Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation
My Lords, I declare an interest as the chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists board of trustees. The RCOG desperately wants to see an improvement in the services that mothers and children are getting in maternity. I do not know whether the Minister is aware that some 68% of a…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
G7 Summit
My Lords, does my noble friend the Leader of the House agree that the Government should act with our allies in the G7 to try to stop the illegal expansion, particularly in the areas of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, known as E1? Does she agree that it is important that we should create the moment…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Further Education Colleges: Recovery of VAT
My Lords, picking up what the noble Lord, Lord Johnson, said, the FE college sector really is the poor man of the education system in this country. This follows years of neglect by previous Conservative Governments. My noble friend the Minister read out a number of different improvements in the reso…
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
Lebanon: Israel Defense Forces Operations
My Lords, I too condemn Hezbollah’s actions in northern Israel, but I am very grateful to my noble friend the Minister for what she has said about how this problem should be dealt with. Some 20% of the population of Lebanon has been displaced—well over a million people—and thousands have been injure…
Lords
Proceedings
23 April 2026
Women’s Health Strategy
My Lords, I declare an interest as the chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists trust board, which greatly welcomes this strategy. But will the Minister agree that a well-resourced workforce is vital if we are to deliver it? In this context, is she aware that an RCOG survey fin…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling
I am very happy to congratulate David Attenborough, whether we bring in a ban or not. He has been an extraordinary champion for our environment over many years, and I am sure we all wish him a very happy 100th birthday. I watched his film on bottom trawling. It was an extremely important piece of fo…
Lords
Debate
14 April 2026
2 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords—
My Lords, thank you very much for letting me get in. My noble friend the Minister is very robust but, from listening to this debate, I find it a bit difficult to imagine the kind of cross-party discussions and sensible debate that the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, asked for. I begin with what the noble L…
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, why she has identified this small group of specialists, and only them. Does she accept that the causes of death are very wide, and that many different specialists may have been involved in the treatment of a patient who wishes to bring on their death…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, regrettably, we are never going to get to Report. Members of the House keep referring to Report. My noble and learned friend, the sponsor of the Bill, has frequently said that he will come back to some of the questions that have been put by the noble Lord, Lord Harper, and others. Normally…
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords—
My Lords, I declare an interest: I am the chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I hope that the noble Baroness who has just spoken will accept that sometimes the expertise of people who are directly involved on a daily basis with the treatment of women seeking an abortion i…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
It is with some trepidation that I speak, since I realise how passionately the previous speakers think about what they have said. The first small point I want to make is that the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, referred to Report—we are not going to have a Report stage, because we have taken so long …
Doctors in Australia are now allowed to do so. The law has been changed there.
Lords
Proceedings
26 February 2026
Transnational Repression in the UK (JCHR Report)
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and the Joint Committee for this excellent and important report. It refers to concern about transnational oppression by China and Russia, as have many noble Lords in this debate—and you do not get much more extreme than attempted and actual assassination…
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I declare an interest as the chair of one of the medical royal college’s trusts. I want to speak to this group of amendments, taking into account the medical profession. I entirely agree, and I am sure that the vast majority of doctors will also entirely agree, that it is better to have fa…
My Lords, it is far easier to develop a code of practice over time and change it in the context of changes in the environment. It is much more difficult to change a law by statute, which means it has to be brought back into both Houses of Parliament, so I do not really think that the point the noble…
Lords
Proceedings
30 January 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, my noble friend the Chief Whip has rightly pointed to the lack of progress we are making on this Bill. Part of the problem is not how much time we spend on each amendment, but the number of amendments that have been put down, which is unprecedented. I hope that those who are opposed to the…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I was not going to interrupt the noble Lord, but his last remark does lead me to interrupt him. I do not think there is anybody who backs the Bill because they think it is more expensive for people to continue to be treated. Nor do I think it is the case that those people who back the Bill are in so…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 December 2025
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
My Lords, I will speak very briefly to support what the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, has just said. As the Minister knows, I very strongly support the Bill and welcome it, but it seems that there is a gap here.
I do not want to repeat what the noble Baroness said, but I strongly identify with her …
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I wonder whether we can now hear from the Front Benches. We have had a long discussion about these issues and have moved into the danger of repetition. We have already had a response from the sponsor of the Bill too, so I think it is now the turn of the Front Benches.
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords—
We have given an enormous amount of time to looking at safeguards. The noble Lord just totally denied that and said that we have to begin all over again. We do not. This debate has regrettably been characterised by too few of the speakers giving any consideration at all to the important, tough safeg…
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I declare my interest: I received a personal donation from Dr Etherton to fund research support. Normally, I would agree with the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, in relation both to legal terms that are not defined and to moving to something that is ill defined; he will find, in the later groups…
As people around me are saying, I do not think I said that. They are neutral. The royal colleges have said that they have problems with the Bill, but they have been neutral on the principle, save for the Royal College of General Practitioners. I am sorry; I stand corrected on that. They are neutral,…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 November 2025
Palestinian Refugees
I thank the noble Baroness for that question. I have already made clear the Government’s view on settlements in the West Bank. On sanctions, we do not give a running commentary on future sanctions, but I have already said what we have done in relation to that. On the other question the noble Barones…
Lords
Proceedings
11 November 2025
Conflict in Sudan
My Lords, can the Minister say what representations the Government have made to the UAE about its continuing support for the RSF, including the provision of military equipment?
Lords
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Middle East
My Lords, perhaps inevitably, there is rather little detail in the Statement. However, it does say—I think that this was endorsed by my noble friend the Leader of the House just now—that
“a viable Palestinian state is the only way to secure, lasting peace for the Middle East”.
Can my noble friend …
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have two points that I wish to make. First, I do not support the Bill in its stated aims; neither do I support the increasingly strange and weird way it has proceeded before Parliament, mutating into some sort of ever-changing hybrid Private Member’s Bill invention. HMG have been giving …
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I support what my noble friend Lady Morris of Yardley has just said. Perhaps I can say to my noble friend Lord Glasman that I am Lady Blackstone of Stoke Newington, so we share part of our region in our titles. I am familiar with the Haredi community and have been for very many years, and …
My Lords, Amendments 432A and 434 in my name concern enforcement provisions. They are critical elements of the Bill that seek to address the harm caused by unregistered educational settings.
Let me begin by referring to the experience of a woman whom I shall call Dina, a mother in the Haredi commun…