Mr Laurie Pavitt: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps you could give us some guidance as to the position on immigration cases between now and 11 June for Members who will not be returning to the House. As you will know, I have many such cases every week. Am I still entitled until 11 June to raise with the Home Office the possibility of intervention on behalf of a person being held at Heathrow or Gatwick?
Mr Laurie Pavitt: asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 31 March.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Is the Leader of the House aware that tomorrow is the first day for the nurses' pay award, and the Prime Minister will be studying the review body's report? Will he use his influence to make sure that on this occasion, for the first time since the review body was established, the public are not deceived and the nurses cheated as they have been on each previous occasion, when the announcement...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 24 March 1987.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Is the Prime Minister happy that, as a direct result of her policies, as from next Thursday cancer patients on chemotherapy will be paying as much as £12 per script for their medicines or £33·50 annually for a season ticket? Chemotherapy may make a young lady, who is probably suffering the trauma of losing a breast, also go bald, yet the NHS charges her £16 for a wig. Is it not an...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: While the Minister claims 75 per cent. exemptions, has he also read the report of the Pharmaceutical Society, which shows that one in two of every FP10 is paid for? With regard to the increase in the season ticket, is it not appalling that people who are chronically sick with angina or Parkinson's disease—young people—may be paying this extra burden for the rest of their lives? Young...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: When the Minister is looking at the vast amounts of money that go to companies overseas, will he bear in mind that it is invidious to choose these three countries? That is because most people who are lawfully settled here still have family ties with those countries and often like to look after their elderly parents and their children who remain in the countries of origin.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: I hope that the House will bear with me as I relate a recent personal experience that I believe will provide an insight. I have had a crash course on dying. For three months, I experienced the way in which one nurses a dying person and the trauma, stress and strain that is involved. My elderly sister with terminal cancer came out of hospital three months ago. Because she lived alone, she had...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Will the hon. Gentleman make this plain when he talks about senile dementia? Unfortunately, most of the public think that the clinical term "dementia" has something to do with people being demented. It means nothing of the sort. It means merely a loss of memory in various degrees.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: I welcome the provisions being made, but, like Oliver Twist, I hope that as the five years pass, there will be better funding. I should like to ask about mammography and cervical smears. Does the Secretary of State recall that we had a nationwide mobile system for the screening of tuberculosis, which only a few years ago most regional health authorities put into dry dock? Will his...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Will the hon. Lady now say exactly what further she is going to do on exfoliative cytology for carcinoma of the womb and also what extra steps are being taken to avoid mastectomies? Is there going to be some further screening for other age groups than those at the moment?
Mr Laurie Pavitt: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. My hon. Friend the Member for Swansea, East (Mr. Anderson) made a differentiation. You quite rightly ruled that this is the kind of issue—you are still within the rules of the House—that must be considered by the Committee that deals with such matters. My hon. Friend raised the important point that you are aware of the difference between...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: The hon. Gentleman referred to the differences between claims to the DHSS and rents. He is right to draw attention to clause 28. In my constituency, the housing department in the local authority pays £.4·5 million for 750 families to live in sleazy hotels. The weight of that does not fall only on the DHSS—it falls also on the ratepayers.
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Laurie Pavitt: rose—
Mr Laurie Pavitt: I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Before he was diverted by my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle (Mr. Roberts), he made a powerful point about the arrogance shown by the Minister when at 4.30 pm last Thursday he set a deadline for midnight the same night. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, East (Mr. Freeson) told the House, I managed to get the only available copy of the...
Mr Laurie Pavitt: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Laurie Pavitt: I would like my hon. Friend to add Brent, which was Conservative controlled until last May. Brent had a colossal amount of arrears which the new Labour administration now has to clear up.