Marsha De Cordova
MP for Battersea · Labour · United Kingdom
“I thank my hon. Friend for the very powerful speech she is giving; she truly sets the tone when she talks about disabled people. There was a poll out this morning of thousands of disabled people, and many of them rightly said that they need assistance to live.”
“My hon. Friend is making a good case for this Bill, but she will know that when the Bill was introduced in 2024, no equality impact assessment was carried out.”
“May I say how delighted I was to see the hon. Member’s name on the Order Paper? He did not have to bob this time. I join him in congratulating churches on the valuable role their play in supporting young people, and I thank him for raising the excellent work of churches in Newtownards. Following my exchange with the right hon.”
“May I first thank my hon. Friend for her continued and steadfast support for the Palestinians? Since the start of this year, the UN has reported that 76 Palestinians have been killed by settler violence, and that number includes 18 children.”
“I have several constituents who are retired civil servants and are still waiting to receive their pension statements and their pensions. This is causing a lot of worry, distress and, in some cases, financial hardship.”
“As my hon. Friend mentions, in parts of Nigeria Christian communities continue to face considerable persecution, particularly from Fulani militia and Boko Haram. This has been happening for many decades.”
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“I start by briefly thanking all of the speakers. It has been a good debate. I thank my neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson), my hon. Friends the Members for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield), for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley), for Blaydon (Liz Twist), and for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), and the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon), for East Dunbartonshire (Amy Callaghan), and for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard). I thank them all for their contributions. The Minister outlined a lot in his response. He mentioned a lot of work that he is looking into, taking back or that is being done, but what has been overwhelming in this debate is that disabled people need support now and any further delay will not help them.”
“The backlog for ophthalmology appointments in England is one of the largest in the NHS, with over 630,000 people on waiting lists as of 23 March this year—more than 9% of the total backlog. Ophthalmology has been the busiest NHS out-patient clinic for the last three years, with 7.5 million hospital attendances in England in 2021-22. It is shocking that eye care accounts for only 2.6% of NHS consultants and 1% of the total number of doctors.”
“Huge backlogs, which were apparent before the pandemic, are leading to people unnecessarily losing their sight. The annual economic cost of sight loss is currently estimated at £37.7 billion. An estimated 2 million people are living with sight loss in the UK, and anyone can be affected by it. As Members, we will all have constituents who have been or are being affected, because 250 people begin to lose their sight every day, with a shocking 21 people a week losing their vision due to a preventable cause. On top of that, we know that 50% of all sight loss is avoidable. We should all be asking why so many people are needlessly losing their sight or going blind.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered the potential merits of a national eye health strategy. It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris, and I am pleased to have secured today’s debate. Let me begin by placing on the record my thanks to the many organisations that have sent through their briefings and shared their knowledge and expertise, including the Association of Optometrists, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, Specsavers, SeeAbility and the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which have all supported my National Eye Health Strategy Bill as well. There is no question but that we need the Government to introduce an eye health strategy in England, because there is an emergency in eye care.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, and he is absolutely spot on. I will come to the workforce plan and the Government’s expectations, but he is absolutely right that it must include this specialism. There must also be an element of training and upskilling.”
“An eye strategy would ensure that, regardless of where someone lives, they can have access to good-quality eye healthcare, which would address eye health inequalities and ensure that there is more equity of access to eye care among different communities and people who are more at risk of sight problems but who may not be accessing NHS sight tests.”
“My hon. Friend makes a really crucial point about special schools and about ensuring there is enough capacity to support children who have complex needs with sight loss. What is really troubling is that, in many instances, sight loss is not always picked up, so having specialist ophthalmologists in schools is crucial. There absolutely should be no way of reducing that provision—in fact, we need to build capacity. To respond to the current crisis in eye healthcare, the Government must commit to a national eye health strategy for England, as set out in my Bill. The strategy would include measures to improve eye health outcomes, remove the postcode lottery of care, reduce waiting times, improve patient experiences, increase the capacity and skills of the workforce, and make more effective use of data, research and innovation.”
