Lords
Debate
12 February 2026
4 contributions
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, I declare my role as a pro-chancellor of Cardiff University, and that I have until recently been an observer on the Medical Schools Council; I am still in touch with it.
This group of amendments seems incredibly important for our international reputation for fairness and consistency in wh…
My Lords, it was with great pleasure that I added my name to the amendment so nobly introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Forbes of Newcastle. I am most appreciative to my noble friend Lady Gerada for the way that she introduced this whole group, because she flagged up very clearly that Malta and Newca…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
9 February 2026
National Cancer Plan
My Lords, I must declare my interests in palliative care over the years. I will not list them all now, but I had the pleasure of working on the palliative care commission under the chairmanship of Sir Mike Richards. From speaking to him, I am glad to learn that he will have a role in the modern serv…
Lords
Debate
9 February 2026
2 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill
I am most grateful for the way this has been introduced by my noble friend Lord Russell. When the family discover that their relative has been murdered abroad, the problem, as has been said, is that they have no idea what has happened. Unless a service from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development …
Forgive me for interrupting again on this issue. Can the Minister undertake to discuss with the FCDO the concept that each embassy or consulate has one named lead person for when it experiences managing one of these tragic situations, and that it is handed over to another named person when they leav…
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
15 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I believe that there may be some people who wish to speak before I come to my final remarks. I certainly want to hear from the Front Benches and the sponsor of the Bill. I will therefore withhold any remarks at the moment.
My Lords, after a very long and extensive debate, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed, particularly those who contributed with their own personal stories and descriptions of the way those experiences have affected people. However, I remind the Committee that we are legislating for the whole…
+13 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
4 February 2026
Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill
My Lords, it is the greatest honour to speak in your Lordships’ House for the first time. I thank my fellow noble Lords from right across the House for the warmth of their welcome, extended not just to me but to my family on my introduction. Equally, I thank all the staff, from Black Rod and the Cle…
Lords
Debate
3 February 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it was 19 years ago that I had the privilege of chairing the Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into allergy for this House. I remind the House that, even then, we were saying that half of those who died from an allergic reaction had not had any previous serious reaction, and we hi…
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am not moving this amendment, but I feel I owe it to the House to explain why I took my name off it when it had been drafted. I was contacted by the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man, who felt that it was premature: they had not been consulted, their Bill has not received Royal Assent, a…
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, has already alluded to the issue of wills, so I will not go to that, but there is another legal precedent, Devon Partnership NHS Trust v the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in 2021, when the High Court ruled that under the Mental Health Act, t…
My Lords, in the previous debate we had an interesting discussion about the importance of face to face. I think the conclusion was that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, should bring forward amendments that would make face to face the default mechanism, while accepting that there would be e…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
I think the amendment has been proposed with the wording on the Marshalled List and the noble Lord has spoken to it, but he may now wish to withdraw it.
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
15 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, in introducing this group of amendments, the noble Lord, Lord Birt, said that one of the reasons he tabled them was that the proposals in the Bill are potentially chaotic and prolonged. This group is in some ways something and nothing. The proposals make the case for a profound imbalance, …
I am grateful to the noble Lord for his intervention, but I think we need to stay focused on the amendments in this group and not get diverted. That is what I am trying to do.
In terms of palliative care provision, I am extremely worried that the amendments put down to the amendments tabled by the …
+13 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
19 January 2026
Domestic Violence Against Children
The noble Baroness makes a very good point. Again, one of the areas that the violence against women and girls strategy is looking at is how we can improve training for professionals who come into contact with people who may be involved in that type of abuse. The particular point she mentions related…
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
7 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, Amendment 27 would ensure that the person in question has made independent contact for information from their local assisted death service provider and has not been subtly coerced or pressured by someone who thought they ought to consider an assisted death. Getting information to inform de…
My Lords—
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
Rare Cancers Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, who always speaks with authority on these issues. I particularly agree with her and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, on the timescales; anything that can be done to compress them would be very welcome.
