Lords
Oral Questions
19 January 2026
High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors
My Lords, the Government’s impetus on the nuclear programme is extremely welcome, but would it not be even better for the nations and regions of this country, and for our important manufacturing industry, if our world-leading position were being reinforced by doing the maximum amount of engineering …
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, to help the Committee, I will interject to say that it has just gone 5 pm. Basically, we have two options. Both involve us finishing at 5.30 pm. We can either carry on this debate, which is absolutely fine. We have recorded the number of Lords who are present, so I can move to adjourn the …
As I said earlier, it is absolutely fine to break mid-group on these amendments.
Lords
Proceedings
16 January 2026
7 contributions
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, before we start further consideration in Committee of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, I wish to make a short statement. I emailed all Peers on Wednesday afternoon to set out my position in light of the agreement to the Motion from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, wh…
I have huge respect for the noble Lord and other colleagues who serve in this House from all parts of our United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland and Scotland. I accept his points about the inconvenience caused to colleagues. My door remains open, and I will happily meet the noble Lord next week …
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
Large-scale Waste Crime
My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of your Lordships’ Environment and Climate Change Committee which produced the report on waste crime. On 16 December, the Environment Agency wrote to the committee stating that 749 new illegal waste sites had been found in 2024-25, compared to 427 in the prev…
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
I am conscious that we agreed 11 pm with the House staff. If it is going to be quick, then that is fine. But we do not want to be sitting here later, because it is not fair on the House staff. We agreed 11 pm.
Lords
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
Meat Labelling
My Lords, religious conventions change over the years. As we have heard, this is a very cruel practice. Has the Minister considered meeting religious leaders to see how animal welfare could be improved?
Lords
Debate
12 January 2026
2 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I have it in command from His Majesty the King to acquaint the House that His Majesty, having been informed of the Report of the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill, has consented to place his interests, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposa…
The Opposition have put their amendment to the House and it has been carried. They are now going to vote against the Motion that they have just won on. I do not understand that at all. It seems to me that the normal thing is that, when a regret amendment is won, the Motion is amended and then the Ho…
Lords
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Iran: Protests
My Lords, I agree with all those who have condemned the killing of innocent protesters in Iran, but will the Minister agree that the Iranian nation is very resilient? We have seen that the Iranian public know how to change their Governments. We saw the end of the King of Iran’s time, when the protes…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 January 2026
Heritage Craft and Building Sector
My Lords, I thank the Chief Whip. I am very interested in what the noble Baroness has said about the range of initiatives, and very glad that she is talking to the rest of the heritage sector. The question that was raised, however, was about the strategic direction and need for systematic and scaled…
Lords
Proceedings
9 January 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, as I have previously, I will make a few remarks before we start today’s consideration in Committee. Last night, the House passed the Motion in the name of my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton. It will have no effect on our proceedings today, but next week I will seek a way…
Lords
Debate
8 January 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I support the intent behind the Motion of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. I believe that it is right that the House be given the opportunity to scrutinise the Bill in exhaustive detail, given the significance of the legislation and, as the noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Birmingham,…
My Lords, I shall move to the Woolsack in a few minutes, so I shall be mute, for which many noble Lords will be grateful. Perhaps I might just point out to the noble Lord, and perhaps to some of his colleagues who have graced us with their presence in recent months, that the principle that this Hous…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
5 January 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, happy new year. Before we start Oral Questions, I thought it would be useful again to remind colleagues of the importance of good discipline. Question Time is for questions, not statements or speeches. The Companion is clear that
“questions should be short and confined to not more than tw…
Lords
Proceedings
18 December 2025
Tributes
My Lords, I am delighted to lead the customary and important tradition of giving thanks to staff across the House, especially those who have retired this year, as we head towards the Christmas Recess. As 2025 draws an end, it is nice to have a moment to reflect on the excellent work of the House and…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 December 2025
Lithuania: Balloon Incursions
My Lords, in a normal world, Belarus would be offering co-operation to stop this smuggling, rather than sneering and saying that Lithuania has to solve it. Lithuania has offered €1 million to anybody who can work out how to deal with these balloons. What are we doing, in co-operation with NATO’s cen…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 December 2025
Jobs Market: Wider Economic Implications
My Lords, I am more than happy to speak to Alan Milburn, given my long experience of working with NEETs. The question I will ask the Minister is about His Majesty’s Government having two key priorities. One is around net zero and the other is building 1.5 million homes. I want to know: what is the s…
Lords
Proceedings
15 December 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, I expect the Employment Rights Bill to return to this House from the House of Commons this afternoon. I thought that it would assist the House to set out the arrangements for the Bill tomorrow. Once the Bill returns and all amendments are printed, Members have until 12 noon tomorrow, Tuesd…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
Breast Cancer
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s strategy to have a dedicated cancer plan, but can the Minister say when this plan will be published, particularly in relation to breast screening? Will she give an indication of the uptake rate by women from disadvantaged backgrounds and women from ethnic minorit…
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, before we proceed, I will just say that we are getting to the point where we should begin to think about Front-Bench replies to this group of amendments so we can finish at around 3 pm. I do not want to break mid-group because that, of course, is very difficult for the House, Members and t…
My Lords, we have completed four groups of amendments today, which in my opinion is still slow progress. It means that, in four days of Committee, we have completed only 10 groups of amendments. Before we return to Committee in the new year, I think that all noble Lords should reflect on that fact.
…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
12 December 2025
2 contributions
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, before we move on to the fourth day of Committee, I will make a statement about proceedings, as I did on the previous three sitting Fridays. I hope again that this will help planning and is in line with how business has proceeded previously.
First, it is important to thank the staff of th…
When the noble Baroness spoke, I remembered the Countess of Mar, who would regularly get up and correct noble Lords when they were getting things wrong. The noble Baroness is absolutely right. We should all follow the Companion . We are all responsible. We are a self-regulating House and we should d…
Lords
Debate
10 December 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, there was a moment when I was engulfed in shame that I had misunderstood the difference between median and average. Fortunately, the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, distracted your Lordships quite quickly, so I have recovered.
Nobody in this House is pretending that this is perfect. We are at a p…
Lords
Proceedings
26 November 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, before we move on to the next business, I wish to update the House on the forward plan for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. I have reflected on the first two days of Committee and discussed this with the usual channels and the Bill’s sponsor, my noble and learned friend Lord F…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 November 2025
3 contributions
Visas: Highly Skilled People
My Lords, one of the unintended consequences to which the Minister referred is that hard-pressed and hard-working prison officers, who happen to earn less than £41,700 per year, will, as a result of this Government’s policies, find themselves deported when their visas expire. Given the impact that w…
My Lords, would the Minister agree that one of the problems with the immigration system for attracting exceptional emerging talent in the creative industries from abroad—it is the emerging talent we should be concentrating on—is that its inflexibility does not allow for the realities of this sector,…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, we spent nearly four hours and 45 minutes on that group of amendments. I think this would be a convenient point to adjourn.
Lords
Proceedings
21 November 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, before we move on to the second day in Committee on the terminally ill adults Bill, I will make a statement about proceedings, as I did last week. I hope this will again help with planning, and it is in line with how business proceeded last Friday.
First, I again thank on behalf of all Me…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 November 2025
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Industry
My Lords, I thank the Minister for saying that the Government will publish a strategy, I think he said, in due course and in a little while. May I push him to do that as soon as possible and remind him that the industry needs certainty in order to make the investments necessary?