Tag: 2021

Boris Johnson – 2021 Comments on New Covid Measures

The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 30 November 2021.

The measures taking effect today are proportionate and responsible, and will buy us time in the face of this new variant. Based on everything we know, our vaccines and boosters remain our best line of defence, so it is more important than ever that people come forward when eligible to get boosted. Not only will today’s steps help us slow down the variant’s spread, but they will help us protect each other and the gains we have all worked so hard for.

November 30, 2021
Angela Rayner – 2021 Speech on Cleaning Up Politics

The speech made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, to the Speech to the Institute for Government on 29 November 2021.

Thank you all for being here today and a particular thanks to the Institute for Government for hosting us today. Never has your role as an independent think tank, working in the public interest, been more vital.

The IfG stands for impartiality and speaking truth to power, ideas that underpin much of what I have to say today.

Twenty four years ago a Labour opposition exposed the sleaze engulfing the Conservative Party, and Labour governments legislated to clean it up.

The Political Parties, Elections, and Referendums Act.

The Electoral Commission.

A Ministerial Code.

Public registers of donations to political parties.

The Freedom of Information Act.

Transparency was the key and sunlight the best disinfectant.

The last Labour government did not hesitate to act decisively to clean up British public life.

And the next Labour government will act to stamp out the corruption that Boris Johnson and his government have polluted our democracy with.

The truth is nobody could have predicted the corruption and shamelessness of Boris Johnson.

The current system only works when there is respect for the rules and there are consequences for breaking them.

Today – because of this Prime Minister – there is no respect for the rules and no consequences for breaking them.

As on so many issues, his actions in office stand in stark and sad contrast to his words on taking office.

In his own foreword to the Ministerial Code, the Prime Minister wrote that to win back the trust of the British people:

“We must uphold the very highest standards of propriety.”

“There must be no bullying and no harassment”.

Yet when his first independent adviser on ministerial interests found his Home Secretary broke that code by bullying officials, it was the adviser who left government. And when an independent panel found one of his own MPs guilty of harassment, that government imposed a three line whip to keep him in Parliament.

The Prime Minister promised:

“No misuse of taxpayers’ money and no actual or perceived conflicts of interest”.

He went on to give us the VIP lane for PPE contracts, the Randox lobbying scandal and the £3.5bn of taxpayers’ money lining the pockets of party donors and Ministers’ mates.

The Prime Minister said that:

“The precious principles of public life… Integrity, objectivity, accountability, transparency, honesty and leadership in the public interest – must be honoured at all times”.

You’ll all be glad to hear I won’t list every example of his breaking those principles, or none of you would get out of her before dinner time.

The current regime is no longer working precisely because we have a Prime Minister who is shameless in breaking the rules, and won’t enforce consequences on others who break them.  Corruption – that is the word – is happening in plain sight and it is rife right through this Conservative government.

That is why we must now urgently rebuild public trust in politics and government. It is why we must go further than the last Labour government and stamp out the corruption that has engulfed Boris Johnson’s government and his party thanks to his own actions and inaction.

No more Members of Parliament paid to lobby their own government.

No more Ministers breaking the rules and getting away with it.

No more revolving door between ministerial office and lobbying jobs.

No more corruption and waste of taxpayers’ money.

And that goes to the heart of why standards matter.

Because the people who are picking up the bill are the taxpayers whose money Ministers are wasting and abusing.

Families in my constituency and across the country have had £1,000 taken out of their pockets by this government. Care workers, nurses, delivery drivers, supermarket workers. The heroes who got us through the pandemic.

And what thanks do they get in return? Conservative MPs lining their pockets with £1,000 an hour and Conservative Ministers giving billions to their mates.

When there is so obviously one rule for the Prime Minister and his Ministers and another for everyone else, that corrodes trust in our democracy.

People lose faith in government as a force for good in their lives.

Because if anybody else breaks the rules at work or breaks the law then they will face the consequences.

