James Murray
MP for Ealing North · Labour (Co-op) · United Kingdom
“I wonder whether any other Members might say that they have the most pubs in their constituency, or whether the hon. Lady has done her research. [Interruption.] I hear her saying that hers are the best pubs, a claim that even more Members may challenge in the Chamber. Although the hon.”
“The hon. Gentleman has some cheek, given the number of pubs that closed when his party was in government. The Labour party is making sure that the business rates system is set right for the future.”
“I think the hon. Gentleman’s point is that the price of fuel is linked to international events, which, as I said earlier, I very much agree with. That is why it is important that we de-escalate the situation in the strait of Hormuz, which is the best way to bring down the cost of fuel.”
“I know my hon. Friend is a great champion of pubs in her constituency. In fact, she has brought together people for her pub politics events, including at the Willy Wicket, the Beaufort Arms, the Baileys Court Inn—which I have been to—and the White Lion, where people come to talk about issues that matter to them.”
“I thank the hon. Gentleman for talking about the Station House in his constituency; I am sure we all have pubs in our own neighbourhoods that we feel are at the heart of the local communities that we represent. The 20% business rates cut that we announced was a down payment on further reform.”
“I agree with the hon. Lady about the importance of providing breathing space for families, which is a priority for us as a Government, and she mentioned her plans. I have set out what we have done since the general election to reduce fuel prices by 11p per litre compared with what they would have been otherwise.”
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“This Government are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our hard-working NHS staff, and we have set an ambition to reduce sickness absence to its lowest recorded level. As part of meeting that ambition, we have launched new staff standards to improve their working lives, and we will introduce staff treatment hubs to focus on the biggest causes of sickness absence.”
“The 10-year health plan committed to our ambition to reduce sickness absence from 5.1%, which it was in July 2025, to the lowest recorded level in the NHS, at approximately 4.1%. As I set out in my earlier remarks, staff standards cover health and wellbeing, line management, flexible working, tackling violence and racism, and championing sexual safety. The staff treatment hubs that I mentioned, which will be rolled out in 2027, will focus on mental health and back conditions, which are the main reasons for absence.”
“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. He is absolutely right to point to the record investment that this Labour Government are putting in, not just for the day-to-day running of the health service, but the critical capital investment, after the capital budget was starved for so many years under the Conservative party.”
“This Government will invest up to £10 billion in NHS technology and transformation by 2028-29. That includes ambient voice technology, which supports doctors to write up notes more quickly so that they can focus on patient care, and the single patient record, which will bring a patient’s health data into one secure system, limiting repetition across services. We will use technologies like these to free up staff time, so that they can spend more time on care and less on administration.”
“I put it on the record that my hon. Friend has been a most determined advocate for patients and staff at the North West Anglia NHS foundation trust, who clearly deserve better IT systems. We have agreed plans to replace the trust’s electronic patient record system and supporting infrastructure. We will go on to provide practical support and guidance, including help with costs, and we will pair the trust with other NHS organisations that have overcome similar issues in the past.”
“The hon. Lady makes a very compelling case for the investment that we are putting in to transform digital infrastructure in the NHS, because the single patient record—introduced through the Health Bill that is currently going through Parliament—will enable systems across the NHS to be linked up so that people will no longer have to repeat their stories time and again to different clinicians or people from whom they seek care. It also means that people will have their health records linked up when clinicians decide how to treat them. It is a win-win for patients and for clinicians when they are looking at the opportunities that the new technology provides.”
“The Health Bill, which is going through Parliament now, will restore clear accountability to the NHS. By abolishing NHS England, we are ending the confusion created by having two separate centres. Responsibility for national decision making will be brought back to Government, while local leaders will be empowered to deliver for their local communities.”
“I think it is fair to say that while Healthwatch has in some areas played an important role, it has fundamentally separated those listening to patients from those who have the power to make changes. Our reforms in the Health Bill will put patient voice at the heart of shaping services. Those responsible for commissioning services will hear directly from patients, service users and local people. ICBs will be required to publish an annual statement of how they have gathered feedback and what actions they have taken, while the new patient experience directorate in the Department of Health and Social Care will ensure that patient insight directly shapes national policymaking.”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising that important point. While I understand that the amendments he tabled will not be voted on today, they raise an important issue that I will continue to look further into. With the Hillsborough law now due to have its Commons stages completed today and then go over to the Lords, I very much hope that it will be in law as soon as possible, which means that we can apply the duty of candour to future maternity services reviews such as those in Leeds and Sussex. The situation that we had in Nottingham, where senior leadership refused to take part in the inquiry under way, was totally unacceptable and must never happen again.”
