Robin Swann
North Antrim · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his detailed statement. I know how passionate he is about the subject and how many times he has brought it to the Executive.”
“It has been reported that today will potentially be the warmest day of the year. As we move into the summer and our summer holidays, I want to raise public awareness of wildfires across Northern Ireland, which have been detrimental to farmland and our environment over the past number of years.”
“Wildfires are still having a detrimental impact on our environment and, occasionally, on livestock, but that reduction shows the impact of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service's proactive approach to educating the general public and engaging with rural communities and schools on its fire safety message, which is to stay alert, not…”
“There has been a lot of talk of sport in this place over the past few days, with everybody concentrating on UEFA. One sport that is going on across Northern Ireland at the minute is cross-community and goes across all age groups without fear, favour or distinction: pigeon racing.”
“I want to put on record that, since this place passed the amendment that recognised pigeon racing as a sport under the 2016 Act, over the past five years, pigeon racing clubs across Northern Ireland have been able to obtain £113,000 of rates rebates through the sports and recreation rate relief, allowing many of those clubs to continue ra…”
“There was much coverage on social media over the weekend of an incident in Staines in England, in which a police car rammed a young calf to bring it under control. It has restarted the conversation about animal cruelty. <BR /> <BR />I am dealing with a specific case in my constituency.”
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“Skilled and trained professionals will be working in the centres, so they will have the skills, knowledge and ability to pick up on rarer conditions. It is about getting as many people as possible to that point of diagnosis and the investigation procedures that are necessary and that may identify more of the rarer conditions that may go unnoticed or be missed should they spend more time on a waiting list rather than being seen more quickly.”
“I thank the Member for that. The cross-border framework builds on what was already there, which allows someone to travel to a provider outside Northern Ireland, to seek that service and to claim the level of reimbursement that would be available for our own in-house procedure. That means that they will have to pay for travel. They will have to pay up front. They may end up paying more than they will be reimbursed, so it is not a full reimbursement scheme. It is a re-establishment of the cross-border directive that we have rather than its supplementing our private sector here in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />With regard to specialties, an individual will always be identified by a GP or consultant when they go to those rapid or large-scale diagnostic centres.”
“Sometimes, we think that Northern Ireland is a very big place, but I would rather have people travel than wait. That is what the framework is about: that we can get people seen by the right people in the right time and in the right place. If that means additional travel, I think that people are now willing to do that. <BR /> <BR />However, I do have a job of work in convincing some politicians that not every hospital has to deliver every service. That is the step and realisation that we have to take maturely and collectively.”
“I thank the Member. I have often said in the House that, over the past 15 months, we have seen a change with not just patients but clinicians, surgeons and consultants willing to travel to any part of Northern Ireland where there is available theatre capacity, which is at a premium. I think that we have the support of the people of Northern Ireland in making the changes. They will be challenging. The Chair commented on those who do have to travel, and I apologise for not answering him on that. We will work with the Department for Communities on rural transport where that needs to be provided. There are already a number of offerings there. However, we are currently restricted because of COVID regulations, so there is additional work to do. <BR /> <BR />It is about getting people to a centre where they will be seen and treated.”
“I thank the Member. The Member will be aware of the ongoing work on our mental health action plan. I hope to publish it during the summer. It will include psychological supports for the entirety of Northern Ireland, rather than just for those on waiting lists. <BR /> <BR />The Member rightly identifies the additional mental health strains and stresses that being on a waiting list has on patients and their families. I hope that there is some reassurance from today's announcement that there is a direction of travel, not just from my Department but across the entire health and social care workforce, that this is a target, and that we all want to be part of the solution. I am asking for the support of my Executive colleagues and the House to deliver that.”
“I thank the Member for the point. We have started conversations with the trade union sector and the trusts, which are the employing authority, on how that can be developed and what rates can be settled on and supported. Through COVID, we were able to step outside Agenda for Change terms and conditions to target the specific need of our workforce. It involves the support of not just our nursing staff but support for our ancillary staff. In England and other areas, we are seeing that that additional support has to be put into the administrative staff as well. We need to take a holistic approach to tackling the issue. That work is ongoing, and those conversations are being had. I have announced that that will be in place and delivered by the end of July. That will allow us to make the next steps on the rest of the framework.”
