Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Mental Health Conditions: Diagnoses
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean, on securing this timely and highly relevant debate. I thank all noble Lords for their contributions. There is not unanimity in this House on what is behind the drivers of prevalence—I will come to that shortly—but I have listened closely to …
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, it is a real honour to open today’s debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. When it was my privilege to close the last debate on the last gracious Speech, I spoke about the Mental Health Bill and the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. I thank noble Lords across the House for their engagement an…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
9 contributions
Miscarriage Care
My Lords, miscarriage can have a devastating impact on women and their families, and we are determined that they receive the support they need. We committed in the women’s health strategy to improve care for women, including carefully considering the graded model of care for repeated miscarriage. Th…
This is an extremely important area, and I acknowledge very much that the current situation is not working for women or their families. To emphasise, we very much welcome the report from Tommy’s miscarriage centre at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which is about the effectiveness of its…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
10 contributions
Healthy Life Expectancy: England
My Lords, the fall in healthy life expectancy over the last decade is unacceptable and underlines the scale and complexity of the challenges we face. Through the 10-year health plan, we are taking action to tackle the drivers of ill health and inequality, including reviewing the Carr-Hill funding fo…
My noble friend’s assessment of the situation is right. That is why we are working across government on the wider determinants of health, including matters such as the Warm Homes Plan and the homelessness strategy. Alongside that, the 10-year health plan focuses on prevention and narrowing inequalit…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
23 April 2026
10 contributions
Women’s Health Strategy
I thank the noble Lord and the noble Baroness on the Front Benches for their warm welcome for this renewed women’s health strategy. It represents a major shift in this country and, as the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, said, it recognises the fact that women’s voices have not been heard. It is shocking, a…
I would be pleased to. This is an important point because MSK conditions disproportionately affect women. We are investing in diagnosis, and this financial year we are funding 21 new DEXA scanners in priority locations. That will mean some 60,000 scans per year, so we will be upping the game in that…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
21 April 2026
Cancer Outcomes in the UK
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her comprehensive response. She might reflect on some of the other points that she was not able to answer, such as the one on isotopes, which is very important. We have debated that before. One or two noble Lords quite rightly mentioned children’s cancers, which th…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 April 2026
9 contributions
Midwives: Graduate Guarantee
I thank the Minister for her Answer. The graduate guarantee is very welcome but, already, 31% of newly qualified midwives do not have a job or are on fixed-term contracts. First, how will the Government ensure that workforce planning is aligned to the number of posts available so that the skills of …
My Lords, the graduate guarantee applies also to nurses but, sadly, the provision is quite patchy. What steps are the Government taking to support employers to recruit newly qualified nurses?
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 April 2026
3 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, Amendments 28A, 28B, 28C, 29B and 29C were tabled by the Government in the other place to correct an error arising from amendments made in your Lordships’ House on Report. Without these amendments, trading standards officers in Wales would lose the ability to issue certain fixed penalty no…
My Lords, I understand the background, having been involved in the early stages of the Bill. Nevertheless, it upsets a great many people in that industry that the Government have not listened to the strong representations of the retailers and those who have knowledge of the industry. We have a situa…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
7 contributions
NHS Adult Gender Identity Clinics
I thank the Minister for that Answer, but I wonder if she has had a chance to review the landmark study from Finland recently, which suggests very strongly that gender medicine actually has a very negative impact on vulnerable young people with complex needs and, far from actually helping them, in f…
My Lords, we know that the 18 to 25 year-olds have many of the same complex problems as the under-18s and, as the Minister has said, they need similar holistic wraparound care, although that is not necessarily yet in place. However, Dr Levy’s review had a narrower remit than mine, focused on quality…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
15 April 2026
4 contributions
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, this statutory instrument makes an important change. It will amend the 2014 regulations so that the treatment of disease, disorder or injury, known as TDDI, is brought within the regulatory scope of the Care Quality Commission. This change will be for the treatment of disease, disorder or …
I shall speak briefly to this statutory instrument and ask a number of questions, if I may, to which I hope the Minister will be able to respond. I think that I understand the structure of what is proposed and the exclusion of first aid so that it is not covered, but when I look at the providers tha…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
26 March 2026
Learning Disabilities: Health and Social Care Access
My Lords, I am pleased to respond to this Question for Short Debate, and I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, on securing what, as we have heard, is a very important debate. I also congratulate him on his commitment to improving outcomes for those who have a learning disability. Personally a…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
9 contributions
Migraine Care: 10-year Health Plan
I thank the Minister for engaging on a subject that has been raised just once in this House since 1961—which is extraordinary, as we have 10 million migraine sufferers in the UK, more than half of whom have no diagnosis or access to preventive medication. Migraines cost the wider economy more than £…
My Lords, the approach that my noble friend the Minister has outlined regarding migraine care is very welcome. The 10-year plan also talks about cholesterol management due to its links to cardiovascular disease, but the plan can quite often be confusing for the patient in terms of the care that is p…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
7 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I am grateful for the views that have been expressed today. As usual, I will keep my remarks to those amendments that raise significant legal, technical or operational workability concerns. I very much associate myself from these Benches with the welcome to the noble and learned Baroness, …
I am sure that all noble Lords welcome that report and its comments but, as the noble Baroness is aware, it is a matter for the sponsor to decide the response to that rather than the Government.
