Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Unpaid Carers
My Lords, some employers are now adhering to the principles of Hugh’s law when there is a seriously or critically ill child and those unpaid carers are particularly severely affected. Will the consultation cover the issue of children who are very seriously ill? Will the Government also consider—and …
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2026
Children’s and Young People’s Mental Health Services
Do the Government recognise that, as the report said, school staff often see the antecedents of mental health? Two areas where there is strong evidence are parental alcoholism, with a threefold increase in children considering suicide and a fivefold increase in eating disorders, and repeated physica…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Drink-Driving
My Lords, given that somebody with a blood level of 50 to 80 milligrams of alcohol has a six times greater chance of dying in a road accident and, on top of that, of killing other people, when will the Government finally implement a lowering of the limit? They are aiming to have an overall decrease …
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2026
Pension Access Rules: Impact on Terminally Ill
The Government’s review is much to be welcomed, because of the disparity. Given that 33% of working-age people with children who are terminally ill are recognised as dying in poverty, will the Government also look at the ability of people who withdraw their private pension to access a full range of …
Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
My Lords, the Government’s initiatives on alcohol prevention in pregnancy are to be welcomed and are very impressive, but can the Minister assure us that the industry itself will not be involved in consultations and in designing public health programmes? To date, the tiny pictograms on bottles, part…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Clergy Conduct Measure
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Baroness to speak.
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Children: Physical Punishment
My Lords, do the Government recognise that this report shows quite clearly the link between a failure to protect children from abuse and poor outcomes for those children? If parents who are not coping with parenting are to access family hubs and all the other support services, the law has to give a …
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Compassionate Use Medicine Schemes: VAT
My Lords, do the Government recognise that it has been estimated that, for each pound invested in research, there is an approximate 25p return on that in perpetuity. Therefore, we should avoid anything which disincentivises research investment in this country, which would include the inability to re…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Rare Cancers: Diagnosis and Treatment
I am grateful to the Minister for outlining what are laudable aims, but the reality is that, every year, about 67,000 people die from rare cancers. About 10,500 of those have brain tumours, and, of all those patients, many are children or young people. Some 82% say they were never offered a trial, o…
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
Health-related Benefits Assessments
How many long-term claimants with severe long-term disabilities, who will never have a life devoid of dependence on disability benefits, has it been agreed will not be recalled to assessment—assessments which proved to be futile and quite damaging to their whole persona as they feel they are not bei…
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2026
Declining Birth Rates
My Lords, I am most grateful to my colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Nargund, for having secured this debate, and to the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, for having introduced the business of intergenerational solidarity. I want to concentrate on the other end—not on birth but on this older populatio…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My noble friend Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield has been a fine mentor to the whole House. That was evident today. As we proceed without him, we must not let him down. Laws send social messages. Candour and individual accountability must improve in all sectors. Human nature and fear intimidate people fr…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My noble friend Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield has been a fine mentor to the whole House. That was evident today. As we proceed without him, we must not let him down. Laws send social messages. Candour and individual accountability must improve in all sectors. Human nature and fear intimidate people fr…
Lords
Committee Stage
21 April 2026
Cancer Outcomes in the UK
My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Patel, on securing this important debate. I declare my interest as a member of the General Medical Council.
Like many other noble Lords, my interest in this very important subject is personal. My father and older sister both died of lung cancer. My …
Lords
Committee Stage
15 April 2026
2 contributions
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I want to add to the comments and questions made by my noble friend Lady Harding about the potential impact of this regulatory change on horseracing. It is a very important sport, as the Minister responsible knows, and a sport that is already under considerable financial pressure, despite …
If I may, I hope this may be helpful: the confusion that I have heard is over whether a doctor, for a CQC registration at their GP surgery, can use that to volunteer on a point-to-point racecourse, as an example, or whether they have to separately register with the CQC to be a volunteer on the racec…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 April 2026
Nitrous Oxide
The noble Baroness strikes at the heart of this. The use of nitrous oxide is currently illegal under legislation passed by the previous Government. There have been convictions, but there needs to be both education and support to young people—particularly about the dangers, because nitrous oxide can …
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
8 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have Amendments 190, 268, 359, 617 and 660 in this group. The crux of this group is that assisting suicide is not a medical treatment, and products to bring about the death are being used not as medications but in massive overdoses for their poisonous properties.
The Human Medicines Reg…
I intervene on the noble Baroness’s comment about training. Everybody is, indeed, trained in abortion, for example, as they go through medical school, but by the time you are practising clinically and you are on a specialist register, you are no longer keeping up to date with those skills at all, an…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
7 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, for her excellent tour de force on the constitutional issues facing the Senedd in the face of Westminster, particularly as we move into elections. I will make a few background comments, much more from my own professional ang…
My Lords, may I question the Minister? The 49th report of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee drew attention to the very unusual nature of the clause in the Bill that allows the delegated powers to be used to do anything that an Act of Parliament can do and drew attention to the fac…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
7 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will now speak to this rather large group of amendments, many of which were simply consequential, so I have withdrawn those to focus the debate. I ask noble Lords who may have questions to kindly allow me to explain the whole process rather than interrupting the sequence.
We took extens…
My Lords, first, I asked noble Lords to wait until I had completed. Secondly, I apologise to the House if I cough and my voice gives up in the process—so be it. Thirdly, if these amendments were all written into the Bill, which is what I am trying to do, the noble and learned Lord would see that the…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly to support this amendment, which would have been avoided if we had been able to have proper regulation of psychotherapy professionals. The problem is that the voluntary registration through the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the UK Council for Psychot…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
Assisted Dying Legislation: Isle of Man and Jersey
I thank the noble Baroness for her question. She has asked for quite a lot of information and we may have to write to her on that. I can certainly speak about what happened in relation to the Isle of Man. We have the Isle of Man for assistance on the Bill’s reliance on codes of practice for the impl…
Lords
Debate
2 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
Amendment 297A, as an amendment to Amendment 297, is replaced by manuscript Amendment 297AA tabled today, which clarifies where it amends Amendment 297.
Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
12 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have two amendments in this group. Amendment 139 simply requires the commissioner to report to Parliament, and in Amendment 913 I have tried to ensure the independence and freedom from bias of the commissioner and staff. The voluntary assisted dying commissioner, as the public figurehead…
The point that I was trying to make, and I am sorry if I have not expressed it properly, is that there is a huge amount of discretion here and the commissioner will be the person who appoints the panels. In a way, by assessing the work of the panels, the commissioner will be marking his or her own h…
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
23 February 2026
3 contributions
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, I declare an interest as a UK graduate and as a pro-chancellor of Cardiff University, which has a very large medical school.
The ethics issues raised by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, are really important when we look at the Bill. What is our ethical role in attracting people—l…
My Lords, I will go back to the question of Oriel and the prioritisation processes. It collects a full employment history from graduation and requires applicants to confirm whether each post was paid NHS experience. I hope the Minister will be able to recognise that some have worked in a voluntary c…
+1 more contribution in this session