Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation
My Lords, both the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, and the Ockenden inquiry identified poor leadership cultures—defensive cultures, dismissive cultures and doctor-knows-best cultures. The noble Baroness already referred to the voices of women and their partners being ignored, particularly w…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2026
Children’s and Young People’s Mental Health Services
I thank the Minister for her Answer. The Children’s Commissioner report certainly made plain that children’s mental health services are facing record levels of referrals. The Minister referred to the forthcoming mental health strategy; what we need to see is concrete action in relation to children a…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
Legal Protections for Ancient Trees
I thank the Minister but, under the Forestry Act 1967, the destruction of the Whitewebbs oak in Enfield—still alive at the time—required an application to the Forestry Commission for a felling licence, which was never sought. The commission concluded that no felling licence was required due to legit…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Mental Health Conditions: Diagnoses
My Lords, I welcome this timely and important debate. I want to start by addressing head-on the issue of the so-called overdiagnosis of mental health conditions. In these increasingly contested and often divisive debates, I find it hugely helpful to look at the facts. That is why I very much welcome…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, my remarks today focus mainly on health and its poor relation, social care, which had no mention in the gracious Speech. I will also comment briefly on some defence and national security issues, which will be centre stage tomorrow.
As we have heard, the modernisation Bill will abolish NHS…
Lords
Debate
25 March 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I chaired a Select Committee on adoption some years ago and very much welcome this sibling amendment. It is absolutely excellent. I remember we met a number of children who were in care. One boy of 15, with four younger brothers and sisters, said to us, “No one tells me how my brothers and…
Lords
Debate
3 February 2026
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I rise very briefly to signal my support for Amendment 243E, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Layard. I added my name in Committee, and I am very sorry that, sadly, I missed the deadline for adding it on Report. The noble Lord, Lord Macpherson, set out very clearly the purpose of this a…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 233, to which my name is attached, in the place of the noble Lord, Lord O’Donnell, who apologises that he is unable to be present. I will also speak briefly to my Amendment 237.
I am sure many of us were struck by the passionate arguments put forward by the noble…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
28 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I have also added my name to Amendment 121A in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Barran. This is a very important set of amendments. I welcome the fact that many of them are about strengthening safeguarding. That is really important.
I listened very carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Cr…
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly to lend my support to all three of these amendments. I was very pleased to add my name to Amendments 99 and 101 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Barran.
Listening to the debate today, I think this group is dealing with some of the most heartbreaking events that child…
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
7 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 35 in my name, and I thank my noble friends Lord Storey and Lord Mohammed and the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, for adding their names to it. It seeks to extend the remit of Staying Close to include support in helping care-experienced young people to access servic…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that helpful and comprehensive response. The fact that the government amendments will go into Clause 8 and my amendment was to Clause 7 does not matter to me. What matters is that those government amendments will be there and that the care-experienced young people …
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
24 November 2025
Mental Health Bill [HL]
My Lords, I too start by thanking the Minister, her officials and her special adviser for their constructive engagement on the Bill. The Bill has been returned to us from the other place without the amendments made in this House. Obviously, I would have preferred it if those amendments had remained …
Lords
Proceedings
24 November 2025
Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children
My Lords, I welcome the fact that the UK Government have been closely working with the Bring Back Kids organisation and providing much needed assistance. Looking at the additional support that is very much needed, parliamentarians who have visited Kyiv recently have pointed to the need for greater c…
Lords
Proceedings
20 October 2025
Official Secret Act Case: Witness Statements
My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the Joint Committee. Given that detailed personal information about parliamentarians and others, including human rights activists, has, according to media reports over the weekend, been handed over to a top Chinese official described as very close indee…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 October 2025
Unpaid Carers
I thank the noble Baroness. I do not have the precise figures to hand, but the more work we do in this area, the more we are exposing what needs to be done. The fact is that the confidence of carers is quite low, and we need to make sure that all the support comes together to wrap around them. All t…
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, Amendment 462 is in my name. I thank my noble friend Lord Storey and the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, for adding their names.
This is a very important group. It is about the mental health and well-being of children, something that is, or indeed should be, central to the Bill. It is the na…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response to this, as she said, wide-ranging—you could even say “interesting”, in a certain sense—debate. I simply reflect that, in terms of the tone of the debate that we have had, there was a time not so long ago—perhaps a few years ago—when, if you were talki…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 September 2025
Ukraine: Negotiations
Is it not unbelievable that, in a war in Europe, a nation is using children to further its objectives? How deplorable is that? Sometimes, words fail us. In this awful situation, we are doing everything that we can. We have made monetary provision to support the agencies working to bring the children…
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly in support of the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham. I added my name to his original amendment. I am afraid I was a bit slow off the mark in adding it to his revised amendment, to which the noble Lord has just spoken. I strongly support it. The n…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 July 2025
2 contributions
Young Futures Hubs
My Lords, through improving support and intervening early, Young Futures hubs will help create opportunity for all and keep our streets safe. They will bring together vital local services in the community, ranging from well-being and mental health support to careers advice, on an open access and ref…
I think the noble Baroness would agree that there are many common risk and protective factors that can underlay a range of poor outcomes for young people, including mental health challenges and the potential to go off the rails and into crime. That does not mean there is a causal link between mental…
Lords
Debate
22 July 2025
Universal Credit Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler. I echo her concerns about the way in which this is being rushed through procedurally and how its being declared a money Bill denies us the broader debate that we might otherwise be having. I thank the Minister for introducing…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
One of the real differences in the work that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, is embarking on is that she is committed to working with unpaid carers. The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, raises a critical point. We know how much this country relies on unpaid carers. I am pleased that we have raised the ea…
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, in speaking to Amendment 104, in the name of my noble friend Lord Palmer, to which I too have added my name, I must apologise that I have been unable to speak at earlier stages of the Bill. I also strongly support Amendments 31 and 32 regarding kinship carers. I have spent a lot of time on…
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
My Lords, I welcome the emphasis in the plan on community mental health services and the shift towards 24/7 neighbourhood working. But for this to work, it will have to be achieved by significant rebalancing of resources towards community services. The share of overall NHS spending on mental health …
Lords
Proceedings
26 June 2025
National Security Strategy
My Lords, I welcome the wide-ranging nature of this strategy. However, somewhat surprisingly, the National Security Council is not mentioned anywhere, as far as I could see. Can the Leader say what the role of the National Security Council will be in the delivery of the strategy? How will government…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Social Care
It will come as no surprise to the noble Baroness that we are looking at the recommendations of the Health and Social Care Select Committee report and will come forward with our responses. It is of course vital to look at the impact of the model that we have now on society, on the people involved an…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Abducted Ukrainian Children
My Lords, the UK continually raises the issue in multilateral fora, alongside our allies, and is an active member of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. We contribute to the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine, a multi-donor initiative through which we support the …
I am very pleased that this Question was selected, because the noble Baroness is right to remind the House what has been happening. It is a dreadful thing for any family to find that their child has been removed from their country, and to not know where they are, how they are and how they can be ret…