Ms Abena Oppong-Asare
MP for Erith and Thamesmead · Labour · United Kingdom
“I thank the Secretary of State and her team for their work on this matter, but I want to understand better how the Government will look at social media companies to make sure that there is transparency in the algorithms they are using and that they are not continuing to target children.”
“I speak to so many women and girls who have been let down and whose mental and physical health have been damaged. This must stop. The upcoming women’s health strategy must be more than a document; it must be a manifesto for revolutionary change—what is the point of it otherwise?”
“We need every employer to be aware of menstrual health, to have proper systems of support in place in the workplace, to have period products available for free, and to recognise that if a woman needs time off because of their blinding pain, they are not making it up. I welcome the work of the TUC and the trade unions in this area.”
“For women who menstruate, their experience of asking for advice or even medical treatment is routinely dismal—ask any woman from their school days onwards. It is a nightmare of stigma, shame and a failure of the NHS to help.”
“The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists further noted: “There is an immense societal pressure on women and girls to conceal their periods due to beliefs that menstruation is unhygienic or unclean, and talking openly about periods is often not considered as a social norm.” We live in a modern-day society with an openness to a…”
“We might wonder, “Why are women of colour waiting longer?” Well, I am afraid to say that we suffer discrimination in the health system. Our pain is dismissed and our concerns are ignored.”
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“Jewish, Irish and Asian communities, as well as the settled white communities, worked alongside the African-Caribbean communities.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for that suggestion; she has done a lot of work in that area. I know the Black Cultural Archives really well, having visited it on many occasions over the years. I, too, am concerned, and I will be happy to work with Ministers, alongside my hon. Friend, to look at ensuring that its legacy continues. It was a special honour to join Mr Speaker last week in Speaker’s House to mark Black History Month—it was truly a hot ticket. It was a pleasure to hear my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) speak on that occasion. She reminded us of the terrible hate that black Britons faced in the 1950s and 1960s, and how working-class communities came together to protect one another when the fascists came to town.”
“But there is one more Ghanaian person I must mention, as I always do in this month: Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, the co-ordinator of special projects for the Greater London Council, who organised the first recognition of this month in 1987. In the 1970s, he had seen the Americans celebrate black history and believed that Britain should do something similar.”
“I completely agree. I mentioned how in the past different communities have come together alongside the African-Caribbean community, for example to fight the blackshirts, the National Front, and the British National party. These are the shoulders on which many of us stand. Alongside Bernie Grant and my fellow Ghanaian —and great friend—Lord Paul Boateng, they lit the path for so many of us to walk down. I do not want the House to think I am only going to mention those of Ghanaian descent, even though we make the best jollof rice—do not let my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) tell you any different.”
“We will continue to listen to the voices of Windrush, honour their contribution to this country and seek redress for the scandal that has engulfed so many of them. At last —after too long—the Windrush generation will see some measure of justice. I am proud to open this debate, but I am not satisfied with where we are. We have a long way to go. Yes, I am interested in black history, but I am also interested in black futures. That is why we need lasting change, real reform, solid progress, and a never-ending quest for justice.”
“Earlier in my speech, I mentioned the Windrush generation; we have been calling for justice for those treated so terribly by previous Governments, including the full implementation of the recommendations of the Wendy Williams review. I have called for that in the House multiple times, and I am pleased that today, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has announced that the Government will fulfil their manifesto commitments in full. We will appoint a Windrush commissioner to oversee compensation and act as a trusted voice; we will establish a new Windrush unit in the Home Office to drive things forward; and we are injecting £1.5 million into a programme of grant funding for organisations to support people’s applications for compensation. This will speed up and clarify processes that have been shamefully slow and difficult.”
“Currently, black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be detained under that Act, and over seven times more likely to be subject to a community treatment order. We must urgently address this issue. We will also tackle the abhorrent maternal health gap. In England, the risk of maternal death is nearly three times as high for black women and twice as high for Asian women as it is for white women. It is a grave injustice that there are such stark inequalities in maternal outcomes, and this Government are committed to closing the maternal mortality gap. In so many other areas, the Government are making changes that will improve lives.”
