UK Parliament / Open data

Care Bill [HL]

Proceeding contribution from Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour) in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 9 October 2013. It occurred during Debate on bills on Care Bill [HL].

The noble Baroness, Lady Barker, will respond to the point in relation to Amendment 4. Part of the confusion arises because the Department of Health seems to equate spiritual well-being with emotional well-being. I do not think that that would be generally held to be appropriate. Whether you have faith or none, it does seem to me that by classifying spiritual belief within emotional well-being, the department has fallen into a pit of its own digging. I hope the noble Earl will indeed go back, and I assume that means this could be debated at Third Reading. Clearly noble Lords would wish to come back to it.

Whether this is for the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, or for the noble Earl, taking up the point raised by my noble friend Lord Warner, the chairman of the All-Party Humanist Group, my assumption would be that the duty on a local authority in relation to spiritual well-being would apply only when a person had a belief. Whether one defines humanism as spiritual I do not know—we

are getting into deep waters here. I assume it is not intended that a person of no religion be required to be treated by the health service or local government as having a spiritual need.

We welcome Amendments 2, 3 and 138, and I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 1.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
748 cc87-8 
Session
2013-14
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
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