Baroness Browning: My Lords, I support the plea from the noble Lord, Lord Stone, to my noble friend on mindfulness. We have a very active mindfulness group in this Parliament and I hope that my noble friend will encourage all colleagues to sample it for themselves. When people present at a GP surgery with mental health problems, there are still far too many GPs who reach for the prescription pad. If we really...
Baroness Browning: I welcome my noble friend’s announcement—I hope that he will take some cheer from that. I have too often been an emergency admission at a weekend and know only too well that if you have to wait to see the consultant on Monday you simply end up bed-and-breakfasting for two or three nights in hospitals. I hope that my noble friend will take into account how having a consultant available for...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. I begin by paying tribute to the work that Norman Baker did at the Home Office in this area. For a very short while, I had responsibility at the Home Office for this policy area, and I can sense the frustration of many Home Office Ministers faced with trying to catch up. That is how it feels— you are running to...
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which NATO countries reimburse costs from their overseas aid budget to their defence budget when their military are deployed internationally on humanitarian exercises.
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish, for the last five years for which figures are available, the costs to the United Kingdom defence budget of deploying military resources for humanitarian aid and assistance outside the United Kingdom and outside conflict zones.
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I declare an interest as a friend of the College of Social Work. Does my noble friend agree that professionalism is as important in the public sector as it is in the private sector? The college affords people working in this very important profession across the country opportunities and support for the work they are doing, particularly in the areas of education and in-service...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I refer the House to my declarations in the register. I join the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hardie, in his thanks to all those who supported the committee. I take this opportunity to thank the noble and learned Lord for his wise chairmanship of this committee. The members of the committee very much benefited from him sitting in that chair and giving us the benefit of his opinion...
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure (1) that the particular needs of older people with autism are met by the final statutory guidance implementing the adult autism strategy, (2) the appropriate and timely diagnosis of adult autism, and (3) the provision of care and support services for adults with autism. To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether all staff...
Baroness Browning: More broadly, what are the Government doing to encourage employers to employ ex-offenders, even if it is not the original occupation that they held before they entered prison?
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I am most grateful, particularly to the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, for coming to my rescue. Having done that, I hope he will not be disappointed by what I am about to say. I support the Bill, and certainly the way in which my noble friend on the Front Bench brought it forward. The final remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, about dividing on the Second Reading of a Bill need...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I am most grateful—that is, I think I am grateful. This is a serious subject and it is incumbent on all of us, when legislation is passed, regardless of whatever view we have taken, to make sure that it is as legally sound as possible. I have sought advice to try to do that and I hope that that is helpful to the House. I am grateful to all Members who have contributed to the debate.
Baroness Browning: I am not withdrawing the amendment.
Baroness Browning: I do not wish to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 61 agreed. Amendment 62 Moved by Baroness Browning 62: Clause 27, page 25, line 1, leave out from beginning to “the” in line 2 and insert “Where this subsection applies,” Amendment 62 agreed. Amendments 63 and 64 not moved. Amendment 65 Moved by Baroness Browning 65: Clause 27, page 25, line 5, after “offence” insert “, to the...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, first, I apologise to the House that I was not present when your Lordships discussed this clause in Committee, but my interest in this part of the Bill stems from the fact that during this Parliament I was a Minister at the Home Office with responsibility within my portfolio for both knife crime and gang crime. The amendments tabled in my name and that of my noble friend Lady...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, the decision of a Member of Parliament to support a government Motion to send those young men and women just mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, into harm’s way is probably the most difficult decision that any Member of Parliament will ever make. I see people in the Chamber today who, like me, have had to make that decision and have had to vote accordingly. Although I have...
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what categories of Quality and Outcomes Framework payments are available to general practitioner practices.
Baroness Browning: The report identifies 37% of deaths that could have been prevented. People with learning disabilities and those on the autistic spectrum, some of whom are included in the report, experience communication problems at hospital level. Will my noble friend please put government force behind the issuing of hospital passports for people with learning disabilities and those with autism? The autism...
Baroness Browning: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of proposals by King's College London to reduce scientific staff posts in the South London and Maudsley catchment area by 10 to 15 per cent in (1) clinical services, (2) autism research, and (3) mental health research.
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Walmsley on bringing this important debate to the Floor of the House this afternoon, and I refer Members to my interests in the register, in addition to which I am patron of Action on Elder Abuse and the main carer of an adult with autism. A report by Action on Elder Abuse states that abuse is often by more than one person—something that we...
Baroness Browning: My Lords, I will begin where the right reverend Prelate finished, with the modern slavery Bill, which I welcome. Like him, I think it is broad in scope and we need to ensure that as it passes through the House the detail encompasses all the aspects he has mentioned. I welcome the increased maximum sentence of life imprisonment for this crime and the enhancement to confiscate criminals’...
