Covid-19: Vaccine

Lord Mackay of Clashfern Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

No, they will not.

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con) [V]]

My Lords, what are the arrangements in Scotland as far as the Minister knows?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, we are taking a four nations approach to the deployment of the vaccine. The Scottish NHS has been involved in all the arrangements we have been putting together and in both the Vaccine Taskforce, to procure the vaccines, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which has been discussing prioritisation. Furthermore, it has a voice at the DHSC, which is responsible for deployment.

Medicines and Medical Devices Bill

Lord Mackay of Clashfern Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 2nd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con) [V]]

My Lords, first, I thank the Minister for the excellent way in which he introduced this Bill. Secondly, I want to say a word or two about the distinction made by the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, between a skeleton Bill and a framework Bill. I understand that a framework Bill would be one in which the powers given under the Bill would have to be used for purposes specified in the Bill. Accordingly, if we are to make this a framework Bill, we will have to produce realistic purposes for which the powers must be used.

My second point is in relation to tissue. I strongly support all that has been said about that already.

My third point is that I am very concerned about the question of trials. It is very important that clinical trials are ready to be used over quite a large area of population, particularly, as has been mentioned, in specialist diseases.

My last point is about my noble friend Lady Cumberlege’s report. I fully support it in every aspect. I worked with my noble friend Lady Cumberlege long ago and I know how valuable her work is. The thing that worries me somewhat is how long this might take to implement. There is certainly the possibility of a task force, which was recommended in the report and mentioned today by the noble Lord, Lord Brennan. That strikes me as a signal that nothing much will happen for some time. I regard the present situation with regard to the people mentioned who have suffered so greatly as a very pressing situation, to be dealt with immediately. I would like this to be stopped as soon as possible.

The Bill requires Royal Assent by the end of the year and therefore there is a limited amount of time available. I suggest that a possible way to deal with this would be to set up a patient safety commissioner whose job is to hear from the public and treat that information as important and give it to the people who are responsible for the authorisation and use of various medicines and devices.

I think it would be possible to frame very quickly an amendment that could be used now to set up such a commissioner, with the responsibility to hear from the public and then bring the information that he gets from the public appropriately before the authorities responsible for carrying out the safety assessments in authorisation and use. That could be done now; then a task force would be able to look with slightly more leisure at what else could be added. That could be a Bill separate from, but associated with, what I am proposing.

Independent Residential Care

Lord Mackay of Clashfern Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell [V]]

I thank all those who work in the care home sector for the enormous amount of sacrifice and commitment that they have shown to protecting residents. The noble Baroness, I think, portrays the situation unfairly. Guidelines have changed quickly because the situation changed quickly. PPE demand could never have been expected at the levels it reached; the Government responded incredibly quickly to move PPE into both NHS and social care. On testing, we started from a very low base; testing has now been introduced in care homes for both patients and staff. The Government will continue to be committed to protecting both staff and residents in the care sector.

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con) [V]]

My Lords, is the money that the Government give to local authorities for social care ring-fenced for that purpose?

[Lord Bethell [V]]

My Lords, the money that my noble friend refers to is not currently ring-fenced. Local authorities have been written to, to explain that the money should be prioritised for Covid—but, at the request of the local authorities themselves, the money was not ring-fenced.

Draft Human Tissue (Permitted Material: Exceptions) (England) Regulations 2020

Lord Mackay of Clashfern Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con)]

My Lords, I am strongly in favour of this instrument, as I am of the Act on which it is based. I first realised the importance of transplantation early on in its development. A very close friend of ours developed kidney failure and required constant dialysis. It then became possible for him to have a transplant. He had a twin brother who was willing to give his kidney. He was operated on in one theatre and my friend was operated on in a next-door theatre, so they were able to take the kidney across very quickly. It cured him completely and he had a considerable life. Sadly, he has now died, but Professor Woodruff, who was a pioneer of this technology, was his surgeon. I have felt tremendous emotional support for this whole field ever since.

I just wonder whether the code of practice that the authority has put out fully reflects what the Act the regulations are based on says. The Act says that the person concerned—somebody who is qualified—

“is to be deemed, for the purposes of subsection (6)(ba), to have consented to the activity unless a person who stood in a qualifying relationship to the person concerned immediately before death provides information that would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the person concerned would not have consented.”

In that situation it seems that if no objection is taken by a qualified person, consent is implied. The code of practice says at paragraph 91:

“In a situation where consent could be deemed but there is no family to speak with to establish the individual’s last known decision, donation should not proceed.”


I am of course well aware that the original Act does not require a donation to proceed, but it makes it lawful that it should proceed. The practitioners have to take into account many considerations in deciding whether a particular transplant will take place—considerations of the available organ and of the state of health of the person to whom it is proposed to be transplanted. It is quite clear that the Act does not require a consented donation to actually be carried out for reasons of that kind, but it is wrong for the HTA to say that it will not proceed in that case. I do not know on what basis it has the authority to do that, because the Act certainly seems to imply consent. Therefore, it seems that the only considerations that could not have that would be of the medical, practical kind such as I mentioned.

The only other thing I want to mention is that it seems the publication of the draft instrument was a matter to go on to the authority’s website. Was the department responsible for that particular matter?

Covid-19

Lord Mackay of Clashfern Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con)]

My Lords, any decisions on relaxing the present restrictions and on research into treatments and vaccines are very difficult and therefore liable to give rise to differences of opinion, even among scientists and doctors. Will the Government do all in their power to reach agreement with the devolved Administrations on any decision on these subjects? Today, the Scottish Government published Coronavirus: Framework for Decision Making, a valuable aid to reaching the agreement I have mentioned.

[Lord Bethell]

I reassure my noble and learned friend that one of the most distinctive and reassuring aspects of the government response to Covid has been a very strong collaboration between the four nations. That has been epitomised by the strong relationship between the four CMOs, and operationally it has been given teeth by the presence of the devolved Administrations at COBRA meetings, which I attend.

Young Carers: Health and Well-being

Lord Mackay of Clashfern Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

The noble Baroness will know that we take with the utmost seriousness the need to put social care funding on a sustainable footing. I heard the serious debate about this that we had on Thursday in the Queen’s Speech debate, and took back the seriousness with which this place takes those issues. On carers’ leave, the Government want to combine rewarding careers and the education of young carers with being able to care, and do not want young carers to take on inappropriate levels of caring. Therefore, the Government have committed to supporting unpaid carers with a leave entitlement of one week per year, which will be taken up in the employment Bill. In addition, I take the noble Baroness’s point about respite care and I will provide her with further detail in a note.

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con)]

The Minister referred to the recognition of children giving this care. What provision is there for finding out the children who are subject to caring for adults or siblings in their family?

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

I thank my noble and learned friend for his question. The Government changed the law to improve how young carers and their families are identified and supported, to simplify the legislation relating to this. In addition, in 2016 we funded the Carers Trust to develop and run the Making a Step Change project for young carers and their families. It was designed to embed best practice to champion and identify support for young carers and their families and to provide an effective and integrated way for voluntary and statutory sector partners to identify young carers. We are working even harder to make sure that GPs and other professionals do the best for young carers. NHS England has recently introduced a new framework of quality markers in when identifying carers for GP practices so that they can improve both their health and their well-being throughout the care pathway.