“It is when the successful black business executive is mistaken for the cleaner, when the qualified jobseeker is blocked because of their surname, or when the political candidate is told, “This seat is not for the likes of you.” That is why this Government are committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity as part of our mission-led Government, and why we strive for opportunity for all in education, work, public life, and in every community and part of the UK. I believe that the Government’s wide-ranging legislative programme will start to address many of the injustices that scar our society. The Bill on equality in race and disability will introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for employers with over 250 employees. We will reform the Mental Health Act 1983.”
“I said we have come a long way—and we have—but the path of progress does not run straight and true. Progress can be reversed and set back. Social media provides a new platform for old hatreds. The scourge of racism is given new life through social media—each one of us faces it every day online. In our communities too, racism is real, and the struggle against it is real. It is not just overt racism; it is also the damaging effect of racism in our institutions. It is the routine micro-aggressions that black MPs and black staff face every day, and the hateful language in parts of our media.”
“Of course, no one political party has a monopoly on trailblazers; I know that Opposition Members will want to mention the black trailblazers from their own parties and political traditions. Since the general election in July, we can celebrate the most diverse Parliament in our history, making this House look and sound far closer to the diverse communities we represent. Such representation matters. If the nation’s children look at our Parliament and do not see women and men who look and sound like them, then they will assume that Parliament is not of them or for them; they will assume that the rulers are one thing and the ruled something else. I do not need to tell the House how damaging that is to democracy, or how populists thrive and democracies die. It is not about ticking boxes; it is about ballot boxes.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for raising that, and I am glad she took the cautious path by not saying that Ghanaian jollof rice is not the best—she knows it is. I echo her points and I will be paying tribute to those MPs later in my speech. The stories we will hear this afternoon are our stories. We have come a long way since the 1980s, when we first celebrated Black History Month. We celebrate the trail- blazers today. I have mentioned the first black Mother of the House, the first black Minister and Cabinet Minister, Paul Boateng, and Baroness Lawrence. I must also mention Baroness Amos in the other place, who became the first black woman to serve in Cabinet. She is from my area, the borough of Bexley, and inspires me every day.”
“This Government recognise the importance of long-term, sustainable resilience, which is why the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will chair a dedicated Cabinet Committee on the subject. In response to the “UK Covid-19 Inquiry: Resilience and preparedness (Module 1)” report, the Government committed themselves to considering all its findings and recommendations, and announced that we would carefully review our strategic approach to improving resilience and preparation across central Government, local authorities, communities such as my hon. Friend’s, and the emergency services.”
“I welcome my hon. Friend to his place, and thank him for his earlier public service in the Royal Marines. I agree with the points that he has raised, and I, too, thank the key workers for all that they did to support and protect us during the pandemic. The Government will certainly ensure that lessons are learned from the inquiry and the response to the pandemic, and we will take the necessary time to consider the inquiry’s report and assess our resilience in respect of the full range of risks that the United Kingdom faces. Last week the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster announced that he would chair a committee for resilience, which will improve our health sector, increasing public trust in the Government and kick-starting our economic growth, as well as improving resilience across the UK.”
“I thank the right hon. Member for his question. As I said, it is important that, as a Government, we work strongly together across the UK. As the Prime Minister mentioned on day one, he will be working with his devolved Government counterparts, and he has announced a Council of the Nations and Regions. That will include our working across all civil service departments to make sure that we learn from the lessons of the past.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for the question; I know that the issue is close to his heart, as it is to mine. The publication of the report will mark an important milestone for the Grenfell community, and Parliament will have the opportunity to provide the full and proper scrutiny that the issues deserve. As my hon. Friend said, it is important that bereaved families are also part of that process, and we will work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that all those residents are part of it. The Government will do everything possible to drive the change to ensure that lessons are learned and that a tragedy such as the Grenfell Tower fire can never happen again.”