The veteran who loses their Universal Credit because the bus was late. The sole trader who falls foul of HRMC for losing a receipt. It’s one rule for the Prime Minister and another for everyone else.

Our democracy cannot hinge on gentlemen’s agreements, it needs independent and robust protection.

So today I am setting out how a Labour government will clean up our politics and restore that trust.

We will start by setting tougher rules.

We will ensure tougher enforcement of those rules, independently of political control.

And we will protect taxpayers’ money against the abuses we have seen from this government.

Two weeks ago we laid out our five point plan to clean up our politics and stamp our Conservative corruption.

Today I will go further, setting out how our Independent Integrity and Ethics Commission will stamp out corruption in government, strengthen the rules and ensure they are enforced.

The current system is broken.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life found that they are too easily ignored or disregarded and the systems that “are supposed to uphold the rules are not working well”.

That regulation of the Ministerial Code and of Ministers after they leave office “falls below what is necessary to ensure effective regulation and maintain public credibility”.

Standards are currently governed by an alphabet soup of different committees, advisers, rules and codes of conducts.

Ministers and former ministers can hide behind the loopholes, the disjointed processes and the lack of enforcement.

And why is this the case? Because the rot starts at the top.

Boris Johnson has lived his entire life bending and breaking rules.

He has been investigated for breaking the rules in every office he has ever been elected to.

He broke the parliamentary rules on his outside financial interests twice… So he tried to replace the independent Commissioner for Standards.

The Electoral Commission investigated the dodgy deals that paid for his flat… So he is trying to give Ministers control of the Electoral Commission.

His Ministers, MPs and advisers know that if they break the rules they will get away with it… Because they are just following his example.

Boris Johnson has proved that rules are only as good as the mechanisms that are there to enforce them.

Under this Prime Minister rules are broken but there is no punishment or sanction, or he just changes the rules after the fact.

The Prime Minister has shown that he will only ever act in his own self-interest. Never in the public interest. He’s not just incapable but unwilling to do what is needed to tackle corruption and improve standards.

The country now faces a choice

Boris Johnson a Labour government that will stamp out Conservative corruption and restore trust in public office.

—

The rules are only as robust as the processes that uphold them.

We need to strengthen the rules – but we need to strengthen those processes too.

Take the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests.

A vital role. Tasked with upholding standards in government, enforcing the Ministerial Code and investigating cases where Ministers break the rules.

But the role of the Independent Adviser is toothless if the Prime Minister won’t act. And that suits Boris Johnson.

The role of Independent Adviser is not independent. They are not allowed to be independent – investigations can only happen when the Prime Minister says so.

And the Independent Advisor’s advice to Boris Johnson is not worth the paper it’s written on because he can simply ignore it, and does – as when the Home Secretary broke the Ministerial Code.

Look at the example of the Prime Minister’s flat.

In no other walk of life would the person under investigation be judge, jury and in charge of the person investigating. And surprise surprise the report concluded that the Prime Minister didn’t even know that the refurbishment was happening… In his own flat.

When a Minister breaks the Ministerial Code, it is the Prime Minister who decides whether to investigate them and what sanctions they should face.

Complaints are answered with explanations that the Prime Minister decided that there shouldn’t be an investigation… Case closed.

Or that where there has been wrongdoing, no sanction is needed. Case closed again.

Labour’s independent Integrity and Ethics Commission will replace this broken system.

The Independent Integrity and Ethics Commission will have the power to open investigations into Ministers’ conduct… Without the approval of the Prime Minister.

The Commission will have the power to access any evidence they need, and there will be clear sanctions for breaches of the Code so the Prime Minister is no longer judge and jury over the conduct of Ministers.

—

And the Ministerial Code itself requires reform.

Since I became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster myself and Lord Geidt have become firm pen pals.

It feels like barely a day goes by without me asking him to investigate a Minister’s misconduct.

I know the Ministerial Code like the back of my hand… And I know that it needs updating and strengthening.

Take the case of the former Health Secretary. When Matt Hancock broke the Ministerial Code a new phrase of “technical breach” was created out of thin air to get him off the hook.