“As you know, Mr Speaker, the Minister for Secondary Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth), is not here this morning as she is attending the graduation of her son Will. I am sure that the whole House will join me in congratulating Will on his achievement. Since I last updated the House, we have opened a new meningitis B vaccination programme for 1 million young people, committed to extending Martha’s rule across all maternity services and resolved a long-running dispute with resident doctors. We have not wasted a second in strengthening and improving our health and social care system for people across the country, and in building an NHS that is fit for the future.”
“We want to improve the NHS estate across the country, and that is why we are increasing capital investment to £15 billion a year by 2028-29. I am happy to write to the hon. Lady with further details on the specific investment in her constituency.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for raising the situation. Clearly, we should ensure that NHS rooms are being used for the benefit of patients. On that specific case, I understand that Central East ICB is developing a plan to reoccupy the Houghton Regis health centre this month, but I am happy to discuss the detail with her.”
“I am proud of the fact that the waiting list for NHS services is more than 340,000 less than when we took office two years ago. People are being treated faster than ever before, satisfaction with GP services is increasing and we are making progress for people across this country. There is a lot more work to do, but we have laid the right foundations and are moving in the right direction.”
“The vast majority of people who come off the waiting list do so because they are receiving the care they need. I am confused: is the right hon. Gentleman advocating that people should stay on the waiting lists when they no longer need NHS care? Are the Opposition advocating that we should spend NHS resources chasing people who no longer need care, or should we keep the waiting lists up to date, as previous Governments have done, and ensure that everyone who needs care gets it?”
“We are determined to reduce waiting times across the country. Where there are cases of individual hospitals or trusts like the case my hon. Friend mentioned, we will send in teams from the national health service to help improve the service provided in local areas. It is also important that where trusts or hospitals have done well and have solved problems, their expertise goes to help other trusts and hospitals who need their support, because we want to ensure that the improvement in the NHS happens right across the country.”
“As the hon. Lady will know, I have committed to introducing a maternity and neonatal commissioner. I will meet the national taskforce, which I chair, later this afternoon to discuss the scope of the role to ensure that the taskforce has discussed it and is content with it. We will then ensure that we get that on a statutory footing as quickly as possible—I hope through the Health Bill, though that will be subject to discussions with the Commons and Lords authorities. But I want to ensure that the role is statutory and in place and can help us drive change through maternity services across the country.”
“I thank the hon. Lady for raising that important point and drawing attention to the impacts that iodine deficiency can have. I am happy to look into the matter further and respond to her in writing.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for raising this long-standing campaign, which I know is of great interest to many people in the Chamber. I welcome the fact that the trust, as I understand it, has now completed a feasibility study, which concluded that there is an evidence-based case to explore extending to a 24-hour emergency department. This work is now being developed with the ICB, and I look forward very much to seeing those proposals progress.”
“We want to ensure that hospitals in our new hospitals programme across the country are built as quickly as possible. We inherited a programme where there was no funding to deliver that, or funding that was completely unreasonable and with unrealistic delivery timescales. We have changed that to ensure that we have a clear programme with waves of delivery over the coming years. I am happy to look into the particular situation raised by the hon. Lady, but I emphasise that the lack of capital funding that our health service has had for so long began with funding being cut back under a Government of whom her party was a part.”
“Officials at the Department of Health and Social Care are looking closely at that matter, and will publish the Government response in due course.”
“The National Screening Committee plays a vital role in providing clinical and evidence-based advice on how to target screening programmes. In my time as Secretary of State over the past few months, the committee has made a number of recommendations, but the benefits of greater screening must be balanced with the risks of doing so, and I know that the National Screening Committee takes that responsibility seriously. I have clearly made the point that the committee must continue to keep its advice up to date and, as new diagnostic and treatment methods become available, it must ensure that its advice keeps pace with those.”
“The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about the loneliness often faced by people who are being treated for cancer—particularly for young people, whose loneliness can be acute when they are separated from their friendship groups and peers as they undergo treatment. I pay tribute to the work of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The Government want to ensure that we are working with that charity to provide a comprehensive service, not just on diagnosis and treatment but on the important emotional support that people across the board, particularly young people, need.”
“We should all feel a responsibility to ensure that this opportunity is not squandered. We owe nothing less to every family the NHS has failed in the past, and to every family who will rely on it in the future. I commend this statement to the House.”
