Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, this is only the second intervention I have made in this very important Bill. I draw the attention of the Minister, the department and, indeed, the House to the plight and funding of rural schools.
One of the first actions that the incoming Government undertook was to end the rural servic…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 September 2025
National Health Service Regulations
The expectation is that all GPs, including those in rural areas, will benefit greatly. The premise of the 10-year plan, which was announced recently, is to improve patient access. That is a particular issue in rural areas and is absolutely key, no matter where you are—whether you are appearing in pe…
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness. I support a number of amendments in this group, but I will limit my remarks to the debate on whether Clause 83 should stand part of the Bill. I was beaten at the post by my noble friend Lord Roborough in signing the clause stand part notice, s…
My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lady Coffey for moving her amendment and for giving the preface to my Amendment 333, to which I would like to speak. I will leave it to my noble friend Lord Lucas to explain why he has amended my Amendment 333. This is a probing amendment. I hope that …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Plastic Pollution
My Lords, the UK supports an ambitious treaty to end plastic pollution, and I am very disappointed that no agreement has been reached. Plastic pollution is an urgent issue, with amounts of plastic entering the ocean set to triple by 2040 compared with 2016. The Government therefore remain committed …
We are taking a number of steps domestically to tackle plastic pollution. First, we have banned the supply of single-use vapes which, when littered, can introduce plastic, among other substances, into the environment. We are also working with the devolved Governments to bring forward a ban across th…
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
Briefly, I support the amendments in this group and congratulate my noble friend on tabling them. I am particularly pleased by the reference to Slow the Flow projects, which were successful in places such as Pickering. Is it possible to achieve this through building regulations? Is it something that…
Lords
Debate
5 September 2025
2 contributions
Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Bill
My Lords, this Bill, introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, offers us an excellent opportunity to modernise legislation which has been left standing for far too long, namely the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953. This Act belongs to a bygone age of farming and dog ownership. Similar la…
I am happy to take these issues away. At the moment, it covers grazing land. The definition of grazing land is something, again, that the courts can look at. Perhaps we can consider those definitions further. On the noble Baroness’s final point, that the legislation will lapse in 2034, I would just …
Lords
Debate
4 September 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Scott for opening this small group of amendments and for lending her support to my Amendment 95, to which I will briefly speak.
As drafted, the Bill leaves out the question of enforcement measures being recovered from the fee. I put a very simple ques…
I am most grateful for the Minister’s response to the amendment. My concern is that it looks as though the Government are going to build on functional flood plains. That is why the role of property resilience measures is so important, and why the enforcement should be included in the fees. So, I hop…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
3 September 2025
Warm Home Discount (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, this instrument brings forward much needed and real expansion of a vital scheme that we believe will have significant positive impacts. We welcome the proposed expansion of the warm home discount, which aims to bring financial relief to millions more households across Great Britain that ar…
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Association of Drainage Authorities. I commend the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for his amendment and for introducing this group. I will speak to Amendments 79A and 94FA—if your Lordships will pardon the expression—tabled by my noble friends Lo…
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
2 contributions
Independent Water Commission
My Lords—
My Lords, I congratulate Sir Jon Cunliffe and the Independent Water Commission on their excellent work, and I declare my interest as co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Water Group. What legislative timetable is envisaged? In the Statement, the Secretary of State says that he will bring forwa…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
NHS England: Staff Costs
The point that the noble Baroness raises is not a new one. As anyone from the local government sphere will know, there are always ongoing conversations about the estate, where it lies, its ownership and how we can move it into the future, and I do not think anything has changed. What we know is that…
Lords
Debate
17 July 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am delighted to speak to the amendments in this group, and I thank my noble friend Lady Coffey for signing a number of them. The reason I asked for this group to stand alone is to have an opportunity for a short debate relating to the changes in Clauses 4 and 5 that the Government have b…
I am grateful to the Minister for her remarks, and to all who spoke. I meant to give a big shout-out to the clerks in the Public Bill Office. I know how hard our Front Bench and the Government Front Bench are working, but I understand that there are only four clerks in the Public Bill Office, who ar…
Lords
Proceedings
17 July 2025
UK-France Migration: Co-operation
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on reaching an agreement with Germany. My understanding is that the German law has to change before Germany can prosecute smuggling gangs operating on German soil. How confident is the noble Lord that the agreement to change German law will be reached this yea…
Lords
Debate
17 July 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am delighted that we have reached Committee, and I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, on having tabled the first amendment for debate. I echo many of her comments and those of my noble friend Lady Scott. I greatly enjoyed the contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt; it is…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
Train Operators’ Revenue Protection Practices Review
The new east coast main line timetable includes several big improvements, such as knocking over a quarter of an hour off the direct journey to Edinburgh and a service to Newcastle of three trains an hour, which is considerably in excess of the service on the Metropolitan line to Amersham. That is th…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 July 2025
Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) (Amendment) Order 2025
My Lords, these regulations come about as a consequence of a consultation. Unusually, it was only a four-week consultation, which is not unprecedented but surprising, especially recognising that it happened in November. It closed in December, and here we are in July debating these regulations. I app…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 July 2025
Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I have a couple of quick questions for the Minister. I completely understand why trying to move off gas is a clear policy of the Government, as reaffirmed in its recent 2030 plan. However, gas is, without doubt, the cheapest way of heating a home. I want to get an understanding of what fin…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2025
Online Safety Super-Complaints (Eligibility and Procedural Matters) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her comprehensive introduction. These regulations aim to establish a formal mechanism for super-complaints to be made to Ofcom under Section 169 of the 2023 Act, as we have heard. Potentially, this represents a significant step forward in implementing the Act’s vis…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2025
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment, etc.) Regulations 2025
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering. I thank the Minister for her introduction. I have a few specific questions, particularly relating to online marketplaces.
We can probably all come up with a list of half a dozen large websites that we would expect …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
United Kingdom: Soft Power
I agree with the noble Baroness. Spreading the English language has been the most important element of the British Council’s commercial activity. I also agree that how we support the teaching of foreign languages here is important. I was in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee this morning making …
Lords
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Government Resilience Action Plan
My Lords, can I bring the Minister back to the flood defence issue? She will be aware that, during the last Labour Government, Flood Re was created specifically to protect flood plains and to prevent developers building on functional flood plains—flood insurance was not deemed to be appropriate to p…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 July 2025
European Union Entry/Exit System
I am afraid it is a revelation to me that there is such a facility at Stansted, but, now that I know, I will go away and look at the noble Baroness’s remarks to see what can be done.
Lords
Committee Stage
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy
My Lords, I start also by paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and the work that he did as a Minister. I know that it was his decision to step down, and it has been really good to see him about the House since he took that decision.
On these Benches, we very much welcome the publication of …
With great pleasure, I will write to the noble Baroness on that point.
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Data Centres: Energy and Water Consumption
The proposal process for AI growth zones, which is where the big data centres will be placed, started in early February and ended at the end of February. Over 50 proposals have come forward, each of which needs to deal specifically with water in relation to the local environment and local plans, and…
Lords
Committee Stage
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Sheep Carcase (Classification and Price Reporting) (England) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I echo my noble friend’s words: this consultation has been going on for a very long time. My noble friend Lord Deben and I absolutely can vouch for these issues being regularly raised but not always sorted in the time between us coming in and out of office. I therefore congratulate the Min…
Obviously, the EU reset is looking at all sorts of different things and it is not something I can particularly comment on. What I can say, though, on the issue of vets being present, is that we have also been in discussion with the Food Standards Agency on the regulation of smaller abattoirs, the pr…