Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
State of Climate and Nature
My Lords, 10 of the 48 designated areas have still not produced their local nature recovery strategies. When will the Government issue directions to those councils and give them a deadline to do it by? Will there be a modest amount of money to help those councils that are clearly struggling?
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
UK Migration
My Lords, I am very conscious that, under the points-based system, many people came into this country on a variety of visas. However, in the last two years, over half a million people have acquired British citizenship. What assessment have the Government made of the Home Secretary’s proposed policy …
Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
International Marine Protected Area: Sargasso Sea
I had the privilege of being alongside my noble friend Lord Ahmad when we signed the BBNJ treaty at the UN in 2023. It is great news to hear about progress on the Sargasso. I think there is a real opportunity, building on what my noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford said, about using the Commonweal…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2026
Children’s and Young People’s Mental Health Services
There was an initiative to have a mental health first aider in every school. What further work has been done to maintain that level in the Minister’s working collaboration with the DfE and local councils?
Lords
Committee Stage
30 June 2026
Ukraine: International Claims Commission Convention
My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I appreciate the decision of the committee to ask for this matter to be debated. As President Zelensky said in 2023 in The Hague:
“There can be no peace without justice”.
The Council of Europe is on a twin-track at the moment regarding holding Ru…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Livestock Grazing on Dartmoor National Park
My Lords, I set up the Fursdon review for Dartmoor and, in terms of the recommendations, it would be helpful for the Government to update the House on what commitments they continue to have. It was set up because of a clash and a lack of trust, so it is important that trust is re-established as quic…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Child Poverty
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on securing this debate. It is very timely in recognising the ongoing challenges that families in this country face, including issues around inflation, the reduction in the number of jobs available and the increase in unemployment, as well as the need to t…
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
2 contributions
Thames Water
My Lords, the action by the Secretary of State in her letter is good. I fully support what she wrote regarding this proposition. Without going back on all the leverage, the main leverage issue on Thames Water happened in 2006. For some reason Ofwat did not follow entirely the strategy policy stateme…
My Lords, part of the reason why there have not been quite so many new reservoirs in such a long time is that the water industry has got more efficient in its distribution of water. I am conscious that there is still leakage. The capacity of the Hanningfield reservoir in Essex was expanded by 50%. T…
Lords
Debate
15 June 2026
3 contributions
Social Housing Bill [HL]
My Lords, I want to hear from the Minister about government Amendment 4, to try to understand a bit more about cohabitees. There are other legal rulings which have been made and I am led to believe that the Lord Chancellor will be bringing forward legislation about cohabitees, but the definition is …
My Lords, the intention of the Government is to change the discount on right to buy, dropping it from the current 35% rate for houses and 50% for flats all the way down to 5%. Taking Amendments 14 and 15 together, I agree with the intention to add percentages as the number of years of accommodation …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
15 June 2026
4 contributions
Social Housing Bill [HL]
My Lords, I have a number of amendments in this group, some of which I have co-signed with the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham of Droxford. I think we were probably both approached by the same organisation. There is one I have tabled which he has not co-signed, but I will not steal his thunder, apart from…
I wonder if the noble Baroness realises that we covered Amendment 4 earlier.
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
11 June 2026
Rural Economy
My Lords, it is great to see my noble friend Lord Roborough back in his place just in time for this important debate. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Fuller on securing it. There is no doubt that the rural economy, just like most of the UK, is struggling. Unfortunately, some of that is due to re…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Water Companies
My Lords, the Minister was kind enough to reply to my Written Questions about what the Environment Agency in 2021 said was going to be its biggest ever criminal investigation. Five years on, with six charges potentially laid, there has been only one conviction so far. I encourage the Minister to wor…
Lords
Debate
24 April 2026
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Yes, I completely agree. That is why I say that I respect the right of MPs to decide to use the Parliament Act process. But I would rather that we did not have to go through all this again, having to change what has been a flawed Bill at this end. I appreciate and am aware of the Parliament Act proc…
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, will be taking part remotely, and it has been agreed that she will be called as the third speaker in the debate on the amendment.
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 April 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I have Amendments 251, 263ZA and 263ZB in this group. I start by giving my general support to Amendment 247, which the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, just set out. Councils already have quite a lot of compulsory purchase powers, but in my experience they are very reluctant to use them, so I…
I said earlier that I would wait for the Minister’s response. I think the House will be pleased that I think the response was sufficiently satisfactory, so it would be churlish for me to press this to a Division. I therefore will not move the amendment.
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I strongly support Amendments 169, 268 and 657. In my discussions with a variety of doctors’ representatives, two issues clearly came out straightaway. They volunteered them— I did not ask for them—and they were about how this must shift to being an opt-in process. As it stands, it still d…
I do not think that the noble and learned Lord spoke to his Amendments 422, 423 and 888. It is possible that he could do that in another group at a later date, but I wanted to clarify whether he would make sure that he does that.
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
8 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, in this group I have tabled 28 amendments and signed another one. Most of them are connected to the fact that I do not believe the Bill should apply to Wales. We had something of a debate on the first day in Committee, but I was conscious at that point that we did not want to spend the ent…
The Welsh Senedd’s legislative consent Motion was not about whether it could accept or reject the Bill. People perceived a threat, although I appreciate that this is not what Kim Leadbeater or the noble and learned Lord will have suggested. This perceived threat, explicitly put in a letter by the sp…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
19 March 2026
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I also support my noble friend Lady Altmann’s amendments. Whether she chooses Amendment 49 or Amendment 50 on which to divide, I will support her by voting with her.
The important point here is that people’s lives are unpredictable. One reason why we are extending this even now is that th…
I signed Amendment 52 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles of Berkhamsted, because—let us be candid about this—this is not the Government’s money. There seems to be an attitude that, because the Government use tax relief in other ways to encourage people to invest in private pensions, all …
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords—
I did not quite hear at the start. Can I just confirm that this amendment was not tabled at the request of the Isle of Man Government?
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The Minister will know that I will discuss later why I do not think that the legislation should apply to Wales, and that the Welsh Senedd should make the decision. I tabled the amendment because, at the moment, the judge does not have to be a judge from this country. As far as I can tell from the Bi…
Actually, I have further questions of clarity from the Government’s response. In the amendment that I tabled about His Majesty’s Counsel, the Minister mentioned workability concerns about there not being enough people. I would like to understand whether the government proposal suggested that amendme…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
5 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
If a council decides to designate, say, Hackney Marshes or some other area like that and it is clearly for sporting value, will it then get the same protection even if the council has not initially designated it because it did not have spectator facilities? Will it then get the same protection for l…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
10 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has got to the nub of an issue that seems to fall between a rock and a hard place. One of the issues that we face in terms of the crime survey, which is now being used by the Government as the primary way of deciding police resources, is fraud. Without d…
I am actually very pro-digital ID, as long as it is not mandatory, but one of the things to improve take-up is the fear that people will have fraud committed against them. This amendment introduces an offence not necessarily to reduce the likelihood of that, but to provide potential weapons that can…
+8 more contributions in this session