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My Lords, I too want to register our condolences to the people in Hull who were affected so badly. Scotland, as of 2025, has a fully searchable
database of registered funeral directors. One can work out who the owners are, read reports and have details of any complaints which have been made. How long is it going to take us to get to where Scotland already is?
My Lords, I too want to register our condolences to the people in Hull who were affected so badly. Scotland, as of 2025, has a fully searchable
database of registered funeral directors. One can work out who the owners are, read reports and have details of any complaints which have been made. How long is it going to take us to get to where Scotland already is?
We look forward to working with other jurisdictions to see how their best practice works, and that will, of course, include Scotland. I am very keen that we continue to work closely, for example, with the funeral provider cohort, most of whom, let us acknowledge this, do a first-rate job with immense dignity and professionalism and have been let down also. Safeguards have to be effective without imposing disproportionate burdens and, while it is a bit premature for me to prescribe how the regulatory framework will work, I can assure the noble Baroness that we are looking very closely at what she raises.
My Lords, in some places, the relationship between community nurses and acute hospitals is good and patients receive what they think is a care pathway. In other places, the relationship between district nurses and GPs is incredibly problematic, and instead of there being a clear care pathway there is a blockage. What are ICBs going to do to make sure that everybody gets the best distribution of services, not the worst, as happens in some places?
My Lords, in some places, the relationship between community nurses and acute hospitals is good and patients receive what they think is a care pathway. In other places, the relationship between district nurses and GPs is incredibly problematic, and instead of there being a clear care pathway there is a blockage. What are ICBs going to do to make sure that everybody gets the best distribution of services, not the worst, as happens in some places?
That is indeed the intention, as the noble Baroness rightly points out. In all this and in the discussion today, which is legitimate, transparency is important. As we committed to in our 10-year health plan, we have already launched a new set of league tables so that every NHS trust is ranked against clear and consistent standards and that we can see what progress is or is not being made. That will raise standards, tackle variations in care and allow a focus, where extra focus needs to be applied, to make changes. Previously, it was far too generic. This will allow us to focus.
My Lords, charities are subject to accountability to a range of regulatory bodies—the Charity Commission, the Fundraising Regulator and HMRC. In view of that, does the Minister agree that it is wrong that banks can unilaterally withdraw banking services and that there is no appeal?
My Lords, charities are subject to accountability to a range of regulatory bodies—the Charity Commission, the Fundraising Regulator and HMRC. In view of that, does the Minister agree that it is wrong that banks can unilaterally withdraw banking services and that there is no appeal?
As the noble Baroness knows, debanking and access to banking services is an issue way beyond charities and it is really important. The Government recognise the importance of that, and that is why they have introduced new rules to require banks to give customers 90 days’ notice before closing accounts and to provide a clear explanation. The
Government’s new rules will ensure more transparent and predictable access to banking, while still recognising that it is a commercial decision for a provider as to whom they provide services. But what I would say is that banks are big and rich, most charities are small and poor, and I am on the side of the little guy.
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is hoping to take part remotely, but he has been having audio problems. It appears that the problems have not been resolved, therefore I call the noble Lord, Lord Pack.
11.25 am
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is hoping to take part remotely, but he has been having audio problems. It appears that the problems have not been resolved, therefore I call the noble Lord, Lord Pack.
11.25 am
My Lords, this Statement takes place in the context of a relentless campaign against trans people that started among right-wing politicians in the United States of America but has been seized on here: the bandwagon has been jumped upon by politicians in this country. That is the context.
We on these...
My Lords, this Statement takes place in the context of a relentless campaign against trans people that started among right-wing politicians in the United States of America but has been seized on here: the bandwagon has been jumped upon by politicians in this country. That is the context.
We on these...
I have to advise noble Lords that if Amendment 31 is agreed, I cannot call Amendments 32 or 33 because of pre-emption.
I have to advise noble Lords that if Amendment 31 is agreed, I cannot call Amendments 32 or 33 because of pre-emption.
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for the UK's position at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June to include specific commitments on gender-transformative approaches to HIV prevention and treatment, including targeted measures for adolescent girls and young women and the integration of HIV services...
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for the UK's position at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June to include specific commitments on gender-transformative approaches to HIV prevention and treatment, including targeted measures for adolescent girls and young women and the integration of HIV services...
The High-Level Meeting comes at a critical moment for the global HIV response and offers an opportunity to reaffirm international commitments to end AIDS for good. The UK has endorsed the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and will work to ensure the political declaration upholds its ambitions, particularly on human rights and gender equality, as well as harnessing the opportunity presented by long-acting injectable HIV prevention and treatment.
