Independent Commission on Adult Social Care

Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Macpherson of Earl’s Court (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

To make it easy, I will resolve it.

My Lords, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the late noble Lord, Lord Lipsey. He was on the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care of the Elderly in 1998. Many noble Lords may not know this but, before he passed away, we were working on a cross-party proposal to raise awareness of existing later-life insurance products offered by mutuals and private insurance, so that taxpayers fund only those without sufficient assets or those who lived beyond the coverage of the insurance—usually five years. Can the Minister assure us that, whatever the Casey commission proposes, given that we are looking at solutions in the short term, the Government will raise awareness of later-life insurance products currently offered by mutual and for-profit insurers, especially for those who cannot wait for the Casey commission to report?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for making reference to the work of our noble friend Lord Lipsey, who will be greatly missed on all sides. I cannot pre-empt what the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, will say—I have made that point repeatedly; it is absolutely right. The noble Lord raised an interesting point of view. I am sure he will take every opportunity to feed that into the work that is ongoing.

[Lord Macpherson of Earl’s Court (CB)]

My Lords, one of the most sensible measures introduced by Mr Sunak when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer was a health and social care levy. Sadly, its abolition is the one measure which survived from the Kwasi Kwarteng Budget of 2022. The benefit of a health and social care levy is that it is possible to square it with the Labour Party’s manifesto. I therefore encourage the Minister to suggest that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, also considers the funding of social care.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I have a feeling that the noble Lord will make sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, is well aware of the issues he raises. I look forward to the outcome of those conversations.