Care Bill [HL]

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

My Lords, I shall refer to the report of the Public Service and Demographic Change Committee. Members of the House who have not read the report should do so because it is a fascinating document. It is probably one of the best documents to come out of the House of Lords for many years. On the question of Dilnot, to which I am opposed but I shall explain that later on in the Bill, paragraph 193 states:

“The major gainers will be the relatively better-off, who will be protected from depleting their housing assets”.

In other words, potentially we will be spending in the longer term money that could have been raised in taxation. We are losing that revenue at a time when the same report refers to the deteriorating ability of the state to help people who are in need of medical services. It refers to the fact that the number of people aged over 75 is expected grow from 5.4 million in 2015 to 8.8 million in 2035. It refers to the fact that the demand for hospital and community service spending by those aged 75 and over is, in general, more than three times the demand from those aged between 30 and 40. We have higher demands from the elderly, more people falling into the groups that are liable to want the services historically provided by local authorities and the state, and yet, at the same time, with these Dilnot proposals, over a period of time we will be handing back money to the taxpayer to which, in my view, the taxpayer has no right.

The report says that the number of people in England with three or more long-term conditions is predicted to grow from 1.9 million in 2008 to 2.9 million by 2018. It is forecast that the number of people in England and Wales aged 65 and over with dementia—we all know the care requirements of people with dementia—or moderate or severe cognitive impairment will increase by over 80% between 2010 and 2032 to 1.96 million. The report goes on to say that it is estimated that by 2022 the number of people in England aged 65 and over with some disability will increase by 40% to 3.3 million.

As I understand the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best, he is simply saying, “Hang on a minute, before we start spending money, we should take stock of what is available in the longer term. Can the state afford to pay all the bills that are to come? Has that work been done?”. I hope that the noble Earl will seek to give the Committee those assurances because if the work has not been done and the predictions of some have not been taken into account, it may well be that the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best, is relevant. Let us defer much of this expenditure until we have sorted out the budgeting.

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, I had thought that I would not respond to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best. However, I feel I must because there seems to be a missing voice in this debate—the voice of the thousands of people who use social care, over 70,000 of whom receive some form of direct payment. Ten years ago, when direct payments were successfully introduced and allowed disabled people to live independently in this country, we were proud to be employers. We were able to employ RPAs at a good rate, with holiday pay, and we were able to advertise. We were equal to those who employed individuals in their own companies. Ten years on, many cannot even give holiday pay and cannot advertise. They fall back on costly social care services or enter hospital as a result of not being able to employ assistants.

We, too, want to know the costings before new services come into effect. Disabled people may have to accept these services and find that they lose choice and control over their lives. So please do not forget the voice of those who say, “We, too, wish to know that the money is settled. We, too, need a voice to remind people that, in order for us to employ or control our services, we must feel that we can do this with equality and dignity and do it absolutely properly”. Otherwise independent living will become just a memory.

[Lord Sutherland of Houndwood]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Best, is right in his analysis. He is pointing towards a financial problem that we all know is there and will continue to be there, not least in the current situation, for a number of years to come. The noble Lord, Lord Rix, is right about the consequences of this within the community. I declare an interest as president of Alzheimer’s Scotland and I know that the same applies to its sister body in the rest of the UK. There is a shortage of cash, which means that services are being provided more cheaply or, of greater relevance, are not being provided and are being squeezed. That is the analysis.

I do not think I can vote for the amendment as it stands. What is driving this difficulty is not the profligacy of this Government, previous Governments or local authorities—we can all tighten our belts and are doing so—but the reality of changing demography. My favourite statistic is that since the start of this Committee stage our statistical life expectancy has increased by 27 minutes. We cannot cash that in individually, but that is the reality. That is the driver of the difficult position we are in.