The grey areas give Ministers leeway to break the rules and make it harder to enforce the rules.

So one of the first things the Integrity and Ethics Commission will do is consult on the changes that are required to update the Ministerial Code so it is fit for purpose.

—

We also need to overhaul the rules that apply to former Ministers after they leave office.

There can be no stronger evidence that the rules are broken than the case of David Cameron.

If the former Prime Minister can text everyone in his phonebook to help his dodgy mate Lex Greensill get access to taxpayers’ money, try to help himself to a $200 million bonus and then rely on a defence that everything he did was within the rules…

Then it is clear that the rules themselves are broken, and so is the system that is supposed to uphold the rules.

The Committee on Business Appointments – ACOBA – was already a toothless watchdog but under this government it’s been muzzled and neutered.

Forget the revolving door… We have a system where the door is held wide open for former Ministers who want to line their pockets as soon as they leave office.

The system is pointless because the rules are too weak and there is no enforcement of them.

The regulator says that former Ministers cannot make use of any information or contacts they made when they were in office… But what else are companies paying them for?

Let’s face it… why else is Chris Grayling worth £100,000 a year? Someone will employ Gavin Williamson next.

The Committee can’t even enforce its own rulings or take action when the rules are broken.

When the Committee said that the former Chancellor Philip Hammond broke lobbying rules the Chair wrote to the Minister who is responsible for enforcing the rules. But the government ignored the Committee for 3 months, until I asked a parliamentary question… And then they finally replied – to agree that the rules were broken… but they won’t be taking any action to enforce the rules.

So Labour will ban former Ministers from lobbying for at least five years after they leave office.

No ifs, no buts. No letters after a role has already been accepted and no exceptions. A total ban. And consequences – including financial sanctions – if the rules are broken.

Whether it is Philip Hammond being paid by a banker who got a £7 million bonus in the Budget, Steve Brine working for a healthcare company that got Covid contracts or the former Attorney General providing legal advice for a tax haven in a corruption case against the government he used to be a Cabinet Minister in…

We will stop former Ministers profiting from public office, and we will close this revolving door for good.

Public servants should serve the public without an eye on a cushy lobbying gig as soon as they leave.

So the Integrity and Ethics Commission will enforce the rules on Ministers after they leave office too.

—

Earlier this month I welcomed the latest report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

I submitted my views to the Committee on behalf of the Labour Party and we welcome every recommendation. If we were in government we would implement every single one and in many cases actually go further.

The Committee’s report provides a framework to improve standards in our public life.

The only problem with the Committee’s work is that the Prime Minister will ignore it…

I’m still asking Ministers when they will implement recommendations from their 2018 report.

So the remit of the Committee on Standards in Public Life will be strengthened and brought into the Integrity and Ethics Commission.

The Commission will be able conduct inquiries and advise the Prime Minister on standards across public life, just as the Committee does today, but with the power to ensure action is taken.

—

The changes that I have set out today will overhaul the broken system that has failed to stop the spread of corruption under this Prime Minister.

And we will put the Independent Commission on a statutory footing enshrined in legislation.

Never again will a Prime Minister and his Ministers be able to break the rules with impunity because the rules are too weak, they aren’t enforced and it is the Prime Minister himself in charge of them.

Under a Labour government the rules will be strengthened, enforcement will be toughened up and power and control over the rules will be taken away from those the rules hold to account.

Boris Johnson’s corruption means that we must now urgently rebuild trust in our politics, in public office and in government as a force for good.

That means rebuilding the regime that is not working.

The British people deserve so much better than Boris Johnson’s corruption and failure.

It will be a Labour government that cleans up our politics.

And it will be a Labour government that makes our politics a force for good again.

Thank you.

November 30, 2021
Thangam Debbonaire – 2021 Comments on Code of Conduct Report

The comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, on 29 November 2021.

Over the last few weeks, it has become clear that when one of their mates is found guilty of breaking the rules, this Government’s first instinct is to rip them up, rather than accept the punishment.

