My Lords, in my opinion, these amendments are really about safety, but we have turned the debate into a generalised whinge-fest about the shortcomings of the National Health Service, and we are all aware that there are many.
However, from recent personal experience, I accept what the noble Baroness…
My Lords, I associate myself with all the good things that have been said thus far by noble Lords about my noble friend Lord Hodgson. I pay tribute to him for securing this debate and say a major thank you. I well remember him encouraging me back in in the early 1990s, when I first met him and his w…
My Lords, there is one aspect of coercion that we have not so far discussed. It was mentioned tangentially by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. It is institutional coercion. As somebody who has unfortunately had to bring a loved one into hospital to be treated and discharged on a large number of occ…
I will be brief—everybody will be delighted to hear that. I should say that I am a supporter of the intentions of the Bill, and I agree with what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, said, particularly when he suggested that the Government will need to be involved in sorting out some of these pr…
The noble Lord is absolutely right. Again, there has been some debate about the evidence from psychiatrists and the reasons why they expressed doubts, but that evidence is plentifully available to Members of this House.
As a number of Members have made clear, the work of Alex Ruck Keene KC and the …
My Lords, I do not think anybody in this House does not want to achieve the objectives of this amendment and, indeed, others. We have to be realistic that our populations of native birds, and other flora and fauna, have been dropping for a long time. We, collectively, are partly responsible for this…
The UK stands in solidarity with Jamaica following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. The Foreign Secretary has spoken with her Jamaican counterpart to reaffirm our commitment to support recovery efforts. We have activated our crisis centre in London to assist British nationals in Jamaica,…
We will provide support in the way that is needed. We have people pre-positioned alongside practical assistance such as shelter kits and other necessary immediate response equipment. I have visited the response centre in Antigua that supports the region. The noble Lord is right that this is not over…
My Lords, although these amendments are grouped, they are quite disparate in many respects because we take Amendment 177 as almost the antithesis of Amendments 165 and 166. I say to the Minister, who holds probably one of the toughest jobs in the Government at present, that we are here to make life …
My Lords, I am aware that many noble Lords will, knowing that my life has been spent as a Methodist minister in pastoral work, have reached an assumption that they know what I am going to say. It is not necessarily the case. I have tried, knowing that that awareness would exist, to give my best atte…
My Lords, not being a lawyer, I feel more qualified to speak on this than anybody else.
The reality is that legal aid across society is, in effect, a rationed resource; it cannot be universally applied. The noble Lord, Lord Pannick, made a point about obligations, and Parliament has been perhaps un…
My Lords, when responding to questions about immigration in general, the Minister frequently repeated the phrase that the United Kingdom will honour its international obligations, and I fully understand that. Following the raising of the issue of the 1951 convention, I asked the Government in a Writ…
I had answers from the Government last year saying that they were not talking to allies and friends. Surely that must be the first sensible thing to do.
The Government are committed to tackling illegal migration and the criminal networks behind it. We have launched campaigns directed at misinformation on pull factors and are taking a tougher action on illegal working in particular. There is no single universal pull factor independently driving irreg…
The noble Lord is absolutely right that we need to reduce the anxiety and toxicity around this issue. I reassure him that, first and foremost, the Government are committed to meeting their international obligations, which include asylum claims legitimately put before the United Kingdom. He may have …
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I declare some previous experience: I was a member of the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body and I went to Iraq and Afghanistan. I have seen how people have to operate on the ground in really difficult conditions. I certainly learned a …
My Lords, the Minister referred to a number of his international engagements, but one thing the Government are stubbornly refusing to look at is discussing with our allies a revision of the 1951 European refugee convention. I have asked Parliamentary Questions twice and both have come back with a ne…
His Majesty’s Government have complete control over the operational use of all the United Kingdom’s weapons systems, without needing to consult or gain approval from other Governments or third parties. This includes the nuclear deterrent.
Well, “independent” means what it says. I can reassure the noble Lord, Lord Empey, and the House, that we have complete operational use in terms of independence. We can use all our weapons systems in the way that His Majesty’s Government choose to. Of course there are arrangements about how you main…
My Lords, I rise to express my strong opposition to the Marking of Retail Goods Regulations 2025, which I believe constitute a profound assault upon Northern Ireland, representing yet another indictment of EU imperialism tightening its grip around the neck of Northern Ireland.
When the then Prime M…
My Lords, I apologise for not speaking at Second Reading, but I did attend the pre-brief that the Minister kindly gave to Peers.
On Amendment 71, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, I would be surprised if such meetings were not on the agenda of anybody holding the position. I have no diffi…
I thank the noble Lord for his intervention. The Minister will be aware that, of course, the ECHR has particular connotations for me and Northern Ireland and how we negotiated the Good Friday agreement. Equally, how its terms are being interpreted, within the United Kingdom internally in particular,…
The Minister said that this agreement would be subject to approval. We have not seen the detail, but I want to know what would happen if there were a different Government—for instance in Spain—who might take a different attitude. Is there something there to protect the situation? Is there some arbit…
LordsStatutory Instrument9 June 20252 contributions
I am very grateful to the noble Lord for bringing this up. I am sure he will be able to remind me of the clause in the Northern Ireland protocol—to which the EU signed up—that says the EU will use its best endeavours to ensure that there is no need for checks and border posts at the ports and airpor…
My Lords, it is with considerable regret that I rise to oppose the regret Motion from the noble Lord, Lord Frost, because I respect enormously the work that the noble Lord did on this question when he was in government. I wish to stress in particular tonight that the introduction of unilateral grace…
My Lords, I think the objective of the noble Baroness’s amendment is commendable. I worry, however, that if a property is altered, it will be limited by the assessment made by occupational health, within the limitations of local authority budgets and what the cost is estimated to be. In some propert…
Can I just come back on the reinstatement issue? Perhaps there was something in that response in the other place that the Minister referred to which would have covered this. Everybody is at one in wishing to provide people with the best possible circumstances to enjoy their tenancies; if that requir…
My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Bew, for his kind comments about the public history. He will know that it was certainly my intention that the historians involved would have full access to the papers, and I assume, with the welcome news that this will now go ahead, that that is sti…
I have a very strong opinion about the use of veto. Of course, the last time it was used—and it has been used very frequently recently—was by Russia in stopping an incredibly important resolution on Sudan. The United Kingdom does not use its veto lightly, and we certainly will not do that. What we a…