Transcripts For BBCNEWS Tuesday In Parliament 20200205

Now on bbc news, tuesday in parliament. Hello there and welcome to tuesday in parliament. On this programme, a minister apologises to victims ofjailed Breast Cancer surgeon ian paterson, as a report is published into how he botched treatments and operated on patients who werent ill. Their testimony in this report makes harrowing, appalling reading. The government defends the latest delay to the roll out of universal credit. But labour attacks ministers handling of the changeover. At that rate, it would take this government more than 380 years to complete its pilot of managed migration. And peers are told sub postmasters wrongly accused of fraud may only get a tiny amount of the compensation they won in a recent court case. It may indeed be around £12 million of the £60 million, in itself a shocking realisation. But first, the government has apologised to the victims of the Breast Cancer surgeon ian paterson. Hes serving a 20 yearjail term after carrying out unnecessary and botched operations on hundreds of patients. The disgraced surgeon worked at nhs and private hospitals in the West Midlands for m years. He carried out procedures in which some breast tissue was left behind, meaning the disease returned, whilst other patients had surgery they didnt need some even finding out years later they did not have cancer. An inquiry chaired by the bishop of norwich identified multiple individual and organisational failures. The report contains a shocking and sobering analysis of the circumstances surrounding ian patersons malpractice. The report set out the failures in the nhs and private sectors, as a result of which she said patients had suffered unnecessary harm. Their testimony in this report makes harrowing, appalling reading. As such, it is with deep regret that we acknowledge the failure of the entire Health Care System to protect patients from ian patersons malpractice and to remedy the harms. Nothing i can say today, madam deputy speaker, can lessen the horrendous suffering that patients and their families experienced and continue to go through. I can only start to imagine the sense of violation and betrayal of patients who put their trust in ian paterson when they were at their most vulnerable. And i apologise on behalf of the government and the nhs for what happened not least that ian paterson was able to practice unchecked for so long. Well, the minister paid tribute to victims whod told their stories to the inquiry. She said thered been a catalogue of failings that led to thousands of patients being harmed. Some of them were let down countless times. And Nadine Dorries promised the government would look at the reports recommendations in detail. The shadow secretary of state agreed the findings were shocking and harrowing. A cancer diagnosis is frightening. And when we hand ourselves over, or hand a loved one over, to the care of a medical professional, we are literally trusting them with our lives. For that trust to be callously betrayed for financial gain, i believe is unforgivable and indeed as it has been found criminal. This report must not remain on a shelf to be forgotten because the report is clear. This wasntjust the action of one rogue lone surgeon, but systemic organisational failures were at fault as well. And fundamentally, its time we address the question of safety in private Health Care Providers and the way in which clinicians are able to operate in private providers with little oversight. Paterson worked under the so called practising privileges model, effectively as a self employed contractor, where he would get a fee on top of your nhs salary for each funded nhs operation carried out in the private sector. And moreover, private hospitals would often and still often incentivize referrals from consultants by giving them, for example, shares in those private hospitals. I believe this model creates financial incentives to distort clinical Decision Making and can lead to overtreatment, as we have seen in the paterson case. The snps Health Spokesperson used to be a Breast Cancer surgeon. She described the case as heartbreaking. It went on over 14 years, and i think it does again highlight a failure to listen to people who raised concerns early on in this scandal and the fact that there was a power differential between paterson and other people who were raising concerns. I think it should have been striking that he had such a higher rate of surgery among the private patients he saw than among the nhs patients, and the fact is that his practice was not being looked at within nhs quality audits that might have shown that up. Scores of women and their families in solihull have been dramatically affected by paterson, who chose, i think, for wont of a better word, to experiment on his patients, seemingly for personal profit, ruining and shortening lives. They want to know this can never happen again. Julian knight. Now, a minister has accused Opposition Mps of scaremongering about universal credit as he defended plans to delay the full roll out of the benefit to september 202a. But labour and the snp insisted that universal credit was causing hardship for their constituents. 