Lords
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
Steel Sector
On the consultation with the industry, the industry clearly states that arc furnaces are the future. They have a lower cost of production and lower overheads in terms of manpower. I cannot give an exact number on steel production. We are trying to make sure that we have the right amount of trade mea…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
Atlantic Undersea Cables: Russian Subsurface Operations
I am confident that the defence investment plan will come forward with a large number of investments, which, as the noble Viscount points out, will be vital to the future defence of our country. He has been a doughty proponent of GCAP, an arrangement between us, Japan and Italy for a new generation …
Lords
Debate
13 April 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I did not realise that we had moved on to winding speeches. I wholeheartedly endorse what the Minister said about the late Lord Beecham and add my condolences.
With the leave of the House, I would like to comment briefly on Amendment 187, tabled by my noble friends Lady Scott and Lord Jam…
My Lords, different voting systems have different advantages and disadvantages. As the Minister knows, first past the post is simple and allows the winner to be representative of all those who voted for them and of those who did not. It reduces the chance of minority-led, unstable Administrations. I…
Lords
Proceedings
26 March 2026
Middle East: Economic Update
My Lords, following on from the noble Baroness’s question about grid capacity and upgrading the grid, does the Minister not agree that the more small nuclear we can introduce instead of intermittent renewable sources—such as onshore and offshore wind—the better, because it is firm baseload power? Al…
Lords
Debate
24 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, as many noble Lords have said this afternoon, not only on these Benches, the Bill is titled the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill but it seems that it does the exact opposite. I strongly support my noble friends Lady Scott and Lord Jamieson’s amendments in this group.
Amal…
Lords
Proceedings
9 March 2026
Energy Markets
Can the Minister please tell the House why the Government have delayed publishing their response to last November’s report from the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce? Are they going to act and implement the review’s recommendations, and if so, when? It is hugely regrettable that we have thrown away our f…
Lords
Committee Stage
11 February 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I add my voice in support of the noble Lord, Lord Bassam. Everything he said makes a great deal of sense. It is hugely important to consider the identity of the authorities being created in terms of their communities and place-making. I am also tempted to support the noble Baroness, Lady B…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Royal Navy: Caribbean
The Royal Navy has supported partners in the Middle East with operations that have included a significant seizure of more than £30 million-worth of drugs in 2025 alone. I understand the question that the noble Viscount is asking and am happy to take that message back to the Ministry of Defence. Howe…
Lords
Committee Stage
9 February 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I am rather confused about this amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, which seeks to require a mayor with fire and rescue authority functions to delegate those functions to a deputy mayor for fire and rescue. In an earlier discussion, the Committee debated the appointment of…
Lords
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I would like to add my voice in support of Amendment 168 and the other amendments to which my noble friend Lady Noakes has spoken.
It seems quite counterproductive for legislation to discourage innovation and the introduction of new types of investment based on different strategies in ord…
My Lords, I want briefly to say how strongly I support Amendment 176, so eloquently proposed by my noble friend Lord Younger. The noble Lord, Lord Davies, ignores the fact that the pension reforms of the last 15 years have led to a massive increase in the number of employees saving for retirement. I…
Lords
Committee Stage
27 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I agree very much with most of what the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, just said. I have been unhappy with much of Clause 9 since I first read it, and I look forward to hearing what my noble friends have to say about it, because they have also added their names to the intention from the noble L…
Lords
Committee Stage
26 January 2026
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I will not go into too much detail. I should, because I was not here last week, declare an interest, in that I am a director of a Guernsey-based, open-ended protected cell company and a London-listed, closed-ended investment company. Neither of them begins to approach the necessary size to…
My Lords, briefly, it is not appropriate for legislation to tell the trustees of pension funds, in any case, that they can make investments in some types of structure but not in others. It should be entirely up to the trustees, in exercising their fiduciary duties, to determine what investments they…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 January 2026
Ministry of Defence: Budget Shortfall
Many decisions will be subject to the defence investment plan. The noble Viscount has been an advocate of the GCAP programme for a number of years and was berating me a few months ago regarding whether the Government support the programme. He knows that the Government support it, and he has seen the…
Lords
Committee Stage
12 January 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I support this amendment, which was so well introduced by my noble friend Lord Younger and so well spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles of Berkhamsted. The Bill is very complicated. It is not absolutely clear to me what it means. It is also, as my noble friend Lord Younger explaine…
Lords
Debate
18 December 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I should preface my remarks by declaring an interest in that I am a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme. I am, of course, much too young to be drawing any benefits from that scheme as yet.
It is a great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Trenchard, who gave us a good, detai…
Lords
Debate
20 November 2025
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My Lords, the carbon content of fossil fuels has been accumulating over eons by the removal of carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere via biological processes of photosynthesis, depending on chlorophyll and powered by sunlight. Such processes are highly efficient in their use of energy but they …
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Litter on Canal Towpaths
My Lords, I shall not repeat at length the points so eloquently made by my noble friends Lord Evans and Lord Trenchard. I will, however, make one or two slightly different points.
As my noble friend Lord Trenchard has identified, litter by canals can have three principal impacts. The first are envi…
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
Economic and Taxation Policies: Jobs, Growth and Prosperity
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Trenchard’s excellent speech. My reported understanding is that there is effectively nobody in the Cabinet who has emerged out of the private business sector. One sector that feels this strongly is small business. For many years, I have…
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, the arguments I will put forward in support of my Amendment 254 are similar to those that I put to your Lordships in support of my Amendment 147, so I do not need to repeat them at length—and not only because of the late hour. I am not certain that environmental delivery plans are the righ…
Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support my noble friends Lord Blencathra and Lord Bellingham—who will I think speak later in this group—and other noble Lords in their Amendment 146. I agree with everything that has been said.
Your Lordships may wonder why I am also so keen to support Amendment 147, in the name of the …
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
2 contributions
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
My Lords, the UK and the EU are working towards establishing a common sanitary and phytosanitary area that will remove trade barriers for areas within the scope of the agreement. The UK will not be rejoining the single market or customs union. Our focus will be to regulate consistently with the EU o…
My Lords, quite rightly we have reset our relations with European partners to improve our diplomatic, economic and security co-operation following Brexit. We are now looking at the opportunities that can follow on from that. The discussions with the EU are at an early stage. We signed a common under…
Lords
Debate
24 July 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I listened with interest to the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, and I can assure her that, having heard last week from both the chairman and the chief executive of the Office for Nuclear Regulation, who appeared before the Industry and Regulators Committee on which I serve, I …
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Great British Energy: Nuclear Development
I thank the noble Viscount for that question. The Government’s approach is that these two, Great British Energy and Great British Energy-Nuclear, are allied organisations that will probably work together to produce more clean energy into the future. The target for GBE-N is to focus on small modular …
Lords
Proceedings
18 July 2025
Strategic Defence Review 2025
My Lords, in trying to summarise the debate so far, I suggest, roughly speaking, that the sentiment of the House is huge support—with the exception of one contribution—for the strategic defence review, but with a big question mark about whether we really mean it: what would it actually take to get i…
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I agree entirely with what my noble friend Lord Lucas has just said. I support in principle Amendment 8, in the name of the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington, but I think he is rather timid. If he believes in substantive reform of your Lordships’ House, he should table an amendment to ach…
I am addressing Amendment 8 and addressing the general debate on the group. I am about to conclude my remarks, if the noble Baroness will allow me.
It would have been a nod to PR and, in terms of numbers, it would benefit the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party, but it would be less devastating …