Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
Violence Against Retail Workers
My Lords, convenience stores recorded 5.8 million incidents in 2025 alone. The total cost of that was £354 million, with an average cost of over £7,000 per store. Not only is there the human cost on shop workers but the economic cost to convenience stores and larger stores. The Government must do mo…
Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
State of Climate and Nature
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Statement and for giving us the opportunity to raise issues in this regard. I associate myself with the comments made from the Front Bench. Will the Minister reply to the question about taking productive land out of production? The wheat harvest is expected to …
Lords
Debate
13 July 2026
Clean Water Bill: Chalk Streams
My Lords, I think this is the first time the noble Baroness has said that the Bill may not reach Parliament in this Session. Where there is no need for primary legislation—for example, the proposals in the Cunliffe review—will she look to bring these in through secondary legislation where that is ap…
Lords
Proceedings
13 July 2026
Farming Practices: Sustainable Farming Incentive
My Lords, common land is excluded from both the SFI and the countryside stewardship higher tier. When will the Minister ensure that owners and graziers on common land can apply for SFI and the higher tier? She will be aware that most of these people are in the uplands and are really suffering at thi…
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
European Entry and Exit System
My Lords, I have a general question for the noble Lord. I thank him for what he is doing to try to smooth things for passengers from here across Europe. Is it right that a British passenger has to check in for each new country in the EU that they visit, whereas European passengers coming here from t…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Rochdale Grooming Gang: Offender Deportation
My Lords, it appears that the said gentleman, Shabir Ahmed, has ripped up his Pakistan passport and claims to be without a state at the moment. That is an issue that has not yet been addressed. The issue of the law, the Immigration Act 1971, could simply be addressed in the Government’s legislation …
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Drugging and Sexual Assault of Women
My Lords, does the noble Lord share my concern that one of the main perpetrators in the Rochdale grooming gangs has been eligible for early release and is not immediately set for deportation? What message is that giving to those very real victims who suffered huge deprivation in the grooming gang sc…
Lords
Committee Stage
7 July 2026
REACH (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026
I am most grateful to the Minister for presenting these regulations before the Committee. I probably ought to say that I was a Member of the European Parliament when the original REACH agreement and regulations came forward.
I am also grateful to the Minister for commenting on the concerns raised b…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Pharmacy Closures
My Lords, I refer to my interest advising the Dispensing Doctors’ Association, and my late father and my brother were dispensing doctors. The Minister will be aware that where there are no community pharmacies, dispensing doctors stand prepared to give vaccinations, such as for meningitis B for stud…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Farming Road Map and Profitability Review
My Lords, the road map does not appear to address the very real issue of the funding gap between the collapse in basic farm payments, which is accelerating faster than anyone expected, and the incoming funds from environmental land management schemes. Have I missed it? How does the road map address …
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Food Security
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, on her report, which has been a fantastic contribution to this area. I say to the Minister that the Government should revisit the clean energy proposals to take 10% of the most productive farmland out of food production and make sure that it…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
Legal Protections for Ancient Trees
Is the Minister aware of any rules that control the felling of trees in conservation areas? There seems to be a spate of councils cutting down trees that are much loved by the local community in conservation areas of towns and villages. Is this something she could look at?
Lords
Committee Stage
23 June 2026
Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026
I thank the Minister for presenting the regulations. I am afraid I am going to break the harmony. The Minister will recall our debates on the previous legislation that my noble friend Lord Lansley rehearsed. I go back to the time I was first elected to the other place—on the same day as my noble fri…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry
My Lords, many of those convicted under the provisions of the grooming gangs were actually taxi drivers, and yet they are a category of people who have to pass all sorts of checks before they are able to pick up—particularly vulnerable young women. How did they escape those checks and how were they …
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
Integrated Care Boards: Budgets
My Lords, the Government have identified that NHS England staffing and administration costs have risen to £2 billion, with significant duplication between NHS England and the department. Have the Government identified savings that can be made that could, for example, be used to deliver healthcare in…
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
Thames Water
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that it is not necessarily just ownership of a water company that is the deciding factor, and there are other jurisdictions in which leakage and sewage going into rivers and the sea are problems. I think of Denmark, where the vast majority of water companies are …
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Children: Physical Punishment
My Lords, did not the Preston Davey case prove that the current situation is simply not working? That poor boy was sexually assaulted and abused for months. The question has to be asked: why did no one from any agency pick this up?
Lords
Committee Stage
15 June 2026
Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I welcome the Minister to her place and thank her for introducing the regulations before us. I say at the outset that they are extremely welcome; obviously, I welcome them. I declare that I recently joined the Environment and Climate Change Committee of this House, so ably and excellently …
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
World Ocean Day
My Lords, there is evidence to prove that the noise and sonic boom from offshore wind farms is causing damage to porpoises, dolphins and whales. Would it not therefore make sense to have a moratorium on future offshore wind farms until we have more knowledge of what damage is being caused to our mar…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 June 2026
2 contributions
Pollution Prevention and Control (Fees) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Wilson of Sedgefield, for introducing the regulations. I have a couple of questions. He said that there are 100 companies. Is the number going up or down each year? I imagine that the number of companies will probably reduce. It would be helpful to kno…
The Minister said that the Government are recovering costs this year and that that is why the cost is higher than what was recovered in the past. Can he give the Committee a commitment that the increase in the hourly rate next year will not be as high as what we have seen this year?
Lords
Proceedings
11 June 2026
Sustainable Drainage Systems
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that a recent court case set aside these informal and non-mandatory provisions. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs wants to implement the statutory basis of the 2010 Act to make these mandatory. Will she please agree to do so at the earliest p…
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Farming and Food Production
I am grateful to the Minister for that reply but, of course, environmental schemes do not put food on the table. Will she take this opportunity to set out how the Government intend to put the focus back on to food production and farming, particularly to boost the productivity of farms in the uplands…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 June 2026
Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I congratulate the Minister and the department on bringing forward these regulations, which I believe reach the right balance. As the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, who has great expertise in the field of science, has set out, there will be certain circumstances in which we will have to c…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
E-scooters and E-bikes
My Lords, does the Minister have a timetable for the introduction in law of the insurance scheme? He knows from our discussions during the passage of the English devolution Bill that the Motor Insurers’ Bureau is very keen on this. Can he also look outside Parliament at the new super highway for bic…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Water Companies
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the work that she and the department are doing in clearing up the rivers, watercourses and seas, though privatisation and EU regulations have played their part. She will be aware that the Cunliffe review referred to pollution and flooding being addressed up stream …