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…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
Housing Associations: Financial Assistance
The Government genuinely understand the need for homes in rural areas, and we have focused on the rural exception site type of policies that allow local areas to ring-fence that housing for local need. We will continue to do that. It is for local authorities to determine the types of housing, both t…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 June 2025
Food Allergens
I agree with the noble Baroness that we absolutely do not want to see a repeat of that. As she says, local authorities enforce allergen rules, typically via trading standards and environmental health officers. The number of trading standards officers has dropped, although staffing rose slightly in 2…
Lords
Debate
25 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I must remind your Lordships of my professional involvement in aspects of this sector as a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, an honorary fellow of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, a vice-president of the National Association of Local Councils and joint…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2025
UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on bringing forward the 10-year strategy. It has managed to put a smile on the Minister’s face, which is very welcome indeed. In the interests of transparency and clarity, can I ask him what the route for the trans-Pennine route upgrade will be and what consul…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 June 2025
Live Music Industry: Support
The Government are committed to developing a truly plan-led system with a policy framework that is accessible and understandable to all. To that end, we intend to consult on a set of national policies for decision-making later this year. As I mentioned in a previous response, we want to enable new d…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 June 2025
2 contributions
E-scooters, E-bikes and Pedal Bikes: Legislation
My Lords, the Government have no plans to legislate for the registration or insurance of e-bikes or pedal bikes. This would be likely to put many people off cycling, with negative environmental and health benefits. However, it is illegal for private e-scooters to be used on public roads. The Governm…
I feel that this is a rerun of the noble Baroness’s previous Question. She is right that the road network, including the pavement, should be safe for all varieties of road users, including all the people she mentions and pedestrians. It clearly is an issue, and I respect her view, and that of other …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 June 2025
Social Energy Tariff
I welcome that question; we have to balance increasing it for a certain number of people with widening it out to as many people in fuel poverty as possible. The Government are doing the right thing by extending it from about 2.7 million to 6 million people in fuel poverty—to people who would have re…
Lords
Proceedings
12 June 2025
Spending Review 2025
My Lords, the noble Lord will recall that the Government were elected on a promise of ending the housing of refugees in hotels within 12 months of being elected to office. For what reason have the Government now decided to continue to house refugees in hotels until the end of this Parliament?
Lords
Proceedings
12 June 2025
Parliamentary Commercial Department
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, mentioned my diplomatic skills. I now start my audition for a role at the UN.
I will challenge one thing the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, said, which I strongly reject: that we are a part-time House. Those of us who were here at 1.30 am would not think that. We …