Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord True on 23 November (HL10099) and 9 December (HL10705) and the letter sent by the Minister for the Constitution and Devolution to Electoral Returning Officers, published on 16 September, whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what plans they have, if any, to change requirements so (1) nomination papers...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, half the considerable difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest in our country is entirely accounted for by smoking. At present, the Government are spending considerable amounts of money on advertising campaigns which tell people how to keep safe during the Covid pandemic. In the future, will the Government reinstate advertising aimed at promoting smoking...
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord True on 26 November (HL Deb, col 397), what plans they have to ensure the provision of a link to the online electoral registration process in their electronic and other communications notifying people of their National Insurance numbers; and what steps they intend to take to consult with (1) the Electoral Commission, (2)...
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord True on 26 November (HL Deb, col 397), what plans they have to provide a link to the online electoral registration process to those people provided with National Insurance numbers over the last two years in time for those people to register in time for the elections scheduled in May 2021; and what assessment they have made of the...
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult with (a) Operation Black Vote, and (b) representatives of communities under represented on electoral registers, about ways (1) to increase representation on the electoral register, (2) to encourage participation in elections, (3) to increase social mobility through the availability of credit to those on the electoral register,...
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord True on 3 September (HL Deb, col 500), what plans they have to ensure that electoral registration forms are designed as effectively as possible using standards of best practice to increase the rate of return; and what steps they are taking to ensure that such forms, and any accompanying letters, consistently draw prominent...
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case to consider changes to electoral arrangements for elections to be held in May 2021; what consultations they intend to hold with the Electoral Commission and others about any such arrangements; and what plans they have, if any, to change requirements so (1) nomination papers require only two signatures, and (2) that...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, the last words in this House of my late noble friend Lord Shutt of Greetland helped to carry an amendment to this Bill by 293 votes to 215. The majority for that amendment was 78 in a vote in which more than 500 Peers took part and which was supported by more than 80% of the Cross-Bench Peers who voted—but it was not accepted. The whole House should now be grateful to the noble...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I too am one of the few Members of the House of Lords who depended on free school meals, and it never made sense to me that you got this sort of support in term time but nothing in the school holidays. Can the Minister tell the House when Ministers will stop saying publicly that they agree with Marcus Rashford while voting down his proposals? Is it not time to do the right thing?
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government how the new cancer taskforce will operate; and what funding that taskforce will be able to direct towards reducing any backlog in identifying and treating cancer patients.
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I refer to my interests as in the register. Cancer Research UK and Macmillan have reported that 2.4 million people are now waiting for screening, tests and treatments for cancer services. The Commons Health Select Committee has reported that the number of MRI and CT scans to diagnose the disease has plummeted by 75%. Given that the Government spend on average half as much on capital...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, there is possibly nowhere else in the country more lacking in confidence and trust in Boris Johnson’s Government than Liverpool. Previous Conservative Governments spoke about “managing Liverpool’s decline”—but Liverpool fought back, and what the city needs now is a managed recovery from the Covid pandemic. Almost everyone in Liverpool recognises that, with intensive care...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, in the debate on this Bill in the other place on 14 July, the Minister Chloe Smith spoke about “what we are doing to ensure that the registers are as accurate and complete as possible” and said: “We should encourage more people to register to vote.”—[Official Report, Commons, 14/7/20; col. 1466.] This amendment does nothing more than ask the Government to say how. It...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, in 2013 and 2018 plans for revisions to constituency boundaries were published. They did not find favour with MPs, the Government dare not even produce the 2018 report before Parliament for it to be considered, and these plans were never implemented. The plans themselves clearly demonstrated how much more massively disruptive all future boundaries will be compared with anything...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, the Bill sets out a system for reviewing constituency boundaries which will result in changes much more dramatic than those of any previous reviews ever put in place. I would like you to imagine the position of a newly elected MP in a general election in 2025. They will have won a seat with new boundaries, but just four years later a new boundary revision process will begin. From...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, I refer to my entry in the register of interests. Older people are more vulnerable to complications from the virus. Many more of them will have diabetes, and many more will feel that they need cancer treatment urgently. So why are so many older people still worried that they might be treated less favourably by the NHS due to their age? In particular, will the Minister explain how...
Lord Rennard: My Lords, the need for psychological support for people with such eating disorders is often identified through face-to-face meetings with GPs. Is the Minister satisfied that it is possible, in safe conditions, for people to obtain such meetings at the moment and that, if such a need is identified, sufficient psychological support is available for them?
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the research published on 19 May by NHS England which found that higher blood glucose levels and obesity increased the risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19 for people with diabetes, what steps they are taking to ensure that the care of people with diabetes is prioritised to address these modifiable risk factors.
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the NHS to identify people with diabetes (1) whose care has been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) who have refrained from seeking clinical support, and (3) who require improvements in their diabetes control.
Lord Rennard: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that people with diabetes can continue to access the care and treatment they need during the COVID-19 pandemic.