argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Defense
Questions: The UK Government’s work connecting rural areas such as Brecon and Radnorshire to superfast broadband will become a lot harder tomorrow, when the Welsh Government withdraw their matched funding for the scheme, forcing the cost of installation back on to homes and businesses in my constituency. Welsh Labour’s decision means that my constituents will lose out, as local authorities in England continue to fund the scheme. Does my right hon. Friend agree that broadband is critical to the growth of the rural economy, and will he double his Government’s efforts to connect my constituents, despite Welsh Labour’s letting us down yet again?; Following on from the publication of the schools White Paper, one of my most important campaigns is to secure provision of quality post-16 education within the Bolsover constituency, where there is currently none. Young people in my constituency have to travel long distances at considerable cost to access their education. Will my right hon. Friend meet me to discuss how we can right this wrong for the young people of the Bolsover constituency and give them the education that they deserve?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): That is absolutely right, and I thank my hon. Friend very much for his bravery in going to see for himself only the other day. It is right that we should double down on military defensive support in the way that we are. By the way, can anyone imagine a Labour Government, eight of whose Front Benchers voted to get rid of our nuclear deterrent—[Interruption.] Yes, they did, and recently. Can anyone imagine them doing the same? We will go on with that. What we will also do, and I hope we have the support of the Opposition in this, is ensure there is no backsliding on sanctions by any of our friends and partners around the world. In fact, we need now to ratchet up the economic pressure on Vladimir Putin, and it is certainly inconceivable that any sanctions could be taken off simply because there was a ceasefire. That would be absolutely unthinkable, in my view.
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Questions: The UK Government’s work connecting rural areas such as Brecon and Radnorshire to superfast broadband will become a lot harder tomorrow, when the Welsh Government withdraw their matched funding for the scheme, forcing the cost of installation back on to homes and businesses in my constituency. Welsh Labour’s decision means that my constituents will lose out, as local authorities in England continue to fund the scheme. Does my right hon. Friend agree that broadband is critical to the growth of the rural economy, and will he double his Government’s efforts to connect my constituents, despite Welsh Labour’s letting us down yet again?; Following on from the publication of the schools White Paper, one of my most important campaigns is to secure provision of quality post-16 education within the Bolsover constituency, where there is currently none. Young people in my constituency have to travel long distances at considerable cost to access their education. Will my right hon. Friend meet me to discuss how we can right this wrong for the young people of the Bolsover constituency and give them the education that they deserve?; Households are experiencing soaring energy costs. We are in the middle of a global climate emergency. Against that backdrop, Norway can feed energy into our national grid at a cost of £1.36 per megawatt-hour. France pays 17p per megawatt-hour. Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg pay nothing to feed into our grid. Can the Prime Minister explain then why Scotland’s renewables sector is being punished with grid connection charges of £7.36 per megawatt-hour?;   With the Government losing an estimated £4 billion to fraud in the furlough scheme, surely the Prime Minister should have tackled that fraud—especially when, in his own party in North Tyneside, furlough was claimed for a member of party staff even though he continued to work.; Over 2 million tonnes of edible food is wasted on farms and in factories every year. Funding was introduced in 2019 to cover the costs of getting food to charities to reach those in need. The Prime Minister will know, however, that the Government have now cut that critical funding to zero. Funding for food waste diversion helps to support community projects such as the Threehills community supermarket in Glasgow, so can he explain why he is ignoring calls from Feeding Britain, Good Food Scotland and FareShare to continue that worthwhile initiative and is instead cutting off a lifeline to those struggling with the cost of living crisis?