“The Government recognise that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups and minority communities and that it will continue to affect many people. It is essential that we review the way we prepare for future emergencies to minimise disproportionate impacts. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will chair a dedicated Cabinet Committee on resilience to oversee the work of assessing and improving our national resilience. We are putting people at the centre of the Government’s missions and we will learn the lessons of covid-19.”
“First, let me thank my hon. Friend and his family for walking across the country to raise awareness of child poverty during the pandemic. The Government recognise the disruption to education caused by the pandemic and the different access to online learning and IT equipment. We are committed to learning lessons from the past and making improvements for the future. In the immediate term, the Government have invested in delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. We are investing £5 billion as part of this project to ensure that the hardest-to-reach areas across the UK, such as my hon. Friend’s constituency, receive coverage.”
“There is a clear yearning from the public, especially our young people, to end the stigma and treat mental health with the same urgency as physical health. We must transform that pressure into action.”
“We cannot discuss the topic of mental health without talking about the long-awaited reform of the Mental Health Act 1983. Labour has committed to include reform of the Act in our first King’s Speech. The Tories promised those reforms in their 2017 and 2019 manifestos, but have failed time and time again to deliver. The treatment of people with autism and learning disabilities under this outdated legislation disgraces our society, and the way in which black people are disproportionately impacted is indefensible. This law is not fit for purpose and needs to change. If elected, Labour will change it. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle for bringing forward the debate. I also want to make it clear how inspiring it has been to witness the widespread and positive contribution of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, this week.”
“For example, we need a prevention-based approach, where people can access mental health support in the community when they first need it, rather than wait until they reach crisis point. Prevention is not only socially just but economically efficient, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle mentioned. It saves lives and it saves money. Labour will give the NHS the staff it needs by recruiting 8,500 more mental health specialists to cut waiting lists and waiting times. We will also provide mental health support in every school and an open-access mental health hub for children and young people in every community. Those plans will be fully paid for by abolishing tax loopholes for private equity managers and ending tax breaks for private schools.”
“Britain has become unwell, with millions languishing on waiting lists and far too many living in conditions of poverty, poor housing and financial insecurity that worsen their mental health. We cannot stand by as the crisis continues, which is why we need to address the challenges together. As has been mentioned, we need to work across Departments in Whitehall and oh so directly at the heart of our communities. A Labour Government will do that by injecting resources and reforming NHS mental health services. We cannot just turn around at the shocking figures that my colleagues have produced in this debate; we have to completely overhaul the way that our country approaches mental health.”
“A recent report by Centre for Mental Health estimated that the crisis is costing us £300 billion a year, which is twice as big as NHS England’s annual budget. Suicide is the biggest killer in this country. The rates are the same as they were 20 years ago, and they are rising. When it comes to those with long-term physical and mental health conditions, we must be particularly concerned. Far too many people are leaving the labour market, and many are no longer able to work. Work is good for mental health and can bring pride, fulfilment and purpose, yet the number of people out of work because of long-term sickness is at a staggering all-time high of 2.8 million. The reality is that this crisis has occurred under successive Tory Governments.”
“However, while we celebrate the progress that has been made, we cannot overlook the scale of the challenges that we face. Sadly, I have to say that after 14 years in office, this Government have failed to deliver the mental health services that our country desperately needs and deserves. It has never been as bad as it is today: I hear that time and again from the patients, families and NHS frontline staff who I have been fortunate to meet since I was appointed to this role. The statistics on the crisis are clear. More than 1.9 million people are waiting for mental health treatment. Almost 1 million children and young people in England were referred to mental health services last year, and more than 33,000 children and young people are still waiting, after two years, for a first contact from community mental health services.”
“I pay tribute to all the fantastic mental health charities that are fighting the fight and leading the way across the UK. They include the Mental Health Foundation, Mind, Centre for Mental Health, Rethink Mental Illness, the Samaritans, YoungMinds and many more. Alongside those brilliant charities, this week we have observed schools, universities, businesses, community groups and many other organisations coming together, including here in Parliament, to raise awareness of the importance of our mental health and combatting the lingering stigma that remains in our society. I put on the record my thanks to the House of Commons Library for its research in the area. In recent years, talking about mental health has finally stepped out of the shadows, and we are better off as a result.”
