Climate Change

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Monday 24th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, it is my very great pleasure to welcome my noble friend Lord Russell to these Benches and to congratulate him on his excellent and very thought-provoking maiden speech. He is the first new colleague to join these Benches since 2016 and, although he comes via an appointment process whose days may well be numbered, he will be a valuable addition to the knowledge and expertise of this Chamber. We have heard of his passion for protecting the planet from the dire effects of climate change and, in doing so, he will find a meeting of minds with many of us in your Lordships’ House. I know he is also passionate about outdoor adventure and education and about enabling children from disadvantaged backgrounds to have the joy and developmental opportunities of working with nature, and I look forward to hearing more about that.

The global effort to tackle climate change faces many barriers, with political dysfunction being one of them. Perhaps that is why the third national adaptation plan, published last week, has been described as weak. Politicians understandably tend to favour policies that are popular with the voters. Research shows that voters reward politicians for delivering emergency relief, such as rescuing people from forest fires and floods, but last week’s Uxbridge by-election showed that they are less keen on investing in natural-disaster preparedness. But preventive and adaptive policies on climate change will cost less if we do them soon rather than leave them till later, as the Climate Change Committee has often warned.

Floods, wildfires and deadly heat are a reminder that climate change is already happening. The question is whether that will generate new political will for preventing harm, not just reacting to it. Here in the UK, climate change is already having a deadly impact on our health and well-being. The One Health multi-disciplinary approach, as recommended by the WHO, recognises the complex relationship between the health of humans, animals and the planet.

The UK health and care system needs both a plan and capacity to deal with the results of extreme weather. The NHS Adverse Weather and Health Plan, published in May, is not good enough. Currently we have long waiting lists and overflowing A&E departments. What extra resources will be provided to achieve that plan, and is this included in the long-term workforce plan?

There are many aspects of health affected by climate change. People who work outdoors in the UK are rarely prevented from doing so on hot days, but the increased effects of UV radiation are already increasing the incidence of skin cancer. Elsewhere, extreme temperatures make it impossible to work outdoors, which puts our access to a varied, healthy diet at risk through climate-caused food shortages. It will also cause a mass movement of people—a humanitarian crisis in the offing. It is not just people who will move—as the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, reminded us, mosquito-borne viruses such as West Nile, dengue and Zika are an increasing risk to UK public health.

Because the global food supply is at risk, it is essential that we grow more of our own. Your Lordships’ horticulture Select Committee, on which I serve, is taking evidence about the challenges and opportunities for the growth of our horticulture sector, but the House will have to wait until November for our recommendations. Suffice it to say, there are opportunities as well as challenges.

Extreme weather events causing flooding are becoming more frequent, with long-term negative impacts on mental health and livelihoods. Yet the resources available to the Environment Agency to ensure effective mitigation measures have fallen in recent years. When will the Government reverse that? It is essential.

Air pollution is a significant public health problem. Sadly, the legally binding air quality standard in the UK lags far behind that in the EU, despite the demands of many of us in your Lordships’ House. As we have seen, there is considerable resistance to measures designed to clean up our air. More non-emission private and public transport is part of the solution.

Climate change presents opportunities as well as challenges, but we are missing opportunities. Global competition for green growth is intensifying, yet the UK’s investment in the energy transition has fallen compared with other G7 economies, according to the CBI’s Green Growth report, losing us a potential £37 billion to £57 billion boost to GDP by 2030. Is it not therefore time for the UK equivalent of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act?

List of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial Code

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords—

Economy: The Growth Plan 2022

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, the Chancellor’s special economic operation was not as tragic as Mr Putin’s appalling special military operation, but it was pretty tragic for the economic prospects of ordinary people. Since the Budget that was not a Budget, I have met a small business that has shelved its expansion plans, a person with two jobs who is now looking for a third, and a mother of four who got extra blankets from the charity shop to avoid putting the heating on.

Planning to cut taxes for top earners shows whose side the Conservatives are on, and I am glad that they have decided to reverse that idea. In their defence, they say that they will reduce the basic rate of income tax by 1p next April—that is if we all get through the winter. However, 5 million people earn too little to pay tax, and the freeze on the tax threshold means that the average family will be £290 worse off next year anyway, and the tax cut is worth only about one month’s mortgage payment increase for some people.

Then there are energy bills. The Government have intervened to cut bills but they are still double what they were a year ago. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor, with their bungled Budget that was not a Budget, caused a massive increase in mortgage rates, connected exactly to the timing of the Chancellor’s statement. They spooked the money markets so badly that the Bank of England had to intervene to prevent pension funds going bust. All this adds up to ordinary families struggling, and then the Chairman of the Conservative Party tells them to go out and get a better paid job—shades of “Get on your bike”.