0ur forecasts to date have relied on 50,000 households experiencing a change in circumstances each month. Based on this, we had predicted the process of natural migration across to universal credit would be completed by december 2023. However, information collected on changes to peoples circumstances suggests that natural migration is happening less frequently than we expected. This suggests broad stability in peoples lives and can be attributed to a number of reasons, including the robustness of the labour market. The bbc, which has made a documentary about universal credit, revealed the delay on monday. This is a uk government that still has no respect for this house. They let the bbc announced this delay as part of a news trail for their documentary which is being aired tonight, without a written ministerial statement. I did not see that, so i would like the minister to inform the house of where that was. And he thought the work and pensions secretary, therese coffey, should have been there to answer questions. Quotes from the documentary seem to suggest that this decision was taken by a senior official and not the secretary of state. Has she abandoned Decision Making oversight . When did she sanction this decision . And perhaps the reason for no oral ministerial statement, mr speaker, was that she only found out last night like the rest of us. What an absolute shambles. This is hugely embarrassing for the government. Yet again, it has had to delay what is meant to be its flagship Social Security policy. Last week, the minister told this house that it had only managed to process less than 80 households since july, as part of what is meant to be a pilot of up to 10,000 households. And of those, only around 13 households are transferred to universal credit. At that rate, it would take this government more than 380 years to complete its pilot of managed migration. Universal credit was supposed to make work pay. Instead, its caused misery for thousands across the country. It seems from yesterdays report that senior Civil Servants think that people are too scared to transfer to universal credit. I will never be embarrassed for putting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our society first, and neither will this government. And the honourable lady talks about cost. But as ive said, mr speaker, this is up to £500 million additional which will go into the pockets of our claimants. The honourable lady refers to the pilot but she is conflating two very separate issues. And when she says, mr speaker, that people are scared, perhaps if the Party Opposite desisted with the scaremongering and actually spent more time in ourjob centres speaking to work coaches, theyd have a better understanding of universal credit and how well its working. When i visited myjob centre, which, contrary to some of the suggestions from the other side, has had full roll out of universal credit since october 2017, i found that the work coaches were incredibly positive about the transformational help that was given to their clients. Does the minister agree that the problem is the constant scaremongering and frankly, the muddle from the opposition benches that, first, they want to scrap it, then they want to pause it . Who knows what they would do . Another conservative welcomed the delay but still had concerns. But can i ask the minister to have serious consideration to getting rid of the five week wait . Notwithstanding the answer he gave to the honourable lady on the other side of the chamber. Because my experience is it is causing very serious challenges to my constituents. Well, i thank my honourable friend for his question and the instructive nature by which he put it. Constructive. I do have to respectfully disagree with my honourable friend. There is no five week wait. People are able to access their advance on day one. On my election to this place, i was a universal credit claimant as a single parent. I ask the minister to scrap the five week wait and stop plunging ha rd working families and individuals into further debt by having to avail of a loan from the dwp . Well, i thank the honourable gentleman for his question, and i would suggest he very strongly should visit his localjob centre because he would have a better understanding. And, mrspeaker. Jeering will quince, being heckled by snp mps. Now, mps have approved the final stages of a bill putting a conservative manifesto commitment to increase nhs funding into law. The bill commits ministers to raise investment in the Health Service in the years to 202k. The government says this will result in a near £34 billion increase in cash terms, taking total nhs england spending to {148. 5 billion. Labour wanted the government to be clear on how much of that money was being spent on Mental Health. No doubt we will hear from the benches opposite that Mental Health spending is increasing and the funding set out in this bill will benefit mental Health Services, but the reality is that on this governments watch, we have seen a Mental Health crisis emerge. Theyre not getting the investment at the level required and the services are simply unable to keep pace with demand. As a consequence, we are seeing the number of People Living with serious Mental Health problems rising. The former Health Secretary and newly elected chair of the Commons Health Committee Said the problem was not lack of political will but a lack of capacity for example, making enough experts available to help children with Mental Health problems. Butjeremy hunt focussed his speech on the culture of cover ups around medical negligence, arguing it was time to start learning lessons from mistakes. Twice a week in the nhs, the Health