Lord Lipsey: I shall be very brief, or kick-off really will be threatened, certainly for participants in the next debate. I thank the Minister for his reply and in particular for the tone of that reply, which was in contrast to the official government response to the committee. I welcome in particular what he said about the British Polling Council, although I do not agree with all of it. Transparency on...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, I understand that our debate this afternoon is not time limited, so it may give comfort to noble Lords if I assure them that I intend to resume my seat in time for anybody who wishes to catch the kick-off tonight. It was a real pleasure and privilege to chair this committee. The self-congratulatory phrase “the House of Lords at its best” is grossly overused but I am going to use...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, I have some sympathy with what the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, has said, but equally I think that we are in danger of making this yes or no, black or white and getting ourselves boxed into corners. Something remarkable happened a couple of weeks ago. The Sun carried a story based on a report from the Resolution Foundation. I shall not go into the full details, but the Resolution...
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average time taken by customers to fill out the online application for people over 70 to renew their driving licence.
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how the online application system for people over 70 to renew their driving licences was piloted.
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what information they hold on the number of failed attempts by people over 70 to renew their driving licences online.
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 16 January (HL 4481), how many immigration detention estate Independent Monitoring Board reports for 2016 they have not yet replied to.
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow my erstwhile political friend but I hope still personal friend the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews. Of the cornucopia of questions that have come up so far in this debate I will to address only one: namely, does the result of the referendum in June 2016 effectively compel Parliament to agree to Brexit, of which this Bill is part? I express no view as to...
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many immigration detention estate Independent Monitoring Board reports for 2016 they responded to; and when they intend to respond to the rest of those reports.
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, I am one of those who backed the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, and I want to intervene briefly to make a point about the beast with which we are dealing. I refer noble Lords to the piece in today’s Times—a newspaper at which, incidentally, 25 years ago I was deputy to the editor. The headline reads: “Peers hijack data bill to attack free press through back...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, immediately before this debate, we were discussing the pay of women at the BBC. I should make it clear I in no way condone the relative underpayment, but I wonder whether I am the only person in this House who really attaches rather more importance to the group of women we are discussing now, who suffer physically as well as materially and as a result of extraordinarily abusive...
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their response to the petition by 38 degrees calling for rent money for women and children in domestic violence refuges to be paid directly to their refuges rather than to the relevant local authority.
Lord Lipsey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the saving in public expenditure resulting from the transfer of the cost of providing free TV licences for those aged 75 and over to the BBC.
Lord Lipsey: Since there seems to be some mystery about this, I clarify that I have moved to being a non-affiliated Peer on being elected to the deputy chairmanship of the charity Full Fact, which is determinedly non-partisan.
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Balfe, on giving the House an opportunity to debate electoral reform, albeit only one aspect of it, by introducing this Bill. Some noble Lords will know that I have previous on this: for nearly a decade I chaired Make Votes Count, a group campaigning for electoral reform. We were scuppered in the end by Nick Clegg’s eccentric decision to hold...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, by far the worst abuse of older people is poverty. This welcome debate covers many other forms of abuse—ageism, elder abuse, inadequate care—and they are all very important. However, it behoves us to remember that, according to official figures, some 1.9 million older people live in poverty, which means that their income is below 60% of median earnings in this country. That is...
Deferred payment scheme for funding older people's care – Lord Lipsey.
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, this has been a really excellent debate and the arguments on all sides have been well expressed. I just say that the Government, by laying these regulations, have disposed but—at the end of the day, and whether the noble Lord, Lord Howard, likes it or not—the Commission, our courts and the European court will decide. I do not wish to put this to a vote tonight. We will see in...
Lord Lipsey: I thank the noble Viscount for drawing attention to that. Of course, the reason I took this job on is precisely in order that a statutory levy is not necessary for greyhound racing and that sensible parties working in a market environment sort it out between themselves, perhaps with a little help from me.
