UK Parliament / Open data

Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. One aspect of the Bill will cause controversy, particularly in your Lordships’ House: the Bill sets the threshold for ““older person”” at 60. As I cast my eyes around the Chamber, they alight on the Chairman of Committees, the noble Lord, Lord Brabazon of Tara. Is it possible that in one year’s time he will be regarded as an ““older person””? Certainly not. He is now and will be, as will many noble Lords, in the first flush of youth. The Bill is another first for Wales. Wales was first to establish a children’s commissioner. The Bill will create the first commissioner for older people. However, there is another controversial matter that I should deal with at the outset—timing. As noble Lords will be aware, the Bill was published as a draft for consultation on 22 March, before the general election. It will not have escaped the attention of the House that the closing date for that consultation is today. I should add that the National Assembly is not due to debate the Bill and the report prepared on it by the Assembly’s Health and Social Services Committee until tomorrow. Let me attempt to address the concerns of those who may feel that we are jumping the gun by bringing the Bill forward at this time. Had the general election not intervened, we would of course have followed normal practice in subjecting the Bill to the full range of public and parliamentary scrutiny before introduction. The general election caused an inevitable reconsideration of the legislative programme. An early opportunity arose to introduce the Bill in your Lordships’ House, and we felt that it was a sufficiently important measure that we should grasp that opportunity. The Government recognise that the early introduction has meant that the Bill is not as polished or complete as we would normally expect. Indeed, we have already identified amendments that we intend to table before the Bill is considered in Committee. We recognise that the public consultation, the brief consideration by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, the report of the Assembly subject committee and the Assembly itself may well give rise to further suggestions for amendments. To help the process of consideration in this House, we shall make available tomorrow in the Printed Paper Office copies of all the responses to the public consultation. That will give noble Lords time to prepare questions and amendments, if necessary, for consideration in Committee, when we shall be happy to debate them. We will consider them with an open mind. It should be borne in mind that the measures have been the subject of a number of stages of consultation, and we are confident that new issues are unlikely to arise. I can say that, as of this morning, almost 80 responses had been received to the consultation, all but three of which had been totally supportive of the Bill. However, should detailed consideration of the consultation responses suggest further improvements to the Bill, we shall also address those before Committee. I shall summarise what we have done so far and what we intend to do before the start of Committee stage. The Bill was published in draft on 22 March, allowing 12 weeks for responses. That period ends today. We shall make copies of responses available to Members of the House tomorrow. We shall also make available copies of the reports of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and the Health and Social Services Committee of the National Assembly. I hosted a meeting last week with the Wales Office Minister, Nick Ainger and the Assembly’s Deputy Health Minister, John Griffiths, to provide further information on the Bill to Members of the House. The Assembly has brought forward to tomorrow its consideration of the Bill, which will take account of the report of its HSS Committee, and we will make a copy of its conclusions available at least a week before the start of Committee. The group of minor amendments that the Government have identified to improve the Bill will also be tabled at least a week before the start of Committee. I shall now turn to the Bill. The developed world is facing major demographic change. Life expectancy is rising, and fertility rates are falling. Some 22 per cent of people in Wales are aged 60 and over, compared with 20 per cent in England. In 20 years, those figures will increase to 28 per cent in Wales, compared with 25   per cent in England. Over the same period, the number of people in Wales aged 85 and over will triple to 85,000. People are living longer and healthier lives, but that longevity brings significant social and other changes that require effective planning and new approaches. In   Wales, the Assembly has developed a strategy for older people, based on UN principles on ageing—independence, participation, care, self-fulfilment and dignity. It was developed following extensive consultation through a number of stages. At each of those stages, it received overwhelming support from older people, their representative organisations and others. The Bill is the next logical step in the implementation of the Assembly’s strategy for tackling the far-reaching social and other implications of an ageing population. The strategy was launched in January 2003 and provides a structured basis for the Assembly and other public bodies in Wales to develop future policies and plans that better reflect the needs of older people. It turns from seeing old age as a problem and older people as a burden, to a model of engagement and citizenship for all older people. Age stereotyping and discrimination will be tackled and positive images of ageing promoted. That is where the Commissioner for Older People will   have a significant role. Research undertaken while developing the strategy indicated that, although steps   had been taken to tackle issues arising from it, for   some older people in Wales poverty was still a genuine problem, exacerbated by perceptions of age as stigmatising. People generally felt that older people were discriminated against