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for her question. I think everybody will thank the women concerned for taking up the issue in the way that they have and we extend our heartfelt sympathies to the victims and their families for what they have suffered. It is very important that people get the answers that they deserve and that we have the right approach to the issue in the future. That is why we are investing very substantially in maternity services and also, of course, very substantially in midwives and in our NHS altogether.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her remarks. It is not often that we get to say this in this Chamber, but I agree wholeheartedly with what she has just shared with the House. She is absolutely right to talk about this as a fight for justice and to say that if these brave families had not been so persistent in coming forward with what was done to them and what went wrong, the inquiry might never have happened. She is also right to talk about institutional failure at the trust, which the first report set out in some detail and which we are seeing in much more detail today The hon. Lady talked, rightly, about patient safety. She will know that the Government have already set out plans to appoint a patient safety commissioner; that appointment will be made soon, but we need to do much, much more. That is why it was right to accept all the interim report’s recommendations, including seven immediate and essential actions and 27 local actions. I can tell the House that the trust has implemented all the actions set out in the interim report; that was backed at the time by £95 million in extra funding. As I said a moment ago, the final report quite rightly makes many more recommendations, which have all been accepted and which are backed by funding of at least £127 million, much of which will go to workforce The hon. Lady is right about the need to increase the size of the workforce, especially with respect to midwives. Last year’s acceptance figures for student nurses and midwives were, I think, the highest that the country had seen in decades, but clearly there is much more to do.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Today’s report goes beyond my darkest fears. When I commissioned it as Health Secretary in 2016, I was approached by 23 families; we have heard today that more than 200 babies might have been alive today if better care had been provided. I thank Donna Ockenden and her team for an incredibly thorough investigation. I also thank the Health Secretary for his compassionate and comprehensive response to the House today Donna Ockenden does not use the word "recommendation"; she talks about immediate and essential actions. What is the Secretary of State’s deadline for the implementation of those actions? That is something that every expectant mother in the country desperately wants to know May I gently say to the Secretary of State that while I warmly welcome more midwives and more doctors, that approach is not consistent with voting down today the Lords amendment to the Health and Care Bill that would make sure that we never have those shortages again Finally, I pay tribute to Richard Stanton and Rhiannon Davies and to Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths. Richard and Rhiannon came to talk to me about their daughter Kate, who died in 2009; Colin and Kayleigh’s daughter Pippa died in 2016, when I was Health Secretary. Because of the blame culture and the culture of fear in the NHS, it was left to them and many other families to fight for justice. Can this be the last time that we put that burden on the shoulders of bereaved families? Can we build a culture in the NHS that is open and transparent and that accepts that things go wrong, but is hungry to learn from mistakes so that we never again repeat the tragedies?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much agree. I want to acknowledge that the report ultimately took place because of my right hon. Friend’s decision to ask Donna Ockenden to do the independent review, but he is absolutely right that he, in turn, did so because of the bravery of Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton, of Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths and of the many other families who came to see him My right hon. Friend asked about the immediate and essential actions. The interim report sets out seven such actions; the trust has implemented them all, and across the NHS they are either fully or partially implemented. The final report also recommends such actions; their implementation has already begun. Of course, we have just received the report, but I have asked for a timetable of when it will all be done. I want to see it done as quickly as possible My right hon. Friend’s point about workforce is very important. I hope he welcomes the fact that, for the first time, the NHS has been asked to set out a 15-year workforce plan.
