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Mr. Roy Beggs (East Antrim) (UUP): It is a pleasure to be associated with the Bill and I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis) on his initiative in introducing it. It has the support of all my colleagues in the Ulster Unionist party.
It is only right and proper that carers have access to information to help inform their life choices. The Bill will bring to England and Wales some of the rights that carers in Northern Ireland have already achieved through the Carers and Direct Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 and through section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. One of the most important effects of that legislation is that public bodies have had to talk to carers and to educate themselves about the needs of carers. The level of awareness and sensitivity about carers' issues has therefore increased across a whole range of public bodies, and helped to remove barriers to carers' participation.
Public authorities, when developing policies, must promote equality of opportunity for persons with dependants. At the moment, there are still many carers who cannot access vital information on benefits, services and other opportunities because of the isolation that can come with the caring role. Research consistently shows that information is the No. 1 need for carers. Too many carers still struggle for years before they find out that there are organisations out there that could help them to cope. Too many pensioner full-time carers on low incomes are having to pay from their pension savings for respite care for a spouse or other family dependant in order to restore their own strength to enable them to continue to care. We must never underestimate the need for carers to have and maintain their own health, emotional well-being and independence.
Health, social services and other public authorities have a responsibility to reach out to all the hidden carers in their area. It is unreasonable to ask carers to book two weeks' respite care a year ahead—as a pensioner in Northern Ireland told me recently she had been asked to do—to facilitate the allocation of limited public funding. That funding must be increased to match the needs in this aspect of care in the community. Carers have an equal right to full opportunities in education, training, employment and leisure. Carers of working age who stop caring are potential employees who can participate in lifelong learning and will gain new skills that will maintain the economic viability of our work force. The sacrifice of carers must be recognised and they deserve every support to rebuild their careers after caring.
The last word from me goes to Emma McDowell, a carer from Belfast who wrote to Carers Northern Ireland in support of the Bill. She said:
"'Care in the community' would be impossible without their commitment to the care in the family first and foremost. But carers also need a life beyond their immediate caring responsibilities—their mental and physical wellbeing, their educational opportunities, their rights to full information MUST remain high on the agenda for local authorities to consider."
When enacted, the Bill will help to improve life for both carers and the cared for and I fully support it.
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10.11am
Mr. Tom Clarke (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for East Antrim (Mr. Beggs), who I am sure will not mind if, today, I recall the excellent work of his hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, South (Rev. Martin Smyth) over a long period—a contribution that is much appreciated.
My hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (Mr. Edwards) was of considerable assistance to me this morning, because he reminded me of a very grave omission on my part. When I was fortunate enough to be called on Second Reading, I failed to refer to Tom Pendry. I should like to put that straight today, partly by explaining that, in common with others, I have always associated Lord Pendry with his marvellous contribution to tourism. I had momentarily forgotten that he had other strings to his bow. We are building on his Act and I am happy to acknowledge that.
Today belongs to my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis). His choice of Bill was excellent and he has steered it through its various stages with considerable skill, perspicacity and, above all, commitment. It says a great deal for him that he has done so with the absolute support of all parties on both sides of the House.
This is an extremely meaningful Bill and I was pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon mentioned the Scottish Executive in his speech. Although the Bill will not apply to Scotland, there is considerable interest in its contents and there is considerable compatibility in what we seek to achieve. We can also learn from each other. I do not wish to be offensive to any hon. Member, but I have no shame this morning—as a member of the United Kingdom Parliament—in voting at an early hour on this issue and in exercising my duties to comment and, if necessary, to vote on UK issues. If it means that carers in England and Wales find that we are acknowledging, as the Bill does, the difficulties and needs that they experience day after day, every elected Member of this House has the responsibility to play his or her part in that, and I am glad to be playing mine.
The main aspect of the Bill is to bestow a duty to inform carers of their rights. Only this week, my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibilities for disability, the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Member for Liverpool, Garston (Maria Eagle), honoured a commitment that she gave a couple of weeks ago during an Adjournment debate that I initiated on laryngectomy to come up to my constituency and meet the Lanarkshire Laryngectomy Association. She did that yesterday. I welcome that visit and my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary will agree that among the very important points that were made were points that were relevant to this Bill and to carers.
The fact is that many people will find themselves—sadly, as a result of road accidents, strokes or other things that cannot be predicted—becoming carers in their households. It is absolutely right that we as a Parliament should acknowledge our responsibility to them. I am delighted to be here this morning in support of my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon.
Before I conclude—I am anxious to do so—I want to congratulate the Government. They deserve to be told that they have an extremely good record on disability
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awareness. That is not simply their important decision to introduce the Disability Rights Commission, a decision that in earlier days was resisted strongly. They ought to be congratulated also on the work they have done since then, including supporting extremely important Bills such as this one. My hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon would not thank me for being controversial, but it was not all that long ago that, on Friday morning after Friday morning, similar Bills were talked out, one after the other, before this Government came to office.
I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister on his contribution and welcome the disability awareness on the part of the Government and, in particular, the role of carers as the Government see it. We have achieved a great deal; the Bill helps considerably and we have much more to do.
I conclude by returning to my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon. I did not volunteer for it but I think that I am a member of the club to which the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman) referred; I was fortunate enough, with enormous support, to get an Act through in 1986. In congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon, I give him a piece of cautionary advice, if I might be so brash. In due course, if Her Majesty gives the Bill the Royal Assent, the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Bill will be for ever known as the Hywel Francis Bill—something we all welcome. He should be proud of what he has achieved. From then, he will go on to do what I am still doing: to campaign for the full implementation of every part of the Bill. In that spirit, I am delighted to congratulate my hon. Friend.
