystrophy to be established. I call on NICE to make its decision on Translarna with the utmost urgency. I hope the Minister will give us some favourable answers to alleviate the distress that is felt by many people throughout the UK.

World Prematurity Day

Will Quince Excerpts

Tuesday 24th November 2015 Westminster Hall

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) on securing this incredibly important debate. I will start by picking up on some of the points made by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) that focused on mortality, because our prematurity rates are a national scandal. He is absolutely right when he says that they have stagnated for about a decade. We have one of the worst records in the western world; I believe we are positioned 33 out of 35 countries. That is totally unacceptable considering we have one of the best health services in the world. It is a scandal.

When we talk about statistics and about being 33rd out of 35, we forget that we are actually talking about babies—more than 5,000 babies a year. More than 5,000 families go through the absolute tragedy of stillbirth or neonatal death. I very much welcome the fact that the Government now have a focus on the matter. Statistically, the third biggest cause of stillbirth and neonatal death is prematurity, and that is poignant to this debate.

The Government have recently made an announcement on stillbirth and neonatal death, as the hon. Member for Strangford rightly pointed out, with an ambition to reduce rates by 20% by the end of this Parliament and by half by 2030. That is a huge number—more than 2,000 babies who will be saved and 2,000 families who will not have to go through this most traumatic and awful experience. My wife and I have been through a full-term stillbirth, and it is a traumatic experience. As a Government, we should do anything we can to avoid those tragedies. I am glad that there is that renewed focus. That is key— it is the driver to ensure that we have the training and the best possible equipment.

Looking at the whole NHS, some of our hospitals have the best maternity units and are doing the best work anywhere in the world—second to none. Sadly, that is not consistent across the country. The situation is patchy. That is something that I very much hope the Minister will address as part of this programme. We must ensure that we have the later-pregnancy monitoring equipment that can save lives and, more importantly, the training so that midwives know what to spot and have the confidence to stand by what they believe in terms of diagnoses.

There is also the question of what we do when things do not go well; of course, as my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry suggested, we cannot avoid stillbirths or neonatal deaths. We can reduce the numbers, and the Government have measures in place to do so, but, sadly and tragically, there will always be stillbirths and neonatal deaths. I secured an Adjournment debate a few weeks ago in which I said that we must have the right procedures, processes and facilities to ensure that those who go through a stillbirth or neonatal death, particularly the parents, have a support network.

My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Victoria Prentis) talked about gynaecology counsellors and bereavement-trained midwives, and it is important that we have such facilities providing support in every maternity unit in the country. She rightly said that a huge number of marriages fail because of a stillbirth or neonatal death—I think the figure is a staggering 90%, which is enormous; I know the huge pressure that it put on my family and my relationship with my wife. I can entirely see how relationships can be broken up by that hugely traumatic experience. When I talk about the NHS, I know that we have the best facilities in the world, but we have to ensure that those facilities are available across the country. I am talking about specialist suites, bereavement-trained midwives, specialist nurses and psychological support, which is also important.

I am conscious of the time, but I will pick up on two other points. My hon. Friend the Member for Solihull (Julian Knight) mentioned hospital car parking, which was almost flippantly talked about, but it is hugely important. We forget that not everyone can afford to pay the £20 or £30 a week that some hospitals are charging. My hospital in Colchester has a reduced rate of £10 a week, I believe, but for some people even £10 a week is a huge amount of money. It is not only the parents but the families, the grandparents and the carers who are paying, so it is important that hospitals follow the guidance to ensure that hospital parking is affordable—or, even better, free so that families who are going through the most traumatic experience of their lives are not worrying about money. That is really important.

The hon. Member for Croydon North (Mr Reed) touched on an interesting point about the pressure on parents from prematurity and from having to go to the hospital. The mother is likely to be in hospital on an ongoing basis, but we forget about the importance of the father’s role. A father gets only two weeks’ paternity leave, after which he will be going back to work and either thinking all day about his premature child and then racing up to the hospital to try to squeeze in time with the baby in the morning and evening, or putting his job at risk by taking that time off, regardless of the consequences. Government guidance on the importance of employers understanding and recognising the pressures of prematurity on families is important.

