Stephen O'Brien: It is a privilege to follow the right hon. Member for Neath (Mr Hain) as he and I share something a little unusual, in that we have travelled from remote parts of Africa to find ourselves both sent to this place and now departing on the same day. The abruptness of my departure is matched by the abruptness of my arrival in a by-election 16 years ago, when the present Leader of the House was...
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department's spend on malaria control was in 2013-14.
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2015 to Question 225373, if he will make it his policy that GPs should be able to commission cervical smear tests for diagnostic purposes to investigate presenting symptoms outside the routine screening timeframes; and what additional opportunities there are for patients to be tested for diagnostic purposes outside...
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will change guidelines on cervical smear tests to permit GPs to conduct such tests on women outside of routine screening time frames, if the GP believes that such tests are necessary to investigate presenting symptoms.
Stephen O'Brien: My right hon. Friend will be aware that the proposals from the panel the Prime Minister co-chaired included 12 universal goals and national targets, which have been taken forward in the brief that Ban Ki-Moon issued six months later. My right hon. Friend will be aware, given the point that has been made by the Opposition, that three or four of those goals refer specifically to energy and...
Stephen O'Brien: It was Lord Lipsey who opposed it. Labour!
Stephen O'Brien: I welcome this debate and am enthusiastic about the opportunity to discuss what should come after the success of the MDGs and SDGs in galvanising the world in this regard. I was naturally saddened by the tone of, and some of the expressions in, the motion, which are unnecessarily divisive. I had not intended to use up any of my six minutes on that point as I do not wish to descend to that...
Stephen O'Brien: As the Secretary of State knows, I had some involvement in the decision on Burundi. The shadow Minister cites Burundi. She should be aware that there was a specific project on which we were asked to deliver on a bilateral basis. It was a very effective project, because we delivered to the Office Burundais des Recettes—the inland revenue—so that it could start to mobilise some of its...
Stephen O'Brien: rose—
Stephen O'Brien: As I am sure the hon. Lady is aware, the amazing, incredible leadership of the United Kingdom, straddling both parties’ times in office, is much admired around the world. I happen to have just come back from speaking at an event in Davos, where our leadership, through a unity of approach across the House, was greatly admired because of our ability to get things done and our amazing...
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support is in place for the provision of public health initiatives in localities considered by Public Health England to have a high prevalence of hepatitis C.
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what financial incentives are available for primary and secondary public health providers for screening programmes to improve diagnosis rates of hepatitis C in (a) localities considered by Public Health England to have a high prevalence of hepatitis C and (b) Cheshire.
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that all monies received from industry rebate payments under the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme are utilised for the prescribing of medicines by NHS England.
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of industry rebate payments under the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) on improving patients' access to innovative medicines; and what estimate he has made of the additional number of innovative medicines prescribed as a result of those payments.
Stephen O'Brien: On behalf of all Members, I thank the Secretary of State for the outstanding tone and substance of the statement. I hope the Solicitors Regulation Authority will restore some standing to the profession of which I am a member, as we are all ashamed of the actions of certain members of it in the background. Will he discuss with the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary whether there has been...
Stephen O'Brien: The Minister is absolutely right. Harking back to when ICAI was created, it was clear in the view of the Minister at the time that ultimately, there should be no prescription as to what should then happen. That gave the power back to the House. Ultimately, it was all about the potential for political embarrassment. The target had either been hit or it had not, and the Government could expect...
Stephen O'Brien: The shadow Minister makes an important point. I am sure the Minister will want to address the question he has asked. However, the advantage of “value for money” is that if it was purely a matter of certifying the assessment of ODA-qualifying money and what percentage had been achieved against GNI, there is a danger—a suspicion even, particularly among those who are not as comfortable...
Stephen O'Brien: It might be helpful to ensure that we add that it is not unique to ICAI to have an independent ability to evaluate those expenditures on international development. That is why the generic drafting is helpful. For instance, on value for money, and those increasingly thematic approaches to evaluation, the Public Accounts Committee did an evaluation on the expenditures on malaria control, which...
Stephen O'Brien: I rise to lend my wholehearted support to the Minister’s proposal. He has obviously had helpful and constructive discussions with the promoter of this private Member’s Bill. He laid out the narrow focus in terms of the procedure and that is unquestionably the right approach to take, particularly when dealing with a private Member’s Bill, which carries so many aspirations and hopes right...
Stephen O'Brien: I do not doubt that for a second; as I understand it, we are meeting our NATO commitments, and indeed, as it happens, we are just above the 2% at the moment. And of course, given that our Government have been urging others to follow suit, that clearly puts some—how shall I put it? I will use an American phrase—moral suasion that we should at least maintain that level, to maintain the...