Secretary has to sign off a multi Million Pound settlement to a family whose child has been disabled for life as a result of medical negligence. Twice a week. And whats even more depressing is that theres no discernible evidence that that number is going down. And the reason for that is because when these tragedies happen, instead of doing the most important thing, which is learning the lesson of what went wrong and making sure that is spread throughout the whole country, you will end up in a six year legal case and its impossible. If a family has a child disabled at birth, they cannot get compensation from the nhs unless they prove in a court that a doctor was negligent. Well, obviously, a doctor is going to fight that, and so that is why we have still too much of a cover up culture. The nhs bill covers england and as such, snp mps werent able to vote on it. 0ne didnt think that was fair and had put down an amendment to the legislation. But he was secretary of state. And surely he understands and appreciates that this bill has a Significant Impact on scotland. This will affect our budget. Does he think its right that we are therefore excluded from consenting amendments to this bill and voting on this bill . Well, i do, because this is about the nhs in england and that is what this bill is. What i should say to them is it would be nice if we occasionally had a word of thanks because, because of this bill, theres going to be a lot more money available. Jeremy hunt. Youre watching tuesday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. Borisjohnson has vowed to urgently tackle the Climate Crisis as he launched a global summit in the wake of a blistering attack on his record by the events sacked president. The Prime Minister refused to answer questions about who will replace the former clean growth minister claire 0neill as president of the un cop26 summit in glasgow. Ms 0neill said the pm had not convened the cabinet subcommittee on Climate Change that he had promised and the government was miles off track in setting a positive agenda for the november summit. She also claimed promises of action were not close to being met. An snp mp raised the row. This morning the now sacked president of cop26 to the Prime Minister has shown a huge lack of leadership and engagement and is not really understand Climate Change which has led to the uk being miles off slowly from what we need to be. Now rumours are flying around suggesting the government is planning to shift cop26 from glasgow to an english location. What on earth is the public supposed to make of this shambles . She wont need to wait long because today the Prime Minister is launching the detail of our approach to cop26 where we will lead in bringing the will to tackle of the global challenges of our age. But a labour frontbencher argued recent government actions didnt seem to show a shift to going green. The reality is that more than 90 of the £2 billion of investment in energy deals agree that the uk african trade summit were committed to new drilling for oil and gas kebab orfossilfuels. And none of that was mentioned in the Government Press release which instead focused on the paltry figures of investment in solar power. So does the minister not accept that she is part of a government that talks the talk on Climate Change but never walks the walk. They make symbolic news on the dress up front but will never take any global lead. Worst of all, they refuse to stand up to the climate denier in chief donald trump. Does the minister not realise in the face of this climate emergency, we no longer have time for cowardice . Well, shall i be succinct . We recognise the country will continue to need to use a mixture of Energy Sources as part of the transition towards a low carb and sustainable economy including Renewable Energy and low carbon fossil fuel such as natural gas and am afraid the lady is making too much here today. Heather wheeler. The government has said that sub postmasters wrongly accused of fraud will only get get a small proportion of the compensation theyve been awarded. More than 550 former post Office Workers were given nearly £60 million in an out of Court Settlement that ended a 20 year fight for justice. Faults with an Accounting System created shortfalls in branch accounts, leading to workers being wrongly convicted of theft. Many were jailed. But in the lords, it emerged that most of the money wont reach the sub postmasters. My understanding is unlike many other cases, the legal fees are one of the reasons for the settlement has to come out of that 60 million and i am not clear how much the sub postmasters themselves will be receiving so some clarification on that would be very welcome to all. Simple answer to that question is not enough. The reality is perhaps only a fraction of the money which was one in the court case will end up in the pockets of the sub postmasters and may indeed be around £12 million of 60 million and that is a shocking realisation. That unfortunately is the answer to your question. This is a shocking story of obfuscation, cover and downright abuse of sub postmasters. The face of arguably the most trusted brand in this country by the most senior people running it. And yet they were able to do this because they had the power to conduct their own prosecutions with no independent assessment of the case for the defence or the prosecution. How can such organisation possibly conduct its own