Cancer Task Force

Lord Addington Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, the Cancer Recovery Taskforce I refer to is the group of people focused specifically on the recovery from the Covid pandemic. The overall cancer recovery programme will be published later in the autumn, and it will have budgets associated with it.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, the whole thrust of the Covid pandemic has been to make sure that the NHS stays in one piece. As we have fewer people referring to their GPs and fewer people being referred into the system, are we not creating a backlog that will affect the NHS’s capacity to deal with problems? With that in mind, what will the Government do to ensure that people know that it is safe, or at least that the risk is low, to go to a GP in the first place and then go on to hospital?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The concern is serious. However, I reassure the noble Lord that although those waiting longer than 62 days for an urgent GP referral increased to about 21,000 between the end of March and the end of May this year, it now stands at about 8,000, which represents a dramatic decrease in the backlog. We have invested in the “Help Us Help You” campaign, which is directed specifically at those who are most at risk from cancer. It is a massive campaign that we are rolling out shortly, and we will continue to invest in it if that is needed.

Covid-19: Great Barrington Declaration

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Tuesday 13th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I note that the 16,000 scientists supporting the Great Barrington declaration include “Dr Brian Blessed; doctor in winged flight, Z-cars and booming laughter”, “Dr Johnny Fartpants” and “Dr Johnny Bananas”. The serious point, however, is that the idea of “focused protection” is both unethical and impractical. Even if it was not, growing evidence of the impact of long Covid on the fit and young is mounting every day. On herd immunity, we currently have 8% sero-positivity, but we would need 70% for herd immunity, and it is completely improper to ask the young of Britain to suffer the risk of long Covid in order to achieve that. Winter is coming, and cold temperatures and more inside activity will raise prevalence. The great protection is simply not a conscionable option.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, will the Government please look at the Equality Act when they are considering something like this? Take the case of a young disabled person who is very vulnerable; would taking any action like this be a breach of that Act?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Lord makes a very good point. Although I have not had legal advice on this, I feel sure that he is on the right track. The great protection would condemn anyone with asthma or a learning difficulty, in old age, or with any major disability or immune challenge to be locked up while society turns its back. That is not a decision that this Government are prepared to make.

Coronavirus Act 2020: Temporary Provisions

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Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greaves (LD)]

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow my old friend, the noble Lord, Lord Hain. Although the Companion tells us that we should not all pile in and congratulate the maiden speakers all the time, I nevertheless particularly want to welcome the two new speakers who hail from north of the line between the Severn and the Wash. There are precious few of us who that applies to, including the Deputy Lord Speaker. In many ways we are a deprived minority in this House, so every extra one should be given a great welcome—so I do so.

I am minded to vote for the Motion to Regret from the noble Lord, Lord Robathan. I do not agree with everything he says or thinks on this matter, but it will be my own little shot across the bows of the Government. So many people, who come from completely different political perspectives, have real worries about the huge great pile of these “made affirmatives” which we are getting, and eventually getting round to discussing, in some cases after they have been—what is the word?

[Lord Addington (LD)]

Enacted.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, this is one of those special debates. We have had two excellent maiden speeches so far, and I look forward to working with, and possibly against, both noble Lords at various points in the future. Coming to the nature of the legislation, it is one of those days when you are very glad you have somebody on your side who is on your side—my noble friend Lord Scriven. I am sure I disagreed with something he said, but I did not get it first time around.

I will try to look at some of the effects that the measures we are discussing today are having on our society. I draw the House’s attention to the state of sport in this country at the moment. Elite-level sport has a wonderful thing called TV revenue, but not that much sport is elite level. It may be on our TVs a lot, but most football clubs, for instance, are not elite level. They may be professional, and elements of professionalism run a long way down that sport, but they generate their money from Saturdays, when people pay to watch in person, and their advertisers pay to have their advertising seen by those who are there. The same is true of rugby league and many other sports. But in football there is this big thing with lots of money called the Premier League, which may be able to save and support clubs for a bit, if we are going on just for a year or two. That has already been covered by many noble Lords.

I would like us to look at all those amateur sports, where the vast majority of the population who take part support others who go through and get involved. Here, you generate your money from people who pay a sub to play, and you generate it in your bar. These institutions are effectively stuffed. It is the curse of the bleeding obvious to say that, as the weather gets colder and wetter, those taking part in a winter sport—who will hit the ground and come up covered in mud and water—will need to change in a changing room. If these institutions are not allowed to use these facilities through this process—and I put up my hand as what is left of a rugby player who still occasionally plays golden oldies—and if we want them to be there in the future, we will have to make sure that they are looked after. If you have maintained a ground, on which you may have a mortgage, you will have ongoing things such as rates coming in, and you will have to be bailed out.

