Specific Food Hygiene (Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2019 General Committees

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Dame Cheryl. I, too, will be very brief—not least because the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West has asked the two questions that I was going to ask the Minister. I eagerly await the answers.

It is regrettable, to say the least, that we are discussing this SI—notwithstanding the apology that the Minister has given—before the Scottish Parliament has been able to approve it. However, I readily accept that there are no substantive policy changes in the SI before us. I have to reiterate that the instrument is necessary to enact a decision that Scotland did not vote for. It is our view, and that of the industry, that the UK should remain aligned with EU standards in this area, as any future dual regulation system will impact on imports and exports, and on agriculture more widely. Reports of the Department for International Trade pressuring the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to lower standards are deeply concerning to everyone. It should concern all hon. Members if those reports are true.

In conclusion—I did say I would be brief—the best solution for us and for Scotland would be to remain in the single market and the customs union, as suggested by the SNP Scottish Government as far back as December 2016 in the compromise document “Scotland’s Place in Europe”. Given the Government’s predicament, I urge them to look at that again.

Genetic Haemochromatosis

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd July 2019 Westminster Hall

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

Thank you, Mr Sharma; it is a pleasure to see you in the Chair. I will start, as is customary, by congratulating the hon. Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey), who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on genetic haemochromatosis, not only on securing today’s important and historic debate, but on setting out in such detail the nature of the condition, its prevalence, the symptoms and the available treatments, such as they are.

The hon. Gentleman spoke of the great work of Professor Ted Fitzsimons at the University of Glasgow, and of the fact that not only do the majority of people with the condition not know they have it, but thousands of hip replacements may not have been required, as my hon. Friend the Member for Ceredigion (Ben Lake) also mentioned. I wholeheartedly endorse the three asks that the hon. Member for Rugby made of the Minister, and I look to forward to hearing her response.

The hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes) spoke of research involving nearly 3,000 individuals and the possibility of screening for GH, as I will call it from here on in to avoid tripping over it. She concurred with the hon. Member for Rugby that, given the symptoms, without screening the condition will remain difficult to diagnose.

My hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Martin Docherty-Hughes) spoke of his fair skin and freckles, and of being a ginger. He also spoke of the Celtic curse. I am not sure about the Celtic curse, but he is certainly known for his Celtic verse, as we heard during his contribution. He also spoke of his constituent, David McAleer, and his GH story, and of Scotland’s relationship with alcohol, and what we are doing to tackle that.

My hon. Friend the Member for Ceredigion—I never pronounce his constituency correctly—spoke of how, for every person diagnosed, around eight to 10 go undiagnosed. He also mentioned the serious impact that iron toxicity has on health and wellbeing.

I, too, am a member of the all-party parliamentary group. The reason I am a member is because my dad has genetic haemochromatosis. I have not been tested myself yet, but I should, and will, endeavour to do so at some point in the near future. My dad was unaware of his condition; it turned up in a routine blood screening. He felt fine and had no symptoms that he was aware of at that point. My dad had further checks, including several ultrasounds, an endoscopy and a liver biopsy. When he was diagnosed, he did some digging around on the internet and found that he absolutely should not touch oysters. Google says lots of things, but apparently oysters could prove fatal. He told me and I had a look, and it also said that he should regulate his alcohol intake. When I pointed that out to him, he did not want to know that fact, but he was quite happy to accept the point about oysters—that is my dad for you.

My dad was not put on medication. We have already heard that the treatment is venesection. I am told that the normal ferritin level is around 50 to 60, or thereabouts, but when my dad was diagnosed his level was around 2,400, so it was quite high. He still did not have any symptoms at the time. He went on a weekly course of bloodletting for some time, and his levels are now normal. All he does now is go for a venesection every few months and watch his diet, particularly breakfast cereals, most of which are fortified with iron. Most concerning for him is the fact that he cannot eat Stornoway black pudding any more.

As we know from everyone who has spoken so far, early diagnosis is key. The Scottish National party welcomes the debate, as it offers an opportunity to raise awareness about GH and its symptoms for the first time in the history of the House of Commons. We also welcomed the “Living with the Impact of Iron Overload” report released last year.

