No NHS money allocated for costs of assisted dying law, Wes Streeting admits

This will include Mr Streeting’s Department for Health and Social Care, which is set to get one of the largest funding allocations.

However in a wide-ranging interview with The Yorkshire Post, the Health Secretary admitted that if the controversial bill is passed funds will have to be found in existing budgets.

“As the government, we've worked with both the proponents of the bill and opponents of the bill to make sure that the House of Commons and the House of Lords, if it gets there, have something that they can be confident is workable,” he said.

“As the impact assessment showed, there may well be savings down the line, but there will nonetheless be upfront costs.

“Now, at the moment, there isn't money allocated to do that, and as ever, with any decisions the government is taking, there are choices and trade offs.

“There are questions about priorities, and that's something that MPs have to weigh up when they cast their vote, but it's not for me to tell them how they should cast their vote.”

The private member’s bill, launched by Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater, would allow terminally-ill people with less than six months to live to seek an assisted death with the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

The legislation was narrowly supported by MPs in its first vote last year, and in the coming weeks Parliamentarians will vote again.

While the Government has said it is remaining neutral on the subject, Mr Streeting previously revealed he is against the bill because of potential issues with end of life care.

“My view is well known and hasn't changed,” the Health Secretary said.

“But other MPs are taking a different view, and I respect them very much as they do.”

Mr Streeting was speaking from Leeds, and sought to give assurances to NHS England staff members in the city that many of their jobs will be “essential for the future of the health service”.

Earlier in the year the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, announced they were scrapping the arm’s length body, created in 2012 to oversee the budget, planning, and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the health service.

These functions are set to be moved to the Department for Health and Social care, while half of the staff at the organisation, which is headquartered in Wellington Place, are set to lose their jobs.

However, this week, Mr Streeting sought to give assurances that many of these roles are key for the future of the health service, and he reiterated his desire that Leeds should remain his department’s second city outside of London.

“I think people agree we're doing the right thing because at the moment you've got, effectively, two national headquarters for the NHS, the Department for Health and NHS England,” he said, explaining the decision.

“We could do with one and that will reduce some of the layers of bureaucracy that frustrate people in the NHS and frustrate the public, save hundreds of millions of pounds that we can redeploy to the front line.

“But of course, if you're someone whose job might be affected, this is an anxious time.

“I think the reassurance I can give people about Leeds is that so many of the jobs that are based here, particularly our data scientists, our technologists, those are jobs which are essential for the future and are essential to what will effectively be the new organisation leading the NHS.

“So I think people shouldn't worry about Leeds’ future, but in the coming weeks and months we’ll be working with people to make sure that we're looking after them.”

In the upcoming 10-year NHS strategy, Mr Streeting has said that one of his main priorities is changing the NHS “from analogue to digital”.

On his visit to the University of Leeds with The Yorkshire Post, the Health Secretary witnessed some of the state of the art technology that is being developed in the city.

Mr Streeting was shown a virtual reality simulator - the largest in the country - designed to help make street crossings and roads safer for children.

In particular, Mr Streeting appeared astonished by the vaccine technology being developed by two university students - Henry Dunne and Ian Bartenev, both 23.

After coming up with the idea in the second year as undergraduates, the pair have now created a patch, with multiple tiny microneedles, which allows patients to easily administer a vaccine at home by simply applying the patch to your skin and pressing a button.

It would allow the entire country to be vaccinated in a couple of days during a pandemic.

Mr Streeting described the duo as the “epitome of the Leeds success story”, before adding: “There is something really special about Leeds and the ecosystem they’ve built.

“You’ve got such a depth and breadth of talent in the NHS and local government, and in the voluntary and private sector.

“What they’ve done here in Leeds is make the whole greater than the sum of its parts, because they’ve built strong relationships.”