Ministers are often between a rock and hard place, and none more so than now. However, in the light of these facts, the Government have not reviewed the priorities of public expenditure across the board—I hope the Minister will persuade them to do that—and how many things can we afford to do with the population that we have. That means looking at priorities across departments. I do not just mean health and social care. It is inevitable that we will have to do this. The sooner the Government—the previous Government were not good at this—are prepared to say that we must undertake a review of priorities in view of the changing nature of our society, the sooner we will begin to move forward. In the mean time, I am in favour of keeping pressure on the Government by introducing a Bill of this kind because there is no doubt that that will sharpen the appetite of the voters for how change should be devised in the future.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

My Lords—

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, I apologise for not being able to bound in as soon as the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, sat down. At that moment my papers cascaded to the floor. I rise to support Amendment 78D. For logistical and physical reasons, as my noble Lords can probably hear, I was unable to put this amendment down myself and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has done miracles to articulate our conversations in such a lucid manner.

I feel, however, that I must give your Lordships a very clear example of why I believe this amendment is so necessary. Why do health and social care practitioners need this further direction in this amendment?

It is true that health and social care consumers enjoy greater personal control now, which affords a small percentage support to live independently in the community. I am an example of the few who live with complex health and social care requirements and live a life just like any other: pursuing a career, tending the family, or in my case revising legislation.

We remain, however, an exception, rather than the rule. Let me give your Lordships a couple of examples. Just over a year ago, I led a JCHR inquiry into Article 13 of the UNCRDP, a right to independent living. When we launched the findings, I dedicated the report to a disabled young man who had secured optimum control over his own life using social care direct payments. He lost everything within a couple of months, after his support needs changed, due to requiring a tracheostomy. He had graduated from university and was about to start his first job .

Care Bill [HL]

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Tuesday 21st May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, in welcoming this Bill I first declare an interest as someone who benefits from a whole range of care services, without which I would not be in your Lordships’ House. I hope that my professional knowledge, combined with my personal experience, will give added value to the debate over the coming weeks.

This Bill is the culmination of five years’ complex and challenging work to modernise the legal framework for adult social care. Much work has been done by the Law Commission, but the Government have also understood that they needed expertise that can come only from those who use care and support services. They conducted a lengthy and broad consultation. I have been impressed by the Department of Health’s efforts to get this right. Much credit for this must go to the fine leadership of its former director-general, David Behan. He recently left to take the helm of the CQC, which is very lucky. The Bill also benefits from the experience of Members of this House. A number of your Lordships served on the Joint Committee that considered the draft Bill and recommended improvements to it. The Government have listened, and the Bill is better for it.

Equally, the Bill is the culmination of more than 25 years’ work by the Independent Living Movement of disabled people. I consider myself very privileged to have played an active part in this social movement to radically change the way that care and support are designed and delivered. Since the mid-1980s we have fought to ensure that disabled people of all ages have the same opportunities that everyone else takes for granted. This has involved challenging entrenched professional attitudes, political assumptions and public misconceptions about what disabled people can and cannot do. The struggle continues today. Many people believe, as I do, that disabled people have lost ground recently. As someone once observed, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”.

However, this Bill shows how far we have come since the passing of the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996—in my view, the most emancipatory care and support legislation in my lifetime. That Act was passed because a group of disabled people was able to persuade the Government of the day that they could be trusted to take control of the cash needed to pay for their personal care support. That was my first memorable experience of the House of Lords. Twenty years ago, I sat in awe behind the Bar, as the noble Lord, Lord McColl, introduced his disabled persons Bill.

Three years later, in another place, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health, John Bowis, took over the Bill. His powerful speech at Second Reading would be just as relevant in today’s debate. He said:

“I have heard from people who have a disability, but also hold down a job or voluntary work and whose working lives are obstructed by the rigidity of a council service rota; or people who do not like to complain, but would really like a different range”,

of home help support,

“or people who have responsible jobs, but are treated by the care workers as if they were rather tiresome and untidy children. They have no real independence, no real choice and no real dignity”.—[Official Report, Commons, 6/3/96; col. 372.]

What became the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996 was a bold step on the then Government’s part to empower disabled service users. Local authorities were required to deliver services differently. They could not just decide what was best for us anymore. That Act transformed many people’s lives, including my own.