“She focused on the difficulties facing those with rare conditions and highlighted the powerful statistic that 3.5 million people—one in 17—are impacted. She talked about a parent who said that you end up fighting battles that you did not really know existed. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr for sharing his personal experience. He talked about issues relating to transplants and about how his transplant has changed his life, as well as the impact on the mental health of patients who go through dialysis. He also talked about how 67% of kidney patients experience depression and 68% are not offered any mental health support. It is fitting that we are addressing this crucial topic in Mental Health Awareness Week.”
“I was particularly touched by how he talked about the impact of limited access to mental health support and poor palliative healthcare. He said that he did a Cook’s tour of what all the organisations have said, and I hope the Minister takes the words of those organisations on board. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Blaydon (Liz Twist) and for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr Mahmood) for their contributions. My hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on rare, genetic and undiagnosed conditions, talked about how different conditions have impacted people. If improvements could be made in conditions like diabetes and Parkinson’s, people’s mental health could improve.”
“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Robert. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) for securing this important debate. I know that this is a topic very close to his heart, particularly as he is an officer of the all-party parliamentary health group. He recently gave a keynote speech about mental health and wellbeing for the NHS and social care for Westminster Insight. Today he has highlighted a number of important issues and concerns regarding mental health and long- term conditions. I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Opposition. My hon. Friend raised many of his points in the words of organisations that have done a lot of work and research into how long-term conditions impact individuals.”
“Not only will it deliver real change to mental health services across the country, but it will deliver 8,500 new mental health specialists, mental health support in every school and open-access mental health hubs in every community. Those fully funded and game-changing policies will make a real difference to tackling the mental health crisis that we face. As we have heard, health and wellbeing services in Essex and across the country are facing extreme challenges. If we are privileged to get into government, Labour is determined to make a real difference for the people of Essex and this country by delivering more GPs, midwives, health visitors and mental health support and cutting waiting lists and times. We will deliver a mission-driven Government and break out of the current doom loop.”
“The Government must treat those incidences as a wake-up call and act in the light of the soaring number of investigations to prevent any further suffering or loss of life. In recent years, one of the ways the Government could have acted would have been to deliver a reformed mental health Act. Reforms would have finally modernised legislation to strengthen people’s rights and choices within mental health settings. That was a manifesto pledge by the Government, and the Bill is ready to go—“oven-ready” as some on the Government Benches might have said previously. There is no excuse for the delay, but the Government have failed to get it done and deliver those much-needed changes. Labour has committed to introducing such a Bill in our first King’s Speech.”
“The Guardian reported today that bereaved families have accused the Minister of dragging their feet over the inquiry into the death of almost 2,000 patients across NHS mental health trusts in Essex. I hope to hear from him about when that meeting is scheduled to take place and when the inquiry’s terms of reference are scheduled to be published. I urge the Government to do all they can to ensure that the inquiry finally provides answers for the bereaved families, who have been waiting for far too long. While we are most determined to find answers to the specific inquiry, we must be clear that poor mental health services and standards are worryingly prevalent across other parts of the country. We continue to hear of other tragedies in mental health services; those are unacceptable.”
“It is clear that more needs to be done to improve care and safety in maternity services in England. The Essex mental health inquiry has been covered in this debate, and I praise the grieving families and hard-working campaigners for their efforts in securing a statutory inquiry. In particular, I want to honour Melanie Leahy, whose son Matthew died more than 10 years ago in a mental health unit in Essex. She has never given up hope of getting justice and fighting to improve mental health provision in Essex and across the country, and she is an inspiration to us all. Labour welcomed the announcement at that time, and I hope to hear an update from the Government today about progress on the Lampard inquiry. The Secretary of State offered to meet families last year, but that has yet to happen.”