“That is unfair and inequitable, and it is a waste of NHS resources to have patients go to A&E when they could access something in the community, which is easier for the patient, improves outcomes and saves us money.”
“Some of the burden on hospitals from that increased demand could be eased through more investment in high street community optometrists and by changing the way services are commissioned, to make more use of resources and infrastructure in our communities. Two million people attend NHS accident and emergency services each year with an injury to or disease of the eye, and over 65% of those cases could have been treated in primary care optometry, which is not only more accessible but saves money—it costs less. Despite that, only 23 out of the 42 integrated care boards commission a minor eye condition service, or MECS, consistently. Five have no MECS provision at all—patients must attend a hospital eye service either via their GP or A&E.”
“Research has shown that blind and partially sighted people are likely to experience poor mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety, in their lifetimes. As part of the pathway, more emphasis should be placed on the provision of non-clinical community support, which would complement the work of community optometrists, ophthalmologists in hospitals and rehabilitation officers. Where is the plan to improve non-clinical and community support as part of the eye health pathway? The second area the strategy would aim to improve is collaboration between primary and secondary care, and it would emphasise integrated care systems to ensure timely and accurate referrals. Demand for eye care services is expected to increase by 40% over the next 20 years, so we need to pay more attention to joining up care to meet future demand.”
“I thank my hon. Friend, who highlights the fantastic eye care department at St Thomas’s Hospital. She is absolutely right: my strategy already sets out how to address the backlogs in eye healthcare, and the Government could just say, “Yes, we are going to take it on, reduce those backlogs and address the workforce issues.” Ensuring that we have equity of eye health must also include people who are homeless and those with learning disabilities, as my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) mentioned. A strategy would focus on five areas. The first is the eye health and sight loss pathway, which outlines the care and support for those diagnosed with loss of vision. A pathway would focus on the physical and emotional impact of being diagnosed with sight loss.”
“That would reduce the administrative burden on GP services, devolving some of the lower-risk cases to optometry and addressing unwarranted variations in referral and follow-up pathways.”
“Friend the Member for Vauxhall (Florence Eshalomi) does not mind, I would very much like to invite the Minister to visit the eye department at St Thomas’s and the MECS community service, if he has not already done so. Better joined-up care requires spending on infrastructure. Improved IT connectivity for two-way transfer of patient and clinical data would enable better patient care, and improved use of clinical skills and facilities in primary care, enabling more patients to be seen and treated closer to home. Everyone can get the theme here: community, community, community. The eye care sector has been championing a single national electronic eye care referral system or EECR—there are so many acronyms—that would facilitate direct optometry to ophthalmology referrals, without people having to go through their GP.”
“Again, my hon. Friend makes an intervention that is 100% accurate. We obviously have to ensure that spending is done effectively and properly, and ensuring that resources are allocated in the community and alleviate pressures on hospitals will obviously lead only to better outcomes and savings. At the most recent meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on eye health and visual impairment, ophthalmologist Dr Seema Verma from St Thomas’s Hospital spoke about the importance of MECS and locally commissioned optometry clinics in south-east London, which prevented 32% of referrals from being sent to hospital eye care services. If my hon.”
“Will they appoint a Minister—it could be this Minister—whose sole responsibility is eye healthcare? What are they doing to ensure that every integrated care board has a MECS and that their commissioning is consistent with that of the 23 that already have such services? Five ICBs have no form of MECS provision at all, so what will the Minister do to ensure there is consistency in our communities? When will the Government publish their overdue long-term workforce plan? Will there be a focus on ophthalmology? As I have highlighted, only 1.5% of the £1.4 billion going into medical research involves eyes, so will the Government increase spending on eye health research?”
