Speeches by McIntyre.

“I think this is where I am meant to stand up and thank the Clerks, the Committee members, the Doorkeepers and Hansard—I know it has been a long and arduous process to get to this point. I look forward to the Bill’s further progress. I also thank you, Dr Murrison. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly to be repor…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. Many hon. Members will be aware of the blight of drugs on our streets. The recent and ongoing emergence of novel synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyls and nitazenes, poses a particular risk to public safety and public health, not least because of their…”

“I thank every hon. Member who contributed to this debate. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Minister and the Government for supporting the Bill. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North, who is a fierce campaigner in this area, for discussing mental health, drugs and related policy areas. The…”

“4. What steps she is taking to reduce the number of children in poverty in Gloucester.”

“The expansion of free school meals will massively help families in my constituency of Gloucester and take them out of poverty. Can the Secretary of State confirm how many more families in Gloucester will be eligible for free school meals under the Government’s expansion, and what steps is she taking with the Secretary …”

“Does the hon. Gentleman accept that the short answer for his response to the hon. Member for South Devon is no?”

“No.”

“I want to move on to the patient safety incident response framework. Is the Department satisfied that the framework is ensuring that incidents involving black women are properly identified, investigated and used to improve services?”

“That is very helpful.”

“Without wanting you to pre-empt something that is not yet published, will the workforce plan set out how we can increase the diversity of the workforce as we seek to increase numbers?”

“I have one final question, which is probably to ask Professor Shehata’s question. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists was working on the workforce planning tool, which is now sat with the Department, as we understand it. Where is the roll-out of that? When is it expected to be rolled out?”

“The evidence was quite clear from the first panel that morale was still pretty low.”

“The previous panel—you may have heard them as you joined at the back—referred repeatedly to burnout and retention of the workforce, in particular midwives. What is the Department doing to address that? We can recruit additional midwives, but, if we are losing them at the same time, it is really difficult to improve the…”

“What steps can the Department and NHS England take to improve morale?”

“Thank you very much for your answers so far. I am going to build on Sarah’s questions. It is very welcome to hear a Minister addressing the fact that there is institutional and structural racism within our health service, and particularly within maternity services. Having represented the NHS for a number of years, I kn…”

“Can you give a couple of examples of the practical steps within that framework?”

“During a recent Westminster Hall debate, Minister Ashley Dalton highlighted the role of leadership—we have touched upon that today—in tackling racism, and referred to the fact that all maternity and neonatal units in England had signed up to the perinatal cultural leadership programme. How is the Department monitoring …”

“I will move on quickly to workforce. As the MP for Gloucester, I am delighted that my local hospital has made really good progress recently on recruiting more midwives. We have a fully staffed maternity service. Could the Minister update us on the target to recruit an additional 1,000 midwives by 2026? Do we expect to …”

“Q Thank you, Minister, for your answers so far. We have had an awful lot of questions this afternoon from the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle about individuals who are avoiding judgment and avoiding taking responsibility for their actions. I am a new Member, but I understand that the measures in the Bill about askin…”

“I thank the Minister for his statement and for the support that he and his team have given my constituents and my team over the weekend. My city of Gloucester is in mourning for the loss of Akeel Nanabawa, Hannaa Vorajee and four-year-old Sara Nanabawa. I am sure the whole House will join us in sending our thoughts and…”