Eliminating the need for foodbanks – Baroness Kingsmill.
Baroness Kingsmill: We need to keep the doctors we already have, not just the ones we are training for the future. Does the Minister know how many doctors are leaving the country and going to places such as Australia?
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, I am grateful for the indulgence of the House for allowing me a few minutes in the gap before the parties’ Front-Benchers speak. I was very lucky and grateful to be a member of the International Agreements Committee, and I was very pleased to be under the chairmanship of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith. I will make some brief points. It is important to understand that...
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, for initiating this short debate. It is interesting that there was some overlap between these issues and those that were mentioned in the previous debate: I found it very useful to be able to sit through both. I am also grateful for and somewhat amused by the very contrarian view that the noble Lord, Lord Lilley, put forward: it is the...
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, I have just returned from Zimbabwe. I was a member of the Commonwealth observer group, and we did an extensive report, the interim statement of which Members can find in the Library. A lot of factors, many of which were also raised in 2018, led us to doubt the credibility of this election. Will the Minister agree that the ideal would be for Zimbabwe to re-enter the Commonwealth, but...
Baroness Kingsmill: To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to address the current shortage of baby milk formula.
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, would it preferable if Ministers and holders of public office were, in fact, suspended when being investigated for various situations, such as bullying or arranging loans and things like that for the Prime Minister? Should they not be suspended rather than being allowed to continue with their employment while an investigation takes place?
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, I would like to add to the comments made. When I was a practising lawyer, I represented social workers in two child abuse inquiries and the two little girls, Kimberley Carlile and Jasmine Beckford, still have a place in my heart. They were brave little four year-olds who were murdered by their stepfather. In this case I think it was the stepmother who was the protagonist. At the...
Baroness Kingsmill: Is the Minister saying therefore that it will be a mandatory sentence unless there are exceptions?
Baroness Kingsmill: It is awfully important in these kinds of cases that we are very clear and precise in our language. There is a difference between minimum and mandatory. I think what the Minister is actually saying is that this is a mandatory sentence unless there is an exception.
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, I started my career living in France in my early 20s, and for the last 10 years I have earned my living in Europe in several different countries. Living and working in Europe has been a very educative experience. The Erasmus programme is amazing. I have met several young people who have had the opportunity to learn about other countries, and to spread their knowledge of English...
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, does the Minister agree that it might be helpful if children—and I repeat: children—were taught at an early age about the issues around sexual encounters and consent? Boys, in particular, need to understand a bit more clearly what consent actually means in these circumstances. That might make sexual crimes such as rape a little less common.
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, will the Government consider making representations to the Trump Administration in respect of the human rights of the hundreds, possibly thousands, of children currently caged, it would appear, many of whom have been lost in the system? There is a real breach there. They are our allies. It would be helpful if representations were being made.
Baroness Kingsmill: The Publishers Association also made it clear that this was not entirely satisfactory, but that it was an essential interim position that needs to be taken. As it said in the letter, this is not ideal, but something forced on publishers. My point really was that this wonderful industry, which is gold standard, as we all know, has been forced to accept unsatisfactory legislation because it is...
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords—
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, I merely want to tell the Minister that I too have been advised by the publishing industry. It is with some reluctance that it has agreed that this is necessary legislation, because of the uncertainty that it would otherwise suffer. The British publishing industry exports more books than any other country. This piece of legislation is vital for it. While it recognises the importance...
Baroness Kingsmill: My Lords, before the Minister responds, will he give me some assurances about how these regulations and this legislation, when it becomes legislation, are going to have any particular impact on online financial institutions? I think that they are the ones where the future is going to lie. I declare an interest as a former chairman of Monzo, an online bank. It is important that the Minister...
Baroness Kingsmill: Is it correct that this applies only in the event of a no-deal situation?
Baroness Kingsmill: It does not say that on the face of the regulations: that is why I was checking.
Baroness Kingsmill: I just wondered if it might be helpful if it were on the face of the regulations, because this situation keeps arising on many of the other ones as well. The problem is that these things have a tendency to drift on, and in the event that there was not a no deal but there was some other kind of deal, would the regulations that we are considering at the moment have some kind of half-life or a...
