Biography
Lord Rook has engaged substantially with health and social care through 16 debate speeches, with a particular focus on assisted dying and end-of-life care, where he tabled multiple amendments to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill addressing safeguards against coercion, terminal illness definitions, and GP continuity of care. He has also spoken on adult social care reform, workforce challenges, and related policy areas, drawing on personal experience as a carer for a family member with dementia. His contributions reflect sustained engagement across mental health, elderly care, palliative care, and social care integration themes.
Generated from their own Hansard record, below
“…Many who enter this system have experienced neglect, exclusion, exploitation, severe mental health difficulties, special educational needs, family breakdown and a broken care system. None of this removes their personal responsibility, but it should inform our response and the response of wider society.”
Record by topic
- Assisted dying78th of 37110.0
- Mental health456th of 8808.0
- Palliative & end of life care198th of 5688.0
- Learning disability & autism466th of 8996.0
- Dementia60th of 2516.0
- Adult social care & reform161st of 3764.0
- Health inequalities245th of 2882.0
- Elderly care & frailty166th of 2362.0
- Children's health131st of 1572.0
- Public health & prevention573rd of 6882.0
- NHS waiting lists467th of 5342.0
What they’ve said
“My Lords, about a year ago, I gave one of my first speeches in your Lordships’ House. It was in a debate also led by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on this very subject. I said then that, as a rookie Peer, my aspiration was to become more like him as I grow up.”
Combating Atrocity Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide · 2026-06-04 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…ues about the scale of our housing crisis: 4.2 million citizens in need of social housing; 1.3 million stuck on waiting lists; and, more worrying still, 175,000 children who will go to bed again tonight in temporary accommodation.”
Social Housing Bill [HL] · 2026-06-01 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…On preventing coercion, Amendment 154 would establish a simple but essential safeguard: that assisted dying should be patient-initiated, so a doctor or other health professional should not raise the subject unless the patient has done so first.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-03-13 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…I declare an interest as the carer for a family member with long-term dementia. Taken together, these amendments address a single fundamental problem in the Bill, namely the current definition of terminal illness.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-01-30 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…Professor Katherine Sleeman explained that earlier access to palliative care often changes patients’ perception of their suffering, which again relies on a clinician who knows the patient.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2025-12-12 · Read on Hansard ↗
Contributions reproduced under the Open Parliament Licence.