Treasury Spending: Grants to Devolved Institutions — House of Commons, 2018-07-03
Topic: Health
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): In addition to the provision of the DUP bung, Wales has lost £1.2 billion, or 7%, since 2010, so we are talking about a 7% real- terms cut. Despite that and despite the myths peddled by the Government, health and social care spending in Wales is still higher per head of population than in England. Does the hon. Lady agree that we should talk in facts and that the real-terms cuts happening in Wales and Scotland are having a real impact on people’s lives?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Lucy Allan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Secretary of State for his very welcome statement and the Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield), for her excellent work. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Jeremy Hunt) for everything that he has done for patient safety; he has led the way, and I am so grateful Does the Secretary of State believe that what we have seen at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is indicative of a culture in which senior management were unaccountable, no one felt responsible, failings were minimised, poor care was normalised and women’s voices were not heard? Will he do everything he can to increase the accountability of senior management across the NHS so that that institutional blindness can never again cause such harm to those who put their trust in the NHS?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): Let me first thank my hon. Friend for her approach and her role in helping to make the report happen, and for the way in which she has worked with me, and with Ministers in my Department, on this most important of issues. She is right to talk about the importance of culture, especially given that, as the report makes clear, the voices of women were not heard time and again. I want to reassure her that we will implement all the report’s recommendations, but, more broadly, that women’s voices will be at the heart of the upcoming women’s health strategy.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with the hon. Lady, and she is right to raise the importance of the Morecambe Bay investigation. That report, which I believe was completed in 2015, contained 44 recommendations. Eighteen recommendations that were specifically for the trust have been implemented, and the 26 for the wider NHS are in the course of being implemented.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for both the tone and the substance of his response to this devastating report. Let me also add my voice to the consensus throughout the House that the way in which this is handled is vital, and that we must ensure that the NHS takes Donna Ockenden’s recommendations on board. She and her team of more than 90 experienced clinicians are properly being thanked for the work that they have done. They have painstakingly reviewed these cases going back some 20 years, which must have been harrowing for them, as of course it has been for all the families so tragically affected who have had to relive their tragedy In particular, I want to praise the courage and tenacity of Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton, who were my constituents when they lost their baby Kate in truly awful, and tragically avoidable, circumstances. It was they who kept pressing for answers from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. That led me to take them to see the then Health Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Jeremy Hunt), who agreed to launch this review five years ago. They are no longer my constituents, and I understand that they are now understandably keen to focus their attention on their family, having been living with this trauma since 2009 I have some questions for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Does he recognise that the Ockenden review has raised fundamental questions for maternity services across the NHS over the culture of so-called normal birth, and that a focus on targets, under successive Governments, rather than on patient outcomes, can distort clinical best practice and, tragically, patient safety? Following his discussion with the trust’s current chief executive, which he has mentioned, is he satisfied that the current management and clinical teams have accepted the "local actions for learning" recommendations in the initial Ockenden report, and are committed to studying and rapidly implementing all further recommendations specific to the trust? Finally, what reassurance can he give the thousands of expectant mothers in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin that the maternity services there are safe, and that patient safety is paramount?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for the way in which he has worked with the Department and with my predecessor in representing his constituents throughout this investigation. He referred to "so-called normal birth" in his question, and he was right to do so: the only normal birth is a safe birth, which is what the NHS should be working towards, but that did not happen in this trust. The report has made that absolutely clear. Just as important are its recommendations, including some for my right hon. Friend’s local NHS trust. I can reassure him—partly as a result of my conversation earlier today with the current chief executive—that all the recommendations in the interim report have been implemented by his local trust, and all those in this report have been accepted.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Laura Trott (Conservative, Centre-right): This courageous report makes clear that keeping caesarean section rates artificially low contributed to babies dying. I am pleased that, following a recommendation from the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee, NHS trusts are no longer being assessed on performance for their caesarean rates, but will the Secretary of State go further? Will he ensure that we look at where caesarean section rates remain artificially low in trusts, so that this dangerous "normal births" ideology is eradicated from the NHS once and for all?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): If I may, I will write to the hon. Lady about the national clinical audit. As for her important point about boards, the report refers to their importance and the importance of ensuring that the people on them are vetted, understand their responsibilities, and have the information that they need in order to fulfil those responsibilities. In, I think, 2014 or thereabouts, the Care Quality Commission changed the rules relating to NHS trust board members, requiring them to meet a new "fit and proper" test.