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Mr. Reid: I agree with part of what the hon. Gentleman said: the present fisheries policy has failed, as I said. We need a policy that is managed by regional management committees, composed of fishermen, scientists and Government representatives, which would have control over a particular zone of the sea. The zones in which fish swim do not conform to national territorial boundaries.

The European Union has already divided the seas around Europe into different zones. Subsidiarity should not just mean giving power to nation states or devolved Governments within those states. In fishing, for example, it could be best implemented by giving power to organisations based on zones of the sea. Some zones may be under the control of one country, but others such as the North sea would need to be under the control of a management committee consisting of representatives of countries with historic fishing rights in the North sea. The annual last-minute Council of Ministers compromise, however, is not working, as landlocked countries have exactly the same voting rights as countries with a large fishing industry. Subsidiarity in fishing should mean devolving power to regional management committees so that they can manage zones of the sea.
 
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The European working time directive is clearly causing problems for the health service in rural areas, including the ambulance service in my constituency. We would all support the principle that workers should not be forced to work excessive hours, but the directive has resulted in a court ruling that time spent on call counts towards the 48 hours. It is perfectly reasonable in private industry to create fair competition between all European countries by introducing common rules, but in the health service, which is clearly not in competition with other countries, there is no need for European-imposed rules. The NHS in rural areas will get worse if the Government do not seek a change in the European working time directive so that health service on-call work does not count towards the 48-hour total.

We need to keep animal diseases out of Britain. The foot and mouth epidemic three years ago cost the country billions of pounds. In view of the huge amount of money that another epidemic would cost the country, the Government should do more to prevent meat from being smuggled into the country illegally. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates that the total amount of illegal meat entering the country every year is 7,431 tonnes. However, in its annual review, the Department notes that in 2002–03, the last year for which figures are available, only 31,000 kg of illegally imported meat were detected. Customs is detecting only a fraction of the meat smuggled into the country. I am sure that the figures for 2003–04 will show an increase in the amounts detected because more resources have been devoted to the problem, but that will only be a fraction of the total.

In its report, DEFRA notes that the Government are making £6 million available in the financial year 2003–04 to tackle illegal imports, but that is only a fraction of the billions of pounds that another epidemic would cost, so far more resources are required. Customs and Excise has only six sniffer dogs to detect smuggled meat, although four more are being trained. Ten dogs, however, are not enough to cover all the ports and airports in Britain. Insufficient use is being made of X-ray technology, which was trialled last summer. However, when I raised those trials and their results with the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Exeter (Mr. Bradshaw), who is responsible for animal welfare, in a debate on illegally imported meat at the end of April, he was not aware of the results.

I tabled a written question to the Treasury about the problem, and I am pleased that the Government are now using X-ray technology. However, in response to my question about assessment of its effectiveness, I received an unhelpful non-answer:

"The effectiveness of current equipment is continually assessed."—[Official Report, 25 May 2004; Vol. 421, c. 1510W.]

There is therefore little information about the use of X-ray technology, which is designed to stop criminal activity.

One of the most important factors in preventing criminal activity is the fear of capture. Criminals will not have much fear of getting caught when there are only 10 sniffer dogs, there is only limited use of X-ray technology and, according to official figures, only a fraction of illegal imports are detected. The Government have to do much more and must publicise
 
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more the efforts that they will make to deter illegal imports because that will act as a deterrent to criminals.

The hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) referred to the working at height proposals. Whereas I support what he said about the need for improved regulations for buildings, I am concerned, as is the outdoor activity industry in my constituency, about the way in which the Health and Safety Executive has framed the draft regulations. Any court will interpret them as applying not only to building sites, but to hill climbing and mountaineering. If the draft regulations become law, they would eliminate paid guides working on mountains and hills. Insurance would become impossible because they would have to comply with regulations that in the original European directive were clearly meant for buildings, but which the HSE wording could apply also to mountains.

One of the most ridiculous proposals is that all edges require edge protection. Under the current wording that would apply to the crags on mountain tops. I have had several letters from the outdoor activity industry in my constituency, which I have submitted, with my support, to the HSE as part of the consultation process. When the draft regulations are reworded after the consultation exercise, I hope that it will be perfectly clear that they apply only to buildings, not to mountains. Otherwise, paid mountain guides will cease to be a viable profession and people will go out on to the hills without paid guides.

Finally, I come to post offices, an issue which has been raised often enough before. Members have spoken about the effect of Government policy on urban post offices. I am concerned about the impact on rural post offices. The Government propaganda is persuading pensioners to opt for a bank rather than a post office. Clearly, a great deal of business will be lost to post offices, which will inevitably mean rural post office closures in years to come. I urge the Government, even at this late stage, to change their written leaflets and the script of the Government call centre to give an unbiased description of the various payment methods available, so that people can make a fair choice between a post office card account and a bank account.

I am pleased to have had this opportunity to raise these issues on behalf of my constituents.

4.23 pm

Mr. Alan Hurst (Braintree) (Lab): It is always a pleasure to speak in these debates and not only put forward the views of one's own constituents, but learn so much about other constituencies.

Today I want to discuss the provision of maternity services in Braintree town, particularly those based at the William Julian Courtauld hospital. The name Courtauld may well be familiar to hon. Members. Braintree was once a mill town of East Anglia and one of the mills belonged to Courtauld's, together with Warners and other manufacturers.

