Points of Order
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow
Luciana Berger
I would like to raise my concern that Ministers of both the Department of Health and the Ministry of Justice appear to be evading my very serious named day questions. As colleagues well know, it is intended that named day questions receive an answer within three sitting days, yet I can recite countless recent examples where that timeframe has not been observed—and often completely disregarded.
I am particularly troubled by an answer I received from the Secretary of State for Health to one question. Last year, I submitted a question to ask how often the transfer time for prisoners experiencing an acute mental health crisis exceeded the two-week guidance period. I found that in 2015-16 three out of four cases took longer than two weeks. When I submitted an identical question last month, to get hold of the most recent figures for 2016-17 to date, I was told that the data are not held in the requested format. When I tabled a subsequent question to inquire whether the data collection had changed, I was told that it had not.
I have started to receive a number of answers from the two Departments stating that the data are not held in the requested format. How can the Department of Health possibly defend avoiding answering these questions and withholding vital information it clearly has access to?
Mr Speaker
I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order. My response is as follows. First, as has been said on innumerable occasions, there is a responsibility on Ministers to provide answers to parliamentary questions that are both timely and substantive. I cannot comment on the question whether the material the hon. Lady sought is held in the form she had in mind, but the central point is that Ministers are supposed to attend to both the letter and the spirit of the inquiry from an hon. Member and to seek to accommodate that Member by providing, as I have said, a timely and substantive response.
Secondly, over a period of years, as Members on both sides of the House will be keenly conscious, it has become commonplace for the record of individual Government Departments on these matters to be published. It seems to me to show very considerable discredit on the part of a Government Department persistently to fail, in a timely and substantive way, to respond to hon. Members’ questions. The hon. Lady’s point of order will have been heard on the Treasury Bench.
The Leader of the House has traditionally seen it as part of his or her duty to persuade Ministers to up their game in these matters. My clear understanding is that the Leader of the House of Commons, the right hon. Member for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington) recognises his responsibility in these matters. I hope it will not be necessary for this matter to be raised continually on the Floor of the House. An improvement is required.
My final observation is that if this problem persists I urge the hon. Lady to write to the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker), the Chair of the Procedure Committee, who, on behalf of the House, will, I think, be only too happy to chase progress in this matter.
If I may, perhaps on behalf of the House, I would like to offer good wishes to the hon. Lady for her own health and progress in the next few days. We all wish her well and we look forward to seeing her return to her place in due course.
Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow(9 years ago)
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Mr Speaker
It is quite a long way over the border to Liverpool, Wavertree, but there we go. I call Luciana Berger.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
During these questions, we seem to be dealing with some “alternative facts”. According to the details I have in front of me, Liverpool schools are set to lose £3.6 million. I visited a primary school in Picton in my constituency—Picton is one of the most deprived wards in the country—that is going to lose more than 10% of its budget; we are talking about more than £100,000 for some of the most deprived children in this country. Can the Government please explain to Labour Members, and to the whole House, exactly what is going on and why they seem to be presenting something very different from what our schools are having to contend with in reality?
Mental Health and NHS Performance
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow(9 years, 1 month ago)
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Mr Speaker
In wishing the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree all the best in the period ahead, I call Luciana Berger.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
In her speech today, the Prime Minister made a number of hard-hitting observations. She said:
“there is no escaping the fact that people with mental health problems are still not treated the same as if they have a physical ailment”.
She reported on the increase in self-harm among young people, and she told us about the shocking reality that, on average, 13 people take their life every single day in England. Given that the Conservative party has been in government for almost seven years, and that the Secretary of State has been Health Secretary for almost four of those years, who does he think is responsible for the terrible failures highlighted by the Prime Minister today?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow(9 years, 1 month ago)
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Mr Speaker
The Minister is too modest in declining to take the opportunity to say that he has, over many years, led by example through his repeated and impressive marathon running, with which the whole House should by now be well familiar.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
Physical activity is really important to equip the next generation with the skills to contend with both their physical and mental health. Alone, however, it will not contend with our nation’s obesity crisis; we know from the child measurement figures how challenging that issue is for our country. Will the Government be bringing forward compulsory personal, social, health and economic education so that we can equip the next generation with the knowledge and skills to know what they should be eating as well as what physical activity they should be doing?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow(9 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
While it is always a pleasure to hear from the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mrs Trevelyan), she has already had a substantive question. She can have another go in topicals, but Members cannot speak twice in substantives, I am afraid.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
Points of Order
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I have made the Minister for Community and Social Care aware of my intention to make this point of order. In an answer to my written parliamentary question asking for the number of deaths that have occurred in child and adolescent mental health units since 2010, the Minister said that only one such death had been recorded by the Care Quality Commission. However, freedom of information requests conducted by Inquest have found that at least nine young people have tragically died in England while receiving in-patient psychiatric care since 2010. In response to this research, the Minister stated in an interview on last night’s BBC “Panorama” programme that he did not know how many children and adolescents have died in psychiatric units in recent years. This discrepancy between the Government’s account of the number of child deaths and the data collected from FOI requests raises serious questions about how the deaths in psychiatric care of some of our most vulnerable people are treated, recorded, investigated and learned from.