“However, the reality is that the Government have failed in achieving most of the waiting list and waiting time targets since 2010. Unfortunately, that is a result of 14 years of successive Conservative Governments running the NHS. I will quickly reflect on the worrying state of maternal health services in Essex. We face a crisis in maternity services across the country, with the CQC rating two out of three maternity units dangerously substandard. For the people of Essex, all but one maternity hospital unit is failing. Following the release of the final Ockenden report nearly two years ago, I urge the Minister to respond on the Government’s progress on implementing the report’s immediate and essential actions in trusts across the country. Safe care for women, babies and their families must be the top priority for our Government.”
“It found that medical care had deteriorated, with waiting times not meeting national standards and patients not accessing services when they needed them. The people of Essex deserve better care. They deserve to be seen on time, and to have local hospitals providing quality care for them when they need it most. In recent years, elective waiting lists have risen sharply in every region and area of England. However, there are large geographical differences, with the east of England being one of worst affected areas. When we compare the figures with January 2020, the waiting list at the end of last year was 113% higher in the east of England. At the start of last year, the Prime Minister made a promise to the country to get NHS waiting lists down. Last month, he admitted the obvious—that he had failed.”
“Ultimately, the NHS has lost the equivalent of 1,830 full-time, fully qualified GPs since 2015. There is a GP shortage crisis, and Essex is unfortunately on its frontline. When we break down the numbers of patients per GP in the UK, Mid and South Essex ICB is worse than anywhere else in the country—I do not dispute that. There is one GP for every 2,281 patients. Staff shortages are a vicious cycle that leads to worsening outcomes, and we must train thousands more GPs to finally end that cycle. If we do not, we risk allowing the health of our nation, and the health of the people of Essex, to just get worse. It is also worrying that the Care Quality Commission warned Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust last summer over failings in three Essex hospitals.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Henderson. I thank the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel) for securing this important debate; I know this is something she is passionate about. She highlighted a number of important issues and concerns regarding health and wellbeing services in her constituency and across Essex, and I am pleased to respond on the Opposition’s behalf. I also thank other hon. Members for their contributions to the debate; I have found it very insightful. I will start with GPs, as securing the future of general practice is integral to the future of the NHS as a whole. GPs are vital to their communities and contribute hugely to keeping the nation healthy. However, the Government have broken their promise to recruit more than 6,000 GPs in the last five years.”
“NHS figures from December show that the number of women waiting for gynaecological treatment reached another record high of nearly 600,000. That number has tripled since 2012. A Labour Government will cut NHS waiting lists in England by funding 2 million more appointments a year. What can the Minister say to the women waiting urgently for treatment?”
“We cannot continue to lurch from crisis to crisis, which is what is currently happening. We must look at how we can build a new, solid, long-term foundation for a resilient health and care system, with an NHS that is truly fit for the future.”
“We face a mental health crisis in this country, and we must have a Government that acknowledge that and will take urgent action. That is why Labour have committed to a child health action plan, with a bold ambition for this to be the healthiest generation of children ever. We will recruit thousands more mental health staff to cut waiting lists and ensure that more people can access treatment. We will focus on prevention, early diagnosis, early intervention and timely treatment near where people live. To do that, we will put an open-access mental health hub for children and young people in every community, and a mental health specialist in every school. That will be paid for by abolishing tax loopholes for private equity fund managers and tax breaks for private schools.”
“They mentioned the lack of monitoring of the effectiveness of treatment being provided. Is the Minister aware that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has published guidance for healthcare professionals to support the development of specialist skills and knowledge to assess and treat people with eating disorders? What are the Government doing to ensure that that guidance is embedded in primary care and emergency departments? The Opposition recognise that, when it comes to eating disorders and all mental health issues, prevention is so important, and early prevention provides the best chance of recovery. Too many people, especially our children and young people, are stuck on mental health waiting lists for months or years instead of receiving the urgent care that they need.”
“When children and young people with urgent cases of eating disorders wait more than 12 weeks to start treatment, the severity of the current crisis cannot be overlooked. I also want to raise the important issue of providing adequate care to adults. As highlighted by the HSJ report last year, the deaths of 19 eating disorder patients, with at least 15 of those being deemed avoidable, demonstrated an urgent need to improve eating disorder provision. What more are the Government doing to address those concerns and ensure that all those patients receive the quality of care that they deserve? I also want to touch on some of the points mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam, and the hon. Member for Bath.”