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
8 contributions
Unpaid Carers: Patient Hospital Discharge
I thank my noble friend for her Answer. It was important, though not easy, to win for carers the right to be consulted at the point of discharge. I am sorry that better statistics are not being kept, but I am glad to hear the plans for improvement. The survey from Carers UK shows that the number of …
My Lords, further to the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, there are 120,000 young carers aged between seven and 18, many of whom are the principal carer for a parent or sibling, accompanying them when they go into hospital. Although many hospitals are good about identifying the yo…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
17 March 2026
7 contributions
GP Contract
As the noble Lord said, we have seen 1.3 million people diverted since April 2025. Otherwise, they would have been added to the electives waiting list, in clinical terms, unnecessarily. The main thing I can say to the noble Lord on advice and guidance is that I think the figures speak for themselves…
When we develop digital approaches, I have to say again that the figures speak for themselves on, for example, patient satisfaction with general practice: people believe it is finally moving in the right direction. According to the Office for National Statistics, some 77% of people described contact…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
8 contributions
NHS: In-house Software Capabilities
I thank the Minister for that reassuring Answer. The NHS has had a disastrous history of outsourcing its IT technology, which has wasted millions of pounds. A requirement of outsourcing is that there must be sufficient in-house expertise to properly assess the need for outside assistance and the qua…
My Lords, cyber security is an essential element in any system, but nowhere more so than when people’s health records are being maintained. Many security breaches are attributed, at least in part, to human error. What investment are His Majesty’s Government making to train front-line staff in the ne…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 March 2026
8 contributions
NHS: Heart Valve Disease
I thank my noble friend the Minister for her response. The guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery suggest that the UK is falling behind in terms of diagnosis and treatment for heart valve disease. Can she give an assurance that the n…
My Lords, management of people with heart valve disease is truly a low-hanging fruit in reducing deaths due to cardiovascular disease. Some 400 people a year die on waiting lists for transcatheter aortic valve implantation. It is simple for people who have breathlessness or suffer from decreased exe…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Statutory Instrument
11 March 2026
Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2026
That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 29 January be approved. Relevant document: 51st Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Considered in Grand Committee on 9 March.
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
5 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I will make a short statement on the position regarding legislative consent on this Bill. The Bill is UK-wide, and it has been developed in partnership with the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. A legislative consent Motion was received from the …
My Lords, Amendments 1 to 5 are minor and technical, and stem from the amendments that the Government made on Report on advertising. The amendments ensure consistency across the advertising-related restrictions in the Communications Act 2003. In particular, they will ensure that a business which man…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
9 March 2026
4 contributions
Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I am glad to introduce these regulations, which will take effect from 31 March 2026. This statutory instrument is technical, relating to the preparation and administration of vaccines.
In autumn 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple temporary amendments were made to the Hum…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her clear and comprehensive introduction to this statutory instrument, and I express Green Party support for it. I echo the comments of the Minister in the House of Commons, who said that,
“after clean water, vaccination is the most effective public health interve…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
9 contributions
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
I am grateful for that. Last week, the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, said that the adult social care system was held together by “sticking plasters and glue” and said on the “Today” programme that the system was “horrendous”. She is due to complete the first part of her review this year—basically, loo…
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, concentrates on workforce issues. I am sure that she and my noble friend agree that patients, families and carers do not care who is employing the social care worker, as long as they are getting support. Should we concentrate on a flexible workforce that wor…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 March 2026
11 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I am most grateful to noble Lords for their contributions to this debate, as well as the engagement they have been good enough to give their time to before Report.
Let me start with the amendments from the noble Earl, Lord Lindsay. The UK Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland …
My Lords, the amendments in this group were tabled in my name for Committee but were not moved at the time. Government Amendments 67, 69 and 74 are also needed as part of these changes. However, as these amendments are also required for changes that the Government are introducing to the use of proce…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
7 contributions
NHS: Violence Against NHS Staff
I thank my noble friend the Minister for her, as ever, detailed and insightful response, but I am sure she is also aware that certain groups are disproportionately affected by violence in the workplace. Black and Asian nurses make up over 30% of the total number of registered nurses in England yet r…
My Lords, the level of violence towards staff in healthcare settings which the Minister has just mentioned is unacceptable. The 2024 NHS staff survey found that violence had increased since 2023, with a quarter of the workplace reporting harassment. Given that staff safety is essential to the functi…
+5 more contributions in this session