Author: johnredwood

Today I have highlighted two disastrous management errors in public services which Parliament has criticised many times in the past. Yesterday Ministers presented their approach to both problems to try to put things right.

In both cases MPs asked about what would happen to the managers who made the mistakes, especially the top management of the Post Office who went on to spend large sums on lawyers to hound the people they had wrongly accused. One contributor has been muddling the state owned Postal  Office up with the privatised mail services, which have nothing to do with this issue.

My prior concern over the years has been to speak with others for the postmasters who were so badly treated to get the accusations against them reversed and to give them compensation for their large financial losses forced upon them.I agree the government as owner of the business does need to tell us what will be done about those who pursued this policy at the Post Office. The bill for compensation will be substantial and falls to taxpayers as we own the Post Office.

The Defence Minister has accepted that the MOD needs to improve the way it handles contracts. He has also promised to seek to rescue this large contract by closer working with the defence supplier. He seemed confident that remedial costs fall to the supplier to pay.

I am glad the government has now signed off on a compensation scheme for Post Office managers wrongly accused and badly treated by the Post Office over the introduction of the Horizon computer system. Some were made to pay large sums to the Post Office they did not owe and some were falsely accused of fraud. Many lost their businesses and some faced criminal convictions for things they had not done.

This was a shameful incident and it has taken time for the Post Office and its government owner to do the right thing.

Yesterday in the House the government made a statement on what had gone wrong in trying to buy 589 fighting vehicles for the army. So far very few have been delivered and those that have been  have not met noise and vibration standards. This has raised hearing issues for some who have worked in them.

The Minister and the review are both critical of procedures . The Minister is leading the work to get the matter rectified by the contractor. He assured the House that the contract was at a fixed price of £5.5bn and the government’s intent is to secure the delivery of 589 working vehicles that meet the required standards.

It is most important for the army and taxpayers that he succeeds. There have been too many cases of procurement overruns on time and budget and on the need to remedy or change specifications during the roll out of a programme. Let us hope the MOD can now find new ways to offer value for money and to secure the high quality vehicles,  vessels and other equipment they need.

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what evidence his Department holds of predicted future hospitalisation rates from the Omicron variant of covid-19. (90315)

Tabled on: 09 December 2021

Answer:
Maggie Throup:

In the absence of any data on disease severity or the likely transmission rates in the community, it is not possible to make reliable estimates. As data on transmission rates becomes clearer over time and initial hospitalisations allow assessment of severity and care needs, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will be able to project predicted future rates. The UKHSA and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to generate data as quickly as possible.

Sir John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con):

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Tom Pursglove): I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for his question. Of course, as is standard practice, budgets are agreed formally with the Treasury in the usual way. I think it is fair to say that, as Ministers, our door is always open to talk to colleagues about concerns they have about particular circumstances in their own constituencies. I think it is fair to say we are facing very considerable pressures at the moment in this space and it is important that all parts of the country do their bit to help to address some of these challenges. I would encourage local authorities that are not currently assisting with that work to look at how they can help, particularly along the lines of the dispersal model. But to be clear to the House, we want to get away from this reliance on hotel accommodation. We are working towards that objective and that is the right approach.

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of operations that the NHS will procure in private hospitals over the next three months. (91821)

Tabled on: 13 December 2021

Answer:
Edward Argar (Minister of State):

No estimate has been made. Since 1 April 2021, national contracting with independent sector providers has come to an end and commissioning has returned to local arrangements. It is therefore the decision of local National Health Service commissioners and trusts to contract with independent providers for the capacity they require.

Through the Elective Recovery Fund, £2 billion has been made available for tackling backlogs in treatment this year, part of which will be used to fund systems for independent sector capacity above 2019/20 levels. The partnership between the NHS and independent sector will continue to play a role in both dealing with the pandemic and securing elective recovery.

The answer was submitted on 15 Dec 2021 at 15:01.

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medically trained people have returned from retirement to relieve shortages in response to requests. (90314)

Tabled on: 09 December 2021

Answer:
Edward Argar (Minister of State):

The Department does not hold the information requested.

Winning a difficult vote will come as an unsurprising relief to the government. They had to rely on the Opposition and on this occasion it worked. It does not however solve the underlying problems.

If the virus continues to spread the government will be told by its ever cautious scientific advisers to lock down more. They are bound to say that as it is the safest thing to say if your one task is to curb the disease. The measures taken this week are unlikely to arrest its progress. Indeed one of the main arguments against the vaccine passports is vaccinated people can get and pass on the virus so how does it help as a device to control Night clubs and large events?

If the virus turns out as some think to be milder so there is no surge in serious cases the governments critics will claim the measures were needless.

More  seriously Ministers have to rebuild trust with a large number of MPs who voted against, abstained or wanted to vote against but responded to persuasion or coercion. Ministers need to grasp both the scepticism about some of the forecasts and measures proposed, and the concern that every time a new variant appears there could be more lockdowns.

Government needs to balance freedoms and economic  needs against pandemic control. It needs to recognise that anti pandemic rules can cause more mental health problems, loss of jobs, businesses and income and damage to the social life of communities. There needs to be more evidence about which measures do most at least collateral damage to contain the spread of the virus.

We could do with more information on what progress has been made with air extraction and cleansing in public buildings, more information on approved and potential treatments and more on disinfection.

Government also needs to ensure extra resources going into  the NHS can be used to tackle the many non covid health problems  that do not go away because of the virus.