Lord Hamilton of Epsom — Hansard

Lords Proceedings 25 June 2026

My Lords, does the Minister not accept that the dumping of illegal waste is a direct result of the quite high charges that are made for dumping legally? Should not some of the money raised from legal dumping be allocated to clearing away illegal waste?

Lords Proceedings 23 June 2026

DVLA: Staffing Levels

The fact that it is taking 66 days to answer would explain my problem, as I met all the DVLA’s criteria when I replied in an email on 27 March. If my Question were to have come up next month, we would have been commemorating three months of me waiting to get a driving licence. Does the Minister acce…

Lords Proceedings 23 June 2026

G7 Summit

My Lords, can the Minister update us on the coalition of the willing in terms of the final settlement that there will be on any peace agreement in Ukraine? Does she accept that the coalition of the willing will form the basis of European defence in the future if we have to defend ourselves against R…

Lords Proceedings 16 June 2026

Russian Shadow Fleet

The Minister has stated that the reason why this ship was stopped and many others were let through was that the circumstances aligned. Does he mean to say that, when all the other ships went through our territorial waters, for none of them did the circumstances align?

Lords Oral Questions 23 April 2026

Steel Sector

The UK Government’s £2.5 billion commitment is provisioned for.

Lords Oral Questions 13 April 2026

Strait of Hormuz: Mine Clearance

I take the noble Lord’s point with respect to that. My understanding is that many ships have capabilities to defend themselves. I am not a military expert with respect to some of these things, but I believe that capabilities are available. Certainly, as the ships of the future develop, they will dev…

Lords Oral Questions 26 March 2026

HBOS: Fraud Investigation

As I said before, that is a matter for the independent Foskett Panel, which was established by Lloyds Banking Group in 2020. The review is independent. I understand that it has made its determinations and settled the compensation for the majority of victims, although there are, of course, a few outs…

Lords Debate 20 March 2026 2 contributions

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

My Lords, I have always considered that the six months was critical to the essence of this Bill, because there has to be some point at which doctors say that you are likely to die. Misdiagnosis has been a problem. I recognise the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy. We have discussed misdiagn…

All right—they could apply, if that helps the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter. We have to think closely about this, because this is the essence of the Bill. I do not understand how we can be comfortable with the whole idea that some of these diagnoses will be completely wrong and, as a result, there wi…

Lords Debate 10 March 2026

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill

My Lords, as a relatively new Member of your Lordships’ House, I was the Liberal Democrat Bill Whip on the House of Lords Bill in 1999. I therefore had my apprenticeship in how legislation goes through under the tutelage of the noble Baroness, Lady Jay, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer.…

Lords Debate 27 February 2026 5 contributions

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Is the noble Baroness not concerned, as I am, that we are conflating expertise with bias? People think that because somebody is expert, they are independent. It does not necessarily follow. There could be people who are expert but at the same time very biased in their approach to any subject.

My Lords, I would like to address the issue of mission creep. I have tabled amendments that come so late in the procedure that I do not think we will ever reach them, but I am concerned that the Bill, if it becomes an Act of Parliament, will morph into something entirely different from what we have …

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Lords Debate 6 February 2026 2 contributions

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

The noble and learned Lord kindly agreed to address the issue of inadvertent misdiagnosis and he said that this group of amendments led by Amendment 71 was the time to bring that up. It was pointed out at the time by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, that 23% of six-month diagnoses of death turned ou…

This is the second Friday we have had where the target has been 10 groups of amendments and we have come well below half on both those days. If we go on scrutinising the Bill in the way we have been doing, it is inconceivable that it will ever reach the statute book, so is it not time that the noble…

Lords Oral Questions 2 February 2026

Nationalised Passenger Rail Services

That is a sort of music hall view of railway life, is it not? The truth is that the system this Government inherited had got to the end of its life—that is a polite way of putting it. You can prove that it did because the train companies that they took into public ownership stayed in public ownershi…

Lords Debate 30 January 2026 2 contributions

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Can the noble Baroness recall that last week she told the House that 23% of six-months-to-live diagnoses turned out to be wrong and that people lived longer? Does that not make the whole position of face-to-face diagnosis much more important when doctors so often get it wrong?