The Standards Committee proposals to strengthen the MP’s Code of Conduct published today, are a welcome step in recognising that the processes around lobbying need addressing and that conflicts of interest need nipping in the bud.

Labour supports a ban on directorships and paid consultancy and will examine the detail of the Committee’s final report when it comes in the new year to ensure any moves to do so are comprehensive and watertight. When the report is published, the House of Commons must be given the chance to fully debate and approve measures to toughen up the system.

November 30, 2021
Nadine Dorries – 2021 Comments on Impact Start-Ups

The comments made by Nadine Dorries, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 29 November 2021.

From world-class AI discovering new treatments for Covid-19 to green energy solutions paving the way to a net-zero future, UK tech is transforming the world for the better.

Our ‘impact’ startups are raising investment with nearly £2 billion in funding this year to help fight some of the most pressing problems we face as a planet.

We want to harness the power of technology to make greener, healthier and safer choices and today I’m hosting the first Future Tech Forum in London to discuss how we can make that happen through future governance, policy and cooperation.

November 29, 2021
Nadine Dorries – 2021 Speech at the Future Tech Forum

The speech made by Nadine Dorries, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 29 November 2021.

Good morning everyone.

It’s an absolute pleasure to welcome you all to London, to the inaugural Future Tech Forum.

It’s the first major summit I’ve hosted since becoming Digital Secretary in September and what better place to be hosting a discussion about the future of tech, than in the Science Museum?

As you wander around this building over the next couple of days, you will spot “NeXTcube” – the computer that Tim Berners-Lee was sitting at when he designed the World Wide Web. With his invention in 1989, Berners-Lee set off a chain of events that have led us all here today.

Because digital technology has fundamentally changed our way of life. In fact, the entire infrastructure of the global economy – and modern society – is now built around tech. The five biggest tech companies are now worth almost $10 trillion – more than the next 27 most valuable U.S. companies put together. Amazon is the third biggest employer on the planet. Apple’s stock is worth more than Belgium’s entire wealth.

These companies track who we are, and what we like, and where we go and what we buy. They are an ever-present fixture of our daily lives. And they’ve done a huge amount to improve our existence. They connect us with friends and family. They’ve revolutionised working life. And given that the economies of some of these tech companies are the size of countries it’s great to see them tackling country-sized challenges like looking at tackling global welfare and development – as you’ll see in the first session with Microsoft today.

Meanwhile, the pace of technological change is astounding. We’ve got doctors performing surgery in a room miles away from their patient, armed with a joystick and some 3D equipment. Groundbreaking companies are exploring wild ways to manipulate biology – like reviving the smell of extinct flowers to create new perfumes.

At the same time, AI is everywhere – and getting more sophisticated by the day. Almost all experts think that within this century we’ll see a situation where machines are more intelligent than humans. In the long history of humanity, we are now officially living in the Digital Age. So it’s no wonder that governments all over the world are racing to set the rules for this new era.

Because if there’s anything we’ve learnt over the last 20 years, it’s that without the right governance and values built in from the start, tech can create some very serious problems. Problems that are hard to fix once they’ve happened.

Algorithms can send dangerous misinformation and poisonous abuse all over the world in a matter of seconds. Authoritarian governments can use tech to track, to intimidate, and to repress. News services can be blocked with the flick of a switch, and competitors crowded out with the tweak of an algorithm.

All of this has ramifications: for our privacy, and prosperity and for society as a whole.

And so I’m gathering you all here today to start a new and frank conversation about the future of tech: About how we can work together to harness its incredible potentially, particularly when it comes to tackling the biggest challenges we face, like climate change while protecting people from the darker side of the Digital Age.

It’s on us, as like-minded partners, to make sure the tech revolution is a democratic one. And together, we’ll be discussing a number of challenges over the next two days.

