Lords
Debate
27 April 2026
4 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Oh!
My Lords, the Government are arguing that they need much more time to consider the evidence because of the given challenges of enforcement. But the bereaved parents who have lost their children through online harms do not agree. They want action now, not some time in the future.
Last week, I met ag…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 April 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I shall briefly add to the eloquent contribution made by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. I recognise that all parties have moved and that the groups of amendments are much closer than they were when we last debated this topic. However, I worry that the pressure is still on the child, not …
Lords
Proceedings
15 April 2026
Knife Crime
My Lords, my noble friend the Minister has given a really scary figure of 16,000 knives having been confiscated—I take it that is what happened—as a result of stop and search. My noble friend may not have it available, but is there information on the ages of those who have been stopped? Is it just y…
Lords
Debate
10 March 2026
5 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill
My Lords, I am happy to disclose that I am being supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, who has been kind enough to sign my amendment.
I think it would be helpful if I began by telling your Lordships the major features of modern slavery. It affects principally those in the agri…
I think I am allowed 15 minutes.
The commissioner summarised her strategy in this excellent report. It is the protection of victims, and 724 have been supported. As a result of the activities of the victim navigators, 1,420 police investigations have taken place, and 74 convictions have resulted in…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this is indeed Report and I have a great deal of sympathy with the amendments that the noble Lord, Lord Marks, spoke to. I also take the point of the noble Baroness, Lady Jones: this is a large group, with a large number of amendments. But I will restrict my comments to Amendment 369A.
As…
Surely the police will go ahead with the arrest and then the courts will decide whether there was a reasonable excuse.
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, before we go through the listed amendments, I would be grateful if I could make a short intervention.
Lords
Debate
11 February 2026
Victims and Courts Bill
My Lords, when I say that I will be brief, I will be very brief. I have listened carefully to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier. He is quite right in his observations, and particularly about the ultimate test of whether a sentence is set aside because it is unduly lenient. However, I think th…
Lords
Debate
9 February 2026
2 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill
As my noble friend will recall, I raised this issue at Second Reading. I support Amendment 14, in the names of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen, and the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, and Amendment 15, in the name of my learned friend, if I may refer to him in those terms, the noble Lord, Lord Mes…
If I understood my noble friend correctly, the protected steps order can be made only if Clause 3 is activated, and there is no discretion in the Crown Court to make a prohibited steps order in other circumstances, particularly where the offence did not, as drafted, carry a four-year imprisonment. I…
Lords
Debate
5 February 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I shall speak on Amendment 469, and I have listened with great care to the persuasive argument presented by my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti and by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, whom I think I can also refer to as a noble friend. I have also been briefed by Justice, a …
The noble and learned Lord may recall from his days at the Bar that the juvenile courts were very sensitive to their role; that the judge and the counsel did not wear wigs; that the young offender was not kept in the dock, but was placed alongside his lawyers, and so forth. So we have, stretching ba…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
28 January 2026
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
A schoolmaster!
My Lords, I will be speaking in this group on Amendments 134A, 139 and 140. At this stage, I should draw your Lordships’ attention to Amendment 135A tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, and the noble Lord, Lord Crisp. The very first part of this amendment is almost identical to my Amendment 13…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Bill
My Lords, I had not intended to speak in this debate but, for the avoidance of doubt, I was in the Chamber when it started—I rushed in—because I wish to hear every word. That is partly because I was first alerted to the provisions of the memorial by Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, my cello teacher Raphael’s…
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
I give heartfelt thanks to the Minister from these Benches for moving this amendment. I have not dared count the number of amendments my noble friend has tabled, but this is a magnificent example of a Minister and a Government listening.
Lords
Debate
15 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Before my noble friend the Minister stands up, I will briefly intervene to say that at Second Reading, I counted 44 previous statutes that were being amended by the Bill. I just counted five in Amendment 382G. I do not know whether they join the 44 statutes in the Bill itself or whether they stand a…
Perhaps I might ask one important question. I understand that the report from the noble Lord, Lord Macdonald, is going to be produced before Report. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that it should be made available to us before we settle into Report?
Lords
Proceedings
8 January 2026
2 contributions
Broadcasting: Recent Developments
My Lords, I join the multitude thanking the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, for his constant, passionate advocacy of public service broadcasting.
At the moment there is a great debate taking place, some of which is unnecessary. We go round in circles and come back to the same solution, decade after decade…
The noble Lord, Lord Hacking, does not like it, but I am glad that he has at least been to the cinema to see it.
What discussions have the Government had with awards academies about the qualifying period that is necessary for films to be entered into things such as the Oscars and the BAFTAs? Should…
Lords
Proceedings
6 January 2026
2 contributions
Venezuela
My Lords, as my noble friend will be aware, this is not the first occasion when the United States has invaded another country and taken the leader for trial in the United States of America. Manuel Noriega was a military dictator in Panama in the 1980s and, in 1990, following the United States invasi…
I am putting it in the form of a question. When one country, particularly a neighbouring country, perpetrates gross human rights errors on its people—for example, as Idi Amin did in Uganda— I put to the Minister: do we not have a duty to interfere? Are we not one human race? This Government are enti…
Lords
Debate
16 December 2025
Victims and Courts Bill
My Lords, I speak in the gap to acknowledge that the Bill has many virtues; I cannot enumerate them better than the Minister and my noble friend Lord Sandhurst have done. We have heard many valuable contributions in this debate, and I cannot begin to respond to them as elegantly as my noble and lear…
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, having heard a number of cogent arguments from the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, I cannot remain silent. I was certainly persuaded on the noble Baroness’s Amendment 335A, and I hope that my noble friend the Minister has similarly been persuaded.
Lords
Proceedings
11 December 2025
The UK’s Demographic Future
My Lords, I wanted to participate in this debate, obviously because of the valedictory speech from the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, but also because it is a very important debate. I thank him for it. As everybody has said, he has been a respected Member of the House and a great servant of it for the pa…
Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I enthusiastically join my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti in praising the noble Baroness, Lady Owen. I was in the House—it was on a Friday—when she first moved her Private Member’s Bill. The Minister then was the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, and he promised that the Government would review an…
Lords
Debate
19 November 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I stand to ask for guidance from the Dispatch Box. When I was doing my national service in the Royal Navy in March 1957— I can date it precisely—I became a midshipman. With that ranking, I was awarded a midshipman’s dirk, which I still hold today. I cannot find that dirk falling under any …
My Lords, I am greatly relieved.
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I echo a lot of the concerns that have been expressed so far in this debate. The scrutiny of the Bill by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, is something that I hope we will all take very careful note of.
I particularly support my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti in her first intervention. She is …
Lords
Debate
28 October 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I am not quite sure where the noble Lord, Lord Harper, is ending up in his consideration of Amendments 1 and 2. On any view, the crisis has got worse and worse with regard to the arrival of masses more immigrants coming across in small boats and the inability to identify and arrest these c…