Health leaders send letter to PM saying they cannot guarantee patient safety while ambulance strike is on
Health leaders have written to the prime minister saying that they cannot guarantee patient safety when the ambulance workers’ strike takes place tomorrow.
The letter has been sent by the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, two organisations that represent trusts and other NHS bodies, and Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told the World at One it had been send as a “last resort”. He said:
We never want to alarm people. But we have reached the stage where our leaders feel it’s necessary to say that they cannot guarantee patients will be able to avoid risks as these strikes unfold.
Taylor said his members were particularly concerned about the impact of the ambulance strike. But they were worried about further strikes too. He went on:
And so what we’re saying to the government, and to the trade unions, is that as health service leaders we need to be clear with the public that … we cannot guarantee patient safety, we cannot avoid risks in the context of this industrial action …
We need to make it clear that we are entering into a very dangerous time. This is why we are upping even more our call to the government and the trade unions to try to find a way of resolving this dispute.
Asked about the government’s refusal to reopen talks on pay, Taylor said that if that continued to be the case, the strikes would carry on. He went on:
If industrial action takes place, then there will be risk, there will be harm to patients. And it is simply our responsibility to make that absolutely clear to the public to the politicians and to the trade unions.
Taylor also claimed that, although category one calls (involving a life-threatening emergency) to ambulances would receive a response when the strike was on, it had not been guaranteed that category two calls (involving serious conditions like a stroke or chest pains), would always get a response. But he accepted that these issues were being negotiated locally.
In her statement earlier Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said the unions had agreed that category one and category two calls would be covered. “That has been agreed at a host of local NHS trusts,” she said.
Key events
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Philip Dunne (Con) goes next.
Sunak says he will be looking at the net zero strategy over the Christmas holidays.
Q: The Cop15 biodiversity summit has just finished. How will you deliver on those targets?
Sunak pays tribute to Thérèse Coffey and Zac Goldsmith for their work there. He says an environmental improvement plan will be published early next yaer.
Sir Bernard Jenkin says some lawyers say he can deliver his policy within the European convention on human rights. Others say he cannot. Which view does Sunak take?
Sunak says he is confident he will be able to pass legislation that achieves what he wants. He does not address Jenkin’s question.
Sunak won’t say how many asylum seekers he expects to be send to Rwanda by end of next year
Johnson says she worries there are “fairy tale” figures in Sunak’s plans for asylum.
Q: What evidence have you used when deciding you can eliminate the backlog?
Sunak says some modelling suggests the Home Office can triple its processing times.
Q: What is the target for the number of people who will be send to Rwanda by the end of 2023?
Sunak says he does not know if there will be further legal challenges.
Q: The Rwandan government says it expects 200 people to arrive.
Sunak says he will not comment on commercial figures.
Q: Was the permanent secretary right to say there was no evidence of value for money?
Sunak say it is part of his small boats strategy.
Diana Johnson (Lab) says the asylum backlog had been allowed to grow since 2013. She says Sunak told MPs that the backlog would be abolished by next year. What backlog?
Sunak says the backlog up to 28 June. He says that amounts to around 92,000 cases.
Q: So you are not abolishing the backlog?
Sunak says it would be one of the most significant reductions seen.
Q: How many small boats do you expect to come to the UK in 2023?
Sunak says he would not put a number on it.
Q: The Home Office were planning for 60,000 people to come this year?
Sunak says there will be a planning assumption, but he does not know what that is.
Q: What will the backlog be at the end of next year?
That depends on arrivals, says Sunak.
Clive Betts (Lab) says many Ukrainian refugees in the UK are homeless. Is that acceptable?
Sunak starts by paying tribute to families who have hosted Ukrainian refugees.
Recently the thank you payments were extended, and made more generous.
He says £150m has gone to councils to allow them to mitigate homelessness.
Q: Lord Harrington, the former minister for refugees, said payments should be doubled (from £350 to £700). But they only went up to £500, for families after a year of hosting so someone. Can’t you be more generous?
Sunak says there is also help for councils.
Q: But support for councils has been cut?
Sunak says some costs were frontloaded. And it is also a matter of what can be afforded.
Q: What has happened to the lessons learnt document on Ukraine?
Sunak says munitions are being replenished. The issue is less money than supply chain capacity, he says.
He says the UK wants to give Ukraine what they need. The priorities are air defence, armoured vehicles and artillery ammunition.
On China, Sunak says his governmnet has blocked China taking an increased stake in Newport Wafer Fab. China has been excluded from the Sizewell C nuclear project. It has been excluded from surveillance technology on government property. And the UK has organised with other countries a UN resolution on Xinjiang.
On Iran, Sunak says he is “increasingly concerned about Iran’s behaviour”. He expects to spend an increasing amount of time on this.
Sunak dismisses suggestion audit of Ukraine war means his support for Zelenskiy is weakening
Alicia Kearns (Con) goes first.
Q: Will you commit to supporting Ukraine? There was concern about your audit of the war.
Rishi Sunak says he would not read too much into the reports about the audit. Look at the support for Ukraine he has shown. Of course he will continue to back Ukraine, he says.
UPDATE: Sunak said:
I wouldn’t necessarily read too much into the press reports. Look at my actions …
Of course, we will continue to support Ukraine, I think what all of us would want to see is Ukraine successfully repel Russian aggression.
And it’s important that we maintain support, but also evolve the support for the conditions that we’re seeing on the ground at the battlefield. And that’s what I’m keen to do.
