My Lords, is the Minister aware that the emergency alerts that one can sign up for via the Prepare website are available in English and Welsh only? If there is going to be an El Niño event later this year, will she commit to taking urgent action to make sure that emergency alerts are available in ot…
Any threats to BBC Persian service staff in London or anywhere else—but certainly any threats in this country—are completely unacceptable, and our security services and the police work hard to keep them safe. One of the atrocious things about the Iranian regime is the way it has sought to act in the…
My Lords, the Government must make an appropriate challenge. If somebody becomes a refugee, they have all the entitlements that that brings, but while the asylum process is going through they are supported and not able to work. We are trying to make sure the immigration policy is appropriate and put…
My Lords, if we are to have remote assessments, it is very important that we have an exception for one group of people who might be seeking assisted dying: those who require the services of a public service interpreter. Elsewhere in the Bill, the provision of interpreters is acknowledged and provide…
My Lords, can the Minister say whether any additional security and protection are being made available here to people working for the BBC Persian service, who are already being subject to harassment and worse, and who are now expected to be on the receiving end of worse?
My Lords, I start by declaring my interests as co-chair of the APPG on Modern Languages and honorary president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists which, along with the British Council and the British Academy, supports the APPG. I am a languages graduate myself in Spanish and French and a curren…
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, on securing this debate and acknowledge the enormous amount of work that she does through the APPG and any other channels to make sure that the question of modern languages teaching and learning remains as high on the agenda as it possibly …
My Lords, can the Minister confirm that rejoining Erasmus+ will include schools for the purposes of trips and exchanges? If so, will His Majesty’s Government back this up by reintroducing group passports, so that we can put an end to the inordinate delays at the border when coach-loads of children h…
My Lords, the three amendments in this group are in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, who is unfortunately unable to be in the Chamber this evening. I thank him for his support. I also thank the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Katz, his officials and the Bill team for the meetings …
My Lords, with the withdrawal of the EBacc and with more and more universities shutting down their modern language courses, what measures are the Government considering to prevent take-up of languages at GCSE plummeting? Secondly, will the noble Baroness give urgent attention to introducing an advan…
Can the Minister say what the Government are doing to support the Palestinian Authority in its programme to reform governance procedures, with a view to the PA becoming an electable, credible alternative to Hamas?
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and declare interests as co-chair of the APPG on Modern Languages and president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists.
The UK has agreed to work towards association to the Erasmus+ programme, on financial terms to be mutually agreed, which should ensure a fair balance as regards the contributions of and benefits to the UK. Negotiations are under way, and noble Lords will understand that I cannot comment in detail on…
My Lords, Amendment 181 in my name is very straightforward indeed. The noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Yardley, and the noble Lord, Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury, have kindly added their names to it; both regret that they are unable to be present this evening.
The amendment seeks, quite simply, to ens…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply and for his very clear statement that the Government agree that they have a moral and legal obligation to make sure that people in these situations clearly understand what is happening. Rather than just writing to me, will he agree to have a meeting with …
I do not know about the specific policy that the noble Baroness is talking about but, as I say, we significantly increased per-pupil funding in the previous spending review to a new record high within our state schools.
My Lords, I congratulate the new Minister and wish her well in her—I hope—long career. As the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, pointed out, our committee has had some success with newly-appointed Ministers lasting a little longer than some colleagues.
The use of translation services in the public secto…
My Lords, I start by congratulating the noble Lord, Lord McCabe, on his excellent maiden speech. May I also say how wonderful it is to see the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy, in his place again?
I agree with practically everything that the noble Lord, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, said in his speech. I …
The noble Baroness is right: we should not underestimate the importance of the World Service and its reach. It has exceeded the target we set for it, to reach 306 million people, so we know how important it is. The noble Baroness makes a really important point. We need a fully funded World Service a…
My Lords, if the military base on Diego Garcia is just as important to the US as it is to the UK, was the US ever asked to split the costs of leasing it back?
I of course understand what the noble Baroness is saying, but the Government uplifted the spending for 2025-26 to ensure that we can reach those people, particularly in Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. The evidence shows that we are able to respond and will respond. It comes back to the original Questi…
My Lords, the Statement read out by the noble Baroness the Leader said that this arrangement will do away with the long delays faced by lorry drivers with rotting food in the back. Can she say whether it will do away with the long delays faced by coach-loads of schoolchildren on school trips to Fran…
I thank the noble Baroness. This is an incredibly important point. As the noble Baroness rightly says, the AI training datasets are often not on the right things, and this is an example where there is a need for training of models in different languages and dialects. It will be very important as par…