I am conscious of the time, so I will conclude by saying that we have one chance to get this right. I welcome the steps that the Government are taking. When they announced their ambition to reduce by half the number of stillbirths and neonatal deaths the week before last, it was my proudest moment in the six months since I was elected to this place. I welcome those steps, but we need to go further and ensure that people have the facilities, the processes and the places to go to as they go through this incredibly traumatic experience. We must also make sure that stillbirths and neonatal deaths are as rare as possible. I welcome this debate, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry on securing it. This is an incredibly important issue that we can all get behind and support.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

If the Front Benchers can keep their speeches to 10 minutes, and if the Minister can conclude his remarks just after 10.55 am, Mr Heaton-Harris will have three minutes in which to offer us a pithy summary of the debate and I will have 30 seconds to put the motion to the House. We will then have achieved everything we set out to achieve today.

Maternity Units: Bereavement Care

Will Quince Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

I am delighted to have secured this debate on bereavement care in maternity units, which stems from my own experience and from further research. I should stress that I am no expert in maternity or bereavement, but I speak from personal experience. In May 2014, my wife had her 20-week pregnancy scan, at which point an abnormality was identified. Further tests led to a diagnosis of Edwards syndrome. I do not want to go into the detail of my son’s condition, but Edwards syndrome is described as being “not compatible with life”, so we were well aware of the likely outcome. However, our son was clearly a fighter and he survived full term, to 41 weeks, but sadly, in October last year, he was stillborn.

As hard as it is to tell my story, it sets the scene for this debate and will, I hope, give the House a small insight into the experience of the parents of the 5,000 babies who are either stillborn or die within seven days of birth every year in England. It is difficult at the best of times to talk about death, particularly the death of children or babies. We all hope it will never happen to us. But there must be provision, facilities and trained staff ready, willing and able to assist families who find themselves in this awful position.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I am pleased to be here to support the hon. Gentleman this evening. I realise that he is telling us a very personal story. The figures indicate that 11 babies are stillborn in the UK every day, which makes stillbirth 15 times more common than cot death. Does he agree that we need not only bereavement centres in hospitals but also the presence of someone from the Church to give spiritual, emotional and physical help at that time?

[Will Quince]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, and I thank him for his intervention. The chaplain at the hospital certainly gave us a huge amount of solace. They provide a really important service.

For my wife and I, our care was absolutely fantastic. I cannot praise highly enough the staff at Colchester general hospital who cared for us when we needed it most. The very positive experience that my wife and I had at Colchester represents the model I would like to see rolled out across the country. As the chance of our son being born alive was poor, we were booked into the Rosemary suite, a specialist bereavement suite at the hospital. Crucially, it was far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the maternity unit, with a room that the dad can also stay in and a lounge and kitchenette. It is as near as you can get to a home from home.

The suite gave me and my wife the chance mentally to prepare for what was to come. Importantly, it was away from the noise of crying babies and happy parents and families. It was a place to prepare but also a place to grieve in private, and somewhere that we could be with our son. Importantly, the Rosemary suite also had a cool cot, which is a piece of medical equipment that acts like a refrigerated cradle, so that babies who have died do not need to be taken straight to the mortuary. That means that parents and family members can spend as much time as they want with their baby. Sister Liz Barnes, the gynaecology nurse counsellor, gave us a huge amount of emotional support, both before and after the event. I cannot tell you what a comfort it was to have Liz with us, speaking to us and guiding us through the next steps and, of course, the funeral arrangements.

Having gone through that experience, I had assumed that every maternity unit in this country had a bereavement suite, but sadly that is far from the truth. I have heard shocking stories of a lack of compassion and care shown to parents of stillborn babies in maternity units. An article published in BMJ Open in 2013 on bereaved parents’ experience of stillbirth highlighted some of the problems in care for parents in some of our hospitals. The report carried interviews with bereaved parents and contained some very distressing responses. One mother said:

“They only left him with me for about an hour. Then they just took him away. I was begging them not to take my baby”.

Others talked of a poor experience with hospital staff. One said:

“I thought these people”—

midwives and doctors—

“knew what they were doing. I wish I hadn’t thought that now.”

Another claimed:

“The delivery was just awful from start to finish. They almost treated me like ‘the woman with the dead baby’. There was no sympathy. When I asked to see a doctor, this particular doctor came in and said, ‘We’re very busy.’ And his exact words, I’ll never forget them, “Well, with all due respect, your baby’s dead already’. Which was just the most awful thing you could say.”

