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House of Lords Official Report Vol. 811 Wednesday No. 205 17 March 2021 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Retirement of a Member: Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe.................................................287 Questions Drug-related Mental and Behavioural Disorder Hospital Admissions...........................287 Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform............................................291 Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum ...............................................................294 Police: Sarah Everard Vigils ...........................................................................................297 Mozambique: Militant Violence Private Notice Question ..................................................................................................300 Fire Safety Bill Commons Reasons ..........................................................................................................304 Domestic Abuse Bill Report (4th Day)............................................................................................................333 Integrated Review Statement........................................................................................................................397 Non-Domestic Rating (Public Lavatories) Bill Report ............................................................................................................................412 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2021-03-17 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2021, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 287 Arrangement of Business[17 MARCH 2021] Drug-related Hospital Admissions 288 House of Lords Lord Farmer (Con): My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her Answer. Cannabis use does not just lead Wednesday 17 March 2021 to mental ill-health and behavioural disorders; it is also contributing to the existential threat that is falling The House met in a hybrid proceeding. fertility levels and particularly falling sperm counts across the western world. Do the Government recognise Noon the seriousness of these outcomes from recreational drug use and will they factor them into policy decisions, Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Winchester. rather than being deterred by liberal individualism? Arrangement of Business Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, any illegal drug Announcement use, including use of cannabis, can be harmful both from immediate side-effects and from long-term physical 12.07 pm and mental health problems. It can, for some, have a The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith): negative impact on fertility. Cannabis is classed as a My Lords, the Hybrid Sitting of the House will now class B drug, which is a matter for the Home Office, begin. Some Members are here in the Chamber, others but there are no plans to change that classification. are participating remotely, but all Members will be treated equally. I ask all Members to respect social Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab) [V]: Look, my Lords, distancing. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, there is no great mystery: people with mental health I will immediately adjourn the House. problems have seen their community services reduce over time, which means that there is an inevitable increase in admissions to hospitals under a section of the Retirement of a Member: Lord Walker of Mental Health Act. The promised reform of the Mental Gestingthorpe Health Act might help and will be welcome in any Announcement event, but it is obvious that more resources in community support are needed to prevent admissions, as well as 12.08 pm an increase in the numbers of skilled professionals to The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith): provide the therapy. What is the Government’s plan to My Lords, I should next like to notify the House of improve these mental health services outside hospitals the retirement, with effect from today, of the noble and where are the necessary resources? and learned Lord, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, pursuant to Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, the Government Act 2014. On behalf of the House, I should like to are committed to increasing resources for drug treatment thank the noble and learned Lord for his much-valued services in England next year and we have put in an service to the House. extra £80 million for that. That will fund, among other Oral Questions will now commence. Please can those things, additional in-patient detox beds. We are also asking supplementary questions keep them no longer committed to increasing the resources that go into than 30 seconds and confined to two points? I ask that mental health treatments through the NHS long-term Ministers’ answers are also brief. plan. Drug-related Mental and Behavioural Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (DUP) Disorder Hospital Admissions [V]: My Lords, with the number of people across the Question United Kingdom suffering from drug-related mental and behavioural disorders at a serious level, what 12.08 pm education awareness or other preventive measures are the Government providing to stem the tide of drug-related Asked by Lord Farmer illnesses? When will adequate mental health resources Toask Her Majesty’sGovernment what assessment be made available? What percentage of those admitted they have made of the 21 per cent increase in hospital to hospital with these illnesses are readmissions? admissions for drug-related mental and behavioural disorders since 2009/10; and what action they intend BaronessPenn(Con):MyLords,oneof thecomplexities to take as a result of any such assessment. in the data that I referred to is that we do not know whether the increase in admissions relates to different Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, in 2019-20 there people being admitted each time or multiple readmissions were 7,027 admissions for drug-related mental and among people with drug misuse problems and mental behavioural disorders. Admissions were 5% lower that health issues. On education, Public Health England’s year than in the previous year and 18% lower than at Rise Above social marketing campaign aims to equip their peak in 2015-16. The factors driving changes in 11 to 16 year-olds with the skills required to reject or this data are complex. None the less, admissions are manage risky behaviours, including taking drugs. Talk too high and the Government are committed to further to FRANK is the Government’s drugs information progress in reducing them, including through increased and advice service, which provides information and funding for drug treatment and mental health services advice to young people and parents to help to protect and improving co-ordination between their provision. children from drugs and/or alcohol misuse. 289 Drug-related Hospital Admissions[LORDS] Drug-related Hospital Admissions 290 Baroness Stroud (Con) [V]: My Lords, a recent report 59% of alcohol-related admissions to hospital, which from the Centre for Social Justice found that the take up 1.4 million beds a year. This seems a shameful number of young people in treatment for drug and waste of resources and source of human misery. Can alcohol dependency had dropped by 35% since 2009. the Minister assure me that the detox beds are only It is accepted, however, that this cannot be explained a part of the solution, as just taking someone away by differing consumption levels.Since 2014, approximately from alcohol for four days will not be a long-term 30 residential rehabilitation centres have been forced solution? to sell assets to survive public funding cuts. What assessment, if any, have the Government made of the CSJ report recommendations,including returning funding Baroness Penn (Con): Absolutely.Part 2 of Dame Carol to the sector to at least the levels of 2012 and the creation Black’s review of drugs, which should report to the of a prevention and recovery agency for the formulation Governmentshortly,isexpectedtoincluderecommendations of an addiction strategy? on what can be done nationally and locally to tackle drug and substance misuse and the support needed for those who face addiction and
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