Lords
Debate
9 July 2026
Defence Readiness Bill
My Lords, I remind the House of my registered interest as chair of the National Preparedness Commission. The starting point for today’s debate is that we live in a turbulent, uncertain, volatile world. The need for the nation to be better prepared and resilient is ever more pressing. We are closer t…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Rochdale Grooming Gang: Offender Deportation
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, talked about lessons learned from the original case, but are there lessons to be learned about the release process and the way in which this individual’s immigration status was flagged up to the authorities at an early stage? I have the impression that the …
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
G7 Summit
My Lords, my noble friend the Leader of the House has quite properly referred to the esteem in which my right honourable friend the Prime Minister is held by most foreign leaders—possibly with one major exception. I think we all share with her the desire that, whatever comes next, whoever is the nex…
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
Social Media: Substances Unfit for Human Consumption
My Lords, my noble friend the Minister has, very properly, talked about enforcement and the role of Ofcom, but there are other enforcement agencies which have a role in all of this. The issue of advertising standards has been raised, and that has got to be looked at, but there is also enforcement by…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Defence Investment Plan
My Lords, this has been a bit of an omnishambles—other terms are of course available. I will not ask my noble friend to agree with me, because that is probably a bit tricky. Can he confirm that already the Government have invested substantially in defence, unlike the previous Government, who ran it …
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Concealed Surveillance Equipment in Government Offices and Vehicles
My Lords, I fear that my noble friend the Minister will probably repeat an answer that he has already given about five times; in particular, to the noble Lord, Lord Pack. Precisely where within the department this camera was found makes a world of difference. The Minister used a very careful form of…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
2 contributions
El Niño: Impact
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and I draw attention to my registered interest as the chair of the National Preparedness Commission.
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for that Answer. Some 46 months ago today, the UK suffered its highest recorded temperature—40 degrees in London—which led to nearly 300 premature deaths in London alone and possibly 3,000 deaths across the country. It also led to the fire brig…
Lords
Proceedings
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
My Lords, like my noble friend Lord Roe, I have been through the developed vetting process. It is intrusive and extremely thorough, going line by line through your bank statements, with detailed and intensive questions about personal relationships and everything else. I was doing so for a ministeria…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 April 2026
Civil Preparedness for War
My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Harris of Richmond, for securing this vital and timely debate, and it is an honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Harris, who is such an expert on resilience.
I am on this House’s National Resilience Committee, which is looking inter alia at h…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
3 contributions
Local Resilience Forums
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and in so doing refer to my interest in the register as chair of the National Preparedness Commission and declare that I am sitting on the advisory panel supporting the review by the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, of pol…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for all the work he does as chair of the National Preparedness Commission and for what he is now doing in respect of policing. It is crucial to retain resilience as we go through the reforms to police forces and local government restructuring. The Government are act…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
26 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I remind the House of my interest as co-president of London Councils and, like the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, as a former borough leader. I think I was also the longest-serving leader in my particular borough at various times, and I am a former member of the London Assembly.
I rise par…
Lords
Oral Questions
25 March 2026
Fuel Supplies: War in Iran
My noble friend is right that this does not fall within my brief particularly, but I do know a bit about the subject he is raising, which is synthetic ammonia supplies from the Middle East. We do not have ammonia production in this country at the moment, so there is potentially a long-term issue of …
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
3 contributions
UK Homeland Defence
My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of which I have given private notice, and in so doing I draw attention to my registered interest as chair of the National Preparedness Commission.
My Lords, noble Lords will be aware that the Secretary of State for Defence will shortly make a Statement in the other place, and I will not pre-empt what he will say. However, I will say that the UK has taken a series of actions to strengthen our collective defence. NATO remains the cornerstone of …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
17 March 2026
2 contributions
Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address Motion
My Lords—
My Lords, this is not the first political appointment to an ambassadorship, including that in Washington, which has not been without controversy. But would the Minister confirm that there are some circumstances in which it is appropriate for there to be a political appointment, rather than one which…
Lords
Proceedings
16 March 2026
Social Cohesion Action Plan
My Lords, I spent 25 years of my life trying to build community cohesion in a north London borough. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, I realised how important that is. That period, which is a generation ago, felt difficult at the time, but it is actually much more difficult now because of t…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
3 contributions
Iranian State-sponsored Cyber Attacks: Mitigation and Preparation
My Lords, I refer to my interest, as recorded in the register, as chair of the National Preparedness Commission and beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
My Lords, the National Cyber Security Centre is closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East and directly engaging with critical sectors, providing immediate and specific information and advice. It has issued an alert, urging all organisations, especially those with assets or supply chains in…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
Forest-Risk Commodities
My noble friend asks a really important question. We announced a review of the UK’s approach to responsible business conduct as part of the UK trade strategy, and that is exploring the UK’s effectiveness in preventing human rights harms, labour rights harms and environmental harms in supply chains. …
Lords
Proceedings
24 February 2026
Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Lord Privy Seal for the way in which she is approaching this discussion and the answers that she has given. Can she confirm the situation about the humble Address? Obviously, it was constructed by the leader of the Official Opposition with a view to per…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
Electric Vehicles: Transition
My noble friend raises some crucial points. When I go home, I have to tell people that, in going around London, one of the most dangerous exercises is crossing the road because of the fear of unregulated cycles coming through. We have had many debates on this. I do not have a definite direction for …
Lords
Proceedings
10 February 2026
Standards in Public Life
My Lords, I certainly echo that final point and I suspect many of us regard this as a full-time House, in addition to which we do lots of other things, so it becomes a double full-time House from that point of view.
This is a very wide-ranging Statement, and a fairly eclectic range of questions hav…
Lords
Oral Questions
29 January 2026
Battery Shortage for NHS Hearing Aids
I think my noble friend has heard opinions already expressed on that matter. Certainly, Brexit does give us challenges, without a doubt, that this Government continue to work to resolve. I cannot answer the first question that my noble friend asked about, but I will gladly write to him and can assur…
Lords
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, in speaking to this group of London-related amendments, I should declare my former roles as a London borough leader, a member of the London Assembly and a founding chair of what is now London Councils—indeed, I am one of its current co-presidents.
Before I speak to the six amendments in m…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 January 2026
National Police Service
First, the police themselves welcome this proposal right across the board. Secondly, we have already indicated that we are going to abolish police and crime commissioners and replace them with local management, either through the mayoral model or through local councils nominating members and a chair…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 January 2026
Uniformed youth groups: Promoting Skills and Resilience in Young People
I think “Be prepared” could usefully be used as a motto for Ministers standing at the Dispatch Box in your Lordships’ House as well. There is clearly a role played by cadet forces and other uniformed youth organisations in the broader resilience piece. However, a thread that goes through all our pol…