Speeches by Stephenson.

“6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Government policies on the economy in Northern Ireland.”

“The hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) mentioned the potential introduction of the lynx as an apex predator, but active deer management is already under way in my constituency through culling. Do the Government have a preference on culling versus introducing an apex predator, or a combination of the two? What thought…”

“It a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. It is also a pleasure to follow my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer). I congratulate another constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Milton Keynes North (Chris Curtis), on securing this important debate …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy, on my first outing on behalf of His Majesty’s official Opposition. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) on securing this important debate, and I join Members who have welcomed the work of Sir Jon Cunliffe. I thank local action gro…”

“I do not have a hospital in Mid Bedfordshire—if you want to build a new one, you know where to come. My constituents rely on the hospital in Milton Keynes, which I will not ask about, for the reasons we discussed earlier, but also Bedford hospital and Luton and Dunstable hospital. Between the two of them, they have a m…”

“Yes. That brings me to my final question. I think that what is important is the quality of life of all our constituents. Taking it as a whole, stepping outside of the dashboards, metrics and performance measures, how do you as NHS England ensure that you are really focused on our constituents’ quality of life?”

“In that example, which is my ICB area, what would you do to improve performance in that scenario?”

“How do you know when to intervene? For example, just 10% of those aged over 65 in the area of the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB, which serves my constituents, were assessed for frailty in 2024-25. That sounds like a very low number. I am sure that you will know where that sits compared with other ICB areas.…”

“Recognising those challenges—and I do recognise them—without setting targets or monitoring compliance in a specific way towards frailty, how can you know whether patients are getting the services to which they are entitled? I suspect it is a complicated answer.”

“GPs are contractually responsible for identifying and supporting people with frailty. Of course, those contracts are costing us all a great deal of money. So why does NHS England not set performance targets for GPs to identify and provide support to people with moderate or severe frailty? I think this is probably a que…”

“This is the final set of questions. You will be aware that some hospital trusts have raised concerns about the new design perhaps being more expensive to run than existing hospitals. Can you walk us through how you are addressing NHS trusts’ concerns that the new hospitals will be more expensive to run? This might be o…”

“Do you have anything further to add, Paul?”

“For those of us who do not work in this industry, can you explain how you expect it to level out over time? For me, if you have a hospital with 500 beds, you always have a hospital with 500 beds. How does the staffing level out so you can get better value over the long run?”

“I have a feeling that Anna may want to come in with a question.”

“I found the NAO Report very troubling, and I just want to explain why. I spent 15 years in financial services before I came into Parliament, and had a financial services firm received such a report as this from its auditor, it would need to report it to the FCA, and the firm would be dragged over the coals and more lik…”

“What about the Environment Agency?”

“And Natural England?”

“I think we agree that significant improvement is required. Paul, could you walk us through your view on what a good strategic approach to regulation ought to be? You are new to the role and have been looking at this with a fresh pair of eyes. Where do you want to get to and when?”

“Finally, there is an awful lot going on, and what you have described is quite ambitious given where you are at the moment. How are we going to hold you to account? At what point are you going to be happy that you have delivered those things? More crucially, how are you going to get off the starting line? You are in thi…”

“Like quite a few members of the Committee, I represent a rural constituency. We have a lot of villages that are not connected to our towns, and a lot of elderly people who need to get to appointments. There are also a lot of children with special education needs and disabilities who get to school via taxis. Does my hon…”