Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Media Green Paper
My Lords, a trusted source of news that everyone can rely on is good for society, but we should not kid ourselves that that is what currently exists. Levels of trust in the BBC and other mainstream broadcasters are not universal across all demographic groups. The cause of that is the failings of the…
Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Democratic Institutions: Threats
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, for giving us this opportunity, and I have enjoyed listening to the speeches so far. As has already been said, we have a real crisis of trust in politics and our institutions. I want to talk about why, and what I think we must do a…
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Artificial Intelligence: National Security Implications
My Lords, bearing in mind that Fable is Mythos with guardrails, have the Government asked Anthropic whether it is addressing the jailbreak that threatens cyber security to a Mythos-style extent? If they are not addressing it, why not? There appeared to be some reluctance from Anthropic when the flag…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will get straight to the point and take on board the advice of the Government Whip on duty. I was hugely disappointed not to see SLAPPs legislation included in the gracious Speech. When a primary objective of government is restoring public confidence in democracy and our institutions, it…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will get straight to the point and take on board the advice of the Government Whip on duty. I was hugely disappointed not to see SLAPPs legislation included in the gracious Speech. When a primary objective of government is restoring public confidence in democracy and our institutions, it…
Lords
Debate
16 April 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Young of Acton for returning to the important issue of NCHIs. Our position as a party has not changed. With 60,000 annual police hours and a quarter of a million cases recorded, which is over 65 a day, this is the extent to which our police forces are having to…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I beg to move Amendment 359 and will also speak to Amendment 361, both of which are in my name. I am hugely grateful to my co-signatories, the noble Lords, Lord Hendy and Lord Hogan-Howe, and my noble friend Lady Harding, and I thank them for their support. I am also grateful to the Minist…
My Lords, the hour is late. I am very grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken in support of my amendments—indeed, I do not think that any noble Lord apart from the Minister has spoken against them. I just say to him that nothing in my amendments dilutes or diminishes what he has brought forward …
Lords
Proceedings
24 February 2026
Labour Together and APCO Worldwide: Cabinet Office Review
My Lords, this House does not question the Minister’s commitment to press freedom, but, clearly, we must judge the Government on actions rather than words. Although in this case the threat of legal action does not appear to have been deployed, she will know that the anti-SLAPP legislation is critica…
Lords
Proceedings
5 February 2026
2 contributions
US Department of Justice Release of Files
My Lords—
The noble Baroness the Leader will recall that, when she was shadow Leader of this House, the Privileges and Conduct Committee spent several meetings considering a disrepute clause similar to the one proposed by the Prime Minister. Has she advised the Prime Minister that we might have had such a cla…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Civil Service Pensions: Capita
I can reassure the noble Baroness that, as part of the recovery taskforce timetable, we expect that the online portal will be up and running in its completion at the end of next month. By the end of this month we are prioritising dealing with the people who cannot access money and those who desperat…
Lords
Debate
8 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Before the noble Baroness intervenes, can I just say that if we are having questions to the noble and learned Lord, they should be on the Motion and not on the wider issue of the Bill.
The noble Baroness asks me to respond. I do not know if she was here at the beginning, when I first commented, but I was very clear that the House will be making a decision on what it thinks. If the House makes a decision that it wishes to have extra time, then it will be a matter for discussion in …
Lords
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Broadcasting: Recent Developments
Noble Lords will note that I am not my noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter. It is customary on these occasions to thank the proposer of the Motion. I would very much like to do so for the noble Lord, Lord Fowler. I go further and say that, over the years, he has been a much more vigorous defender of the…
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is Amendment 356F from the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, that attracts me to the Chamber, although I do not necessarily share his arguments or reasoning. The main purpose of my speaking, the Minister will not be surprised to hear, is that it affords an opportunity for me to highlight again th…
I am grateful to the Minister and I look forward to us discussing that at that time. I am not an expert in the law in this area, but I am genuinely surprised by what he has just said about the current legal provisions and protections for retail workers and the need for that which has been included i…
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, may I also ask a question for clarification? It is not really about GRC but about the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, made about name change. I know that the Minister covered that in his comments, but I am still left a little confused. Can a person who is a convicted sex offender …
My Lords, most of what I wanted to cover has already been spoken to, so I have very little to add. I did, however, want to pick up on a couple of points the noble Lord, Lord Russell, covered. For me, this is about disorder. There is a sense of unfairness for a lot of people that if you are a driver,…
Lords
Debate
19 November 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, if I may, I will come back to the topic of this group. I too have an amendment in this group, Amendment 351. I am pleased to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hannett, and indeed my noble friends. I endorse a lot of what they have said and argued.
