Baroness Altmann: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that we have lived with flu all our lives? I completely agree with his assertion that if this illness is not proving more deadly than illnesses we have lived with for a long time, what would be the purpose of upsetting the economic recovery and causing so much extra cost to the public purse—unless, as he rightly says, serious hospitalisation cases and...
Baroness Altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of people in the UK aged (1) 20–39, (2) 40–59, (3) 60–79, and (4) 80 and over, have no (a) internet, or (b) Wi-Fi, access in their own home.
Baroness Altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of people in the UK aged (1) 20–39, (2) 40–59, (3) 60–79, and (4) 80 and over, do not own a smartphone.
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I too welcome Rosamund Kissi-Debrah and congratulate her on all the work that she has done on behalf of her daughter, Ella. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, on all the work that she has done in putting together this comprehensive Bill, and on its aims. She has done much work over the years on this issue in other Bills too, and it is a lovely idea to talk about...
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Oates, for securing this debate and for the excellent and comprehensive way that he has set the scene, listing the litany of disgraceful discharges and highlighting the prioritising of dividends, profits and shareholder interests above public safety. I have no problem with companies making profits or paying bonuses or high salaries, but not when they do...
Baroness Altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that all (1) parking facilities, and (2) essential public services, including medical appointments, council inquiries, service payments, and registrations, are always available to those who do not have (a) internet access, (b) a Wi-Fi connection, or (c) a smartphone.
Baroness Altmann: My Lords—
Baroness Altmann: Thank you, my Lords. I commend the Government on protecting jobs and preserving high employment levels, but I put in a plea regarding the immigration situation. Health and care workers are put into the same bracket when we talk about special visas, but the majority of care workers—more than 90%—earn less than the £20,000 limit. Would it be possible to have a special channel for overseas...
Baroness Altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many councils in (1) England, (2) Wales, (3) Scotland, and (4) Northern Ireland, have introduced parking which has no cash or credit card payment option and requires payment digitally or through an app.
Baroness Altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people aged over 60 in the UK have ISAs; and what is the (1) total, and (2) average, value of those ISAs.
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I associate myself with the tributes paid to my noble friend Lord Arbuthnot and Paul Scully in the other place, and with the congratulations offered to the Government on bringing forward payments at last, at least in many cases. The Statement talks about reimbursing “reasonable” costs of legal action. I understand that going forward, because we have to guard against egregious...
Baroness Altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made on the formation of the cross-departmental taskforce on older people’s housing, as outlined in the Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper, published on 2 February.
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I am conscious that my noble friend finds herself in a difficult position—it is usually for the regular and the industry itself to behave appropriately. Have the Government asked the regulator to make inquiries about the pricing of insurance? It is notoriously opaque in justifying risk margins, profit margins and the ways pricing structures are determined. It sometimes feels like...
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that there is a particular problem in this area with the situation for women on divorce? Although the Government have introduced pension sharing orders for divorce, do they have a figure for how many or what proportion of divorcing couples actually share the pension? Many men will say to their partner, “Oh, my pension is not worth terribly much”; it is...
Baroness Altmann: Will my noble friend join me in congratulating the staff of, and those working in, Transport for London on keeping the service going so brilliantly during the pandemic, and on the way on which it has been recovering?
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I urge my noble friend, in light of the extraordinary number of vacancies in the social care sector—more and more staff are leaving to join other sectors—to urge the Government to revisit the Immigration Rules that do not allow overseas care workers, who could fill those gaps, to come in. We have a special system for agricultural workers; surely my noble friend agrees that we...
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. I support fully the Government’s intentions for urgent leasehold reform; I look forward to seeing the legislation. Does my noble friend agree that it is really important to ensure that landlords are still incentivised to let their properties? With the shortage of housing that we have, it is important to balance the interests of...
Baroness Altmann: Would my noble friend recognise that there is a significant labour shortage? Part of the problem has been with the Great Retirement or Great Resignation. A number of older workers have withdrawn from the labour market during the pandemic, partly because of the problems experienced in care homes. With an ageing population and increasing numbers of people who are going to need to look after...
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, I sympathise with my noble and learned friend the Minister, but I echo the concerns raised by my noble friend Lord Cormack and will ask a brief question. When the Prime Minister insisted that there would not need to be any checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain on goods entering Northern Ireland, where did he expect those checks to take place?
Baroness Altmann: My Lords, my noble friend mentioned pensions. I urge him to speak to his colleagues in the Treasury about the own goal being created by the pension rules. Doctors are being hit with an annual allowance, but the lifetime allowance is then driving early retirement, with a simple 20-times multiple making it worth while for them to retire in their 50s, as soon as they can, rather than wait for a...