"My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 237 in my name. I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Eaton, and the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, for adding their names to it. I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Eaton, wanted to be here this afternoon; she has not …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, I rise to speak to my Amendment 191, and, in doing so, declare an interest as an honorary vice-president of the Local Government Association.
The amendment would provide for the establishment in every local area of a local public accounts committee to ensure the effective scrutiny and accountability …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of the National Trading Standards Board. In that capacity, I make one or two points that I made in the Bill Committee and at Second Reading, as they may be helpful in the context of this debate on these early amendments and …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, as someone who has been involved with child abuse issues and child protection down the years, I thought it necessary to add my voice to support the amendment. It may be that we want to talk about the vehicle, it may be that we want to talk about …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, by any measure, this is a landmark Bill and I welcome very many of its provisions. However, in the very short time available today, I will focus only on the part of the Bill that concerns child protection and safeguarding, in particular in Clauses 2 to 4. I …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, as a former chair of a non-statutory inquiry, the Soham inquiry, more recently chair of an expert group advising the Infected Blood Inquiry, and a witness before four public inquiries, I was naturally very interested in reading the report. I very much welcome it and agree with the …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of the National Trading Standards Board, which is responsible for the most complex trading standards prosecutions and which works with government on a number of key priorities, including preventing the sale of illicit tobacco and vapes. Since trading standards receives so little …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, I declare an interest as chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Knight, on securing the debate, and the noble Baroness, Lady Curran, on her maiden speech. It is a short congratulations because I am already running out of time; I apologise for …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"My Lords, can the Minister reassure both me and the House that the Government and the Treasury understand that growth in the economy is about investing not just in capital projects but in people? We have seen an underinvestment in skills for the last 15 years. Are we going to …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech
"I too acknowledge the commitment and effort being made, and also, of course, the commitment on the front line. I am not a health professional—and I feel particularly conscious of that, given some of the people in the Chamber this afternoon—but I have spent too much time in the last …..." Lord Bichard - View Speech