Lord Loomba, participating virtually in the House of Lords, questioned Ministers on free school meals, vaccine roll-out and implementation of the 2013 Defamation Act in Northern Ireland.
Noting the public outcry over the meagre content of free school meal parcels for children who would normally receive free school meals if schools were open, he asked what steps the Government is taking to stop this happening again. Acknowledging that some schools prefer to use their own caterers to provide the parcels Lord Loomba also wanted to know if the Government would consider re-starting the voucher scheme again.
He praised the Government’s action plan for the rollout of the vaccine. Noting that in an effort not to waste the vaccine, which has a short shelf life, administrators are finding as many people in close proximity as possible to give the unused doses to, Lord Loomba queried that while not wasting valuable doses is admirable, does the Minister agree that some back-up system should be in place to ensure that those who need it most are able to get it first. He also queried if parliamentarians in both Houses should be on a priority list for vaccination.
Challenging the Government record of clawing back wrongly claimed coronavirus business support Lord Loomba asked what steps are being taken to ensure business inappropriately claiming financial assistance pay it back. On the implementation of the 2013 Defamation Act, Lord Loomba asked, "My Lords, it is now eight years since the defamation law was changed in England and Wales. And it is nearly five years since the Stormont Executive commissioned a report recommending bringing Northern Ireland into line with England and Wales. Does the Minister agree that making the Northern Ireland legislation consistent is long overdue, and that not applying the serious harm test there is benefiting claimants over respondents and breaching the rule of law?”
