Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill [HL]

Lord Bishop of Carlisle Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 24th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Carlisle]

My Lords, from these Benches I am glad to be able to support the Bill, which is welcomed by so many charities and which will bring relief to so many anxious families. It seems to have four significant strengths, the first being clarity. The rules surrounding benefits and healthcare at the end of life are confusing and not always easy to navigate. The Bill goes some way towards making things simpler and more straightforward both for people who are terminally ill and for their families, and that has to be a good thing.

The second strength is consistency. As we have heard, the Bill will put disability living allowance, personal independence payment and attendance allowance on the same footing as universal credit and employment and support allowance. However, it will also provide consistency with the definition of “end of life” currently used by the NHS, as well as providing consistency with other parts of the United Kingdom.

The third strength of the Bill is its concern for the whole person. It takes seriously the fact that a diagnosis of terminal illness brings with it a wide range of emotional, practical and spiritual worries, along with the physical symptoms that may or may not already be evident. By cutting down on bureaucracy and by ensuring a measure of financial assistance, the special rules will at least alleviate some of the distress that people currently experience.

Fourthly, I believe that the provisions of the Bill command fairly widespread cross-party support and I do not imagine that they will be greatly opposed.

However, having made clear my support for the Bill, none the less I will mention two little caveats which need to be borne in mind as we move forward. One has to do with the difficulty of making an accurate prognosis. As Sarah Newton, then the Minister for Disabled People, Work and Health, pointed out in 2018, the longer the prognosis, the less likely it is to be accurate. Making the period longer than six months would therefore make the diagnosis and potentially the conversation between doctor and patient that much more difficult rather than, as we were just hearing, easier. This has obvious implications both for the patient and for the doctor, and for the benefits paid out.

The second caveat concerns palliative care, which is frequently raised here in your Lordships’ House—it was mentioned just now by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, with particular reference to children. While I welcome the financial provision that the Bill makes more possible, I hope that the Minister may be able to reassure us that it will not be at the expense of better and more widespread palliative care for all those nearing the end of their lives. This must be both/and, not either/or, as we seek to ensure the best possible treatment— physical, emotional and spiritual—for all those who are terminally ill.

Food: Chicken and Beef

Lord Bishop of Carlisle Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park [V]]

Each country must make its own decision on a range of issues based on its own individual circumstances and attitude to risk. As my noble friend will know, we have legislated by the withdrawal Act 2018 against the use of artificial growth hormones in domestic production and imported meat products. Our legislation also prohibits the use of anything other than potable water to decontaminate poultry carcasses. Any changes would require new legislation. It is important to note that the approach we follow in this country, which I believe consumers want, is one where animals are reared in a way that does not necessitate chlorine treatment to be made safe.

[The Lord Bishop of Carlisle]

My Lords, I am grateful for what the Minister just said. Can he tell us whether Her Majesty’s Government have conducted any assessment of antibiotic use among beef farmers in the United States? If so, what might be the potential implications for public health of beef imports following any future trade deal?

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park [V]]

That is an enormously important point. I will have to get back to the right reverend Prelate with the precise data, but there is no doubt that we will need a big reduction in the use of antibiotics in farming globally. The UK is pushing hard for that, particularly on prophylactic or preventative use, where there are emerging links between overuse of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, which can pass and spread to humans. There is a potential for overuse of antibiotics to represent the greatest threat to human health of almost anything else on the horizon. This is a priority area for the Government. We have been working extremely hard to reduce antibiotic use in this country and have succeeded in doing so, although there is more to do. We need to ensure that the same happens elsewhere.

Republic of Sudan: Human Rights

Lord Bishop of Carlisle Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Carlisle]

My Lords, I, too, am most grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Cox. Unlike her, I cannot claim to be an expert on Sudan, but some of my colleagues who would normally speak on this issue have been unavoidably detained today in another debate of some importance to the church at the General Synod in York. I am very grateful for this opportunity to contribute to this debate because the human rights issues it raises are of such enormous significance, not only for the individuals directly concerned but for the way in which we direct our foreign aid and conduct our foreign policy.

With regard to foreign aid, there is clearly a real humanitarian crisis in Darfur, as we have heard, especially in the mountainous northern part of Sudan which borders Egypt. We have already heard about the thousands of refugees, but famine is also endemic there. One colleague who visited recently talked to people who were reduced to eating leaves off the trees. The population of that bit of the country is still predominantly Christian, and government help or support is virtually non-existent. What is more, aid agencies are able to offer little assistance due to the dangerous conditions, the poor infrastructure and, as we heard earlier, the periodic refusal of the Government to let them in. This means that the local Christian diocese has to shoulder most of the burden of caring for people who are in desperate need, and of attempting to feed them when its own resources are pitifully small. Have Her Majesty’s Government given any consideration to providing aid, and so helping to meet people’s basic human rights to food and drink, through the church in that part of Sudan? Heroic efforts are being made to alleviate desperate need, but funding is urgently required.

Where foreign policy is concerned, that leads on to the way in which human rights, and religious freedoms in particular, are being flouted in Sudan. The recent case involving Meriam Ibrahim, which has already been mentioned, and the closure of the Salmmah Women’s Resource Centre, illustrate this all too graphically. In theory, Sudan has ratified the optional protocols of the UN human rights conventions but, in practice, increasingly Sharia interpretations of the 1991 criminal code are having a devastating effect on many lives.

For instance, Lubna Hussein was sentenced to a lashing for allegedly dressing indecently in public by wearing trousers. Intisar Sharif was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Indeed, offences such as adultery, apostasy and armed robbery all have fixed sentences that include death by hanging, stoning, crucifixion or whipping. These penalties are clearly at odds with the basic freedom from physical harm which the Human Rights Act entails.

I would therefore be most grateful for some indication from the Minister as to any pressure that is being or could be applied to the Government of Sudan to ensure that they begin to respect their religious and cultural minority groups. In particular, I wonder what we are doing at and through the United Nations to press the Sudanese Government to honour the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including and especially Article 18, which relates to religious observance.