“However, I need a commitment from my Executive colleagues, when we can meet to discuss the details of the proposal, about what funding can be made available to me to deliver that. Until we get the certainty of that recurrent budget over five years, this is a framework, but, with the funding, we can deliver and maintain it.”
“I am currently relying on in-year monitoring rounds even to start some of that work. The Committee Chair will be aware from the presentation that my finance officials gave to the Committee the week before last that the current bid that has gone in for June monitoring has increased significantly — by £30 million — for the work that we intend to do on elective care. That is because of sequencing and that piece of work being put together. <BR /> <BR />I am reliant on in-year monitoring rounds to start what is much-needed work to further reinvest in our health service. The Member's party and many parties across the Chamber have been alert and supported my call for a multi-year budget for Health. That includes the Finance Minister, and I am aware that he has had conversations with Rishi Sunak about a multi-year finance Budget.”
“I thank the Committee Chair for his comments about our engagement on the statement this morning. I also thank him for his words of support and encouragement to me and my family. While people were appearing on stage last week, I was working on this, because I will not be distracted from the job of work that I have to do. That is also clear in the commitment shown by my departmental officials, health and social care trusts, a number of royal colleges and different actors to bring together the proposal. <BR /> <BR />The statement does not cover the entirety of the funding that is available in the framework document. On page 48 of the document, I lay out clearly where that £700 million can be spent over the next five years and the level of assessments and treatments that it can deliver.”
“Fundamentally, we have to bring back hope and confidence. We must restore hope to all those who languish on waiting lists. There is a heavy responsibility on all our shoulders. We must live up to it and deliver better public services. <BR /> <BR />I have said it before about waiting lists, but it bears repeating: I cannot think of a more important issue that faces not just my Department but the whole Executive and the Assembly. I commend the statement to the Assembly.”
“<BR /> <BR />If the Northern Ireland Executive commit to and deliver that level of investment to the health and social care system, my clear commitment is that, by March 2026, no one should be waiting more than 52 weeks for a first outpatient appointment or for inpatient or day-case treatment, or more than 26 weeks for a diagnostics appointment, and that, by March 2026, we will have eradicated the gap between demand and capacity for elective care. <BR /> <BR />In conclusion, as I have said before and will say again, I cannot do this alone. I need the support of the House and my Executive colleagues. I view today as a staging post in the long struggle to turn around our health service. The crisis has been building for years. We must put it right, however big the challenge. We need to create sustainable long-term solutions.”
“Investment and reform are now required: targeted investment to get many more people treated as quickly as possible; and reform to ensure that the long-term problems of capacity and productivity are properly addressed. It is essential that we invest now to ensure the future of the health service. If we do not eradicate the gap between demand and capacity, the backlogs in care will keep reoccurring.”
“There is a growing gap between population need and the health service's capacity to meet it. Without additional funding on that scale, there is no realistic possibility of reducing waiting times to acceptable levels. <BR /> <BR />The framework sets out what it will take to tackle waiting lists. Above all, it is about creating better services for two groups of people: those who require treatment and those who deliver it.”
“The framework includes a series of proposals to increase opportunities for a skills mix and to ensure that everyone involved is using their individual skills as effectively as possible. I stress, however, that the performance gains described in the framework will be fully realised only if the necessary recurrent funding is made available. Significant investment is required: more than £700 million over five years. I realise that that is a big ask at a time when there are many demands on the public sector, but we should have no illusions: this is a crisis. <BR /> <BR />Currently, almost 190,000 patients have been waiting more than a year for their first outpatient appointment. That is almost five times as many as when the 'Elective Care Plan' was published in 2017.”
“That involves designing the roles and responsibilities of a team around the needs of the patient to ensure that staff have the right skills at the right level to meet those needs. During the pandemic, certain parts of the HSC system, by necessity, radically changed the way in which they were staffed to ensure sufficient capacity was available to manage the demand for essential services. There is much that we can learn from that approach to ensure that we have the appropriate skills mix in the workforce to deliver high-quality care and value for money. <BR /> <BR />We need to grow all aspects of our service. We need more nurses, allied health professionals, consultants, GPs and administrative staff, and we need them to work together to provide the best service to the greatest number of patients possible.”