My Lords, I have supported AI for as long as I can remember, and I think it is the future for this country. If we are looking for improvements in productivity, there is no doubt that we should look to the National Health Service and the public sector, where we can see AI having its greatest effect a…

Lords Oral Questions 26 January 2026

ILO Convention 190

To answer the noble Lord’s question, yes, of course it applies in all workplaces, but I am not going to tell the NEC how to do its business.

Lords Debate 23 January 2026 4 contributions

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

My Lords, I put my name to Amendment 313. My concern is the whole question of misdiagnosis. My noble friend Lord Shinkwin has addressed the fact that he was diagnosed with a terminal illness some time ago. One assumption running through this Bill and through the amendments—I apologise to my noble fr…

My noble friend Lord Harper is absolutely right: he is still with us, but he is absent for the moment. It might have been that, when he was given his diagnosis that he had six months to live, he was told that his final months would be very grim indeed and he would suffer terribly. He might, if this …

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Lords Debate 16 January 2026

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Does the noble Baroness not share my concerns about the misdiagnosis of six months, when you think of all the people who live for much longer afterwards?

Lords Proceedings 15 January 2026 2 contributions

Iran

If the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, is right and there is unlikely to be any internal pressure to achieve regime change in Iran, the only thing that will achieve it will be outside military intervention. Do the Government support that, and is it likely to happen?

I have been listening to the noble Baroness’s answers, and I do not think I have heard an answer on whether the Government actually support regime change in Iran. I do not think she would be betraying any confidences if she can clarify that issue.

Lords Proceedings 12 January 2026

Iran: Protests

We are mindful of how we express our views, because of the reasons that I think are implied by the noble Lord’s question: the regime in Iran attempts to suggest that those who, of their own free will, take to the streets to protest are somehow foreign interference or meddling by external powers. The…

Lords Debate 9 January 2026

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

My Lords, I will not detain the Committee for very long; the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, can be reassured that I am not in the business of making a long speech. I have in the past expressed my concerns to the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, as to whether judges are the best people to make these decision…

Lords Oral Questions 8 January 2026

Greenland

Having visited the training facilities in Norway, I think that they are first class. Operational decisions, such as the one that the noble Lord has put to me, are not things that I will be commenting on or giving opinions on today.

Lords Oral Questions 7 January 2026

Venezuela

I think that, from a factual perspective, that is indeed correct.

Lords Oral Questions 9 December 2025

Armed Services: Sexual Violence

I will just say to the noble Lord that I try very hard not to be partisan on defence matters. I do not really care whether it was a Conservative Government or a Labour Government. The important principle is that women have made a huge contribution to our Armed Forces. That decision was the right one…

Lords Proceedings 31 October 2025

Ukraine

My Lords, it is inevitable that many speakers today will be covering the same ground, but I do not think that is important because the full impact of the war in Ukraine should be aired in this Chamber. I am delighted that this has been an opportunity to do that. Putin’s “special operation” in Ukrai…

Lords Proceedings 16 October 2025

Middle East

My Lords, does the Leader of the House accept that rabid antisemitism is being taught in Palestinian schools, which is reminiscent of the narrative of the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler, and that this is actually in part financed by the British taxpayer?

Lords Debate 2 July 2025 3 contributions

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill

My Lords, I will not delay the House long. Many years ago, under a Conservative Government, I advocated that Nigel Farage should become a Member of your Lordships’ House. If we had recognised the role that he played in taking Britain out of the EU, people would have said that he does represent the m…

Is the Leader of the House comfortable with the fact that Reform commands 36% of popular support in the polls and has no representation whatever in this House?

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