Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
Business Hiring
My Lords, my family owns the local pub, and therefore I can speak from trying to employ people. We have very high employment standards in our business, and we have had to reduce staff because of what the Government have done on employment taxes of all kinds. That is true of the whole hospitality ind…
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
European Entry and Exit System
Would not the Minister agree that this is an interesting example of how, when we thought we would take back control, actually we have given over control in areas where we could have been part of the solution?
Lords
Statutory Instrument
23 June 2026
Carbon Budget Order 2026
My Lords, I declare an interest as having been chairman of the Climate Change Committee for 11 years. I also chair a company advising on sustainability, business continuity and risk, and I am a partner in a small organic arable and livestock farm—so it may be said that one knows a little bit about w…
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Compassionate Use Medicine Schemes: VAT
Can I bring the noble Baroness back to the last part of my noble friend’s question? It looks as though the VAT department in HMRC is behaving most peculiarly. First, it lost the case about VAT on entry to the Great Yorkshire Show, yet it is fighting every single show rather than giving way to what t…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Further Education Colleges: Recovery of VAT
Does the Minister accept that there are some areas where the law has already told the HMRC that it ought not to be demanding VAT—for example, agricultural shows—and that it refuses to accept the law and keeps on standing in the way of spreading what it has had to do for the Great Yorkshire Show to o…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Water Companies
My Lords, does the Minister accept that it has to be faced that in the east of England we spend a lot of money pumping fresh water out to sea during the winter and then do not have enough of it for agriculture, industry and homes? Nobody at this moment is looking at the specific issue of how we stop…
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
South East Water: Disruption of Supply
My Lords, working as the chairman of a small water company means that one does know a bit about it. I just want to ask the Minister: when are we going to stop pouring fresh water into the sea during the winter in the east of England and then being so short of water in the east of England that the Es…
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Does the noble Baroness not find it peculiar that people who are very keen on employment rights in every other circumstance are not keen on employment rights in these circumstances and put their views on assisted suicide ahead of the right of very ordinary workers to say, “I don’t want to be part of…
I am genuinely trying to help the noble and learned Lord for this reason: I am concerned about the person who wishes to avail themselves of this Bill. I do not understand how you do that effectively unless you can look at a list and get the person you want. I am concerned that those of us who want r…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, as a Welsh-speaking Welshman, who has, in this House, consistently supported Plaid’s perfectly right demand that there should be fairer funding for Wales—I am not a Plaid supporter, but I support that aspect—I hope that the House will have listened carefully to the fundamental comments mad…
First, it is said on both sides that they want more money for palliative care, but we now know that palliative care includes assisted dying. I therefore do not accept that the demand for more money for palliative care from those in favour of this Bill is the same thing as those of us who are asking …
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
8 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I was not going to speak on this, but the last speaker has led me to do so. To describe the care with which this proposal has been put forward as “nitpicking” is frankly unacceptable. The noble Baroness should not have said that. The reason why this has been brought forward is that many of…
That may well be the view of the noble Baroness, but it is not the view of the Royal Colleges, and it is not the view of the Select Committees of this House that have looked at this. It is perfectly reasonable for me to suggest that there is an alternative, and I am suggesting an alternative to the …
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have tried in my contributions, which have been few although I have in fact been present for almost every moment of this Bill, to point out to the noble and learned Lord those occasions when his actions can make a great deal of difference. It seems to me that this is one of those.
I hav…
I think it perfectly right for the noble Baroness to have intervened because I referred to her, and I apologise.
