Lords
Oral Questions
16 September 2025
2 contributions
National Health Service Regulations
Hurrah!
My noble friend does himself credit with his honesty, which I too will take example from .
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I speak as a cancer sufferer, as a man who applauds and supports the hospice movement and, I hope, as a conservative. I reject, as a matter of principle, the idea that the state can demand ownership of my body any more than it can own my spirit or my soul. The current law is cruel and unte…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 September 2025
Nuclear Regulatory System
As I said to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, and in answering my noble friend, of course it requires the big nuclear power stations such as Sizewell C and Hinkley C, as my noble friend has said. They are clearly part of the answer to providing our energy needs through nuclear and these big power statio…
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, very briefly, I support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale; I think it is very important. I want to pick up what my noble friend said: many local authorities are very keen to develop policies in relation to climate change, particularly on this very important issue of adaptati…
My Lords, first, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Banner, for his outstanding work in relation to judicial review reform. It has clearly had a big impact on the Bill. At the risk of quoting the noble Lord to himself, he said in our earlier debate on this, which seems a long time ago, in relatio…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 September 2025
Gilt Yields
My noble friend says it much better than I can. I agree wholeheartedly with what he says. Of course it is important that we grow the green economy, but we must also make sure that we grow the whole economy as well.
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, surely the point about the Bill is that it is enabling us to put the structures in place to actually get the grid capacity up and running.
My Lords, I support the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, to which I have added my name. I am also very sympathetic to the amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Russell.
The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, raised a very interesting question about the centralisation of this country. I…
Lords
Debate
24 July 2025
5 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 91. My noble friend Lady Liddell is not able to be with us today, so I have taken on the mantle of championing carbon capture, usage and storage. Seeing the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, in his place, I hasten to add that I equally would champion the benefits of …
My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have taken part. I thought the intervention from the noble Lord, Lord Grayling, was very interesting. I very much take his point about the precautionary principle. A degree of proportionality is required by our regulators in the way they operate. One of…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
21 July 2025
State of Climate and Nature
My Lords, I refer back to the point raised by the noble Earl, Lord Russell, when he referred to growth in the green economy. This refers back to a CBI report published in February, which showed that the green economy was growing by about 10%. Does the Minister share my surprise at the antagonism of …
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
NHS England: Staff Costs
My Lords, the evidence for that is becoming only too clear. That is why the Government have taken the action that they have to move at pace towards dealing with the situation. Too much money is going into bureaucracy and therefore not enough into front-line services. That needs to change, and this h…
Lords
Debate
17 July 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, in asking your Lordships to agree, I will withdraw my amendment to the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness. I thank my noble friend for an excellent winding-up; she covered the ground comprehensively. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, because it has been a real service to a…
My Lords, I apologise to the noble Baroness for interfering before she withdrew her amendment to my amendment. I will now withdraw my amendment to the amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock.
It has been a really good debate in which we have fleshed out some of the key tensions contained in…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 July 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, for her amendment. Although I am seeking to amend her amendment, I echo the point she raised; it is very useful to have a debate about the principles. As the noble Baroness inferred, the scope of the Bill, which is set out at the beginning, is very…
My Lords, from the noble Lord’s experience, does he think it possible to legislate for regulators to use their common sense?
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, may I follow the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, and thank him for that unusual and welcome display of humility?
I will put a question to him. He knows that, following the 1911 Act, the Bryce Commission was set up in 1917. It was essentially a conference of both the Lords and the Commons, a…
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
3 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, as probably the most recently retired unpaid Minister, I acknowledge the shop stewarding role of the noble Lords, Lord True and Lord Forsyth. Clearly, they raise an issue of principle. As they have set out, the issue is around a Prime Minister’s management of MPs in the Commons and both Ac…
My Lords, I served as Whip on the Bill in 1999 and I was present for every session. I keep the flame that, one day, we will deal with these issues in a substantive way. I still stick to my point that we will make no progress in this area whatever. I know that the Leader may not agree with me but the…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
25 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, may I say how much the whole House will miss the contributions of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, from the Dispatch Box? We welcomed the clarity of his contributions, and the Back Benches will be reinforced by his presence now that he is free to say what he actually thinks.