“That will include the delivery of condensed clinics, so-called mega-clinics, for outpatient assessments and preoperative assessment clinics by September 2021. Mega-clinics are a way of bringing multidisciplinary staff teams together to ensure much higher throughput and access to clinical assessment for key specialties such as orthopaedics and cataracts. They allow more patients to be seen, and they can short-circuit unnecessary delays in treatment. <BR /> <BR />Sustainable reform of elective care is not possible without the HSC workforce. It is clear that, to support the long-term delivery of long-term improvements in waiting times, the system needs to be fully resourced so that it has the right number of staff with the necessary skills and support. Therefore, it is vital that we look at the skills mix required to deliver services.”
“<BR /> <BR />Endoscopies are a vital part of diagnosis and treatment. Currently, we spread our endoscopy service too thinly. We need to redesign and enlarge our service. That is why the Health and Social Care Board is urgently reviewing wider endoscopy services. <BR /> <BR />The vast majority of patients on waiting lists are outpatients. Transformation of our outpatient services is key to improving the productivity and sustainability of our elective services. The aim is to ensure that patients are seen by the right person with the right information at the right time in the right place. <BR /> <BR />We will continue to develop opportunities to consolidate and transform our outpatient services in order to reduce waiting times and improve patients' experiences.”
“It has responded rapidly to changing regional priorities and continues to deliver regional access to day-case theatre lists. Building on the success of the day procedure centre at Lagan Valley, the framework sets out how my Department will establish a new elective care centre management team to oversee the planning and expansion of regional elective care centres. The new team will make recommendations on the expansion of the elective care centre programme, with the next phase to be announced in October 2021. <BR /> <BR />In line with the cancer recovery plan's recommendations, the framework provides for the development of one or more rapid diagnostic centres. The experience in Wales has shown that those centres can have a major impact on waiting times for diagnostic services.”
“<BR /> <BR />In order to increase HSC capacity, we will require an investment in our workforce and significant engagement with our staff. In order to increase the additional capacity that can be provided in-house, my Department will support HSC staff to deliver greater in-house elective care activity by increasing the use of existing bank and on-call arrangements. As I announced earlier, that will include the introduction, by July 2021, of temporary enhanced rates of pay. It will take each of those components to make inroads into the backlog of patients waiting for treatment. <BR /> <BR />In July 2020, I established the first regional day procedure unit at Lagan Valley Hospital. That centre continues to operate very effectively as a green site for day-case procedures across the region, as it has done throughout the pandemic.”
“That approach is being used successfully to deliver endoscopy and cataract procedures at weekends. <BR /> <BR />Where theatre capacity is not actively used and HSC activity cannot be delivered — for example, at evenings and weekends — I have asked the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) to make recommendations by December this year on medium-term contracts to lease theatres to independent providers to treat HSC patients. I have also asked the HSCB to bring forward, also by December this year, proposals for medium-term use of independent sector providers to address backlogs where it is demonstrated that those providers can provide value for money and the same standard of service as the HSC. That is subject to early confirmation of multi-year funding.”
“Digital innovations such as electronic prescribing in primary care will be rolled out in order to deliver maximum benefits to elective care services. <BR /> <BR />There has been debate in the past about whether or not the HSC should routinely use independent sector providers to deliver HSC care. We are beyond the point at which that debate is helpful or relevant. We will need all the additional capacity that we can get, in-house and in the independent sector, for the foreseeable future. <BR /> <BR />The theatre capacity available from local independent sector hospitals during the pandemic was vital in enabling many hundreds of urgent and time-critical patients to be treated. We have also used privately recruited teams of clinicians to provide services for HSC patients using available HSC infrastructure, which is known as insourcing.”
“We need to be more agile in proactively identifying such slots. That is why I will introduce a new policy in which the trust booking teams will contact all patients prior to surgery to ensure that all slots are fully utilised. <BR /> <BR />For longer-term actions, there will be a clear movement towards a seven-day working week for our hospital theatres. With such appalling waiting lists and serious demands on theatres' operating times, we need to realise that, as long as staff are properly supported, there should be no difference between a Monday morning and a Saturday afternoon. I have taken the policy decision that Northern Ireland will move to the new and much more transparent referral to treatment (RTT) waiting times measurement. That mirrors the waiting times process that is already in place across the rest of the United Kingdom.”