As your Lordships will be aware, there has been much progress since that landmark statute. Further legislation has widened access to direct payments. Personalisation policies have developed other ways for people to have more say and control over their support and care. Personal budgets offer another way for people to decide how funds should be used to support them. Even the NHS has caught on, by introducing personal health budgets for people with long-term conditions, so they, too, can have more say over their healthcare. A process that started among working-age disabled people has broadened out to benefit other groups: people with learning disabilities, older people and people with mental health problems. They are all using direct payments and personal budgets—and so, too, are parents of disabled children, giving them both more control and allowing enough flexibility for many to pursue their dreams. Policy guidance has encouraged local authorities to work with people and their families as equal partners. By working together, many are coming up with solutions that best fit their individual circumstances, using public services to complement their own resources, personal assets and community links.

All these positive trends, many of them with roots in the user and carer movements, come together in Part 1 of the Bill. It represents a sea change in the values and attitudes embodied in the legislative framework for adult social care. It treats people requiring support as citizens first and foremost, with rights and entitlements stemming not only from this Bill but from the Human Rights Act, the Equality Act, and international agreements, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

However, your Lordships would not expect me to tell them that this Bill is perfect. It sets out many of the right goals, but we will need to question the Government very closely on some of the means by which they intend to achieve them. For instance, we are promised first sight of the regulations on assessment and eligibility towards the end of June. This will coincide with announcements about the public spending review, so we can assume that resources will impact heavily on the qualifying criteria for public support. Much also depends on how local authorities choose to implement their responsibilities and powers under this legislation. There is a great danger that this Bill could be ignored as being fine words but without teeth.

There are already wide variations in the sensitivity and understanding shown by local authority staff in assessing and responding to people’s needs. I recently had a review visit to assess my suitability for a personal budget. Like fellow service users, I am naturally very wary of reassessments as they generally involve budget cutting. I did not know what to think when I received a copy of the reassessment report last week. It says that I have,

“severe difficulties in either self-expression or understanding”.

If any of your Lordships have difficulty understanding what I am saying today, please come to my office for clarification. On a more serious note, the reassessment of my ability to communicate could mean the difference between a social care direct payment and NHS-funded care. That might be fine if support would not change for the worse as a consequence. It is no secret that some local authorities cannot wait to offload clients onto NHS continuing care. I am hopeful that health budgets will eventually mirror social care direct payments. However, this is not yet the case.

Last year, the JCHR investigated independent living. The resulting report was dedicated to a 22 year-old disabled man. This young man had been in part-time employment and living independently, supported by social care direct payments. However, after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection, it was decided that he would be safer with a tracheostomy. Tracheostomy care is not rocket science. It does not take long to train a sensible person. However, the local authority decided that this man was now “the problem” of the NHS. As a result, his direct payment was withdrawn. It took health commissioners six months to decide how he would be cared for, leaving him in a hospital critical care unit for three months longer than was necessary. This severely disabled independent man lost his job, his loyal PAs and his dignity. The cost to the taxpayer was £36,000 in hospital fees, double what it would have cost had he been allowed to keep control of his cash and care, with an enhanced payment from the NHS to pay for the extra PA hours needed during the night.

Is it any wonder that disabled people fear the future? They do not just fear the consequences of inadequate funding, they dread past ways of working creeping back in the name of austerity. Those of us who use care services must be given more control to enable us to survive these difficult financial times. Services need to adapt to enable the recipients to create their own budgeted support and to seek work, wherever that may be. This nicely leads me to return to an issue I have been raising in your Lordships’ House for the past four years. Noble Lords will know that I have a particular concern about portability of care and support. I will push for the Government’s proposals on portability in this Bill to match the outcomes set out in my Private Member’s Bill.

The Minister for Social Care in another place has indicated his desire to work closely with those of us campaigning for total portability of care and support. I have consulted on the subject for more than five years with disabled people and their organisations, carers, lawyers and professionals in social care. My Private Member’s Bill is the culmination of that work. My Social Care Portability Bill has been recognised by the Department of Health. The greater part of it has been subsumed into the Care Bill before us today. However, there is one crucial difference. My Bill ensures that disabled people can move to another area, confident that they will receive the support they need to enable them to continue to play an active role in society. The manner in which the council meets those needs may be different because of the different configuration of local community and care services but it should not reduce choice and control, and the ability to achieve the outcomes they need. I believe that the Care Bill has the same intention but I would welcome confirmation that this is indeed the case. There are questions about bureaucracy and enforceability but the detail can be fleshed out in Committee.

