Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Prior of Brampton

Tuesday 28th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I cannot give him the figure offhand. The figure of 57 rings a bell with me, but I shall have to check the number and write to the noble Lord. I can tell him that between March 2014 and December 2016, PIPCU shut down 11,000 websites selling counterfeit goods and 1,300 websites infringing copyright—so it has been extremely active. But I shall write to him on that point.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Yesterday the Minister showed that he has deep concern for disadvantaged people. Surely he can be more sympathetic to the Liberal Democrats about their loss of intellectual property.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, it is very hard to lose what you never had.

Industrial Strategy: Engagement

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Prior of Brampton

Monday 27th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Lord makes a very good point. Industrial relations, employee engagement—call it what you will—is much better by and large in the private sector than in the public sector. We are not good employers, if we are honest. Like me, a number of noble Lords in this House were staggered that the junior doctors, for example, were forced into taking strike action. These people are vocationally committed, yet somehow we created an environment in the public sector which is far from satisfactory.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister, on behalf of the Government, have a word with the Speaker, the Senior Deputy Speaker and the Clerk of the Parliaments and ask them to consider how the employees of this place might be involved more in decisions regarding its running?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, a number of our leading companies have very innovative ways of engaging people in their business—for example, Google and other companies like it have installed table tennis tables. I wonder whether the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, might consider making way for a table tennis table in this place.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Prior of Brampton

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, this goes back to the culture of the trust. It is important that members of the public or Healthwatch have a right to go in and visit facilities, and that they are welcomed there, but that they do not go native at the same time—that they are truly independent, looking at it from the patients’ perspective. Healthwatch has an important part to play, and the relationship that it has locally with the CQC inspection team is very important.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, I am slightly perplexed. Why is it that, once again, it is only because an Urgent Question was tabled and agreed by the Speaker that Parliament knows all the details and is able to hold the Government to account? If, as the Minister says, the Government are so concerned about it, why did they not volunteer a Statement?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, the CQC report is in the public domain, as are all the CQC reports. To be honest with your Lordships, I am not technically sufficiently aware of the procedures of the House to know why it did not automatically come to the House but, as I say, I am here today.

Health: Adult Psychiatric Care

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Prior of Brampton

Monday 22nd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, that is a very hard question to answer. The talking therapies, for example, seem to be effective in about 50% of the cases, and whether they are effective is clearly a clinical decision. As for other standards, we tend to rely, as the noble Baroness will know, on proxies such as waiting times and the four-hour standard, which the noble Lord recommended in his report. We are considering the introduction of a four-hour waiting-time standard for people suffering from psychotic problems, in the same way as we have for physical health.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, can I give the Minister an easy question? What discussions has he or any of his colleagues in the Department of Health had with his counterparts in the Scottish Administration to exchange experience and ideas?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I am not aware that we have had any discussions in the Scotland Office. However, there is no doubt that in Scotland they are approaching quality improvement extremely effectively. I had a recent meeting with people who have been involved in that, so I can assure the noble Lord that, at that level, if we can learn things from what they are doing in Scotland, we will do so.

Social Care and Support: Funding

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Prior of Brampton

Monday 19th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I think that the only word of comfort I can give is that in the long run we will have a well-funded social care sector and a well-funded NHS only if we have a successful and productive economy, and we will have a successful and productive economy only if we can get government borrowing back to where it needs to be and so can begin to eliminate the government deficit.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister not realise that he is not just a disinterested observer in this matter? He has admitted a 10% reduction, he has said that the sector is “fragile”, and then he says that we have to wait until the settlement in November. What are he and his colleagues doing about saying to the Treasury, “This is a fragile sector. This is a sector that needs more money. This is a sector that is alarming many, many Members of the House of Lords”, and getting those messages over to the Government?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

What we are saying is that we have to fundamentally transform the health and social care sector so that it is fit for the kinds of patients living in today’s society, not those living in, frankly, 1948.

NHS: GP Clinics

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Prior of Brampton

Thursday 25th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Baroness—

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Has a very good point.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The main thrust of the legislation was to put GPs more in control of the delivery and structuring of local healthcare.