House of Lords: Remote Participation and Hybrid Sittings
Lord Bradshaw Excerpts(3 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Bradshaw (LD) [V]
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Hudnall, in her very fine introduction from the Opposition Front Bench, mentioned efficiency, effectiveness and the duty to participate. During lockdown, I have been working from home and have worked very hard. I usually get to my desk at 8.30 or 9 am, and I am rarely away from it until the evening. I have to keep in contact with a number of people in the transport industries in order that I can contribute properly to the work of the House and be up to date, so that when questions are asked about, for example, hydrogen buses or where on the railway we should electrify next, I have satisfactory and good answers. Those are not the sort of things you can make up on the hoof.
People talk about not “catching the Minister’s eye”. If the Ministers I deal with do not answer my questions, I immediately email them, and I do so continuously until I get an answer to the question. It is too feeble to say that you cannot get an answer: you get an answer if you try.
I have listened to debates about diversity and people who are disabled in some way. I have an issue, in that my wife is disabled and therefore it is more difficult to leave home. Remote voting is actually a godsend to me because it enables me to carry out caring duties. I welcome the better arrangements at Question Time: the ballot system is much better than the old queuing-up system, whereby you had to get there early and sit in a queue. The early starts are a bonus because most people can be ready to start at midday. I pay particular tribute not just to the efforts of staff but to their sheer professionalism and courtesy. I am not very good at modern technology and I am probably slow to learn, but I find they are always very helpful.
The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, was absolutely right to say that we should resist the pressure to give up virtual technology. We should be trying to make the best of it and to make it work properly. I also agree with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, who said the same thing: that this is too valuable a tool just to throw away. We should be continuously making it better, because I rather agree with those who say that this pandemic is more than likely to return. Also, when, for one reason or another, we move out of the present premises, remote working will prove to be a great asset. So, I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, will not put his Motion to a vote but that a lot of time will be spent on reflection and making the system better.
Covid-19
Lord Bradshaw Excerpts(3 years, 5 months ago)
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Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con) [V]
I can reassure the noble Baroness that we will be targeting this money towards the very pupils she talks about. Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that we will provide a further £300 million for tutoring. We will work in collaboration with the education sector to develop specific initiatives for summer schools and a Covid premium to support catch-up in exactly the way she said.
I refer back to the longer-term plan I mentioned. We understand that, while help is needed immediately, this situation is not going to be fixed quickly. Our pupils have lost a lot of time by being out of school and we want a longer-term plan, looking across the Parliament at how we can make sure we help pupils across the country to catch up as they have lost so much over the past few months.
Lord Bradshaw (LD) [V]
Throughout the Covid pandemic, the Government have supported the bus and rail industries. There are long outstanding appraisals of both industries, a national bus strategy and a White Paper on railway reform. As both are key components in combating climate change, can the Leader of the House please inform the House of when the publication of these documents may be expected?
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con) [V]
I am sure the department continues to work on these issues. They are very important, but I am afraid I cannot give an update on publication.
Covid 19: Winter Plan
Lord Bradshaw Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)
The noble Lord is right in the sense that one issue that care homes have faced is the movement of staff who work in a number of them. We have extended the infection control fund and ring-fenced over £1 billion to support social care providers, exactly to help ensure that workers do not have to go between care homes. We have also made over £4.6 billion available to help local authorities respond to the pressures caused by the pandemic in key services such as adult social care. So we are very cognisant of the issues that he has raised.
Lord Bradshaw (LD) [V]
The Prime Minister likened the work of Oxford and other universities to the cavalry riding to the rescue over the hill. Two years ago, Oxford attracted more European funding than any other academic institution in the Union, much of which we will lose as we move into the EEC. Will the Government make good these losses? Our universities defend us from disease, feed us, and find ways of tackling climate change and cybercrime, but they are run by much-derided public servants, many from overseas. They are motivated by finding answers to problems. University research must be financed, staff must receive reasonable salaries or they will go elsewhere, and in many cases they will need visas. Will the Leader of the House speak up for these university staff, who are not well paid, so that they are supported in their work and are available to deal with more challenging problems ahead?
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)
I am very happy to again pay tribute, as the noble Baroness, the noble Lord and others have done, to the fantastic scientists who have worked on these vaccines and indeed who work across universities. I very much hope that the exciting developments we have seen at Oxford and other universities will encourage young people to think about this work as a career. It is incredibly impressive and challenging work, and I hope that some of the coverage and interest in it will encourage more people to think about it as a career, ensuring that we continue to have fantastic scientists working in this country.
Aircraft: Laser Pointers
Lord Bradshaw Excerpts(8 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My noble friend is right: it is illegal to sell unsafe laser pointers to consumers in the UK. Of course, the internet, which brings huge opportunities, also brings problems of control. That is why we have recently been looking across the board at the different aspects—the sale, use and possession—of these dangerous lasers to see whether we need to adjust the legislative framework that we already have in the areas of consumer goods and aircraft.
Lord Bradshaw
My Lords, as somebody who has worked all his life in all modes of transport and was responsible for safety in many of them, might I ask the Minister to take very seriously not only lasers but drones? We are almost at the point where drones could readily deliver explosives into this building, and it will certainly be possible for them to do so within a year or two. This is not a matter to be discussed at a fairly low level; it is a threat that should be addressed urgently.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
I thank the noble Lord and will certainly pass on his comments about drones. Of course, sadly, there is always a risk with these potentially dangerous objects, whether they are drones, guns or lasers, and you need to look carefully at the regime and at whether their sale, possession or use is being regulated in the right way. Most importantly, you need to look at whether the law is being enforced, and we are trying to focus on that as well.