With permission Mr Speaker, I will make a statement about the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday of a new long-term funding plan for the NHS.

The NHS was built on the principle that good healthcare should be available for everyone, whatever their background and whatever their needs. Seventy years on, it remains this country’s most valued public service, an institution that is there for every family, everywhere, at the best of times and at the worst.

So no one in this House underestimates the importance of putting the NHS on a steady financial footing – not just for the sake of their constituents but also for their own families and loved ones. This is why I am proud that yesterday this government announced its commitment to a long-term funding settlement.

From vaccinations to IVF to radiotherapy to next-generation immunotherapies, the NHS has always been at the forefront of excellence in medicine but as only the sixth universal healthcare system in the world it has also come to symbolise equity both at home and abroad.

Despite pressures in recent years, the Commonwealth Fund rates the NHS as the best healthcare system in the world, cancer survival rates are at a record high, stroke mortality is improving faster than almost anywhere else in the OECD and heart disease mortality rates continue to fall. All this thanks to NHS staff who continue to work tirelessly, day in day out, to make it the world-class service it truly is.

But alongside advances in medicine, demographic pressures pose a potentially existential threat to the NHS as we know it. With over-75s expected to increase by 1.5 million in the next 10 years, these pressures, far from reducing, will intensify. So in March the Prime Minister made the bold decision to commit to a 10-year plan for the NHS backed up by a multi-year funding settlement.

Since then I have been working closely with the Prime Minister and Chancellor, and can today announce that the NHS will receive an increase of £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023 to 2024, an average of 3.4% per year growth over the next 5 years. The funding will be front-loaded with increases of 3.6% in the first 2 years, which means £4 billion extra next year in real terms, with an additional £1.25 billion cash to cope with specific pension pressures.

Others talk about their commitment to the NHS but this settlement makes clear it is this government which delivers. Details of this settlement will shortly be placed in the Library of the House.

This intervention is only possible because of difficult decisions taken by the government, opposed by many, to get our nation’s finances back in order and get our national debt falling. Some of the new investment in the NHS will be paid for by us no longer having to send annual membership subscriptions to the EU after we have left. But the commitment that the government is making goes further and we will all need to make a greater contribution through the tax system in a way that is fair and balanced. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has said we will listen to views about how we do this and my right honourable friend the Chancellor will set out the detail in due course.

I want to pay particular tribute to the Chancellor who in all our discussions has never questioned the need for additional resources for the NHS and the priority attached to it by the government. His careful stewardship of the economy, alongside that of George Osborne before him, is what makes today’s announcement possible.

The British public also want to know every pound in the NHS budget is spent wisely. So it is critical to the success of this plan that the whole NHS improves productivity and efficiency; eliminates provider deficits; reduces unwarranted variation in the system so people get the consistently high standards of care wherever they live; gets better at managing demand effectively and makes more effective use of capital investment.

We have set the NHS 5 key financial tests to show how the NHS will do its part to put the service onto a more sustainable footing, and I will be expecting them to give this work the utmost priority. These tests will be a key part of the long-term plan.

But Mr Speaker this is more than just a plan to get finances back on track – in its 70th year we also want our NHS to make strides towards being the safest, highest quality healthcare system in the world.

That means making a number of improvements to the treatment and care currently offered including getting back on track to delivering agreed performance standards; locking in and further building on the recent progress made in the safety and quality of care; and transforming the care offered to our most frail and vulnerable patients so we prioritise prevention as much as cure.

It also means transforming our cancer care, where despite record survival rates we still lag behind France and Germany. There is no family in this country that has not been touched by cancer so the whole House will want to know how the NHS intends to make our cancer treatment and care amongst the very best in Europe.

And many of our constituents worry about the mental health of their loved ones, families and friends. Again, I am proud of this government’s record here: investing more in mental health than ever before and legislating for true parity, as part of one of the biggest expansions in mental health provision in the Europe. So a critical part of the plan will be to decide what next steps will enable us to claim not just that we aspire to parity of provision with mental health but that we are actually delivering it.

Mr Speaker for our most vulnerable citizens with both health and care needs we also recognise that NHS and social care provision are 2 sides of the same coin. It is not possible to have a plan for one sector without having a plan for the other – indeed we have been clear with the NHS that a key plank of their plan must be the full integration of the 2 services.

As part of the NHS plan we will review the current functioning and structure of the Better Care Fund to make sure it supports this. Whilst the long term funding profile of the social care system will not be settled until the spending review, we will publish the social care green paper ahead of that.

However because we want to integrate plans for social care with the new NHS plan it does not make sense to publish it before the NHS plan has even been drafted so we now intend to publish the social care green paper in the autumn around the same time as the NHS plan.

Finally, Mr Speaker, there are 2 further elements crucial to putting the NHS on a sustainable footing. Alongside the 10-year plan we will also publish a long-term workforce plan recognising that there can be no transformation without the right number of staff, in the right settings and with the right skills. This applies to both new and existing staff. As part of this we will consider a multi-year funding plan for clinical training to support this aim. Similarly, we know that capital funding is critical for building NHS services of the future and again we will consider proposals from the NHS for a multi-year capital plan to support the transformation plans outlined in the long-term plan.

Mr Speaker, given the national economic situation yesterday’s announcement is bold and ambitious. For the first time national leaders of the NHS will develop a plan for the next decade which is clinically-led, listens to the views of patients and the public and is backed by five years of core funding. We want to give the NHS the space, certainty and funds to deliver a comprehensive, long term plan to transform health and care and ensure that our children and grandchildren benefit from the same ground-breaking health service in the next 70 years as we all have in the first 70.

