Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Perry of Southwark (Con)]

My Lords, as one who was blessed with more than 50 years of a very happy marriage, I think it is appropriate just to pause for a moment to give tribute to marriage itself. I am so very happy for my many gay friends that they will be able to participate in something which is one of the great blessings to human beings. I join in the congratulations to my noble friend and her colleagues on having brought this legislation forward, and on speeding up the timetable and the processes. I know how very much it means to so many of my very good friends. I know that at least one of the couples who are very good friends of mine, and who are in a civil partnership, like the noble Lord, are eagerly waiting for the point at which it will be possible to translate that into a marriage.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet (Lab)]

My Lords, I did not intend to speak, but I am one of the Members of this House who was bridesmaid to my noble friend Lord Collins. I have forgotten how many years ago. All of us are now Peers in this House. All of us dressed up beautifully; I am just worried what we will have to wear the second time round, because we are all a bit older and it is a bit more difficult to get us into the things that we wore before.

I warmly welcome this. Obviously, knowing the noble Lords, I know exactly how sincere they are in wanting this to happen. I am sure everybody agrees with that. I firmly believe that we should not be embarrassed to congratulate the Government. If the Government are doing good things, we should acknowledge that. It would be good if we had that reciprocal arrangement all the time in the House. Nevertheless I am a pragmatist. I congratulate unreservedly the noble Baroness on the work that she has done. It is tremendous. I share the joy that people are feeling at this moment in the House.

[Lord Paddick (LD)]

My Lords, I do not want to detain your Lordships, but I was not part of your Lordships’ House when noble Lords agreed to pass equal marriage, so I am going to take my opportunity now.

I have to declare an interest. I am married to a man, and it is not the first time that I have been married. I remember going on an extended interview process to become one of the most senior police officers in the UK. One of the questions in the pre-interview questionnaire was, “What is the most difficult decision you have ever had to make, first, in your professional life and, secondly, in your private life?”. In the answer to the second, I put, “Having been married for five years, telling my wife that I was gay”. I never believed that I would be able to marry again.

In 2010 I took part in a debate at the Liberal Democrat Party conference where we were the first party to adopt equal marriage as party policy. I told the people at that conference about my marriage. Having fallen in love with a Norwegian, in January 2009—Norway having decided to abolish civil partnerships and allow everybody, whether they were opposite-sex or same-sex couples, to get married—I stood in the courthouse in Oslo in front of a judge. When she said, “We are here today to witness the marriage of Brian and Petter”, the difference between a civil partnership and a marriage really struck home.

I was not part of your Lordships’ House when the legislation on equal marriage was passed, but I have to tell noble Lords what a difference it makes to me, to my husband, and to people like me. It is important that your Lordships pass these statutory instruments today.

Care Bill [HL]

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, my noble friend’s amendment is very penetrating. Under this clause the Secretary of State will appoint only the chair and other non-executive members while the CQC appoints its own executive members, including the chief executive. I draw the noble Earl’s attention to our debate on day one of Committee when we discussed the governance of Health Education England and the Health Research Authority. I still fail to understand why the Secretary of State has to approve the appointment of the chief executive of those bodies when he does not in relation to the CQC. I take from it that HEE and HRA are less independent than the CQC. It would be interesting to know whether he can confirm that.

I thought my noble friend made a very powerful point about the appointment of a chief inspector. I endorse his remarks about the appointment of Mike Richards. He commands great respect, but I wonder why it is not in the Bill. It seems to me that the relationship between the chief inspectors and the chief executive and the board of the CQC is going to be a delicate one. Once you nominate somebody as chief inspector the implication is that they are independent in their job. My experience when I was at the DWP and responsible for the Health and Safety Executive is that it had some chief inspectors. There was the equivalent of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, although that has now gone, and the Chief Inspector of Construction. It was felt necessary in some of the most important sectors to have a figurehead. My understanding was that when it came to issues to do with the regulatory function they were independent and could not be second-guessed by the board. The relationship between the chief inspectors and the board is very important. I wonder whether the noble Earl’s department is storing up trouble for the future by not making them statutory post-holders so that it is absolutely clear in legislation what their responsibility is. I can see problems arising in future on this.

This issue about putting primary and community healthcare together will also be very important. The breakdown in the NHS over the past few months has been a breakdown in integration between different parts of the service. Putting primary and community care together would be very helpful.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

I support the amendment and in particular the argument for the chief primary and community care inspector. Many of us who operate within the service—even people who use it—know that often the weakness has been in the delivery of primary care. We talked earlier about reconfiguration. The only way that that would be successful is if we had better primary care facilities and care that people could access nearer to home—all aspirations that the Government have. I strongly support having that watchful eye on making sure that primary care works effectively.