“We need not only the right policies, procedures and processes to be in place, but a fundamental reset in the culture of a service that too often puts the desire to protect itself above its duty to protect women and babies. That culture change must come from the top. It is time for trust leaders, executives and senior clinicians to pay attention to what is happening on their watch, to put professional tribalism aside, to lose the bunker mentality when things go wrong and to ensure that the safety of women and babies always comes first. This has to be a watershed moment. We must break the cycle of recommendations sitting on a shelf gathering dust. We cannot go on having review after review while women and babies, as well as their fathers and other family members, continue needlessly to suffer injury, death and lasting trauma.”
“Alongside these practical measures comes a far more profound challenge that we must face. It is clear from my conversations with affected families, with Donna Ockenden and with Baroness Amos, and from the findings of all the reports, that culture is where so much of the responsibility lies. That culture is the most deep-rooted cause of the failures we have seen, and the most fundamental thing we must change. We know that when families have been in distress and looking for answers, they were too often ignored, sneered at, disbelieved, blamed and lied to. We know from review after review that wrongdoing is covered up and that bullying towards staff who try to sound the alarm is rife, so we will dismantle toxic dynamics, boost staff morale and support better teamwork between midwives, doctors and other clinicians.”
“Births that are safe for mothers and babies depend on health services having skilled, trained midwives. As Baroness Amos rightly identified, staff shortages can have a dangerous impact, with examples of some services being forced to delay admissions when they get too busy. Since coming to office, we have recruited 2,000 more midwives, and last year our graduate guarantee gave 850 more newly qualified midwives an immediate route into the profession. I can tell the House today that we have now created a further 1,000 temporary roles to help newly qualified midwives join the NHS. These new posts will be accompanied by investment, too, and I can confirm that we are investing an extra £41 million, on top of the £145 million already invested, to upgrade outdated and rundown maternity and neonatal facilities.”
“The result is that the risks are notably higher for some women and babies and, as Baroness Amos points out, this is a critical safety issue. Black babies are still more than twice as likely to be stillborn as white babies, and black women are almost three times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after birth than white women. While tackling inequalities will be a core component of the national action plan, we will make a start straightaway by rapidly expanding the roll-out of the perinatal equity and antidiscrimination programme to every trust. All teams will be mandated to receive hands-on support, to hear first-hand experience, and to undertake face-to-face learning and development programmes. Every trust will have completed the programme by the end of next year.”
“That meets a key and familiar concern that the Amos investigation pointed to: women not being listened to as a common factor in maternity failings. Because those concerns are too often batted away before women even arrive at hospital, I can today confirm that we will this week publish new national standards for maternity triage, so that care is consistent across the NHS and women’s concerns are recognised, valued and acted upon at every turn. I expect every trust to prioritise the implementation of these standards and I have asked NHS England to make sure that this is the case and to report progress directly to me. Some of the starkest examples of racism, discrimination and inequality happen in maternity and neonatal settings, as the Amos report laid bare.”
“She said that “accountability drives action”, so today I can confirm that, in response to these recommendations, the Government will appoint the first ever maternity and neonatal commissioner. The holder of this new statutory role will have responsibility for driving change across all parts of the NHS, including those who provide, regulate and investigate care. They will co-chair the national taskforce, along with me. They will hold the system to account, and their role will be to champion the voices of women, babies and families; to ensure that those voices are heard within Government when decisions are made and implemented. Last week I announced that the Government would roll out Martha’s rule, so that women and their families can demand a second opinion if they feel their concerns are being ignored.”
“Today’s recommendations from Baroness Amos include a proposal for a modern service framework in line with the 10-year health plan to support system change and drive consistent, quality care. Those recommendations, along with the national-level recommendations from Donna Ockenden, will feed into our plan, which will make sure that women and babies receive safe, compassionate care no matter where they live. But I do not want people to have to wait for the plan to be completed for us to start making progress, so I am also taking immediate measures in response to Baroness Amos’s investigation, which I shall now set out for the House. In considering Baroness Amos’s recommendations, the words of a Nottingham mother I met ring loudly in my ears.”
“When I read about those systemic failures, I found them not only shocking and upsetting but devastatingly familiar, because they are explicitly repeated in review after review. Baroness Amos found a system that is fragmented, overly complex and far too slow to learn. It needs to be radically overhauled. Last week I spoke about the need to avoid having review recommendations accepted but then sitting on a shelf gathering dust. Other hon. Members agreed with the need to break that cycle, so that is what we will do. As I told the House last week, the national maternity and neonatal taskforce, which I chair, will create a comprehensive action plan by the end of this year.”