To ask His Majesty's Government what position the UK will take at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June on ensuring equitable global access to long-acting HIV prevention and treatment tools, including measures to address intellectual property barriers and high costs that limit access in lower-income countries.
To ask His Majesty's Government what position the UK will take at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June on ensuring equitable global access to long-acting HIV prevention and treatment tools, including measures to address intellectual property barriers and high costs that limit access in lower-income countries.
The High-Level Meeting comes at a critical moment for the global HIV response and offers an opportunity to reaffirm international commitments to end AIDS for good. The UK has endorsed the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and will work to ensure the political declaration upholds its ambitions, particularly on human rights and gender equality, as well as harnessing the opportunity presented by long-acting injectable HIV prevention and treatment.
My Lords, I remind the Committee that the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to reply to the debate.
My Lords, I remind the Committee that the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to reply to the debate.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that people in prisons have effective access to HIV prevention tools, including condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, and harm-reduction measures.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that people in prisons have effective access to HIV prevention tools, including condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, and harm-reduction measures.
The new HIV Action Plan sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing, and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners.
Sexual health services in prisons are commissioned by NHS England under the Section 7a Public Health Functions Agreement with the Department. They are required to deliver care and ensure access in accordance with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s prison standards, helping to ensure that all individuals in custody receive equitable healthcare comparable to that available in the community.
Access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in England is via commissioned level three sexual health services. These are commissioned by local authorities for people in the community. NHS England Health and justice commissioners arrange for these providers to enable access for detained people via referral for assessment. The service is accessed by the detained person via in-reach provision, where the sexual health team come on-site, or out-reach provision, where the individual goes out to clinic. The level three sexual health team use the same commissioning policy to provide the service on the same basis to detained people and people in the community.
HIV post exposure prophylaxis is accessed by prisoners in the same way as people in the community. They attend accident and emergency or access a Sexual Assault Referral Centre based on locally commissioned arrangements.
To inform future action, the UK Health Security Agency is working with regional partners to carry out an audit to understand the provision of HIV diagnosis, prevention, and care in English prisons.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure uninterrupted access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV when they enter, transfer between, or leave prison, including provision of long-acting injectable treatments where appropriate.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure uninterrupted access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV when they enter, transfer between, or leave prison, including provision of long-acting injectable treatments where appropriate.
The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing, and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners.
People entering prison receive healthcare assessments on reception which identify current healthcare needs and treatment. This includes identifying people who are receiving treatment for HIV. The healthcare team will use processes for accessing critical medicines to arrange an urgent supply of HIV medicines from the specialist clinic if required. The healthcare team will then ensure a referral to the local HIV specialist team if the patient is in a prison, in a location which lies outside of the area covered by their current specialist. HIV services have clear processes used to promptly transfer care between specialists.
The UK Health Security Agency is working with regional partners to carry out an audit to understand the provision of HIV diagnosis, prevention, and care in English prisons.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the collection, monitoring, and publication of data on HIV prevalence, testing, prevention, and treatment in prisons.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the collection, monitoring, and publication of data on HIV prevalence, testing, prevention, and treatment in prisons.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes overall HIV prevalence and HIV testing data annually in the HIV Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and the HIV Official Statistics, which are available on the GOV.UK website. Our recently published 2025 report Understanding HIV testing contains further information on people in prison. The report is also available on the GOV.UK website.
The Chief Medical Officer’s annual report in 2025, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, also available on the GOV.UK’s website, highlighted the significant health challenges faced by people in prison, including in sexual health and HIV, and we are committed to addressing this.
The UKHSA is working with regional partners to carry out an audit to understand the provision of HIV diagnosis, prevention, and care in English prisons. This will highlight what barriers people are facing and what we need to do to ensure every person gets the care they deserve.
Furthermore, the UKHSA is currently independently reviewing blood borne virus service provision in prisons, including the opt-out testing programme which has been in place since 2014 to update guidance, identify areas to optimise implementation, and ensure prisoners are fully supported.
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implementation and uptake of opt-out HIV blood-borne virus testing in prisons across England; and what actions they plan to take if inconsistencies or low uptake are found.
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implementation and uptake of opt-out HIV blood-borne virus testing in prisons across England; and what actions they plan to take if inconsistencies or low uptake are found.
The new HIV Action Plan sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV testing in prisons.