Can you advise me, Mr Speaker, whether you have received any indication from Ministers that they intend to clarify for the parliamentary record what the accurate figure is for the number of children who have tragically died in all NHS-funded psychiatric in-patient settings since 2010?
Mr Speaker
Extremely important questions are raised by this matter and by the broadcast, although not for me. We cannot have Question Time on the basis of points of order, but as the Minister of State is in the Chamber and apparently willing to say some words, we are happy—exceptionally—to hear him.
Points of Order
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow(9 years, 11 months ago)
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Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I have made the office of the Minister for Community and Social Care aware of my intention to make this point of order, as well as your good office. Last week, after much delay, the long- awaited report by the Mental Health Taskforce, which was commissioned by NHS England, was published. On the same day, the Government made a series of apparent announcements to the media in response to the report—a courtesy that is yet to be afforded to this House.
This is a vital moment for mental health in England, so it is highly regrettable that the report was published during a recess, preventing Members from all parts of the House from scrutinising its findings and questioning the Government’s response to it. Will you advise me, Mr Speaker, of whether you have received any indication from Ministers that they intend to make a statement on the Mental Health Taskforce report and allow Members the opportunity to question the Government on the announcements they have made?
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order and for her courtesy in giving me notice of it. The short answer to the last part of her point of order is no. I have received no indication that a Minister intends to make a statement on the matter. What I would say provisionally, having learned of this matter only a small number of moments ago, is that significant announcements of changes of policy should be made first to the House. That means, save in cases of emergency, that they should be made to the House while it is sitting. Of course, right hon. and hon. Members and others can and do access reports whether or not the House is sitting and may pursue their contents in debate and in questions. I will cause further inquiries to be made on the content and timing of this particular announcement.
Points of Order
Debate between Baroness Berger and John Bercow
Mr Speaker
As the hon. Lady has implied, that particular Committee is in a different category from the others with which the House has dealt. However, her point of order is not a matter for me. It is possible that she would like it to be, but it is not. It is a matter for the usual channels, the most senior representative of which is sitting, statesmanlike, on the Treasury Bench, and will have heard what has been said.
In the interests of the House as a whole, I hope that these matters will be attended to before very long, but, knowing the hon. Lady as I do, I am sure that if they are not, she will return to the charge.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. You will have seen that the Home Office has sneaked out a written statement on the last day of term about a short consultation on the funding arrangements for the 43 police forces in England and Wales. There is much concern in areas such as Merseyside—which has already lost 23% of its budget and over 700 police officers—about what this will mean for the years to come. Have you, Mr Speaker, received any indication from the Government that a Minister is intending to come to the House and give an oral statement on this important issue?
Mr Speaker
I have received no such indication. Of course the method by which the Government intend to communicate their message on this subject is a matter for the Government and they have chosen to do so through the device of a written ministerial statement. There will be opportunities for the matter to be raised and probed further, but realistically that will have to wait a period of weeks. I recognise that that will disappoint the hon. Lady, but that is the factual answer to her inquiry.
Bill Presented
Constitutional Convention (No. 2) Bill
Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)
Mr Graham Allen, supported by Mr David Davis, Tim Farron, Jon Cruddas, Jeremy Lefroy, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Caroline Lucas, Jeremy Corbyn, Mark Durkan and Zac Goldsmith, presented a Bill to make provision for a convention to consider the constitution of the United Kingdom; and for connected purposes.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 11 September, and to be printed (Bill 61).