Support for Infants and Parents etc (Information) Bill [HL]

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 15th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Farmer, I pass on thanks to all noble Lords who contributed to the Bill and for the assistance of the House for making the passage of the Bill so efficient. I note that the Bill is based on the early years review from the Department for Health and Social Care, which indicates that, at such a stressful time, many parents could benefit from some form of legislation to ensure that they are aware of the help available to them from charitable and publicly funded sources. I beg to move.

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who gave of their time and effort to make a valuable contribution to the Bill. In particular, I pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Farmer, whose efforts on the Bill, as well as on hospices, special needs schools, prison reform and many other areas, will pay dividends for future generations.

By providing parents with accessible and reliable updates on infant care, the Bill empowers families to make informed decisions, fostering stronger family units. This aligns with our principles of personal responsibility and informed choice, helping parents independently to support their child’s development. It equips parents with early-stage guidance to help address any issues at the onset, potentially reducing future reliance on public services, which will enhance efficient government spending, with early support minimising the need for costly interventions later in life.

By offering parents resources on key topics such as nutrition, health and time-tested milestones, the Bill promotes stable and forward-looking early childhood experiences. We value family stability as a cornerstone of society, and many on our Benches view this as a proactive step towards creating responsible, well-adjusted citizens.

Finally, by providing parents with essential information, the Bill aims to reduce unnecessary visits to healthcare outlets, enabling resources to be allocated to those with more urgent and complex needs. This aligns with His Majesty’s Official Opposition’s aims to relieve pressure on the NHS and optimise efforts on the long-term sustainability and success of public services.

Hospices: Funding

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

Thursday 24th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Farmer for balloting this QSD.

As we have heard, the modern hospice movement was pioneered by Dame Cicely Saunders at St Christopher’s Hospice, who told her patients:

“You matter because you are you. You matter to the last moment of your life and we will do all we can to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die”.


Every year, hospices in the UK assist nearly a quarter of a million people who live with a progressive or terminal illness and then support them more closely as their lives draw to a close. We must support these hospices.

Let me share some concerning statistics with your Lordships. More than two in five deaths occur in hospital, with 41% of that group dying alone. While it is impossible to quantify the monetary value of giving people the opportunity to die with dignity, hospices can play an incredibly important role in both providing excellent end-of-life care and, at the same time, freeing up expensive hospital beds in a material saving for the NHS.

The Minister for Care repeated just this month that the Government are determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, including to hospices. However, currently the amount spent on children’s hospice care, for example, varies widely—from £28 per child in South Yorkshire last year to £511 per child in Norfolk and Waveney. Can the Minister explain how these disparities are occurring and how she will address them?

Last year we committed to extending the £25 million children’s hospice grant. However, in a response to a Written Question on 31 July, the Government stated that they

“are currently considering the future of this important funding stream beyond 2024/25”.

Can the Minister please give us a cast-iron assurance that this vital funding stream will be carried forward?

Currently, around a third of hospice income comes from the state and the rest is made up from charitable donations and fundraising. Do the Government intend to move to a model in which the state delivers the majority of funding for hospices? If so, will the Government seek greater control of hospice provision across the country? With increased government funding, Ministers may seek corresponding increases in control over services, so can the Minister confirm that the Government will protect the independence of our hospices, which they value so greatly?

Investing in co-ordinated community palliative care services such as hospices, to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and provide superlative end-of-life care, should be a top priority for this Government.

Ultra-processed Food

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

To take the second question first, the industry has worked with a lot of comments on reformulation across the board—for younger children and older ones. Noble Lords will remember me saying that foods such as Mars, Galaxy, Bounty and Snickers bars have all been reformulated, as have Mr Kipling’s “exceedingly good” cakes. Clearly, we need to look across the board at it all. I know that the industry is working in the area of young people. I am happy to follow that up in writing with the precise details.

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, in yesterday’s QSD on ultra-processed foods, the Minister spoke of how he had recently made a sound choice due to calorie labelling. What will the Government do to help and encourage SMEs with fewer than 250 employees to show calorie labelling on food and drinks that are not pre-packed?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My noble friend makes a good point. I gave an example of where it had affected my own behaviour. I am sure we all have examples of when we have looked at the menu and thought, “Oh, do I really want that choice? Is it worth the extra calories?”. We want to get it proportionate, so while we want to encourage as many companies as possible to take it up, we appreciate that for small companies it is quite a bit harder. We are working with them to introduce it voluntarily if they can.

Children’s Health: Ultra-processed Foods

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

Wednesday 25th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin of Kennington, for raising this key debate. I am sure that many noble Lords are familiar with the phrase “gut instinct”. The gut is our second brain. It uses the same chemicals and cells as our main brain. It helps us to digest, but also alerts us when something does not feel right. What we put into it is critical.

Noble Lords will also be familiar with the phrase “you are what you eat”. Eating nutritionally balanced and healthy food encourages good bacteria, which in turn affects the production of good chemicals. When production is optimal, our brain receives messages clearly and distinctly, and we experience a positive mental state. Food changes our mind and our mental health. We should actually say that food is medicine. There is a direct correlation between healthy diet and cognitive learning.

It is crystal clear that it is of the utmost importance for our children to have a healthy, balanced diet. It is therefore a concerning statistic that ultra-processed food accounts for almost two-thirds of what toddlers in the UK eat, and it becomes progressively worse the older they get.

While it is acknowledged that not all ultra-processed foods are harmful, there is agreement that they are typically high in saturated fat, salt and sugar. That is the type of food that can contribute to long-term illness, by changing the micro-composition in the gut, which can then lead to cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Research out early this week suggests that high-fructose corn syrup actually causes biological changes to the body that make it easier to put on weight and harder to lose it. Another worrying statistic shows that, in the past 47 years, average consumption by UK households of ready meals has increased by 549%, while consumption of certain fresh fruit and vegetables has decreased.

That goes some way to explaining the obesity levels in our children. Some 10% of four to five year-olds were obese in 2021; that increased to 23% of 10 to 11 year-olds in the same timeframe. We owe it to our children to give them the best start in life—but having a fit and healthy young population is essential to reducing pressure on the NHS. Obesity currently costs us £6 billion per year, set to rise to £10 billion by 2050. By trying to tackle the issue of our children and ultra-processed food consumption, we will in part tackle childhood obesity and further issues in later life.

Another concern is absenteeism from school due to illness. Almost one in 10 secondary school pupils missed school in the last week of September after sickness absence doubled in just two weeks. Those lost days over the course of a child’s education can have a material impact on their learning and development. If we are able to reduce in some way illness absence through healthier eating, that must be a positive.

If we are to protect the health of our children and prevent diet-related disease and complications, we should be reducing consumption of ultra-processed foods, and combining that with eating more lean meat, fruit, pulses and vegetables. What are the Government doing to educate children in healthy eating and cooking? Education must be key. If people really understood the harm that they are doing to themselves by eating foods that are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, they might be able to adapt their buying patterns.