Some highlighted a distressing rush to decision making. One mother said:

“I wish someone had said to me in those first few hours, ‘Even if you don’t want to see her now, you can see her in an hour or two. Or in a day or so’. I was left to believe that because I wasn’t ready to see her, that was final.”

Some of these examples are really hard to listen to, but there are also some very encouraging stories within the report. Some mothers spoke of the “very, very caring staff”. Another very movingly said:

“Even though she wasn’t breathing and she didn’t open her eyes, she”—

the midwife—

“still said you’ve got a beautiful baby girl. It just meant the world.”

I will remember until the day I die the midwife who helped me dress our son after he had sadly passed away, and she said, “You have a beautiful baby”. I will never forget that.

The report concludes that in these tragic situations, clinicians and hospital staff

“only have one chance to get it right”.

It also stated that the experience of stillbirth can be influenced as much by staff attitude and caring behaviours as by high-quality clinical procedures. Last month, a study said that the UK provides the best end-of life care in the world, but if we want to maintain this level, we should not forget end-of-life care for stillborn babies and those with very short lives. The impact of stillbirth and post-natal death on parents should not be understated.

As it stands, maternity bereavement care in English hospitals is patchy. A major survey by the bereavement charity, Sands, from 2010 highlighted that nearly half of the maternity units in England did not have a dedicated room on the labour ward for mothers whose baby has died. That is important because these rooms are where they cannot hear other babies, jubilant parents and visiting families. It is absolutely vital that more hospitals recognise the importance of bereavement suites and their role in easing the pain and loss of bereaved families. These bereavement suites should be separate from the main maternity unit.

Even though I was absolutely aware of the likely outcome when I entered the Rosemary suite in October last year, nothing can prepare you for the shock and the numbness that comes from seeing your wife give birth to a lifeless baby. The precious hours we spent in what I can describe only as beautiful silence afterwards helped me and my wife come to terms with what had just happened. No parent should have to face being taken to a room in a maternity ward of crying babies when you have just gone through a stillbirth.

Many charities, such as Sands, Cruse and The Compassionate Friends do a fantastic job in raising awareness of the support that should be provided to bereaved parents. Many of the bereavement suites in hospitals are actually partially funded and provided by the fantastic work of these charities. I know many bereaved parents, us included, raise money after their loss, knowing how valuable these suites are. I know there has been some progress made in this area. In 2013-14, the Government invested £35 million in new maternity equipment and facilities. That helped to fund nearly 20 new bereavement suites and areas to support bereaved families. There is also a growing recognition of the role of bereavement-trained midwives, and that is really important in helping bereaved families after stillbirth or infant death. In February 2014, the NHS published a report on the support available for loss in early and late pregnancy, which stated:

“There needs to be better recognition of the bereavement midwife role. Generally, these roles are not part of the original establishment. Trusts are beginning to recognise the value in having these specialised posts and they are becoming more commonplace.”

It is great to see trusts increasingly recognise the fantastic work that these specialist bereavement suites and the staff can play in these tragic circumstances. I know that my family were very grateful for the fantastic support that we received.

[Dr Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend for making a very important and powerful speech, drawing on his own tragic experiences. I have seen such experiences in my own clinical work far too often. Does he agree that whereas we normally leave commissioning to the discretion of local commissioners, we should be pushing in the next mandate to NHS England for there to be standard commissioning for all clinical commissioning groups to ensure that all birthing units have appropriate bereavement space and facilities to look after women who have had a miscarriage or had a stillbirth?

[Will Quince]

I thank my hon. Friend for that. I could not have put it better myself. I recognise the work that he did when he was a Minister in this area, and the huge part that he played in that £35 million investment.



I wish to see the Department of Health do three things to improve maternity bereavement care in England: first, to carry out a full assessment of the state of maternity bereavement provision in England, including on the number of maternity bereavement suites in each of our maternity units; secondly, to work with NHS England and local clinical commissioning groups to raise awareness of maternity bereavement care; and, thirdly, to consider introducing guidelines that each maternity unit should have a specific maternity bereavement suite for families.