“England is the only country in the UK without an eye health strategy. Strategies can deliver positive outcomes, as has been the case in Scotland. In England, there are health strategies for other conditions, so why not for eyes? The benefits would transform lives, alleviate pressure on health services and reduce economic costs. Our goal should be to ensure that no one loses their sight unnecessarily. Most people in the Chamber know that I have a condition called nystagmus. I have been living with my sight loss all my life, but those who come to sight loss later in life face even more barriers and challenges. I would like the Minister to address the following questions. He will get fed up of me saying this, but why will the Government not commit to an eye health strategy for England?”
“According to UK Research and Innovation, the Government, charities and other public bodies invested £1.4 billion in medical research in 2018, but only 1.5% of that was invested in eye research. To put that in context, only £9.60 was spent on research for each person affected by sight loss in the UK. That is worrying, given that 250 people begin to lose their vision every day. The fifth area would be improving public awareness. As I said earlier, 2 million people each year turn up to A&E or try to get a GP appointment for a problem that could be dealt with by a community optometrist. A strategy would involve campaigns on the importance of maintaining good eye health, educating the public on the difference between eye screening and eye tests, and improving signposting to where people need to go for help.”
“There is potentially a case for looking at how registration for the certificate of vision impairment system works to see whether it could be used to map out an evidence base to show where people with sight loss are living. The lack of data means there is likely to be unmet need in the system, with some people who experience visual impairment not being treated, and some developing conditions that could be avoided if they were treated earlier—as I said earlier, 50% of all sight loss is avoidable. Without that data, we do not know whether public expenditure on eye health is meeting people’s needs, because that expenditure is not based on any evidence. Where there are still no treatments for certain conditions, the Government should increase spending on eye research, which gets a fraction of the investment it desperately needs.”
“The Government must make better use of existing workforces while expanding capacity to meet future needs, including by adopting Labour’s call to double medical school places to 15,000 a year. That needs to be complemented with investment in training for wider eye care and multidisciplinary teams and with an expansion in the number of non-medical roles. The fourth area would be health intelligence and data. For too long, population data has not been utilised effectively to pinpoint the location of need and the places where opportunities for change can be found. A strategy would solve that by focusing on robust data collection to inform decisions and improve the delivery of service. The UK has no national data to identify people at risk of sight loss.”
“In the last year alone, 65% of units had to use locums to fill those consultant vacancies. What do the Government plan to do to respond to this workforce crisis? They say they are bringing forward their plan, but when will it be published? At the APPG meeting in April, we addressed the challenges of the eye care workforce. Speakers from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the College of Optometrists and the Association of Optometrists all made strong recommendations and put forward credible solutions. Again, I would be happy to facilitate a meeting if the Minister is yet to meet those trade bodies. He would hear first hand their strong and credible recommendations, which seek to address some of the workforce challenges.”
“That is exactly the point. Joining up services, which is what my Bill seeks to do, would essentially save the state money, which is crucial. I have mentioned devolving services and supporting the pathway. When the Minister responds, will he provide an update on where the Government are up to in creating this referral and joined-up pathway system, or EECR, to be specific? The third area of the strategy would be workforce expansion. There is a significantly uneven distribution of ophthalmology workforces across England, and a quarter of the profession is nearing retirement age. That is extremely concerning, because nearly 80% of eye care units already do not have enough consultants to meet current demand, with over 50% finding it more difficult to recruit for consultant vacancies.”
“On the way in which we can join up primary and secondary care and ensure that MECS are being commissioned across all ICBs, does the Minister agree that that measure should be consistent and must take place, so that across all our ICBs, MECS would be available in the community?”
“I know that the Minister is coming to the end of his speech, but I do not want to let him sit down without pressing him for a timeline for the workforce plan. Will it cover ophthalmology and eye care? He said that he met Louisa Wickham, the eye care transformation lead, but will he confirm that all the investment in that space will continue and will not come to an abrupt end?”
