Lords
Committee Stage
18 November 2025
2 contributions
Broadcasting (Regional Programme-making and Original Productions) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am glad to have this opportunity to consider these two statutory instruments. They form part of the implementation of the Media Act 2024, which I had the pleasure of taking through your Lordships’ House in practically the final hours of the last Parliament.
I thank the Minister for her …
I will add that point to the list of questions I send to Ofcom, and as I said, I shall share the response I get from Ofcom with noble Lords.
The other point that the noble Lord, Lord Storey, raised was on current media developments around ITV and the current situation regarding the potential purcha…
Lords
Proceedings
22 October 2025
Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy
My Lords, we on these Benches welcome the Statement. We share many of the concerns that the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, raised, and she quite skilfully teased those out with the questions she asked. Looking at the Statement, my immediate thought is that there is a lot of rhetoric in it, but there n…
Lords
Debate
18 September 2025
10 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
This has been an important debate on these amendments. I want to start by saying that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, is not able to be present. Her husband is not at all well. She added her name to Amendments 469 and 470. I am going to keep my comments brief. The noble Lord, Lord Russell, is rig…
Briefly, I want to reinforce what has been said. What is unspent of the apprenticeship levy gets returned to the Treasury, not to be spent on education or apprenticeships, which is bizarre. It is a double whammy, because businesses, seeing that their money has not been spent and is likely to go back…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
8 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will speak to a number of these amendments and I want to do it from my own experience. First, I will start with the cap on faith. If your Lordships remember, this was originally introduced by the Tony Blair Government for any new schools. I thought at the time, “How sensible is that? If …
The Minister, when referring to Amendment 456 from the noble Lord, Lord Watson, said there were no plans to make a change “at this time”. What does she mean by that? Does that mean that the Government will consider it in the future or that it is not going to happen at all?
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
I shall briefly talk generally about all these amendments, which I and my party are not supporting. I ought to declare an interest as a governor of the King’s Academy, Liverpool. I was there at the beginning, when academies were started for a particular reason by the then Labour Government in very d…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 448A in my name. I do so as a former membership secretary of the NUT and a former member of the National Association of Head Teachers. I could not have said it any better than the noble Lords, Lord Hampton and Lord Ashcombe. This is not an anti-union amendment, fa…
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Agnew, is right: there is a crisis in the supply of teachers, not just the numbers but also, as he said, in specialism. There is also the great worry that we are seeing the lowest number of people wanting to go into teaching and the highest number of teachers leaving e…
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, for that. It has made me think, and I will come back to some of the points she made.
In the 1970s, we did not have a national curriculum and schools could teach whatever they liked. There was only one subject they had to teach, and that was RE. Along came the W…
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
5 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, this is a simple amendment. I will preface my remarks by saying that, obviously, it is important that a child is in school as often as possible because when they are not in school, they are not learning. Equally, it is important that they have quality time with their parents. The opportuni…
I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
10 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly on a few of the amendments. First, Amendment 270 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Wei, should be considered. It actually happens with one local authority, which gets together home educators to share good practice and their experiences, but it should not be statutory…
I shall speak to my Amendment 331. This is quite simple, really. It is good practice from time to time to review how things have gone so you are able to adjust it slightly, leave it alone or trumpet the fact that it has worked well. Given this is an issue which has caused such a degree of concern am…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I look back to eight years ago, I think, when I had a very simple Private Member’s Bill, which said that home educators should register. That was it. It was as though I had ignited a bonfire of education, because the online abuse and letters that poured in were just unbelievable.
Together…
My Lords, I rise to speak to my Amendment 254A, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, for his comments. As a society, we can be proud that, over the years, we have carefully and proportionately brought in safeguarding procedures which really make a difference to the lives of children and young peo…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Children: Dangers of Screen Time
There are two separate points in the noble Lord’s question. I very much agree that the safety of our youngest children in particular should be a priority and that we should continue to monitor and review early years safeguarding requirements and guidance. As I suggested earlier, we have already upda…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 July 2025
2 contributions
“Hillsborough Law”
My Lords, we remain committed to delivering a Hillsborough law, as set out in the manifesto. It is vital that we get this landmark legislation right and that, when introduced, the Bill achieves the change expected by those who have campaigned so hard for change. Since March we have listened to stake…
I agree with the way that the noble Lord has framed his question. There was an establishment cover-up, which must never happen again. The Prime Minister has made a personal commitment to the affected families to work with them constructively to come up with an appropriate law. Regarding the duty of …
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I declare an interest as a governor of King’s Leadership Academy in Liverpool. Schools face two challenges, some might say crises. First, the shortage of staff is becoming quite a serious concern. Secondly, there are real pressures on school budgets.
It was easy when all schools were loca…
So I hope that the Minister will really consider this. It is a huge issue. We cannot see our schools have to face more costs, and we do not want to see any staff disadvantaged by a well-meaning move by the Government.
