Health: Allergy (Science and Technology Committee Report)

My Lords, I am most grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken and covered so many aspects of our report in their excellent speeches. I am also grateful to the Minister for having addressed in detail so many aspects of our debate. Indeed, his speech, which I plan to reread several times, sounded more optimistic than the government response that we received in November last year. For that I am grateful. I am sure that the committee is also grateful to hear that the nettle has been grasped over putting out bids to request a strategic health authority to step up to the plate and consider developing an allergy centre following the hub-and-spokes model that we recommended in our report. We heard today that the allergic march continues, and we are coming from a long way behind. Our excellence in research at the basic scientific level needs to be built on and translated into clinical practice. There is an enormous educational job to be done. I pay tribute again to all the committee, who worked absolutely unstintingly. For us, this was not an abstract academic exercise; everyone on the committee worked so hard because they genuinely want to make a difference. The more we went into the subject, the more we were aware of the size of the problem. We were ably supported, especially at the outset, by the scientific analysis from Cathleen Schulte, by Sarah Jones—as was said, this was her first Select Committee and she handled us admirably—and the wise and guiding hand of our special adviser, Professor Barry Kay. I reiterate my thanks to everyone and I hope that when a follow-up report is done in a few years’ time, we will see a different story being told and that we have turned the corner from the abyss that we found when we started our inquiry. On Question, Motion agreed to.