Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I have a small point to make. I declare an interest as chairman of a foundation school, Reed’s School, founded 200 years ago for the orphans of city clerks. It became a member of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference 60 years ago, maintains the foundation and has a considerable outreach, particularly to schools in east London, in parallel, in many ways, with...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I, too, associate with other noble Lords in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Patel, for this very timely debate. I have, on many occasions, talked to visitors from overseas who have used the NHS and who have told me how impressed and indeed amazed they were by the fact that the treatment had not cost them a penny. Free at the point of delivery is the bedrock principle of the NHS and...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lord Forsyth for initiating this very important debate. I wish to speak briefly about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s care for Irishmen’s graves, particularly from the First World War. I speak as a member, at least in the last Parliament, of the British-Irish parliamentary group. In the 80 years following the establishment of the Irish Free...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, it is a great privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Low, with his outstanding experience particularly in the field of charities for the disabled. After a maiden speech there is sometimes a perfunctory statement from the following speaker that we hope to hear future interventions from the maiden speaker. However, glancing at the forthcoming business, and indeed at this Bill, I see...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I add my congratulations to my noble friend Lord Howe on his new appointment, and record my thanks personally for all the help and leadership he gave to this House in his previous role at the Department of Health. I am privileged to be a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, consisting of Back-Benchers from all the devolved Administrations, plus Westminster and Dublin,...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, for securing this debate. I will venture to speak on a subject which has some relevance to its title and to the noble Lord’s speech—that is, the problem of English language testing for health professionals from the EEA working in the United Kingdom. I speak with particular reference to nurses, of which I have some familiarity, but my remarks...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for his masterly—if deeply worrying—overview of this problem. Article 18 speaks to the very core of who we are and, indeed, is an essential component of our identities as human beings. We are having this debate against the dreadful news that for the first time in the Christian era there are now no Christians at all in Mosul. This is...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, perhaps I may echo the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, about the infernal mechanism by which the Government inherited the opt-in opt-out measures perceived by those outside these Houses and in Whitehall as a sort of vacillation. As the noble Lord said, the Government had no option but to take account of these. My right honourable friend Theresa May put it succinctly in...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy of Southwark, for initiating this very important debate. He has rightly emphasised the need for early treatment of so many of the complaints which he outlined. It has long been recognised that there is a great need for integration of health and social care because this can support people better by improving their health and well-being by ensuring...
Viscount Bridgeman: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to address cross-border smuggling of diesel fuel between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I, too, have been immensely moved by the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Graham of Edmonton, who is not in his place at the moment. As a newly arrived Peer, I, too, was privileged to hear Lord Houghton’s story of the duckboards and Passchendaele and, to close the record, Percy’s bus was a number 24. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Gardiner for the huge amount of work he has...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, the whole House will be grateful to my noble friend Lord Ribeiro for securing this debate. He produced devastating statistics from Sir Bruce Keogh and NHS London but this debate surely cannot be complete without revisiting the working time directive. I have one or two further telling facts from my noble friend’s own royal college. For example, 86% of surgical trainees working to a...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, for this debate and pay tribute to the clerks—Michael Torrance and Chris Atkinson, and especially the special adviser Paul Dowling—for the very personal help they have given me. Also, what a privilege it has been to have the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, working so well with this sub-committee. I have particular...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, for his excellent exposition of this report. My noble friend Lord Sharkey has given the background in some detail. The noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, has given more qualified support. As a relatively new member of this committee I am struck that this is a classic case of subsidiarity: where there is a clash of joint competences between the...
Viscount Bridgeman: Can the Minister confirm that the proposed amendment to the free movement directive now gives competent authorities the powers to test EEA nurses for English proficiency before they get clearance to practise in the UK? If that is so, is it, in the Minister’s view, adequate in the interests of patient safety?
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I, too, am grateful to my noble friend Lord Marlesford for initiating this debate. It is worth reflecting on the reasons why the United Kingdom is such a sought after destination for immigrants. It is a commonly held view that this country has over the centuries benefited from its immigrants: the Huguenots, the Jews before and after the Second World War, and, more recently, thanks...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, for initiating this debate. It is a privilege to serve on his committee. I also pay tribute to Michael Torrance and Paul Dowling, who have given us magnificent support. As the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, said at the beginning of his speech, migration will be always with us. Anyone who doubts this—they will not include any Member of your...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I am most grateful to the House for the opportunity to speak in the gap, and it is a great privilege to follow my noble friend Lord Bradshaw. I have been involved in this matter for over 10 years, and I declare an interest as a member of GLEAM. My noble friend was far too modest about the achievement of the Ridgeway, which was a masterpiece of leadership and communication with the...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, in the short time available to me, I propose to speak about the role of general practitioners, who are regarded widely as the jewel in the crown of the National Health Service. Your Lordships will be aware that throughout 2012 there were tortuous negotiations with the Department of Health about the GP contract. Agreement was reached at the start of 2013. I intend to touch on one...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I too extend my condolences to the family of Lady Thatcher. I hope the message that will come from this debate to them will be simply of the sheer greatness of their mother and grandmother. Shortly after Margaret Thatcher retired as Prime Minister, there was a meeting of the ACP to decide how her retirement would be marked. There was considerable navel gazing but in the end Lord...