“That investigation has been carried out by Baroness Amos, whose report is published today. I put on record my thanks to her and her team for the comprehensive and compassionate way they have carried out their work. The Amos investigation gathered evidence from more than 10,500 people, with Baroness Amos and her team personally meeting more than 450 affected families. They visited 12 NHS trusts and heard from over 9,000 staff through surveys, site visits and one-to-one discussions. Although they found that many women experience good and safe care, the report paints a bleak picture of failings at every stage for too many: from pregnancy, labour and delivery to the first hours, days and weeks after birth.”
“I know from meeting some of the Nottingham families that their unwavering determination is accompanied by a sense of exhaustion—a sense that however many times they have told their stories, however hard they have campaigned for justice and accountability, and however strongly they have fought to stop what happened to them from happening to others, hardly anything has changed. That feeling will be shared by mothers and their families up and down the country who have suffered so appallingly too, and there will be deep sadness and distress as they are forced to relive their trauma. The burden they bear must sit with us all. That is why my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) decided last year to announce a national investigation into maternity and neonatal services.”
“There were also other reviews and reports over the years on specific issues related to maternity care, and it is deeply upsetting to recognise that Donna Ockenden is preparing to undertake further reviews into failings in Leeds and Sussex. Despite all the warnings, the NHS is still failing women, babies and their families on a scale that shames our society. Bereaved and harmed families are hearing once again the unbearably painful and distressing consequences of the opportunities that have been missed to put things right. As I stand here, I think of how they must be feeling.”
“With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall make a statement on the national maternity and neonatal investigation. Less than a week ago, I stood at this Dispatch Box to respond to the report by Donna Ockenden that exposed devastating failings over more than a decade in Nottingham. As many right hon. and hon. Members rightly made clear following my statement, the shocking report into what had happened was far from the first: in 2015 we learnt of the failures at Morecambe Bay; in 2022 we were appalled to hear about what had happened at Shrewsbury and Telford; and that same year the Kirkup inquiry exposed failings in East Kent.”
“That will vary depending on needs in local areas. The right hon. Gentleman also spoke about the importance of identifying women who are at higher risk because of different circumstances or problems they may face in giving birth. That is exactly what I hope the new triage standards will begin to address. If the triage standards can identify issues before they escalate and ensure that women get the right support more quickly, we will have an opportunity to avoid the extra, avoidable harm caused to women by delays in getting the right support. The shadow Secretary of State closed his remarks by talking again about the need for a change in culture. He talked about the support from the Opposition, who will of course robustly challenge us where appropriate but support the aims that we are seeking to achieve. I thank him for that.”
“I reassure him that my vision is for the commissioner to play a crucial role, but not on their own: they will co-chair the national taskforce with me, help to ensure that the national action plan is implemented, hold the system to account and, crucially, be a voice for women in the system. One way of the Government starting to address the issue of women being ignored in maternity services—an issue I have heard about so many times—is by ensuring that the commissioner is a voice for them when decisions are taken. The temporary roles are an immediate step this year to ensure that newly qualified midwives have a way into making a contribution to NHS maternity services. Funding for those will be baselined in future years, and trusts will decide, trust by trust, how the funding is distributed among different roles.”
“Those critical safety measures are important, but the action plan will set out a more comprehensive approach not just for the physical infrastructure, but for the culture, which we have spoken about many times. We cannot invest money in culture in the same way as we can do so in physical infrastructure, but it is something that we need to address. We all agree on that. I sense that I had agreement from the House when I raised the importance of addressing cultural problems in maternity services. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the responsibility being placed on the commissioner as just one person.”
“Gentleman asked about the roll-out of the new national triage standards, which will be published this week. The NHS England chief executive is meeting with NHS system leaders today to begin the process of ensuring that the triage standards, along with some of the other urgent measures that I have spoken about today, are rolled out. Although it is right to take time to get the comprehensive action plan in place by the end of the year, we do not want to waste time before we get on with the measures that we have decided should progress more quickly. NHS England leadership is progressing with those today. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the funding for critical safety works in the maternity estate.”
“That will ensure that we do not have a situation in which the plan is developed and future reviews come to conclusions or recommendations without a clear way for those to be integrated into the action plan. I hope that that gives him some reassurance over the process. The right hon. Gentleman spoke about recognising families who have been harmed, as well as babies who survived and have grown up into children and adults while living with the harm of failings in maternity care. I am very conscious of them, not least because of the people I have met who sometimes feel forgotten or feel that their children are forgotten when we have these conversations. They live with the impact of brain injuries or other issues that arise during birth. They must not be forgotten, and I will ensure that they are included in the process. The right hon.”
