Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I very much hope that, when considering how to implement what I hope will be agreement with these amendments, the Government pay close attention to the need to gather much better data than they have at the moment. The financial strictures on the Environment Agency over the last couple of d…
My Lords, if I may I will start by being grumpy in the direction of the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, and others. This is Committee, and it is inappropriate to say, “Before the Minister sits down”. Saying that, as a Back-Bencher, suggests that allowing us to speak again is in some ways a concession on t…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
5 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Following what the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, has just said, I want to speak to my Amendment 432 in this group and say that it is worth going that bit further than Amendment 434, which the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, is proposing. We are very much looking in the same direction. We want this to …
My Lords, I am grateful for the Minister’s answer on my amendment. Can she add to the many helpful things that she has said a commitment to drift the amendments proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, and by me—as well as her own response —past the Chief Inspector of Schools to see whether …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I support the thrust of both my noble friend’s amendments. The Department for Education has an important role to play in helping local authorities drive up the quality of their relationship with and service for the home-educating community. The department can provide leadership on this by …
My Lords, in moving this amendment, I will also speak to my other amendments in this group.
This amendment concerns the practice of local authorities placing children in unregistered alternative provision. In my view, that should not happen. These children need quality provision, almost by definiti…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
12 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
I am tempted to make a 10-minute speech in response to that. If the Government decide they want to go to such a ridiculous length, it really is for the Government to—
My Lords, I accept that it has been agreed by the usual channels, but this is a revising Chamber and we are supposed to be looking at a serious Bill and taking its provisions seriously. If the Government want to get through 20 groups today then it will take the time it takes. None the less, when it …
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
I very much support the amendments in this group. I am lucky enough to live in Eastbourne, where Mary Ann Gilbert started a branch of the allotment movement in 1830. I think we have more allotments per head than any other town, and there is still a three-year waiting list. These things need planning…
Lords
Debate
4 September 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Fuller does not need to keep the Minister on her feet. This being Committee stage, he has the right to speak as many times as he likes.
I encourage the Minister to take further the last sentiments she expressed in the context of the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord…
My Lords, does my noble friend realise that we could have had 10 front doors for that price?
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
25 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is my intention not to speak to the amendments in this group but to await what the Minister will say about them in order to shorten the debate.
In view of the conversation before we had Questions, I want to reconfirm to noble Lords that, according to paragraph 4.31 of the Companion :
…
I thank the Minister for that explanation and beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
+23 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
8 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will move Amendment 231 on behalf of my noble friend Lord Wei, who regrets that he is not able to be here today, as he has to attend a close family member’s wedding.
The day looks as if it will be devoted to elective home education and, owing to my imminent defenestration and general cr…
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for that reply, in particular her words on the relationship with local authorities. I will study that in Hansard and come back to her if I have any problem with it, but my first impression was that it was hugely positive and very helpful. I thank her very…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I have tabled Amendment 185B, and I completely agree with the noble Earl on his amendment. I have tabled amendments on permitted development elsewhere in this Bill. It is a hugely important part of getting planning right. The Government should take some courageous decisions on what delays …
My Lords, I very much approve of what the Government are doing in this clause. I think they should go a bit further. I want to illustrate this in the context of the challenges faced by southern broadleaved woodlands, which existed for many centuries as places of industry. People made things there; a…
Lords
Debate
24 July 2025
8 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, looking at livestock markets and abattoirs as critical national infrastructure would enable a coherent response to a set of problems that have been building up for many years. In the 1970s, the UK had around 2,500 abattoirs. By 2024, it had dropped to fewer than 200. That has resulted in a…
My Lords, I am very grateful to everybody who spoke on this amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, gave me hope for a moment when she said that the average age of a slaughterman was 63. I am thinking through what to do after I leave this place; unfortunately, there is no slaughterhouse close e…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I have Amendment 144 in this group. We discussed the same amendment in Committee. If we do not have a number, it means that, essentially, one employee could trigger union recognition. Surely that is not something we should impose on small businesses.
