Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have signed Amendment 334 on spiking, but I want to congratulate my noble friend Lady Owen of Alderley Edge as she yet again leads the way on the important issues in her other amendments.
Clause 101, on spiking, is certainly welcome. The measure appeared in the previous version of the B…
Lords
Debate
24 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, Motion K1 is in my name. I have a whole speech written but I am not going to give it because I greatly appreciate the words that came from the Minister.
The concerns around the EDPs are critical. Even this morning I had many emails in my inbox from all walks of life—from builders, nature …
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I think the noble Baroness’s amendment about videoing affects Clause 25, which is considerably later, when the Act is about to happen. I wonder whether she would consider whether it should be done earlier in order to reduce that because, by the point of her amendment, the certificate of eligibility …
My Lords, I still have tabled amendments to speak to, but I will let the noble Baroness, Lady Rafferty, go first.
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
11 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise to support the amendment standing in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey. Some people may detect from my accent that, although I hail from the great city of Bangor, it is not the great city of Bangor in north Wales but the great city of Bangor in Northern Ireland. I have par…
I thank the noble Baroness. At the Lady Mayor’s parade, a member of the public introduced himself and told me that this is what he was doing. We agreed to disagree on the outcome of the Bill. Slightly patronisingly, he followed this up by saying how wonderful he thought I was and to keep going.
I d…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, this has been a challenging Bill. Over eight days in Committee and five on Report, we have examined it in extraordinary detail, with early mornings and late nights. Yet, despite the effort, it still falls short of the Government’s stated ambitions. The scale of late-stage amendments, with …
Lords
Committee Stage
10 November 2025
Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) (England) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her clear introduction to this SI. I join the noble Baronesses, Lady Redfern and Lady Coffey, in expressing disappointment about the slow pace at which this measure is being brought in; of course, Wales is ahead of us. I also join them in welcoming what is, I am af…
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I have a particular attachment to this amendment. I think it is fair to say that, when I went back into Defra, I was pretty surprised that we had not made any progress in getting Schedule 3 sorted. Yet again, it was the part for housing that had put a block on it, on the basis that apparen…
That is what Schedule 3 does.
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I understand what the noble Baroness is saying and I think Part 3 is so devastating, but I am not going to do a Second Reading speech, because I was pretty critical then. In respect of the amendments here, I particularly like Amendment 174. I also support the amendments on annual reporting…
My Lords, I support Amendment 138 tabled by my noble friend Lord Roborough. Non-native invasive species are one of the top five pressures on biodiversity. It is extraordinary that despite there being a variety of government strategies under way, there is still, frankly, a lack of stuff really gettin…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, this is an interesting group of amendments at this stage of the Bill and, clearly, we are heading towards Part 3. I am trying to understand why bringing aspects of this into primary legislation is necessary, given existing legislation and, indeed, a plethora of programmes put in place by g…
Lords
Debate
28 October 2025
2 contributions
Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Bill
My Lords, I understand that no amendments have been set down to this Bill and that no noble Lord has indicated a wish to move a manuscript amendment or to speak in Committee. Unless, therefore, any noble Lord objects, I beg to move that the order of commitment be discharged.
My Lords, I understand that no amendments have been set down to this Bill and that no noble Lord has indicated a wish to move a manuscript amendment or to speak in Committee. Unless, therefore, any noble Lord objects, I beg to move that the order of commitment be discharged.
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, this amendment is about consideration of an EDP by a local council. As I referred to on a previous group of amendments including an amendment in my name, because we have not gone to the full consideration of an EDP, it is not my intention to press this amendment later. This is effectively …
My Lords, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I have two amendments in this group. We are at the stage now where we are considering the Government’s significant changes—basically, removing decision-making from councillors on a huge scale, which gives me cause for concern—but I have decided to highlight just a couple of issues.
I shal…
My Lords, I thank the Minister and all noble Lords who have contributed on this group. It has been a useful discussion.
