Baroness Ludford — Hansard — Westminster Brief

Lords Proceedings 23 July 2025

Financial Services Reform

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Statement. The Government want to reintroduce informed risk-taking into our financial services system to deliver prosperity for working people. As my noble friend Lady Kramer pointed out, the last time we had risk-taking in the financial services system in a co…

Lords Debate 10 July 2025 6 contributions

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, Amendments 100 and 101 are in my name and that of my noble friend Lord German. I will also speak to Amendment 206, tabled by my noble friend Lady Hamwee, with me and the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, as signatories. These amendments are all about co-operation with Europol in variou…

I thank the Minister for that response. The tone and approach go very much in the direction and spirit of the amendments, even if their drafting is not entirely fit, in the Minister’s mind. He is right that they were designed to illustrate the very welcome change of approach of the current Governmen…

+4 more contributions in this session

Lords Debate 10 July 2025

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I will say a couple of words in support of these amendments from my noble friend. As the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, just remarked, it is not as if these changes would be difficult to make: the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, referred to them as simple improvements to the process. My noble friend …

Lords Debate 4 July 2025

Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I want to contribute to this debate as I did at Second Reading, not that I have the expertise on the justice system that other participants have. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Woodley, for championing the Bill. I agree, as the noble Lord, Lord Hastings, just said, that this is an injustice …

Lords Proceedings 3 July 2025

British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty

My Lords, in the debate on Monday I had the chance to namecheck the Chagos all-party parliamentary group, which I think was founded in 2008. I have been involved in it for a lot of that time. I think it would recognise that this treaty is the first time the Chagossians have secured the right to visi…

Lords Proceedings 30 June 2025

UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago

My Lords, I congratulate the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Prentis of Banbury, on a fine and exhilarating maiden speech. She was my MP until regime change last year, so I personally welcome her to the House. We will certainly miss the noble Lord, Lord Boswell of Aynho. We will miss his consistent…

Lords Debate 26 June 2025 3 contributions

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I will add a couple of points to the excellent points that have been made by previous speakers. My noble friend Lady Hamwee’s point about the opportunism that is evident in the kinds of product that criminals can switch between was well made: they might one day smuggle people and another d…

My Lords, Amendment 71 is in my name and that of my noble friend Lord German. I had expected that it would be grouped with my mine and others’ amendments about Europol. Those are in later groups, but this one got bounced up, I guess for understandable reasons because it is about a duty on the border…

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Lords Oral Questions 17 June 2025

E-scooters, E-bikes and Pedal Bikes: Legislation

The one thing that I did not say was that the Government are doing nothing. The Government are considering very seriously what needs to be done to deal with this issue, and noble Lords will know—because I put it in the Library—that the range of legislation affecting particularly e-bikes and e-scoote…

Lords Debate 13 June 2025 3 contributions

Asylum Support (Prescribed Period) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I very much agree with the closing words of the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, and everything he said. Unlike him, I had not come today with the intention of taking part in the proceedings on the Bill, and I apologise to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for that. Actually, after three…

It was 4.16 —I cannot remember which Bill it was; it is all a bit of a haze. Was it the Rwanda one? Being turfed out and then trying to find your way home at 4.16 in the morning, particularly as a woman, is not great. But that was that Administration. The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, has confirmed …

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Lords Proceedings 4 June 2025

Thames Water

What lessons are the Government learning from the water sector experience for other regulated industries? As the Minister said, there have been decades of underinvestment. The 1990s European law should have been implemented, and successive Governments, including the last Labour Government, failed to…

Lords Debate 2 June 2025

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Harper, on his maiden speech. I thought he was not going to be in his place, so, in his absence, I was going to risk his reputation by saying that when he was Transport Minister, I think the unions always had a good-faith relationship with h…

Lords Proceedings 21 May 2025

UK-EU Summit

My Lords, the outcome of the summit is welcome, and the restored trust has been vital, although it does leave a lot of detail to be filled in. I fear that the Conservative reaction is insulting to business. There are also limits to what we can get, imposed by the Government themselves. For instance,…

Lords Debate 19 May 2025

Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this important debate. I will first speak to the issues around accurate recording of sex data before coming on to talk about scientific research. Throughout the passage of the Bill, we have been clear that digital verification services will …

Lords Oral Questions 19 May 2025

Sport England: Equality Act 2010

It is really important that we do not tangle up different issues. We want everyone to be able to participate in sport in a way that ensures they feel safe. One of the ways we can do this is by ensuring that young women feel confident about their bodies—a lot of young women do not feel confident abou…

Lords Proceedings 15 May 2025

Immigration System

My Lords, the Statement and the White Paper both refer to illegal and irregular migration, which is better than what we have heard recently—lumping them both into illegal. Can the Minister confirm that it is legal to enter a country to seek asylum—although, obviously, if it is refused then the perso…

Lords Debate 12 May 2025 2 contributions

Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I too will speak to Motions 32A and 52A. Just to follow on from the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, I really appreciated that the Minister understood the concerns of those who moved these amendments. But, as the noble Baroness pointed out, reassurances have been given in this House, over man…

I apologise to the noble Baroness if she found that dismissive. My point was to try to say that there is a clear imperative under the new situation to have biological sex verified as biological sex. As a result—though not in all cases; I have given an example where it would be inappropriate to have …

Lords Oral Questions 7 May 2025

Antisemitism on University Campuses

My Lords, if you were a student attending Bristol University on 20 March this year—I pick a date more or less at random—you would have had the usual cornucopia of choices as to how to spend your evening. These were just a few of your options. You could have attended the French society’s games night …

Lords Oral Questions 7 May 2025 2 contributions

Sport: Supreme Court Ruling on Sex and Gender

My Lords—

I am sure the noble Baroness is right that a whole range of different organisations are currently considering their practice. The Supreme Court ruling brings clarity about the definition of sex, and it is on that basis that a whole range of organisations, including the police, should be considering …

Lords Oral Questions 1 May 2025

For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers: Interim Update

I hope that I have demonstrated today that the Government does properly understand them. As I said last week, it is important that this whole debate is carried out in a spirit of understanding the complexities of the application of some of these provisions and recognition that all groups need to be …

Lords Oral Questions 1 May 2025

Prosthetics for Amputees

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Mackinlay of Richborough for securing this debate. I also pay tribute to him for his courage in the various battles he has faced in recent years, and for his determination to come back and return to public life. I have to say that I am simply in awe of h…

Lords Oral Questions 1 May 2025

NHS: Single-sex Spaces for Staff

My Lords, the fact that we are here today to discuss this subject, against the background of the Supreme Court’s ruling, is a total indictment of the body politic in this Parliament. I served on the then Equality Bill back in 2010, in the Commons. The words in the Supreme Court judgment, at paragrap…