Lord Rennard: My Lords, a year ago the Minister’s predecessor said to the House that he hoped NHS England would ensure that effective fracture services were universal. However, unlike in Scotland and Wales, that is not the case in England. Is not part of the problem with healthcare in this country that the Government struggle to resource treatment and pay for those who provide it while failing to invest...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, alcohol has become 72% more affordable than it was 35 years ago. Increasing alcohol duties in line with inflation, as was planned last October but cancelled last December, would bring in approximately £1.4 billion annually. Would this not help to pay for the costs to the NHS of alcohol-related harm, and for people such as the nurses who have to treat people with alcohol-related...
Lord Rennard: If it was clear what was in the Conservative manifesto and that voter identification meant photo identification, why did the noble Lord, Lord Pickles, who conducted a review of election law on behalf of the Conservative Government, conclude that photo ID was unnecessary and that voter ID in different forms, such as council tax bills or utility bills, would be acceptable? He said there was no...
Lord Rennard: Does the noble Baroness accept that there is a fundamental difference if, as in most of western Europe, you are issued with a national ID card and that is a legal requirement? Then everybody has it and can vote, but in the UK we do not have national ID cards, and therefore at the moment there are 2 million people without the requisite form of ID who have to apply. An extra barrier is created,...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I welcome the presence of the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, for this debate, which will give me the opportunity to remind him and the House of some of his experiences when he was the Leader of the Opposition in this House. I shall do so shortly, but first, I will quote his report considering the position of statutory instruments, as published in 2015. The executive summary began:...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, when the next review of the PDCA will take...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, whether the next review of the PDCA will...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, whether the Prime Minister is entitled to...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, whether the next review will consider...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, what have been the total sums paid to each...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), how a distinction is made between the staff and office costs involved through working on recognised public duties conducted by former Prime Ministers, such as non fee-paying public appearances, and commercial activities, such as...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, the Health Foundation recently published figures showing that the budgets for tobacco control and smoking cessation have been cut in real terms by 41%. Is not part of the answer to funding treatment for addiction to tobacco, alcohol and gambling the extension of the “polluter pays” principle? What is the argument against a levy on the very large profits of the tobacco companies,...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to revise the Public Duty Costs Allowance for former Prime Ministers.
Lord Rennard: My Lords, we have a rapidly increasing number of ex-Prime Ministers. Three of them continue to sit as MPs. While Theresa May claims only a part of the ex-Prime Minister’s allowance, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are entitled to claim up to £115,000 a year for as long as they say they are doing public duties, which may be for the rest of their lives. This is in addition to MPs’ office costs...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I spoke from these Benches in support of the principles of this Bill last July, and I do so again. Once again, I pay tribute to the great tenacity of the noble Lord, Lord Hayward, in pursuing this serious and important matter. Like him, I would like to pay tribute briefly to the late David Butler. When I was an undergraduate student of politics and economics at Liverpool University...
Lord Rennard: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Minister for Security on 1 November (HC Deb col 791), whether the proposed new taskforce to protect parliament from being subverted by foreign powers will examine the funding of (1) think tanks, and (2) other organisations, seeking to influence public policy; and in particular, where such funding comes from (a) abroad, and (b)...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, as the Minister has already suggested, part of the problem is unnecessary call-outs to ambulance services for people who do not need admission to hospital. Care homes regularly call on ambulance services to lift their fallen residents, even though more than 45% are uninjured and do not require transportation to hospital. If care homes had the right equipment to lift people safely,...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I lost my father at the age of three and lost my mother just before I was 17. At that point, my schoolfriends did not know what to say, my teachers’ concern was confined to my academic progress, and when I was suffering from the consequences of bereavement while at university, I found no sympathy or support from staff. Recently, half of the respondents to a Childhood Bereavement...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, this morning, this month’s Chancellor reversed nearly all last month’s Chancellor’s tax changes. Meanwhile, increasing levels of childhood obesity are adding considerably to the cost to the NHS of treating conditions such as diabetes. Can the Minister confirm the commitment to the soft drinks industry levy, which has been successful in reducing the level of sugar in soft...