10.17 am
Mr. Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) (LD): It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Coatbridge and Chryston (Mr. Clarke). I commend and appreciate the work that he has done for and on behalf of disabled people, carers and others over a long period. We should reflect on what the right hon. Gentleman said about his experience of Fridays in this House in previous years, and how Bills designed to advance the rights of disabled people did not make their way on to the statute book. I have a particular interest in that as an issue, both because of my involvement with my local authority in campaigning for disabled people and because the Member who served before me was a key Member in ensuring that such Bills did not make it to the statute book.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis), as others have done, on choosing the Bill. When a private Member's Bill comes sufficiently high in the ballot there is a real possibility of it becoming law, so to choose to take this measure through the House was very important. I congratulate the hon. Gentleman also on his navigation of the Bill through its various stages and the discussions that have taken place between him, officials and the Minister, whom I also thank. Those deliberations led to the Bill that has emerged from Committee, which we are considering today.
I am responding as the Front-Bench Liberal Democrat spokesman, but I also have the pleasure of being one of the Bill's sponsors. As mentioned on Second Reading and elsewhere, we want the Bill to become an Act and we want the Act to be implemented
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in practice on the ground. It is important that the spirit and purpose of the legislation be made real on the ground. The key point is to ensure that people are aware of their right to have an assessment as a carer and, as a consequence of that assessment, to have the opportunity of access to services that will help them fulfil their full potential—not just as carers, but as individuals, citizens of our country who are able to enjoy leisure, participate in work and many other things besides.
During the Bill's passage, we have looked back to the legislation on which it is building. There was the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 and the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000. I want to repeat what I said in Committee and ask the Minister to consider it in the future. There must be a point during the passage of a whole series of private Members' Bills that make their way successfully on to the statute book where the Government look at the different pieces of legislation and ask whether there are gaps and whether there is a need to consolidate and codify—in this case, legislation for carers. The Government have taken the opportunity to do so, at least in part, through their amendments to the Bill, but I believe that there is a need for a wider review in the not too distant future.
In debating the initial clause 1, the Minister effectively argued in favour of the need for such an examination. His argument was that private Members' Bills could not bear the weight of enabling us to put on the statute book a full right to equal opportunity. Consequently, that provision was taken out of the Bill, and I understand that it will now be dealt with through directions and guidance at a later stage. It is a pity that the provision could not be built into the Bill. Given that the Government said that a private Member's Bill was not the right vehicle, I hope that we will at some point see more comprehensive carers' legislation that will make the worthy goal a reality.
The Bill is important. It is important for people to exercise their rights as carers and their rights to information. As we have already heard, last year's Carers UK report, "Missed Opportunities" pointed out that half of carers had not been told of their right to an assessment. The Bill must put that right. It must ensure that people are aware of their right to an assessment and have the opportunity to have it. Placing a duty on local authorities, as the Bill will, is such an important step forward.
Carers are the backbone of this country's care system. Without them, the NHS and our social services departments would not be able to cope. We have heard the figures already today, but the 2001 census estimated that there were about 5.9 million carers in this country. The Institute of Actuaries estimated, as the hon. Member for Aberavon said, that carers save our taxpayers £57 billion a year. I was most struck, in examining the figures again, by the work of the Office for National Statistics, which found that many carers do more than 50 hours a week of care and that those carers are twice as likely to become permanently sick and disabled and twice as likely to describe themselves as in poor health.
The hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman) spoke about the life cycle of carers from young to old. There are 9,000 children in this country between the age
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of five and 15 who provide more than 50 hours of care a week. There are 382,000 carers over the age of 65, of whom 44,000 are over 85. The Bill speaks to those people and to their health and well-being. I hope that it will make a difference for them. That is why clause 3 and the proposed directions to primary care trusts are a useful addition. They provide an opportunity for PCTs to reflect on and change the way in which they plan, commission and deliver services, and to keep carers at the heart of their thinking.
I was struck by the fact that because this is a private Member's Bill, it is always believed to be important to concentrate the work within one Department. The difficulty of negotiating across Departments perhaps prevents the Bill from encompassing more. We have not, for example, been able to deal with some of the issues for which the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has responsibility, which I regret. Nevertheless, the Bill will make a profound difference to the lives of carers. As the Bill becomes an Act and begins to be implemented, we might see the work of the health care commission and the social care commission including a specific examination of how the lot of carers is being improved.
On Second Reading, several hon. Members referred to overlapping benefit rules, which stop carers in receipt of state pensions receiving carers allowance. Since that debate, I have received many letters from elderly carers who felt insulted by that rule. It is rather like the hospital downrating rules. The Government—to be perfectly honest, not only the present Government—argued that people cannot have two benefits that are intended for the same purpose—in this case, to improve a person's income. The Government say that that is how it has always been done, but I feel that such arguments are among the weakest ever deployed against change. The Government have changed policy on hospital downrating, and benefits are not cut when someone is in hospital. Surely it is time for a similar review of the rules that prevent someone over 65 and in receipt of a basic pension from receiving carers allowance. It should be paid to such people.
As a constituency Member, I am fortunate to have a carers' centre and an active carers' forum in my constituency. They keep me on my toes and keep me informed. I had the opportunity over the last seven years of shadowing carers in my constituency during carers week. That provides a flavour, but unless one has been a carer it is impossible to fully understand what it means.
There are 16,000 carers in my constituency and the borough of Sutton, only 3,000 of whom are identified at the moment. We have a lot more to do if we are to reach out, find and serve the needs of carers. The Bill is another milestone in a long journey, which is all about ensuring that carers are not just treated as carers, but have the fullest opportunities to lead full and rewarding lives.
10.27 pm
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