Lords
Proceedings
26 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Day
My Lords, I congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Coventry on her moving and illuminating maiden speech.
I rise with a profound sense of solemnity and responsibility. Holocaust Memorial Day is not merely a day of remembrance but a day of moral reckoning—one that calls on us all year…
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Bill
My Lords, I thank everyone for their contributions to this evening’s debate. I do not want to delay us too much, but I want to reflect on a number of comments, not least from the noble Lord, Lord Pickles, who has been doing excellent work on Holocaust education, and I have followed him in many place…
Lords
Proceedings
20 January 2026
Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure
My Lords, given my noble friend’s question, and given the importance of hospitality for employment—and the reference in a previous question to the number of young people who are unemployed—why is hospitality not included in the Government’s industrial strategy?
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Youth Unemployment
My advice would be that the defence industry is an enormously important part of this country’s engineering base. It is one of the eight areas identified in this Government’s industrial strategy and our young people should be encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities that there are in that in…
Lords
Proceedings
14 January 2026
New Medium Helicopter Contract
My Lords, further to the point about the supply chain, is the noble Lord aware that when these small and medium-sized enterprises and family companies try to get finance to invest in the machinery required, some financial institutions see investing in companies providing services for defence as a ne…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
Early Years Education
I am not apprised of the actual details. Obviously, this is something that has been picked up and will be looked at very seriously going forward.
Lords
Proceedings
10 December 2025
Ajax Armoured Vehicle
My Lords, this scandal reminds me of a scandal I worked on when I was a very young man: the airborne early warning system of the 1980s. It started under Labour and was cancelled by my noble friend Lord Trefgarne; it cost millions of pounds. Working within that company, Ministers were deliberately de…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 November 2025
West Midlands Police: Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans
I will deal first with the question about the timeline and then perhaps respond on the other matters, because it is important that the facts are in the public domain. The United Kingdom Football Policing Unit informed Home Office officials on 2 October that there was a significant risk of disorder i…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 50 in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Goodman. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Carlile. I would not describe him as a nasty lawyer at all. The noble Lord is a Burnley fan. I do not know any nasty Burnley fans, but I do know a lot of Ars…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Litter on Canal Towpaths
My Lords, it is a pleasure to open this important debate on an issue that has caused concern for canal users up and down the country. Outdoor recreation is essential for people’s well-being and health. We want more people to get out and about and the tow-paths are fantastic open spaces. Sadly, this …
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Evans of Rainow on his steadfast support of this important issue and for obtaining this debate today. I first became aware of the growing concern about the amount of litter on canal tow-paths when my noble friend tabled his amendment to the Private Membe…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Inheritance Tax: Pensions
I remember the noble Lord’s Question last year. As he knows, I will not speculate on the next Budget now or comment on individual tax measures ahead of time.
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Dyscalculia
I suspect it is, as other things would also be. The noble Lord makes an important point, which goes to the point I made in my first two responses. It is important that we identify all pupils who have challenges with maths—including those with dyscalculia—as early as possible, and put in place suppor…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
River Pollution
Clearly, it is important that we do not have litter blowing into our rivers, causing further damage and pollution, or litter generally, not just going into the watercourses. The Canal & River Trust can make its own decisions, but we work very closely with it and urge it to consider pollution in …
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly to my noble friend Lord Lansley’s Amendment 236. This gives me an opportunity to pay tribute to my noble friend and his work in this House. I declare an interest as chairman of the Greater Cheshire Development Forum.
On new towns and the new town of Adlington, I have …
Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
2 contributions
AI: Workforce Training
My Lords, we want to ensure that people have access to good, meaningful jobs. That is why the Government are supporting workforce readiness for AI through a range of initiatives. The new AI Skills Hub, developed by Innovate UK and PwC, provides streamlined access to digital training. This will suppo…
I thank the noble Lord for reminding us of the great work of our former Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the Open University. The Government support modern, flexible learning to cater to diverse learners right across the UK. Many universities already offer fully online postgraduate courses in AI. To…
Lords
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Middle East
My Lords, what steps are the Government taking to recognise those Hamas officials and operatives acting within the Palestinian state so they do not try to rebadge themselves as Palestinian Ministers?
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, it has been a great privilege to sit here all day and listen to noble, and noble and learned, Members of this House. The problem is that when you are the penultimate speaker, most of the good ideas and suggestions have already been made. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lady May, the noble…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 September 2025
Nitrous Oxide Misuse: Drivers
I am grateful to the noble Lord. It is not acceptable to have that level of abuse, and it not acceptable for people to blatantly break the law. It may interest him that 378 individuals were prosecuted for offences related to nitrous oxide possession or trafficking last year. Of those 378, 240 were c…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 149, regarding broad workforce support. I was born and brought up in a working-class community that was specifically built to supply workers to build aircraft for a very large organisation employing thousands of people. As a teenager, I was lucky enough to get…
Some things have not changed. Then you had the mechanical engineers, the aircraft fitters, and so on and so forth: several different unions representing different members. I learned as a very young man that some unions are more militant than others and that a very small group of people could bring a…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Givinostat
The noble Lord touches on a very sensitive matter that could be replicated around a variety of issues. Looking for more people to come forward is a perpetual challenge, and I am sure that everything should be done to encourage people to do so. I am sure that many people do not know that this is an i…
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I rise to support the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe. This gives me an opportunity to pay tribute to him and his public service as police commissioner and in the Merseyside Police. It also gives me the opportunity to mention the service of my colleague, my noble friend Lord…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Tourism Levy
I do not know what tourism tax the noble Lord is talking about because, as I think I have made clear, we have no plans to introduce what he is describing. He talked about the recent Budget. In the Budget we introduced a number of policies to help this sector, including freezing the business rates sm…
Lords
Debate
3 July 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Perhaps I can help the noble Lord. I am on the Social Mobility Policy Committee. As part of the evidence gathering process, we went to Blackpool, where we met with the Department for Work and Pensions, which has a database on many children who are being home-schooled because they are in receipt of b…