Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have a few amendments in this group. My Amendment 118 seeks to introduce
“an independent financial review and background check on close relatives before eligibility can proceed. It aims to block eligibility where there is known financial abuse risk”.
My Amendment 462 aims
“to make coe…
I thank the noble Lord for giving way, because he is clearly trying to be constructive in taking us forward. Is not the real problem that a Private Member’s Bill is just not suitable for this issue, which is so complex and sensitive? We should have had a royal commission; I believe the Commons shoul…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Dyscalculia
In the new framework that has been set out, we are expecting Ofsted to place more emphasis than has been the case previously on the extent to which schools are achieving the type of inclusive practice that will benefit all pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, including those with …
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I am grateful for that point from the noble Lord.
I do not want to bring my own personal circumstances into it, but the plain fact of the matter is that I will not be able to participate in the next group because, for obvious reasons, I have to leave. I am a practising barrister. I set as…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 November 2025
Airport Expansion
I thank my noble friend for his question. The sustainable aviation fuel mandate, which is already in force, seeks to reduce aviation emissions by up to 2.7 of a unit that I cannot describe—it is called MtCO 2 e, if anyone here knows what it is; I am sure someone does—in 2030 and by up to 6.3 in 2040…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Energy Market Reforms
I just mentioned battery storage, so that is a very appropriate question from my noble friend. As I said, over the summer we announced our decision not to introduce zonal pricing and, instead, to implement this ambitious package of reforms to improve the effectiveness of our current national pricing…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will make a couple of comments. Clearly, my noble friend the Minister will no doubt say that this is outwith the intention and focus of this legislation. I sympathise with that; it is the answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. However, as a former distinguished chief exec of the Nat…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Offshore Oil and Gas: Venting and Flaring
I thank my noble friend for that question. He is absolutely right. We need to remember the previous Government’s record on this. Because we are heading for net zero, we are seeing massive investment in the clean energy industry, creating millions of jobs in the long term and investments of billions …
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
Does my noble friend recollect that we left an economy growing by 2%; they crashed it with their ludicrous austerity drive in 2010?
My Lords, I am sure my noble friend will respond to this interesting amendment by saying that there are some technical issues that the Government need to reflect upon, and that there will be a future vehicle. I just ask her to be sympathetic to having a look at this, perhaps between now and Third Re…
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord. I thank him for his amendments and for his support of mine. In fact, he very ably summarised my amendments. It is clearly important and good that we are getting back to what the Bill is all about: the growth agenda. As the Explanatory Memora…
My Lords, that does not sound very comradely, if I may say so.
+5 more contributions in this session
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