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
I congratulate the Government on this excellent amendment, and I join the thanks to Zelda Perkins and her colleagues for their tireless efforts to bring it to this point. I have a few questions for the Minister about the Government’s intentions, or present thoughts, regarding the secondary legislati…
I beg the Minister, if I might, for a letter in response to my questions. I quite understand that she cannot answer them now.
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, has the Minister consulted the Clerk of the Parliaments about how he would apply this clause to this House, should it be passed? What would be the rules in, for instance, the Peers’ Dining Room about discussing politics and religion? The fact that we might think it unreasonable that we sho…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Tourism Levy
As I said, the Government announced significant place-based funding in the spending review. Part of that MHCLG funding was targeted specifically at helping homeless people.
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, if I could share my recollection of the Countess of Mar, I was Agriculture spokesman for the last Government, and she had some strong opinions. Whenever I received my brief in answer to her questions, I would sit with her and she would point out where the brief was wrong, and then I could …
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, when the noble Baroness comes to reply to this amendment, can she assure us that her new committee will look at the question that the noble Lord, Lord Newby, raised as to whether the House of Lords already has the powers to do this? As the Convenor of the Cross Benches said, we all agree t…
Lords
Debate
3 July 2025
10 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I very much support what the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, has said, as the Minister will know from my numerous amendments later in the Bill, which I look forward to discussing with officials.
I have three amendments in this group. Amendment 204 inquires after the process in subsection (3) de…
In Committee, noble Lords may talk as many times as we like. We will try to keep it short though.
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 July 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I think this is a very important amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Meston. It reminds us that, in this part of the Bill, we dealing not just with parents who choose to educate their children at home but with some very substantial problems that state education has in not keeping hold of a…
If I might address the general issues first, I remain unclear about many aspects of the Government’s policy. I was unaware of conversations with the implementation forum: if the noble Baroness is able to share who is on it, so that I can understand what been going on, that would be very helpful. My …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
4 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I too support the idea of a Select Committee that has been proposed by the Leader of the House: I think this is a very good way forward. I therefore very much support my noble friend Lord Blencathra because, as he says, we need a way to implement the recommendations of that committee. All …
My Lords, when considering the future of this House, one of the most important parts is what the relative proportions of the parties should be. The Government, when in opposition, quite rightly complained about our habit of adding Conservative Peers well beyond the point that would ordinarily have b…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
UK Modern Industrial Strategy
I will follow my noble friend and ask about Cinderella geographies. Coastal East Sussex is included in south-east England, but the examples given of the south-east are the Solent and Oxford, which are both four hours away. How does a bit of England that is not currently mentioned in or connected to …
Lords
Debate
25 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, before this debate started, I was confident that we would hear repeatedly the word “architect”, but in fact we have hardly heard it at all in a debate about housing. I want to talk about design and the role of architects and in doing so, I say that the speech I agreed with most was that of…
Lords
Debate
23 June 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I very much support what my noble friend Lady Jenkin has just said—it seems to be an excellent prescription for the right way forward.
We approached these technologies with such innocent optimism when they arrived. I absolutely remember what it was like at the beginning of smartphones. We…
My Lords, there are indeed a number of these things going on, but no organised study with an organised direction is taking place. There is no communication between schools, with them saying to each other, “Yes, we could do it that way”. I am looking at a Government who, I suspect, have not been pers…
Lords
Debate
19 June 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, Amendment 154 effectively asks the question, “Why? What is the justification for such an examination?”. I look forward to listening to the Minister’s response to Amendment 155. I beg to move.
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for those extensive replies. The delightful reminiscence from my noble friend Lady Fraser conjures up the thought of Report on the hereditary Peers Bill being conducted through the medium of expressive dance, featuring the Committee fly.
On the more pros…
Lords
Debate
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, a substantial number of teenage looked-after children are accommodated in adult homes and hostels. They should not be. I beg to move.
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Blake of Leeds, for that comprehensive reply. I think the most important amendment in this group was Amendment 144. As the noble Lord, Lord Storey, said, we should not be looking at placing children in unregulated accommodation. We are taking …