There is one other matter I want to flag up today. Those who receive their care not from a public authority but from a private body lack the full protection of the Human Rights Act. The Joint Committee recommended an amendment to the Bill to put this right but the Government have not addressed it. It is a loophole that must be closed. I will be interested to hear the Minister reflect upon that issue.

I have great expectations of this Bill’s capacity to change the way that care and support are delivered in the future. We have waited for this a very long time. We must not let the opportunity slip through our hands. We are all interdependent. We all need to feel safe and valued. We all need our dignity respected. We must take heed of those “experts by experience”, of which I am proud to be one. We have much to offer the debate on how we create care and support services which maximise the well-being of those who need them. I am sorry if I have taken longer than many other noble Lords may for the rest of this debate but I feel so strongly about this issue. We have much work to do and I am happy to do my part.

Social Care

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Thursday 29th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, I, too, am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, for securing this debate. We have worked together for many, many years, and I am afraid that I am another usual suspect.

The integration of social care is a complex nut to crack. I am sure that Ministers with responsibility for health, both acute and primary, local government, housing, and work and pensions will also wish to pay attention to what is said here today. Together, they are responsible for the solution.

There is widespread agreement that care and support services are underfunded. The distinguished economist Andrew Dilnot, expertly advised by the noble Lord, Lord Warner, said as much in his report on how to fund the future of social care. There is not enough money in the system and we all know it. It is not just that the growth in demand for support has not been matched by a growth in resources; it is also clear that the needs and circumstances, and the aspirations, of disabled people, old and young, are increasingly complex. I am far from alone in your Lordships’ House in speaking from personal experience on these matters.

Budget restrictions are causing local authorities to make terrible decisions. Would any of your Lordships wish to tell a severely disabled lady that she cannot have help to go to the toilet at night and that she must wear incontinence pads even though she is not incontinent? Would you wish your names to be on a letter telling a frail, elderly couple that charges for their home care are to be increased by 30% when they cannot even pay their heating bill? These things are happening now and every day.

Yet, around the country some local authorities and their NHS partners are tackling these pressures with more constructiveness, co-operation and creativity than others. The Social Care Institute for Excellence, of which I had the privilege to be the founding chair, is looking at such examples through the eyes of service users. I applaud this approach. Service users are genuine experts by experience. For some local authorities the funding challenges have been a catalyst for new ways of working. They have encouraged the statutory authorities to work in partnership with people and their families; to listen to what they want to achieve and how they want to live their lives; and to work out the best way of supporting them to stay independent. Some councils are using a whole range of resources to come up with really innovative solutions tailored to individual circumstances. They have rediscovered the value of putting people—not services or resources—at the centre of decision-making. This is music to my ears. It reassures me that many in charge of care and support will not simply take the easy and destructive option of cutting services in a sheep-like fashion.

I was deeply troubled when I heard of a local authority, Worcestershire, announcing a blanket policy of cuts, including capping non-residential care costs to a level equivalent to the residential care rate. I knew that it would not be long before yet another authority followed suit, and I was right. At least three other local authorities are now proposing the same policy. There is nothing creative or collaborative about this approach. Such a policy has the potential to overturn three decades of building an independent living culture for those with the highest support needs. Surely we do not want to go back to the 1970s when disabled people and those with long-term medical conditions were invisible in society—patients or residents but not people, expected to live out their days in a hospital or nursing home, or trapped at home in the back bedroom. Denial of independent living is a breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

