It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I would like to talk about respiratory disease, which affects one in five people in the UK, is responsible for about 1 million hospital admissions and costs the NHS almost £5 billion a year. It is also the third...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I would like to talk about respiratory disease, which affects one in five people in the UK, is responsible for about 1 million hospital admissions and costs the NHS almost £5 billion a year. It is also the third...

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work as chairman of the all-party group. What does he make of the NICE evidence that about a third of the people who are receiving treatment should not be, while there is such a lot of undiagnosed asthma? That seems very...

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work as chairman of the all-party group. What does he make of the NICE evidence that about a third of the people who are receiving treatment should not be, while there is such a lot of undiagnosed asthma? That seems very...

My hon. and learned Friend makes an incredibly important point, to which I will return later. The information that has come out of NICE is sadly testament to the complacency that we see regarding the effects of respiratory disease, and to how some professionals and patients treat the condition, ultimately...

My hon. and learned Friend makes an incredibly important point, to which I will return later. The information that has come out of NICE is sadly testament to the complacency that we see regarding the effects of respiratory disease, and to how some professionals and patients treat the condition, ultimately...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on having secured this debate. Does he agree that there is a real problem with undiagnosed COPD, which is contributing to those hospital admissions? People are presenting for treatment only when they are in crisis.

I congratulate my hon. Friend on having secured this debate. Does he agree that there is a real problem with undiagnosed COPD, which is contributing to those hospital admissions? People are presenting for treatment only when they are in crisis.

My hon. Friend makes an important point. In fact, we believe that more than 2 million people in the UK have COPD but are completely undiagnosed. The British Lung Foundation has done a great deal of work to try to raise the profile of COPD. It has also done a...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. In fact, we believe that more than 2 million people in the UK have COPD but are completely undiagnosed. The British Lung Foundation has done a great deal of work to try to raise the profile of COPD. It has also done a...

My hon. Friend might be aware that before I came to this place, I was a receptionist for a GP. One of the biggest problems that parents find is that they do not have two inhalers prescribed at the same time for their child, so that one can be kept...

My hon. Friend might be aware that before I came to this place, I was a receptionist for a GP. One of the biggest problems that parents find is that they do not have two inhalers prescribed at the same time for their child, so that one can be kept...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I suffer from that myself, so I have an overnight bag in Parliament in case we get stuck here until 4 or 5 in the morning, and it has an inhaler in it. I had to get that inhaler off my dad, because...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I suffer from that myself, so I have an overnight bag in Parliament in case we get stuck here until 4 or 5 in the morning, and it has an inhaler in it. I had to get that inhaler off my dad, because...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) on securing this debate.

Our respiratory health can be affected by many different things. I want to talk about an aspect that we often do not consider: allergic reactions...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) on securing this debate.

Our respiratory health can be affected by many different things. I want to talk about an aspect that we often do not consider: allergic reactions...

Rightly, my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) and other Members who have contributed have talked about the most serious incidents and life-threatening situations. I want to say a few words about mild asthma, of the sort that can affect someone playing sport. If we are talking about...

Rightly, my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) and other Members who have contributed have talked about the most serious incidents and life-threatening situations. I want to say a few words about mild asthma, of the sort that can affect someone playing sport. If we are talking about...

My hon. and learned Friend makes an interesting point. This is a problem not just for elite sports players and those who participate in sport regularly, but for those who are not active enough, or not taking part in any physical activity. They tend to look for reasons not to...

My hon. and learned Friend makes an interesting point. This is a problem not just for elite sports players and those who participate in sport regularly, but for those who are not active enough, or not taking part in any physical activity. They tend to look for reasons not to...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is easy to see this issue as 1 million hospital admissions and the third highest cause of death, without also looking at the huge effect on other sufferers. We know that 5.4 million people are being treated in the UK for asthma,...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is easy to see this issue as 1 million hospital admissions and the third highest cause of death, without also looking at the huge effect on other sufferers. We know that 5.4 million people are being treated in the UK for asthma,...

I apologise for being late for the start of the debate. Does the hon. and learned Gentleman agree that variability is one of the key problems with asthma? From hon. Members’ contributions, it is clear that each of us who suffer from asthma have different experiences of it. One of...

I apologise for being late for the start of the debate. Does the hon. and learned Gentleman agree that variability is one of the key problems with asthma? From hon. Members’ contributions, it is clear that each of us who suffer from asthma have different experiences of it. One of...

That is exactly the point that I was coming on to make. It would be a mistake to assume that because NICE found that one third of the people it looked at had no symptoms, those people could heave a sigh of relief and forget about asthma for ever. People—as...

That is exactly the point that I was coming on to make. It would be a mistake to assume that because NICE found that one third of the people it looked at had no symptoms, those people could heave a sigh of relief and forget about asthma for ever. People—as...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) on securing the debate. I commend the work that he and the all-party group on respiratory health do to raise awareness of these important issues in Parliament.

It cannot be denied...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) on securing the debate. I commend the work that he and the all-party group on respiratory health do to raise awareness of these important issues in Parliament.

It cannot be denied...

That bears on a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland). Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, in many ways, carers have an important role as well? When someone encourages a person to take their medicine on time, or to go to their annual review,...

That bears on a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland). Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, in many ways, carers have an important role as well? When someone encourages a person to take their medicine on time, or to go to their annual review,...

I absolutely agree. Carers have an important role in how we integrate health and social care, and we should never underestimate the role they play in providing care for close relatives and friends. The hon. and learned Gentleman is right.

It is only with integrated care that complications can be spotted...

I absolutely agree. Carers have an important role in how we integrate health and social care, and we should never underestimate the role they play in providing care for close relatives and friends. The hon. and learned Gentleman is right.

It is only with integrated care that complications can be spotted...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries.

Let me start by thanking and congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) for securing the debate and highlighting this incredibly important issue. His leadership of the all-party group is to be commended, as is the report...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries.

Let me start by thanking and congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) for securing the debate and highlighting this incredibly important issue. His leadership of the all-party group is to be commended, as is the report...

rose—

rose—

Backbench debates (unallotted day).

Backbench debates (unallotted day).

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether any Government-funded bodies have used clinically validated assays in their published studies into gamma retrovirus infections in myalgic encephalopathy, chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer patients in the latest period for which figures are available.

[129817]

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether any Government-funded bodies have used clinically validated assays in their published studies into gamma retrovirus infections in myalgic encephalopathy, chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer patients in the latest period for which figures are available.

[129817]