Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Reed Excerpts

Wednesday 1st March 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue, which I know he has been working on for some time. He is absolutely right to identify circumstances where websites are acting in that way and causing those problems for people who genuinely believe that they are able to buy tickets for what they wish to attend. I understand that he recently met my right hon. Friend the Minister for Digital and Culture to discuss the issue. As my hon. Friend will be aware, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 introduced new rules on ticketing and a review of online ticket sales. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will shortly respond to the independent report by Professor Michael Waterson on this issue, but as a Government we are looking at the general issue of where markets are not working in the interest of consumers.

[Mr Steve Reed (Croydon North) (Lab)]

Q2. I add my condolences to those already expressed about the former Father of the House, and I welcome my new hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) to his place.Young black men who use mental health services are more likely than other people to be subject to detention, extreme forms of medication and severe physical restraint, and, in extreme cases, this has led to death, including that of my constituent Seni Lewis. Too many black people with mental ill health are afraid to seek treatment from a service they fear will not treat them fairly. Will the Prime Minister meet me and some of the affected families to discuss the need for an inquiry into institutional racism in the mental health service?

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to welcome the new hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) to this House.

It is precisely because of concern about how various people were being treated within our public services that last year I introduced a racial audit of the disparity of treatment within public services. As Home Secretary, I saw this when I looked at the way that people, particularly black people with mental health issues, were being dealt with by the police and in various forms of detention. That is exactly the sort of issue that we are looking at. I am very happy for the hon. Member for Croydon North (Mr Reed) to write to me with the details of the particular issue that he set out.