I would like to remind your Lordships of the late Baroness Lane-Fox. She was a remarkable disabled Peer with a much larger electric wheelchair than mine. She championed the cause of patients living in iron lungs at Guy’s Hospital during the 1970s and early 1980s. She brokered an initiative between government, healthcare, social care and housing to get them living in the community. These victims of polio were under the care of Dr Geoffrey Spencer, a visionary physician who placed nothing in the “too difficult” tray. I do not know whether any of your Lordships have ever seen an iron lung. It is like a seven-foot cylindrical missile on wheels—a challenge for an integrated team in the 21st century, let alone one in 1981 when Felicity Lane-Fox joined the Conservative Benches and captured the imagination and support of this House and the other place, and got money where there was no money to pay for it. In those days, as I said earlier, there was no budget line. We were really, really strapped for cash. There were no complex-needs commissioning boards and no integrated housing or social service practice guidance, just a shared belief that these patients should enjoy the same human rights as the rest of society and should be prioritised. Government money for their care in hospital was creatively redirected and renamed as “health research”. Occupational therapists and clinicians worked with local authorities as one team. Together, they liberated these reluctant bed-blockers, who became known as “responauts”—a remarkable achievement.

Now fast-forward 30 years to 2011. The JCHR conducted an inquiry into disabled people’s right to independent living. We heard from witnesses about situations not so different from those of the hospital-bound responauts. It struck me how easy it has been over the past few years of austerity to slip back to a time when young and old people with significant support needs were second-class citizens, denied their human and civil rights. It is a travesty that lessons learnt from an emerging human rights approach to the funding and delivery of care and support in this country have been so easily cast aside in the name of austerity.

At the launch of the JCHR report, I found myself making pleas not dissimilar to those made by Baroness Lane-Fox 30 years ago—this time for a young Asian man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, stuck in the same respiratory unit as the 1979 responauts. He was there for four months longer than was necessary, surrounded by critically ill patients, reminding him daily of his recent trauma. The reason was not financial. The cost to the state was more than £900 per day, as opposed to a maximum of £400 in the community. No, the reason was that the local authority social care services had no budget compared to their health services partner. The result was the usual “who pays?” war, preventing a joined-up approach. This caused the inability of both to put the young man and his family at the centre of planning. His well established independent living arrangements were torn apart by the long unnecessary stay in hospital. He lost opportunities to work and further his career, and his overall well-being suffered inextricably. He paid a high personal cost and much-needed public money was wasted.

The JCHR made many recommendations in its Article 19 inquiry report last year—recommendations that will help the Government to regain their international reputation for delivering a human rights approach to care and support in this country. They challenge us all to understand, and action, the true meaning of mutually supportive systems, spending and consuming.

In conclusion—I know I am running out of time—I would be grateful if the Minister would tell your Lordships about the current status of the Government’s plans to address the conclusions and recommendations in the JCHR report. To date, it simply has not been good enough

Among the concerns of witnesses at that inquiry was, of course, the closure of the independent living fund. Will the Minister explain how the Government will ensure that money currently safeguarded through the mechanism of the Independent Living Fund will continue to be used only for modern independent living purposes? Will he again reconsider ring-fencing that money?

Please, do not let this be another debate where we share human rights stories. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities embodies 21st-century ideals of what public support services should be striving towards. Rather than allow the backward slide to accelerate, let us begin by taking Dilnot off the shelf and working together to fix social care.

Social Care: Sustainable Funding

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sutherland of Houndwood]

My Lords—

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords—

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Strathclyde)]

My Lords, can we hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell?

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, is the noble Earl aware that while these complex funding matters are being considered, many local authorities are severely reducing the levels of support provided to disabled people in ways that can curtail their independence, prevent them from working and participating in public life and, in some cases, force them into residential care? Is he aware, for example, that Worcestershire County Council proposes to radically restrict the maximum value of an individual disabled person’s care package, offering them no other choice than to enter residential care if they cannot meet the shortfall? Surely the Minister agrees that this runs entirely counter to the White Paper and government policy?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am not aware of the Worcestershire example. What I will say is that the best local authorities are those that enter into a two-way dialogue with service users to see what is best and most appropriate for them in their circumstances. I recognise that this is a challenging settlement for local government, but if local authorities are prepared to reform their services and drive down costs, we believe that the additional investment from the NHS to social care, which we announced in the spending review, will enable local authorities to protect the care that people receive. Many councils are making the necessary changes to ensure that there is no drop in eligibility criteria.

