Lords
Debate
23 April 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to everybody who spoke. For all the reasons we rehearsed in our arguments when we moved the amendments, I would like to test the opinion of the House.
Lords
Debate
13 April 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I shall be living through the reality that my noble friend Lord Fuller has just outlined: in Eastbourne, we will be completely unparished. The people have been consulted and, having listened to my noble friend beforehand, decided that they do not want an unlimited precept in a town of 150,…
My Lords, I had a large number of amendments to my noble friend’s amendment, but I have reduced them in the interests of simplicity and time.
As my noble friend Lord Jamieson has pointed out, at an earlier stage we were promised a government review of this area. To me, that seems entirely appropria…
Lords
Debate
23 March 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I am delighted to see this series of requests for reviews. I support my noble friend’s Amendment 157. I support also my noble friend on the Front Bench in his Amendment 159, which he will no doubt speak to in due course. It echoes what the noble Lord, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, said on a prev…
Lords
Debate
19 March 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, we know that a much higher percentage of pension fund assets could happily be invested in UK assets; indeed, that was the case when I was managing pension funds. It is not the case now entirely because of what politicians have done to the system. We should seek to undo that, not fudge it, …
Lords
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
2 contributions
Plan 2 Student Loans: Repayment Terms
My Lords, before I answer the noble Lord’s Question, I thought it appropriate to start by mentioning the devastating news regarding the outbreak of meningitis in Kent at the weekend. Our thoughts are with the families, friends and loved ones of those who have died and with everyone who is currently …
In our manifesto we committed to raising teacher standards in higher education. Every student deserves the best possible quality from their investment. I am pleased to say that we are working closely with the education sector and providers to make sure that that quality is, first, across the board b…
Lords
Debate
16 March 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, it is a long time since I was managing big pension funds in the 1980s. In those days, we were in the happy position of considering it a bit underweight if you had less than half your money in British stocks; now, it is 5%. It is extraordinary for politicians to have done that to the econom…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
12 March 2026
3 contributions
Schools (Recording and Reporting of Seclusion and Restraint) (England) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for drawing my attention to these regulations. The committee is the punishment battalion of the House of Lords committee system. I have served my time on it and know that you get a huge pile of papers every week and you absolute…
My Lords, I have spent many years working with young people, particularly the most vulnerable. We on these Benches support the main aims of this statutory instrument. The safety, dignity, and well-being of our children must always come first. When a young person is secluded, it means they are kept a…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
11 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, after that, I had better begin by confessing a misdemeanour. Many years ago, I added my terrier’s name to the census as a “rodent operative” and gave her age in dog years. That illustrates that it is important that when we are gathering data it is, by and large, reliable.
In fact, the pri…
Lords
Committee Stage
5 March 2026
7 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for her very high-quality, thoughtful and complete reply, which I have become used to. I am sure that I and my noble friends will spend much time reading it again in order to further trouble her on Report.
On my Amendment 222A, I understand what the nobl…
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Banner, unsurprisingly, makes an eloquent case for his Amendment 222C. I very much hope that the Minister will hold to what she said when this issue was addressed previously and reassert the Government’s commitment to a wider review of the existing protections to bring…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
5 March 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, I suggest that, since the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, is on her feet in the Chamber, we do not have just 30 seconds but should wait for the Division. It would seem very odd to have a short intervention. If you want one, you can have one from me.
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on bringing forward these amendments. However, reading Amendment 340 as it is written, in the context of our treatment of Lord Mandelson in this House, I cannot see how we are not guilty of honour-based abuse. We are a community that considers that a person ha…
I merely chose it as an example that we would all be aware of. It seems to me that the clause as drafted catches a lot of people who should not be caught by it. I will write to the noble Lord, if he will allow that.
