Lords
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
Unpaid Carers: Patient Hospital Discharge
I know the noble Lord will be aware of the better care fund, to which there is a commitment of some £9 billion. It can be used in various ways, including in the way that he described. I look forward to the work of the LGA’s better care fund support programme that we will commission this year so that…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 March 2026
High Streets and Towns: Regeneration
We are very keen to make sure that vacant units get filled. We have introduced lots of powers to enable councils to do that, but we also recognise upward rent pressures. Many landlords have upwards-only rent reviews now, so we are bringing in a step in the English devolution Bill to make sure that t…
Lords
Proceedings
17 March 2026
GP Contract
My Lords, the Government have now mandated a cast-iron guarantee that GP practices’ online portals must remain open in core hours, but a portal is merely a digital letterbox, it is not a clinician. Has the department conducted a full clinical risk assessment of the danger of red-flag symptoms being …
Lords
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
Birmingham City Council and Unite: Refuse Workers’ Pay
The noble Lord makes a point that I want to expand on. It is very important for Birmingham and the people of the West Midlands that the economy can be driven forward so that we can develop the potential that we know Birmingham has. Having this dispute hanging over both the council and the people of …
Lords
Proceedings
16 March 2026
Social Cohesion Action Plan
My Lords, the strategy places significant emphasis on engaging faith leaders as key arbiters of community cohesion. However, does the Minister agree that true social cohesion is built not on the mediation of religious blocs but on the primacy of civic values and a singular secular rule of law? When …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
UK Domestic Visitor Levy
I have much sympathy with the noble Lord’s point. We have consulted on whether and how to extend the power to local leaders with similar geographic footprints and powers relating to transport skills and strategic planning, such as the leaders of the foundation strategic authorities. We will look at …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
NHS: In-house Software Capabilities
Cyber attacks across our whole government are extremely concerning, and that is why we have built resilience. On health and social care specifically, I can assure the noble Lord that, in 2025-26, we invested £75 million across health and social care; that built on the £375 million invested since 201…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The noble Baroness is absolutely correct that it is the process. In the Bill, there would be two doctors who, after sitting down and discussing with the patient their understanding, have to write an independent report that details the very things that the noble Baroness has noted, which are within t…
Does the noble Baroness accept that, under the GMC, for any intervention that a doctor takes, they must explain to the patient the risks and the benefits and then ensure that the patient understands them? It is normal medical practice and has been written in the Bill to make sure that is the case an…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
21 January 2026
Motorway Speed Cameras
I think the date was October, not September, but we can confirm that. The purpose of the review, which is a serious activity, is to make sure that this does not happen again. In the process, we will discover how long it took to identify, whether that should have been done faster, how it has been han…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Maternal Mortality
I am not fully up to speed with the article that the noble Lord raises, but I undertake to look at it and get back to him, because this is a very important matter.
Lords
Oral Questions
19 January 2026
Greenland: Proposed US Tariffs
My response is the same, essentially. Decisions on the measures we use and the institutions we involve will be made using the test of whether those decisions are likely to improve the situation, de-escalate and bring us closer to resolution or make negotiations more difficult, raise the temperature …
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The fact that somebody has a terminal diagnosis of six months automatically triggers SR1, so that part of the amendment is superfluous. There are things in amendments that automatically happen but which they would put in the Bill, but they do not need to be put in the Bill by the amendments because …
You cannot intervene on an intervention.
Lords
Oral Questions
15 January 2026
In-game Purchases: Protections for Children
This is exactly the matter being dealt with in the research that the Government have commissioned, which will be published in the near future, along with the Government’s response. I am happy to invite noble Lords who have raised concerns about this into the department to be briefed on the research …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 January 2026
Exercise Pegasus 2025
The noble Lord raises an important point. Additional funding has been allocated for health, to make sure we have the long-term investment of £460 million in place. The noble Lord will be aware that we currently have the LRF trailblazer scheme in place and are in the process of developing the protoco…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
United States: Withdrawal from International Organisations
I think my relationship with my colleagues on this side of the House is pretty good, actually, so I am not overly worried about that. They will have their own views, too, by the way. It is not really for the United Kingdom to make a fuss with the United States about withdrawing from organisations th…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 January 2026
2 contributions
Sudden Cardiac Death: Screening for Young People
I am not convinced that the evidence is as categoric as the noble Lord asserts, but I am delighted to tell the House that the UK National Screening Committee will open a public consultation on sudden cardiac death screening in the spring. It is crucial that we let it do its work and bring all the ev…
As I said earlier, I have absolute confidence in the work being done. If Japan has a way forward, I am sure the relevant people will be looking at that. We need to rely on evidence and make sure that it is fit for purpose to be implemented in this country.
Lords
Proceedings
16 December 2025
NHS: Winter Preparedness
My Lords, I do not believe for one moment that the Minister is complacent. In answer to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, the reason why the staff vaccination rate is up from last year is because it was at an all-time low of less than 30%, down from 2020 when it was 75%. There are still…
Lords
Proceedings
15 December 2025
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
My Lords, I thank the Minister for putting the Statement before us, but do so with a measure of frustration—a feeling shared by countless citizens. This frustration with the ongoing and deeply damaging resident doctors dispute is directed at both parties, the Government and the British Medical Assoc…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
2 contributions
Emergency Adrenaline
This is an important part of the availability, as the noble Lord has highlighted. The kind of issues under consideration when we look at the availability of these welcome products include, in addition to their ease of use without specialist training in community settings and their use through proper…
I know that the noble Lord always seeks to be helpful. That is indeed a helpful suggestion, which I will gladly take away, but I will not be able to give a commitment, as the noble Lord is aware.
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I want to ask what the Government’s view is. This actually changes the whole basis of the Mental Capacity Act. The Mental Capacity Act concerns existing capacity. These amendments move into retrospective or future capacity, which is completely incompatible with the Mental Capacity Act. Do the Govern…
It is not an assumption. It is in the Bill that if the co-ordinating doctor is not the GP of the person seeking the assisted death, under Clause 10(3)(b)(ii) the co-ordinating doctor has to write to the GP practice to make it aware of the request.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
24 November 2025
Mental Health Bill [HL]
My Lords, I thank the Minister, officials and Members of the other House for Amendment 12, which will ensure the human rights of patients who are placed in the private sector under NHS contracts. Many of us were concerned about that, but the situation is completely resolved through Amendment 12.
Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Brain Tumours: Causes and Treatment
We certainly do need to cut more red tape on cancer treatments. For example, we recently accelerated patient access to ultrasound cancer treatment through our innovative devices access pathway pilot. That is just one way in which we will have the potential to help companies, which is crucial to brin…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Child Grooming Victims: Compensation Awards
The difficulty with that question is that it presupposes the existence of a compensation scheme for these victims. There is no such compensation scheme in existence. Whether or not that is something that is recommended by the national inquiry, we will wait to see. As I have already said, there are a…
Lords
Proceedings
18 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
My Lords, does the Minister agree with his colleague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, when she was shadow Chancellor, said that teasing major policy shifts can create market uncertainty and should be avoided?
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for pointing out that the Mental Capacity Act is used for life and death issues, but it certainly was not designed for assisted dying and I suggest that it is not a robust test for these particular purposes. If we are going to pass this legislation, we need…
The noble Lord knows that I am not a proposer of the change of words. I am dealing with capacity. Therefore, I am also dealing with the fact that professionals within the field have stated that to use the Mental Capacity Act for a decision to end one’s life is an entirely novel test and uncharted te…
+1 more contribution in this session