Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Livestock Grazing on Dartmoor National Park
My Lords, could not some of these ponies be sent to the South Downs National Park, where I declare I live, so that they could eat the tussocky grass, thus allowing the natural grassland to regenerate? This has been done in the past and it has been very successful.
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Online Hate Speech
Is my noble friend aware that online hate speech websites record just as virulent remarks about Gypsies and Travellers as about other protected minority ethnic groups? I have seen remarks such as, “Hitler had the right idea”, and “Bring back the gas ovens”. The children of the people who these thing…
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Will the noble Baroness give way?
May I check that I have understood the noble Baroness correctly? When she said that the patient’s preference should not prevail if they wanted an assisted death but that the doctor should decide, does she mean that the doctor knows best? Is that what she meant?
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I thank the noble Lord for giving way. There is a substantial difference between the Bill that was not accepted in Scotland and the Bill that we are debating now. The Bill that was debated in Scotland had fewer safeguards; it is not the same Bill and therefore the noble Lord’s premise is not quite a…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
Humanist Weddings
My Lords, I am not sure that I can do better than to quote from the Law Commission report, which looked specifically at this issue. It said that it would be anomalous and unfair to privilege these non-religious belief organisations over religious groups, which are subject to greater legal regulation…
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I first declare an interest as president of Friends, Families and Travellers and the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers, and co-chair of the relevant APPG. It is in that connection that I applaud these amendments. They right an acknowledged wrong, a breach of…
Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I apologise for interrupting, but I am a little confused. It seems that there is a considerable principled difference between expertise and conflict of interest. People who have been involved in assisted dying have expertise; they do not necessarily have a conflict of interest. You can be a professi…
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Does the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, agree that the cardinal difference between suicide and voluntary assisted death is that voluntary assisted death applies to people who are already dying? There is no way that they are going to survive, and that seems to make the whole difference. What we seek in…
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, that provision is in the Bill, if the noble Baroness would just look. I am afraid that I cannot put my finger on the actual clause, but the assessing doctor is required to provide interpreters where necessary.
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, in connection with Amendment 30, I will just say, in a point of distinction to some of the speeches, that if I were interested in having an assisted death, part of the reason would most definitely be that I would not want to be a burden on my family. I have told my children this. They perf…
Lords
Debate
17 November 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Amendment 49 in my name and those of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Lincoln and the noble Baronesses, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville and Lady Bennett of Manor Castle—for whose wide-ranging support I am most grateful—would right an acknowledged wrong: the declaration of in…
I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord, but does he accept that there is no definition of “alarm and distress”, and that it is in fact a subjective view on the part of the landowner? Does he also accept that majority of the police did not want this provision when consulted?
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I add my support for Amendment 1. There should be a review of all these orders before layering another one on. In fact, some of that work has been done: freedom of information data demonstrates that people from minority ethnic communities are far more likely to be subject to this range of …
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Corruption: Low and Middle-income Countries
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s focus on this critical issue. The Minister will be aware of the particular role of the illicit gold trade in fuelling the conflict in Sudan and conflicts elsewhere, and in laundering the proceeds of corruption around the globe. Will the Government, therefore, use…
I suspect that my noble friend Lord Hain is about to ask something along these lines, so I came prepared. The Government are committed to ensuring that those responsible for the most egregious acts of international corruption are prosecuted for their crimes. We are supportive of the ambition to stre…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I declare my interest as director of the Free Speech Union.
I intend to table an amendment to the Bill scrapping non-crime hate incidents. A non-crime hate incident—NCHI—is an incident or alleged incident that involves or is alleged to involve an act that is perceived by the intended vict…
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have listened to many of the speeches over the two days of debate, and I have also carefully read the Hansard of those I missed. My conclusion is that whatever the issues surrounding assisted dying, it is clear that this should have been a government Bill with a free vote. There should h…
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 501 by the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and will speak to Amendment 464 in my name and those of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Lincoln, the noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, for all of whose sup…
My Lords, I support Amendments 472 and 479 briefly but very warmly. I will not try Treasury terms, though as a former civil servant, I of course recognise their strength.
Quite apart from the intrinsic value of enabling happiness, which I confess is my underlying reason, well-being has instrumental…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am pleased to open the sixth day of Committee on this hugely important Bill with a set of amendments which may appear rather niche to some, but which I suggest are fundamental to our national values.
I speak to Amendments 145, 173, 174, 175 and 176 in my name and those of the right reve…
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for her support, as well as for the support given by my noble friend Lady Warwick of Undercliffe to an amendment covering the principles of this group that was taken very late at night on a previous day in Committee.
I com…
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, among several interesting amendments in this group, I support in particular Amendments 432A and 434 in the names of my noble friends Lady Blackstone and Lady Morris of Yardley. My reasons are exactly as I set out in our discussion of the previous group, so I will just sum up to my noble fr…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 September 2025
Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing forward these important regulations in Grand Committee. The first concern I have is that the tragic death of Awaab occurred at the end of 2020. It then took nearly three years for the law in his name to be passed, and another two years to introduce the reg…
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I was going to speak in support of Amendment 451, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Storey, but perhaps he is going to introduce it when he winds up for his Front Bench. What I have to say is probably relevant to the wider aspects of this debate. I declare that I am a patron of Humanists…
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 309 and 310 in my name and those of the noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, for whose support I am grateful. I also support Amendment 309A in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Garden of Frogn…
I am grateful for the support of the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, and I appreciate my noble friend the Minister’s sympathetic response. Perhaps I could discuss with her later some aspects of the approach to marginalised parents. Meanwhile, I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 309.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
4 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, as this is the first time I am speaking in Committee, I declare various unremunerated positions in Gypsy, Traveller and Roma organisations. I wish just very briefly to comment on Amendment 322, on nomadic organisations. I should say that all the evidence I have seen, and many conversations…
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 267 in my name and in those of the noble Lord, Bourne of Aberystwyth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, whom I thank for their support.
This amendment mandates local authorities not to keep the information they have on the registe…
+2 more contributions in this session