Edward Argar

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain, and to do so debating a health matter, as we have spoken many times in the past about health issues. I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who I call my friend, for bringing forward this debate. I am equally grateful for the opportunity to serve opposite the Minister. She and I have served opposite one another on many occasions in the past—previously with me on the Government side and her on the Opposition side, but I am getting used to this side of the Chamber now. It is encouraging that she is responding because she engages with these debates and gives genuine answers. The debate will be the better for her being the Minister. The hon. Member for Strangford has brought forward a hugely important debate, as he so often does. Many important issues rarely get brought before the House, yet we are the poorer for that. This debate might not otherwise have been tabled, but it is right that we debate the issue. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova), who is not in the Chamber but has done a lot in the House to highlight the issue in her work with the APPG—it would be wrong not to recognise that in this debate. I also pay tribute to the Royal National Institute of Blind People for its work and to all those who have contributed to raising awareness. Before I became a Minister in 2018, I was the vice-chairman of the APPG on eye health and visual impairment, so I took an interest in this important issue back then, and it crossed my radar on a number of occasions when I was Health Minister. As the hon. Member for Strangford and the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) set out, while individual rare conditions may be exactly that—they occur rarely, with few people getting them—collectively, rare conditions account for a significant number of the conditions that individuals in this country have. The hon. Member for Leicester South brought his background and knowledge to bear on the subject, as he does when speaking about these matters. He highlighted the potentially devastating impact that optical and retinal diseases and illnesses can have on someone’s life. A few years ago I did something very trivial; somehow—heaven knows why—a tree branch went right across my eye and cut it. I recovered fully, but for the few weeks that I had the treatment and the cream, it had an impact on my daily life. It was trivial in the great scheme of things—although if untreated, it may not have been—and I can only begin to imagine the impact of some of those conditions, as the hon. Member elucidated.