The health minister is defending the use of the private sector to reduce waiting lists in the NHS. This topic is being discussed in live UK politics.

In response to the Tory plans to privatise the NHS, Unite union’s general secretary Sharon Graham voices her concerns.

We urgently need to improve NHS wait times, but we should be doing this for the long term, not by Rishi’s latest election giveaway. The sooner we tackle the real problem of jobs, pay and conditions, the sooner we will retain and attract the workers of the future to keep our NHS where it should be – in public hands.

We have seen what more privatisation does, we only have to look at the eye-watering energy bills. We will no doubt be overpaying private companies to provide services that should be delivered within our NHS.

 10:44

I provided a response about someone named Caulfield refusing to comment on the prime minister’s security arrangements. The individual suggested that security concerns apply to all Members of Parliament.

We’re coming up in October to two years since our good colleague Sir David Amess was murdered, so yes, security around MPs is always a concern.

 10:42

Jon Fuller of Extinction Rebellion expressed support for the Greenpeace protest on Rishi Sunak’s constituency manor house, stating that people should be proud of it.

I do think it is a very, very sad situation we’ve got ourselves into here where this actually happens and people feel that it’s necessary. We are seeing an awful lot of damage being done to property because of climate change.

So people are going to get frightened, young people are very frightened indeed. They see on the government’s website this message of adapt or die, and they see the government isn’t adapting, so that fear just grows and grows.

So what are people supposed to do? I think we should be proud of them because they’re not violent.

Three men and two women who were arrested in connection with the Greenpeace protest have been released on bail. They were taken into custody after staging a demonstration at a grade II-listed manor house in Kirby Sigston, where they covered the property with oil-black fabric. This incident occurred while Sunak and his family were on vacation.

 10:18

The mayor of London’s announcement of financial support to ease the impact of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) has “not touched the sides”, Caulfield says.

Sadiq Khan intends to expand the grant scheme to include households with heavily polluting vehicles, allocating an additional £50m in response to political pressure. Caulfield shared this information during an interview with Sky News.

I don’t think it touched the sides of people’s concerns. I think he’s reacting to why Labour didn’t win the Uxbridge by-election. £2,000 is nothing if you’re having to replace your car.

The Conservatives’ opposition to Ulez has been strengthened by their recent victory in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection, where the issue was considered crucial.

The party’s candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, criticizes the new financial support as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

I would stop the Ulez expansion on day one of a new mayoralty, this is too little, it’s too late.

The grants aren’t insufficient as prices for used cars and vans have gone up and the expansion in eligibility doesn’t come into effect until a week before the Ulez.

I mean it’s totally unacceptable and given that his own impact assessment says it will make virtually no difference at all, what a waste of taxpayers’ money, £160 million.

Instead of taxing everybody in outer London he could have put that money towards where we’ve got pockets of pollution.

 09:59

NHS waiting lists are expected to increase in the coming months, according to Caulfield. She acknowledges that the current number of 7.47 million is likely to continue to rise.

We probably expect, in all honesty, for it to peak in the next few months. We’re almost at the peak but we think it will go slightly higher. But it will then start to come down, and that’s why we’re making announcements like this now so that we are getting that capacity and that infrastructure so that patients can get their treatments more quickly.

But, yes, we’re being honest with people that the total number is likely to rise a little bit more before they start to come down.

Tories to further privatise NHS

09:54

The health minister, Maria Caulfield, has announced plans to relax rules governing NHS contracts and expand private sector involvement, according to a statement made to Sky News.

We are using the independent sector because they have got capacity. We’re spending about £19bn a year, which sounds like a huge amount, it’s actually only 8% of the NHS budget.

But this is good value for money because not only does it create extra capacity that we don’t have at the moment … but also it takes the pressure off hospitals so they can focus on those acutely sick patients.

Caulfield acknowledged that some community diagnostic centers would be in the private sector.

Of the 160 that we’re opening, there’s only four at the moment that are being provided by the independent sector. Of the 13 we’re announcing today, it’s eight. So the vast majority is still in the hands of the NHS.

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is proposing the use of private- and third-sector providers to reduce post-Covid waiting lists.