I hope that I have been able to do this matter justice in such a short period of time. Great quality maternity bereavement care had such a positive effect on my family and me. I want the great care that we received to be extended to many other bereaved families across our country. Ernest Hemingway is attributed with saying:

“For sale: baby shoes never worn”

Those words encapsulate in a brutally concise way the sadness of losing a child.

The NHS cannot take away the loss or the grief, but we can make sure that every parent has the time, space and environment in which to grieve in peace.

NHS (Contracts and Conditions)

Will Quince Excerpts

Monday 14th September 2015 Westminster Hall

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

Thank you, Ms Vaz; I missed the first few minutes of the debate owing to a delegated legislation Committee, so I appreciate your calling me to speak. I speak not as a healthcare professional, but as a husband, father and proud supporter of our NHS. I am passionate about our NHS, because it has always been there for me and my family when we needed it. My daughter was born in Colchester general hospital and my son sadly passed away there in October last year. I cannot fault the care and compassion that the NHS gave me and my family, and I will never forget that. Yet, I am bombarded with criticism that, as I am a Conservative, I must somehow care less about the NHS than the Labour party does. The scaremongering and empty rhetoric is patronising and insulting. It has to stop.

I spent several months, as we all did, speaking with constituents in the run-up to the general election. The message I received was loud and clear: they care deeply about our NHS and want us to work together to address the underlying causes and challenges facing it—challenges like an ageing population and the rise in long-term health conditions like diabetes and dementia. They do not want cheap party political point scoring.

I am fortunate to represent a constituency with a large general hospital. The pressures on my own hospital are well known, as it is currently in special measures. Last year, we saw a major incident declared in relation to accident and emergency. I desperately want Colchester hospital to come out of special measures as soon as possible. However, I want it to happen only when the healthcare regulators feel that it has improved significantly enough to warrant it. Although I and many others were saddened to see Colchester receive an inadequate rating from the CQC, that close scrutiny is absolutely necessary. High standards at the trust are needed to address some of the deep-rooted issues facing the hospital. That is why I welcome the steps taken by the Secretary of State to introduce such a rigorous inspection regime, which puts patient safety at its heart.

I do not recognise the assertions of the petition we are debating today. The changes to contracts and conditions for workers in the NHS are absolutely vital to help us deliver the seven-day NHS that we all need. Diseases and illnesses do not strike only in the working week. Patients should get the same high-quality, safe care on a Saturday and Sunday as they do on a weekday. To take the case of my grandmother, who also sadly passed away last year, why can someone diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the week have radiotherapy within two to three days, but someone diagnosed at the end of the week have to wait until Monday? That is not acceptable, which is why we need better flexibility in NHS staff contracts, going hand in hand with recruiting more doctors, consultants and nurses to staff those enhanced services.

Colchester general hospital emergency department has undergone a major reform programme over the past six months, which has contributed significantly to a sustained improvement in performance. The trust invested in three rapid assessment and diagnostic units, which have increased the department’s ability to assess and treat patients rapidly, resulting in shorter stays. In addition, there is now an action plan in place to address low staffing levels, which have improved significantly on every shift. The trust is welcoming a cohort of new substantive nurses, who are joining following a successful recruitment campaign. I sat on the recruitment panel for the new chief executive of the trust, Frank Sims, and I am very confident that he will be able to help turn the trust around. He has a strong record on staff engagement and working with partner organisations—two areas in which our trust desperately needs to improve.

I want to put on record the help and support that the Secretary of State has given Colchester general hospital. He has visited twice during the past year and has taken a genuine interest in our local healthcare. I also very much welcome the recent announcement about the success regime, which shows the determination of the Secretary of State to address the underlying issues facing the NHS in Essex and tackle them head on. Identifying problems, bringing in better leadership and helping our health and care systems to work better together is, in my view, the right approach.

NHS professionals tell us what is needed to address the underlying issues in the system: better self and family care; early diagnosis of illness and response; more focus on preventive healthcare; faster access to medication; community-based care where appropriate; and quicker discharge into community services. We can argue and debate about the process and the different ways of implementing the change our NHS needs. We can debate the funding. We could and should debate the future challenges. Make no mistake, our NHS will need to adapt over the next five years to keep pace with our changing demography and society, but let us make it a grown-up debate based on evidence and professional opinion, not conjecture and scaremongering.