I say candidly to the Minister that these are the powers of transparency that, if I had served as a Minister in her department, I would have wanted to know of, so that I could go …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, this amendment was debated in Committee, led by my noble friend Lord Gascoigne, who did a marvellous job of it, because I was away representing Parliament in the US. However, I have decided to retable it as I am conscious of the timing of the contributions last time. Only a couple of days …
My Lords, I am looking forward to the White Paper. I hope, even if it does not come up in the White Paper, that there will be a water Bill coming at some point in the next year or so. If I have not persuaded the Government today, I hope that we will return to this in due course. With that, I beg lea…
Lords
Debate
20 October 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I raised this issue in Committee. This is an identical amendment to that tabled in the House of Commons by multiple chairs of Select Committees, who were concerned about the reduced opportunity for the Government to at least reply to the parliamentary scrutiny rightly undertaken in terms o…
My Lords, I have heard the Minister but do not think that the answer has changed since Committee, which I regret. I am concerned that removing any requirement on the Government to reply to either House is not satisfactory when it comes to parliamentary scrutiny. Therefore, I wish to test the opinion…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
I very much appreciated the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe. Although I see more value in this this Bill than the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier, was prepared to admit, I agree with what they each said about hard topics that this Bill might usefully have tackled but did not.
The Joi…
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, it is not easy to be speaker 108, but it is presumably even harder to be speaker 168. As a relatively new Member of your Lordships’ House, for me, last week’s debate was a privilege: arguments about choice, autonomy and the sanctity of life, leavened throughout by extraordinarily moving pe…
Lords
Debate
18 September 2025
4 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, this has been a fascinating debate. I have not particularly participated in this Bill, but I am always interested when noble Lords seek to incorporate various treaties we have signed into domestic law. The reason I say that is because of my experience in a variety of ways of having been a …
I would say in return— I was trying to keep my speech brief—that I hear what the noble Lord said. He talked about being unsuccessful in keeping it brief. That is because we have had a lot of stuff about legalism. I am giving direct experience of government—I appreciate what the noble Lord said. I ca…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
10 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am supportive of my noble friend Lord Gascoigne’s amendments, and will speak also to those from my Front Bench.
There are a couple of factors in this. The Treasury hates ring-fencing, because, right now, it pretty much controls every penny that leaves the Government’s hands, whether it …
My Lords, it is really important that we have private market solutions as a key way of delivering what we are trying to achieve. At risk of this becoming a Second Reading speech or of it being accused of that, I just want to go back a few years. The first green strategy did not mention nature at all…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 242B tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas. I strongly support the part of his amendment that inserts proposed new subsection (2A), but I am not so sure about proposed new subsection (2B)—(2B) or not (2B), that is the question he is proposing. Nevertheless, my sug…
My Lords, I speak to Amendment 264A. My noble friend Lord Swire cannot be here. He has a particular theme running through on issues regarding pylons and he would appreciate a response from the Minister in regard to what he submitted. There is a broader point on how we are unfortunately going back to…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
9 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I welcome the amendments in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Russell. He referred to two different utilities. Energy should, in effect, be unlimited in the resource available, but it is concerning to a number of communities that, suddenly, energy projects, substations and so on are popping…
My Lords, I start by declaring that I own a grade 2 listed property.
This is intended to be a probing amendment and a deregulatory measure. We read in the newspapers today that the Chancellor has recently recruited a planning and infrastructure adviser; clearly, the advice from the ministry is not …
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support several of the amendments and will speak to most of them. Amendment 146, the lead amendment, is, in essence, the right approach. The importance of chalk streams has been mentioned. I used to live near the chalk stream in Hampshire, the River Test, and as a Minister I visited many…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Blencathra for signing my Amendment 185. This amendment was originally in a separate group but, for the benefit of the Committee, I put it into what I would call the odds and sods group—I am not suggesting that any of the amendments are odd or, indeed, that any…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
11 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am really concerned about Amendment 128. The reason why I say that is that in this Bill, at the hands of the Government, we have already had an attack on democracy in terms of substantial decisions being removed from democratically elected councillors, and now it feels as if we are havin…
What is being proposed is drastically reducing the amount of time if anyone wants to bring a judicial review. I have already mentioned the barriers of raising money, assuming you can raise that. Perhaps this will be a change, but the High Court will not like this. It will absolutely kick off. Right …
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Lucas, who has just spoken, is absolutely right that starting with perhaps good intentions but firm foundations is absolutely critical to make sure that we have nature at the heart of every community as we develop the 1.5 million new homes that the Government intend to…
My Lords, I look forward to spending 11-hour days with the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, on important legislation that this House is considering.
I rise to speak to this because it is absolutely vital that we get going with the building of social housing. There are good examples of where we …