Lords
Debate
13 July 2026
Railways Bill
My Lords, I echo my noble friend’s concerns. I am a relatively new Member of this House but I believed that significant pieces of legislation were taken on the Floor of the House and that less significant legislation was taken in Grand Committee. I really do not understand why the Government appear …
Lords
Debate
13 July 2026
Clean Water Bill: Chalk Streams
One of the opportunities we have to protect our chalk streams is to prevent off-flow from farms. One way of doing that is to create a biodiversity break between a chalk stream and farming activity. When the Minister looks at these issues, will she examine whether financial support could be provided …
Lords
Debate
7 July 2026
Railways Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, who made some very apposite points about passenger rights. I declare an interest as a member of the UK and Ireland leadership team of AtkinsRéalis and as an adviser to Hutchison Ports.
For me, this is somewhat of an endpoint, since, as the Mi…
Lords
Committee Stage
18 June 2026
Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for his comments on my Amendment 61. I will speak to it only briefly, because it is pretty self-explanatory.
The legislation rightly gives some power to the Government to intervene and, in effect, act as arbiter when it comes to airspace rede…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Prostate Cancer Screening: AI
My Lords, although I very much welcome the programme for Black men, who are at greater risk, does the Minister not accept that very many of us who are not Black—I am one—have benefited from early diagnosis? Does she not accept that, going forward, it will not be sustainable to have testing available…
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Official Development Assistance: Bilateral Allocations
My Lords, on biodiversity aid—and I declare an interest as a trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation—both the United States and France are establishing new-type foundations, which are partnerships between public money and private donations, to increase the amounts of money going into biodiversity…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Lord Mandelson Humble Address
Have the rules now been changed where an official mobile phone is supposedly stolen? Does that have to be reported? What is the process now?
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Water Companies
On these issues, and further to the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, one thing the Government could do, which would be simple and quick, would be to give farmers and landowners permitted development rights to build small ponds and small reservoirs on their land. That would be benef…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 March 2026
Local Government Reorganisation
A large number of areas in the country already have town and parish councils, although I accept that some do not. But town and parish councils are not in scope for local government reorganisation; they will continue to operate as they do now. Central government has no role in funding town and parish…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 February 2026
Global Biodiversity Loss and National Security
I am sure the noble Lord will appreciate that I cannot comment on the ongoing discussions that are taking place with the EU regarding the reset. However, we have been discussing with the EU the importance of not reducing any of our current standards.
Lords
Debate
10 February 2026
5 contributions
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My Lords, I apologise to the Minister and the House that I was unable to be here in Committee because of a family crisis. I am very glad to be here today and to welcome these amendments. I have no intention of moving my own amendment since the Minister has addressed my concerns. The important thing …
My Lords, I rise briefly to speak in support of the amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, on crops, and to share many of the concerns raised about HEFA. I declare my interests on the register as an adviser to AtkinsRéalis—there are a lot of us here today.
My concerns are that, first, I d…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
Nationalised Passenger Rail Services
I should have foreseen that the noble Lord would ask that question. I will have to write to him because I knew he would ask it, but I forgot to research the answer.
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
COP Climate Negotiations: Cities
I do not think the UK can really be determined as failing in its targets at the moment. We will shortly see this Government’s response to legal challenges about the soundness of plans that the Government had put forward recently. We have published a new version of those plans and we are confident th…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 January 2026
Buses: Safety and Security
I have never heard of any mandate for winter tyres. The speed at which the weather changes, given the climate change just discussed in this Chamber, would make changing tyres overnight a seriously impractical activity. What is needed when the roads are frosty and temperatures are below freezing is a…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
Tropical Forest Forever Facility
I will indeed have to write to the noble Lord about where exactly that report is at the moment. I remind him that the UK is extremely active on its biodiversity arrangements, particularly its forestry and woodland arrangements. The target for the 16.5% coverage of woodland and forestry in England by…
Lords
Debate
20 November 2025
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My Lords, I support the Bill. I am not often known to be supporting aviation, but this is the first time there has been a serious attempt to reduce its carbon emissions. At the same time, it can be used also to help the millions of households across Britain that actually do not have access to gas. I…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
South Western Railway
The Government are very reluctant to pay any money to the previous owners, bearing in mind the condition in which the service was left. That discussion is still carrying on, but I am not aware of any money so far being paid and I would not be keen to pay any in the future.
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
3 contributions
Biodiversity and the Countryside
My Lords, when this Government took office 18 months ago, they did so promising environmental recovery, but I have to say that, instead, we have seen a series of steps which, in my view, simultaneously weakened protections, tightened budgets for nature-friendly farming and put development first.
Of…
My Lords, I declare my environmental interests as listed in the register. I am sure we all know that nature in this country is in serious decline, with species and habitats disappearing and only 33% of SSSIs in favourable condition, and they are the jewels in our nature conservation crown. Our river…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
11 November 2025
3 contributions
Airport Expansion
My Lords—
My Lords—
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
22 October 2025
Open Access Rail Services
I am surprised that the noble Lord does not know the answer to that, as one of the many former Secretaries of State for Transport in the Chamber. The answer is that there are protected freight paths on all the main lines that are likely to carry freight, in order that freight operators can respond t…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023
I am aware of what the noble Lord is talking about regarding deforestation. I have been working with Minister Creagh from the other place on this and we are looking at the best way to take it forward.
Lords
Debate
24 July 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I rise to support the principle of what the noble Lord is suggesting, but with a “but”, which I hope the Minister will give some careful thought to across the summer before we come back to debates in the autumn. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, is absolutely right that CCUS is extremely importan…
My Lords, I listened carefully to the noble Baroness’s comments. I was not planning to speak but, given that I was the Secretary of State alongside the Mayor of London when we had the bad news about Crossrail, I thought I would contribute a thought to this discussion.
First, the noble Baroness is r…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
21 July 2025
State of Climate and Nature
My Lords, I do not doubt the Minister’s personal commitment, on biodiversity in particular, but, given that there are still serious misgivings about elements of Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, notwithstanding the amendments last week, given the fact that there is still a serious ques…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Rail Freight
The noble Lord has, of course, some background in this subject, but the Government in his time were unable to invest significantly in increased access for freight, and the fiscal position has not allowed as much investment in that area as the Government would clearly like in unconstrained circumstan…