Speeches by Streeting.

“No, not particularly. I had been talking with Amanda Pritchard, as chief executive of NHS England, about the changes that we needed in the relationship between the Department and NHS England. That is why from day one Amanda and I sought to build a new culture, a one-team culture, which I think, to the credit of people …”

“Even as someone who has paid close attention to how the system is run and led as shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, I was quite surprised at the extent of the duplication that exists between the Department and NHS England. I was taken aback by the extent to which policy and strategy—which I think should always ha…”

“Yes; experience in office, bluntly.”

“This is one of many areas where we need to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.”

“Actually, mental health spending is increasing in real terms for the coming year.”

“You are tempting me to preannounce the 10-year plan. We want to see improvements in the quality of palliative care. Regardless of the different positions we might have as parliamentarians around this Committee about the merits of assisted dying, it has certainly generated a broader national conversation about palliativ…”

“Yes, we are looking at palliative and end-of-life care in the context of the 10-year plan.”

“As with the planning round, that is under way and the ICBs will be sending their plans and their proposals for reducing cost and headcount, as they are being directed to by Jim, as the new chief executive. They will be sending their plans in to Jim and his team, who will be checking and evaluating them against our prio…”

“We know where we are headed with the 10-year plan, which will be published in June around the spending review. I have been clear for some time now that I wanted more devolution of power in the NHS—more power, freedom, flexibility and responsibility closer to the frontline, and indeed at the frontline. I made it clear i…”

“Put even more money into the frontline, as the Chancellor already is. It is really important to remember that we were elected on a mandate of investment and reform. Even with the £26 billion the Chancellor has allocated, as you alluded to in your opening set of questions on mental health, we could always do with more m…”

“A number of things. First and foremost, we want to make sure that the NHS is well led, and with the various layers of bureaucracy that exist in the NHS, we are reducing waste, inefficiency and duplication. Where we currently have effectively two head offices for the NHS, we will have one. Where we have duplication of f…”

“I welcome further debate on this, but I absolutely stand by what I said on the BBC to Laura Kuenssberg. I appreciate that I sometimes suffer with the affliction of answering direct questions honestly, and that is what I did on Laura Kuenssberg, based on the concerns that clinicians and lots of families have put to me a…”

“I think that those numbers on prescriptions of antidepressants should be cause for concern.”

“Let’s look at some of the things that have been said and written since my comments. The total number of antidepressants prescribed in England increased by 36% between 2016 and 2023, with a concomitant 23% increase in the number of patients receiving antidepressants over that period. The BBC “Panorama” investigation fou…”

“We have certainly seen a debate since I was asked a question on Laura Kuenssberg’s programme about this issue, and it is a welcome one.”

“We want to see access and waiting times improve across the board, whether we are talking about physical health conditions or mental health conditions. That is why in mental health we see real-terms increases, and the same applies to physical health services. Let’s not underestimate the link between the two. There are m…”

“It is worth probably £100 million or £200 million—in that order. Chair: That is not small change.”

“We are asking the system to embark on big reforms over the coming years, and it is important that we give leaders freedom and flexibility.”

“On planning guidance, we felt it was important to subject the system to fewer centralised targets. That will be a key part of how we govern and lead the NHS over the course of this Parliament. The NHS has been overloaded with targets. The planning guidance and—this comes on to the changes we are making to NHS England—t…”

“Of course, whether it is mental health, general practice, dentistry, schools, prisons—across the board, if we had more money available, that would be quite useful, but we are making decisions against a very challenging fiscal background. None the less, we are committing to our manifesto. I think I misspoke earlier, so …”