Early diagnosis would reduce the demand on primary care services from tens of thousands of chronically affected patients, for whom the underlying cause of GH remains unidentified. Some Members have already outlined the substantial economic benefit of early diagnosis on top of the health benefits to the individual. The cost of a blood test to detect iron overload at an early stage is a few pounds at most. The cost to the NHS of a liver transplant, arising as a result of the lack of early diagnosis, could be close to £50,000.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network—SIGN—collaborates with clinicians and health and social care professionals to develop evidence-based guidelines. Were SIGN to publish guidelines regarding GH, we would welcome that. Introducing guidelines would have the potential to increase diagnosis as much as tenfold.

I thank the hon. Member for Rugby again for introducing this important debate and for bringing this condition to the attention of the House. I look forward to working with him and the rest of the APPG in keeping the pressure on the Minister, the Government and the NHS.

Pre-eclampsia

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Thursday 9th May 2019 Westminster Hall

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I had not intended to make a speech, but I was ashamed by the lack of Back-Bench contributors and felt moved to do so, rather than making an intervention. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) on securing the debate. Despite the poor attendance, this is an extremely important issue; the figures she outlined speak for themselves and do not need repeating by me.

I am here because my wife had pre-eclampsia during both her pregnancies. It was particularly acute during her first pregnancy, with my daughter Emma. The care she received when she was eventually admitted was exemplary. I could not fault it; it was fantastic from start to finish. However, in a similar vein to my hon. Friend’s experience, when my wife was first sent to hospital by her GP, having presented feeling nauseous and light-headed and with various other symptoms, she was not taken entirely seriously when she got there. Her blood pressure was up and down, and at one point she was accused of white coat syndrome and sent home. But she knows her own body, and she did not feel right at all, so she phoned up, went back to the hospital and was eventually admitted.

My hon. Friend is right that, even now, awareness and diagnosis of pre-eclampsia is still not good enough and must be improved. Despite its prevalence, pre-eclampsia does not get the attention or research it deserves. The fact that I am the only other Back-Bench speaker is probably a testament to that. My eldest was born six and a half weeks early, at 3 lb 10 oz, in an emergency caesarean. After an extended stay in hospital, she was sent home healthy, and she is still healthy—touch wood—to this day. My wife had no repercussions from the condition thereafter. She got pre-eclampsia again, albeit a much milder version, in her second pregnancy, which almost went to full term.

Many mothers with pre-eclampsia will give birth prematurely, and premature birth is an issue we have discussed in this Chamber of late. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (David Linden), who will speak for the SNP from the Front Bench, will talk more about that. My daughter Emma was born six and a half weeks premature, and once she was born my wife, who had had a caesarean section, sent me straight back to work, because she wanted my paternity leave to coincide with her arriving back from hospital so that I could help around the house. It does not feel natural in the slightest to go back to work with a daughter in an incubator and a wife recovering from surgery, but back to work I went, because that was her wish.

I went back to work and spoke with colleagues, receiving their congratulations and so on. About an hour and a half after getting in, I was pulled into the office by my boss, who essentially sent me straight back to the hospital—I was given additional paid leave for as long as I required it. I was extremely lucky, but that was only because my boss and another colleague had had similar experiences, so they were in a position to help me and my wife. However, it should not be down to luck. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East will go into more detail, but I fully back the calls made by him and the all-party parliamentary group on premature and sick babies for extended parental leave in such circumstances. I hope that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will publish the report on its review as soon as possible.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran once again on bringing forward the debate. I sincerely hope that this is the important first step in giving this condition the attention it deserves at parliamentary and governmental level.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I will certainly do that, and I am very surprised and disappointed to hear what my hon. Friend has to report. I pay tribute to her work in leading on this agenda, including setting up the all-party parliamentary group. She has campaigned hard to get the Scottish Government to act. Given the progress we have made on the target—by 2021, 95% of children and young people with an eating disorder receiving treatment within one week for urgent cases and four weeks for routine cases—we are on track to meet it. That is something we should be discussing, at the very least, with our Scottish colleagues.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

T5. My constituency hosts world-pioneering hubs of medical innovation that have allowed many patients across the UK and beyond to benefit from cutting-edge treatments like endovascular repair for abdominal aortic aneurysms. What work is the Department planning to undertake to maintain patient access to this highly effective treatment and to foster continued healthcare innovation?