prosecutions when it cannot command the trust of the courts or indeed of the country . My noble friend raises challenging points. The first i must stress is that the leadership of the post office got it wrong, got it very badly wrong and as a consequence of those ashes people have experienced unfortunate situations. That has changed. There has been a change in culture, a new chief executive and a recognition that the old ways of doing things cannot go on. As a minister responsible for this at the time, i was very uneasy because it involved claims of dishonesty by apparently honest citizens. And i therefore advise the post office to take outside Legal Council to try and get at the truth. Now we have reached the present stage. What arrangements for compensation have or are still being or will be made to those affected . My noble friend is right to draw attention to this. There is a settlement of nearly 60 million as my honourable friend set at the outset which will be for those who brought the class action itself. There will also need to be individual criminal examinations for those whove experienced the sharpest end of the law and cannot comment on these matters but i know how important they are to bring justice required. There was a large Corporate Organisation can always point to the fact that it changed its ways and things are better in the future. For some people, they have lost their lives. 12 about compensation does not seem enough in fact, note deposition with seminar. It is the minister satisfied that these people it is the minister satisfied that these people are due getting to recompense . I dont think those who have lost their lives could possibly get do recompense through this process of matter what the answer would have been both of the situation is very clear that during a certificate period in the history of the post office, wrongdoing took place, they got it wrong and admitted that this is changing now to try and bring about and i dont believe we can compensate for those who lost their lives. Lord duncan. The government has defended excluding some journalists from a downing street briefing on europe. On monday, a group of reporters walked out of number ten after other journalists who hadnt been invited were turned away. The Cabinet Office minister chloe smith told mps it was entirely Standard Practice to host what she called additional, technical, specialist briefings. But her defence prompted ridicule from Opposition Mps. This government, mr speaker, is committed to being open in its dealings with the press and to the principles of media freedom. And the events of yesterday were a very good example of this. Laughter. She said the Prime Ministers official spokesperson had briefed journalists as normal on monday. It is entirely Standard Practice for the government to host additional technical specialist briefings, as was the case yesterday. This particular briefing, which the media has reported on, was a smaller meeting due to be held by a special adviser in order to improve the understanding of the governments negotiating aims for the future relationship. But labour said it was vital to democracy that accredited journalists were given access to briefings without favour. Yesterday, certain publications were barred from a briefing on future trade deals with david frost, the Prime Ministers adviser on europe. Now, according to reports, when journalists from other news outlets arrived, the Prime Ministers director of communications, as a special adviser, said that those invited to the briefing can stay. Everyone else, im afraid, will have to leave. When challenged, he said, we are welcome to brief whoever we like whenever we like. So, can she tell us who decided which journalists could attend, what was the selection criteria, and if that decision was made by a special adviser, are they in violation of both the code of conduct of special advisers and the Civil Service code . A conservative said things were worse under tony blairs former adviser. They dont think anything has happened so far that matches what Alastair Campbell did in trying to get political editors sacked and saying they wouldnt co operate at all. I do believe it would be sensible for the government to consider having a talk to the senior political editors who did walk out and see if theres a way of getting over this problem and resolving it. Could ijust say to the honourable lady, that is a woeful and desperate. It would make comical alley look like a Pulitzer Prize winner. Yesterday was a black day for press freedom. And no amount of unjustified nonsense from the honourable lady is going to get her off the trumpian hook. The next thing the Prime Minister will talk about fake news and banning broadcasters but he already has house sinister can it get . I agree with the father of the house needs to be improvements to the system, does my honourable friend agree that what were seeing here is some fake outrage at a mass outbreak of snowfla kery. There is a serious issue here which is every political generation in government always loves to try and avoid scrutiny if they possibly can and its a job of this house to try and make sure they dont get away with it. So all the what about tery in the world will not stop us complaining when you see a clear pattern of the Prime Minister running his leadership campaign, running his general Election Campaign and are running the government in a way that is trying to avoid