Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
Breast Cancer
It is the turn of the Conservative Benches and then we will come to the Labour Benches.
Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
Emergency Adrenaline
I certainly agree with the noble Baroness that the single patient record gives us all sorts of absolutely key opportunities, including in this regard. It is important that we note how common allergies are—they affect nearly one-third of the UK population. Although in most people allergic reactions c…
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, Amendments 16 and 114 propose that anyone who is currently, or was in the year preceding their first declaration, deprived of liberty under the Mental Capacity Act will be considered to lack capacity for the decision to seek an assisted death. Amendments 16A and 114A extend this to those o…
My Lords, I am grateful to those who have contributed to this discussion. I made it clear at the beginning that I was probing. I am particularly grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for pointing out that one of the difficulties for assessors is in knowing how reliable the information that t…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Statutory Instrument
11 December 2025
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful that the Minister is keeping in touch about the regulations, not just today but from when we last debated this in November. She will not be surprised to know that most of the concerns from these Benches are about the practicalities. The main concern remains the slowness of pr…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, we come to a key concern in this Bill—the very real risks of coercion and pressure to seek an assisted death. While the Bill acknowledges coercion, it does not fully address the dynamics of domestic abuse at the end of life nor the intersectional risks faced by women, those who are disable…
My Lords, this has clearly been a long debate, and I think for good reason. As one noble Lord said, coercion and pressure are a major concern for many people about the way the Bill is written. I will very briefly respond. I am well aware of the time, but a lot of points have been made. Noble Lords w…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I listened very carefully to what the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said. She has put an enormous amount of work into the background of this Bill. One thing she did not address was the wording of the change from “capacity” to “ability”. It seems to me that the Mental Capacity Act runs like …
My Lords, given this very long debate, I will try to respond briefly. I declare that I had the privilege of being the first chair of the National Mental Capacity Forum, which was set up following the post-legislative scrutiny of the Mental Capacity Act precisely because of the problems with its impl…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 November 2025
Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Reports
I understand the point that the noble Baroness makes—it is quite right. We will continue to take account of and work to support parents and those they care for in the way that she describes. Certainly, I will also discuss with the Minister continuing the work with the organisation to which she refer…
Lords
Proceedings
4 November 2025
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for having met me, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, with whom I discussed the Statement yesterday.
The Minister has spoken about claim managers now being trained and directly employed. I wonder if she has evidence that trust has incr…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Artificial Intelligence: Safeguarding
The first thing is to ensure the application of the Online Safety Act, and we look to Ofcom in that regard. We will increase access to evidence-based digital interventions, to help patients access treatment in a variety of ways but also potentially to reduce unnecessary GP appointments and A&E a…
Lords
Committee Stage
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I too support the amendment, and I have a question for those who have tabled it, which relates to proposed new subsection (2)(b), saying the product is
“not intended to be inhaled or chewed”.
I am afraid that as someone who has been looking at tobacco control measures for many years now,…
I completely take that criticism; it is a fair comment. However, we know the damage to the brain microvasculature from smoking over the long term and that these substances are highly addictive. We also know that when we previously took through tobacco control measures, we never anticipated vapes or …
Lords
Oral Questions
22 October 2025
Drink-Drive Limit
The noble Baroness is right. The primary audience of THINK!, the flagship road safety campaign, is young men aged 17 to 24. The campaign targets priority issues, such as drink-driving and speeding, as well as communicating key policy interventions. There is, of course, a form of restricting novice d…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am deeply concerned about the process—or lack of it—around Clause 191, which was tacked to the end of an unrelated Bill via a Back-Bench amendment in the Commons, with just 46 minutes of Back-Bench debate. Many MPs wanting to speak were unable to; this is not a responsible way to make la…
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I shall speak briefly on these amendments; first, about safety. I bring the House’s attention to the fact that, although we had a debate in Committee on the question of safety with regard to blind and disabled people, particularly at bus stops, to speak from memory, my noble friend the Min…
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, it is a privilege to participate in this important debate and a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and her excellent speech. I would like to add my words to those of many colleagues who have already spoken of their deep concerns about this assisted dying Bill, not out of a…
Lords
Debate
18 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I have a probing amendment in this group, which came about because it struck me that we need to be prepared to think of the unthinkable. Sadly, there have been some tragedies in different schools in different places. There have been bus crashes and knifings. We know that defibrillators on …
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, the hour is late. I have my name on some of these amendments. I simply say that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has highlighted that around 16% of children aged five to 16 now have a mental health disorder. CAMHS cannot cope with this. The amendment in the name of the nob…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
European Framework Programme 10
I have regular meetings with Ministers from the devolved Administrations. Most recently, they were around some of the issues to do with REF. Unfortunately, the meeting with the Welsh Minister was cancelled twice by them, but I will none the less persist.
Lords
Proceedings
24 July 2025
Infected Blood Inquiry: Additional Report
My Lords, I thank the Minister for taking a personal interest in this appalling, sad history, which has gone on for so long, and for recognising that there is a need to really speed things up. The slower it is, the worse the agony. Wrong has happened and recognising that is crucial.
I am also glad …
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
2 contributions
Specialty Medical Training
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lady Finlay and to thank the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, for the very thoughtful way in which he introduced this debate. In so doing, I remind noble Lords of my own registered interest as chairman of King’s Health Partners.
As the noble Lord,…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, for instigating this debate and the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and noble Lords for their contributions. We have had a rich discussion. I will not be able to answer all the points raised, as I am sure noble Lords are aware, but this is extremely topic…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Advertising Restrictions on Less Healthy Food
The different determinants of health are vital. We have laid out the commercial ones, which is why we are discussing today dealing with advertising, in particular, and other issues. On 12 December 2024, the Government published the revised National Planning Policy Framework. It is fundamental that l…
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
My Lords, from these Benches, we too send best wishes to the noble Baroness, Lady Merron.
The stress on prevention in this plan is welcome, but it does not adequately address the commercial determinants of ill health. On every high street there is alcohol for sale which does not have minimum unit p…
Lords
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
Prisons: Mothers and Babies
I am not familiar with the exact details on testing, but I know that we have mandatory drug testing in all prisons on a regular basis. I am also aware, from having foster children at home, that when we opened the fridge we used to be careful whether we got out the Calpol or the methadone. Too many d…
Lords
Committee Stage
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Human Medicines (Amendments Relating to Hub and Spoke Dispensing etc.) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for outlining the purpose behind and need for these regulations.
On these Liberal Democrat Benches, we are of course open to innovation and efficiency in our healthcare system. We recognise the potential for modernising practices to streamline operations, to reduce bu…
Perhaps it might be helpful to noble Lords if I refer to the Competition and Markets Authority in this regard because it noted that the proposed amendments that we are speaking of today are broadly competitive. It also acknowledged that there could be potential long-term competition risks if the mar…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 June 2025
Learning Disabilities Nursing
The noble Baroness is quite right. One of the difficulties is that sometimes there is misdiagnosis, where it is incorrectly assumed, for the very reasons that the noble Baroness gives, that the presenting condition is the learning disability when actually it is a different condition. I agree about t…