Baroness Browning: My Lords, it was a great privilege and pleasure to serve on the Burns committee. Like others, I pay tribute not just to my fellow committee members but particularly to our chair, the noble Lord, Lord Burns, who must take a lot of credit for the report before your Lordships today. I was asked to comment on our report in Red Benches, but my comments suffered a little from editorial adjustment...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, will my noble friend consult the CQC on a rather intimate but difficult problem? Elderly people admitted to busy trauma wards with fractures that result in them not being able to weight-bear very often find that, when they press the bell for the loo, they are not able to access a commode and there is no time for a bedpan. They end up being consigned to using adult nappies for an...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I refer to my various interests in the register. Following on from the noble Lord, Lord Warner, I begin with mental health. As I think others in this Chamber did, I worked on pre-legislative scrutiny of the last set of changes to mental health legislation, before the Bill itself came before Parliament. Although this is a two-year Parliament, I would urge pre-legislative scrutiny, as...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, it a great privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton. We heard from previous speakers why we are tonight discussing and debating the proposed changes to PIP. I refer to my interests in the register particularly relating to autism. It is about autism that I will speak in the context of PIP. I support particularly the regret Motion tabled by the noble Baroness,...
Baroness Browning: My Lords—
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that local authorities submit accurate, up-to-date information to the Environment Agency on licence holders subject to the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013.
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the review of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, what action they intend to take.
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how the enforcement rules preventing cash payments for scrap metal might be improved.
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for standardising licence and fee arrangements across England and Wales applying to dealers in scrap metals.
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to enhance police inspection powers in respect of mobile scrap metal dealers and collectors.
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on bringing this subject to the Floor of the House. I expect I am one of the old faces she mentioned who will be termed one of the usual suspects on this subject. I refer to my interests relating to this debate as set out in the register. Like the noble Baroness, I feel there is a touch of déjà vu about this. We know about demographic trends, the...
Baroness Browning: I have great respect for what my noble friend is trying to do, particularly in getting people with autism into work. Will he bear in mind a couple of things? First, we have seen many schemes over a long time that are badged as work prep, with all sorts of names attached to them to get people ready for work. They are important but where they have failed in the past is in going that step...
Baroness Browning: My noble friend mentioned science in respect of religious studies. However, will he accept that science is quite properly evidence-based, while whatever faith a person is it is not called faith for nothing?
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I welcome the Bill. The amount of scrutiny it has received has been such a help in producing the Bill before your Lordships tonight. I was pleased to have the opportunity to serve on the Joint Committee, which was so ably chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Murphy. I was particularly pleased—comment has been made about this tonight—by the way in which another place dealt with the...
Baroness Browning: Can my noble friend confirm to the House that the consultation will not be a three-week consultation issued in the middle of the long Summer Recess?
Improving the speed and quality of autism diagnoses in the UK – Baroness Browning.
Baroness Browning: My Lords, can my noble friend outline the Government’s position on future in-patient services for children with mental health issues? Given that these are the most severe cases and that a lack of facilities in geographic proximity to where the children live has an effect on the immediate family, particularly parents, how will the Government resolve the problem of children as in-patients...
Baroness Browning: Does my noble friend agree that the failure in hospitals to assess the capacity of people with learning disabilities and those on the autistic spectrum is one of the great weaknesses in providing accurate and timely intervention for people who are in hospital and who have a learning disability? Will he make a particular case for assessing the ability of staff to accurately define capacity?...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, it is always a great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lady Hollins. I hope that I will not repeat too much of what has been said. I refer the House to the register and my declaration of an interest as President of the National Autistic Society. I want to focus on the change to the work-related activity group ESA. One group of people has not been mentioned at all so far: the...
Baroness Browning: Will the noble Baroness just reflect on the fact that, in terms of accountability to the electorate on this matter, people who have stood for public office and have been accepted and elected to another place have the mandate? They, and only they, have that mandate on this subject. Although we in this House work very hard in order to reflect our views, so that the other place can take...
