Lord in Waiting/Government Whip — Hansard

Lords Oral Questions 22 July 2025 9 contributions

Great British Energy: Nuclear Development

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. The Treasury cut one-third of Great British Energy’s budget and its investment powers, clipping its wings before it could fly. A renaming sleight of hand does not make Labour’s manifesto pledge add up. The promise to fully capitalise Great British Energ…

My Lords, my noble friend mentioned small modular nuclear reactors, in which the UK clearly has an advantage in terms of technology. How can he ensure that jobs in the UK economy will be underpinned by that programme? Will it encourage young people to get into the nuclear field?

+7 more contributions in this session

Lords Statutory Instrument 21 July 2025

Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 3 and 11 June be approved. Considered in Grand Committee on 16 July .

Lords Statutory Instrument 16 July 2025

Nuclear Installations (Compensation for Nuclear Damage) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 19 May and 2 June be approved. Considered in Grand Committee on 14 July .

Lords Committee Stage 16 July 2025 4 contributions

Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) (Amendment) Order 2025

My Lords, this order was laid before the House on 11 June. This Government remain steadfast in their commitment to ensuring that homes are warmer, more energy efficient and more affordable to heat. At the heart of this endeavour lies the warm homes plan, a comprehensive and long-term strategy to red…

My Lords, I once again thank the Minister for presenting and introducing the statutory instrument before us. I declare my interest as honorary president of National Energy Action, which, as I think the Minister will realise, is based in Newcastle, not a million miles from where he used to represent.…

+2 more contributions in this session

Lords Committee Stage 16 July 2025 3 contributions

Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

My Lords, these regulations were laid before the House on 3 June 2025. I am most grateful for the opportunity to join this Committee’s proceedings today. This instrument seeks to make technical improvements and changes to the capacity market scheme, the Government’s main tool for ensuring security …

My Lords, I have only one brief question in thanking the Minister for moving this statutory instrument so eloquently. In his opening remarks, he referred to the responses to the consultations, particularly the first. I quote paragraph 7.2 of the Explanatory Memorandum: “42 responses were received f…

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Debate 15 July 2025

Renters’ Rights Bill

My Lords, before we start the debate on the first group, I want to repeat earlier reminders on declaring interests for, I hope, the final time. As we set out previously, noble Lords should declare relevant interests at each stage of proceedings on a Bill. That means that in their first contribution …

Lords Committee Stage 14 July 2025 4 contributions

Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 3) Regulations 2025

My Lords, the Government have committed to achieving clean power by 2030 and the contracts for difference—CfD—scheme will play a key role in achieving that ambition. The clean power action plan, published in December last year, outlined several key reforms to the CfD scheme ahead of allocation round…

My Lords, I declare an interest as an unpaid director of the campaign group Net Zero Watch. I think the Secretary of State for Energy is at the moment giving a Statement in the Commons on the state of the climate and energy in which he promised—or, at least, briefed—that there would be some radical …

+2 more contributions in this session

Lords Committee Stage 14 July 2025 3 contributions

Nuclear Installations (Compensation for Nuclear Damage) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

My Lords, the regulations were laid before the house on 19 May 2025 and the Government have published an Explanatory Memorandum alongside them. This instrument makes technical changes to the way the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, known as the CSC, will operate in the UK…

My Lords, we very much welcome these changes and we thank the Government for taking a world-leading approach here. The Government seek a resurgence of nuclear power, both large-scale reactors and SMRs, as part of their plan to decarbonise our energy generation and reach net-zero goals. It is absolut…

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Committee Stage 9 July 2025

National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks Infrastructure

That the Grand Committee takes note of the initial proposed National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks Infrastructure.

Lords Committee Stage 9 July 2025

National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure

That the Grand Committee takes note of the initial proposed National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure.

Lords Committee Stage 9 July 2025 4 contributions

Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy

My Lords, I shall speak to all three Motions in my name on the Order Paper at the same time. I am pleased to open the debate. The energy national policy statements set out the Government’s policy for the delivery of energy infrastructure and provide the legal framework for planning decisions on nati…

I thank my noble friend the Minister for his introduction to the energy policy statements before the Committee. They are necessary and important. Energy security and lower bills for consumers can best be delivered by delivering clean power by 2030 on the pathway to net zero. This is a vital growth o…

+2 more contributions in this session

Lords Proceedings 8 July 2025 2 contributions

Heathrow Substation Outage: NESO Review

My Lords, I will now repeat a Statement made in another place. The Statement is as follows: “With permission, I would like to make a Statement on the publication of the report from the National Energy System Operator following its review into the fire at the North Hyde substation on 20 March. NESO’…

I thank noble Lords for their questions and comments. We have never had a blackout in this country in the lifetime of the national grid. We are very proud of the resilience of the grid. We had this incident at Heathrow, but the number of problems like that is very small, and we are going to learn fr…