The Prime Minister has invented a new fantasy enemy: the anti-growth coalition. She even said in her conference speech that green issues are anti-growth—no; it was Brexit that was anti-growth. We on these Benches are not against growth but we are in favour of growth that works; growth from the bottom up rather than from the top down. We are in favour of the growth of well-paid jobs in science and technology industries, particularly green technologies to reduce emissions. That is not anti-growth; that is a vision for saving the planet.

Telling companies that they can keep more of their profits rather than increasing corporation tax is telling them that they can spend it on whatever they like—perhaps increasing CEO salaries. They should instead be saying that companies can keep more of their profits but must spend it on innovation and research and development to increase productivity and increase the skills of their workers. This can be done by various measures, including more tax credits.

The Lords Science and Technology Committee, in its latest report, heard evidence that growth comes from investing in science and technology. We welcomed the new national Council for Science and Technology, chaired by the previous Prime Minister, and recommended that it should meet more often—but the first thing the current Prime Minister did was to abolish it. Now all government departments are being asked to make cuts. What cuts will be made to the Chancellor’s former department, BEIS, reducing its ability to fund innovation and R&D?

I recognise that the Government have provided a significant amount of money to subsidise energy bills, but I have heard nothing about how they plan to reduce energy demand, thus improving energy security and cutting the amount needed for the subsidy and the cost of borrowing money for the subsidy, as well as ordinary people’s bills. Where, in the noble Baroness’s opening speech, was an emergency programme to insulate houses? Where are the improvements to building regulations and, importantly, enforcement to ensure that all new buildings are energy efficient? It saves families money, saves the Government money and creates jobs. What is not to like?

Civil Servants: Reduction of Numbers

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Thursday 24th March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, there is not a specific target; there are overall financial targets, but as far as numbers are concerned, we are seeking obviously to reduce from what we have now. I think noble Lords need to understand that there are currently 475,020 full-time equivalent civil servants, as of December 2021. That is an increase of 2,350 even on the previous quarter. We now have over half a million civil servants on headcount, and I contend that in those circumstances it is possible to make reductions.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, given the Prime Minister’s emphasis on the importance of science and technology, as proved by his establishment of the new Council for Science and Technology, chaired by the Prime Minister, what is being done to increase the number of people with a scientific background in the Civil Service? We need an informed customer.

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I think that is another important challenge from those Benches. We do need to raise the quality of specialism within the Civil Service—though that is not to disparage the traditional humanities-led approach—and not only in the scientific area but in the business of handling data and other modern approaches. This is inherent in the programme, and I can assure the noble Baroness that I will take away her point on science.

Downing Street Event

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, adherence to the law is important, and the noble Baroness is correct to anticipate my answer on that point. As I have told the House, an investigation is already taking place into a number of events that are alleged to have occurred in Downing Street and elsewhere. The primary purpose will be to establish swiftly a general understanding of the nature of the gatherings, including attendance, the setting and the purpose, with reference to adherence to the guidance in place at the time. That is an ongoing investigation.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that, at about 6 pm on 20 May 2020, just as the Prime Minster and his staff were gathering in the garden for jovial drinks and nibbles, this House was debating the tsunami of deaths in care homes which occurred despite the great efforts and stress of the dedicated care staff in those homes? Does he understand that they were not gathering for drinks at the end of the working day because there was no end to it and they certainly were not in the mood for socialising? Does he also understand the anger of the bereaved families of the many elderly people who died at that time in such large numbers? They wanted the opportunity to hold the hand of the person they loved as they passed away. They did not get that opportunity; they gave it up because they were following the rules. They now want a straight answer from the Prime Minister: was he there or was he not? Tell us now.

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, first I will address what the noble Baroness said in the opening part of her remarks, which will strike a chord with the whole House. Frankly, there is not a single Member of this House—including me, if I may say so—who will not have experienced peculiar personal sadness in the unparalleled circumstances of Covid. We should take that as a fact to which we pay due honour and respect. So far as the event to which she alludes is concerned, I can only repeat that investigations are taking place and the findings of those investigations will be made public.

COVID-19 Vaccine Certification

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord True]

My Lords, as I say, there is a parallel strand here. The review that was announced is of the potential domestic application of Covid certification; the review of international travel is a separate strand. I can repeat what I have said before at this Dispatch Box: the Government are talking to all partners internationally about the work of trying to facilitate international travel when it is safe to do so. Obviously, we have to respond to the fact that other countries may decide that people need to show vaccinated status as a requirement for entry, but the Government are not currently looking to make it a requirement to have a vaccination certificate to come into this country.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD) [V]]

My Lords, in considering whether to introduce vaccine certification, will the Government consult organisations representing patients who have been advised by their clinician that it would not be in their interest to take the vaccine? How would such patients be able to navigate a world in which vaccine certification was widely used?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, as ever, raises a very important and sensitive point. The Prime Minister has said that we cannot discriminate against people who, for whatever reason, cannot have the vaccine. I assure her that the review will certainly take that aspect into account.

