Tax Credits (Income Thresholds and Determination of Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

Debate between Earl Howe and Baroness O'Loan

Monday 26th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

—the traditionally worded fatal amendment is that in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Manzoor. I am sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, got good advice—the best advice there is—but what we are looking at is what would happen if her amendment were carried. I am saying that it would frustrate the Government’s intent.

[Baroness O’Loan]

Does the Minister think that it would be impossible, if either of these two amendments were passed, for the Government to bring back regulations in the form of a statutory instrument to this House?

NHS: Definition of Exceptional Case

Debate between Earl Howe and Baroness O'Loan

Monday 2nd July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

There is no clear-cut answer to that question. A patient might be suffering unusually severe symptoms from a given condition, or they might suffer from some comorbidity, with the result that in the absence of treatment his or her quality of life would be unusually severely affected. The underlying principle should be that the patient has some exceptional characteristic which would justify more favourable treatment being given to them than to the average patient with that condition.

[Baroness O'Loan]

Given the vulnerability of the patients, the exceptional nature of the illness in such cases, and the consequential problems in terms of access and capacity to appeal, will the Minister tell the House what arrangements exist to scrutinise the fairness and consistency of decisions by PCTs and by their exceptional cases review processes?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, under the NHS Constitution, all patients have the right to an individual review of a decision not to fund a particular treatment if they and their doctor believe that it would be appropriate. They also have the right to an explanation of the basis of the decision. The commissioner must in turn have a process to enable such individual funding requests to be considered, so the watchwords here are transparency and publishing an explanation.

Health: Influenza

Debate between Earl Howe and Baroness O'Loan

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

We did see a higher than expected number of under-fives contracting influenza, so we took urgent advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in December and asked it to confirm its previous advice that not all under-fives need get vaccinated unless they were in an at-risk group. It confirmed that advice and we have followed it.

[Baroness O’Loan]

There have been 14 deaths from swine flu in Northern Ireland from a population of 1.7 million. How would the Minister respond to the statement from the health protection agency in Northern Ireland, in which Dr Carolyn Harper said:

“Our sense and discussions with colleagues in the UK is that our reporting systems are more complete than in England so therefore we are more likely to capture more deaths here. England concede they have a larger degree of under reporting than we have here so you really cannot compare them”?

Will the Minister advise whether he is satisfied with the validity of the statistics that are available?

[Earl Howe]

I am satisfied with the validity of the statistics. The problem is, of course, that there is always a lag. The statistics that I read out earlier in my main Answer were supplied to us by the Health Protection Agency and regard verified laboratory tested results. We have another method of assessing the number of deaths that is retrospective. After the end of the flu season we can assess whether the number of deaths has been higher than expected. Of course, we are endeavouring to improve our statistical base all the time and no doubt lessons will be learnt from this season, as they are from every season.