Hear, hear to that. As I stand in your Lordships’ House, I know that I am between noble Lords and their lunch, so I will do my best to be as quick as I can. I also feel that I need to declare an interest, as I am a non-executive director of the Whittington Trust, so my boss—the noble Baroness, Lady Neuberger—is in the corner over there.
2.30 pm
I start by thanking the noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Kakkar, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley and Lady Tyler, for adding their names to and being part of this suite of amendments that I have been particularly concerned with. I am not quite sure which one of them said this—it was probably the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar—but Amendment 11 sets the national framework, and the following very short amendments which add inequalities into the Bill are about making sure that the local delivery actually happens.
I thank my noble friends Lord Howarth and Lady McIntosh for their remarks, which wonderfully illustrated how important it is to take—I hate this word—a holistic approach to health inequalities and well-being. I also congratulate and thank the noble Lords, Lord Young, Lord Rennard and Lord Crisp, and my noble friend Lord Faulkner, for again drawing the House’s attention to the importance and centrality of tobacco regulation to delivering health equalities. They were quite right about inclusion health services.
I also thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, for speaking to the amendments about monitoring. Those of us who have been involved in dealing with equalities for the whole of our working lives know that if you do not monitor, assess and count, you will not know what effect you are having. Amendment 65 particularly recognises that, and that monitoring is vital to tackling inequalities. The noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, supported the need to address the needs of the most marginalised, and she was right that flexibility and the values of social enterprise are a part of tackling health inequalities at a local level. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans and my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley were quite correct to draw rural areas and their needs to the attention of the House.
I think I need to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Harding, and the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, for their support for these amendments. I hope that they will bring their influence to bear on the Government to accept that there is a gap between the Bill as drafted and what the House wants to see in it.
I am not going to say very much more, but I was not convinced by the reasons for not accepting Amendment 11 and the other amendments in this group, and I think that other noble Lords will not be. I think the Minister can recognise when the House is determined to have on the face of a Bill something which addresses a wrong that they feel should be righted. We know—as I think the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, said—that words do not actually deliver the change, but words are the place where you have to start to deliver the change with inequalities. You have to see what is in the Bill and then move to implement that. There is a gap between us, but I hope—I am very encouraged by
the noble Lord’s commitment to discussions—that we will be able to address it. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.