Barbara
Keeley MP,
Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for
Social Care, commenting on new delayed transfers of care figures due to
social care, said

“It
is deeply worrying that in July there was an 11 per cent increase in NHS bed
days lost due to a lack of social care. Over the last five years, delayed days due
to social care have increased by 113 per cent

“Delays
caused by patients waiting for a care package at home have also increased,
continuing an upward trend since February 2015, yet we see no action from
Theresa May and Tory Ministers to fix this shortage of home care.

“Keeping
older and vulnerable people in hospital when they are medically fit to leave
poses a risk to their recovery and increases their likelihood of contracting
hospital-acquired infections.

“A
Labour Government would provide the urgent additional funding needed to end the
crisis in social care.”

Justin
Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to today’s NHS Combined Performance statistics, said:

“The Tories’ underfunding of the NHS has caused chaos for patients
and even in the height of summer key targets are being missed and waiting list
numbers are rising.

“There is a real danger to patients unless the Government takes
urgent action to support the NHS through the extra winter pressures.

“Theresa May’s decision last year to refuse the necessary winter
funding for the health service caused misery for patients right across the
country – she needs to say what action she’s going to take so that patients and
their families don’t suffer the same unacceptable waiting lists this winter.”

Tom
Watson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, commenting on
Ofcom’s report into broadcasting diversity, said:

“Today’s
report proves that British broadcasting has a diversity problem.

“Women
and people from BAME backgrounds are underrepresented, particularly in senior
roles, but the most shocking fact is that just 3 per cent of the broadcasting
workforce has a disability, compared with 18 per cent of the population.

“Data
can be an important driver of change, but that data needs to be comprehensive.
The huge gaps in diversity data that Ofcom have found are unacceptable, but we
also need to collect data that paints a broader picture, and that means
collecting data on social class too.

“Our
television represents who we are as a nation and those who work on and off
screen should represent the whole country, not just part of it.”

Ends

Notes
to Editors

·         Ofcom’s report
out today can be found here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/diversity-uk-television-industry

·        
Labour released its Acting
Up report over the summer which looked at access and diversity in the
performing arts. One of the key recommendations was an improvement in diversity
data collection and monitoring. The full report and executive summary is
available here: http://www.tom-watson.com/actingup

Debbie
Abrahams MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on
the Employment and Support Allowance Statistics, said:

“Nearly
two thirds of Work Capability Assessments are still being overturned at appeal,
demonstrating their total failure in adequately judging fitness for work for
sick and disabled people.

“This
not only causes unnecessary stress and anxiety for the thousands who have been
denied support unfairly, it also wastes public money by sending so many
decisions back to the courts.

“Labour
will scrap these punitive assessments and replace them with a holistic,
person-centred approach.”

Ends

Notes
to editors

• The
  full release can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-september-2017

Jim McMahon MP, Labour’s
Shadow Minister for Devolution and Finance, responding to findings by
the IFS that councils are concerned about impact of cuts, said:

 “The
IFS’s shock findings that five out of six councils are not confident they can
avoid significant reductions in service quality over the next five years is yet
more evidence of the damage that government cuts to local government funding is
having. The lack of
certainty over future funding is undermining local councils’ ability to respond
to growing need in their area.

“Earlier this year
we pushed the Government to deliver a properly thought out solution to local
government funding, only for the process to be shelved because of the snap
general election that they called.

"We’re not simply
scare mongering when we say that councils face a very real risk of collapsing
under the combination of growing need – especially for social care – government
cuts to core funding, and the sheer lack of clarity on what a funding formula
will look like in the future. And let’s be clear, it’s local residents who will
ultimately pay the price of unfunded and overstretched services.”

Ends

Notes
to editors

The
report ‘The local vantage: how views on local government finance vary across
councils’ will be available on the IFS website from 00.01 Thursday 14^th
September 2017.