Like: How do we get the governance of tech right from the start, rather than playing catch-up? What are the issues we need to think about now, before the adoption of new and emerging tech becomes widespread? How do we ensure new technologies reflect our liberal and democratic values? And where do we need international solutions – given tech is global in its very nature – and how do we deliver them? Every country in the world is grappling with these very same questions but the UK is leading the way in answering many of them.

The most obvious example is our Online Safety Bill, which we introduced in Parliament in July. That Bill is a truly groundbreaking piece of legislation. We’ll be going further than any other country to regulate social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

I know that the world will be watching what we do, and looking to follow our lead in many cases. We’ve got a 10-year plan to become a global AI superpower, through our National AI Strategy. We’ve broken yet more ground with a new, pro-competition Digital Markets Unit, to oversee the world’s most powerful tech companies.

We’re at the cutting edge of deepening Digital Trade, and I’m particularly pleased to welcome colleagues from Singapore here today, with whom we’re negotiating a ground-breaking Digital Economy Agreement.

And in a year of international leadership for the UK, we have used our presidency of the G7 to draw a number of lines in the sand about the future of tech: We agreed that as we tackle illegal and harmful content online, we should do so in a way that also protects fundamental democratic rights, like freedom of speech.

We agreed to work together on digital technical standards, and to promote the trusted and free flow of data. We agreed to accelerate the use of digital technologies to boost trade. And finally, we agreed to secure critical digital infrastructure, like our telecoms networks. I want to build on that work over the next two days, as our G7 leadership comes to a close and that’s why I’m delighted that so many people have travelled from all over the world to be here today.

We’ve got representatives from every corner of the planet – from the Republic of Korea to Kenya, Finland and the United States And I’m very excited about the UK’s new Digital Trade Network, which is going to make the most of fast-growing tech markets in the Asia Pacific region.

But we know that governments can’t meet these challenges alone. We’ve got to change the existing model, and bring together government, industry and academia to write the next chapter of tech together. To work together in a way that is more collaborative, more frank and more honest than it has perhaps been so in the past.

So the Future Tech Forum is bringing together the widest group of thought leaders from across government, industry and academia.

As the Prime Minister said when he announced this summit in his speech to the UN General Assembly in 2019, we have pulled together the broadest possible coalition to take on this task. And if we get these questions right, the potential benefits for our countries are enormous. So as I officially open the Future Tech Forum, I’d like to finish by saying that I think we’re facing a fundamental choice about our future:

Is tech going to be a force for good, or a force for bad? We’re all here today because we are determined to make it the former. So without further ado, let’s get things underway with the first session, on tech and democracy.

I’m delighted to welcome to the stage:

Former Danish Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Microsoft Vice President John Frank

And last but by no means least, my colleague Julia Lopez, the Minister for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure.

November 29, 2021
Alex Chalk – 2021 Comments on Sentencing of Murderers of Luke O’Connell

The comments made by Alex Chalk, the Solicitor General, on 29 November 2021.

The violent actions of these men cost Luke O’Connell his life. My thoughts remain with Luke’s family and friends who have suffered an unimaginable loss. I hope the Court’s decision to increase these sentences acts as a warning to those who commit such violent crimes, that they can expect to spend a very long time in prison.

November 29, 2021
Vicky Ford – 2021 Comments on UK Aid in Chad

The comments made by Vicky Ford, the UK Minister for Africa, on 29 November 2021.

We have ensured money recovered from corrupt deals has gone into providing life-saving support to more than 150,000 vulnerable people in Chad. Working with our partners around the world, the UK will always stand against corruption.

November 29, 2021
Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19 Changes

The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 27 November 2021.

Good afternoon.

The UK’s plan against Covid has been working.

We’ve had the fastest vaccine roll-out in Europe, and now the fastest booster campaign in Europe, with almost 16.8 million boosters in people’s arms, and though case numbers have remained relatively high, we’re seen falling hospitalisations and falling numbers of deaths.

But on Wednesday we received news of a new variant – the so-called Omicron Variant – I want to express my deep gratitude to scientists in South Africa who identified this new variant and shared this information widely and immediately.