“I want to ensure that none of this is in vain and that we actually see some sort of plan—some sort of strategy—that delivers for people living with sight loss and prevents more people from losing their sight. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the potential merits of a national eye health strategy.”
“Member for Hendon (Dr Offord) for sharing his experience of macular, and for his tireless campaigning on this issue. I hope that we can continue to champion eye health and raise the need for a national plan to tackle the challenges that people with sight loss face. I take the Minister’s point; I know he is trying, but we need action. We need to see fundamental changes, particularly on the workforce, the pathway, the joining up of primary and secondary care, research and public awareness. He said that all the areas that we have discussed on a one-to-one basis and that I have raised here are being looked at. Can we have another meeting so he can update me on all the work that is going on?”
“I thank all hon. Members for their contributions. This has been a healthy debate, but it is deeply worrying that we continue to debate the need for a national eye care strategy for England. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Dr Huq) for her fantastic speech and the work she is doing locally. As a campaigner, I learned so much from the incredible work of my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) and her massive support and campaigning for special schools in her constituency. My hon. Friends the Members for Vauxhall (Florence Eshalomi) and for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield) are no longer here, but they both made very good contributions, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby). I want to say a special thank you to the hon.”
“Q5. Leaseholders in Battersea are trapped in an outdated and unfair leasehold system. The Secretary of State has said that the Government will “absolutely” maintain a commitment to abolish the leasehold system and will “bring forward legislation shortly”, but we now know this is no longer the case. Why have the Government done yet another U-turn and broken yet another promise to leaseholders by scrapping their plans to end the outdated leasehold system?”
“It is shocking that the Government have yet again made an outrageous U-turn by deciding to scrap plans to abolish the feudal leasehold system. We all know that the current system is not fit for purpose and often traps homeowners, including many of my constituents in Battersea. The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities agreed with me and said that he would bring forward reforms, so will the Leader of the House let us know the timeline for when we will see a Bill on leaseholder reform?”
“My hon. Friend is making an excellent opening to her speech. Does she agree that a local authority seeking to ban disabled people from being able to access the centre of York amounts, pure and simple, to direct discrimination? It is a breach of their civil and human rights, and if the local authority were to rethink this, it would lift that ban and remove the barriers so that disabled people can freely access the city within which they live.”
“In my opinion, City of York Council is clearly breaching the law. It does not even seem to be complying with its responsibilities under the public sector equality duty. Is there scope for the Government to intervene to instruct or encourage the council to reverse the ban?”
“On the subject of Brexit being on everyone’s minds, for my constituents in Battersea it remains an issue and, for them, it has been an unmitigated disaster. Our economy is not growing, our rights and protections are being infringed and, more importantly, Britain’s standing in the world is also challenged. I have called on the Government to produce a cumulative impact assessment on the impact of Brexit. Does the hon. Member agree that any public inquiry must look at the cumulative impact of Brexit on our constituents?”
“Successive Tory Governments have failed to reduce the multiple barriers facing disabled people entering work. Research by Sense has found that disabled jobseekers say that they do not have the support and equipment they need to look for work, and it is vital that every jobcentre across this country is accessible and has essential pieces of assistive technology so that disabled people can find and apply for work. If this Government want to finally get serious about reducing the disability employment gap, which remains at about 30%, will they commit today to a jobcentre assistive technology fund to support disabled people to look for work?”
“Many of my constituents in Battersea have been victims of car theft, a distressing and disruptive ordeal. Last year, on average, one car a day was stolen, but of all those incidents only five led to a charge. Tory cuts to policing in London have had a devastating impact and have led to severe consequences, so can we have a debate in Government time on the desperate need for more neighbourhood policing in London?”
“I, too, express my condolences to all the families and those who have lost loved ones in all the violence. The Israeli High Court of Justice recently rejected appeals against eviction orders issued to Palestinian inhabitants of Masafer Yatta and allowed the Israeli Government to forcibly evict Palestinians. That is happening at the same time as legislation in Israel is transferring control of the west bank to civilian Ministries and away from the military. Obviously, this is in effect annexation, and we know that there are going to be violations of international human rights laws. Can the Minister confirm that the Government regard the forced transfer of civilian populations in occupied territories, whether in south Hebron in Palestine or in Donbas in Ukraine, as illegal under international law?”