in a number of ways. The commissioner will have powers and duties that are at least comparable to those of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, while taking into account the different situations and needs of older people. The commissioner will have three important functions: tackling age discrimination, promoting positive images of ageing and giving older people a stronger voice in society. The responsibilities of the commissioner will include influencing policy and service delivery; being a source   of information, advocacy and support; safeguarding, enforcing, enhancing and promoting rights; and investigating complaints. As the Children’s Commissioner does for children in Wales, the Commissioner for Older People will speak up on behalf of older people in Wales, helping to raise the profile of older people and increase awareness about their needs. The commissioner will be independent of government and the Assembly. He or she will also help older people to influence the way in which public services are managed and delivered in Wales, the better to meet their needs. The commissioner’s general functions to assist older people in Wales will include promoting awareness of their interests; encouraging good practice in their treatment; promoting the provision of opportunities for them and the elimination of discrimination against them; and keeping under review the adequacy and effectiveness of law affecting them. The commissioner will be able to review and monitor the arrangements for dealing with complaints, whistle blowing and advocacy of bodies that provide services directly to older people. In addition, he or she will be able to review the discharge of functions of bodies—for example, the Assembly, local authorities and the NHS—whose policies may have an impact on the lives of older people. Where other avenues of redress have been exhausted and wider matters of principle are involved, the commissioner may examine individual cases and, in certain circumstances, support individuals in making a complaint or representation. Other powers will include discretion to undertake research; to issue guidance on best practice; and to make reports to the Assembly on the exercise of his or her functions. The commissioner will be able to make representations to the Assembly about non-devolved matters relating to the interests of older people in Wales. The Assembly will decide whether to pursue them. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, has made clear his willingness to meet Peter Clarke, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, to discuss any non-devolved matter on which he may wish to make representations. We intend that the same arrangements would be available to the Commissioner for Older People. As I said, the Bill defines an older person as one of age 60 or over. That encompasses those who are entitled from age 60 to receive winter fuel and pension credit benefits, women aged 60-plus, who will continue to receive state pension until 2013 and those in the National Assembly’s free swimming and bus pass schemes, which also start at age 60. We consider that that strikes the right age balance. A lower age limit would have significant implications for the commissioner’s workload. If it were higher, we would miss an important and growing section of older people. The National Assembly will fund the office of the commissioner. It is not possible now to make accurate predictions, but we are working on the assumption that the commissioner will consume similar resources to the Children’s Commissioner. Start-up costs, we think, will be of the order of £500,000 and, with a staff of about 30, there will, we think, be annual running costs of around £1.5 million. Should it turn out in practice that costs are higher, those, too, will be met by the Assembly with no new money from Westminster. I said earlier that we intended to table some minor amendments to the Bill before Committee. We will table those amendments and provide all the other information that I mentioned earlier at least a week before the start of Committee. That will give noble Lords the opportunity to reflect on them and prepare for a full debate in Committee. We intend to table amendments to clarify the commissioner’s ability to work jointly with other commissioners and ombudsmen, so as to avoid duplication and to enable the commissioner to share information with them. We wish to correct a discrepancy in the Bill that was drawn to our attention by the Welsh Affairs Committee. It concerns the commissioner’s ability to assist an older person who has been placed for care or treatment in England in pursuing a complaint with the placing authority in Wales, such as a local authority or NHS body. Minor amendment is also required to enable the Assembly to issue directions, if necessary, requiring the   commissioner to establish an internal complaint procedure. Should we decide that further amendments resulting from the consultation and from this Second Reading debate would improve the Bill, we shall aim to have those tabled in good time for discussion in Committee also. I assure the House that we are fully prepared to   consider any and all suggestions for improvements to the Bill. If any noble Lords have questions about any aspect of the Bill, the policy that underlies it or the detail of how we envisage the arrangements working, I shall be happy to discuss them or to provide a written reply before Committee. This is an important Bill that has attracted huge support in Wales from older people and their representative organisations and from all parties in the National Assembly. I hope that we in this House can achieve similar consensus on the principles of what is a ground-breaking proposal to benefit older people in Wales. I commend the Bill to the House. Moved, That the Bill be considered a second time.—(Lord Evans of Temple Guiting.)

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

672 c1150-4 

Session

2005-06

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber
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