Lords
Committee Stage
9 July 2026
Modern Service Framework for Dementia and Frailty
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Weir of Ballyholme, for tabling this Question for Short Debate and for his comprehensive opening words which set the tone for this short but perfectly formed debate, giving us the opportunity to consider what the modern service framework for dementia a…
Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
Fracture Liaison Services
My Lords, people from deprived areas have a 25% higher risk of fractures, spend longer in hospital recovering and die in greater numbers after hip fractures. The rollout of fracture liaison services is important to help tackle health inequalities. The Minister mentioned 2030, but how can this be rol…
Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation
My Lords, this is another week and another traumatic and difficult-to-read report about the state of maternity services. Behind it are thousands and thousands of women and families deeply affected by these service failures. I thank them all for their contributions to this report, as well as the nobl…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2026
Children’s and Young People’s Mental Health Services
My Lord, recent analysis from the charity Young Minds shows that, for the eighth month in a row, the average waiting time from referral to specialist support for young people was more than 300 days, and in the worst case it was two and a half years. Will the Government commit to using the forthcomin…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
IVF Treatment
My Lords, the reality is that patients in England are struggling to access publicly funded IVF, with only two out of the 42 integrated care boards in England complying with NICE fertility guidelines. Can the Minister advise whether the Government are considering following Wales and Scotland in centr…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2026
Extreme Heat: Resilience of NHS Infrastructure
My Lords, aside from the estate, patients on medications known to cause issues in extreme heat are not always being given specific advice on adjusting use of these during extreme weather and, as a result, have been admitted to hospital. What work is the department doing, particularly given that we h…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Nottingham Maternity and Neonatal Services
My Lords, the Statement before us today from the Secretary of State in the other place is distressing reading, as is the report by Donna Ockenden. This review shocks us all to the core and must shake the Government into real action at every level of our health service and its regulation. Staff conce…
Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Healthcare Services: Acute, Primary and Community
My Lords, I am delighted to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, with her first-hand expertise and experience as a GP, and her description of the service that we all would like to see. I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Janke for introducing this vital debate. The relationship between acute se…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Resistant Hypertension
My Lords, while innovative treatments have an important role, uncontrolled high blood pressure remains one of the leading drivers of stroke, heart attacks and kidney failure. What work are the Government undertaking to improve prevention and management of high blood pressure, particularly in communi…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
NHS: Dementia Treatment Trials
My Lords, dementia is projected to reach 1.4 million people by 2040, yet Alzheimer’s Research UK reports that up to 45% of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed. Will the Government commit to a national dementia public awareness campaign to support risk reduction and healthier ageing?
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Prostate Cancer Screening: AI
My Lords, AI has the potential to significantly improve options for patients, but this will be possible only if NHS staff have the right skills, time and infrastructure to be able to test and use such tools. How will the Government invest in staff to help drive this innovation and improve outcomes f…
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
2 contributions
Integrated Care Boards: Budgets
My Lords—
My Lords, since last year the number of patients waiting more than a year for basic community health services has shot up by a staggering 32%. What specific actions will the Government take to ensure that patients receive timely community health services?
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Compassionate Use Medicine Schemes: VAT
My Lords, compassionate use and early access schemes are often the only way for patients with rare cancers to access life-extending medicines. What assurance can the Minister give that HMRC’s approach to VAT will not result in patients losing access to these vital treatments? What discussions about …
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Rare Cancers: Diagnosis and Treatment
My Lords, in January, the Government announced faster access to clinical trials via the NHS app for rare cancers. Is that live yet? If not, by when will patients be able to use this innovation to take part in suitable drug trials? And how will those who are digitally excluded have access?
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Mental Health Conditions: Diagnoses
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean, for securing this important debate. There were around 1.8 million people waiting for mental health services in quarter 1 of this year, and long waits for access to mental health services seem to have become normalised. But rather than looking at th…
Lords
Proceedings
3 June 2026
Alzheimer’s Disease: Diagnosis and Access to Experimental Drugs
My Lords, new research shows that finger-prick blood tests, alongside online brain tests, could revolutionise dementia diagnosis and offer a low-cost, scalable way to identify people who may be at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. What are the Government doing to support research in this area to e…
Lords
Proceedings
2 June 2026
2 contributions
Prostate Cancer Screening
My Lords, the proposed limited screening programme is a disappointment to many campaigners. It is clear that the key to screening is accurate ways of testing, so what further investment are the Government planning to help develop more precise prostate cancer screening tests other than PSA?
It was about testing for PSA.
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, this has been a really important debate on three fundamentals to our society: health, housing and transport. My noble friend Lady Thornhill talked in detail about the housing aspects in the gracious Speech and about concerns that the proposed legislation does not go far enough and that the…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
Miscarriage Care
There are around 250,000 miscarriages in the UK every year. Following the recent Tommy’s Graded Model of Miscarriage Care report, will the Government now review the specific requirement for women to experience three miscarriages before being able to access the support that could help prevent another…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
Healthy Life Expectancy: England
My Lords, given that the UK is an outlier compared to similar countries, what work are the Government doing to introduce proactive, preventive health measures, such as routine health MOTs for people, to try to reverse this trend?
Lords
Oral Questions
28 April 2026
Rail Safety Recommendations: Backlog
My information tells me that only 11 remain overall. Of course, I say “only”, but that is still a number. Five of the recommendations that are open are the responsibility of the DfT, and three are in the process of being closed. Two are of a complex nature and are taking time to resolve. It would be…
Lords
Committee Stage
27 April 2026
Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I am very sorry to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, say that making laws for our own country, through our own processes, is somehow a distraction from what we should be doing, and that it would be better, presumably, if we were to hand this responsibility over to unelected bureaucrat…
Lords
Debate
23 April 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I have just had advice that I can speak, otherwise I would not have.
My Lords, I will speak briefly to Motion C1, in support of my noble friend Lady Scott of Bybrook. The Minister will be aware that, during the passage of the Bill, I have suggested on a few occasions that there should be a full review of the London mayoral governance process, because there is lots of…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 April 2026
Trains: Punctuality
The noble Baroness is completely right—the Northern conductors’ dispute started in 2019—actually, before 2019—but there was no obvious movement on it for many years prior to the accession to power of this Government. I am hopeful that there will be a resolution very shortly; it is a complex issue, b…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Local Resilience Forums
The noble Baroness puts her finger on a critical point as we go through this: making sure that the resilience is effective throughout the period of reorganisation and then into the future. We are working in partnership with the Cabinet Office, the UK Resilience Academy, the Local Government Associat…