My Lords, in part because I listened to the lecture with which we started this session but more because it is an old anecdote, I shall forbear from telling my hospital food horror story. However, I will pick up on the points
made by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, about hospital food and how hard people are trying to improve the situation. This relates to the answer the Minister gave me on Monday in Oral Questions. Of course, it is dependent on the budget that caterers have and the quality of the food that is available to them. I was pleased that the Minister then said that the Government are looking to tackle government procurement to improve the quality of vegetables and fruit. In terms of joining up the dots, that is a useful point to make.
On Amendment 243, I offer the Green group’s support and note that, having been in your Lordships’ House for only a little more than two years, I have debated a very similar amendment at least once before—I think it must have been on the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill. We have all seen briefings that are very much a cry from the heart from the nursing profession for this to happen. Surely we can get this into this Bill.
5.15 pm
I mainly want to address Amendments 266 and 293 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, to which I have attached my name. While I take the point of the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, that these procedures can be crucial to people’s well-being and enable them to feel more comfortable in their skin, I want to briefly address where these amendments have arrived from. A headline from the Sunday Times two weeks ago said that
“TikTok and Instagram have fuelled demand for nose jobs, butt lifts and boob implants”.
I was a sub-editor on the Times 20 years ago. Quite aside from thinking “What is the world coming to?” when I read that headline, it is important to stress how much pressure there is from social media, particularly on young people, to have these surgical and non-surgical procedures.
It is important to acknowledge that it is not just young people who are affected. We live in an extremely ageist society, and many older people, despite our shortage of labour in many areas, can find it difficult to get jobs, or at least jobs that fit with their qualifications. A survey from the American Aesthetic Surgery Journal found that 30% of people sought surgery after they had suffered discrimination. Ministry of Justice figures show that in 2020 there were 3,668 complaints about age discrimination at employment tribunals, and that was up from 2,112 in 2019. I am aware we are likely to hear from the Minister, “These amendments may be heading in the right direction, but we need more time. There are issues to think about before we do anything.” It is crucial to get action now on surgical and non-surgical issues.
Finally, last July’s report from the APPG on Beauty, Aesthetics and Wellbeing addressed the absence of regulation, and this particularly relates to Amendment 266. Picking up on the point from the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, the report also called for mandatory psychological screenings to be implemented.
I would love to hear the Minister say “Yes, go ahead”, because there is a demand here for urgent action.