The irony of this is: what could we do to better prepare ourselves to survive the virus if we get it? Have a good cardiovascular system. We absolutely know that you can tell everybody to jog 2.3 miles every 1.4 days but, unless you give them an incentive to do it, this habit of exercise will never be established in the vast majority of people. They need a reason for getting in there. They need to know what it is like to be fit, so they can try to get back there. It is also a lot easier to do it then, because muscle memory is there. The health benefits are there. I do not have long enough now to go into the proven mental health benefits of sport and that social interaction but, unless we save this great tier of social activity, the sports clubs, we will be saving up a huge problem for the future. That is one of the reasons why a little bit of me sometimes says that this cure may not be worth it.

Covid-19 Update

Lord Addington Excerpts

Monday 21st September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Baroness is right to point to the lessons we can learn from other countries, and we spend a huge amount of time on the telephone in round tables with those in other countries who have much to teach us. We have spoken at length and continue to speak to those in Asia, including in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, which have pioneered different ways of doing things, and we note the work of the civic authorities in Antwerp, which recently brought in local measures that massively reduced a runaway situation. They are an inspiration to us all.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, will the Minister give us some idea of the advice the Government are giving to institutions such as amateur sports clubs about how they are supposed to function in the changing environment? There has been some activity, and they will presumably have to pull down in certain places. Also, is there any government strategy for making sure that these clubs and groups can still survive if we have to go through another six months of this isolation?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to amateur sports clubs, which have jumped through enormous hoops to keep operating and to provide important leisure and fitness to the country during an incredibly difficult period. They have been extremely disciplined and entrepreneurial in the way they have applied hygienic protocols. On Sunday I went to three amateur sports clubs, taking one of my children to each. The warning the noble Lord, Lord Addington, gives about the financial future of these clubs is extremely well made. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is looking at ways in which it can provide both the financial and infrastructure support for those clubs and will work hard to ensure that they survive.

Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) Regulations 2020

Lord Addington Excerpts

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, this document is arriving a little after it was hot news, so we are asking the Government what they have actually learned from it. As many noble Lords have asked, do we have a set of circumstances in which the local authority—it has to be the local authority—should be concerned because it is vulnerable? That is coming across. Was what happened in Leicester replicated in other parts of the country? The answer is yes. To what extent, and when should people be worried? What has actually worked well there?

It is quite clear that there have been problems where English has not been the first language. There are lots of ways of living with that if you use technology: has that been done? Are there ways of communicating what should happen to that population? If there is a social organisation where people’s housing makes them slightly more vulnerable, what do they need to do to minimise that risk? Is that being communicated? Unless we actually hear that something is being done on a consistent basis, we are left with the feeling that we will be back very quickly asking similar questions. Surely the delay in seeing these regulations means that we should have some answers now about what works and what is to be avoided.

Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) Regulations 2020

Lord Addington Excerpts

Friday 24th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, I have always felt that Parliament was something of a reactive beast, but debating these regulations several weeks after they came in is taking things beyond a joke.

I have a question for the Minister. In light of the announcement that we are going to declare war on obesity, could he give us guidance as to when most winter sports will be able to commence training again and under what conditions? With reference to the comments by my noble friend Lord Willis, what levels of infection will be acceptable for training and the practice of the standard winter sports such as football and rugby? If we do not restart this type of activity, one of the methods of controlling the burning of calories in the body, how you actually order yourself and your lifestyle—that is, you do not eat or drink too much in order to be able to be fit enough to play—is removed. Can we please have a bit of cohesion on this?

Covid-19: Social Care Services

Lord Addington Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, for this debate—I agree with many of the things that have been said in it. The main point that I want to make is referred to in the debate’s title: the long-term impact, particularly on groups such as adults who are in care and receiving support.

We have already heard from many noble Lords about the impact that the lack of PPE and testing has had on the workforce. That group is under tremendous pressure and is having to deal with people who will react badly to the situation they are in—I am particularly thinking about those with autism, a group of people who have trouble understanding the world they are in and their relationship to what is going on and who find much of adult life overwhelming. If the workforce has to deal with people who have such problems and other mental health problems, their job will get much more difficult. Will the Government go to these groups and ensure that they get support as soon as possible?

