Lord Carter of Coles: ...of care. Can the Minister say when the shortfall in care workers will be eradicated? Are we paying enough? How do we get this level of temporary labour down. It is amazing—it is a sign of a bad system. For me, perhaps the most important thing—beyond early intervention—is kinship care. The report touched on this. Some estimates show that there are about 150,000 to 200,000 in such...
Emma Roddick: ...the Government of the day. It is worth pointing out, in response to criticism so far, that I do not want independence for the sake of it. It is not an end in itself. I do not want to move from one bad system to another. I do not want an independent Scotland that treats disabled people in the way that successive Governments down south have done. I want democracy here to be improved so that...
Jerome Mayhew: ...say that they are likely to reduce their coverage further over the next year, so we simply cannot ignore the problem any longer. The pain and suffering are too great. Labour may have created this bad system, which fails to pay for the cost of complex work, but our job is to fix it, and the sooner the better. The purpose of this debate, however, is not to moan about the state of NHS dental...
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: ..., the investment programme will not deliver change. It will continue to be a screen behind which senior managers get larger bonuses, as ever, for delivering larger profits. This is a really bad system. Is the Minister happy with water companies raising water bills, or borrowing large amounts of money that will be loaded on to future water bills, while shareholders get their usual dividend...
Lord Grocott: ...iniquitous system was not removed from our educational structure a long time ago. It would be wonderful, although this will not happen, if the Minister were able to stand up and say that it was a bad system and that the Government were keen to see it removed.
Lord Johnson of Marylebone: My Lords, I strongly support the Government’s student finance reforms, which strengthen what I think is the least bad system of funding higher education, but I have to say that I am puzzled by why the Government appear to be disavowing what in my view has been the standout levelling-up policy of the last decade: the removal of student number controls, which have allowed disadvantaged young...
Edwin Poots: ...works for them. I will need the assistance of the Committee and, indeed, the House to deliver that. We should all work towards that, because we have a system that has been there for a while. Is it a bad system? No. Is it a system that can be bettered? Yes, so let us get a better system.
Baroness Donaghy: ...Chamber. I congratulate the noble Baroness on her stalwart defence but, really, it is getting a bit thin and memories of how bad the old system was are fading. I am the first to accept that it was a bad system; I just do not think that this is a particularly good one. I agree with the noble Baroness that it came into its own during the pandemic, however. I slightly resent—this is not...
Daniel McCrossan: ...but that does not mean that those who are in a position of influence and power, such as you, Minister, should not be exploring what is in the best interests of our children. One thing is certain: a bad system should not sit there because there is no alternative. It should be replaced or removed in its entirety, in the interests of our children. The current system is absolutely cruel and...
Andrew Bowie: ..., apart from for those who were fortunate enough to live on the continent of Europe. I benefited from the system—my wife is from Sweden, and for a while I lived and worked in Belgium—but it is a bad system, an outdated model, a discriminatory model, a system that works for Europeans but against the rest of the world. It is unfair. It discriminates against people who want to come...
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: ...desuetude, obviously a major issue is looming. The amendments here are very much autonomous, and it has been a useful debate. Of course, if they were accepted, they would effectively be saving a bad system and not introducing good regulation. As the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, said, we need to think about a mandatory approach here. When the Minister responds, we will be looking for...
Barbara Keeley: ...their liberty without authorisation. Letting the backlog build up was a political choice, but this Bill is not a solution. It will not adequately protect people’s human rights, and replacing one bad system with another will not be progress. If the Government were serious about protecting people’s liberty, Ministers would have paused the Bill, which we called on them again today to do,...
Vincent Cable: ...would be much more equitable, and it would not discourage business improvement. Currently if a factory installs machinery, it makes itself eligible for higher commercial rates. This is a thoroughly bad system, and extreme Treasury conservatism is why the problem is not being addressed. One thing the Government have done, which is positive, is attempt to deal with the digital sector, but I...
Keith Brown: ...have barely lifted their eyes during the entire debate. I think that you are thoroughly ashamed of the situation, and if you are ashamed of it, you should be speaking up. If you feel that it is a bad system, because people are committing suicide and there is real misery among children—some of you must feel that it is—I suggest that, instead of sitting there saying nothing, you go down...
Neil Findlay: Of course I welcome that, but it should never have come to this because the Government should not have been operating such a bad system. There is much more that we have to do. Often when we use FOI, we are told that minutes, agendas and briefings for meetings do not exist. I have previously asked for minutes, agendas and briefings for meetings between John Swinney and senior financiers,...
Lord Elton: ...next to Nat Fiennes and hearing his father, Lord Saye and Sele, sitting on that Bench where the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris, is now sitting, saying that the hereditary system was not a bad system. It was a bit like roulette—it threw up all sorts. “And occasionally”, he said, pausing and turning to Nat and myself, “it throws up the odd black sheep”. There was a long pause...
Baroness Blackstone: ...well, because that is giving praise and those institutions should be asked to be role models and support some of their neighbouring institutions that are not doing quite so well. It is a bad system that is being created for academic staff and students, let alone for universities in their international recruitment. Everything that has been said about that is absolutely right. People trying...
Anna Soubry: ...that we did so much in our time together to improve the lot of small businesses. However, I have big concerns about business rates. Now is not the time to go into all that, but in my view, it is a bad system. It is inherently unfair. No matter how much money a business makes—or, indeed, loses—it still has to pay its rates, and that is absolutely wrong. A business could occupy a certain...
...can have these two routes and both of them be highly valued. The question we have to ask ourselves is why in our system the technical route is undervalued. I think the answer is because it is a very bad system that does not deliver what people want on the system. What they want above all is to be able to take a qualification and for that qualification to work in the marketplace. What that...
Michelle O'Neill: ...with interest this morning to some of the commentators in the media. What Margaret Carr from Cancer Research said was so apt and so appropriate. She said that waiting lists are a symptom of a bad system — a system that is not working. That is what I have been consistently saying to the House, and what I am setting out in my transformation piece is how we are going to deliver better...