Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government what engagement (1) the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and (2) the Gambling Commission, has had with (a) the Ministry of Defence, (b) the Home Office, and (c) the security services, ahead of the announcement on 15 March that Allwyn Entertainment UK was the Preferred Applicant for the fourth National Lottery licence; and whether the...
Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish a data dashboard showing the Tier 1 bank's management performance of Bounce Back Loans.
Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they paid out to Bounce Back Loan Scheme lending banks under the government-backed guarantee between 1 January 2022 and 30 April; and what percentage of this figure was attributed to fraud.
Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much HM Treasury has paid out to Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBL) lending banks under the state guarantee up to 31 January 2022; and what percentage of this figure was attributed to losses from fraud.
Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 19 January (HL5097), why they are unable to provide an answer as to when they expect to see the overall figure for benefit fraud reduce back to levels seen prior to March 2020.
Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the overall figure for benefit fraud to reduce back to the levels seen prior to March 2020.
Baroness Buscombe: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group report Growing a Green Economy: The importance of ornamental horticulture and landscaping to the UK, published in August, and accompanying plan Unlocking green growth: A plan from the ornamental horticulture & landscaping industry.
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I would like to make a short point that I hope will be helpful to the House. The noble Lord, Lord Rooker, referred to the question that many of us have asked over many years—I have been here nearly 24 years—which is: who is running this place? Some of that is answered to some degree in a report published on 27 January called House of Lords External Management Review. This...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I wish to focus on two aspects of our economy—the costs of green energy and our financial settlement with Scotland. I reference both those issues following many months of government departments announcing extraordinary public spending commitments that lack context and detail. Indeed, there is increasing alarm among taxpayers that many of those commitments have been made in...
Baroness Buscombe: I join other noble Lords in paying tribute to His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Over the past few days, and today in your Lordships’ House, we have learned more about how His Royal Highness touched the lives of so many people across the nation and the world. From an extraordinarily tough beginning, he became the most wonderful role model and example for his collective...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, clinically extremely vulnerable shielding patients below the age of 70 who receive some private healthcare are not being given any priority to receive the vaccine, despite their critical condition. They are told by despondent clinicians and their NHS-registered GP surgeries that they must wait in the queue for their age category. I am sure there is no intention to discriminate...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I declare several interests: a son serving in the Fleet Air Arm; as a recent former Lords Minister with responsibility for the Armed Forces and veterans at the Department for Work and Pensions; and as a barrister, not proud of those in my profession who have profited from vexatious claims, making life pure hell for some of our courageous veterans. As a past member of the Joint...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I entirely support the 0.2% reduction in our development spend in the light of the economic emergency that we all face. It is also right to strengthen our defence and security capabilities, working hand-in-hand with our soft power. In line with this strong, integrated approach, does the Minister agree that if those in the party opposite are serious about protecting the world’s...
Baroness Buscombe: Can my noble friend confirm whether the Home Office removes unaccompanied children, including victims of trafficking?
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I congratulate the Chancellor on his Statement, which injects an important degree of realism into all this. I pay tribute to my noble friend the Minister who, I know, with his considerable expertise and experience, is an invaluable person at the Treasury. The Chancellor talked about living without fear. Many of us do not fear Covid. What we fear is how on earth we are going to pay...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, it is extraordinary and wrong that this Question has warranted the status of a PNQ. The trouble with Labour and the Liberal Democrats is that they love spending other people’s money. They complain about austerity and then want to spend yet more of taxpayers’ money on people who have chosen to take risks by travelling mostly for pleasure in the middle of a worldwide pandemic....
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, for securing this debate. A key lesson to be learned is that we cannot just focus on “the science”. Our gateway to economic recovery is immediately to reduce the 2-metre distancing rule to 1 metre. We have just given the WHO another £75 million, while ignoring its 1-metre guideline. This is economic and cultural suicide. Nothing is viable...
Baroness Buscombe: I join others in thanking my noble friend Lord Dobbs for this opportunity to celebrate the many who have worked through the lockdown to deliver vital goods and services across the country. Small businesses have applied amazing ingenuity to work at pace in a relatively safe environment, and others have risked their lives, entirely unsung, such as my friend Ralph who works nights cleaning...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I pay tribute to the King of Bhutan and his people for their amazing fortitude and smart response to the virus. On 6 March, I witnessed their decisive action following one suspected case: a tourist who had travelled from India. Within 24 hours, every tourist was traced and tracked, and we were contacted daily thereafter. All citizens were asked to socially distance themselves,...
Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, strong evidence is emerging that shows an alarming link between death rates from Covid-19 and obesity. Given that we have the second highest levels of obesity in Europe, after Malta, and that one in five people now present with a disability in the UK, does my noble friend agree that we can turn this dreadful crisis into an opportunity for his department, and for the Government...
