Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
2 contributions
National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation
My Lords, “welcome” is not quite the right term to use about these reports, but they are indeed absolutely essential. I need to declare that I am the maternity lead, as a non-executive member, at the Whittington Hospital, and I will be at the conference as a member of one of the reference groups tom…
Yes, MIS.
Lords
Debate
1 July 2026
Draft Conversion Practices Bill
My Lords, can I say how much I welcome this draft Bill and the pre-legislative scrutiny that will take place? His Majesty’s loyal Opposition have to sort out their lines on this, because as late as 2023 their Government confirmed their intention to publish a trans-inclusive draft Bill and set out ti…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
British Council
I thank my noble friend for that Answer. I have great affection and support for the British Council, having been a parliamentary ambassador for it for many years, and having met many incoming delegations over the years. What I did not hear in my noble friend’s Answer was a resolution of the punitive…
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2026
Declining Birth Rates
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Nargund on securing this debate, and I note how busy she seems to have been today. I have a strange feeling that she is only just getting started in your Lordships’ House—let us see what happens next. This debate is a veritable banquet of related policy …
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I am, as ever, honoured to be speaking in the debate on the gracious Speech today and I want to address two issues which I think are related: social care and the procurement of people-focused services. They are both central to the delivery of the NHS 10-year plan and the future of social c…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
For Women Scotland Case
My noble friend will understand that I must declare an interest: I am on the programme board for R&R. The original legislation made it clear that accessibility and equality are key parts of the R&R programme. That is the most important thing. It is not simply about access to toilets; people …
Lords
Debate
16 April 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I sincerely apologise to the Minister for not being here for the beginning of his speech. He will be glad to know my athleticism, as I was running down the corridor, allowed for me to be in time for his reference to Motion T, which I will speak to briefly. It deals with the glorification o…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
NHS Adult Gender Identity Clinics
Yes, I can assure my noble friend that patients are treated as individuals and their care is personalised. It is important, as my noble friend says, to recognise that the law presumes that patients aged 16 and over have capacity to consent to medical treatment. I can also give the reassurance, ackno…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I declare an interest as a non-executive director of the Whittington Hospital, where we serve many of these communities. I can assure the noble Lord that we put a lot of resource, very successfully, into supporting our clients and patients, from whichever group they come and whatever capacity proble…
I also note that I come from Bradford, where all my family live, and we do the same there, too.
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I should like to ask the noble Baroness—
My Lords, it is normal to take questions and interventions as this is a debate so, before the noble Baroness sits down, can I ask her whether she believes that all 50 countries that have decriminalised abortion are wrong?
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Humanist Weddings
My Lords, the Government announced on 2 October last year that they intend to reform weddings law when parliamentary time allows. Our reforms will reflect a commitment to making marriage law fairer, simpler and more modern, while protecting the solemnity and dignity of marriage. We want to create a …
My noble friend should not apologise for raising this matter again; I think the entire House will want to thank her for her continued commitment to driving this forward. I had a feeling that, if my noble friend did not ask what “early” meant, somebody else would. I thought about replying “at pace” b…
Lords
Proceedings
6 March 2026
International Women’s Day
My Lords—or can I just say “Colleagues”?—I am very glad to have the opportunity to contribute to today’s debate, and what a pleasure it is to follow my noble friend Lady Thornton. I congratulate all the maiden speakers today. They were all excellent. They will all enrich the House, and I am sure the…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
Is my noble friend aware that they actually had an extensive debate on this matter in the Commons?
Lords
Proceedings
24 February 2026
Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving
My Lords, I welcome this initiative and the document—they are brilliant. However, I want to ask about the children who might have to attend a special school because of their particular needs and the challenges that they face. As somebody has already mentioned, one of the problems that local authorit…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
2 contributions
Better Start Longitudinal Programmes
My Lords, we welcome the valuable learning that is emerging from the five Better Start partnerships and we look forward to the national evaluation report in the spring. The programmes provide important insights into early-years support in highly disadvantaged areas. Best Start Family Hubs and Health…
The work in Bradford is to be commended. I can assure my noble friend that, through Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies, local authorities will be expected to do exactly what the noble Baroness says is happening in Bradford: that is, to establish very inclusive and diverse routes for parent an…
Lords
Debate
4 February 2026
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, I also congratulate the noble Lords, Lord Roe and Lord Duvall, on entering this House. As a newbie myself—I have been here only about six weeks—I know that it is an enormous privilege, as well as incredibly hard work.
The principle at the heart of this Bill is the right one: UK-trained me…
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Does the noble Lord believe that the 379 MPs who voted for this were duped into it in some way?
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, has been around this circuit before, I think on a Private Member’s Bill proposed by one of his noble friends, about collecting the statistics. It shows that he does not actually seem to have checked what statistics are already collected before deciding that th…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
9 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Does the noble Baroness accept that none of these things has happened in Northern Ireland? We changed the law and decriminalised abortion in Northern Ireland several years ago and literally none of the things that she is mentioning has happened there—nor in any of the other 50 countries where aborti…
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 461J. I thank my noble friend Lady Goudie, the noble Lord, Lord Patel, and the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, for supporting it.
The amendment seeks to add a new clause after Clause 191 that would pardon women who have had a conviction or cau…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I am slightly puzzled. I have of course read the Minister’s letters, but I am not quite sure why the noble Baroness is speaking about these in the middle of a discussion about clause 1 standing part. Is she supporting the clause standing part or not? Surely that is the debate we are supposed to be h…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, the public sector equality duty exists so that our public services in the UK, which are funded by all of us, obey the laws on equalities. It is there because that is not what used to happen—and sometimes it still does not happen. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, that all he had to do…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 January 2026
Equality and Human Rights Commission: Code of Practice
My Lords, that is an important principle in terms of the interpretation of law and the sometimes difficult ways in which law is applied. The For Women Scotland judgment on the definition of “sex” within the Equality Act was clear, but it is important that it is applied in a way that both has legal c…
Lords
Proceedings
14 January 2026
Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes
My Lords, from any reasonable reading of the Online Safety Act, X either failed completely to carry out a risk assessment in relation to the potential of its Grok AI tool to create harmful content or, if it did so, it did it in such a totally incompetent way that it might as well not have bothered.
…
Lords
Proceedings
18 December 2025
Puberty Suppressants Trial
My Lords, I first join my noble friend the Minister in congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, and I also congratulate my right honourable friend the Secretary of State, for the transparency with which this has already been dealt. Members will be aware that, across parties and across both Hous…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I would like to ask the noble Baroness whether the Select Committee asked anybody who is terminally ill what they thought “persuasion” or “coercion” might mean?
The noble Baroness is not answering my question. The truth is, of course, that the committee did not ask anybody who is terminally ill what their view was about any of this.
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
2 contributions
Dyscalculia
My Lords, we know that some children face real challenges in maths, particularly those with dyscalculia and other special educational needs. That is why we are supporting schools through our national RISE maths hubs, helping teachers deliver effective, inclusive lessons. Our Curriculum and Assessmen…
My Lords, I very much recognise what my noble friend says about the challenges that children with dyscalculia have in relation to their maths. Probably where we differ is on whether it is necessary to name those things in order to make sure that children get support: we do not believe that a child s…