Mrs Rosie Barnes: I have been involved in discussions about the railway extension since 1988. Those discussions have taken place on an all-borough, all-party basis. We have made forceful representations to the Minister, urging him to give the scheme favourable consideration. Although there may be some t's that we would have liked to cross differently, the broad principle of the extension is much needed by the...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: I wish to present a petition, signed by more than 4,000 residents of and visitors to Greenwich who are very concerned about the proposed privatisation of the gardening and horticultural work of Greenwich park. I share their concern.
Mrs Rosie Barnes: First, I shall discuss that part of the Bill which deals with testing and the publication of results. As I have made clear on the Floor of the House and in letters to Ministers, I am not opposed to testing, as long as it is done sensitively and used properly. I spent a considerable amount of time observing the testing of seven-year-olds in schools in my constituency. The tests were carefully...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Will the Secretary of State give way?
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Today's debate, like that over recent weeks, has been in something of a cul-de-sac. We have all opposed privatisation, questioned whether the motive behind these reforms was privatisation and asked, if it is, whether that is a good thing and, if it is not, what should be done in its place. Hon. Members on both sides of the House have suggested that privatisation may have been high on the...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Our system is largely supported through taxation, but, regrettably, charges are creeping into the system and they have to be added into the calculation. There has to be increased funding to take account both of the increasing number of elderly people, who are expensive to treat, and improved technology. To some extent, the NHS is the victim of its own success. People are kept alive longer,...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: All reasonable people agree that absent parents should make a reasonable contribution to the upbringing of their children and should not be allowed to turn their backs on their financial responsibilities. On that basis, I support the thinking behind the Bill as it ensures that parents should not be able to renege on their children. Although I support the principles of the Bill, I have some...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Will the Secretary of State undertake, as part of his review, to pay particular attention to the correlation between damp and black mould in homes and health? I believe it to be a contributory, if not a major, factor in cot and infant deaths, a problem in many parts of the country.
Mrs Rosie Barnes: As the Minister will be aware, for many months I have been calling for a full national, independent inquiry into the circumstances of children in residential care. I am concerned that, within social work circles, attitudes and behavioural patterns which are abhorrent to the rest of us have been established, are beginning to be accepted and are perhaps seen as inevitable, justifiably in some...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: I agree with the hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Amos) in his warm tribute to teachers, who have, in the main, remained loyal professionals and have continued the difficult task of educating our children through the many changes that they have undergone during a turbulent and difficult period. However, I take issue with him when he describes the Government's record in the past decade as "proud"....
Mrs Rosie Barnes: What guarantees can the Secretary of State offer that essential services and the quality of care will be maintained at Guy's and Lewisham hospitals? Will provision be protected for particularly vulnerable categories such as geriatric patients and mentally ill people?
Mrs Rosie Barnes: I welcome the commitment to a well qualified and well paid leaching force along with the establishment of an independent review body. I firmly believe that there is no better formula for improving education in Britain than raising the status of teachers and improving their pay. Does the Secretary of State envisage a move towards more decentralised levels of pay within the context of the new...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Although I am persuaded that further education colleges will be better off independently funded than subject to the vagaries of local authority control, does the Secretary of State agree that there is a great danger in the proposals that local education authorities reconsidering the structure of their sixth form and 16 to 19-year-old provision will automatically turn their backs on the...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: rose—
Mrs Rosie Barnes: All hon. Members will agree that this has been a stimulating and sensitively handled debate. It is an issue to which there are no easy answers and I did not think that I had solved every problem. I am reassured by the genuine and deep-rooted acceptance that the current position is seriously flawed and that something radical must be done about it. I am reassured also by the consensus that, in...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: I accept that point, but I shall not be led down that path at the moment. I listened with care to what the Secretary of State said as he poured scorn on several aspects of my Bill. I waited with growing interest to see whether his alternative proposals would offer a much more radical, long-lasting and, perhaps, better solution to the problems than my Bill can. I was disappointed. I welcomed...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: The lady in question has made her case well known and she has made it clear that she pursued the case through the courts in the first place to get to the bottom of what happened and to be given a proper explanation. She is, of course, devastated by the £150,000 costs awarded against her, but she is less worried about having lost her award. It must be forcibly stated that the courts are...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: It is not intended that the boa rd should enter into negligence actions against NHS employees, including doctors. The intention is to take action against third parties—NHS suppliers whose products may have caused a problem through being faulty. The intention is to recoup that money. We do not intend to pursue the doctors through the courts. We want to refer to the appropiate authority only...
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Does the hon. Lady agree that it would be inappropriate for the board to make large settlements on the part of third parties with no attempt to recoup them? One of the intentions of the Bill is to remove patients from the on-going proceedings, but not for the state to pick up the Bill that should naturally be the responsibility of the appropriate company or authority.
Mrs Rosie Barnes: Does not the hon. Lady accept that in cases such as Thalidomide or Opren there would be one court case between the board and the company instead of the hundreds or thousands that are going on at the moment? That would be a great improvement for everyone involved.