Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether UK residents who have received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine produced in India will be prevented from using the digital COVID-19 passport to travel to Europe without tests and quarantine; and what steps they plan to take to help anyone so affected.
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of legally recognising humanist marriages on choice for same-sex couples wanting to get married.
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government why they have undertaken interim civil marriage reform to legislate for outdoor weddings but have not done the same for humanist marriages.
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, congratulations to my noble friend Lady Kramer on bringing this super-important, much needed Bill to the House. Whistleblowers have for so long paid a price for their bravery in bringing to attention that which organisations, institutions or Governments want kept secret. Take your pick—the Catholic Church, the NHS, the Government, the banks, the BBC and more, all of whose...
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they made of the (1) safety, and (2) effectiveness, of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of current age verification tools in protecting children from seeing adult content online; and what plans they have to ensure that the efficacy of such tools are addressed as part of the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I am speaking to Amendment 180, to which I have added my name. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and I could not agree more with everything she said. She has far greater knowledge and wisdom in this matter than I but I feel strongly that prevention and reaching children at an early age is vital, otherwise everything else in the Bill will just deal with...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 186 in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Paddick. As before, this addresses the same cause as our previous amendment that applied to the guidance. As debated before, domestic abuse experienced by men, and abuse in same-sex relationships, can be of quite a different nature. Just as the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, is trying to ensure a recognition,...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I greatly support Amendment 137 and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Newlove, for such a powerful and comprehensive introduction, thus making it necessary for me to make only a few brief remarks. During my time at the Home Office, I remember a particular incident that demonstrates the attitudes at play in the issues before us. In 2014 a so-called pick-up artist, Julien Blanc, was due...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I support the amendments in this group, particularly Amendments 57, 58, 59 and 60, that seek to enable the consideration of the inclusion of workplaces in domestic abuse protection orders. It is a truly important and obvious step, which the Government have acknowledged, at least in principle, in Amendment 75. The introduction of domestic violence protection notices and then domestic...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 39, in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, on the composition of the advisory board. This amendment is straightforward and brief, and is simply to ensure that men who are abused and those in same-sex relationships have a knowledgeable and expert advocate on that board. As a Home Office Minister and Equalities Minister during the coalition,...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, for all five years of the coalition, I was the Government’s ministerial champion for tackling violence against women and girls overseas. That was concurrent with two and a half years as Equalities Minister and Home Office Minister, and then two years as a DfID Minister. In those years at DfID, I saw a level of domestic abuse against women that was off the scale. It is hard to pick...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I congratulate both maiden speakers on their excellent maiden speeches. The Government assure us that this is a continuity Bill, but that is not totally true. That is not all that it is. The Government also assure us that food and environmental standards will be maintained, but will they? On what basis should we trust a Government that have not stuck to a single edict they have...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I hope that everyone now sees that we need to introduce policies that better balance what is good for “me” with what is best for “us”—the aspiration for the common good as opposed to only individual advancement. The cynic in me thinks it will not be a nanosecond before people forget their gratitude to those on the front line—before they vote for a party that offers tax...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I totally welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate and thank the noble Lord, Lord Collins, for bringing it to the House. When I was a DfID Minister I visited Zambia, and one day visited one of our projects where we had special practitioners talking to teenage girls about the challenges they faced, including lack of knowledge about their own bodies, contraception and...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I want to use the opportunity of the humble Address to raise the issue of disability. It touches on many government departments, most of which are the subject of today’s debate. There was a moment in the glory and glow of the 2012 Paralympics where we got it as a nation: it felt inclusive and it felt wonderful. We were super proud of our athletes’ achievements and then, well,...
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require GP surgeries in England to put in place a call and recall procedure to require them to follow up patients in the shingles vaccination cohort who have not yet availed themselves of the vaccine.
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for encouraging people who are 60 years old and above who have not been vaccinated against shingles to receive a vaccination; and what steps they are taking to encourage the take-up of that vaccine amongst that cohort.
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Rooker. He put his finger on the pulse by saying that he expects that we will all make similar speeches, but it is the action that must take place that will be the judge of what we say today. For three years, before I stepped down, I stood here as the Lib Dem spokesperson for energy and climate change, and I said over and over...