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 318 I will speak to the other amendments in my name. Amendment 318 is a revised and strengthened version of a proposal that was kindly spoken to in Committee by my noble friend Lord Blencathra. It has been modified in light of comments made then, particularly from the G…
My Lords, that was disappointing reply, but it ended on a more encouraging note, and I am grateful for that. It is a simple thing. If a company sets terms for its riders that encourage, incentivise and reward law-breaking, we need to control that. My noble friend Lord Blencathra is quite right about…
Lords
Proceedings
12 February 2026
Better Prisons: Less Crime (Justice and Home Affairs Committee Report)
My Lords, I should first declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and co-president of London Councils, the body that represents all the London boroughs and the City of London. I wondered whether that interest was relevant to this debate, and then I realised, of cou…
Lords
Committee Stage
11 February 2026
8 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, the Minister will not be surprised to know that I very much support what other noble Lords have said, given that I promoted amendments to her previous Bill on this subject. It seems to me immensely important that notices should come to the notice of people. I know what my local council wou…
My Lords, could I take advantage of my noble friend’s expertise again? How are unitary councils included under Clause 60(5)? It lists only counties, districts and London boroughs, so I am not clear how the clause applies to unitary councils.
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
28 January 2026
6 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, new Section 434A(6)(b)(i) asks the local authority to consider
“that it would be in the child’s best interests to receive education by regular attendance at school”.
But no child attends school: they attend a school. They might attend the school where the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, works—…
My Lords, I very much support my noble friend’s Amendment 157A. One of the fundamental things that can come out of this register is proper information for Parliament on what is happening in home education, and I very much hope that we will receive that.
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
First, my Lords, I note with unrestrained delight from the annunciator that Parliament is being presented with the opportunity to spend another £10 million on a new door, and I look forward to the announcement shortly.
My amendments concern the advertising requirements in the Bill and indeed elsewh…
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for a full and helpful reply to my amendment. I look forward to the meetings which we are in the process of arranging. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I very much support Amendment 130. It is absolutely crucial that we get this system to a point where developers see EDPs as something they can live with. At the moment, as I evidenced in a meeting that the Minister very kindly allowed me, they clearly do not. They see this as a huge additi…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
5 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I very much support by noble friend’s Amendment 96, which we will likely hear about in due course. This is really important for the harmonious development of communities and them working well for people. But if we are going to have that then we absolutely need Amendment 88 too. As the nobl…
My Lords, in the course of the planning system, we gather a great deal of high-quality biodiversity data. By and large, we then throw it away. We should not be doing this. We should be keeping it, making sure it is accessible, so that we can really plot what we are doing in 30 by 30 and in our campa…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I begin by congratulating the Minister on an exceptionally comprehensive introduction to what is, by any measure, a wide-ranging and ambitious Bill. In the time available, I will confine my remarks to three aspects of the Bill: the Government’s manifesto commitment to extend aggravated off…
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I would like to speak on behalf of the Cinnabar moth, a very handsome creature which is nourished on ragwort. Ragwort is an ordinary part of the downland scene. It is an entirely natural, native plant in its right place. I agree that it can become a pest in some other places, but our downl…
The prospect of spending weekends with the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, seems well worth some ragwort pulling.
I also sound a note of caution in respect of the amendments tabled by my noble friend Lord Roborough, as they are drafted, particularly Amendment 296. Animals such as the grey squirrel and t…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, responding to the noble Lord opposite, I draw the attention of the House to paragraph 4.31 of the Companion . Committee stage is a conversation; it is a free for all. Members may speak when they want and as often as they want. The point is to get to the root of the issues that we are discu…
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for her reply to my amendment. Would she be prepared for me to open a discussion with her officials on the subject of my amendment? We need to do something to increase developers’ understanding of what it will be like under the new regime. If we are to ge…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
8 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, my hope is that this amendment has been rendered unnecessary by the Government’s plan for school profiles, so I will speak to the principles of it rather than the details. For parents, admissions information is of great importance. If they are looking around for a school for their child, t…
But the Government are changing that, my Lords. I was part of the debates where we arrived at the 50% figure. I remember the Catholic schools playing a very strong part in that debate. It was very much understood that the schools created could quite clearly have a strong religious character and be d…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
8 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, there is a lot of opportunity in the context of this Bill to mandate that new towns be preferred as sites for data centres, because the excess heat can be used in the district heating scheme.
My Lords, in respect of my noble friend’s Amendment 195A, and reading the words in the Bill, I would be really interested in the Minister helping me understand what places limits on the last words on page 123 of the Bill. Would it be open to a development corporation, for instance, to do an Ireland …
+6 more contributions in this session