Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. My right hon. Friend the Health Secretary will make an announcement shortly about Safe and Sustainable and children’s heart operations. We have to be frank with people: we cannot expect really technical surgery, such as children’s heart operations, to be carried out at every hospital in the country. As the parent of a desperately ill child wanting the best care for that child, you need to know that you are getting something that is world best when it comes to really technical operations, but you cannot have that everywhere. Clearly, however, the conclusion is that this process, which started in 2008, has not been carried out properly, so we need to make a restart.

[Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

Q13. Is the Prime Minister aware that last year Britain became a net exporter of cars for the first time since 1976? If this trend continues, the UK will produce an all-time record of 2 million cars in 2017. Is this not a really good example of a high added-value sector upskilling and putting the “great” back into British manufacturing and exports?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that this is a good example of a British industry that is succeeding. If we look at Honda, Nissan, Toyota or Jaguar Land Rover, we see really good news in our automotive sector. We now need to get behind it and encourage it to have as much of its supply chain onshore as possible. That is beginning to happen in these industries, and I hope for further progress in the months ahead.