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Adjournment debate on Thursday, 22 February 2007, in the House of Commons, led by Caroline Flint. The answering member was Andrew Murrison.

Public Health (England)

Debate on a motion for the adjournment on public health (Relevant document: the progress report, ““Health Challenge England—next steps for Choosing Health””, published by the Department of Health in October 2006.)

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
457 c461-514 
Session
2006-07
Department
Department of Health
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Howard Stoate | 457 c463 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way at this early stage. She has been generous with her t...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 457 c462 (Link to this contribution) I am listening intently to the hon. Lady. Before she gets too rhapsodic in her oratory, perhaps she ...
Show all contributions (109)
Caroline Flint | 457 c462 (Link to this contribution) We have seen a growth in the number of people working in health improvement. That is not to say that...
Kevin Barron | 457 c462 (Link to this contribution) In relation to the intervention by the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison), perhaps we should ju...
Caroline Flint | 457 c462 (Link to this contribution) I agree totally with my right hon. Friend. In a number of areas—tobacco control, the ban on advertis...
Caroline Flint | 457 c462 (Link to this contribution) I will make a little more progress. I will be happy to give way at a later opportunity. Today, indi...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c461-2 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way at this early stage. She referred to our apparent oppo...
Caroline Flint | 457 c462 (Link to this contribution) For 18 years, the Conservative party had the opportunity to bring legislation in. It failed to do so...
Caroline Flint | 457 c461 (Link to this contribution) It is a mark of the progress that this Government have made in safeguarding the nation’s health that...
David Evennett | 457 c465 (Link to this contribution) The Minister highlighted consensus, and that is the most important thing. There must be consensus in...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 457 c466 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for giving way; she is being very generous in taking interventions. Conservativ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c463 (Link to this contribution) I will shortly. I have given way quite considerably in the last few minutes. Today individuals have...
Laura Moffatt | 457 c463 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend the Minister recall a recent visit she made to Crawley, during which she looked ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c464 (Link to this contribution) I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend; not all parents need such classes, but some do. That is ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c463 (Link to this contribution) I agree. We are the first Government to say plainly that health inequalities are a real problem and ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c466-7 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes some pertinent points. Better management of, and timing of the hours of, licens...
Howard Stoate | 457 c466 (Link to this contribution) In my area we have not 24-hour drinking but flexible hours, which have reduced town centre disorder ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c466 (Link to this contribution) Very few establishments have 24-hour drinking licences. It is interesting to note that Opposition Me...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c475-6 (Link to this contribution) We would like funding to follow the burden of disease, because that is what the NHS is for—sorting o...
Kitty Ussher | 457 c475 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way a second time. The Government have changed the fu...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c476 (Link to this contribution) We could perhaps start with smoking—we talked a bit about smoking, and we will talk about it more—an...
Howard Stoate | 457 c476 (Link to this contribution) We are genuinely having a good debate, and that is welcome. The problem with public health is that i...
Kitty Ussher | 457 c475 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman mentions anecdotal evidence, but I know that the factual evidence from my constit...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c475 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure about anecdotal evidence. I will discuss evidence-based public health shortly, so if t...
Howard Stoate | 457 c475 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is generous in giving way, and I genuinely wish to have a grown-up debate on the ...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c475 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman will allow me, I will come on to that. What he says about obesity is quite rig...
Caroline Flint | 457 c474 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman reads Hansard he will see that I referred to the restriction on advertising to...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c474 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for her intervention. She has at least put that on the record, but I t...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c478-80 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, but I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman. The rate of HIV infection here is 1.6 ti...
Lord Wills | 457 c478 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Andrew Murrison | 457 c477 (Link to this contribution) I am not going to give way to the hon. Lady for a little while, although I promise to do so if I hav...
Fiona Mactaggart | 457 c477 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman did not attend a meeting earlier this week at which Professor Mike Richards said ...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c476 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister, and I shall come on to discuss the agency’s work on alcohol. I shou...
Caroline Flint | 457 c476 (Link to this contribution) Of course, I pretty much know what the National Treatment Agency does. It is responsible for support...
John Pugh | 457 c490-1 (Link to this contribution) I cannot comment as I have no direct knowledge of that, but I will deal with the issue of school mea...
