00:00What's wrong with the CQC?
00:02What we've seen is an utterly damning indictment on the regulator that's meant to safeguard
00:10patient standards and safety in health and in social care settings and whether it's
00:16one in five health and care providers not having received a rating or the fact that
00:21we've seen hospitals not being inspected for over a decade or unqualified inspectors
00:28and inexperienced inspectors being sent into health and care settings with little experience
00:32of the issues that they're confronted with. This is I think a stunning failure and speaks
00:39to the culture of a conspiracy of silence and brushing things under the carpet that
00:45we ended up with under the last government because if they were honest about the scale
00:48of the challenge they'd have to be held accountable for their own failures. We've published
00:54this in the interim report today because we've got to move quickly making sure the
00:58CQC has the right permanent leadership, making sure the public are informed in a very honest
01:05and transparent way about the failures and the lack of confidence we have in the ratings
01:09that the CQC has provided and also providing people with that reassurance that we're
01:13going to move quickly to turn the situation around.
01:16Is this about money and resources or is this about management?
01:21I think fundamentally the failure at the CQC has been a failure of culture and that culture
01:26was set right from the top by the previous government which was content to brush things
01:30under the carpet rather than be honest with people about the true extent of the scale
01:34of the challenge in both NHS and in social care. That's why we've got to have the
01:40right leadership in place and it's why we need to change the culture and practice within
01:44the organisation and there are some good people in the CQC, expert people who have
01:49come forward and given us the evidence, very courageously given us the evidence that we
01:53needed to turn the ship around. The reason we've published this interim report today
01:59is because this is urgent and I want to be honest with the public straight away and I
02:04also want to make sure that we get the right leadership in as a matter of urgency and the
02:09way we will do that is by being honest with potential candidates about the scale of the
02:12challenge but also reassure them that this isn't going to be a government that brushes
02:16things under the carpet and we will give them full support to deliver the radical reform
02:20that the CQC requires. Do you have any idea how long it's going to be before patients
02:24can trust what they are told about the health services they're using? One of the reasons
02:29I've published this interim report today is I think patients looking on the CQC website
02:35or families looking for a care provider should take the current ratings with a pinch of salt
02:40and one of the urgent things I've asked the CQC to do is to put more information alongside
02:45those ratings about how the rating came about so people can make informed choices as soon
02:49as possible. It is going to take time to turn the regulator and indeed our NHS and social
02:55care system around. In the meantime, honesty is the best policy and I want to reassure
03:00people that I'm working quickly to get the right leadership in place and that's why I've
03:05chosen to publish the interim report today before the full report is published after
03:10the summer. Just a few other issues then. On Monday we're expecting to hear from the
03:15Chancellor the full scale of the public sector financing challenges. You were warned before
03:21the election that you couldn't just come in and say oh look we've opened the books and
03:25it's worse than we thought. You knew how bad it would be didn't you? We knew ahead of the
03:29election that an incoming Labour government would face the worst economic inheritance
03:33since the Second World War because of the catastrophic mismanagement of the economy
03:37under the previous government. What we didn't anticipate was that having come in that we
03:43would see the degree to which the previous government spent taxpayers' money left, right
03:49and centre, splurging cash the government didn't have, presenting us with really difficult
03:54in-year choices too. The Chancellor will set out her position on Monday. I'm not going
04:00to pre-empt that but people can see with Rachel Reeves that she is someone who does
04:05not duck difficult decisions. There are hard choices ahead and she's going to be honest
04:09with the country about those choices, how she's handling them and she will have the
04:14support of the entire Cabinet as she does that because these aren't just Rachel Reeves
04:18difficult choices, these are our tough choices too and we're going to work together as a
04:22team to rebuild our economy, rebuild public services and also rebuild trust in politics.
04:28A couple of other hard choices that you're going to be facing soon. Is the government
04:33going to give time to an Assisted Dying Bill?
04:36I think Assisted Dying is a debate whose time has come and I welcome Charlie Faulconer bringing
04:41the debate forward in the House of Lords. This will be a free vote. MPs and peers will
04:46be free to vote however they like and this is a difficult debate because it involves
04:51really big moral and ethical choices as well as really practical considerations about how
04:56Assisted Dying could work in practice and that's why it's so important that Parliament
05:00has the time and the space to debate those issues and the Prime Minister set out before
05:05the general election that he would give that time for this debate which I think needs to
05:10not just be our debate in Parliament but needs to be a wide-ranging public debate too.
05:14At some point soon you're going to have to make a decision on whether to ban the use
05:18of puberty blockers in this country. What are you minded to do? What's your current position?
05:24It is so important to me that trans people receive access to high quality health care
05:30that meets their needs and that when it comes to young people in particular who have issues
05:35with their gender identity that they receive really good quality and evidence-based care.
05:41The CAS review which was a really wide-ranging expert review led by one of our country's
05:46leading paediatricians said that the prescription of puberty blockers, there wasn't enough
05:52evidence about the long-term impact of the use of these drugs for this purpose and that
05:58we needed more evidence and that's why a clinical trial is going to be stood up and why I think
06:02it is right, especially when it concerns health care for children, that we tread cautiously.
06:09That's what I'm doing. I will always follow the evidence. I will always put patients and
06:14patient safety first and I will resist political pressure actually on either side of these
06:20arguments and be guided by the evidence because I think that's what the public would expect
06:24of me and that's the right thing to do.
06:26Just a couple more issues on petrol pricing. Do you think people, does the government think
06:30people are being ripped off for petrol?
06:33Speaking as a motorist myself, I want to know that when I go to the pump I'm paying a fair
06:37price and that where there are savings to be made because of market conditions changing,
06:44I want those savings to be passed on to all of us at the pump. What the CMA have published
06:49is concerning and the Energy Secretary will be reviewing the CMA's report and recommendations
06:56and will be coming forward with his response shortly.
06:59And finally, would the government support the London Mayor in bidding for the Olympics
07:04to come to London in 2040?
07:06I love the Olympics and when the Olympics and Paralympics came to London it was probably
07:11one of my happiest times. As a Londoner, I can't speak for the Culture and Sports Secretary
07:18who probably won't games in Wigan but more seriously, let's just really remember we've got
07:25a very difficult backdrop in our country at the moment, both in terms of the economy and
07:29the state of the public finances with tough choices to be made.
07:32So this is not something that we are seriously looking at. We have got commitments to host
07:37a wide range of competitions. We will do that well, we always do as a country but in terms
07:42of taking on new commitments, we've just got to, in a very sober way, before we get carried away
07:47by the Paris Olympics spirit, just bear in mind that here at home we've got difficult,
07:52tough choices to make around the public finances and the economy and that's got to drive our decisions.
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