They were great benefactors, and one of their gifts to the town was a community hospital named the William Julian Courtauld hospital, which the working people of the town supported by subscription and which has served the town since just after the first world war.

For 80 years or so, the women of Braintree town had been able to give birth in the maternity unit at the William Julian Courtauld hospital. I thought the matter
 
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had been secured some seven years ago, when the then health authority, the North Essex health authority, undertook an ironically entitled consultation called "Taking the Initiative". The consultation's aim was simply to close down community hospitals across the part of Essex that I have the privilege to represent. Unsurprisingly, there was a public outcry not only in Braintree, but in other towns that would be affected. Ultimately, the health authority recanted on those proposals and the hospital was secured, along with the maternity unit. That was much to the credit of the people of Braintree, who marched, petitioned and harangued until that was achieved.

There was good reason why that should have remained the case. In the period after the second world war almost up to the early 1990s, orthodoxy in the health profession stated that, in the main, babies should be born in large general hospitals, and the element of choice for the mother went out of the equation. Hon. Members will be familiar with the work of the Select Committee on Health chaired by the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Sir Nicholas Winterton) in the early 1990s, and thereafter the inquiry under Lady Cumberlege, leading to the report, "Changing Childbirth". To summarise, that recommended that the mother should have a choice about where the baby was to be born—in a specialist unit, at home, in a small community hospital or in a more general hospital. William Julian Courtauld hospital is a community hospital with all the friendly backing and support that such a hospital can provide.

I have often thought about the words of T. S. Eliot, who said that

"the same time never comes twice in the life of one man".

Those were wise words, but unfortunately they do not seem to apply entirely to what is happening in Braintree at present. The maternity unit at the Courtauld hospital was temporarily closed last October. The health officials assured me that the closure was due to illness and maternity leave among the midwives and other staff at the hospital. I accepted that, and being a chap who wants to believe everything he is told, I went on local radio to try and assuage any fears that people might have that the closure was a result of a long-term policy.

Indeed, the hospital has re-opened for maternity services, but it has not re-opened on what is usually called the status quo ante. Before October, the service was midwife-led and the hospital was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A mother could go in, stay a whole day or two or three days, and accustom herself and her baby to the situation. As it is now being operated, the maternity hospital is open only five days a week, Monday to Friday, between 9 am and 5 pm.

Of course, babies are not so well planned, and they sometimes give an indication that they may wish to be born outside the prescribed hours. It is fair to say that provision is made for that, provided the midwife knows that she can go and get a key, open up the hospital and let the mother in so that the baby can be born out of hours. But there is a strict proviso that they must be out of the premises six hours after the birth. Two hours is encouraged, but six hours is the limit of the stay. Perhaps I am a little old-fashioned, but I think that may be taking efficiency and speed of operations a bit too far. The people of Braintree want a proper maternity service provided for the town again, as we had before October last year and for the 80 years preceding that.
 
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As you will know, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the people of Braintree are very reasonable, and they are not given to making harsh judgments if harsh judgments are not required. We have two hospitals in the town: I have mentioned the Courtauld hospital; the other is St. Michael's hospital, which was formerly the workhouse and is now predominantly for older people and for out-patient appointments.

The proposal, which Braintree people do not oppose, is that the two hospitals should be combined and a new community hospital built. Of the two sites—the Courtauld, which was founded by a benefactor and public subscription, and St. Michael's, which was the workhouse—one would have thought that the public affection would be for the Courtauld hospital, which is true. When the logical case was put to the people of Braintree on the best site for the new community hospital, however, after reflection the overwhelming majority of them, including some of the most active health campaigners, said that they saw the logic of putting it on the less attractive site in terms of human history, but the more realistic site in terms of location. Braintree people are reasonable, and they will listen to a case and accept it, if it is good.

However, we cannot expect the young mothers of Braintree to accept a nine-to-five hospital with the door on the latch. As the service has been scaled down, numbers have fallen. So far, 24 babies have been delivered at the Courtauld hospital in this calendar year. Last year, 122 babies were delivered, but if one goes back seven years, 350 babies were delivered. One fears that the service is, to use a cliché, withering on the vine, and local people are concerned that, if that process continues, the service will eventually cease to exist.

Both now and previously, I have heard health officials in Essex say that Braintree has a "Rolls-Royce service", which is a rather heartless phrase, because the ratio of midwives to births is favourable in Braintree and unfavourable in Chelmsford, which is a large town in the centre of Essex a number of miles away from us. If mothers are always encouraged to go to the large hospital with the large unit in Chelmsford, the ratio is bound to become unfavourable. I do not know what kind of Rolls-Royce health officials in Essex have in mind with regard to the service provided at the Courtauld hospital, but it is not what Mr. Rolls or Mr. Royce had in mind when they designed the ultimate luxury vehicle.

The current service is basic, and I ask my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House to convey to his colleagues in the Department of Health the need for them to indicate to local health officials that that state of affairs should not continue. My hon. Friend knows that health officials will blame the Government and say, "The Government do not give us enough money to employ the midwives." If health officials want more money for midwives—there must be a case for it because the local population is growing apace—they should make determined representations to the Department of Health, which others and I would support.

If policy has been changed in order to centralise all maternity services in a town a considerable number of miles away from us, however, the matter has nothing to do with finance and concerns social engineering, which
 
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is contrary to all thinking about childbirth in the past decade or more. I implore the Government to seek to persuade those in charge of maternity services in my area to think again.

4.34 pm

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