This variant is spreading around the world, with 2 cases so far identified here in the UK.

As always, and I must stress this, as always with a new variant, there are many things that we just cannot know at this early stage.

But our scientists are learning more hour by hour, and it does appear that Omicron spreads very rapidly, and can be spread between people who are double vaccinated.

There is also a very extensive mutation which means it diverges quite significantly from previous configurations of the virus, and as result, it might – at least in part – reduce the protection of our vaccines over time.

So we need to take targeted and proportionate measures now as a precaution while we find out more.

First, we need to slow down the seeding of this variant in our country.

We need to buy time for our scientists to understand exactly what we are dealing with.

And for us to get more people vaccinated and – above all – to get more people boosted.

As well as to help our NHS prepare in what is an already challenging winter.

So yesterday we took steps to protect the UK against the variant coming here from southern African countries – and earlier today added four more countries to the red list.

But we now need to go further and implement a proportionate testing regime for arrivals from across the whole world.

So we are not going to stop people travelling, I want to stress that, we’re not going to stop people travelling, but we will require anyone who enters the UK to take a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival, and to self-isolate until they have a negative result.

Second, we need to slow down the spread of this variant here in the UK.

Because measures at the border can only ever minimise and delay the arrival of a new variant, rather than stop it altogether.

So in addition to the measures we are already taking to locate those who have been in countries of concern over the last ten days, we will require all contacts of those who test positive – with a suspected case of Omicron – to self-isolate for ten days, regardless of your vaccination status.

We will also go further in asking all of you to help contain the spread of this variant, by tightening up the rules on face coverings in shops and on public transport.

And third – and most importantly – we need to bolster our protections against this new variant.

We don’t yet exactly know how effective our vaccines will be against Omicron, but we have good reasons for believing they will provide at least some measure of protection.

And if you are boosted – your response is likely to be stronger.

So it’s more vital than ever that people get their jabs, and we get those boosters into arms as fast as possible.

So from today we are going to boost the booster campaign.

We are already planning to do 6 million jabs in England alone over the next three weeks.

And now we are looking to go further, so the Health Secretary has asked the JCVI to consider giving boosters to as wide a group as possible, as well as reducing the gap between your second dose and your booster.

And, of course, we are speaking to our counterparts in the Devolved Administrations and will continue to coordinate with them.

The measures that we are taking today – including on our borders and face masks – are temporary and precautionary, and we will review them in three weeks.

At that point we should have much greater information about the continuing effectiveness of our vaccines.

I very much hope that we will find that we continue to be in a strong position, and we can lift these measures again.

But right now this is the responsible course of action, to slow down the seeding and the spread of this new variant, and to maximise our defences so we protect the gains we have worked so hard for and so that we can continue to save lives.

Thank you.

November 27, 2021
Alex Norris – 2021 Speech on Down Syndrome

The speech made by Alex Norris, the Labour MP for Nottingham North, in the House of Commons on 26 November 2021.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak for the Opposition on this very important Bill. I commend the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) for using his precious private Member’s Bill slot on this important matter, and I understand this is his first success in the ballot in 29 years, so roll on 2050 for the next one.

The right hon. Gentleman said plenty that will have moved people who are watching as well as Members in the Chamber, particularly the comment that I will reflect on now and over the weekend, too. This Bill is not about a condition: it is about people, and it is not about charity; it is about empowerment. That really struck me, and it is important.

We have heard that 47,000 people in this country, across every nation, region and constituency, are living with Down’s syndrome. They are people with hopes and dreams, who love and are loved, and they have a right to live full lives and to reach their potential. The right hon. Gentleman is taking a major step in that direction with this Bill.

We have had brilliant contributions from colleagues on both sides of the House, and I will try to group them into themes. As this Bill is human rights legislation, as the hon. Members for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) and for Stourbridge (Suzanne Webb) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) said, I share the enthusiasm of the hon. Members for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) and for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) that there should be a four-nations approach in the years to come.

