Lords
Proceedings
2 June 2026
Breast Cancer Screening: Women Over 70
My Lords, I thank the Minister for sharing her personal experience; I am sure our thoughts are with her. The Government have rightly said they want a shift from treatment to prevention, and the Minister will know that one element of prevention is testing and early diagnosis. We know that about one-t…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the clear way in which she introduced the debate. We all know that our country faces profound and growing challenges in health and social care. As the leader of the Opposition made clear in her response to the gracious Speech in the other place, we are entering a p…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
El Niño: Impact
My Lords, I am not going to ask the Minister about the weather for the weekend. I am going to ask her about a debate around how we tackle wildfires. There is a view that in order to tackle wildfires we have to remove scrub, but at the same time people believe that that reduces biodiversity. There is…
Lords
Proceedings
23 April 2026
Women’s Health Strategy
My Lords, I thank the Minister for tabling the Statement. I am sure that the ambitions for the renewed women’s health strategy will be supported by noble Lords from all Benches. I know that the Minister recognises that women have too often felt unheard, as conditions such as endometriosis and chroni…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 April 2026
Midwives: Graduate Guarantee
I was about to answer the noble Lord’s first question by talking about retention and then he helpfully raised retention. Retention rates for existing midwives are improving, as is the number of midwives. That includes a mentoring scheme, strengthening advice and support on pensions, flexible retirem…
Lords
Debate
20 April 2026
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I again thank your Lordships’ House for its attentive scrutiny throughout the passage of the Bill. I pay tribute to the Front Benches and to noble Lords on all sides of the House.
I say to the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, that, as I have explained and his own Front Bench has confirmed, these …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
NHS Adult Gender Identity Clinics
The noble Lord makes a number of points. Let me be quite clear that surgical interventions are only for adults—that is for those aged 18 and over. As I said in my answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean, I also refer to the fact that the strong safeguards in place include, among a whole range of …
Lords
Committee Stage
15 April 2026
3 contributions
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
I am sorry to interrupt but there is a Division in the House. The Committee will adjourn for 10 minutes.
My Lords, I am most grateful for the debate today. I will make a few general points.
I very much welcome the points and the concerns that noble Lords have been willing to outline. I also want to acknowledge that I have heard the understanding of why we are doing this. I know that we all understand …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
Migraine Care: 10-year Health Plan
We very much recognise the concerns that people may face unnecessary hurdles when trying to access CGRP treatments. NHS England is working with integrated care boards to ensure that the pathways being followed are consistent and timely. It would perhaps be helpful for me to mention some of the natio…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
Unpaid Carers: Patient Hospital Discharge
The whole system needs to do better, as the noble Lord outlines. It will be helpful that we are also looking at commissioning research in this area to look at best practice, as well as barriers and solutions, regarding the involvement of unpaid carers—I think that has been somewhat overlooked, if I …
Lords
Proceedings
17 March 2026
GP Contract
My Lords, I am grateful to the Government for this repeat. The Minister in the other place pointed to 1.3 million referrals being diverted through something called “advice and guidance”. This means that GPs must seek input from a specialist before making a referral, but some professional bodies have…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
NHS: In-house Software Capabilities
That seamless movement is an important point generally, but the federated data platform does not centralise or sell patient data. Data remains firmly under NHS control, and access is strictly governed. It is fully auditable and used only for approved patient benefit and NHS benefit. Palantir operate…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 March 2026
NHS: Heart Valve Disease
The noble Lord is quite right: women are underdiagnosed, they are undertreated and some ethnic minority groups face poorer access. That is why I very much welcome the fact that, in the framework to which I referred, dealing with inequalities will be absolutely key. Research, in which we are partneri…
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, we have now reached the conclusion of what many will see as a landmark Bill. I thank all noble Lords who have contributed throughout the various stages of its journey through your Lordships’ House, which began with its introduction as long ago as March last year. From these and other Bench…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
The noble Lord does not have to wait because, in addition to the work by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, which, as I have said, is independent, she has set out immediate recommendations, which we are working on. We have already made commitments on the disabled facilities grant for housing, so that p…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 March 2026
Maternity Commissioner
The noble Lord gets to the point of what the taskforce will be doing. It would be wrong of me to try to pre-empt the outcomes and recommendations that come forward. As I have said before, right through this work, the voices of families and women in particular must be paramount. I am delighted that t…
Lords
Debate
3 March 2026
3 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I was very happy to give way to my noble friend to allow him to heap more praise on to the Minister. Sometimes Government Ministers cannot always be assured of receiving praise from other Benches.
My noble friend Lord Howe and I welcome these government amendments and are grateful to the …
My Lords, before I respond to the specific amendments, I will touch on two things that the noble Earl, Lord Russell, said. First, I was previously in the European Parliament and worked on a number of technology regulations, and we can never be absolutely certain that we have legislated for the futur…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
NHS: Violence Against NHS Staff
I understand the point. All NHS staff have access, for example, to a helpline for support and to Practitioner Health for when they need more complex mental health support. Of course, anyone who is experiencing violence or abuse should report it to their line manager so that it can be properly invest…
Lords
Debate
25 February 2026
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, I know it is not normal to speak at this stage, so I will be brief. I thank the Minister and everyone who has worked on this Bill, but I want to raise one or two anxieties which have already been touched on.
I believe that the Bill fundamentally challenges one of the principles that I hav…
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
5 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, my noble friend has tabled a number of amendments on heated tobacco products. Although there may be some concern about what is behind them, they raise important questions that I am afraid the Government have yet to answer with any real precision.
As I noted in Committee, there appears to …
Before the Minister sits down, she talked about research that was done on tobacco products between 2020 and 2025. In that time, was any specific research done on heated tobacco as part of tobacco products?
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, since this is the first time I have spoken on Report, I declare my interest as a professor of politics and international relations at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, where I teach an MBA module on healthcare policy and strategy. I also work with the Vinson Centre for the Public Understan…
Lords
Debate
23 February 2026
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley, for opening the debate on this group—and the numerous noble Lords who spoke to it.
I redeclare my interests. I am a professor of politics and international relations at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, where I teach a module on healthcare…
Lords
Debate
12 February 2026
4 contributions
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, in speaking for the first time in Committee, I refer to my interests as a professor of politics and international relations at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, where I teach an MBA module on healthcare policy and strategy, and where I also co-operate with the school of medicine, which wil…
My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who spoke on this amendment. I recognise the answer that the Minister gave about the impact report that the Government have announced. I will reflect carefully on whether what I intended with this amendment aligns with that impact report. If this is just a …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
Better Start Longitudinal Programmes
This will not be a top-down approach. We are ensuring that Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies are in every local authority area. That is a major development, because from April it will reach more than 500,000 more children. It will also help us transition to neighbourhood health services. How…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
Under-16s Energy Drinks Ban
As we discussed on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in this Chamber, the whole issue of age verification is crucial. I feel that businesses are used to seeking age verification. What matters is that they feel empowered to ask for it and that staff are trained. That is why we are indeed working with busine…