Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: When they will publish the Performance and Innovation Unit report on modernising government loans.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, for introducing this debate and offer a few words of support for what he said in his opening remarks. This indeed is a very worrying trend which seems to be escalating despite the many efforts to discourage such a disgraceful trade. I am not sure whether I should declare an interest since I have in the past alluded to the fact...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, in the appraisal of Zimbabwe, can the Minister say how much time Her Majesty's Government expect the country to take to move from apartheid into full democracy?
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: What steps they are taking to improve the enforcement of fines and community penalties imposed by magistrates' courts.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, at this stage it is difficult to imagine that there is anything left to say, after the well informed speeches that we have heard. However, like everyone here, I have a personal interest in healthcare and a particular interest in the health service. Because of the nature of the concept of the National Health Service, I make no apology for returning briefly to the basic facts of its...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the gap; I had some problems getting to the House today. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Knight, for introducing this debate. I shall concentrate on NICE itself. In establishing the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, the Government have given all clinicians the opportunity to adhere to informed, sensible and, I believe,...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, it is now well over a century since the movement for equal rights for women began. We all remember with deep admiration Pankhurst the Equaliser. The aim of the movement was clear—women to have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges that men enjoyed and to have the right to be part of decision-making. The very fact that this Bill is before us today shows that the...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: Whether any certificates have recently been signed under Section 28 of the Data Protection Act 1998 covering personal data processed by the Secret Intelligence Services and Government Communications Headquarters.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, I feel compelled to speak in this debate. I am sure that noble Lords will not doubt me when I say that the one place in which the black community has excelled is in support of the profession that we are discussing. They have given unstinted help from the 1960s to now and have reaped the rewards. Nevertheless, I felt that it was important to find out from them what was really going...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, we have listened to a very buoyant and uplifting discourse on pensions. However, I want to raise one point which is seen as a matter of injustice by the Caribbean people who came to work in this country, giving more than 30 or 40 years of service. Discrimination still exists against those who have managed to return to live in their home country. Whatever pension they have when they...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, does the Minister agree that another important report—the Bett report—has once again failed the black community? Does she agree that it is important to have some mechanism to ensure that race is included in discussions on equal opportunities? Anecdotal evidence is not enough; we need empirical data.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: What arrangements they have in place for the award of Golden Jubilee medals to the police force.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her reply. Perhaps I may direct her attention to the words of the noble Lord, Lord McNally, on 15th October. He said: "The most abiding memory of the events of the 11th September was the sight of firemen, police and other emergency services going against the flow and going into danger as others fled from it. There is no doubt that if we ever faced a...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: What was the outcome of the review, under Article 4 of the Council Directive 89/105/EEC, of the statutory maximum price scheme for generic medicines dispensed in the National Health Service in the community.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: What progress has been made with the quinquennial review of the medical agencies of the Ministry of Defence.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: Who will succeed Sir David Calcutt QC as independent assessor of compensation for miscarriages of justice for England and Wales.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, does my noble friend accept that teachers from overseas need the long summer holiday because it is the only time available to them to visit their relatives? I hope that she will bear this in mind when considering any decision to change the school year.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: When they will lay before Parliament the annual report for the Forensic Science Service.
Baroness Howells of St Davids: My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lady Massey for bringing this report to the attention of the House. I also add my welcome to my noble friend Lord Rooker. It seems ironic that a society that hopes to see its young people grow up to take responsibility for the communities in which they live and to be responsible citizens should deny those same young people real rights as citizens. It is...
Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government: What arrangements they have made for the appointment of members of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal under Section 65 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
