Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 49:"Page 3, line 44, after ““health”” insert ““, welfare””" The noble Lord said: Amendment No. 49 seeks to insert the word ““welfare”” after ““health”” in Clause 5(7)(b). Welfare relates to the general well-being of people—not only to their physical health but also to their mental and psychological health. I have a list of the kind of actions that cause concern: physical abuse, such as hitting, pushing or locking in a room; verbal abuse, such as shouting and swearing; emotional abuse, such as bullying, taunting or humiliating someone; sexual abuse; financial abuse, such as misusing, withholding or taking someone’s money; neglect by not providing necessary food, care or medicine; and any kind of discrimination. General welfare goes beyond physical health and relates to the wider well-being of an individual. I do not want to take up the time of the Committee, but let me refer to an incident notified to me by the North Wales Central Age Concern Committee. It concerns a gentleman who has come directly to a nursing home from a hospital. He gets frustrated because members of staff knock and walk into his room; they do not wait for him to invite them in. At times he has felt belittled and embarrassed because he has been using the commode. All these things are important to the person concerned. He has very few clothes of his own—he usually wears spare clothes provided by the home—and on one visit he was very embarrassed because the trousers he was wearing were too small to fasten round his waist. He could not stand up in case his trousers fell down. He realised that his clothing probably belonged to a resident who had died. These may seem small matters which should not really concern us, but the person concerned is dependent on others for his welfare and they are massively important to him. I ask the Minister to accept the amendment, which will strengthen the Bill considerably. We welcome government Amendment No. 50, which follows the thrust of the Liberal Democrats’ amendment in regard to situations where a person’s right to dignity is being denied. The government amendment refers to situations where,"““the dignity of a person has been violated””." The definition of ““dignity”” is to honour and respect someone. It is essential that that is applied to people so that, in spite of their frailty, they know they will be treated with honour and respect. I ask the Minister to accept our amendments. Obviously he will accept the government amendments. Amendment No. 52 is mainly a tidying-up amendment. I beg to move.