National Risk Register

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, as I say, the Government are in contact with a range of people. We have just discussed the issues of flooding and vulnerable groups, and, as I said in answer to the first supplementary question, the Government are obviously in contact with the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. We cast our interests and our ears—if you can cast your ears—widely.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD) [V]]

My Lords, Professor Dame Sally Davies, the UK envoy on anti-microbial resistance, is calling on academics, Governments and not-for-profit organisations to work together to tackle this global health risk, which is a threat to both lives and economies. What action have the Government taken and what are their plans, following the recent update of the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, on his 2016 review on this issue?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I do not have a detailed response to the O’Neill report, but I can make sure that the noble Baroness gets one. However, I assure her and the House that my right honourable friend the Prime Minister has personally made clear his commitment to this Government being in the lead internationally in the fight against all manner of disease threats.

Children’s Services: Funding

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Thursday 10th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

The noble Lord has had a lifetime of distinguished career in social care. He may have been in the House yesterday, when my noble friend Lord Agnew referred to the troubled families programme, which indicated that the number of children defined as children in need declined by 14% after they had been involved in that programme. That, of course, reduced the demands that those children and families made on more expensive children’s care services. On top of that, last year the DfE invested nearly £5 million as part of an innovation programme to test the most effective ways to provide targeted support to reduce the need for most intensive forms of intervention—precisely the point the noble Lord has made—and thereby, it is hoped, reducing the pressure on children’s services departments.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that the All-Party Group for Children is doing a report on children’s social services? It has become very clear to us that thresholds for intervention are rising, leading to the situation that the noble Lord, Lord Laming, just mentioned. The Children’s Commissioner published a report yesterday that indicated that the general public’s expectations of intervention for children in need are much higher than what they actually receive. Is the Minister aware of that, and is he going to do anything about it?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

To some extent, children’s services are better placed within the local authority framework than other services because there are statutory protections for children that are not available for other services provided by local government. Spending on the most vulnerable children has increased by around £1 billion since 2010, and that includes safeguarding looked-after children and other children at risk. Since 2013, over 500,000 two year-olds have benefited from 15 hours of free early education a week. However, I am interested in the report that the noble Baroness has referred to, and I would like to write her with some more responses.

Cannabis

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Monday 12th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I will report back to the Home Office the strong views expressed by two noble Lords—I gather they are impatient and not anxious to wait for the outcome of the WHO review, which I think will be completed in 2019. Any decision will be evidence based. On the general use of cannabis, I note that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said in its last report that,

“cannabis is a significant public health issue. Cannabis can unquestionably cause harm to individuals and society”.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister’s acceptance that perhaps it should be a Health Minister standing at the Dispatch Box. Even so, is he aware that doctors in the UK are allowed to prescribe heroin to addicts in certain circumstances? How does he square that with the fact that they are not permitted to prescribe most effective cannabis medicines to patients in pain, even though these are available legally in many other countries? Is it not time that we stopped criminalising patients?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

On the specific issue the noble Baroness raises, the Home Office would consider issuing a licence to enable trials of any new medicines, including cannabis, subject to appropriate ethical approvals. There is the possibility of a specific licence in the case that the noble Baroness raised and if necessary the normal 12 to 16-week timetable could be expedited.

General Election: Voting Rights

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Walmsley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to allow British citizens who have lived outside the United Kingdom for more than 15 years to vote in the forthcoming General Election.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and I declare an interest as the mother of an expat of more than 15 years.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, legislation scrapping the 15-year rule will not now be introduced in this Parliament. I understand the disappointment of those affected. However, it is my hope that this will be delivered in the next Parliament, so that those who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will be able to participate in future elections.

[Baroness Walmsley]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply, but I do not think that hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised British expats will thank him. The Government have been in place for two years now. Why have they not fulfilled their promise in the 2015 manifesto to give votes for life to these people? Is it not because the Government are afraid of how they might vote, given that the Government have ruined the lives of many of them who live in other parts of the EU by choosing a hard Brexit?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

My Lords, when Members of Parliament, including Liberal Democrat Members, voted overwhelmingly last week that this Parliament should come to a premature close, it was inevitable that certain measures would not be introduced in this Parliament. However, I hope that if this measure is introduced in the next Parliament, it will have the full support of the Liberal Democrats, in view of the interest that the noble Baroness has just shown.