Jammu and Kashmir: Human Rights Abuses

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Monday 23rd July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords—

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, we have not yet heard from the Conservative Benches.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, as a victim of terrorism myself, I am always a supporter of the victims, not the terrorists. Therefore, I hope that the newspaper reports of today that the Home Secretary has given the nod to the American authorities to prosecute some particularly vile terrorists and leave them to face the penalty laid down by the democratic country of the United States of America are correct.

Brexit: European Council and Commission

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Tuesday 27th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, it is disappointing that I should have to get my feet. There is time to hear from both noble Lords. I think it is the turn of the Conservative Benches first.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, could my noble friend perhaps arrange some sort of education process for those people on the other side of the House who do not believe that the British people are capable of running a democratic process? We had been doing it for quite a long time before most of those on the continent got round to the idea of having a democratic process.

Universal Credit: Free School Meals

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Wednesday 14th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tebbit]

Is it not clear that there would be no point in devolved government unless devolved Governments were able to take different policy lines?

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, the next Question has been called.

Armed Forces: Inquiries

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Wednesday 25th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

As my noble friend Lady Goldie made clear on Monday, in answer to a Question from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris, there will be a full-scale independent review of the service justice system. That will give an opportunity for anyone to feed in their views. I therefore hope that the issues about which the noble Lord is rightly concerned can be addressed in that context.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that there is something odd about this situation? It is many years now since any of the Northern Irish republican terrorists who murdered our friends Airey Neave, Ian Gow, Tony Berry and others, who attempted to murder the then Prime Minister, and who crippled my wife and gravely injured me since any of those sort of people have been brought to trial. When any suggestion of that is made, they wave their “get out of jail free” cards, which they were issued by former Prime Minister Blair. However, in the meantime, soldiers who were doing their duty protecting us and the citizens of Northern Ireland against those sort of terrorists are still under threat.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I have enormous sympathy with my noble friend in what he has just said. We, as a Government have looked at these issues very closely indeed. Following the 2013 critical report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the Historical Investigations Unit in Northern Ireland will be required to re-examine those cases investigated by the former Historical Enquiries Team which involved state actors. However, my right honourable friend the Defence Secretary is working with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to ensure that closed cases are reinvestigated, as opposed to re-examined, only where there are strong reasons for doing so, such as the availability of new evidence. The forthcoming draft Bill will set that out in detail.

Royal Navy: Frigates

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Thursday 8th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Burnett (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, can my noble friend assure me that, in the event that the Argentinians were so foolish as to attempt another invasion of the Falkland Islands, we would currently have, and in future will have, the capacity to act in the way that we did on the last occasion that such an effort was made?

[Earl Howe]

The difference between now and 1982 is that we are more than sufficiently prepared for any such action by the Argentinians.

NHS: Accident and Emergency Services

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Wednesday 7th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, I wonder whether my noble friend will give consideration to helping those people who could not get appointments to see their general practitioners, some of whose surgeries were closed for five days over Christmas, by allowing or encouraging hospitals to set up general practices alongside their A&E departments, which would be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for people who registered at the hospital general practice. That would mean more funds for the hospital and less funds for the general practices that chose to close up in that manner.

[Earl Howe]

My noble friend has made an extremely important point. I have visited hospitals where that very model has been in place, for example, in Luton, where I went not so long ago. More and more hospitals are adopting this suggestion so that when people turn up at A&E they can be triaged immediately into urgent and less urgent cases, often to be channelled through to the GP service.

Public Health Responsibility Deal

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I am sure my noble friend Lord McColl would agree that one can go too far in that direction.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, do the Government not accept that people ought to know that if they stuff themselves silly with high-calorie rubbish foods they will get fat? It is their responsibility. All the forums and other nonsense are merely trying to divorce people from the consequences of their own stupid actions.

[Earl Howe]

My noble friend is absolutely right to place his finger on a central point that, in the end, it is up to individuals to take responsibility for their own state of health.

NHS: Risk Register

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Tuesday 15th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I acknowledge that I did not answer that question and apologise to the noble Lord for not having done so last week. The whole issue of stakeholder support is one that the risk register addresses, as he will see from the document that we published. I do not recall the specific issue of waiting times to see one’s GP arising in the risk register for the simple reason that, although I acknowledge that it is currently a problem in some parts of the country, particularly London, that is not a direct result of anything that the Government are doing in our reform programme.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, would my noble friend decline to take lessons in these matters from those who supported former Prime Minister Blair in not publishing a full and frank assessment of the intelligence reports on which he committed this country to a war?

Health and Social Care Bill

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Thursday 19th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I strongly agree. The noble Baroness will know that running right the way through the Bill are duties around the integration of services between health and social care and indeed between different aspects of healthcare. By giving clinicians greater autonomy to decide what good care looks like for their patients in an area, I am confident that we will see fewer unplanned admissions to hospital, which cost a great deal of money, and much better preventive care for patients delivered by healthcare and social care professionals.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, has my noble friend noticed that this upsurge in criticism of his proposed reforms in the health service has coincided with an upsurge in the demands for more pay by some of the people who are making the criticisms? Perhaps if they were a little more modest in their demands, there might be a little more money for patients.

[Earl Howe]

My noble friend makes a good point. Of course we wish to see professionals properly rewarded, but it behoves everyone in the public services to bear in mind the difficult economic circumstances in which we currently live. Many public servants, I am pleased to say, are responding to that call.

Carers

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Tebbit

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I can give the noble Baroness a ready undertaking: I should be glad to do so.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware—

[Baroness Greengross]

My Lords, will the Government collect information to help the growing numbers of young, usually working-class grandparents who need to work and who increasingly care nearly full-time for their grandchildren, as well as, frequently, for their ageing parents at the same time?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Baroness raises another important area. One thing that we propose to introduce is greater scope for flexible working, as I said in my original Answer, to enable all employees to avail themselves of that. It will allow greater scope for grandparents in particular but it will also allow neighbours and friends to engage in caring on a much wider scale than they can at the moment.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, would my noble friend say—

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a vice-president of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Can the noble Lord say whether it is appropriate that carers for those who are disabled on account of substance abuse should be subject to the same disability, as it were, as the person for whom they care?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, this is a complex question and one that my noble and learned friend will, I hope, know that we are bearing closely in mind. Those often young people who look after disabled parents are in special need, as I have said, but we recognise, too, the huge responsibility placed on parents who care for a disabled child and who often bear particular burdens. On that score, while noble Lords will be aware that the child trust fund has been abolished, the changes that we introduced in so doing include provision for more than £20 million a year, starting next year, to be spent on providing additional respite breaks for carers of severely disabled children. In passing, I pay tribute to the work of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Tebbit]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the cost of providing day care alone for a severely disabled person is something like £40,000 a year? Is he further aware that, while a woman who has chosen to have a child can set the costs of care against tax to get back to work, the spouse of a disabled person cannot do so?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I recognise everything that my noble friend has said. We recognise that carers play an indispensable role, which is why we are going to reform the benefits system to make it fairer all round.