“While such clinics may entail some patients being asked to travel slightly further than they otherwise would, they will improve the numbers of patients seen and, very importantly, the speed at which they are seen. <BR /> <BR />For medium-term actions, there will be detailed proposals for a rapid diagnostic centre, or centres, for Northern Ireland by March. Similarly, there will be a redesign of endoscopy services, including the possibility of a new regional endoscopy centre to deliver high-volume scopes. There will be an important, specific focus on reducing missed appointments — the so-called DNAs. Although, of course, there will always be reasons that an appointment is missed or a procedure no longer suits, every slot that goes unfilled in theatre or with a consultant robs someone else of the opportunity.”
“The framework contains a range of short-, medium- and longer-term actions. I will now highlight points from each of those sections. <BR /> <BR />For immediate actions, I am introducing enhanced rates of pay from next month for staff who are working in targeted shifts and delivering priority elective activity to maximise fully internal HSC capacity. Today, I am announcing the establishment of a new cross-border healthcare scheme to allow patients to receive treatment in the Republic of Ireland’s established private sector and then to seek reimbursement up to the cost of the equivalent treatment to the HSC in Northern Ireland. This scheme will be operating within weeks. Mega clinics for orthopaedic outpatients, cataract assessments and a range of pre-operative assessments will be developed and in place by September.”
“The framework sets out a five-year plan with firm, time-bound proposals for how we will systematically tackle the backlog of patients who are waiting longer than ministerial standards and how we will invest in and transform services to allow us to meet the population's demands in the future. <BR /> <BR />Perhaps the most critical aspect of delivering sustainable reform in elective care is our workforce; in fact, our health service is our workforce, and we owe it to the staff who deliver the services to provide them with the resources that they need to care for patients. The framework is clear that, to support the delivery of long-term improvements in waiting times, the system needs to be fully resourced and have the right number of staff with the necessary skills and support.”
“<BR /> <BR />Tackling our waiting lists and stabilising our Health and Social Care service will be challenging, and it will undoubtedly take time. However, we need to think big and think differently about how we provide our health and social care services now and in the future. The pandemic has shown what the HSC can do in a crisis. We need to learn from our experiences and take the same sort of imaginative and innovative approach to new ways of working. There is also no question that, to do that right, we will require a commitment to major sustained investment for at least the next five years. <BR /> <BR />It is in that context that I have published the elective care framework today.”
“Five Ministers from three different political parties have held the Health portfolio in this period, but it will require political will from all the parties in the Executive to fix it. For the past year, rightly and unavoidably, our resources have been directed towards patients requiring urgent and emergency care. However, our focus must now be on tackling our shocking waiting lists. I am pleased to publish the framework today. It is a road map for tackling the scourge of Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists. We owe to it the patients and our Health and Social Care (HSC) staff to push ahead with the painstaking process of rebuilding our health service. That must include a relentless drive to bring down waiting times.”
“Meanwhile, we have not increased the Health budget to meet that demand. Our one-year budget cycle also contributes to the inefficiency in the system as it does not allow us to plan services properly. Above all, we need a commitment to multi-year funding for the health service. Short-term, non-recurrent investment does not allow us to invest in our vital workforce. It does not allow us to invest in our infrastructure. It does not allow us to transform our services in a meaningful and sustainable way. It does not allow us to build capacity in the health service, and it limits our ability to get the best value for money from external providers. Short-term funding will only ever produce short-term solutions. <BR /> <BR />The issue transcends politics.”
“Waiting times in Northern Ireland were already on the brink of crisis before COVID-19, and the pandemic has simply pushed them over the edge. <BR /> <BR />Four years ago, in 2017, the Department published an elective care plan that set out proposals for the reform and transformation of elective care services. That has not been delivered. There has been a great deal of work carried out to improve how we provide elective care in Northern Ireland, and the evidence suggests that that has helped to prevent an even worse situation. However, the necessary levels of investment did not follow. Additional funding has been uncertain, temporary and piecemeal. That is a major part of the problem that we face. Demand for health services is growing every year, and it will continue to grow.”
