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Welsh Affairs

I agree with my hon. Friend. That is an excellent idea, and I hope we might look into it—perhaps the Secretary of State will take it up. The health service has been mentioned. I realise that the Secretary of State does not have any direct control over the health service, although I rather wish he did as I think he would do a much better job than any of the Welsh Assembly Members who currently have influence in that area. If he talks to the Health Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government, I hope he will take the opportunity to raise the issue of Tarceva. A constituent of mine has terminal lung cancer. If he lived in Scotland, or even in parts of England, he would be eligible to receive the anti-cancer drug Tarceva. I am told that, because of a discount given by Roche, it would be no more expensive to offer that than to offer some of the existing treatments, yet he has been turned down simply because of his postcode—simply because he lives in Wales. Surely the Secretary of State agrees that that is completely unacceptable? I hope that the Secretary of State will forgive me, but I will not be present for the wind-ups as I have a long-standing engagement with the Royal British Legion tonight, at which I shall talk about the military covenant. The armed forces are not a devolved matter, but I am sure he will take an interest in them in his role. In particular, I hope he will look at the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers, who are based in the town of Monmouth. A number of people from that fine regiment have been sent to Iraq to help with the rebuilding of that country. I know that Members have different views about whether it was a good thing to go into Iraq. Regardless of that, I think we all respect those who have put on a uniform and decided to serve their country in whatever capacity they are asked, and I should add that most of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers officers are involved in rebuilding work, and they are doing a fine job. What is most outstanding about them is that they are all Territorial Army soldiers; they are not full-time soldiers, but civilians who leave their homes and families for six months to do this. Yet despite that enormous contribution, the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers have been told that they can no longer recruit because of a cut to the TA funding budget across the whole of the United Kingdom. At a time when we have soldiers fighting a war on two fronts—in Afghanistan and in Iraq—and it appears that more Welsh soldiers might be asked to put their lives on the line in the former Yugoslavia, it is unfair that the Government are reducing funds to the TA. It is also worrying that it is difficult for a constituency Member to raise these matters directly with commanding officers as they are told not to discuss matters directly with Members of Parliament—in order to do that, they have to refer back to the Ministry of Defence and get all sorts of permissions, which can take a long time.