Lords
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
Yes, indeed. We have three core foundations in place in our government objectives for adult social care, one of which is—to the point made by the noble Lord—strengthening the join-up between health services and social care services, because people need to experience more integrated, person-centred c…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 March 2026
Local Government Reorganisation
Collaboration is clearly a very important part of local government, but it is not helped by the confusion between the tiers of local government and over who does what at which tier. For the 20 million people who currently live in two-tier areas, where services are split across county and district co…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
The noble Lord is absolutely right. That is why we celebrate the 5 million additional days that children have been in school over the last year. In our schools White Paper we set a further challenging target to get young people back into school and attending full-time. The noble Lord is right that w…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Hospitals: Delayed Discharges
The noble Lord raises the importance of the Casey review, but we are not standing still waiting for the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, to report. We are making progress towards building a national care service, with around £4.6 billion of additional funding available for adult social care by 2028-29 co…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 February 2026
Child Poverty: Faith-based and Voluntary Sector Organisations
My Lords, I could not agree more. The noble Lord makes an excellent point. I realise that, from his experience, he will have seen this from all sides. In the end, it is not the job of the state to raise children—parents raise their children. The job of the state is to support families to give them t…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
Best Start Family Hubs
I completely agree with the noble Lord. We recently had a whole Question devoted to the issue of toilet training and preparedness for life in school. Talking to reception teachers, I think that some of the examples they give are really disturbing. We have been through a very difficult time with Covi…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Youth Unemployment
The noble Lord makes an enormously important point. It is sometimes at the point that young people finish school that they are lost to education or employment. That is why we will also put greater responsibilities on to schools to ensure the destinations of their pupils. We will deliver an automatic…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
Early Years Education
The evidence shows that children’s language skills at the age of five are the biggest indicator of later attainment and one of the strongest predictors of children’s overall school achievement and success on entering the workforce. It is about bringing parents together, whether through hubs or other…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
NHS: Wheelchair Services
I would certainly agree that timely provision of wheelchairs and other aids and adaptations does support people not only to remain as independent as possible for as long as possible but to leave a hospital setting if that is in their best interests. We now have the better care fund as a framework fo…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 November 2025
Carer’s Allowance: Overpayments Review
I am so grateful to the noble Lord—trust him to say the thing I should have said right at the outset, but I am very grateful to him for raising it. With all of his experience, he has seen this close-up. As he knows, anyone who has worked in professional social care knows just how much we all depend …
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
People with Disabilities: Employment
I am grateful to the noble Lord, who makes a very important point. There has been an issue for some time—I am not telling him anything new; he knows it better than I do—around the transition between the support for young people when they are in school and the support when they get out of school. The…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 October 2025
Unpaid Carers
The noble Lord, as always, goes right to the heart of the issue. I reassure him that, through the 10-year plan, all the issues that he has raised are recognised. Through all the aspects, enhancing the position of carers is paramount. It cannot be right to have the situation he outlined whereby the c…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
Prisoners: Reoffending
My noble friend is right that, in the past, that has been a significant problem. It still happens, but it happens far less. We try to release people on a Thursday, but some are still released on Fridays because of various technicalities. One of the things that I am working really hard at is getting …
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Chinese Espionage: Parliament
The noble Lord makes a very important point. Obviously, the 18-month delay is unfortunate, which is why we are trying to fix the court services going forward. With regard to the point made by the noble Lord, there was the Roussev case, a piece of case law about the Official Secrets Act, which concer…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
The noble Lord, as always, raises a fundamental point. One area that I have most concern about is that of transition. Some young people could be getting very valuable and profound support while they are of school age, but the transition into adulthood is where the gaps occur. We recognise this, and …
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Children: Dangers of Screen Time
The noble Lord, with his very extensive knowledge, makes two important points. First, when we are talking about the impact of screen time we need to involve young people in describing and thinking about where there should be controls and what the alternatives are. Secondly, to go back to my point ab…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
The noble Baroness, Lady Casey, is working towards setting up a national care service that can work alongside the National Health Service. The noble Lord raises critical points. Given that so many people live with frailty and need in the community, it is essential that not only the NHS and social ca…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 July 2025
Prisons: Early Release
The release scheme that we inherited from the previous Government was very chaotic. Far too many people left prison and were recalled very quickly, which meant that more victims were created. The SDS40 scheme was far more stable and organised, and probation colleagues had the time to find accommodat…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
Migrants: Hotel Accommodation
I am grateful to the noble Lord. We took an early decision, as he knows, to work with the local authority, Kent, to ensure that safeguarding was in place, and that is in place now. There are still a number of unaccounted migrant children, who precede this Government’s responsibilities, and we are ma…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Social Care
The noble Lord raises such an important point. I am sure he will also be thinking about the vexed issue of hospital discharge and all the issues that are creating such difficulties in the system. I emphasise that adult social care is part of our vision for a neighbourhood health service, shifting ca…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Care Workers: Foreign Worker Visas
We will hear from the Bishop next and then the Cross Benches.
I wholeheartedly agree with what the noble Lord said. I find that a kind heart is a good thing in most professions, but we also require more skills in many professions. That is why we have set out and launched a whole range of new measures in skills, training and development—and paying and treating …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 June 2025
Adult Social Care
Yes, indeed. I pay tribute to the adult social care workforce who work hard, day in, day out, to provide the standards that the noble Lord refers to for those in our communities who are often the most vulnerable. I could give a range of examples but will refer in particular to the learning and devel…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 June 2025
Ofcom: Protection of Children Codes
The noble Lord is absolutely right about that. As part of my role, I have seen horrendous material that I do not think anybody—not adults and certainly not children—should see. We are determined to get this right and to be forward-looking, because anything that we do in legislation needs to be fit f…