My Lords, the Government have spoken about growth as their priority from day one and, to be fair, they are doing a few good things. They have carried on the Help to Grow: Management programme, which was started by the previous Government. Some 10,000 businesses have already gone through the programm…
My Lords, we have made clear what our ambitions are with Get Britain Working and that we will have metrics and publish regular data on them. One thing I want to take the opportunity to say at the Dispatch Box is that I have seen headlines this week suggesting that large numbers of people are flowing…
My Lords, I support the amendments in this group, so ably introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Russell.
Amendment 27 asks for a statute of requirement for police officers to undertake an anti-social behaviour impact assessment when a victim reports three incidents of anti-social behaviour in a six-mo…
I do not accept the noble Baroness’s assertion. The department received the final draft code on 4 September. It is 300 pages long. That code needs detailed consideration because, as my noble friend pointed out, we want to avoid uncertainty. We want to ensure, as the Equality and Human Rights Commiss…
My Lords, the noble Baroness commented on vacancies. She is very aware, as I am, of the facts of the economy and will know that vacancies have been declining steadily since spring 2022, when they reached a historic high. The decline in vacancies is a continuation of longer-term trends, but the noble…
The noble Baroness asks an interesting question. I do not know whether it was on her watch but she may remember that, in 2022, under the previous Government, the department ran a trial to evaluate whether health assessments conducted by different channels led to different outcomes—that is, did it ma…
I thank the noble Baroness for her kind words. I am very grateful and I agree with her very much indeed on that—I am very glad to be here as well.
She makes a really important point. One of the reasons we have taken our time and been thoughtful about the child poverty strategy is that it cannot eve…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her typically comprehensive response within the limits of the time available. I thank everyone who has contributed to this extremely rich debate.
Your Lordships’ House has done what we can within the limits of the procedure allowed us, and I particularly note the …
My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I declare something of an interest, in that I have used them and they work.
I look forward to the noble Baroness’s testimony. The obesity medicines Wegovy and Mounjaro are already available to eligible patients attending NHS specialist weight management services. In June, the NHS began making Mounjaro available through primary care. Around 220,000 adults will be considered …
My Lords, I apologise for the repetition, but for 32 years I dedicated my working life to helping people into work, not just by finding them jobs but by opening their eyes to the opportunity, purpose and dignity that meaningful employment brings. I do not rise today to lecture the Minister on the ch…
The noble Baroness is quite right in her observations on the need to move to much better services here. First, on her point about discharge letters, appointment letters and so on, the Government have already committed funding and direct support to local areas that are not currently providing what we…
It will come as no surprise to the noble Baroness that I cannot give her the detail on that question, but I will be very happy to get back to her with an update on where we have got to. Obviously, the whole area of digitalisation is another of the pillars in moving the health service forward. So man…
My Lords, I support my noble friend in her endeavours with this amendment. We worked on child maintenance together in the department. It became a real campaign. We were turning every stone to ensure that money that was due to children got to them. I could keep your Lordships here all night with the …
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 151. My friend—the noble Lord, Lord Addington—has done my job for me, but I will not be done out of my few moments to speak.
I am absolutely thrilled that the Bill seeks to strengthen the support provided to looked-after children and care leavers. I seek to ad…
The noble Lord’s point about resources and stretching people too far is well made. I would never want to do that, but these people are doing it now. I sat with a lady who has worked for the jobcentre for 25 years. People she has helped still come to her before they get into trouble, and I just think…
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 80, which
“seeks to include career and employment opportunities as a part of educational achievement”.
I have spoken many times in this Chamber, and will probably do so again, about the need to ensure that we an educational system that prevents young people …
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 97 and 99 in the name of my noble friend Lord Farmer, who cannot be here today. His support for Amendment 99, and mine, is grounded in—
I thank the noble Baroness for her question. She is right to identify the huge personal impact of long periods of economic inactivity and joblessness, as well as the obvious deleterious economic impact. The Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper sets out a bold and comprehensive vision to tack…
My Lords, I rise with a sense of relief, although not without regret: relief that the Government have chosen to reverse a policy that has caused distress and fear among our oldest and most vulnerable citizens, and regret that such a policy was every pursued in the first place. This reversal gives us…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 3 in my name, which is cosigned by my noble friend Lord Effingham. The Bill states that
“the authority must offer a family group decision-making meeting to the child’s parents or any other person with parental responsibility for the child”.
In moving this amendm…
I thank the Minister for her reply, which was very encouraging, as especially was the spirit in which the debate happened. Things seem to have calmed somewhat.
I did not quite get what I wanted, so I will reserve the right to think about it for Report, but I hope we can keep the dialogue going. For…
I congratulate the noble Baroness on being an example to us all. She referred to learning from international examples, including Japan, and indeed we do. We know that some 12 million adults and approximately 2 million children are not physically active enough, so we are developing targeted plans to …
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to today’s thoughtful and decidedly not-at-all dull debate. Committee will be some fun indeed. It was a particular pleasure to hear the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Spielman, whom I welcome to the spreadsheet fan club. Frankly, I co…
Well, that is an offer I cannot refuse. When I used to work with families with children, there was a saying that every child deserves to have at least one adult unreasonably committed to their flourishing. In this House, I think those adults are particularly ever-present, and I can imagine that Olli…
My Lords, I am sure that everyone will be grateful to the Minister for her conciliatory points on the issue around the abusers and the disregard of them in the community—I thank her for that. I am also sure that everybody in this House also acknowledges that different Administrations have not done e…