Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
British Industry and Services: Public Procurement
I thank my noble friend the Minister for that reply, but that memo is not getting through to government departments. Time and again, they are giving preference to firms and workforces from overseas rather than British industry and services. We talk a lot in this House about government as regulator, …
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Defence Investment Plan
My Lords, I put it to the Minister that it would have been better to have had the conversation with the public before we put out the policy, so that we had rolled the pitch and people understood the nature of the threat. I welcome, therefore, what he is saying about the position going forward, but c…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2026
Civil Service Pension Scheme
My Lords, is not the systemic failure here that the Civil Service refused to take past performance into account? That is completely contrary to normal life. If someone did a job on your house or on your car and failed, or if you took a holiday with a company that failed, not only would you not use t…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Covid Fraud
My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister find slightly odd the intervention from the Opposition Front Bench? Surely if we are to send a message for future contracts, dealing with fraud in previous contracts is essential, otherwise people will think they can get away with it. Why does he think tha…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Palantir: Public Service Contracts
My Lords, the Minister is quite right to resist attempts, which happen quite regularly, to demonise individual companies rather than looking at the underlying reality. He is also right to look at results. In this very fast-changing world of information technology, the company leading this year may w…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Hares: Close Season
My Lords, I suggest to the Minister that the Government’s legislative programme is not the only mechanism by which this could be done. For example, have the Whips been putting out Private Members’ Bills, suggested Bills and handout Bills, which is a well-known practice on both sides? Further, there …
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
DVLA: Staffing Levels
My Lords, I will take the Minister back to the question about cloning plates, which is increasingly facilitating a whole range of crime, including, with the increase in petrol prices, drive-off from petrol stations. From my experience of 30-odd years being a Member of Parliament in the other place, …
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
Legal Protections for Ancient Trees
My Lords, is the Forestry Commission case that was cited not further evidence of commissions and quangos ignoring the intentions of Parliament, and indeed the wishes of the public, and being toothless in the face of gross abuses? Is it not time that government departments and Ministers took back con…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
Unite the Kingdom March
Can I put it to my noble friend the Minister that, given the events being described that took place at the marches on Saturday and the cost to the police, let alone the diversion of police officers from the task they ought to be undertaking, which is cracking down on the tide of crime in this countr…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
Defence, Security and Resilience Bank
My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister accept that there is a significant problem of access to finance for the defence industry, particularly for medium and small enterprises, driven partly by absurd bans on investment in our national defence by financial institutions? Given the failure, frankl…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
VAT Relief: Business Donations
My Lords, before my noble friend the Minister might be tempted down the route of putting price restrictions on food coming from supermarkets, would it not be better to wait and see whether the experiment in Scotland actually succeeds?
Lords
Oral Questions
28 April 2026
National Emergency Plan for Fuel
The noble Lord is right to raise storage and resilience. As far is gas is concerned, we have reliable supplies from a range of sources. Most notably, 43% of our supplies come from UK fields. A further 20% comes from Norwegian fields, some of which can be landed in the UK only when it has come from t…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
Student Visas
My noble friend has been a constant advocate of tackling fraud in the system, and I pay tribute to his work on that. We keep this under review at all times. It is in nobody’s interest to have fraudulent applications or for individuals to use a different route and subsequently to apply on a fraudulen…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 April 2026
Strait of Hormuz: Mine Clearance
The truth of the matter is that we of course need more ships, and investment is going into that now to produce the ships that we need. We are currently trying to maximise the use of the capabilities we have available to us to ensure that we deal with the problems and challenges we face—not only in t…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 March 2026
Public Transport: Accessibility
My noble friend makes a very good point. The variation in orders for railway rolling stock has been feast and famine. It resulted in the closure of several manufacturing facilities over the last 30 years, and there is now one manufacturing plant and three assembly plants. One of the determinations w…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 March 2026
Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019
It would be popular with me, but we need to make sure, once we put something in place, that it is legally robust and understands the impacts that the code will have—that is really important. We consulted on the appeals process last year to understand the concerns that motorists have with it—I have a…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
UK Homeland Defence
My noble friend makes an important and good point about instability in other regions. Obviously, the focus at the present time is on the Middle East, but clearly we can see problems in north Africa and wider. Only last week, I met with people from Nigeria and west Africa to talk about some of the th…
Lords
Proceedings
26 February 2026
Electronic Travel Authorisation: Dual Nationals
My Lords, I declare an interest as the UK Government’s trade envoy for Australia. This issue is causing considerable consternation in Australia, a country with which we are developing our defence, security and other relationships, to the benefit of the wider world. It seems slightly extraordinary th…
Lords
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
British Military Equipment: Chinese Components
My noble friend raises a very important point, which is the basis of a very live and active discussion within government at the moment. I have already mentioned the launch of the critical mineral strategy. I want also to draw attention to the urgency and the energy with which this problem is being a…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
Smart Motorways
Obviously, dealing with capacity on the roads is one of the major contributors to the value-for-money exercises in terms of reducing congestion and enabling people to move around. We need to be careful in how we analyse the reports that have just come out. This is a long-term study, and we have to b…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
2 contributions
Renters’ Rights Act: Implementation
We have plenty of time. We will hear from the Lib Dem Benches, then the Labour Benches.
We want to improve all parts of the sector and make sure that home buying is available for young people, as well as making the rental market fairer for them. I had a big round table last week with a group from across the sector —agents, conveyancers, the legal profession, financial services and deve…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
Government Website: Registering a Death
The answer to that question is yes. The bit that the Home Office is responsible for has a five-day target, which is being met. There are challenges in the medical examination aspect for a range of reasons, which are not just administrative but related to how, when, where and in what circumstances pe…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Jimmy Lai: Prison Sentence
I think that is right. My noble friend has a great deal of experience. I think he was a Minister at the department previously and at the MoD as well. He knows what he is talking about, and I take his contribution in the manner that he gives it.
Lords
Oral Questions
29 January 2026
Battery Shortage for NHS Hearing Aids
I understand that point. Actually, that is one of the reasons we are encouraging ICBs to move to rechargeable batteries. As my noble friend says, it is about looking to the longer term. As part of the lessons learned, that is one of the things that we will look at to see how we can improve the under…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 January 2026
Grass-roots Music Venues
I hope it is understood. I agree with much of what my noble friend says. He will know that we have provided £2.5 million of funding this year for Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Music Fund, enabling grass-roots music venues, recording studios, promoters and festivals to apply for grants…