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?
Lords
Oral Questions
19 November 2025
3 contributions
Road Injuries and Deaths
And me next?
My Lords, I also express my condolences to the noble Lord.
The Minister will be aware that yesterday in Australia it was announced for the first time that the number of road deaths caused by taking drugs exceeded the number of deaths caused by drink-driving. Given that, since 2013, the number of de…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
18 November 2025
2 contributions
Ministry of Defence Procurement: UK-manufactured Products
I declare an interest in that one of my sons works in defence procurement. In light of concerns raised about the reliance on overseas supply chains, can the Minister set out what steps the Government are taking to ensure that procurement decisions actively support UK-based manufacturers so that our …
Noble Lords will recall the Prime Minister’s announcement earlier this year of £1.6 billion in contracts for Thales in Belfast to supply air defence missiles for Ukraine, creating 200 jobs in Northern Ireland. The deal also included the prospect of a further £500 million of additional work to be add…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Artificial Intelligence Legislation
I thank the noble Lord. The World Economic Forum has said that dis- and misinformation is the number one threat to economic stability. Generative AI has hugely increased the scale of that threat. There is concern from AI safety groups that companies are not adequately tackling the problem. Can the M…
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, group 1 is perhaps not the ordinary place to start when we are considering the issue of Wales, but I have tabled 40 amendments with specific reference to Wales for a reason. We will get into aspects of this in more detail and I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, and the noble a…
Can the noble Lord give some guidance on the issue of timing? As has just been indicated, if it were not obvious before this morning, it is now perfectly obvious that four days is not going to be enough for the Committee stage of this Bill. There is unanimity that this is an exceptionally important …
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
2 contributions
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, before we move on to the next business, I will make a brief statement about how we will handle the Committee stage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill tomorrow. I will send this statement, by email, to all Members shortly. I understand that colleagues are keen to prepare and ho…
The Whips’ Office will shortly distribute draft groupings of amendments to noble Lords in the usual manner. As the Government are neutral, any changes requested will simply be actioned. The sponsor, my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton, will lead on negotiating any changes, should h…
Lords
Proceedings
12 November 2025
BBC Leadership
We will hear from the Labour Benches next, then the Cross Benches.
Lords
Oral Questions
12 November 2025
Barnett Formula: Wales
The strengthened representation and increased democracy we are about to see in Wales with the Senedd elections under the new system surely add further weight to the needs-based argument of the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, for looking again at improving the Barnett formula for Wales. Should the elected p…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 November 2025
British Council
My Lords, as the trade envoy to Bangladesh, I hosted here in Parliament, attended by the noble Baroness, Lady Alexander, the signing of a higher education partnership between the British Council and the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, which will improve not only higher education links bu…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 November 2025
2 contributions
Airport Expansion
My Lords, what specific work are the Government undertaking to understand the emissions not only from aircraft but from the surface-access and freight traffic associated with airport expansion? How can the Government meet net-zero commitments while supporting airport expansion at Gatwick and Heathro…
My Lords, can the Minister answer a question that is very puzzling to me? When we proposed airport expansion, it was about increasing business traffic into this country. Since Covid, that has simply not been the case; so much business is done online, and in fact, what we are benefiting is tourism. A…
Lords
Proceedings
5 November 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, before we finish and enjoy the long weekend, I thought I would further sweeten the shorter working week by updating colleagues on my current plans for recesses in 2026. I like to give noble Lords as much notice as I possibly can, as this enables everyone to plan more effectively for when t…
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
Youth Mobility Scheme
My Lords, is this not yet another example of how badly the previous Government negotiated the Brexit deal, leaving our young people with worse options than they had before?
Lords
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025
My Lords, before the House adjourns, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Stockwood on a truly excellent maiden speech. I was honoured to have been one of his supporters when he came into the House only a week ago. He has had an extensive and successful business career and will be of great benefit to…
Lords
Debate
23 October 2025
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) 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 purport of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, has consented to place his interests, so far as affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the…