“I thank the shadow Secretary of State not only for his questions, but for his tone and approach. When I gave the statement about Donna Ockenden’s report last week, we all agreed that the responsibility to deliver real change is shared by everyone in this House, so I appreciate his approach. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the investigations in Leeds and Sussex, to which Donna Ockenden will be turning her attention over the rest of this year. It might be helpful for the House to understand that in developing a comprehensive action plan through the national taskforce, a framework will be devised so that any recommendations from future reviews can be incorporated into that plan and its implementation.”
“I very much agree with him on the importance of ensuring that the Hillsborough law gets on the statute book so that this duty of candour can apply to future maternity investigations.”
“On what we can do to change that culture, culture is deep-rooted and requires us to take a number of different actions, but the duty of candour is the single most powerful change we can make clearly, loudly and publicly, because the message it will send to senior clinicians thinking about what to do in the future if they make a mistake, or if they are tempted to cover up things that go wrong, is that one day they will be held to account, and there is no avoiding that. With a duty of candour in place, there will no longer be an opportunity for clinicians, in particular senior clinicians, to refuse to engage in that process, to refuse to be held to account and be part of the justice process. People will face up to two years in prison if they refuse to co-operate, so it is a serious measure.”
“I thank my right hon. Friend for his comments, and again put on record my thanks and tribute to him for having initiated the investigation that Baroness Amos published today. He has been a committed champion of change in maternity services in this country. I could not agree with my right hon. Friend more about the importance of accountability in culture change. Without accountability, we will not have culture change across maternity services, and the culture of cover-ups will continue. Senior clinicians will feel that they can continue to get away with any mistakes. They will feel that they can avoid scrutiny when investigations take place, and will continue, in too many cases, to be more concerned with protecting themselves than with protecting women and babies.”
“I think that we would all agree that there is not—one, two, three—a small number of actions that we need to take; this has to be a comprehensive plan to truly transform the service.”
“I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, and she puts it well when she talks about Baroness Amos’s investigation confirming our worst fears. I was shocked but not surprised, sadly, to read the investigation report. It was devastatingly familiar to read what it set out as being the failings across the country. The report’s recommendations will now become part of the work of the taskforce, which I chair, to produce the comprehensive action plan by the end of this year. My intention is that the taskforce will take all the national recommendations from Baroness Amos’s report, as well as the national-level recommendations from Donna Ockenden’s report last week and recommendations from any other investigations and reports, and ensure that the action plan it produces comprehensively addresses all the issues raised.”
“As I mentioned during my earlier statement, we will begin by ensuring that the perinatal equity and anti-discrimination programme is extended to all trusts by the end of next year, but that is an immediate measure we are taking rather than the sum of all measures that we will take on this front. Inequality, racism and discrimination will be a central part of the action plan that the taskforce develops.”
“I thank my right hon. Friend for her comments and agree about how shocking the failures in maternity services are, particularly because these failings and the failure to listen to women happens at a point when they are at their most vulnerable. It is at that moment when they are let down. When they need the NHS the most is when the NHS fails them, and that is one aspect of this that makes it truly devastating. My right hon. Friend also rightly highlights the impact on black women and their babies, who are at more risk than white women and their babies, and the inequalities that exposes.”
“Gentleman’s specific point about the Hillsborough law and how that will address the issue that he refers to about legal departments effectively advising a cover-up, that sounds concerning, so I will look into that as part of our work to ensure that the system works properly. The expectation with the duty of candour, which will come in under the Hillsborough law, is to ensure that we never again have a situation as happened in Nottingham—I could not quite believe it, if I am honest—where many senior clinicians simply refused to take part. It is outrageous. It is unacceptable that so many senior clinicians were able to, and felt able to, just say no. That is not accountability if it is optional, and that is what we need to change.”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his comments. Again, I agree with him and my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) on the importance of accountability for changing culture. During the statement on Donna Ockenden’s report last week, he commented that this is about having accountability structures embedded throughout the system, because this is not something that the top of the NHS, the NHS chief executive, the Secretary of State or the ministerial team can control throughout the NHS. The structure has to be embedded to ensure that accountability happens at every level—something I very much took to heart and agree with when it comes to what we need to do next. On the right hon.”