How long the lockdown lasts will greatly affect the level of the problem. However, the Government must have some idea about their strategy for when the immediate crisis ends. We must be able to go in and say, “There will be support for your mental health and social anxiety problems”. I started with autism because I know slightly more about it, although I am acutely aware that others know more. However, all the groups, including those that the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, mentioned, will have similar types of problems. Can we please get an idea of the strategy for dealing with the long-term consequences of this huge social disruption for those who are being looked after?

Those who will take on the caring will have to deal with the problems. It will be yet another load for them to carry. They are a group that has been undervalued for a long time, although this House has been particularly good at making sure that people recognise that they have value and worth. The Government will now have to make sure, in case this immediate problem becomes a long-term one, that there is greater help for them. I will leave it there, but please can we hear from the Government about a long-term strategy, despite the overwhelming problems of today?

Health: Learning Disability and Autism Training

Lord Addington Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, there is an unpleasant familiarity about this debate. Anyone who has been here for any length of time has heard these issues raised before. The similar issue has also been raised—the noble Lord, Lord Sterling of Plaistow, beat me to it in mentioning the Department for Education—that if you are not trained to deal with something, you will not deal with it. You will go back to your original training because that is what is in your DNA and you will refer to it straightaway. If you are told that that is not the way—“You’re a professional, you know better”—you will fight against it. Thus the tiger parent, who has often been helping this person out for so much of their life, is in a situation of conflict. This has been a rich thread running through most of the examples of things going wrong: somebody who knows how this individual behaves is not being listened to in delivering the help.

There is nothing new about this, nor anything particular to the health service about it—it is just that you get dramatic results from the health service. You do not get long periods of decline in medical health; mental health care might normally have a slower drip, but it is there. The person involved often has to be trained to listen to those outside. That will be one of the steps forward. As has been said, different levels of training will be required for the first to be efficient. Just having an awareness programme delivered online or in person will not be enough. You will need expertise to come in and help with that situation, because anybody who has trouble processing information and giving it out, which both of these groups have, will be a problem.

The medical profession works by talking to you often—allowing you to know what is happening and allowing you to explain the problems. The Minister will have come across communication problems with those who are deaf. Their problems are different, but there is a similarity in the general thrust of what is going forward. If we value these people as fully as the law tells us we should, we have to make sure that this communication is facilitated and that people know they have to do it. The senior nurse and doctor involved need to know that it is not a slight on their professional conduct to get somebody else involved. It is the same in teaching and other areas. You have to make sure that they understand when they have to get support and help in. If they do not do that, it does not really matter what else you write down. If they do not realise that they have to reach out, they have problems.

As has been said, we need to hear from the Minister what the structure of progress is for making sure that this happens more frequently. It is an excellent idea that all new staff be started on this programme, because that cements it as something that is there and solid. CPD can then start to pick up some of the rest of it, provided the structure is in place. I accept the caveat that you must have a decent training programme in the first place, because there is no point wasting your time with bad training. What are we doing there? How will we start this and make sure that we say it is a requirement? This is the big question, and I would like the Minister to answer it today.

If we are to carry on developing a programme that allows people to interact quickly, we need a starting point. It would also help to have some idea when the Government think they will have good coverage across the board, or at least enough knowledge for someone who has not received this training to ask where they can get the help and support, call in somebody else and not have it seen as a slight on them, because this will take resources and occasionally slow down the process. Pretending that it will not happen will help nobody. Can we get something to go through on this?

If we go on pretending that once you are trained, you are fine—I think it has been agreed on an intellectual level that this cannot happen—we will achieve very little. The rate of progress will be very much slower than it should be. Can we get an idea of the time structure for making sure that everybody knows that it is okay to ask for help and support, and that if something is identified then there are processes that have to be gone through and accessed? What duty is there to make sure that you have read clearly and understood what may be a note on paper or in a file somewhere telling you what process to go through? This is a very odd thing, because the Minister will say, “Of course you’re supposed to understand it”, but what training is there to say, “By the way, do it and ask for help”? These things will all come together.

It will never be easy, because you have to tell someone to change their behaviour, and there will always be entrenched resistance to that. Look at us: we do not like being told that we get things wrong and have to change—there may be one or two noble Lords here who do, but I know that I certainly do not. However, we have to do it occasionally. This problem is further exemplified in this field in so far as it was once said to me, “Once you know about an autistic person, you know about one autistic person.” There is a huge number of patterns and variations in that field: those who hate to be touched and those who are huggers, for example. That is a pretty basic difference in patterns of behaviour between two people who are supposed to be in the same group.