Here we go with ano…
Lords
Committee Stage
21 May 2025
4 contributions
National Policy Statement for Nuclear Energy Generation
My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to discuss the new National Policy Statement for N uclear E nergy G eneration EN-7 , which was laid before the House on 6 February. In particular, I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean of Redditch, who is making her maiden speech. Redditch is not a million mi…
My Lords, like the Minister, I look forward very much to the maiden speech of my noble friend Lady Maclean. With her reputation and past work, I am sure she will bring a fresh mind. Fresh minds are certainly needed in this area, where technology is changing extremely fast—faster than some people rea…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
19 May 2025
8 contributions
Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors
My Lords, I convey my best wishes to the Minister on his birthday today. Can I just press him a little further and ask him to celebrate by bringing some good news to the energy, nuclear and engineering industries and their workers and consumers by finally announcing or even giving a clearer date as …
My Lords, I welcome the fact that the Government hope to quadruple the amount of nuclear capacity by 2050—the same target that the Conservative Government had—and it is very welcome in terms of baseload. Can the Minister give us some indication of what percentage of that increase in capacity is goin…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
13 May 2025
Methane (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response. I thank all contributors for their valuable and well-thought-out responses to this report; they are very much appreciated. I expected no less from my esteemed colleagues on the committee because their participation in the discussions, as well as the e…
Lords
Proceedings
6 May 2025
17 contributions
Energy Grid Resilience
My Lords, I thank both noble Lords for their comments, and I join them in expressing my sympathies for those affected. I am glad to hear that power has been fully restored across the region.
As noble Lords have suggested, the Spanish Government are undertaking a review. We do not yet know the outco…
My Lords, the noble Lord makes an important point. I certainly accept that pumped storage energy has a role to play. I shall make sure that Great British Energy is apprised of the views he has taken. He knows that we wish them to operate independently within the strategic framework, which we have de…
+15 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
6 May 2025
3 contributions
Infrastructure Planning (Onshore Wind and Solar Generation) Order 2025
My Lords, this instrument, which was laid before the House on 10 March 2025, is another important step in supporting the deployment of onshore wind and solar, which are critical in achieving the Government’s clean energy superpower mission, including clean power by 2030. An effective planning system…
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for setting out the contents and the wishes of the department in this document. Personally, I am very disappointed that we are where we are. I am a veteran of pylon applications; I was fortunate enough to be elected to the Vale of York in 1997, where there was…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
6 May 2025
7 contributions
Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries
My Lords, I of course recognise the challenge that high energy prices pose for UK businesses. I am very well aware that the Urgent Question in the Commons related to a ceramics company in the potteries, Moorcroft. Let me say at once that my thoughts are with all those workers affected, and I know th…
My Lords, the noble Lord is of course right to refer to the energy supercharger: £470 million is being contributed towards helping companies which are major energy users. Obviously, we look at the scheme and at whether any changes should be made, but as regards energy market reforms, we are certainl…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
6 May 2025
8 contributions
Climate Change: Progress
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. The report from the Climate Change Committee points out that there has been no progress in adaptation to climate change since the previous report. During the eight years that I chaired the adaptation sub-committee, we said exactly the same thing. As Yog…
Will the Government rule out any new development on functional flood plains, particularly in zone B, which is the most at risk of flooding? If the Minister rules that out, he has a good chance of having more resilient houses in other places. Will the Government undertake not to build on functional f…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
30 April 2025
3 contributions
Great British Energy Bill
My Lords, I will also speak to Motion A1 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Alton. It is good to welcome the Great British Energy Bill back to your Lordships’ Chamber. I again thank all Members of this House for their continued scrutiny of this important Bill.
We are here to discuss specifically t…
My Lords, I express my profound gratitude to the Government—and especially to the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath—for acting to address concerns regarding forced labour in the renewable supply chain that were raised from all sides of your Lordships’ House during earlier stages. I …
+1 more contribution in this session