Lords
Debate
27 April 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I respect the views that have already been expressed. I also respect the views of the elected House on this matter, which have been expressed to us quite clearly on a number of occasions. This is an improved amendment that the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, has put before us this evening.
…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
National Museums and Galleries
I thank the noble Lord for his really constructive engagement with me over the months I have been the Minister for this area. In terms of Section 33A, we are working across government and with the museums to understand the impacts. We will look to find solutions to any operational issues as the disc…
Lords
Debate
23 April 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Motion F1 and particularly Clauses 37 and 91. Large parts of England—about 20% or one-fifth—will be unparished when the Government have finished vandalising our councils with LGR—the historic county boroughs, cathedral cities such as Norwich and Oxford, coastal communities …
Lords
Debate
13 April 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I support the amendments in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, to all of which I have added my name. I have also added my name to Amendments 255 and 257.
The amendments tabled by the noble Earl do two simple things. Amendment 262 defines “cultural interests” with clear examples, …
Lords
Oral Questions
26 March 2026
2 contributions
Curriculum and Assessment Review
My Lords, I am delighted to be opening this debate and grateful for the number of noble Lords who have put their names down to speak. I confess I wish we had been granted more time, given the breadth and importance of this subject. I look forward to hearing all contributions, whatever the topic, and…
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, on securing this important if brief debate. There was much to welcome in both the Curriculum and Assessment Review and the Government’s response to it. Like the noble Lord, I welcome the end of the damaging EBacc obsession from the now noble Lo…
Lords
Debate
24 March 2026
3 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I am pleased to be the opening speaker on the first day of Report on the English devolution Bill. I begin by acknowledging the Government’s significant new amendment, Amendment 2, which adds “culture” to the list of “areas of competence”. This is a hugely important and very welcome step fo…
My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed to this short but very important debate. In particular, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, whose expertise in and commitment to this area continue to illuminate our discussions and have brought us to this point of having a new area…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
16 March 2026
Media Literacy (Communications and Digital Committee Report)
My Lords, I apologise for intervening in the gap, but I very much wanted to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, and her committee and speak to a report that is both is both timely and very necessary. In doing so, I declare my AI interests as in the register.
We are faced with a landscape …
Lords
Debate
5 March 2026
4 contributions
National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill
My Lords, I apologise for not speaking earlier in the Bill’s passage. I have only recently become aware of how its provisions bear on freelance workers in the creative industries, and I hope the House will permit me to raise those concerns across the relevant groups. I declare an interest: I have wo…
My Lords, as mentioned in the previous group, the creative industries are defined by workers holding multiple short-term contracts with different employers across a single year. The central question that this group addresses, and which has been repeated several times today, is one that was put to th…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
11 February 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I speak in support of all nine amendments in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, to which I have added my name. They do two things, and are both modest in scope and significant in effect.
First, Amendment 233 gives a practical definition to the phrase “cultural interests” by setti…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 February 2026
2 contributions
Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Prescription of Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I declare my interest, as in the register, as the proud outgoing chair of UK Music, the umbrella body for the British music industry. I am sure I do not have to tell my noble friend that the United Kingdom is one of only three countries in the world that remain net exporters of commercial …
I will put that to it. I have also committed to ask it to attend the meeting. If the noble Lord would like to attend that meeting as well, I am more than happy for that to happen.
Lords
Committee Stage
4 February 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I also support Amendments 141, 146 and 222 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, and Amendment 147 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, to all of which I have added my name.
Taken together, these amendments recognise that culture does not operate in isol…
Lords
Debate
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, Amendment 209 goes to the heart of what families rightly expect schools to do: keep children safe. This is not a novel or radical proposal. It responds to a long-standing and well-evidenced failure of the current system. For too long we have relied on guidance and good will, yet allergy sa…
I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 210.
Lords
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 100 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, to which I have added my name, and Amendment 101 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale.
If the arts, culture and heritage are rightly recognised as an area of competence, as the noble Earl argued persuasively …
Lords
Committee Stage
27 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I will briefly support the amendments in this group that seek to remove the cap on the number of commissioners and the appointment of special advisers. In doing so, I restate my support for Amendments 6, 10 and 51 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, and the noble Baroness, Lady …
Lords
Proceedings
20 January 2026
Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure
My Lords, given that grass-roots music venues and recording studios do not qualify for RHL relief because of the way “visiting members of the public” is defined, will Ministers commit to reviewing or amending the eligibility criterion so that businesses integral to the creative economy are not exclu…
Lords
Committee Stage
20 January 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I declare my interest as a visual artist. Amendment 4 in my name is a small but important clarifying amendment. It simply adds the words “including through tourism” to paragraph (d) of Clause 2, which already defines “economic development and regeneration” as a core “area of competence” fo…
My Lords, I will speak briefly to support Amendment 6, to which I have added my name, and to express my full agreement with the case made by the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty. I also support Amendment 10 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar. Both amendments address a clear omission in the Bi…
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
Rare Cancers Bill
I apologise to the House for my premature and ill-timed intervention earlier. After 10 years in the House, I need to go back and sharply revise my understanding of procedure. I am grateful to the House for the opportunity of being able to intervene.
I am emotionally moved today by two things: first…
Lords
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Schools and Universities: Language Learning
My Lords, I also express my gratitude to the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, for securing this debate and for her tireless work over so many years in support of language training and related issues.
As many have pointed out, we are living in an international and, in particular, business environment …
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I strongly support Amendment 71 in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, and my noble friend Lord Clancarty. As has been said, this is a long-standing issue and it lies at the heart of how new development coexists with existing businesses and community facilities. It…
Lords
Proceedings
22 October 2025
Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy
I welcome also the ambitious nature of the White Paper, but can the Minister respond to how the strategy will ensure that creative industries and crafts are seen as legitimate skill sectors on an equal footing with engineering, manufacturing and industrial bodies? Given that many creative and craft …
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, to speak in strong support of Amendment 87D in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey. It seeks to address a clear gap in our planning framework: the ease with which valued community buildings can be demolished under permitted…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Music and Dance Schools: Affordable Access
My Lords, according to research by the Sutton Trust, 43% of classical musicians went to private school, compared with 7% of the population as a whole. More than half of all students at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music did so. Since you are 10 times more likely to go to priva…
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, the assisted dying Bill presents one of the most profound moral and legal questions of our time: how to balance personal autonomy with the duty to protect society’s most vulnerable. It asks whether we can lawfully offer people a choice over the manner and timing of their death while preven…
Lords
Debate
4 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for tabling Amendment 185H, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, for tabling Amendment 112—I support both of them. In speaking today, I declare my interest as an artist member of DACS, the Design and Artists Copyright Society.
These amendmen…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Clancarty and the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, who have each set out the case for a more coherent and strategic approach to freelance policy with great clarity. I shall not repeat their arguments but will attempt to build on them.
I suppo…
My Lords, Amendment 167 is in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Londesborough, whose support I am extremely grateful for. I will also speak to Amendments 177 and 178. Many of my points are likely to coincide with those to be made by the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan of Chelsea, on his Amendment 1…
+1 more contribution in this session