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Secretary of State’s Statement. We welcome any measures to tackle child poverty and improve the early years support which families receive. Early years have for so long been seen as just an add-on, but they are actually the most crucial part of educat…
Before the Minister sits down, could she commit to writing to me on the points I raised about the registration of child minders and ensuring that we get disadvantaged children to actually use the facilities?
Lords
Debate
3 July 2025
6 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I think there are two things on which all in this Chamber can agree. First, school uniforms are important. I think the phrase used by my noble friend Lord Mohammed was that they give confidence to learning, and I think they give a sense of identity to young people. That is the first thing …
Will the Minister go away and consider the fate of the branded book bag, which means so much to primary and infant schools? It should not be included as part of the three, because it is a way of encouraging reading and literacy in our schools.
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
30 June 2025
School Libraries
To clarify, I think the survey showed not that 50% of books were withdrawn but that in 50% of cases there was pressure to withdraw books—pressure that might have come to fruition. As I previously said, there is important guidance for schools from the School Library Association and through the Govern…
Lords
Debate
23 June 2025
5 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
I entirely agree with what has been said. You cannot imagine how it must be for a child or young person to suddenly arrive here on their own and not have any knowledge of how they progress or what to do.
Liverpool used to be a centre for children who were just sent to the UK, although I think there…
My Lords, we have heard some very powerful speeches this afternoon, particularly from the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, who talked about a world health crisis. I was also taken by my noble friend Lord Addington, who talked about the importance of technology for special needs. I am going to be brave and …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
19 June 2025
8 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, gave the background in terms of the statistics and figures, which make for quite a salutary understanding. Agency workers are, as we know, three times more likely to leave a case mid-assessment compared with permanent staff, which obviously would increase r…
My Lords, all these amendments help in some way and are important. It seems to me that Thursday afternoon in the Chamber has become friends day. I will add just a few thoughts. On the whole issue of children in care, we have constantly said that we should do everything that we possibly can to suppor…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Cash, that all these amendments would enhance the life chances and life opportunities of looked-after children, and they should be seriously considered.
In the 21st century, the words “unregistered” or “unregulated” should never enter into our dialogu…
My Lords, I realise that, quite often, we are very privileged in this House that, when there is a Bill, we get showered with briefings from all sorts of organisations. Of course, we read them, and then we say, “Oh my goodness, I did not understand this. I did not know about that”. Then, when we come…
Lords
Debate
12 June 2025
7 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, we have no amendments in this group, but we are very sympathetic to them. When you look at all the statistics for children in care, your heart goes out to those young people, and we should do everything humanly possible to help them, develop them, encourage them—and any other adjective you…
I just want to say a few words, especially in support of the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Watson. I remember that 14 years ago this issue was discussed during consideration of the Children and Families Bill. We all sort of huffed and puffed and said, yes, this is really important, but nothing…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 June 2025
Post-16 Financial Education
Of course, this is part of what the Money and Pensions Service strategy aims to do, as is the work I identified that is being supported by the dormant assets funding. We also need to work alongside the legitimate parts of the industry to make sure that the support and information that it is providin…
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2025
2 contributions
Free School Meals
My Lords, we very much welcome the Minister’s Statement. As we heard, over half a million more children will benefit from a free, nutritious meal every day. The Government have estimated that this will put £500 back into parents’ pockets. In the coalition, as we heard, we introduced a free meal for …
If we find that that is not having the take-up that we hope for, will the Government look at auto-enrolment?
Lords
Debate
9 June 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, for putting this amendment down. We can talk in parliamentary language, but it is when we hear the example that my noble friend Lady Benjamin told us about that we know the appalling effects that child abuse has on children and young people. They often…
My Lords, I will start using the mantra of the Minister: on a number of occasions she has said that it is about getting children and families the right support. I very much agree with that.
I will start by talking generally about the care system. I met a young man whose name is Tristan, and when he…
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2025
School Teachers’ Review Body: Recommendations
My Lords, on these Benches we welcome the Government’s acceptance in full of the School Teachers’ Review Body and the additional resources provided. However, there is a financial impact on schools having to implement the pay rises from their existing budgets. Given that half the schools are already …
Lords
Debate
22 May 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, we have not got any amendments in this group, but I will make a few observations. First, it is really important we get this right and we have the opportunity to do so between Committee and Report.
I have personal experience of multi-agency working in terms of child protection—not a great …
I have a few observations to make, although this is not my natural area of expertise.
On Amendment 1, I said it was important that, when we propose to make a change and we run a pilot, that pilot is the lodestone of future developments. First, I am concerned about the comments made by Professor Mun…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
22 May 2025
Social Mobility: Sutton Trust Opportunity Index
The whole Government are responsible for ensuring that young people’s opportunity is not determined by where they come from or other factors of their background. That is why the Government have an opportunity mission, as I outlined in my initial Answer; it is owned across government, and all parts o…