There were moving contributions from the hon. Members for Broxbourne (Sir Charles Walker), for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond), for Buckingham (Greg Smith), for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) and for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher), who brought the debate to life by raising constituency cases. We can throw around the statistics about tens of thousands of people, but each one of them is an individual with different needs, different hopes and different dreams, and they should be treated in that way.

Alongside the 47,000 people, there are tens of thousands of families—mums, dads, sisters, brothers and cousins—who I know will have listened to the debate. My family is one of those tens of thousands, so I am especially grateful to the right hon. Member for North Somerset for giving us the opportunity to take a leap forward in the support available for people living with Down’s syndrome.

I was born in 1984, when life expectancy for a person with Down’s syndrome was about 25; it is now into the 60s. People with Down’s syndrome have basically gained a year every year for my entire life, which is wonderful and it shows the advances we can make when we prioritise the human rather than the condition, and when we are ambitious for everybody and do not define people by the challenges they live with. We know that, with appropriate support, people with Down’s syndrome can thrive at school, can work, can marry and can live full lives. We have to take every opportunity to remove all the barriers, to tackle stigma and to tackle the poverty of ambition that hold back progress in this area, and this Bill is a perfect opportunity to do so.

I note that the right hon. Gentleman has secured Government support for the Bill, so its passage is likely to be smooth. Clause 1(1) provides for the Secretary of State to publish guidance to relevant authorities to make sure they meet the needs of people with Down’s syndrome, which is a powerful tool and I look forward to hearing from the Minister about what she envisages being part of that.

Under clause 1(3) there is an expectation that the Secretary of State will consult. As other colleagues have said, that is important. It must start with individuals with lived experience, so they can tell us what change they need in their lives and what challenges they have had to negotiate. It must also apply to their families—the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington talked about it being a battle, which is a common theme in the stories of the families who I have spoken to and who we have heard about today. Beyond that, it is crucial that Ministers talk to clinicians, commissioners and decision makers. I am sure that the Minister will not want to be prescriptive about a consultation today, but she might set out some of its broader themes.

The schedule to the Bill highlights four areas in which the right hon. Member for North Somerset is seeking guidance to be made. I will touch on them briefly in turn. On the national health service, it is vital that healthcare services are responsive to and ambitious for people living with Down’s syndrome so that they get world-class healthcare. We can be proud of the progress made over the last few decades, but we must make sure that we are as ambitious about mental health as we are about physical health and that the progress in physical health can be matched in mental health. I hope that the Minister reflects on that in her closing remarks.

The Bill also references clinical commissioning groups. The Health and Care Bill is going through this place—we debated its remaining stages on Monday and Tuesday—so the commissioning landscape will change. Can the Minister tell us how the language will change to reflect the fact that the Bills are progressing at the same time?

Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)

To return to what my hon. Friend said about mental health concerns, when people with disabilities and conditions such as Down’s experience mental health problems that are not necessarily connected to their condition, treatment can be more difficult and it can be difficult to identify that they are developing mental health problems. Perhaps it is more a point for the Minister, but I hope that we can bear that in mind when we are looking at how we treat people with Down’s.

Alex Norris

I am grateful for that intervention. Members on both sides of the House share a commitment and an ambition to make significant advances in the mental health of the British people. We know that there are barriers for people with the most profound physical health conditions because, traditionally, we have not looked beyond those conditions to evaluate the mental health aspect. I hope that the Bill is a good opportunity to do that.

On housing, we know that with the right support, people with Down’s syndrome can live semi-independently, so we must make sure that the right type of housing, sensitive to need, is available and distributed across the country. Has the Minister made a baseline assessment of where we are and what we might need to do better?

Hon. Members have made important points about education. At the risk of repeating more of what the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington said, the points about education, health and care plans were well made and I hope that they were heard. I took from his contribution that they cannot be pro forma exercises; they must be individual exercises that meet individual needs. That is the purpose of having them.