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Tuesday 19th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

I cannot stress enough how much money we have made available. The Government have given councils access to almost £10 billion—a 9% increase—to address this issue. Local authorities have a statutory duty to look after the vulnerable, the elderly and the disabled people in their area, and we have given them access to the funding to do it.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

11. What steps he is taking to ensure a sustainable workforce in the health and social care sector.

[The Minister for Health (Stephen Hammond)]

The long-term plan explicitly recognises the importance of the workforce, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has commissioned the chair of NHS Improvement to work closely with the chair of Health Education England in leading detailed work programmes to deliver an implementation plan. Social care plays a vital role in the forthcoming adult social care Green Paper, in which we will set out our plans to recruit, train and retain good people.

[Gavin Newlands]

The Minister is right about the workforce challenge for all four health services in the UK, but the number of students in England taking nursing degree courses in the past two years has dropped by 900; and at over 11%, NHS England’s nursing vacancy rate is more than twice that in Scotland. With a 90% drop in the number of EU nurses coming to the UK because of Brexit and fewer students starting degree courses because of the cost, is it not time to follow Scotland by reintroducing the nursing bursary and ending tuition fees?

[Stephen Hammond]

I am sure the hon. Gentleman will want to recognise the latest UCAS data for this year’s application cycle, which shows that, compared to the same time last year, there has been a 4.5% increase in the number of applicants for undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses. This is a significant improvement. He will also want to recognise that the loans system provides an extra £1,000. [Interruption.]

ME: Treatment and Research

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Thursday 21st June 2018 Westminster Hall

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gapes. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North West (Carol Monaghan) for securing this debate, for setting out the issues so powerfully, and for sharing the sad case of Merryn Crofts, which the hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes), her MP, elaborated on.

I want to say to Professor Sharpe that it is not my hon. Friend’s conduct that is unbecoming; it is his. Sending such emails does nothing for the reputation of the scientific research community, and he should apologise.

People with ME and related conditions do not believe their voices and concerns are properly listened to. With that in mind, I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Stirling (Stephen Kerr), who shared with great compassion Jules Smith’s story, which deeply affected Members from across the House. We sometimes talk about health issues in this House abstractly without fully conveying the impact they have on people’s lives. Well, not today.

Action for ME and the ME Association are both well represented in the Public Gallery today. Along with many other organisations, they do vital work to champion and support the 250,000 people across the UK who suffer from this condition. On its website, Action for ME tries to increase people’s understanding of ME by asking people to imagine a number of situations:

“Imagine having months off from work because you are so ill, so pole-axed by fatigue and pain, that you are no longer able to tell the time when you look at the face of a clock. Imagine you can no longer read even the shortest paragraph because your power of concentration is reduced to zero.”

One of my constituents, whom I have subsequently met twice, wrote to me about the experience of living with ME. She said:

“One of the things that society needs to get to grips with is the fluctuating nature of ME where an individual may appear to be fine one day, yet the next day they are bed ridden or much worse, or they may appear fine but really aren’t. Unless people have x ray vision, they cannot see the brain, spine, muscles, heart, cells and so on of another individual. The condition fluctuates not only from day to day and week to week, but it can vary from hour to hour. And of course there is the aspect of…post exertional exacerbation of symptoms. That is, after exertion their ME symptoms often flare up”—

although that can be delayed.

“For one person that exertion may be as little as getting up to brush their teeth, for another it may be that they worked 4 hours that day instead of the 3 that would have been manageable. This could leave them ill the next day or being off work for a week. There can also be a sudden and severe decline in symptoms. For example, an individual may have gone out that day feeling ok, but whilst out they suddenly reach saturation point and their levels of physical fatigue and pain may be intolerable.”

That is the experience of 250,000 people in the UK. It is important that we do much more as a society to find a cure for this disease. Sadly, the majority with ME do not have access to adequate care and resources. Shamefully, they also face ignorance and injustice from people who should know better, including medical professionals and the Government. Many primary care professionals receive minimal training on ME, and it continues to be dismissed as “medically unexplained”.

Treatment for ME currently focuses on addressing the condition’s symptoms, but, as we have heard, concerns have been raised many times about the recommended treatments, such as cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy. Like other Members, I am glad that NICE is reviewing its guidelines, and I hope ME sufferers are at the heart of the review’s outcomes.

The Government’s welfare reforms are causing a lot of heartache and stress for millions of people, including people with ME, many of whom struggle to access welfare benefits. The written evidence that Action for ME submitted to the UK Parliament’s Work and Pensions Committee’s inquiry into personal independence payments and employment and support allowance assessments, which the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) touched on, raised serious concerns about how the welfare state treats people with ME. Its research found that assessors do not have a sufficient, or even basic, understanding of the condition, and so cannot carry out accurate assessments of people affected by it. That causes assessors to misinterpret the condition, wrongly diagnose it and file inaccurate reports, which have dire consequences for people’s benefit entitlements.