Diana Johnson | 457 c493-4 (Link to this contribution) With the greatest respect, the hon. Gentleman misunderstands my point. Also, I am concerned that my ...
Graham Stuart | 457 c492 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the hon. Lady could lend her support to the campaign of people in the East Riding a...
Speaker | 457 c488 (Link to this contribution) Order. Hon. Members do not seem to have taken any account of the fact that there is very little time...
Kevin Barron | 457 c488 (Link to this contribution) Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. Before the latest—let me call it the last—reorganisation of...
Diana Johnson | 457 c489-90 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman therefore comment on a proposal in my constituency of Hull? To deal with chi...
John Pugh | 457 c488-9 (Link to this contribution) I shall be relatively brief and I also hope to be a little more reflective and consensual than some ...
Kevin Barron | 457 c487 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend, sadly, is absolutely right; however, he needs to take that issue up with the Opposit...
Bob Blizzard | 457 c501-2 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Mr. Evennett). Many years a...
David Evennett | 457 c499-501 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry that the Minister finds everything so amusing, but I am afraid that cuts are being made i...
David Evennett | 457 c499 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to follow my neighbour, the hon. Member for Dartford (Dr. Stoate). Although I do not of...
Howard Stoate | 457 c498 (Link to this contribution) That is a point for debate. As I recall, there was no public health Minister in the Conservative Gov...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c498 (Link to this contribution) I covered that in my speech. Can the hon. Gentleman tell me what happened to the Acheson report of 1...
Howard Stoate | 457 c498 (Link to this contribution) It is interesting that it should be me who draws out Tory policy, because Opposition Members did not...
John Baron | 457 c498 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) made that point.
David Amess | 457 c495-7 (Link to this contribution) I suppose that any debate on public health will be wide-ranging, and this one certainly has been. In...
Kevin Barron | 457 c483-4 (Link to this contribution) Labour MPs had a free vote. Indeed, the hon. Gentleman and other Opposition Members put their names ...
Graham Stuart | 457 c484 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman says that it is difficult for Government to bring about behavioural change....
Andrew Murrison | 457 c480 (Link to this contribution) We look forward to those that are planned. I am sure that Anita Roddick, who, as I say, has been ext...
Caroline Flint | 457 c480 (Link to this contribution) The rubbish that I was referring to was the idea that we have just thought of our campaign on hepati...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c481-2 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. He will be aware that a few days ago the s...
Howard Stoate | 457 c481 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way again. He knows that I share his worry about AAA;...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c482 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman; he arrived late, and he did not hear the Minister’s o...
Lord Wills | 457 c482 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mike Penning | 457 c483 (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether the right hon. Gentleman noticed that when we voted on the smoking ban—and I j...
Kevin Barron | 457 c482-3 (Link to this contribution) In answer to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison), I hope that his Front-Bench colleagues wil...
Howard Stoate | 457 c487 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend not agree that it is very difficult to have a grown-up debate on these iss...
Kevin Barron | 457 c486 (Link to this contribution) That is the very point that I was about to move on to; I was going to end my remarks by discussing i...
Kevin Barron | 457 c485-6 (Link to this contribution) Well, let us look not at Dickens but—the hon. Gentleman will love this—at Frederick Engels, who look...
Kevin Barron | 457 c487 (Link to this contribution) They are widening now because there are greater opportunities. Those who are able, and have always h...
John Baron | 457 c487 (Link to this contribution) They were not as wide then as they are now.
Kevin Barron | 457 c487 (Link to this contribution) In health terms, the low paid and the public in general have been better off in the past decade than...
John Baron | 457 c487 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. He is talking in absolutes. From what he is saying,...
Kevin Barron | 457 c484-5 (Link to this contribution) I do not know about sexual health campaigns, but more investment certainly needs to be put into sexu...
Charles Walker | 457 c504 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to wrap up the Back-Bench contributions in this extr...
Mike Penning | 457 c504 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who has a short allowance of time, for giving way. Those cuts in lo...
Charles Walker | 457 c502 (Link to this contribution) As someone who has lost 2½ stone over the past three months, I know that the hon. Gentleman is right...
Bob Blizzard | 457 c502-4 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his achievement. It is nice to know that we agree on that anywa...