“While everyone in our health service, be they doctors, nurses, other health professionals or managers, has done everything they can to ensure that any negative impact on patients has been kept to a minimum, waiting times have continued to grow to a level that will take years to address. Health service staff are working harder than ever, but the situation keeps getting worse. <BR /> <BR />Let us be clear that this has not just been caused by the pandemic. Prior to 2005, Northern Ireland's waiting lists were the longest in the UK. By 2009, the situation had broadly stabilised and remained relatively stable for a period before, once again, worsening steadily. The budget allocated to the Department of Health was simply wholly insufficient to keep waiting times at an acceptable level.”
“<BR /> <BR />I have said on many occasions that the pandemic has had an immense impact on our health service and will continue to do so for a long time. Even before taking into account the number of patients requiring hospitalisation and treatment during the pandemic, overall hospital capacity has been reduced by the necessity to introduce strict infection prevention and control measures.”
“Waiting times in Northern Ireland are so long that our emergency departments (EDs) and other urgent pathways have increasingly become the default entry point for patients requiring treatment. That is due either to patients waiting so long that their condition becomes urgent or to EDs being seen as the only realistic way of accessing diagnosis and treatment. <BR /> <BR />We have a health service that prides itself on being available to all and free at the point of access, but the scale of our waiting times is creating a two-tier system whereby those who can afford to pay privately receive diagnosis and treatment, while those who cannot afford to pay languish on never-ending waiting lists. That is abhorrent. There is little or no doubt that long waiting times will exacerbate and perpetuate existing health inequalities.”
“<BR /> <BR />The numbers of those waiting are shocking, but it is the experience of the patients who are waiting for care that is truly heartbreaking. Behind the statistics are real-life stories of people waiting for far too long in pain and discomfort. There are people on waiting lists who are living in continuous pain. There are people whose condition makes them unable to carry out their jobs, which results in loss of income. There are people whose overall physical health has deteriorated severely and permanently because they have waited too long for a simple operation. There are people whose mental health suffers from the anxiety and uncertainty of a long wait for diagnosis or treatment. There are people who get into serious levels of debt due to their desperation for treatment.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to speak on an issue that, I believe, is the highest priority for government in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />On 27 May, our latest hospital waiting time figures were published for the quarter ending 31 March 2021. Those figures are nothing short of appalling. More than 330,000 patients are waiting for their first consultant-led outpatient appointment. More than 110,000 people are waiting for inpatient or day-case treatment. Around 130,000 patients are waiting for a diagnostic test. Our waiting times are the worst of any UK region. It is simply not acceptable to me that the people of Northern Ireland receive a lower standard of care than those in other parts of the UK.”
“I thank the Member for setting up the meeting with Tamzin. She has been in contact with me again, as I am sure the Member is aware. She is a fantastic advocate. I said that to her on the day we met. She has a passion for making sure that those addiction services and emergency crisis services are in place, especially in the city. The Member may not be aware that I visited a number of mental health facilities in the Western Trust on Friday, one of which was the Asha Centre, to see the work that they do and the service that they provide. Their work is to be commended, but it also needs to be enhanced and supported from what was in the original facility.”
“With regard to the challenges of mental health especially, we need to see whether, through early interactions like engagement and talking to people, we can prevent that mental health diagnosis and the problem being exacerbated. That might happen through some of our Good Morning phone calls and things like that. There is a plethora of support services out there that this place needs to fund. If that work needs to be pulled together in a strategy, so be it, but I would rather see action than another strategy.”
“I concur that we need another strategy, but we also need to see that strategy delivered, given the specific challenge that the Member raised.”
“I will support it if my Department can play an active role in developing a strategy. However, we need not just a strategy but actions. I am all too aware of the number of strategies that this place has.”
“However, the reports describe how, even in concentrated urban areas and towns and villages, people living in the middle of communities are lonely as well. We need to see greater outreach among communities, and we need to support engagement with neighbours and those around us. It is something that my Department is keen to be involved in, but it is cross-departmental work on which we need to interact with Communities, Justice and Education to make sure that there is a holistic Executive approach. That is why it is important that we have a functioning Executive.”
“The Department is aware of the challenges that were compounded during the pandemic, when loneliness became an endemic problem across Northern Ireland. We received reports from community pharmacists who went out to homes to deliver a medication and were there for half an hour because that was the only personal interaction that the individual had. Community pharmacy was able to provide that welcome additional service. Now, we are looking at it through the mental health supports that we are giving to community pharmacy. <BR /> <BR />What the Member acknowledges with regard to loneliness is a challenge. We can look back at some of the recent Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) statistical reports. We often take loneliness as something that is specific to people who live in remote areas, up long country lanes.”
