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Mr. Jones: I thank the hon. Gentleman. It went through on the nod on Friday afternoon, and I thought that I needed, through him, to thank the Opposition for their ready agreement to proceed in that way. He peculiarly claimed that this form of legislation meant that a Welsh Assembly would be the perfect body to scrutinise it. Surely, it is a very backhanded compliment to Opposition Members to suggest that their ineffectiveness can be overcome only by a toothless talking shop filled by those who failed to enter this House. What does that say about Labour Back Benchers?
The hon. Member for Caerphilly could not answer when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State understandably asked whether he would give the agency extra funds. The hon. Gentleman went on at length and identified what he called a £30 million shortfall, but could not follow through the logic of his own argument, a point not lost on his hon. Friends, most obviously the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney.
My right hon. Friend has already confirmed that the agency still has a significant land reclamation programme in its proposals for its next business plan. It has almost 3,500 acres in the process of being reclaimed and, on current plans, some 1,850 acres will be completed in the next two years. Some concern has been expressed about projects that have been delayed, but this year the agency has already responded to some of that concern. It has increased its budget by 25 per cent., to £17.5 million, which will allow the next phases of various projects to proceed. It has been necessary to review plans and commitments, but contractual commitments are being honoured.
Support for some projects is being deferred, but none will be lost. My right hon. Friend will shortly be discussing the agency's business plan with its board. He will be keen to ensure that its commitment to the 1,850 acres will be retained, although the individual projects that total it are wholly a matter for the agency.
I acknowledge what the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney said about Trelewis. I was grateful for the invitation to visit it with him in September.
I understand the depth of local feeling even better as a result of that visit. As I have already assured him, I have placed the issue before the chairman of the Welsh Development Agency.
Mr. Rowlands:
I am grateful to the Minister for allowing me a brief intervention. Does the target of clearing all derelict land by 2000 still stand?
Mr. Jones:
I believe that the agency is confident of proceeding towards the target that it has set for land reclamation. The exact phasing and completion remain to be achieved, but I have confidence about the agency's progress.
Concern has also been expressed about progress at Coed Ely. I understand that the delay in that land reclamation scheme is not solely financial, but is primarily because of problems with the contractors and the complex nature of the project. The agency will do what it can to take the project forward as soon as possible.
In the strategic guidance for the current financial year, we have clearly set out our policies for the agency, for it to continue concentrating on the creation and safeguarding of jobs through inward investment and company development. We also attach priority to land reclamation. I fully support the emphasis that continues to be given to those programmes for the coming year, which are fundamental to the continuing success of the Welsh economy. We have also set the agency a number of key strategic targets. I am pleased that it met most of its targets in 1995-96 and even exceeded some of them. I look forward to another excellent set of results in 1996-97.
The agency's aim is to
Like my right hon. Friend the Member for Conwy, I noticed the article in The Western Mail this morning. I felt that it was a travesty until I heard my right hon. Friend suggest that there might be another hand in its authorship--perhaps that of the hon. Member for Cardiff, West. Is an article entitled "Why the WDA needs to be reformed" what we should expect from someone who sincerely hopes to be representing Wales in the Cabinet by May? He refers to our failing economy, calling it stagnant at best and a disgrace at worst. He tries in every way to present Wales in the worst possible light, blithely ignoring the reality. Since the general election four years
ago, unemployment in Wales has fallen by more than 30 per cent.--a drop of 40,700, to the current figure of 93,000. At the same time, employment is rising.
Going back a little further, we see that, over the past 10 years, manufacturing has increased by 7.1 per cent. In the rest of the United Kingdom, it has, I am afraid to say, fallen by 26 per cent. Over the same 10-year period, construction has increased by 10 per cent. in Wales--more than three times better than the figures for Britain as a whole.
Mr. Richards:
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Jones:
No. I am sorry, but I do not have the time to give way any more.
The hon. Member for Caerphilly ignores LG and the realities of its inward investment to the Cardiff and Newport area. In his blithe ignorance of what is going on, he does a cruel injustice to Wales. What of everybody who is working so hard in team Wales? They are faced with his alternative of wanting to centralise. He did not make it clear what he would do, but there were references again to the super-quango, bringing together the DBRW, the industry department, the Land Authority for Wales and the local enterprise agencies. The hon. Gentleman is an anti-devolutionist at heart. He would centralise and create a lumbering carthorse again, taking the WDA further back than it was when the right hon. and learned Member for Aberavon set it up.
There is another Welshman who had the right words to describe the Opposition Front Bench--the former right hon. Member for Islwyn, Mr. Kinnock. His comment is the comment of all of us: Wales deserves better than the Labour party.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a Second time, and committed to a Standing Committee, pursuant to Standing Order No. 61 (Committal of Bills).
Queen's recommendation having been signified--
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 50A(1)(a),
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Anthony Coombs.]
Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle):
Thank you, Madam Speaker, for allowing me a second opportunity to raise an issue that is of great importance to all who are interested in the treatment of multiple sclerosis--those who suffer from it, and those who do not.