Care and Support

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, I must briefly declare an interest. I am a 24-hour social care service user, and long may it last. Temporarily ignoring the social care funding elephant in the room, I feel there is much to welcome in this White Paper, which concentrates on independent living, empowerment strategies, and supporting people to stay at home and contribute to their communities instead of the current safety-net crisis interventions. That has been my life’s work.

I am also pleased to see that the Government are obviously keen to incorporate my Private Member’s Bill on social care portability. Naturally, I must ask the Minister whether the Government intend portability to offer an “equivalence of support” outcome so that disabled people feel confident that they can continue with their chosen occupations, responsibilities and lifestyle wherever they go, because this will put an end to the postcode lottery.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Baroness for all the work that she has done in this area, particularly on portability. This is a good news story. We are committing in the White Paper to breaking down the major barrier to portability: that people’s care is disrupted when they move local authority area. The draft Bill contains a clause that puts a duty on to local authorities to ensure that when a person—and their carer, if applicable—moves local authority area, their needs continue to be met until they are reassessed by that local authority. The clause also sets out that local authorities are under a duty to share information, and the receiving local authority has the power to assess the individual—and carer, if applicable—before they move. This seeks to ensure that the move is as seamless as possible. I do not doubt that this is an area that we shall debate over the coming months.

Care Homes

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Wednesday 27th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Strathclyde)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, is trying to get in.

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, in 2008 the Joint Committee on Human Rights produced a shocking report which highlighted some of the most degrading experiences endured by adults with learning disabilities in health and residential care settings. Four years on we are debating the same human rights abuses—this time highlighted by the CQC report, which shows excessive use of restraint and seclusion in assessment and treatment facilities. Will the Minister assure us that he will return to the JCHR and CQC reports and tell us what measures the Government will take now to protect the liberties and safety of this highly vulnerable group so that we do not sit here again in four years debating how we have failed for a third time?

[Earl Howe]

The noble Baroness’s remarks will resonate with many noble Lords. We have been here before. One of the emerging issues from the review is around poor practice on the use of restraint, as she rightly mentioned. CQC inspectors found that only 73% of locations met requirements on physical intervention or restraint. There was ineffective monitoring of restraint data and learning from incidents. Staff were not always trained and restraint was not always delivered in line with the care plan. There are real lessons to be learnt by providers about the use of restraint. We have flagged this up as one of the actions that we will take in the department to work with the Department for Education, the Care Quality Commission and others to drive up standards and promote best practice in the use of positive behavioural support and ensure that physical restraint is only ever used as a last resort. The report published on Monday is an interim report and we will be publishing a final report later in the year.

Health: Contaminated Blood Products

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, obviously, I cannot speak on statements made by Ministers of the former Administration. However, I can confirm to the noble and learned Lord that the compensation scheme in the Republic of Ireland was set up in the light of evidence of mistakes made by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service Board. That has been confirmed to us by officials in the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Health and Children. It is important to understand that the events that gave rise to the people in Ireland becoming infected through contaminated blood transfusions were quite dissimilar to the sequence of events that occurred here. There were specific circumstances in Ireland, and quite different circumstances in the UK.

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, I declare an interest as the widow of a haemophiliac who died from contaminated blood products 16 years ago. Is the Minister aware that many of the widows, widowers and children of people who were infected and died received very little compensation—in fact, many do not receive a penny in support from the state? Does he not agree that it would have been wiser to spend the Department of Health’s money used to fight the High Court case on supporting those bereaved families, many of whom have lost their breadwinner?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am well aware of the noble Baroness’s personal interest in this matter and feel deeply for her. She is of course correct that the Skipton Fund was not designed to support bereaved relatives. It was designed to alleviate the suffering of those infected with hepatitis C. Sympathetic as I am towards those who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy, that fund does have a specific purpose and it would require a major review to alter that purpose. However, I note her concern on this matter.