Lords
Debate
13 July 2026
Railways Bill
Just before the Minister rises, I ask him to forgive me, as an even newer Member of the House than my noble friend. I fear that we, as former Transport Secretaries, have managed to appear in threes; I hope that will not be a precedent.
I echo what my noble friends said. This is supposed to be a fla…
Lords
Debate
13 July 2026
Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I will speak briefly in support of my noble friend Lord Moylan’s two amendments. I have some general remarks about them, and two specific points which are questions to the Minister.
The first point, which I will not labour at length since we dealt with it in Committee, is the focus of my …
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
My Lords, I am grateful for the Minister’s opening Answer, when he noted that the Maritime Minister was reflecting. This sounds like a case where it would be better to embrace the court decision, recognise the worker status and take the steps necessary to properly reward people who do incredibly val…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Drink-Driving
My Lords, perhaps I might ask the Minister, given that there have been questions both about reducing the threshold for drink driving but also about enforcement from the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, what is the Government’s assessment, because it was not clear from the road safety plan, of the bigges…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Immigration and Asylum: Appeals
My Lords, I accept that the Minister is a little frustrated, but this is what happens when you trail things in the media ahead of a Bill being published. He cannot expect people not to have questions. If he does not want questions in advance, he should not do the trailing. In the trailing in the med…
Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Waste Management Carriers: Regulation
My Lords, to follow up on the Minister’s answer to the noble Lord, Lord Beamish, he perfectly properly trumpeted increased prosecution and enforcement statistics, but those are meaningful only if we know how big a proportion of the whole problem they represent. What confidence does she have that the…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
NHS: Dementia Treatment Trials
My Lords, NHS England has said that implementing some of the new, promising drugs that exist, when they get clearance from NICE, is going to be one of the biggest challenges the NHS has faced in its 75 years. Is the Minister confident that the steps that she has set out for improving diagnosis are u…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Lord Mandelson Humble Address
My Lords, can I just probe the Minister a little more on that question? The messages that were published between Lord Mandelson and the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister were clearly within the terms of the humble Address. They were not published. That raises two questions. First, why did the Mi…
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
UK Defence Capability
My Lords, the Minister drew attention to recent reports in the media about funding the defence investment plan. Given that we are only a few weeks away from its publication, assuming it does hit the pre-NATO summit deadline, does he think that what can only be described as a Cabinet whip-round to pa…
Lords
Committee Stage
4 June 2026
2 contributions
AI Regulation Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Holmes for securing this debate, which has given us the opportunity, albeit briefly, to talk about this subject. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Alexander, for what I think was intended as a kind remark.
I support a principles-based approach, which is no…
Just before the Minister sits down—we have seven minutes left before the debate runs out—can I ask her a question? My noble friend Lord Holmes drew attention to the Government’s original commitment to legislate for a cross-sector approach, and he referenced how the Government have now dropped that c…
Lords
Proceedings
3 June 2026
Cabinet Manual: Guidelines for Government Formation
My Lords, as the Minister responsible for the production of the Cabinet Manual in 2011, I have to confess that I expected that it would have been updated before now, so I welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday. I can confirm that one section that does not need updating is the bit about…
Lords
Debate
2 June 2026
Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill [HL]
My Lords, before I start my remarks, I draw attention to my declaration in the register of interests as the non-executive chair of RVL Aviation.
The Minister will, I hope, be pleased to know that I, for one, broadly support the Bill, although there are some areas where I have some questions and con…
Lords
Proceedings
1 June 2026
For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers
My Lords, I draw the Minister back to the noble Lord’s original Question, which was about which government departments are not complying with the Supreme Court’s judgment. I asked the noble Lord, Lord Collins, twice in this House to confirm that all government departments were fully complying with t…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
2 contributions
Supermarkets: Voluntary Price Caps
My Lords—
I am grateful to the Government Chief Whip. The Minister will be aware that the Scottish Government are proposing compulsory caps on the prices of basic foodstuffs in supermarkets that operate in Scotland. Can the Minister confirm for the benefit of your Lordships whether that power is actually with…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
Defence, Security and Resilience Bank
My Lords, on a note of agreement, I agree with the Minister—I think—on his position on the defence bank, which may surprise him. He set out the importance of defence procurement. Given that there was much speculative briefing over the past few days about the Government’s defence spending commitments…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address
My Lords, can I press the Minister a little on the timing point and the need for scrutiny? Presumably, the Government are planning on a Minister, in both the other place and this place, making a Statement when this information is published: I see that the noble Baroness is nodding. She was careful t…
Lords
Debate
24 April 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I thank the noble Lord for giving way. As he indicated, over 300 disability groups have expressed concerns about this. I do not think that a single disability group has come out in favour of it. That has led, in part, to the problems that we have faced. There has been a wide range of amendments, par…
My Lords, the House of Commons and the public want the Bill, but the number of amendments and the length of the speeches mean that we have run out of time, so it cannot go back to the Commons. This is bad for democracy. Even more seriously, it is bad for the terminally ill—those mentally competent a…
Lords
Proceedings
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
My Lords, the Prime Minister made it clear that he would have not made the appointment if he had the information from UK Security Vetting. At any point, did the Prime Minister or those working for him ask what the result of the UK security vetting process was? If not, why not?
Lords
Proceedings
15 April 2026
Southport Inquiry
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his comprehensive answers. He is of course absolutely right that, for many of the recommendations, the Government must take the time to think through their response to get it right. However, people looking at the Fulford report will have noticed the system…
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
14 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The noble Baroness said that she does not want a publicly available register. Does she think that the patients of a general practitioner have the right to know whether that general practitioner is willing to provide assisted suicide services?
My Lords, I want to cover a couple of points and reflect on what the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, said, which was that, despite the debate, there is a sense that people are agreed that this should be an opt-in rather than an opt-out process. The problem is that the way the Bill is draf…
+12 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
25 March 2026
Small Boat Deaths: Cranston Inquiry Report
I compliment the noble Lord on instituting the report when he was Secretary of State, because losing more than 30 lives at sea is clearly a very serious matter. I have already said that there are now many more resources for Border Force, the coastguard and, when necessary, the RNLI, with a view to m…
Lords
Proceedings
23 March 2026
2 contributions
UK Steel Strategy
My Lords, the Minister knows that tariffs are a tax paid by the consumers of the steel that will be introduced. I have looked carefully in the steel strategy, and I cannot see any analysis of the impact of those increased costs on either our domestic construction sector or our domestic manufacturing…
My Lords, since there is still time, can I just press the Minister on her attempted answer to my question? She did not confirm that there had been any kind of economic analysis. She said that there had been engagement with the sector. Can she tell us whether the customers of the steel industry—manuf…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
11 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I want to touch on a number of points. First, I join the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, in welcoming my noble and learned friend Lady Prentis back to these Benches. I do not think she will mind my saying that she has been following our debates assiduously from home—she cannot get enough of them…
I recognise the noble Baroness’s view, but the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, asked why we should not just go ahead and legislate for Wales. The point is that the Welsh Senedd has debated this matter, which is a perfectly good reason for us not to proceed without its consent. I will come on to some of th…
+9 more contributions in this session