UK Parliament: ME/CFS Announcements: Statement by Health Secretary Sajid Javid, 12 May 2022

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Ed Argar, Health Minister, has resigned.
Wonder if he is involved in the work on ME.

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/edward-argar


Biography


Edward Argar was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care on 10 September 2019.

Edward was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice between 14 June 2018 and 10 September 2019.

He was elected as Conservative MP for Charnwood in 2015.

Minister of State (Minister for Health)
The Minister of State for Health leads on the following:

  • NHS operational performance
  • NHS workforce
  • Long Term Plan Bill
  • finance, efficiency and commercial
  • NHS capital, land and estates
  • transformation
  • NHS England mandate
  • devolved administrations, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories
  • secondary legislation
  • departmental management
  • EU future relationship and trade
  • sponsorship of:
    • NHS England (NHSE)
    • NHS Improvement (NHSI)
    • Health Education England (HEE)
    • NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA)
 
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Adrian said:
I did wonder if ME groups and charities should approach the health spokes people for the opposition parties to try to build cross party support
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https://appgme.co.uk/who-we-are/#members

From the APPGME website

t is a good cross party group of influential people so I think Carol Monaghan and others have done a good job.

Sharon Hodgson spoke for Labour in the Westminster Hall debate and I believe the Commons debate, she was shadow public health minister and is currently parliamentary private Secretary to the leader of the opposition

Debbie Abrahams has been shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, shadow minister for disabled people in the past and I believe is currently on the work and pensions select committee

Fleur Anderson is shadow Paymaster General- in the Treasury team (Finance Ministry)

obviously Carol Monaghan is an excellent advocate from the Scottish National Party she is a member of the science select committee

Plaid Cymru well represented by Ben Lake who has been involved at least since the 2018/9 debates.

there are some backbench Conservatives in this current group including Dr James Davies is a GP and was (until today) parliamentary private Secretary to the Minister for Health

and two of the Baronesses

Baroness Findlay of NICE committee must be a huge asset to the group
Baroness Scott of the Lib Dems is a former party chairman

both spoke in the Lords as part of that small group of impressive Baronesses in that short, excellent debate when Lord Kamall had just taken up the post https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords...8AE-CECB51B25D93/HealthChronicFatigueSyndrome

although not listed on the website there has also been support from MPs from N Ireland

previously the current Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey was involved as was Conservative Alex Chalk in the early debates (until recently a government minister)
 
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NelliePledge said:
From the APPGME website

t is a good cross party group of influential people so I think Carol Monaghan and others have done a good job.
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I think there is a difference between having corss party support in terms of MPs from all parties involved in the APPG and having the different parties supporting the initiative as a more official thing. Its not the kind of thing that would make it into a manifesto but some sort of backing from the parties to say that they would continue the initiative would be good (rather than just individual MPs)
 
Adrian said:
I think there is a difference between having corss party support in terms of MPs from all parties involved in the APPG and having the different parties supporting the initiative as a more official thing. Its not the kind of thing that would make it into a manifesto but some sort of backing from the parties to say that they would continue the initiative would be good (rather than just individual MPs)
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That is exactly right. To quote from the UK Parliament website:

"All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal cross-party groups that have no official status within Parliament. They are run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords, though many choose to involve individuals and organisations from outside Parliament in their administration and activities."

A further thing to note is that all APPGs cease to exist at the point an election is called.

It does need one or more organisations to make contact with the Party spokespersons - and in the case of the Government the current Health Secretary. Caution is necessary in being politically neutral so in broad outline the same letter has to go to all Parties asking the same thing. In this case the ask is fairly simple - to support the initiative started by the former Health Secretary.

As far as timing goes - things remain febrile in the UK Government (as at 11.26 am !) but it now seems certain that the ruling Party will choose a new leader and therefore Prime Minister (i.e no General Election) and that by September there will be a wholly new Cabinet which may or may not include the current Health Secretary. It would seem wise to wait until then before contacting the new HS and the opposition Party spokespersons regarding continued support for Javid's initiative.

Encouraging the UK patient orgs to have their (hopefully collective) response ready to go in September would be good for anyone reading here with appropriate connections.

Just to add a further complication - Javid's initiative is about the NHS in England, with Scotland (via Carol Monaghan's influence) seeming to embrace similar principles. As far as I'm aware Wales and Northern Ireland are yet to clarify their respective post NICE updates positions on ME/CFS. NI is in political stalemate so lack of progress is for the present locked in.
 
Adrian said:
This looks like a standard answer from him
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Those replies are normally provided by (uncaring) Departmental officials/civil servants - they probably/maybe get checked by the Ministers "minder" (SPAD) before they issue. With Sajid Javid, AKA a Minister with a personal interest, the replies would be more likely to commit to action --- if the Minister's not personally interested then e.g.:
  • I'd suggest the line of attack might be to focus on NICE's findings that all previous research funded by his Department was low/very low quality (any Minister doesn't want to look like he's the leader of an incompetent Department!). OR
  • highlight his predecessor's commitments to turn things around (by implication this suggests that things were wrong).
Sure there are other/better strategies of course!
 
FMMM1 said:
Those replies are normally provided by (uncaring) Departmental officials/civil servants - they probably/maybe get checked by the Ministers "minder" (SPAD) before they issue. With Sajid Javid, AKA a Minister with a personal interest, the replies would be more likely to commit to action --- if the Minister's not personally interested then e.g.:
  • I'd suggest the line of attack might be to focus on NICE's findings that all previous research funded by his Department was low/very low quality (any Minister doesn't want to look like he's the leader of an incompetent Department!). OR
  • highlight his predecessor's commitments to turn things around (by implication this suggests that things were wrong).
Sure there are other/better strategies of course!
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I beleive the process that Javid set in place will continue at least for a while. It won't be something on the urgent list that a new minister will look at. The difficulty will come when recommendations are made and require money.
 
Adrian said:
I beleive the process that Javid set in place will continue at least for a while. It won't be something on the urgent list that a new minister will look at. The difficulty will come when recommendations are made and require money.
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Not keeping up (as usual!) can someone send me a link to Javid's initiative (vaguely recall something about it).

Thanks in advance
 
Adrian said:
The difficulty will come when recommendations are made and require money.
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Precisely and presumably we'll need the key charities (like Forward ME?) and APPG (even the covid APPG) to lobby to get +ve recommendations implemented.
 
NelliePledge said:
Hi All

The moderators recognise that the involvement of Sajid Javid does mean there is some relevance to ME politics in the current Conservative leadership and Cabinet situation. However we ask that members don’t discuss and speculate about the current situation further as it inevitably leads to Rule 12 breaches.
https://www.s4me.info/threads/forum-rules.301/
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Moderators appreciate that members have tried to discuss the current political situation carefully, however all political discussion not directly relevant to ME/CFS is beyond the scope of the forum.

We have therefore decided to close this thread.

Any news about the working groups set up by Sajid Javid can be shared on these threads:

United Kingdom: UKCRC (UK Clinical Research Collaboration) Subgroup on ME

UK: UK Clinical Research and Collaboration (UKCRC) ME Education and Attitudes Working Group
 
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