I associate myself with ot…
Lords
Debate
14 January 2026
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I have my name on this amendment and I am grateful to the Minister from the Ministry of Justice, who met a group of us to look at how the findings and recommendations from the Cordis Bright report could be met. I would like to add a tiny word to the way in which this amendment was so well …
Before the Minister sits down, what action can be taken against a centre that appears to be quite dubious and unaccredited? While the amendment is not being accepted, there is recognition that there may be activities going on which are effectively underground. The children who may be having contact …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
9 January 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, has done us all a great service. Last night, it was clear that there is a view that some really major parts of this legislation need to be addressed and debated. This is absolutely one of those major parts. It is about where decision-making finally sits. The n…
My Lords, we move on to a group of amendments that are extremely important and, in some ways, complementary to those in the previous debate. Autonomy is the lodestar of the Bill. The amendments in this group are designed to reinforce and respect that patient autonomy; they do not block access to an …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
5 January 2026
Sudden Cardiac Death: Screening for Young People
I have some experience in the rollout of defibrillators, which is delegated to local areas, and well-meaning groups fundraise and want them in a particular place. Managing and maintaining them properly is paramount, as is training people in how to use them. Understanding them and going through gener…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Women’s Health Strategy
The noble Baroness is absolutely right, and we are taking every opportunity to find the right ways to communicate with women about their healthcare. If I had to give a big message, it would be, “Don’t not put up with it”. That is a basic challenge to get across, because so many women do put up with …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
Breast Cancer
It is the turn of the Conservative Benches and then we will come to the Labour Benches.
Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
Emergency Adrenaline
I certainly agree with the noble Baroness that the single patient record gives us all sorts of absolutely key opportunities, including in this regard. It is important that we note how common allergies are—they affect nearly one-third of the UK population. Although in most people allergic reactions c…
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, Amendments 16 and 114 propose that anyone who is currently, or was in the year preceding their first declaration, deprived of liberty under the Mental Capacity Act will be considered to lack capacity for the decision to seek an assisted death. Amendments 16A and 114A extend this to those o…
My Lords, I am grateful to those who have contributed to this discussion. I made it clear at the beginning that I was probing. I am particularly grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for pointing out that one of the difficulties for assessors is in knowing how reliable the information that t…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Statutory Instrument
11 December 2025
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful that the Minister is keeping in touch about the regulations, not just today but from when we last debated this in November. She will not be surprised to know that most of the concerns from these Benches are about the practicalities. The main concern remains the slowness of pr…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, we come to a key concern in this Bill—the very real risks of coercion and pressure to seek an assisted death. While the Bill acknowledges coercion, it does not fully address the dynamics of domestic abuse at the end of life nor the intersectional risks faced by women, those who are disable…
My Lords, this has clearly been a long debate, and I think for good reason. As one noble Lord said, coercion and pressure are a major concern for many people about the way the Bill is written. I will very briefly respond. I am well aware of the time, but a lot of points have been made. Noble Lords w…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I listened very carefully to what the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said. She has put an enormous amount of work into the background of this Bill. One thing she did not address was the wording of the change from “capacity” to “ability”. It seems to me that the Mental Capacity Act runs like …
My Lords, given this very long debate, I will try to respond briefly. I declare that I had the privilege of being the first chair of the National Mental Capacity Forum, which was set up following the post-legislative scrutiny of the Mental Capacity Act precisely because of the problems with its impl…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 November 2025
Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Reports
I understand the point that the noble Baroness makes—it is quite right. We will continue to take account of and work to support parents and those they care for in the way that she describes. Certainly, I will also discuss with the Minister continuing the work with the organisation to which she refer…
Lords
Proceedings
4 November 2025
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for having met me, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, with whom I discussed the Statement yesterday.
The Minister has spoken about claim managers now being trained and directly employed. I wonder if she has evidence that trust has incr…