Healthcare: Support Workers

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

We are in constant contact with the devolved Administrations; I have information from both Wales and Scotland. It is indeed extremely important that we learn from each other, as the noble Lord has flagged up.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the Government on the steps that they have taken so far, although they have taken a long time to do them. In addition to the area that the noble Lord, Lord Willis, talked about, there are still issues inside hospitals of patients not understanding that healthcare assistants are qualified to do the work that they are doing, while the healthcare assistants desperately want them to understand that. The Government’s failure to push this forward quickly is damaging that relationship. It also makes patients feel unsafe when they really have no need to.

[Baroness Northover]

In many parts of the health service, there is excellent care. I have certainly seen that first-hand. We have to make sure, as the noble Baroness does within her trust, that all care is consistent, safe, effective and compassionate. I take seriously the point that she makes.

Health: Cancer

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, for giving us the opportunity to debate this important subject. It is a subject which, in one way or another, touches the life of every member of our society. My husband was diagnosed four years ago with an aggressive, inoperable tumour on his tonsils but manages to have quite a good life and is looked after very well within the NHS. There can be few, if any, members of our community, rich or poor, young or old, who do not know someone who suffers from one of the many forms of this diverse condition or, sadly, has suffered, or suffers, from it themselves, for cancer in its various forms is no respecter of class or status.

Even among those of us who have not been touched in these ways, the fear of this condition has probably been with us for some time. We hear much about the war on cancer, but in truth the treatment of these conditions is a campaign, one in which the outcome may be determined at many stages, sometimes, sadly, by the disease itself, but increasingly and positively by the exertions of staff at all levels within our health service. I declare an interest in that I am the chair of Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust, which delivers the greatest volume of cancer-related healthcare of any trust in north London. It is clear to those who work in the NHS that enormous strides have occurred in the management of cancer, aided by the investment in funding and purpose of the NHS by the previous Administration. There is therefore both a heavy burden and an expectation on the new Government to maintain and, indeed, increase this commitment. When he responds to the debate, I am sure the noble Earl will assure us that this will be the case.

It is of vital importance in the maintenance of services to our patients, particularly in the present economic climate, that these resources are used wisely and are not dispersed on ill-considered schemes of centralisation, which, while appropriate for some areas of management, often provide an expensive service of no greater quality—often the quality is less good—at a place remote from the patient’s community and friends. Noble Lords are aware of these issues, which are mentioned in the White Paper.

As we seek to improve the lot of those who suffer from this disease, it is important to realise that the greatest possible impact that we as a society can make in improving outcomes is by investing in the education not only of our clinical staff but of society as a whole. As many noble Lords have said today, early diagnosis is undoubtedly the key to better prognosis. In this, much may be gained by ever closer integration of primary and secondary care services that fit together “like a jewelled bracelet”, as Winston Churchill said of the services at D-day. Will the noble Earl assure us that this is the Government’s policy and that it will continue to be so?

However, this will be of little avail if we do not continue the previous Administration’s investment in high technology diagnostic techniques and continue to press forward with the new and innovative surgical and oncological methods now available. It is the experience of my trust, which is among the UK leaders in the application of minimal access and robotic technologies, that these can be applied safely, economically and effectively in the setting of a large district general hospital, with improving patient outcomes and reduced length of hospital stay.

It is impossible to overstate the importance that our patients ascribe to maintaining the highest quality of care for these conditions. However, contrary to the views often expressed by those on committees charged with organising services, our patients are clear that for them one of the most important aspects defining quality of service—let us not forget that they constitute both consumer and paymaster—is local provision. It seems to me that too often current agendas display an arrogance which serves to cover for the self-interest and vested interests of some central institutions in that they believe the service they provide is more important to patients than patients themselves believe.

I should be failing if I did not bring to the attention of the House the concerns felt by our clinicians and patients about the lingering effects of postcode prescribing. We have discussed that in the House before. Nothing can be more corrosive to the local community and its health services than the fear that the quality of your treatment is determined not by your clinician but by your postcode. I therefore welcome the recent announcement by the Secretary of State with regard to the setting up of a limited fund to allow the prescription of some of the recently introduced and very expensive pharmaceutical agents. However, in the individual prescribing, I ask that we make sure that the bureaucratic opportunity is removed and that the clinician is the absolute and ultimate person to ensure that the treatment is applied wherever it properly needs to be.

Other noble Lords have referred to the hospice movement and the choices that people are sometimes able to make at the end of their lives. I endorse and encourage whatever our Government and the noble Earl can assure us about the hospice movement being supported in many ways.