That basic lack of understanding of ME is forcing individuals down the mandatory reconsideration and appeal route to get access to the benefits they are rightly entitled to. Some 76% of people with ME who are forced to do that believe that the initial assessment failed to represent their condition or needs properly; 52% believe that the assessment was not conducted fairly or appropriately; and 32% say that the amount they were awarded did not cover or meet their needs.

That experience is familiar to one of my constituents, whom I assisted recently. She has ME and other medical conditions, and she told me that

“ESA and PIP assessments are designed in a way that discriminates against people with ME and other fluctuating and unseen conditions. This causes untold distress and harm to people with ME, who already feel very vulnerable and unheard.”

She also believes that the assessments have led to her condition deteriorating, and that

“without a shadow of a doubt”

she would have been able to go back to work a long time ago if it was not

“for the recurring relapses caused by a system that is supposed to support you while ill and while trying to recover, and instead it causes harm. It is exhausting, demeaning and damaging to recovery.”

She feels that

“people with ME often feel ridiculed, abandoned and even bullied and abused. It is a highly vulnerable place to be when your basic needs (and in some cases your continued existence) and the way you are treated and viewed by society is dependent upon the understanding of those with power”.

I am sure she is not the only one who feels that way.

I accept that ME can be an invisible condition, but surely the Government can take that into account so people receive fair assessments. As my constituent said,

“the more people who begin to learn the truth about this devastating condition, the sooner people with ME can begin to be treated with the respect and dignity that people with serious medical conditions are entitled to.”

As a society, we need to challenge ourselves better to understand this condition, and that should start with the Government. The Scottish Government have funded a project to educate health and social care professionals, and improve the health and social care support available to people with ME. The Inform ME project will develop a peer mentoring, self-management support network to build confidence and reduce isolation among people affected by ME.

We have heard today that it is accepted that not enough research has been done to increase the knowledge of the different forms of ME. However, the UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative was created in 2013, and it is hoped that greater attention will be brought to this area. It is true that ME has received far less research funding than other conditions with a similar prevalence and disease burden. The funding has tended to be for psychological and behavioural studies, rather than biomedical research. As my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North West outlined, the Scottish Government are taking steps in this area and have recently announced a PhD scholarship focused on improving the understanding of ME.

People of all political persuasions and none want to see a world without ME. The Minister has listened to many strong views this afternoon. I know he is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the NICE review, but I hope he will take on board and reflect on the points that have been made today—in particular, those relating to GET and the DWP’s procedures for ME. I hope we can help people living with this condition sooner rather than later.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is right to shine a light on that variation, and that is why this Government have introduced Ofsted ratings for all CCGs—to make sure that we understand. It is not just in children and young people’s mental health, but in all mental health where we see that variation. Specifically when it comes to children and young people’s mental health, she will be pleased to know that last year overall spending went up by 20%, and the Green Paper that we published announced an additional £300 million in investment.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

6. What plans his Department has to improve children’s health.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jackie Doyle-Price)]

This Government want to see all children and young people get the best start in life. We are implementing a wide range of policies to improve child health, including the most ambitious childhood obesity plan in the world, transformation of children’s mental health and maternity services, improving immunisation rates and tackling child sexual abuse.

[Gavin Newlands]

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recently praised NHS Scotland’s innovations to improve children’s health. The Scottish initiative Childsmile, which is now 10 years old, has greatly improved children’s dental health, reducing fillings by 24% and cutting annual dental treatment by £5 million. It is good that the UK Government have finally set up trial sites, but with multiple dental extractions under general anaesthetic up by 11%, why is this initiative not being rolled out to all children in England?

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight that, and we are always keen to respond to any representations made on this very important issue. We are also very keen to learn from the other nations about this area, because it is clear that the more we can do with early intervention in childhood, the better we protect people’s long-term health. I will look more specifically into that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Nicola Blackwood]

On 19 September we published our comprehensive response to the report, which describes a range of actions that we will take on each of Lord O’Neill’s recommendations. The most practical progress that I can report is the fact that the prescribing of antibiotics has fallen for the first time since records began. I think that we can all be proud of that progress.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

4. What assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK’s decision to leave the EU on the NHS workforce.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

There are currently 127,000 staff from the EU doing a vital job for patients in the NHS and social care system. In this year of Brexit, we salute their excellent work and remain confident that we will be able to negotiate for them to continue it in the future.