I want to highlight two main issues. First, there is great inequality throughout the United Kingdom in access to treatment; secondly, there is a lack of understanding of the special needs of those with the disease among some NHS purchasers and providers. Many of the surrounding questions were mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Howarth) in his debate on neurological disorders on 29 January.
For too long, multiple sclerosis has been regarded as a Cinderella condition. The disease was first identified in the 1860s--
It being Ten o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Anthony Coombs.]
Mr. Prentice:
I did not fully understand that procedure, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker:
Let me inform the hon. Gentleman and the House that it was not quite 10 pm when the debate began, and the motion for the Adjournment therefore had to be moved again at 10 pm. The hon. Gentleman is perfectly in order.
Mr. Prentice:
I know exactly where I left off, Madam Speaker.
The disease was first identified in the 1860s by a French doctor. Until recently, it was regarded as untreatable, and no thought was given to how those suffering from it could be helped, advised and supported as its course progressed. I say "progressed", for, although the disease is at present incurable, many people are affected only marginally, if at all.
A quarter of those diagnosed as having MS are affected only mildly 15 years after the onset of the disease--they may have pins and needles in their fingers or toes--while a further quarter, tragically, end up in wheelchairs. The remaining 50 per cent. have the varied symptoms that characterise MS, which can include impaired co-ordination, problems with vision, loss of sensation and fatigue. One recently diagnosed constituent of mine told me that her arm sometimes felt as if it were full of molten metal. One in 15 people with MS will eventually become severely disabled.
MS typically affects more women than men, in the ratio 3:2, and strikes the young. That is what interested me in the condition in the first place. It hits people in the prime of life, often between the ages of 20 and 40. They have everything to look forward to; then comes the diagnosis that can change everything.
MS is common--it affects roughly one in every 1,000 people--but what causes it is still a mystery. No one knows why there are MS "clusters" in certain parts of the
country, or why it increases according to latitude. It affects 99 people in every 100,000 in the south of England, but 178 per 100,000 in north-east Scotland. It used to be thought of as a disease that affected only Caucasians--and, curiously, non-white people who have settled here do not increase their chance of getting it, but their children acquire the risk faced by the general population. Many aspects of the disease are observed, but not understood.
Nevertheless, all is not gloom and despair. Things changed dramatically recently with the advent of new drugs that, it was claimed, would alter the course of the disease for those with relapsing-remitting MS, in which a person is free of the symptoms for a while but they often return with a vengeance. Peter Cardy, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, wrote only a few months ago, in an article published in The House Magazine:
Beta interferon helps people with remitting and relapsing MS--about 45 per cent. of the total number. The drug was given a product licence in December 1995, allowing it to be used not just in the UK, but throughout the European Union. In November 1995, the Department of Health issued guidelines on how it should be prescribed. I have read those guidelines cover to cover, and they put the frighteners on purchasers and on the consultant neurologist to whom would fall the clinical decision of whether beta interferon should be prescribed. The result of all that has been an enormous difference throughout the UK in the drug's availability.
The NHS guidance did not state categorically that all patients judged likely to benefit from the drug must receive it; the advice was much more circumspect. Providers--hospitals and so on--were asked to think about the resource implications of using beta interferon. It is expensive--£10,000 per patient per year--but we must set that against the annual cost to the economy of MS, which is about £1.2 billion in terms of lost taxes, increased benefits and so on.
Hospitals were told
"help create a successful and dynamic economy--promoting the best business climate in Europe by assisting the growth of quality jobs and competitive industry for the benefit of people throughout Wales."
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State mentioned earlier, in line with that, the agency's programme over the next few years will focus on all parts of Wales, promoting indigenous business growth throughout Wales and creating the right climate for all the growing firms.
That, for the purposes of any Act resulting from the Welsh Development Agency Bill, it is expedient to authorise--
(a) any increase in the sums payable out of money provided by Parliament or out of the National Loans Fund or charged on and issued out of the Consolidated Fund; and
(b) any increase in the sums payable into either of those Funds,
which is attributable to provisions of the Act increasing to £1,350 million, with power to increase further by order, the limit in section 18(3) of the Welsh Development Agency Act 1975.--[Mr. Anthony Coombs.]
9.59 pm
"For those who suffer severe relapses, the experience is like being dragged repeatedly to the jaws of death; blind, in pain and paralysed."
Therefore, it is not surprising that the prospect of a drug that would deal with those dreadful symptoms has excited such interest.
"to consider workload and manpower implications for hospital neurologists and out patient departments."
The guidance asks providers to consider the impact of providing the drug on waiting times, on consultant availability, on magnetic resonance imaging scans, on nursing and other support and, finally, on the hospital drugs budget. Couched in such a stern way, that advice clearly had an effect. In some parts of the UK, there was no access at all to beta interferon. On 10 December, I asked the Minister about the availability of beta interferon, and was told that that information was not collected centrally.
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