Can we get some idea of the progress structure? We have already heard that we have enough information to do better things, even if they are not perfect. Can the Minister give us an idea of start dates, progress dates and when information will come down to those who have not been taken into this that they must refer to those who have? If we do that, we have the start of fundamental change to the system. If we do not have that, we will just have bits of good practice and will see the horror stories coming through here at a slightly slower rate. Surely we do not want to aspire to that.

Queen’s Speech

Lord Addington Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, I return to a subject raised by only one speaker in front of me: sport. I am afraid I have drawn the short straw. The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, is not in his place at the moment, but he spoke about the importance of sport and various aspects of it.

If we are moving sport from DCMS back to Education, it will not make that much difference because, as displayed by my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones and his wonderful 12-point plan, it is a department that is now increasingly dominated by the online world. What do you do with it and where do you move it? It does not really matter that much, as long as you give it some priority. We have always called for it to have its own department, but everybody calls for their subject to have its own department in Westminster, and we do not usually get it.

The important driving factor behind it has been the National Lottery, which has given it some real oomph and spending power. This meant that we were capable of achieving the Olympics. It means that we have grass-roots backing and that our infrastructure for grass-roots sports is a little better than it was, and not so dependent on the grass-roots fundraising that traditionally has been there.

What are we going to do to back this up and guarantee that it maintains this funding? At the moment, the entire infrastructure of the National Lottery is, to a degree, under threat from the rise of the other two lotteries, the Health Lottery and the Postcode Lottery. They may be doing good work and other wonderful things, but they are not that guarantee of funding. The Postcode Lottery is a very slick organisation. I commend to you its correct use of advertising in the House magazine—the recent copy, with all the new MPs in it. Put your advertising in there. Well done, somebody knows their job.

Are we going to guarantee this body of funding going through? It helps just about everything in the sporting world. We must make sure it is always there as something to fall back on. You know how to apply, and it is quicker, easier and more efficient than hunting down sponsorship. Can we make sure that it is there? If we are going to allow a properly free market and competition in lotteries, I absolutely recommend that we make sure that if they achieve a certain degree of success, they inherit with that success a degree of responsibility. It should not be that difficult: “Great, you have become the major lottery player in the country. You have to make sure the Olympic programme has support.” That would be a reasonable thing to call for.

This goes down a long way, because one of the other things I will talk about is at the other end of the sporting spectrum: mixed-ability sport. Something I came across totally by accident through the parliamentary rugby team was mixed-ability rugby. That is, you adapt the rules to allow people with a learning disability or cerebral palsy to take part alongside you. You adapt your game. You have a social activity, which is good for the club. You have build-up. You get everybody joining in—an extra string to your bow. This has been done at international competition level, supported by the lottery and the Erasmus programme. The Government must come in if things are being changed here, to guarantee these organisations a backbone of support. The same could be said of the Commonwealth Games project, which we are apparently going to get through eventually. We must ensure that a success of decades-standing continues. If we are going to change it, we must guarantee that support.

Sport is only one aspect that has been changed for this; the arts and other projects also come in. But can we ensure that this great success, probably the greatest success of John Major’s premiership, is continued? If we allow it to wither on the vine, we will end up making ourselves that little bit poorer at every level.

Mental Disorder: Autism and Learning Disabilities

Lord Addington Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

My noble friend puts this very clearly. The Government accept completely that autism and learning disability are not mental disorders. The question is whether being excluded from the legislation would cause challenges or difficulties for those who may have autism and mental disorders. We will have to consider that carefully as we go into the process of considering a review of the Mental Health Act. As my noble friend just said, we recognise that we will have to go through a careful process. We also recognise the strong feelings—and the correct view—that autism and learning disability are not mental disorders. There is no disagreement on that point.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, does the noble Lord—I am sorry, does the Minister agree that we are confusing disability with illness, something which has gone on for far too long? Are we going to have a programme to train people in recognising the different facets of the two and how they interact? The treatment of many people with autism has undergone is probably the best way to induce poor mental health in many of them. Can we please do something to stop that?

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

I thank the noble Lord and I recognise the challenge to my gender today. He and my noble friend are absolutely right that we must ensure that all health and social care staff have appropriate training on autism and learning disability. A number of Members of this House have campaigned long and hard to ensure that this happens. Some £1.4 million of government funding has been put in place to develop and test some new training packages and today we published the government response to the consultation on mandatory learning disability and autism training which confirms the intention to introduce mandatory training for all health and social care staff. I think that that is an excellent step forward and I am absolutely sure that this House will scrutinise it for its effectiveness. That is right, but it marks a steps forward and should be welcomed.