[Gavin Newlands]

There are more than 50,000 EU nationals working as nurses and doctors throughout the United Kingdom, along with 80,000 in the social care sector. The NHS already faces extensive rota gaps owing to a shortage of senior and junior doctors. Will the Secretary of State join our First Minister in demanding an unequivocal guarantee that EU nationals who are already living here will have the right to remain?

[Mr Hunt]

That is exactly what we intend to achieve through negotiations, but we must remember the British citizens, including people from Scotland, who are living in the EU and whose rights we also wish to protect. That is why the Prime Minister has made a big point of saying that she wishes to negotiate the issue at an early stage in order to give certainty to those people.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

5. What steps he is taking to implement his Department’s childhood obesity strategy.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

8. What steps he is taking to implement his Department’s childhood obesity strategy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Nicola Blackwood)]

The Department is working closely with Public Health England, the national health service, local authorities, schools and other partners as we implement the childhood obesity strategy. We have already taken firm action, including consulting on the soft drinks industry levy and launching a broad sugar reduction programme.

[Nicola Blackwood]

We have made no secret of the fact that we considered a range of policies before publishing the childhood obesity strategy, which is a world-leading strategy and one of the most ambitious in the world. It will cut childhood obesity by one fifth in the next 10 years, and I am determined that we do not get lost in a debate about what it could or should have been, but instead get on with implementing it. Our children deserve no less.

[Gavin Newlands]

A few weeks ago, I hosted a Westminster forum on the implementation of the strategy, at which there was much consternation about why another important recommendation—the creation of a 9 pm watershed to reduce children’s exposure to junk food advertising—was cut. Does the Minister not realise the seriousness of the obesity crisis, and can she explain why that important measure was dumped?

[Nicola Blackwood]

Current restrictions on the advertising of less healthy food and drink in the UK are among the toughest in the world, so I am pleased to reassure the hon. Gentleman and his constituents on that fact.

Carers

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Thursday 9th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

I am delighted to take part in today’s proceedings and I congratulate the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Mims Davies) on securing today’s debate. I thank her, the hon. Member for Workington (Sue Hayman) and my hon. Friend the Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Corri Wilson) for sharing their personal experiences. I am not a carer myself, but I have close family members who require care and I recognise the stresses that have been described.

The motion asks us to consider carers and their contribution to society. This debate has been organised to coincide with carers week, when we celebrate carers and thank them for the vital role they play in society. Carers not only perform an important role for the person whom they look after, but their selfless acts help ease the demand on our public services. Across the UK, this unpaid care is worth an estimated £100 billion each year. I often wonder what would happen to our public services if our unpaid carers decided not to continue to provide the care that they do. How would we respond to that?

Carers week is very worthwhile, but we as parliamentarians fail carers and those they look after if we debate, celebrate and take note of carers’ issues only in this week. This is just a normal week for our carers. I do not doubt that carers value our thanks and appreciation, but after speaking to a number of carers in my constituency, I know that some of them tend to avoid carers week. They are desperate for more than the usual “unsung heroes” soundbites or the “pat on the back” platitudes. This should be a week of celebration and thanks, but more importantly this should be a week when we talk with, not to, carers in order better to understand the experiences that come from being a carer.

As I said, I am not a carer and I do not pretend to know all the issues facing carers. Nevertheless, I have pledged to fight the corner for carers as I sincerely and honestly have the utmost respect for them. When I was first elected, I quickly set up 13 surgeries a month, one of which is a specific monthly carers surgery at Renfrewshire Carers Centre, which allows me to hear at first hand some of the issues and challenges that carers face. There are more than 9,000 known carers in my constituency and these surgeries can be heart wrenching, but they also motivate me to do more to help ease the burdens that our carers face daily.

My constituency office is only too well aware of the challenges and struggles that carers face, as one of my staff members, Lynn Williams, recently had to resign from her post in order to care for her husband full-time. This was a real blow for the office, because Lynn was, as we say in Scotland, a well kent figure in the caring and voluntary sectors. After three years working for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and lobbying to improve the lives of carers, she went on to be asked to join the Scottish Government’s welfare expert working group, all the while combining full-time work with caring for her husband.