Charles Walker | 457 c506 (Link to this contribution) I do not represent a rural community, but I imagine that that would be of huge concern to those comm...
John Baron | 457 c506-9 (Link to this contribution) The debate has been interesting, although perhaps a little too party political in certain respects. ...
Graham Stuart | 457 c505 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether I may, through my hon. Friend, put a point to the Minister. There are large, increa...
Graham Stuart | 457 c509 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friend has described, there has been an explosion in sexual infections across the country...
John Baron | 457 c509-11 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. I hope that we shall hear some positive noises from the Minister about ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c511-4 (Link to this contribution) We have had a wide-ranging debate, which demonstrates the breadth and scale of the challenges we fac...
Caroline Flint | 457 c468 (Link to this contribution) I very much congratulate Slough on those efforts and I congratulate my hon. Friend on her championin...
Fiona Mactaggart | 457 c468 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating health authorities in Slough where teenage pregnancies...
Caroline Flint | 457 c467-8 (Link to this contribution) I understand the point that my hon. Friend makes and, together with local authorities and environmen...
Bob Blizzard | 457 c467 (Link to this contribution) I very much welcome the smoking ban, but does my hon. Friend share my concern that we will end up wi...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c469 (Link to this contribution) This is an important point of debate. Given the argument that the Minister is pursuing, why is the N...
Caroline Flint | 457 c469 (Link to this contribution) To be fair, I have taken a good number of interventions and I will come on to that issue shortly. I ...
John Baron | 457 c468 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for giving way, but she has already spoken for 25 minutes. In further response ...
John Baron | 457 c471 (Link to this contribution) Although I agree with some of the points that the Minister makes, the simple fact is that the Govern...
Caroline Flint | 457 c469-71 (Link to this contribution) As a Minister in the Home Office, I was responsible for the national drugs strategy. Now, at the Dep...
Fiona Mactaggart | 457 c472 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right to recognise that some things can be done nationally, while others can be do...
Caroline Flint | 457 c471-2 (Link to this contribution) It would be nice if every time there were a general election, we could start with a blank piece of p...
Howard Stoate | 457 c472 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that my hon. Friend agrees that we need a grown-up debate on this issue, instead of just s...
Caroline Flint | 457 c472 (Link to this contribution) I commend Slough for its approach. That adds to what I have been saying. We know that there are ofte...
John Pugh | 457 c473 (Link to this contribution) Research that came out yesterday suggested that we had the most obese women in Europe and almost the...
Caroline Flint | 457 c472-3 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree. The situation has developed over at least the past 50 years. The problem cannot ...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c474 (Link to this contribution) I wonder what our constituents will make of the complacency that is evident in the Minister’s remark...
Caroline Flint | 457 c473-4 (Link to this contribution) As I said, the Mediterranean diet that people have in certain parts of Europe, which is probably con...
Diana Johnson | 457 c491-2 (Link to this contribution) I was really disappointed in the comments made by the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison). They ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c488 (Link to this contribution) Is my right hon. Friend aware that following the primary care trust reorganisation, more than 70 per...
Lord Wills | 457 c486 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way, and I am glad that he is not quite as anxious ...
Caroline Flint | 457 c465-6 (Link to this contribution) That is clearly so, and I can give the hon. Gentleman many examples of such consensus. I have not ev...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c478 (Link to this contribution) I must make progress. The Department of Health likes to cite 150 lives saved from coronary heart di...
Howard Stoate | 457 c497-8 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. I will keep my comments brief, as I know other colleague...
Charles Walker | 457 c505 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point. A paper published this month, entitled ““The future of health vi...
Caroline Flint | 457 c464-5 (Link to this contribution) I will attend to that issue later in my contribution, and I shall be happy to take an intervention f...
John Baron | 457 c464 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for giving way; she is being generous in taking interventions. In answer to the...
Andrew Murrison | 457 c477 (Link to this contribution) I was not at the meeting, but a friend who was there tells me that Cancer Research UK disputes that....
Subjects
Children Alcoholic drinks Disadvantaged Health services Finance Food Labelling Health education General practitioners NHS Primary care trusts Nutrition Staff Obesity Tobacco Smoking Teenage pregnancy Exercise Sexual and reproductive health Public health
Link
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