HIV testing upon entry into prison is part of a national programme of opt-out blood borne virus (BBV) testing which tests people for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV. Sexual health services in prisons are commissioned by NHS England under the Section 7a Public Health Functions Agreement with the Department. This sets out targets for this opt-out BBV testing programme, with an efficiency target of 50% testing uptake, and an optimal performance standard of 75% testing uptake.
While uptake of a BBV test has risen from 11% in 2016/17 to 72% overall in 2022/23, this is below the 75% target and there is variation by region and prison. To inform future progress, the UK Health Security Agency is working with regional partners to carry out an audit to understand the provision of HIV diagnosis, prevention and care in English prisons.
My Lords—
My Lords—
My Lords, I am the first speaker from these Benches. For us, this is a matter of conscience. My noble friend Lady Smith of Newnham has not had the opportunity to speak. She disagrees with me. She is supportive of the other side. She wished for me to mention that...
My Lords, I am the first speaker from these Benches. For us, this is a matter of conscience. My noble friend Lady Smith of Newnham has not had the opportunity to speak. She disagrees with me. She is supportive of the other side. She wished for me to mention that...
My Lords, I do have an amendment, Amendment 423A, which other noble Lords have signed. It is to ask that prosecutions cease and desist. The reason for it is that we have uncovered over these past few months that different police forces are taking entirely different approaches under the current...
My Lords, I do have an amendment, Amendment 423A, which other noble Lords have signed. It is to ask that prosecutions cease and desist. The reason for it is that we have uncovered over these past few months that different police forces are taking entirely different approaches under the current...
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific programmes or strategies they have put in place or planned to reduce HIV-related stigma and unlawful discrimination in prisons, including training for prison staff and measures to protect confidentiality.
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific programmes or strategies they have put in place or planned to reduce HIV-related stigma and unlawful discrimination in prisons, including training for prison staff and measures to protect confidentiality.
All new prison officers complete foundation training which focuses on professional standards, effective communication, and working safely and respectfully with a diverse prison population. This includes training on identifying and supporting vulnerable prisoners, managing sensitive situations, and acting in line with organisational policy and the law.
Training also covers information management and recordkeeping, reinforcing the importance of handling personal and medical information appropriately. HMPPS data protection and information governance requirements apply across the prison estate to safeguard confidentiality.
In addition, HMPPS, working with Skills for Justice, has developed a core capabilities framework for prison and probation staff who work with individuals with health, care and wellbeing needs. The framework sets out the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to support individuals in a person-centred way, including recognising needs, working in partnership with healthcare professionals, and managing sensitive information. It also supports leadership capability and can be used to strengthen existing training provision and identify gaps.
Prison healthcare services in England are commissioned by NHS England. HMPPS works in close partnership with NHS England to ensure people in custody have access to HIV testing and treatment, and that services are delivered safely and confidentially. This collaboration is underpinned by the National Partnership Agreement, which sets out shared priorities and responsibilities to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities in custodial settings.
My Lords, last summer, local authorities came under pressure from the Department of Health to make people and their families go through assessments for continuing healthcare. From the speech by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, on 4 March, we now know that ICBs were at the same time employing private companies to make sure that their CHC payments went down. Will the Minister undertake to review all the applications for continuing healthcare to each ICB throughout this financial year and publish the results, showing how many were accepted, how many were accepted on appeal and how many families were sent on a runaround between the different agencies?
My Lords, last summer, local authorities came under pressure from the Department of Health to make people and their families go through assessments for continuing healthcare. From the speech by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, on 4 March, we now know that ICBs were at the same time employing private companies to make sure that their CHC payments went down. Will the Minister undertake to review all the applications for continuing healthcare to each ICB throughout this financial year and publish the results, showing how many were accepted, how many were accepted on appeal and how many families were sent on a runaround between the different agencies?
What the noble Baroness describes—people getting the runaround—is, of course, unacceptable, and we have discussed this a number of times. I would be pleased to take back her suggestion to the Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock.
My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for setting out the context behind this debate, which takes place against a backdrop in this country of large-scale funding by anti-abortion groups across the piece and almost daily articles in our newspapers about anti-abortion. That...
My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for setting out the context behind this debate, which takes place against a backdrop in this country of large-scale funding by anti-abortion groups across the piece and almost daily articles in our newspapers about anti-abortion. That...
My Lords, I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Weir of Ballyholme, and what he said sounds eminently sensible, but the problem is this: the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, has set out the level of detail that is already gathered. The noble Lord, among other Members of your Lordships’ House,...
My Lords, I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Weir of Ballyholme, and what he said sounds eminently sensible, but the problem is this: the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, has set out the level of detail that is already gathered. The noble Lord, among other Members of your Lordships’ House,...