Lords Debate 7 July 2025

Renters’ Rights Bill

My Lords, before we start the debate on the first group of amendments, I repeat the reminders from last week on declaring interests. As we set out previously, noble Lords should declare relevant interests at each stage of proceedings on a Bill. That means that, in their first contribution on Report,…

Lords Oral Questions 3 July 2025 9 contributions

Grangemouth Oil Refinery Closure: Job Losses

I thank the Minister for his Answer. I speak as the former leader of Unite the Union. My union, and indeed the people at the sharp end in Grangemouth, believe that converting the existing refinery to produce sustainable aviation fuel, which is much needed by the industry now and in the future, is by…

My Lords, on these Benches, we believe in a just transition, and I know that the Government do too, but, more broadly, what action are this Government taking to be proactive and not reactive in this space? The truth is that a blizzard of ideas, policies and proposals, just coming too late, do not wo…

+7 more contributions in this session

Lords Debate 1 July 2025

Renters’ Rights Bill

My Lords, before we start the debate on the first group, I want to repeat my reminders to the House in Committee on declaring interests. As we set out previously, noble Lords should declare relevant interests at each stage of proceedings on a Bill. That means that in their first contribution on Repo…

Lords Oral Questions 24 June 2025

Music Education: State Schools

My Lords, I declare my interest as chairman of the Royal College of Music, of which the noble Baroness, Lady Debbonaire, is a distinguished alumna. We have had countless debates on this subject over the years. Each time another comes along I feel a growing sense of frustration—indeed anger—because, …

Lords Statutory Instrument 23 June 2025 5 contributions

Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

The House may recall that, on 12 February, the Government made a Statement confirming that we intend to introduce short-term support for large-scale biomass generators to ensure the UK’s continued security of supply. Following a robust public consultation process, we published our consultation respo…

My Lords, as I think the Minister has already alluded to, this amendment to the Motion closely mirrors the comments made both by our own Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee and by the Public Accounts Committee. It regrets that these draft regulations “fail to clearly identify their subject as …

+3 more contributions in this session

Lords Statutory Instrument 23 June 2025

Pollution Prevention and Control (Fees) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025

That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 22 April be approved. Considered in Grand Committee on 17 June.

Lords Committee Stage 17 June 2025 3 contributions

Pollution Prevention and Control (Fees) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025

My Lords, these regulations were laid before the House on 23 April and were debated and agreed by the House of Commons on 20 May. I am most grateful for the opportunity to join the Grand Committee’s proceedings. Before outlining the provisions made by this draft instrument, I will briefly provide s…

My Lords, we are in favour of and support these proposed changes. The original regulations allowed the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning—OPRED—to recover the eligible costs of providing regulatory services from the offshore…

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Proceedings 16 June 2025

Conflict in the Middle East

I respectfully say that we just want questions, not statements, because a lot of noble Lords want to get in.

Lords Oral Questions 16 June 2025 9 contributions

Social Energy Tariff

My Lords, I am grateful for the Minister’s response; I think all Members, on both sides of the House, agree that this is needed. Given the situation the Government found themselves in financially, I congratulate them on finding the resources within that difficult period to do something positive abou…

My Lords, speaking as honorary president of National Energy Action, I ask the Minister: would it not be better to increase the warm home discount for those households already eligible—it has not been increased for about the last three to five years—rather than extending the same amount, a very small…

+7 more contributions in this session

Lords Debate 11 June 2025 3 contributions

Holocaust Memorial Bill

My Lords, as everybody knows, we are now on Report. These issues have been debated extensively in Committee, so we do not need any Second Reading speeches. I urge noble Lords to reflect that in their contributions to the debate. This is a self-regulating Chamber, and one of the characteristics of th…

With great respect, I remind the noble Lord that, in deciding the fate of his amendment, it is not necessary to respond to all the points raised in the debate. It might be helpful to the House if he could proceed to a decision.

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Lords Debate 11 June 2025

Holocaust Memorial Bill

The noble Baroness has spoken for 10 minutes. I hope she can now bring her remarks to an end, considering this is Report and not Committee stage of the Bill, and a lot of these arguments were rehearsed then.

Lords Statutory Instrument 9 June 2025

Pension Fund Clearing Obligation Exemption (Amendment) Regulations 2025

That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 17 March and 28 April be approved. Relevant document: 25th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Considered in Grand Committee on 5 June.

Lords Debate 6 June 2025 2 contributions

Crown Estate (Wales) Bill [HL]

My Lords, before I start my speech, I pay tribute to our Armed Forces who participated in D-Day 81 years ago today. I will mention the 2nd Battalion of the South Wales Borderers and the Durham Light Infantry, who fought side by side on the beaches that day. We will never forget their sacrifices. Wh…

My Lords, as I have already set out, the Government believe that the Crown Estate, as it currently operates across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, provides the best outcomes for Wales and the wider United Kingdom. I will not repeat the arguments I set out earlier in this debate. I thank the no…