I want the noble and learned Lord proposing the Bill to face three issues that are centred around these amendments—which I am dealing with, I say to the Whip. These amendments are trying…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
Animal Welfare Strategy: Rural Communities
I do not think that the ban on trail hunting is the major concern of most rural communities. Most rural communities, including the one I live in, are more concerned about the fact that they may not have a GP, that may not be able to access a dentist, that their digital connectivity is poor and they …
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I wanted to say, as I have several times pointed out, that one reason why this Bill has taken so long is that the proponents have not been willing to make some of the changes that many of us feel would be perfectly sensible. I therefore thank the noble and learned Lord for this amendment. …
The fact is that none of the organisations that will have to carry this through have no objections to the Bill. They have asked us to try to change the Bill so that they can do their job. That is what I was trying to say. Some have a principled opposition, but most want a better Bill. If we are goin…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
5 February 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I declare a historic connection with the water industry in the sense that I was the chairman of a water-only company more than 10 years ago, but it means I know a bit about the water industry and perhaps that is helpful after the last intervention, because the truth of the matter is that t…
I am sorry, the second part of the noble Baroness’s comments are ones she makes about everybody who is in the private sector. That is what she thinks about the private sector and I do not agree with her. The Polanski mechanisms of this world are devastating politically and economically and, really, …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I come to this amendment with a good deal of suspicion. I am always worried when the House of Lords decides that it is getting worried about some new thing that is coming along, so we had better do something about it. The noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, explained that this was a broad demand in order t…
My Lords, I come back to the idea of having an inquiry and a report. I do not quite understand why the noble and learned Lord does not feel that it is much more sensible for us to have it in the Bill. After all, otherwise you are in a sense dictating what the inquiry shall come up with. The only inq…
Lords
Proceedings
30 January 2026
Arrangement of Business
I was not going to intervene, but the reason that we are here is, to be frank, that we have received no answers on any of the points raised by the proposers of the Bill. We have no idea what amendments might be laid. If the proposers of the Bill were to show themselves much more willing to listen to…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
12 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I wonder whether my noble friend could think a little bit about the money involved in this. I am sorry—it sounds a bit odd, but I do feel very strongly that we ought to talk about how much all this is going to cost and where that money is coming from. In the very unsatisfactory answers from the Mini…
My Lords, I think that we can clear quite a number of these things away by taking one central issue. The big problem about being in government is that it is not a single issue that faces you; it is a whole range of issues, and you have to get a balance between them. When we talk about cost, it is pe…
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
It seems to me that this an opportunity for the noble and learned Lord to help the Committee and speed the Bill. Here are a whole series of amendments designed to deal with the genuine concerns of the experts who are going to have to actually carry this law into effect if we are to pass it. Some of …
I hope that it was an intervention, because, if so, I am able to comment on it. If we start talking about paternalism, we will go backwards in time. We are not really talking about that at all; we are talking about the legislation of this House and the House of Commons. We are talking about how we p…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
16 January 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, I want to raise the concern of Jewish Members of the House, who are in a particular difficulty on Fridays. Perhaps it is better for somebody who is not Jewish to put that forward and ask if the noble Lord can look at that very carefully.
Lords
Debate
15 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I rise for two reasons. First, I think it is dangerous to leave lawyers to talk about these matters without the intervention of non-lawyers. Secondly, although I can claim no legal background, I am a historian, and what really worries me is that the whole of history shows how often we make…
The noble Lord explained that I should be happy because this had been requested by those who knew. Those who knew also requested that in the document itself, in the actual Act, there should be these changes. I do not understand why it is reasonable to accept their advice to put this in, but not reas…
Lords
Debate
12 January 2026
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, what a privilege it is to follow the incisive questions of my noble friends who spoke before me and to add my support to the regret amendment in the name of my noble friend Lord Callanan, whose speech crystallised the litany of reasons that there are to oppose the Bill and to continue oppo…
Lords
Debate
9 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
It is of crucial importance for us to know whether, if we pass the Bill in these terms, other people who are in desperate need would find that they had to wait longer for that need to be met. It is not good enough for the Government to say, “We’ll provide resources to meet the Bill”. They must tell …
Lords
Debate
5 January 2026
3 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I remind the House of my interest as a trustee of the Blue Marine Foundation for many years and having been part of the negotiations with the British Government to produce the most exciting and real effect on marine protection that anyone has done. It is a great thing for us to have done. …
I remind my noble friend that not only the British Government but voluntary organisations have been doing this, and it is because of the backing of the British Government that they are carrying this through. Whatever the noble Lord’s views on this issue, he must accept that at the moment this is a v…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have not taken part in this Bill before, but I do so now because I have been closely connected with someone who was treated by a so-called psychotherapist and removed from her family as a result. These people do something almost inconceivable. They get inside people’s minds and teach the…