NHS Success Regime

Will Quince Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. She will not know that there was an Adjournment debate at the end of the last Parliament on precisely this issue. I invite her to seek such a debate if she wishes to discuss local issues with me or other Ministers. The success regime has been devised by Simon Stevens and NHS England. It will be clinically led, fulfilling our desire to see the NHS led by doctors, not Whitehall bureaucrats.

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

I welcome the announcement. Colchester general hospital is in special measures. One of the biggest issues facing our hospital is the recruitment of nursing staff. Will my hon. Friend give an assurance that county-wide recruitment will be included as part of the success regime?

[Ben Gummer]

Every single aspect that is troubling local health economies, including recruitment, I understand, will be within the scope of success regimes.

Health and Social Care

Will Quince Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)]

It is a great honour to represent Colchester in Parliament. Colchester is not only the most beautiful town in Britain, but the oldest recorded and the Roman capital of Britain long before they discovered Londinium. We are blessed with rich heritage, including Roman walls, the only Roman circus in the country, a castle that is the largest Norman keep in Europe, and the largest Victorian water tower in the United Kingdom.

Colchester is also famously connected to two significant women in British history: first, Queen Boudicca, who was arguably the original Essex girl and who sacked Roman Colchester in AD60; and, secondly, the late Baroness Thatcher, who worked as a chemist while living in Colchester. Colchester has been a garrison town since the Romans and is now the home to 16 Air Assault Brigade. We are incredibly proud of our armed forces, and the link between the garrison and the town is stronger than ever.

Colchester is the cultural capital of Essex, with our multimillion-pound arts centre, Firstsite, which, although it has been tough, we are growing to love. We also have fantastic venues, including the Mercury theatre, the arts centre and the Minories gallery. It is an admittedly little known fact that Colchester is arguably the home of the nursery rhyme, with “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Humpty Dumpty” both being written there.

The final Colchester institution that I cannot fail to mention is, of course, Sir Bob Russell. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor, who served in this House for 18 years and, before that, for more than 20 years on Colchester Borough Council, where he served both as council leader and as mayor. He was held in high regard and had a reputation for being a hard-working constituency Member of Parliament. Although he and I rarely agreed politically, I respect him for the decades of public service he has given to our town and this country. As a mark of the tradition started by Sir Bob, I am today wearing the Colchester crest on my lapel, but I make no apologies for drawing a line at yellow waistcoats. In seriousness, I would like to put on record my thanks to Sir Bob and wish him well for the future.

It was Richard Nixon who said,

“only if you’ve been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.”

I know that all too well. My first election was in 2003, when I was at university in Aberystwyth in mid-Wales and stood for Ceredigion County Council. It was only when nominations closed that I found out that I was the only Conservative candidate in the entire county, the reason for which became clearer on polling day when I received 26 votes—it was especially pertinent that 10 of them had signed my nomination paper. In that context, I cannot put into words my gratitude to the people of Colchester for putting their faith in me and giving me the opportunity to serve both my town and my country.

I am pleased to be making my maiden speech following Her Majesty’s Gracious Speech, particularly as part of today’s health debate, as I am fortunate to represent a town with a large general hospital. Colchester general hospital is currently in special measures, and I very much thank my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health for visiting the hospital twice this year and for delivering 35 extra doctors and 66 extra nurses since 2010. My constituents will welcome the increased investment in the NHS of £8 billion a year by 2020, as set out in the Gracious Speech. Rest assured that I will be fighting for a considerable sum of that investment to come to Colchester.

Although the trust has a plan to get our hospital out of special measures, the hospital has a significant threat on the horizon, with NHS England due to decide in the coming months whether we are to retain our urology cancer surgical unit. I fully back the campaign to save Colchester’s urology cancer surgery unit. Our local centre serves the whole of north Essex; it is unrealistic to ask elderly patients from Colchester, let alone from as far afield as Clapton or Harwich, to travel the 60-odd miles to Southend for treatment. We have a fantastic cancer centre at Colchester hospital; indeed, we have one of the most modern radiotherapy centres in Europe. We have leading experts providing care to patients. In fact, less than three months ago £250,000 was invested in a urology day unit at Colchester hospital. We should be building on that, not trying to take it away. I have written to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on this subject, and hope that he will meet me at his earliest convenience.

Colchester was the first capital of Roman Britain. I intend to be its champion and, where necessary, its gladiator here in Westminster.