As I said at Second Reading, I have huge sympat…
I would be very happy to join a group meeting rather than the Minister having to have several meetings with each of us. If there were to be third parties involved in a meeting, such as USDAW, I wonder whether he would also consider including the Institute of Customer Service. It is in a unique posit…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 November 2025
2 contributions
Telegraph Media Group
The parties have given public assurances that this is not how the deal has been structured, which the Secretary of State was pleased to see, and I hope gives reassurance to the noble Baroness. They stated:
“The structure of the transaction has always been that upon any sale, the security and guaran…
Unfortunately, I can only repeat the response that I gave previously. It is not my understanding that the Telegraph will be responsible for the debt. I will clarify to the noble Baroness in writing the extent to which that is because of the law or the extent to which it is because of the commitment,…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this Bill has the potential to transform how we protect children from the devastating crime of child sexual abuse. I welcome mandatory reporting. It will be a historic step, made possible thanks to the survivors who bravely shared their testimony with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex…
The argument I will put to the noble Baroness now is that shop workers are upholding the law on solvent abuse, alcohol, cigarette sales and other things. There will be representations on other areas, and we will examine those representations, but I really want to get this over the line after a long …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
2 contributions
Telegraph Media Group: Ownership
Noble Lords may have seen press reports that the department has received a formal request from RedBird IMI to progress the sale of the call option to own the Telegraph . Thorough due diligence will be conducted on the proposed transaction, and should the Secretary of State have reasonable grounds to…
I thank the noble Baroness for her engagement, not least with me, with the Secretary of State and with officials, which has enabled us to get to what I hope everyone agrees is a better place than where we were previously. I would like to reassure her that we still intend to lay the regulations preve…
Lords
Debate
5 September 2025
Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill
My Lords, I very much welcome this Bill, which has already received support from across the House. Looking around at noble Lords here this afternoon, I welcome the House of Lords UK Engagement with Space Committee investigation. We should listen to the wise advice we are already getting from members…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
22 July 2025
5 contributions
Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025
As my noble friend knows and as I have already described, we are now in a different situation from that which we were facing in March of last year, when there was a real prospect that a foreign Government could be the owner of a British newspaper. That matter has been dealt with. What we are dealing…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness. She and I probably have not always agreed on everything, but I echo every word that she said today.
I have thought long and hard about whether to take part in this debate, but as it touches on two subjects very close to my heart—the sustainab…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I was going to intervene briefly anyway, but, in response to the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, I do not think it is customary for any Member of this House to start to question the clerks, who do not have the ability to speak for themselves. As the noble Lords knows, if this amendment were not …
My Lords, I rise to support my noble friend’s amendment. I want to make a slightly different point in addition to the legal arguments that have already been made. It is a shame to be speaking before hearing the Leader of the House set out her case, but, as my noble friend said, she was very clear in…
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, it is a great privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Butler. Like him, I have a similar view that the House of Lords Appointments Commission should not be able to constrain the powers of the Prime Minister. Our system of appointment may not be perfect, but it does at least have some semb…
Lords
Proceedings
13 June 2025
4 contributions
AI and Creative Technologies (Communications and Digital Committee Report)
My Lords, this is the Communications and Digital Committee’s final report from my time as chair, so I not only thank the committee staff and my fellow committee members for all their work and contributions to this inquiry but extend my sincere thanks to all colleagues with whom I worked over the pas…
Before my noble friend sits down, the problem with AI is that it uses astronomical amounts of electricity, and we have some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world. Does she think electricity prices are going to inhibit the growth of AI in this country?
+2 more contributions in this session