We often talk about the £100 billion a year that carers save the UK economy, but very rarely do we talk about the economic loss that occurs when our talented people such as Lynn are forced to leave the economy because of caring commitments. Carers UK and Age UK estimated that in 2012 £5.3 billion was wiped from the UK economy as a result of the lost earnings of carers giving up work to care. At a time when austerity is gripping our economy, it makes no sense whatever that we allow such a significant amount to be lost to our economy.

There is a clear and urgent need to reform the current care and support system to ensure that hard-working individuals are not forced to leave the workplace. We also need to create a working environment that raises awareness of the challenges that carers can encounter. I want to see an environment where employers are aware of the struggles and demands that carers face, and thus create a flexible working environment that can deal with those caring responsibilities. I support the Carer Positive scheme, which seeks to recognise employers who support carers. Around one in seven people in the workforce will have a caring responsibility, and with the number of carers expected to increase, we need to encourage more organisations to operate flexible working environments for carers. This will be good for business, good for the economy, and good for carers and the people they care for.

In Scotland, the SNP Government have a strong track record of working with carers to help develop policies that make carers’ lives that bit easier. We have invested around £114 million in programmes to support carers—more than ever before. A £13 million short break fund has provided around 15,000 carers and cared-for people with the opportunity to relax without feeling stress or guilt. The Carers Parliament has been established to provide carers, young carers and carer representatives from across Scotland with the opportunity to discuss and debate matters important to them.

My first ever speech to an SNP conference—to 3,000 people in Glasgow, incidentally—was about carers. In it I called for carer’s allowance to rise at the very least to match jobseeker’s allowance. As a bare minimum, our carers deserve parity with other income replacement benefits. I was therefore delighted when, just a few weeks later, the Scottish Government announced that, with new powers over social security, they would do precisely that—a commitment that will benefit carers by nearly £600 a year. I am aware, however, that many carers do not believe that this increase in carer’s allowance is enough, and they have a strong case. I hope that this is only a start and that the debate is now open about how we value and reward caring in Scotland.

Furthermore, only today the Scottish Government announced, through their newly appointed Social Security Minister, Jeane Freeman, that they intend to consult on a young carer’s allowance, stating:

“It is unfair that some young people who have the responsibility and pressure of caring for a loved one may experience financial difficulties. That is why we will now consider whether a Young Carer’s Allowance could bridge that gap in support.”

I call on the UK Government to match the increase in carer’s allowance in Scotland and to consider a young carer’s allowance, to ensure that carers both young and old right across these islands can benefit.

I am under no illusion that there is much more that we can and should do to help improve the lives of our carers. I am sure that I am not the only Member who has been keeping an eye on #RealCarersWeek, which has been trending on Twitter. This hashtag has provided a glimpse into the lives and struggles of our carers. Tweets have been posted raising awareness of the endless bureaucracy and form-filling, which other Members have alluded to. They refer to the sleepless nights and endless visits to GPs and hospitals, and to the lack of appreciation that certain Governments have for the role that carers provide for our society. Unfortunately, there have been many disgusting responses from some ignorant and small-minded people, many of whom, ironically, will require care at some point in their lives. When politicians rightly tweet their support for carers week using #CarersWeek, I strongly encourage them to read some of the tweets under #RealCarersWeek as well.

I want to challenge the UK Government directly on the pain that their polices are causing in the lives of carers and those they care for. The Government may want to hide behind soundbites such as “hard choices”, “fairness” and “empowering the claimant.” However, they are only soundbites that attempt to justify the pain and stress that is being caused. Carers are exhausted with the endless form-filling that they are expected to undertake, or the lack of appreciation that they receive. However, the biggest stress that they experience is seeing their loved one have to deal with their own personal pain. They are angry with the effect that personal independence payment assessments—often pointless but always demeaning—are having on the quality of life of the people they care for.

I am sure that I am not the only one who was upset and angry after reading The Guardian article that suggested that 500 adapted cars, powered wheelchairs and scooters are being taken away from disabled people each week. The article, by Dr Frances Ryan, states that PIP is a disaster for disabled people and asks whether welfare reform is becoming dangerous for them. I will let others make their own conclusions, but forcing 500 disabled people each week to become housebound is not productive for the person directly affected, for their carer, or indeed for the economy.

While it is right that we take time properly to thank and credit carers for the role they perform in society, let us give carers what they really want: a commitment from parliamentarians of all persuasions that we will listen to them, work with them and deliver for them.