National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill

Debate between Tony Baldry and Philip Davies

Friday 21st November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sir Tony Baldry]

The point I am making, which I shall develop, is that the Bill is completely unnecessary. I also want to make the point that all Opposition Members seem to wish to deny that there has been any involvement of the NHS with the private sector. It is important to remind the House of the fact that it was the Labour party, and a Labour Government, who introduced the private sector into the NHS, and the 2012 legislation in no way significantly changed that relationship.

[Philip Davies]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that those people who support the Bill would be supporting the removal of the cap on the amount of private income that hospitals can receive? Does he think that, when 38 Degrees was encouraging people to write in about the Bill, it made that clear to the people who signed its petition?

[Sir Tony Baldry]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I think the Labour party will regret signing up to every 38 Degrees campaign, because if 38 Degrees starts drafting the Labour party manifesto rather than the Labour party, the Labour party will never sort out whether it is new Labour, old Labour or any other sort of Labour, which is why it did so incredibly badly yesterday in the Rochester by-election.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Baldry and Philip Davies

Thursday 25th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

1. What annual savings the Church Commissioners expect to make from the creation of the Diocese of Leeds?

[The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Sir Tony Baldry)]

Before I answer the question, may I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor, Sir Stuart Bell, who served as Second Church Estates Commissioner for some 13 years, the longest period anyone has served in that post since Parliament created it in the mid-1830s? He did so with considerable diligence and sensitivity. He will be much missed, and may his soul rest in peace.

Following consultation on its initial draft reorganisation scheme for the dioceses of Bradford, Ripon and Leeds and Wakefield, the Church of England Dioceses Commission expects to publish a revised draft scheme on 29 October. Accompanying its report will be a statement on the effect of the proposals, if implemented, on the mission of the Church of England and a detailed estimate of their financial impacts.

[Philip Davies]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that answer. We all appreciate that savings need to be made, but with the proposed abolition of the Bradford diocese and its incorporation into a larger Leeds diocese, what steps will be taken to ensure that the communities across the Bradford district will not be given less priority in the Church of England?

[Sir Tony Baldry]

May I suggest to my hon. Friend that he discuss his concerns with the Bishop of Bradford, who I am sure will be able to reassure him that the Christian and Church of England mission in his constituency will in no way be diminished by these proposals? One of the greatest threats to the Church’s mission in his constituency is the continuing theft of lead from churches. No fewer than six churches in his constituency have had lead stolen from their roofs—St Peter’s church in Shipley has had lead stolen on four separate occasions, notwithstanding protections such as SmartWater. So may I take this opportunity to entreat my hon. Friend, as I know the Bishop of Bradford and the Archbishop of York will, not to frustrate the Third Reading of the Scrap Metal Dealers Bill when it comes before the House soon?

Social Care (Local Sufficiency) and Identification of Carers Bill

Debate between Tony Baldry and Philip Davies

Friday 7th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir Tony Baldry]

It is very rare that an area of public policy, particularly on something as important as carers, can be dealt with by just one Department. I have absolutely no doubt that the Government’s White Paper on social care is the subject of an enormous amount of interdepartmental discussion. One task of the various all-party groups is to highlight to the Department of Health the issues that relate to other Departments, so that it can negotiate with those Departments before bringing forward its Bill. There will be cost implications in different areas, and I am sure there will be a robust debate about money on Second Reading of the Care and Support Bill. We have not yet come to that.

I say to the hon. Lady that the White Paper was published only shortly before the summer Adjournment. There has been little opportunity for any of us to interrogate Ministers in other Departments about policy areas such as those that she rightly identifies. Of course, a number of Ministers, like the one who is here today, have only just taken on new ministerial briefs. I believe that at Minister of State and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State level, only 11 Ministers will be opening the same red boxes this weekend as they did last weekend. Those of us who have been Ministers know that it takes two or three weeks just to absorb the briefing for incoming Ministers, so we should not be impatient. What is important is to ensure that those of us who are in all-party groups relating to carers, or who are concerned about carers policy, can support the Government’s social care Bill on Second Reading.

[Philip Davies]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Sir Tony Baldry]

I give way to the other sexton.

[Philip Davies]

I am grateful. I have been trying to decode what my hon. Friend said about me and my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall). I do not know whether he was trying to be insulting, but in his characteristically charming way, or whether he was merely saying that we take a close interest in each private Member’s Bill, which I would say was a compliment, even though perhaps a rather ham-fisted one.

Is my hon. Friend trying to say that if we get the undertakings that I am sure we would all like from the Minister today—he has already made some—it would be helpful if the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) were to withdraw her Bill?

[Sir Tony Baldry]

We all have to be grown-up about this. The hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South has come up in the ballot, and it is a matter for her how she deals with the Bill. She is perfectly entitled to take it forward. I am just concerned to ensure that there is no scintilla of a suggestion that we will get ourselves into a hole. I was in the House when Nick Scott was the Minister responsible for the disabled. We got ourselves into a terrible hole over a private Member’s Bill by giving the impression that we were not interested in policy relating to the disabled, which of course was totally untrue. I do not want there to be any suggestion of that happening in relation to carers. I hope that we have now found a constructive way forward.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Baldry and Philip Davies

Thursday 5th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir Tony Baldry]

My hon. Friend the Member for Croydon South (Richard Ottaway) has introduced an excellent Bill, and we hope that it will get a good hearing tomorrow and make progress. Of course the churches have a responsibility to do everything they can to protect their own metal from theft. They do this by using SmartWater, CCTV cameras and other examples of the latest technology. We are all seeking to crack this despicable crime, but at the end of the day we have to make the scrap metal business a cashless business involving only business-to-business transactions, to prevent people from ripping lead off roofs and taking it round to the scrap metal market the next day and getting cash for it.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

My hon. Friend mentioned SmartWater, which is a tried and trusted method not only of bringing criminals to justice but of deterring them from committing crimes in the first place. Will he update the House on how many churches have SmartWater technology on their premises, and will he ensure that as many as possible are covered by it in the future?

[Sir Tony Baldry]

I can assure my hon. Friend that a very large number of churches are using SmartWater.