“Machetes and zombie knives should have been banned a long time ago, given that the Government had committed on multiple occasions to banning them, but 13 years of cuts to youth services has led to a number of those services closing across the country, including in my constituency, and it is a fact that areas suffering from the largest cuts in spending on young people have seen the biggest increases in knife crime. For all the talk about prevention and intervention, why will this Government not commit to investing in more resources for young people alongside banning these weapons?”
“The case of Child Q was shocking, but the recent report by the Children’s Commissioner found that 14 strip searches took place either in schools or in a police vehicle, and states that that number could be higher because no location was recorded in 45% of cases. That report recommends changes to Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 codes A and C to strengthen the statutory safeguards for children, including excluding schools as an appropriate location for strip searches. Does the Secretary of State agree that that should be implemented as a matter of urgency, and will she press the Home Secretary to get on and implement all the report’s recommendations in full?”
“I congratulate the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) on securing this urgent question. The findings of this report are damning and deeply concerning. The case of Child Q shone a light on this abhorrent practice of the widespread use of strip searches on children as young as eight, with issues around safeguarding, child protection, racial disproportionality and, more importantly, the adultification of young children and the poor quality of data. We know the trauma of this practice will have a long-term effect on children’s mental health, so what are this Government doing to protect and safeguard the mental health of children? Why on earth is the Minister not accepting these recommendations now?”
“It is a national disgrace that nearly six years on from the Grenfell tragedy, leaseholders in Battersea are still stuck in buildings that are below 11 metres. It is not right for the Secretary of State to say that this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis when we know that shorter buildings will have more vulnerable people in them, will have more cladding, and will suffer from greater fire safety defects. When will the Government finally get a grip and allocate resources, and prioritise those according to risk?”
“T9. The leasehold system too often traps homeowners, including many of my constituents. They have complained to me of fire safety risk, poor building maintenance, astronomically high service charges and poor customer service. Labour has been calling on the Government to end feudal leasehold systems. Will the Secretary of State bring forward legislation on further leasehold reform in this Session, so that all homeowners can live in a safe, decent and affordable home?”
“The Government this week announced the 2030 road map for UK-Israel relations. However, the Minister has not answered—she has been asked several times—whether she can confirm that the Government consider the road map to effectively distinguish between green line Israel and illegal settlements, as required by UN National Security resolution 2334? Will the Minister confirm whether the Government undertook any assessment of the road map’s compatibility with international law and UN Security Council resolution 2334?”
“Nearly 25 years after the Macpherson report, it is damning that the Casey review has found that the Met remains institutionally racist, and is now misogynistic and homophobic as well. Its actions can seriously undermine policing by consent, and without wholesale reform it will be impossible to rebuild trust and confidence in our communities in London. My constituents in Battersea deserve a force they can trust, so will the Home Secretary end the postcode lottery that exists in place of standards by implementing national standards in relation to vetting, misconduct and training?”
“If they do that, they will finally begin to start reducing the disability employment gap, which has remained stubbornly at 30% for more than 10 years. Investment in Access to Work is vital, as is reducing the backlog, given that more than 10,000 people are waiting for their assessments and support. Finally, let me point out that yet again the Government have failed to publish an equality impact assessment, thus failing in their responsibilities under the public sector equality duty. It is vital that they do so now.”
“However, relying solely on the personal independence payment assessment—another assessment that is cruel and inhumane, but whose function and purpose are totally different from those applying to someone receiving an income replacement benefit—will not work, because PIP is intended to cover the extra costs of living with a disability. It is also flawed, as is truly evident from the success rate of the appeals, which is between 70 and 80%. I believe that when it comes to getting more people back to work, the Government must focus on some of the barriers that those people face, such as an inaccessible transport network and discrimination in the workplace. They should invest more in the Access to Work programme, which I consider to be the best form of employment support.”