“However, as cases have risen, services have struggled to match the demand, which means more waiting in anguish for longer. In 2015, the Government introduced new waiting times and access standards for community-based eating disorder services for children and young people. That included targets for one-week urgent treatment and four-week routine treatment, but those targets have never been met. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell us what will be done to address that failure. Meeting those targets is much needed. Instead of meeting those targets last year, one in five patients with non-urgent referrals were not seen within four weeks, and one in three patients with urgent referrals were not seen within a week.”
“This year, Beat has focused its attention on another important issue that has often been overlooked—avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. It can affect anyone of any age, and Beat has estimated that the number of people with that disorder in the UK could be over 200,000. It can be very difficult to diagnose, and as Beat has highlighted, the information available to those seeking help can be very limited, which echoes what has been said by hon. Members today about parents and carers not having sufficient information on how to address these issues. For example, it has been highlighted that eight in 10 eating disorder service providers do not state on their website whether they offer ARFID care. The data clearly shows that such cases, like all eating disorders, have surged in recent years across the UK.”
“The NHS figures suggest that the proportion of those aged 17 to 19 with an eating disorder stands at 12%, which is up from just 0.8% six years ago. Hospital admissions are double what they were a decade ago, and last year the awareness week focused on the specific challenges for men. I also want to quickly echo the point made my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam, as well as other Members, on the importance of recognising that eating disorders do not discriminate. They affect any age, ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic background. It is important to highlight those facts when continuing to break down the stigmas and stereotypes that prevent so many people from reaching out and receiving much needed help.”
“Eating disorders are responsible for more loss of life than any other mental health condition, as has been said. Unfortunately, as we have seen with the statistics raised in the debate, it is increasingly becoming quite common. The sooner someone receives treatment, the better their chances for making a full and sustained recovery, yet that is often not the case. It is a credit to the many campaigners and parliamentary colleagues in this room who have been working on this, along with vital charities, such as Beat, that we can say progress has been made in awareness and support. However, as we continue to face the severe consequences of the pandemic, we see a mental health crisis across our country. We all know that so much more urgently needs to be done.”
“Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam, who talked passionately about her constituent, who said she was “reduced to numbers” before receiving help. She also highlighted something that hit home with me when she spoke about how her constituent had said that no one should be “left to a medical emergency” before getting help, and that there should be standardised treatment for this particular matter. I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Opposition to mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week. As many people in the room will be aware, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that can have severe consequences. It is estimated that over 1 million people in the UK live with an eating disorder, and the reality is that for far too long, those suffering have been ignored.”
“Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), who talked passionately about the impact that eating disorders have on individuals and highlighted the fact that we need to understand the impact they have on people’s lives, including at work. He also talked about the huge spike in hospitalisation figures. I want to touch on some of the points mentioned by the hon. Member for Bath, who used powerful statistics to make the growing problem of eating disorders hit home. She highlighted the disparity between areas in how high up the agenda the issue is—it is not always high up the agenda—and talked about the importance of carers and parents knowing more about the condition so they can help to address it. That was echoed by my hon.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I want to start by praising the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) and my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake). They are true champions of those suffering from eating disorders or mental health issues, especially our children and young people. I congratulate them on securing the debate and on their excellent contributions, as well as their continued work through the APPG on eating disorders to help champion this issue. They have put this issue on the national radar and have worked effectively cross-party to try to eradicate the epidemic of eating disorders. I also thank my right hon.”
“On the Minister’s point about getting waiting time targets down to one week, those targets were implemented in 2015, and they are yet to be met. Could the Minister explain what work is being done to address that, because he just mentioned those same targets again?”
“I just want to add to the point made by the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) about hubs. What work will be done to ensure that the data is captured to see how the growing problem of eating disorders can be addressed and what effective treatments could slow the increase?”
“On UNRWA funding, I want to follow up on his comments that we are up to date and waiting on the report. Can he give some assurances today that the Government will commit to bringing back the funding? What are the timescales on that?”