Crime and Policing Bill
Debate between Baroness Gerada and Lord Kennedy of SouthwarkWednesday 18th March 2026
(2 days, 20 hours ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26 View all Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 167-VI(a) Amendment for Report (Supplementary to the Corrected Sixth Marshalled List) - (17 Mar 2026)
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, can we please take the temperature down and respect the Clock? There are 10 minutes for Back-Bench contributions. Of course, many people want to get in, but please take the temperature down—there is no need to constantly interrupt others. Everyone can speak. We will come to the Cross Benches first and then go to the noble Baroness opposite.
Baroness Gerada (CB)
My Lords, I would like to pick up some of the safeguarding issues around telemedicine that have been mentioned in the House. To put things in context briefly, I have been a GP now for nearly 40 years, and over the past five years I have been conducting many remote consultations.
First, you can assess safeguarding issues remotely. A paper was published in 2025—very recently—on young girls under 16. More than 600 young girls were involved in the study. It found that 100% of the safeguarding issues—some of these girls then had to be seen face to face—were identified remotely. The conclusion, which is very short, states:
“Requiring in-person adolescent consultation is associated with reduced access to medication abortion without enhancing safeguarding”.
We do want to work with evidence. You might think it is safer to consult face to face, but the evidence shows that it is not safer: it can actually make it more harmful.
NHS: Corridor Care
Debate between Baroness Gerada and Lord Kennedy of Southwark(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)
We will have the Cross Benches and then we will come to the Conservative Benches.
Baroness Gerada (CB)
We know from evidence that you can avoid hospital admission by improving continuity of care by general practitioners. When will the Minister redress the imbalance whereby GPs are funded from only 8% of the NHS budget yet deliver 70% to 80% of its care?