Speeches by Streeting.

“We are keen to address these sorts of issues through our workforce planning and to ensure that staff are working to the top of their licensing capability, always within the training provided. That way we can get the best possible value for taxpayer money and, most importantly of all, the best outcomes for patients.”

“It is not the case that none of the money is going to Cumbria. We are taking action to deal with the persistent overrunning and over-spending of NHS budgets, which was an intolerable situation that we had to get a grip on. We are investing £26 billion more in the NHS, and that will rise over the course of this Parliame…”

“I would be delighted to look at the issue that my hon. Friend raises. I am only sorry that I missed the party last week.”

“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about the timeliness of decision making and the need to release funding when it is allocated. I shall make sure that my Department looks into that, and write to him with an answer.”

“Thanks to the decision that the Chancellor has taken, spending power in social care is rising—not just through Department funding but in the spending power of local authorities. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: we have to get the right care in the right place at the right time. That often means better care for patie…”

“Yes, and that is why we are reforming the better care fund.”

“Under this Government, waiting lists have fallen by more than a quarter of a million in our first year, but strike action puts that hard-won progress at risk. If strikes do go ahead, we will do everything we can to minimise the disruption to patients, who will bear the brunt of cancellations. We continue to work with t…”

“Once again, the House is speaking with one voice, and I hope that the BMA understands the strength of feeling on both sides of the House about the unnecessary and irresponsible nature of the proposed strike action this week. Discussions in recent days have been constructive, and I hope that gives grounds for the postpo…”

“I should declare that I am a member of Unison. The issue that my hon. Friend raises is a serious one. We obviously do not want to see strike action impacting on her local constituents, and my Department will do everything we can to help bring an end to the dispute. I will make a more general point: these sorts of choic…”

“Some 85% of our shops come from supermarkets. I take the point you are making about the exceptions in some of the areas with the highest levels of deprivation, but I do not think that we should let the perfect be the enemy of the good—”

“The reporting and the target will be mandatory. We want to work with the industry to get it right; it is not in any of our interests for it to fail. But the data on the food and drink that we buy from supermarkets is already held by them—it is some of the best public health data in the world. They had already been call…”

“Over time, we want to see far less spent on the price of failure. Obesity costs the NHS £7.3 billion a year, alcohol £4.9 billion a year and tobacco still, despite all the progress we have made, £1.9 billion. Economic inactivity due to sickness costs £2 billion in the NHS and costs the economy, so you can see, right ac…”

“I am definitely not going to write the Budget for 10 years down the line.”

“I know the public finances are under pressure, which is why I was sensible enough to bring the Chancellor to the launch of the plan.”

“She is, yes, in the Budget and the spending review.”

“That is why investment needs to be matched with reform. The economic circumstances were very different for the last Labour Government. This is a Government who have to live within their means. However, as I have argued for some time, the NHS has become more bloated. There is waste in the NHS, and the last Government ar…”

“We will keep coming back to you as a Committee as well, but this comes back to the very first line of questioning: there is a way of doing this that is the imposition of change, or a way of doing this that is about taking people with you. On everything, from the new governance arrangements for the reinvigorated foundat…”

“Darzi centres, or polyclinics, as they were known, were effectively strangled at birth. There are still a few around, but it was a source of huge controversy at the time—for something that, as an approach, people agree is a good thing to do: neighbourhood health and population health at scale. That was certainly borne …”

“No, I have not gone that grey in this job yet. I think we said in response to the Chair that the shifts themselves are not new. Delivering them in practice, in this NHS, really would be. Lots of things in the plan are new: models, ways of working, and approaches to innovation, adoption and roll out. There are plenty of…”

“And that plan delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history, so it sounds like we are on the right track. But there is lots of stuff in the plan—”