“The Member has raised that in the past, and I said that I would get back to him in writing. I will ask the trust to engage with the Member on the issue of parking, because it is a strain and a stress. We want to develop our services and increase the service that the Lagan Valley Hospital can provide in its day procedure unit. It is getting great reviews and doing larger numbers than we had hoped, but it can do more. We need to make sure that all of those ancillary challenges are also addressed.”
“I thank the Member for the point that he has raised, because it is one of concern. We saw what happened when this place collapsed last time round. We saw our waiting lists spiral due to no Minister being in place to take the decisions that needed to be taken and no Finance Minister being in place to make the changes to the Budget provision for the Department of Health that were necessary at that time. While I can set direction and make statements without a functioning Executive, our health service is under extreme pressure and will be under threat until we get an Executive up and running and functioning again.”
“Again, I thank the Member for her question. If I recall it correctly, the response to the question for written answer that she received this morning and to which she refers sets out the assessment of Stanton Healthcare by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA). I have to take my guidance from the RQIA, which is our regulatory and quality inspectorate. If it says that that is not an establishment that it is within its scope to inspect, I have to take it at its word. I will ask it again, on the back of the Member's question, to reassess that. That was the initial response that I was provided with for the Member's question for written answer.”
“I propose that because, as was the case when I brought forward similar proposals in April or May last year, I want to reduce the health risk for any woman or girl in Northern Ireland who needs to travel to England to access services or, worse, needs to turn to unsafe and unregulated services while work on a commissioned service is progressed by my Department.”
“I do not want to conflate the two issues or bring them together. I received an apology of sorts on Saturday afternoon, so it was far from speedy in comparison with other public statements that were made. <BR /> <BR />On the delivery of abortion services, as I said in answer to an earlier question, I am seeking consensus, as required under the ministerial code. While my Department resumes the necessary planning works for commissioned abortion services under the 2020 regulations, I have asked Executive colleagues for a decision on that.”
“I thank the Member. I have said this many times in the House, and I will repeat it to him: I need every square foot of the estate that we have. That is why an investment is being made to increase the Robinson's provision and to improve its condition. It is vital that we utilise not just our estate but our workforce to the best of our ability. I hope that I will have the Member's support when I come forward with what we need to do on elective care, how to change the structure and what we can do differently in Northern Ireland to have a better patient experience and to shorten our waiting lists.”
“First, I thank the Member for his sincere comments of support. I welcome that as a constituency colleague. <BR /> <BR />On the Robinson Hospital, I will work with the Northern Trust to get the Member an update on the prescribed works and the time frame and to ensure that there is as little disruption as possible not just to patients who are being treated in the Robinson but to those who may have been sent there to recuperate. It is vital — the Member will know that I have said this in the past — that I have every square foot of our health estate at this time, and the Robinson plays a very important part in that estate.”
“I thank the Member. She may not be aware that I had a meeting on Friday with some UNISON representatives from the Western Trust. They put that specific point to me. We are mandated to look, first, at the recommendation from the independent review body, which we are led to believe will report at the end of this month. At that point, we will take cognisance of its recommendations and of the Barnett consequentials settlement from the same decision being made across the rest of the United Kingdom. We are depending on not just the recommendation but the additional funding because, as the Member will know, my budgets are already strained and stressed.”
“I thank the Member for her question. Health and social care staff should receive the payment in their bank account by July. The Member will be aware that one of the asks that was made to me was to make the payment not subject to tax or social benefits allowance. To do that, with support from my Executive colleagues, we increased the value of the payment. We also allowed staff the option to defer the payment over a number of months rather than receive it as a lump sum, which may have had adverse effects on some social security payments. The payment has taken a little bit longer as we were putting those two supporting measures in place.”
“I thank the Member for his comments about the disturbing scenes that were viewed over the weekend. CPR training in schools is without my Department's responsibility, but I am aware that the Member's party colleague has a private Member’s Bill to introduce CPR training in our education sector. I am fully supportive of that. I say to people who have vandalised public resuscitation equipment: you are a shame and a disgrace. We saw very clearly at the weekend how vital those pieces of equipment are. They are life-saving and should be treated as such.”