That is this government’s commitment to the NHS and I commend this statement to the House.

Following the creation of a digital model of the river, and testing options in the model, a team from Leeds City Council, Environment Agency, and consultants WSP have now come up with four options that they would like the community’s views on.

Residents and business owners can come and talk to the team at:

• The Core Otley, Unit 11 Orchard Gate, Otley LS21 3NX on Thursday 21 June between 4–7pm

The shortlist of options and supplementary works on show include using flood defence walls, flood defence embankments, maintenance including vegetation clearance and riverbank realignment.

Otley suffered flooding on three occasions between November and December 2015, which saw 74 properties affected. In the Autumn Statement 2016, Government announced £2 million to invest in a scheme to reduce the risk of flooding to homes and businesses.

The scheme is being led by Leeds City Council working closely with the Environment Agency.

Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Judith Blake said:

We are very pleased to now share with people the progress we and the Environment Agency have made on the plans for flood prevention measures for Otley with these shortlisted options we are now considering and developing further. These measures are all deliverable and would make a real difference in providing reassurance to local residents and businesses against the threat posed by flooding, so we would encourage as many people as possible to come and see what we have in mind and tell us what they think.

John Woods, flood risk management advisor at the Environment Agency said:

After much work we are now approaching a really crucial stage in the project to select a final option for Otley. We’d encourage anyone with an interest in the scheme to look at the potential options and come along to discuss their views with the team. Residents views are really important in helping us to reach a preferred option for the town.

The Otley Flood Alleviation Scheme is one of several schemes that is adopting a catchment-wide approach. This means the entire River Wharfe catchment area is being considered to help reduce flood risk. This approach looks at a combination of natural processes and engineered options to help slow the flow and catch water further up the catchment so that flood peaks are reduced further downstream.

After the drop-in event, a preferred option will be chosen and developed into the outline design phase, where the community will get another chance to comment on the proposals.

The team is aiming to submit a planning application in winter 2018 and subject to planning approval, construction on site will start by autumn 2019.

For those who can’t make it to the drop-in, the shortlist of options are also available to view online here and if anyone has any comments they can be sent by email to FRM@leeds.gov.uk

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, has announced the allocation of £140m of UK Government funding to support the development of the new Strule Shared Education Campus Project.

The Secretary of State made the announcement during a visit to the Strule Shared Education Campus (SSEC) site in Omagh today. Stressing the pressing need for the re-establishment of an Executive to build on this and other positive developments for the people of Northern Ireland, she also called for the redoubling of efforts to recommence talks between the political parties.

The Strule Project will be the largest shared educational campus in Northern Ireland, bringing together over 4,000 pupils, from all backgrounds, in a vibrant and unique campus environment. This will offer collaborative education opportunities and experiences to students across the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) area of the curriculum.

The sharing of facilities, skills and resources will enable a more flexible approach to learning with enhanced curriculum choices, encouraging and supporting young people to flourish and to become the best that they can be.

The UK Government is committed to shared and integrated education in Northern Ireland. This includes previous commitments in the Economic Pact in June 2013 and the recent commitments in the Stormont House and Fresh Start Agreements to provide up to £500 million of new funding to support shared and integrated education projects.

The Secretary of State was welcomed to the Strule Campus, a vast building site, by John Smith, Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education and SRO for the Strule Shared Education Campus Programme, and Jennifer Morgan, Strule Construction Director, for a tour of the site, during which she heard about the scale and ambition of the project.

At Arvalee School and Resource Centre, a special needs school on the edge of the site and the first school to move to the new shared location, the Secretary of State was greeted by the Principal, Jonathan Gray, and John Hall MBE, Chair of the School’s Board of Governors, for a tour of the school and grounds. She also took the opportunity to meet the principals of the other five schools involved in the project, as well as a number of pupils from all six schools.

Strule is the only campus in Northern Ireland where students with moderate and severe learning difficulties will be educated alongside mainstream schools, presenting a unique opportunity to share learning and cultivate meaningful partnerships which benefit the pupils and staff of all six schools.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt. Hon. Karen Bradley MP, said:

I am delighted to announce the allocation of £140m to support the development of the world-class Strule Project which will bring together six schools and 4,200 pupils.

UK Government funding will help support integrated and shared education in Northern Ireland and break down barriers through cohesion to give young people the valuable skills they need to succeed.

Our strong commitment has been demonstrated in recent years in the 2013 Economic Pact with the Executive and in both the Stormont House and Fresh Start Agreements.

It is our ambition that we ensure all young people can benefit from a high-class education and fulfil their potential, irrespective of their background.

The children that I have met today and throughout my time as Secretary of State have made a huge impression on me. They are the future of Northern Ireland and they deserve the best they can possibly have.

The Strule project demonstrates the huge importance of devolved Government in Northern Ireland to drive forward projects like this for the benefit of the whole community.

It is clear that people in Northern Ireland want local politicians in place working hard to deliver and drive transformation across the education sector and wider public services to create a Northern Ireland fit for the future. A restored Executive is also urgently needed to give Northern Ireland the best possible chance of building on further opportunities such as the devolution of corporation tax rates.

This is my priority too, and this is why my focus is on redoubling efforts to get the political parties back into talks to restore an Executive at the earliest possibility.