Lords
Oral Questions
11 November 2025
2 contributions
British Council
My Lords—
One of the reasons that we have worked hard to protect the British Council’s funding and are committed to the £160 million is because of the amazing work that it does supporting higher education and opportunities for young people—and some older people too. The noble Baroness will be pleased to know …
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Energy Market Reforms
I thank my noble friend for the question. Nuclear energy is part of the Government’s strategy in order to have sufficient energy for this country and to move away from gas power stations, for example. Personally, I am keen on small modular reactors: they are very important as part of our nuclear ene…
Lords
Oral Questions
30 October 2025
Heathrow Airport: Third Runway
My noble friend raises a point that has been raised here before. The Government have put themselves out, as they should, to support the reopening of Doncaster Airport, and of course we will support the Mayor of Doncaster in the aspiration to have better connectivity for that part of Yorkshire.
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Built Environment Sector
My noble friend is right to draw our attention to this area. Ensuring that we have the workers to support a clean energy transition is essential and she will know that, last week, the department put out a very detailed plan—I commend it to all noble Lords—to address the skills gaps we have in 31 pri…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 October 2025
Jobcentres: Staffing Levels
My Lords, that is really interesting. I know that we do have advisers working out of GP centres, for example in Darwen, in Lancashire, and in Braehead, where we are placing people so that, when GPs encounter people with certain kinds of difficulties, we can provide employment support right then, so …
Lords
Oral Questions
20 October 2025
Musical Instrument Certificates
I can assure my noble friend that there is not much that the Cabinet Office does not get involved in.
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Jobs Market
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for an excellent question. I assume that she refers to the Government’s recent announcement that we are moving away from a target for university entrance to an ambition for two-thirds of young people to reach level 4 by age 25 and 10% to reach levels 4 and 5. In thi…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards: Cost Caps for Landlords
My noble friend touches on an important point. There are two developments coming forward: one is a revision of the decent homes standard and the other is the future homes standard, which will be published shortly. We have confirmed the new 10-year £39 billion programme for social and affordable home…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 September 2025
Labour Market
My noble friend raises a very important point about illegal working. There are certainly all kinds of difficulties attached to it. She mentioned human trafficking, but there is also the abuse of workers who are not in a position to report abuse or breaches of legislation because of their status. I r…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Civil Service: Artificial Intelligence Productivity Gains
I thank my noble friend for the question. I am not going to try to add the regional Civil Service to my brief, but I will say that this is exactly the sort of area where AI is rather good at working out whether there is a benefit, because it can spot patterns that are difficult to spot individually …
Lords
Oral Questions
24 July 2025
Minimally Invasive Cancer Therapies
I thank my noble friend for that question. I can assure her that I get regular bulletins, comments and questions from Yorkshire Cancer Research. I highly recommend that noble Lords look at the work that it does. The national cancer plan will identify the activity needed to reduce disparities in canc…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
2 contributions
European Convention on Human Rights
My Lords—
I thank my noble friend Lady Winterton for that question. As she said, she has been an election monitor with the OSCE. I have been an election monitor with the Council of Europe and the OSCE. Both bodies do extremely valuable work, and it would be wrong to undermine that work in any way.
Lords
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Government Resilience Action Plan
My Lords, noble Lords have referred to intelligence sharing and co-operation between government departments, but many aspects of the resilience plan will rely on international co-operation. Certainly, for example, on cyber intelligence sharing. At the annual meeting of the OSCE last week, there was …
Lords
Proceedings
26 June 2025
National Security Strategy
My Lords, in the foreword to the strategy, the Prime Minister talked about strength on the international stage, which other noble Lords have raised. I make a plea to my noble friend that, as well as their strong support for NATO set out in the document, the Government should be clear that they want …
Lords
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Social Care
My noble friend raises an important point. If we are moving to a neighbourhood health service, we need to engage with local social care providers and make sure that they are part of the mix. This is where the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, is starting. She is bringing everyone together to talk about ho…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 June 2025
Cardiovascular Illnesses
My Lords, I start by expressing my gratitude to and respect for my noble friend Lord Booth for being so honest and brave with us in this Committee about his experience. I know that we all wish him well.
I intend to concentrate on the prevention of cardiovascular illness and the importance of regula…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 June 2025
Driving Test Delays
I thank my noble friend for that; I am aware of this. What we must not do in all this is reduce the safety content. The rule about theory tests and their expiry after two years is designed to make sure that when you take a practical test, you have a really up-to-date grasp of the basics of road safe…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 June 2025
Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019
I thank my noble friend for all the work that she did on this—I am sure that the people in her area were grateful for it too. There is evidence of private parking appeals processes being unfair to motorists and insufficiently independent. It is important that motorists have confidence in the appeals…
Lords
Proceedings
21 May 2025
UK-EU Summit
My Lords, during the European Affairs Select Committee’s recent visit to Brussels, it became very clear that it was the constructive and positive attitude of this Government that was opening the way to meaningful discussions, particularly on defence and security. There are obviously some details to …
Lords
Oral Questions
19 May 2025
Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors
My Lords, I need no encouragement from my noble friend to knock on the doors of the Treasury. That is what we have been doing over the last few weeks, and having, I hope, very constructive discussions. I pay tribute to our former colleague Richard Caborn, the work he is doing in South Yorkshire in r…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 May 2025
Water: Supply and Infrastructure
I thank my noble friend for that question. It is an interesting idea, and I would be very happy to take it up with government colleagues. To be absolutely clear, the investment that we have secured is not good simply for the water supply, it is good for our economy. The £104 billion will create tens…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 May 2025
Doncaster Royal Infirmary
My noble friend is right about the effects of a poor estate. In addition to productivity, it very much affects safety, staff working conditions and capacity. The benefits are considerable, as she identifies—and indeed as the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, identified. I assure my noble friend that we are wo…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 May 2025
EU-UK Summit: Visa Waiver Agreement
I can reassure my noble friend. She raises very important points about some of the failings and inadequacies of the arrangements that came through the original discussions, which are absolutely critical. I reassure my noble friend that, as well as Minister Bryant visiting counterparts in Europe, off…
Lords
Oral Questions
30 April 2025
National Shipbuilding Strategy
My noble friend makes a really important point. Part of what I and the Government are trying to do is to ensure that the increase in defence spending is felt across the regions and nations of this country, whether it be the Yorkshire and Humber region and other regions of England, or Wales, Scotland…