Linked to that, on employment, only 6% of people with a learning disability in this country are in employment. We should aspire to do much better. Work gives purpose, independence and dignity, and is part of the collective investment that we make in each other. Our ambition is for everybody to be in work who can be, irrespective of their challenges. We need a full strategic plan on the active steps that we can take to show employers the benefits of hiring staff with learning disabilities and the support that can be offered to help to facilitate that. It is important to understand that it is a win-win because, as global studies show, workplaces hiring employees who live with Down’s syndrome are happy and productive.

The right hon. Member for North Somerset made the point about redress, which is an important and live conversation in this country. To read across, if I may, to the Cumberlege report and the impact of sodium valproate and Primodos on children who are born having been exposed to them, those families still cannot get redress—in many cases, many decades later—without an expensive, long and hard pursuit in the courts. That system is not working. The report recommended that a redress system be set up to avoid that, which has not happened as the Government have not accepted the recommendation. It should not be happening to them and it should not happen here, so I hope that, through the Bill, we can do better for people living with Down’s syndrome and for others.

Dr Fox

There is, of course, a great carrot for the Government in producing a workable redress system, which is that, if it is not fixed in this Chamber, it may be fixed in the other place. One way or another, however, I assure the hon. Gentleman that it will be fixed.

Alex Norris

I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that, although I am not sure that it was a carrot as much as a stick. However, I know that noble Lords will be taking the same interest in the Health and Care Bill, and I absolutely share his confidence in that sense.

To finish, I look forward to seeing this Bill in its next stages, and we want gains to be made in the four areas in the schedule to the Bill. I would make the very important concluding point that, particularly in relation to local authorities, social care is distressed and under-invested in in this country, so if there are new responsibilities, there must be new investment to come with that. We will continue to make such points at future stages. This requires Government commitment, and it is good that we are hearing that today, but also the resources to sit behind it, and I hope we hear that, too.

November 27, 2021
Nick Fletcher – 2021 Speech on Down Syndrome

The speech made by Nick Fletcher, the Conservative MP for Don Valley, in the House of Commons on 26 November 2021.

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Tom Randall) and to be in the Chamber for my first sitting Friday. It is a completely different experience—it is lovely to see the House being so collegiate—and it is fantastic to be supporting the Bill from my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox). Few private Members’ Bills receive so much support and the fact that this Bill has done so is testament to how welcome it is. I have met some of the fantastic families who have campaigned on this issue and I know that the Bill is the culmination of years of work.

Over the past few decades, we have seen significant progress in how we support those with disabilities to live fulfilling lives—notably, through the Equality Act 2010. However, the term “disabled people” refers to such a large and varied group that legislation for those with disabilities needs to be more targeted if it is going to address people’s individual needs. The Autism Act 2009 was a decade ago and it is time that we did the same for those with Down’s syndrome. This Bill will help people with Down’s syndrome and their families to receive public services that are suited to their needs in every interaction that they have with local and national government, from job-centres to social care.

One area where that is particularly relevant is in education. The Down Syndrome Bill will allow parents to choose the best school for their children—whether it is a mainstream school or a special needs school—because, wherever their child attends, the local authority will have to ensure that the education provided is adapted to their needs. As research suggests that children with Down’s syndrome have significantly better educational outcomes in mainstream schools, the Bill could have a transformative impact for some children.

Social care for people with Down’s syndrome is another area that will see a change because of this Bill. Although social care has often been in the news during the pandemic, the coverage has tended to focus on social care for older people. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of people who require social care are of working age and, especially in the case of people with Down’s syndrome, their needs are different from those of older people in care.

People with Down’s syndrome are living longer than ever, which is a wonderful thing, but it does not mean that a care home for a 75-year-old man with dementia is suitable for a 45-year-old woman with Down’s syndrome. I am therefore pleased that, under the Bill, people with Down’s syndrome will be entitled to age-appropriate social care.

The Bill will not solve all the challenges faced by people with Down’s syndrome when interacting with Government bodies, but it will hopefully be a step forward that leads to a marked improvement on the present situation. Once again, I commend my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset for introducing the Bill.

November 27, 2021