Christmas Adjournment

I will take that as a suggestion for a topical debate. My right hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) spoke about Chase Farm hospital. She is an energetic campaigner on behalf of her constituents and her speech described the many years that she has spent in such campaigning. She was especially concerned to preserve accident and emergency and maternity services in the hospital. She was concerned about the quality of the consultation that had been carried out. My understanding is that such decisions are for the local NHS, and that all the PCTs agreed that it was option No. 1 which should be considered. Even so, my right hon. Friend made a powerful case, and I shall draw her remarks to the attention of Ministers in the Department of Health. The hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Angela Browning) spoke about the closure of the theatre in Exeter. She will understand that that is a decision for the Arts Council of England, which is an arm's length body. I can draw the matter to the attention of Ministers in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, but I cannot be terribly optimistic about the upshot. The hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton also spoke about the problem that arises when consultants prescribe drugs that, for financial or other reasons, are not available to patients. She suggested that an unfair funding arrangement enabled people in Scotland to get drugs that are not available to people in England. I hope that she heard the speech made by the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie), who explained to the House that Scotland received no real-terms subsidy under the Barnett formula. The hon. Lady went on to talk about the operation of HIPs. She said that she supported energy certificates, but she also made some complaints about the administration of the HIPs scheme. She said that she had written to Ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government in the middle of October, and I shall impress on them the importance of giving her an early response. My right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East spoke about post office closures in his constituency, and then about the site at the junction of the A46 and the A6 where GE Thorn used to have a plant. He is worried that the site could become derelict, and wants the company and the council to look into its future use. My right hon. Friend welcomed the proposal to change the rules on immigration and visitors, and said that he supported the proposal to reduce the length of visits from six months to three. I was glad that he was able to find something in the Government's programme to support, because he then went on to make some criticisms of the Home Secretary's decisions in respect of police pay. In that, he was supported by the hon. Members for Blaby and for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans), and by my hon. Friends the Members for Weaver Vale and for Cleethorpes. Of course, the Government recognise the vital and hard work performed by the police, but the public sector pay policy must be maintained. There is no need for me to advise my right hon. Friend on how to make his case to Ministers, as he is clearly perfectly capable of doing so. I should like to take this opportunity to express my pleasure at seeing the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) back and in his place this afternoon. He made a very good and characteristically clear speech in which he described the case of a constituent of his who has cancer. I understand that the local NHS was not prescribing the drug that would have helped his constituent, and I want to make it clear that it is not acceptable for NHS organisations to refuse to fund treatments simply because they have not yet been appraised by NICE. However, PCTs in different areas will have different priorities, so unless we have a completely centralised system, about which Members on both sides of the House would be critical, there will difficulties in meeting all needs and priorities. Several hon. Members talked about cancer care in their area. Over the last 10 years the extra spending and concentration on cancer has brought mortality rates down by 17 per cent., and a new cancer reform strategy is being developed. My hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Washington, East (Mr. Kemp) made an excellent speech about his constituents in Ryhope and the importance of pigeon fancying and allotment holding. My constituency is only 25 miles from my hon. Friend's, so I know how important pigeon fancying is for the large number of people who derive great enjoyment from the sport. Some of us even wondered whether it could be made an Olympic sport, but I understand that that will not be possible. My hon. Friend also pointed out that the Legal Complaints Service refused to correspond with him. I shall refer his point to the Ministry of Justice, as that situation seems completely unacceptable. The right hon. Member for West Derbyshire (Mr. McLoughlin) spoke about post office closures. I was surprised that he did not mention the Barley Mow in Kirk Ireton, because when Mary and Tony Short contacted me, I told them to get in touch with him about their post office. I will draw the right hon. Gentleman's remarks about community bus services to the attention of the Department for Transport. I was surprised by what he said, because the Department is trying to encourage more community bus services and more social enterprise where big bus companies do not find it economic to operate. I very much hope that the framework in the new transport legislation will go some way towards helping people in his rural constituency. The right hon. Gentleman also talked about Longstone rake and the difficulties with minerals regulations. He asked when the consultation would take place and said he was not sure that the Planning Bill would help to speed up the process. I shall refer his comments to Ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government. He went on to talk about agriculture, and upland farmers in particular. I echo his remarks, as there are many hill farmers in my constituency and the recent outbreak of foot and mouth has been problematic for them. I shall take his call for a debate on agriculture as a request for a topical debate. The right hon. Gentleman complained about the fact that council taxes were rising by 4 per cent. while rises in incomes were tied to inflation, but he needs to look at the wider context. Opposition Members sometimes forget the state in which pensioners were living 10 years ago. I remind them that we have lifted 2 million pensioners out of poverty over the last 10 years.