Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to request that Ipsos includes a category of "Speech, Language, and Communication Difficulties” in the annual GP Patient Survey.
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, installers say that heat pumps can be installed in flats—not all of them, but quite a lot of them—and a lot of people live in flats. The problem seems to be with the manufacturers, who are reluctant. What will the Government do to enable heat pumps to be installed in flats where there is space?
Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of South Africa's relationship with the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas, and the statements of support for Hamas by former ANC minister Ronnie Kasrils.
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, I want to follow the remark made by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Hale, when she referred to the general safety of Rwanda outside the particular circumstances of anybody who might be sent there for asylum. I apologise that I was not able to be at Wednesday’s meeting, but, on reading Hansard, I noticed that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Stewart of Dirleton, did not answer...
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, to return to speech therapy, the Minister will be aware that the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists wrote to the Secretary of State last November highlighting how independent prescribing responsibilities would help, for instance, patients with quite potent cases of head and neck cancer. Can the Minister be a little more specific and give a timeline for when speech and...
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, I asked what the grounds were for people from Rwanda being given asylum here. What was their well-grounded fear of persecution about?
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, who is among those noble Lords who have shown authoritatively and powerfully the moral, constitutional, legal, financial and practical difficulties of this Bill. In the time available, I shall focus on three narrower points: how safe Rwanda is; where public opinion lies; and how alien to us are the laws this Bill...
Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty's Government how many new pitches, as opposed to the refurbishment of existing pitches, were funded by the Affordable Homes Programme since its inception, excluding any funded by the Traveller Site Fund 2022/23.
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, I am not sure that I heard in the Minister’s response to the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, an answer to her Question. Have His Majesty’s Government made no assessment of the impact, the scope and the speed of this legislation?
Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for establishing a separate contracts for difference funding pot for wave energy generation, so that its funding is no longer in competition with technologies which are closer to market.
Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty's Government how many Gypsy and Traveller sites the Affordable Homes Programme has funded in each year since its inception, and how many in total.
Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Friends, Families and Travellers, Kicking the Can down the Road: the planning and provision of Gypsy and Traveller sites in England 1960–2023; and what steps, if any, they will take to implement its recommendations.
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, there have been reports of women and girls being violently raped by Hamas terrorists, but I have seen no reflection of this in UN reports or actions. Does the Minister agree with me that, since rape is a war crime, this should be reflected in the UN’s understanding of the situation?
Baroness Whitaker: To ask His Majesty’s Government when they intend to publish the electricity network connection action plan promised for the summer in Powering Up Britain: Energy Security Plan.
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, in declaring that I am in receipt of an IPT fellowship in wave energy, I thank the Minister very much for that reassuring news, but one consequence of the essential greater grid capacity could be many more unpopular and unsightly pylons. What thought have the Government given to supporting burying them, or to Andrea Leadsom MP’s proposed amendment to the then Energy Bill in the...
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, research has shown that the mortality rate among Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children is far higher than among any other minority-ethnic group, yet this is hardly ever reflected in any account of the situation. Will the Minister get his department to recognise more explicitly the disproportionate mortality rate in this often unrepresented ethnic-minority group?
Baroness Whitaker: I am sorry to hold up the Minister in her magnificent tour de force but I asked her a specific question about the consent process consultation. If she does not have the answer to hand on wave energy, would she please write to me?
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords. the gracious Speech reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to net zero, but without much detail. May I fill some of that gap by advocating more action from the Government on wave energy? I declare that I am completing a fellowship in wave energy for the IPT and I am a member of Peers for the Planet. I am also grateful to Richard Arnold of the Marine Energy Council for factual...
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, is it still the case that, when the Treasury computes the cross-benefits of departmental proposals, it does not take account of the benefit and savings accrued to a department other than the one which will own the programme or the capital outlay?