scrutiny. Im sure in private the minister would agree. This is simply barking up the wrong tree again. The government is ensuring it is open for scrutiny. The foreign secretary stood here yesterday and took scores of questions on the very same subject matter. He was again out on Television Shows on sunday, the chief secretary of the treasures in a number of programmes are sedate in the chancellor and duchess of lancaster this morning in the home secretary of this morning and the Prime Minister himself taking many questions on the subject matter in hand. Yesterday. Nobody is hiding from scrutiny. Chloe smith. Now, somalia has declared a National Emergency as large swarms of locusts spread across east africa. The insects consume large amounts of vegetation, posing a major threat to somalias fragile food security. There are fears that the situation may not be brought under control before the harvest begins in april. The un says the swarms are the largest in somalia and ethiopia in 25 years. The issue was raised in the lords by a bishop. Its perhaps appropriate that its a member of these benches whos raising issues about plagues of locusts. But, in fact, we are facing a humanitarian crisis which is unraveling in front of us. In some parts of ethiopia, 90 of the crops have already gone, 20 Million People facing no food. The un said last thursday, we need 76 million now to begin to address the problems. Could the noble baroness tell us what her majestys government is doing firstly to ensure that, if its required, theres immediate food aid and, secondly, longer term that we are going to ensure theres going to be seed for next years crops, to ensure that people will have security. 0ur existing humanitarian Development Programming is working in the region to address Food Insecurity and, indeed, poverty challenges. And we are ready to flex in response to this crisis. The right reverend also spoke about the 76 million appeal in order to help curb the spread of locusts. There is still around a £40 million gap in that fund despite their recent contributions from germany, from echo and others. Uk aid is helping to tackle the outbreak through our funding to the Un Central Emergency Response Fund but we are considering the case for additional support. Lady sugg. And thats it from me for now, but dojoin me on Bbc Parliament on wednesday night at 11pm for another round up of the day here at westminster, including the highlights from Prime Ministers questions. But for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. Hello. The difference in the weather for the uk between the start and end of this week almost couldnt be more different. Keeping a come at the moment this area of high pressure. Just picking up a little bit more pressure on the western side of the high with the wind coming round the top of it from the atlantic. And through wednesday that moisture will ta ke through wednesday that moisture will take the form of cloud. Slightly more overcast skies at times for Northern Ireland in western scotland. A few showers possible in the north and west. The risk of some fog through eastern wales into the midlands, they could linger one or two spots. Generally bright if not only from wednesday with light winds and temperatures at seven or eight degrees. 0vernight wednesday into thursday, the high still with us, the breeze are still very light full a bit more cloud to the north of the uk. A little bit milder thanks to that feed off the atlantic. So the core of our frost further south across wales into the midlands, but it could be frosty just about anywhere. These are our temperatures for the towns and cities, always chillier as we head out into rural parts. The high still with us on thursday. Just drifting a little further eastwards. That may mean on thursday the breeze in the west picks up a touch. That could be good news in terms of breaking up the cloud for Northern Ireland and western scotland through the day. Again though, a lot of fun with around, could be some early fog, could stick on one or two places. Generally dry and bright prospects come. Temperatures habs down on today, six and seven the there is a intifada, through friday things do start to get moving come the afternoon. Second part of the day, afternoon. Second part of the day, after a chilly start, especially in the east, with a westerly or south westerly wind, maybe to alphonse, for the irish sea by the end of the day. Shower was first and then our first weather front starts to approach and that is the first sign of things getting very mobile from the atlantic as we look towards the weekend. Basically, ourjet strea m the weekend. Basically, ourjet stream will plant from right the way across north america into the uk for the weekend ahead. That means we are likely to feed in some very powerful lows, the exact positioning remains open to question, but tightly packed i suppose, widespread gales, its going to get stormy. Isobars. This is the briefing im sally bundock. Our top story madam speaker the president of the united states. Donald trump gives his state of the Union Address taking credit for what he calls the Great American comeback. I say to the people of our great country, and to the members of congress, the state of our union is stronger than ever before. This was the Immediate Response from Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up a speech democrats say was full of lies. We cannot forget that, despite the dishonesty