“The Chancellor ramped up his rhetoric about conditionality and more sanctions, but all the evidence shows that sanctions do not work. It is important for the Government to heed that point and follow the ruling from the Information Commissioner, who said that they must publish the results of their research on sanctions. The ruling came last week, so when will the Government publish that report? As I said in my urgent question last week, no one is going to argue with the scrapping of the work capability assessment—it was cruel, it was inhumane, and it caused harm to people’s lives.”
“There was no new investment for London, with nothing provided for housing or transport infrastructure. When will the Government understand that when London does well, the country will also do well? Ahead of the Budget, I wrote to the Chancellor about childcare reforms, urging him to fix the broken system. There were some announcements, but it is glaringly obvious that full implementation of all the policies will not happen until 2025, so those who will benefit have not yet even been born. The Chancellor also placed a great deal of emphasis on getting people back to work, including the ill and disabled. We know that the changes proposed in the health and disability White Paper will have a significant impact on millions of disabled people.”
“Thank you for calling me, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is good to see you this afternoon. This country is experiencing the biggest fall in household living standards since records began, with weak growth, low pay and a workforce shortage. Last week’s Budget should have been an opportunity for the Government to try to unlock the potential of our great country, but, after 13 years of Tory rule, it has just shown how out of touch and out of ideas they really are. They have no long-term plan for growth, yet they still want to champion the virtues of Brexit. Wages are now lower in real terms than they were in 2010, and people will be paying more tax—but who will not be paying more tax? Yes, the richest 1%, following those pension changes. There was nothing for small businesses such as those in my constituency: they were given no hope.”
“The Illegal Migration Bill is yet another example of the Tories scapegoating asylum seekers to distract from their incompetence. It will not be compatible with our legal obligations under the Equality and Human Rights Commission and it will leave asylum seekers, such as those from Iran, in limbo so that they will be deemed permanently inadmissible to our asylum system. We need more safe and legal routes now, not after the boat crossings have stopped, as we know that the Bill will never achieve that. Why will the Home Secretary not seek to provide safe and legal routes for everybody now?”
“Also under the new proposals disabled people will not automatically be in the “no work-related requirements” conditionality group and will now be subject to the decisions of a work coach. We also did not hear any additional investment in the Access to Work scheme, so can the Minister say how many people will be impacted and what the cost is of these new proposals? It is estimated that 1 million people will lose out. How are the Government intending to mitigate that? Will the PIP assessment framework change or stay as it currently is? Given the poor decision making on so many PIP assessments, what action is being taken to fix the flawed decision-making process and the assessment itself? How will the DWP ensure that the policy proposals do not remove vital protections against sanctions and risk pushing people further into poverty?”
“Instead, it found that they have a significant impact on the health and finances of those who have been sanctioned. There are real consequences to some of the Government’s actions. Nobody is arguing that scrapping the work capability assessment is not welcome. However, relying solely on the PIP assessment is not the solution, given the current experiences of PIP assessments, which show that they are deeply flawed; the DWP is losing or conceding in four out of five appeals. Moreover, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said yesterday that up to 1 million people currently on incapacity benefits could lose out as a result of scrapping the work capability assessment and relying on using PIP only.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. Although we know that most of the proposals set out in the White Paper will not be implemented until the next Parliament, a significant number of ill and disabled people will be impacted. We see the Government using a carrot-and-stick approach, which will leave many sick and disabled people with the stick and the real threat of the ramping up of sanctions, as indicated by the Chancellor during his Budget statement yesterday. Just this week the Information Commissioner’s Office ruled that the Department for Work and Pensions must release “sensitive” research into its sanctions regime following the Work and Pensions Committee report, which found that there is very little evidence that the sanctions work.”