Sir Bernard Jenkin starts by telling Rishi Sunak that if his answers go on too long, he will extend the time of the hearing. It is due to last for 90 minutes.
Rishi Sunak gives evidence to Commons liaison committee
Rishi Sunak is about to give evidence to the liaison committee, the Commons body made up of the chairs of all the select committees.
Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con) chairs the committee.
According to the committee, there will be three main sections in the hearing. Here are the subjects, and the names of the MPs who will be asking questions under each heading.
Global Issues (including the war in Ukraine, migration and COP27)
Clive Betts MP, Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Philip Dunne MP, Environmental Audit
Dame Diana Johnson MP, Home Affairs
Alicia Kearns MP, Foreign Affairs
UK’s place in the World / the state of the union
Sir Bill Cash MP, European Scrutiny
Joanna Cherry MP, Joint Committee on Human Rights
Robin Walker MP, Education
Pete Wishart MP, Scottish Affairs
Economic issues (including the autumn statement and subsequent effects on the cost of living)
Harriett Baldwin MP, Treasury
Steve Brine MP, Health and Social Care
Sir Robert Neill MP, Justice
Sir Stephen Timms MP, Work and Pensions
There will also be questions on cross-departmental matters, asked by Catherine McKinnell MP, chair of the petitions committee
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, made a statement to MPs giving an update on the war in Ukraine. He said that one of his aims was to expose the links between Russia and Iran. He told MPs:
Iran has become one of Russia top military backers. In return for having supplied more than 300 kamikaze drones, Russia now intends to provide Iran with advanced military components, undermining both Middle East and international security. We must expose that deal. In fact I have just now.
As my colleague Dan Sabbagh reports, Wallace provided details on the Russian losses.
Ben Wallace, UK def sec, lists Russian mil losses in Ukraine:
– Over 100k soldiers dead, injured or deserted
– 4,500 armoured vehicles destroyed
– 140 helicopters, fixed wing aircraft lost
– “Rumours of Gen Gerasimov’s dismissal persist”— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) December 20, 2022
And he said a Newsnight report from the weekend, saying that Rishi Sunak has ordered an audit of the war, did not mean his determination to back Ukraine was weakening.
Wallace on the Sunak’s Ukraine audit – understandable PM “would seek an update on Ukraine” and “want to take a stock check of where we are”. Adds that the process “in no way weakens or undermine his resolve to support Ukraine, this year and next year and onwards”
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) December 20, 2022
Metropolitan police launch inquiry into complaint about Tory MP telling activist to ‘go back to Bahrain’
Scotland Yard has launched an investigation after Tory MP Bob Stewart told an activist to “go back to Bahrain” during a confrontation. The Metropolitan police said in a statement:
On Sunday, December 18 police received an online report from a man alleging he had been verbally racially abused.
The allegation relates to an incident in Cleveland Row, SW1A on Wednesday, December 14.
Officers from Westminster CID are investigating.
Activists gathered outside the Scottish parliament building demanding MSPs protect the “core principals” of Scotland’s new gender law ahead of a debate this afternoon on proposed reforms, PA Media reports.
The gender recognition reform (Scotland) bill is expected to pass this week following a debate on Tuesday, which could take as long as nine hours, and a vote on Wednesday.
The controversial bill would make it easier for trans people to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) by removing the requirement for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
It will also lower the minimum age for applicants from 18 to 16 and drop the time required for an applicant to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months – six for people aged 16 and 17 – though with a subsequent, three-month reflection period.
The marathon debate on Tuesday will look at more than 150 proposed amendments to the new law.
Trans-rights activists united outside Holyrood on Tuesday urging MSPs to “protect the bill” through the amendment phase.
Three ambulance trusts declare critical incidents
At least three ambulance services have declared critical incidents as NHS services around the country face “unprecedented” pressure, PA Media reports. PA says:
North East Ambulance Service [see 9.53am], South East Coast Ambulance Service and the East of England Ambulance Service have all moved to the status as staff work to respond to calls.
The former operates across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Darlington and Teesside; South East Coast Ambulance Service covers Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Surrey and North East Hampshire; while the latter works in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
North East Ambulance Service said it declared a critical incident on Monday afternoon as a result of “significant delays for more than 200 patients waiting for an ambulance, together with a reduction in ambulance crew availability to respond because of delays in handing over patients at the region’s hospitals”.
Declaring a critical incident allows trusts to take measures to protect patients most in need. In some cases people are asked not to ring 999 unless it is a life-threatening emergency.
Richard Partington
Jeremy Hunt has insisted the government will not engage in renewed pay negotiations with striking NHS staff.
The chancellor told the Commons the government had to stick to the recommendations of the NHS pay review body, which in the summer outlined proposals for a £1,400 rise for most NHS staff this year. Speaking during Treasury questions, he said:
I think the best way to resolve the situation is to respect that process.
When you have a cost of living crisis, as we have at the moment, I think the best way to resolve this is an independent process. It is an independent process. When I was health secretary, they often made rulings that were not comfortable.
The government has insisted on sticking to the recommendation, which is worth about 4% on average for nurses. Hunt said the NHS was still able to recruit new nurses, saying there were 32,000 more nurses now than at the start of the parliament.
However, the Royal College of Nursing trade union is pushing for a bigger pay rise and has questioned the independence of the pay review body. The government’s preferred measure of inflation is currently 10.7%.
The chancellor also confirmed he was preparing an extension in financial support for businesses with high energy bills, which would be announced “early in the New Year”.