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Siobhan Kathleen Baillie (Conservative, Centre-right): It is impossible to think about these lost babies, lost lives, and damaged families without becoming very upset and then very, very angry. However, I know from the work I have been doing with midwives and families, mums and dads, in the last six months or so that this does not involve just one trust. We have thousands of midwives marching on the streets. During the pandemic, mums were taking to social media, feeling that they were being marginalised and their voices were not being heard. Midwives tell me that they did not want to speak out before because they did not want to frighten the mums and dads in their charge, and that is why they often feel that they are not heard themselves. So we have to help them. How will the NHS and the Government reassure pregnant women and help the midwives to reassure them, given that all this is in the news at the moment, and how can we prevent other maternity services from failing?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has raised a very important point. Hundreds of thousands of births are delivered through the NHS each year, and the vast majority are completely safe, as I myself have found and as many other Members have found, including my hon. Friend. What we have heard about today is what happens when it goes wrong, and goes tragically wrong, but especially when that was avoidable My hon. Friend was right to talk about the importance of considering other trusts. This report focuses on one trust, but we know that there was a problem in Morecambe Bay and that an independent investigation is taking place in East Kent. There is action to be taken by all trusts. That is why I think it is so important for the NHS to act on the recommendations for the wider NHS, and for me to act on the recommendations for my Department. We will certainly be taking action and so will the NHS.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I join the hon. Lady in warmly thanking and commending the work of maternity teams throughout the United Kingdom for what they do, day in and day out, especially over the last two years of the pandemic, which has probably made it even harder than normal. I know that they will all welcome this report because they will want to see the very changes that are set out in it.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Jill Mortimer (Conservative, Centre-right): I would also like to thank the families for shining a spotlight on this. One of my children suffered from oxygen deprivation at birth, through what I now know were failings in my care. I was lucky, though, in my third pregnancy. By sheer fluke, the GP practice I was registered with had a wonderful community midwife. She was with me through my pregnancy and through the birth of my daughter and she took care of me afterwards. I was listened to, I was supported and I felt safe. I thank my right hon. Friend for taking on board these recommendations, but would he agree that every woman deserves that continuity of care? It can make a profound difference in outcomes for families, because they will have somebody by their side who understands them and they will not have to go through their medical history over and over again, often missing out vital pieces. We should have loftier ambitions. Will my right hon. Friend try to make sure that every woman has the opportunity to have their own midwife with them all the way?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I agree very much with my hon. Friend and I thank her for sharing with the House her own valuable experiences. She is right to talk about the importance of continuity of care, and that is part of our maternity transformation plan.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. One of the reasons we are creating the special health authority that I referred to earlier is to provide that independence, and also more protection for members of staff to come forward. For example, members of staff will be able for the first time to report things they are concerned about directly to the SHA, and it will have the right to investigate.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Fay Alicia Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): Many members from across the House have mentioned the incredible bravery of all the parents who fought for their babies, particularly Rhiannon Davies. Rhiannon is originally from mid-Wales, although she now lives in a constituency across the border. There are many women who live in mid-Wales who need to access the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, and I am concerned that they will hear about today’s report and be worried about the care that they will be receiving over the next few days. So, as well as implementing the Ockenden review in full, will the Secretary of State please give his reassurance to those women in Wales who need to travel across the border for maternity services?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I can give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. We are more than happy to reach out to the Northern Ireland health service and to work proactively with it on improving maternity services in Northern Ireland.
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Felicia Jane Beatrix Drummond (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend said in his statement that the Care Quality Commission rated these maternity services inadequate for safety only in 2018, which is unacceptable. Can he assure the House that the CQC inspections are now rigorous enough that failings are picked up much earlier to prevent this type of thing from happening again?
Ockenden Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns (Conservative, Centre-right): This House is united in our heartache over the lives lost and the lives destroyed, and over the women who were silenced and told that birthing had happened for centuries so they should shut up, or that it should happen as though in some sort of movie. I am afraid that, as an MP, I have concluded that NHS bureaucracy has a systemic problem of sexism, and I ask the Secretary of State to keep an eye on this nationally. I remember, after 36 hours of labour, being rushed to the operating theatre and being denied a C-section, then being rushed back an hour later and having a C-section, but only because my husband had noticed that my son’s heart rate had plummeted to almost non-existent. We must also prevent the unforgivable and unscientific locking out of loved ones across all health services. It compromises care and it is still happening in hospitals around the country across different types of care.