Lords
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
Crown Estate: Wales
We have a very good relationship with the Crown Estate and work very closely with the Welsh Government. We will be appointing a commissioner to the Crown Estate to ensure that we have someone there who is prepared to look consciously at all the issues that affect Wales. We want to see a Welsh econom…
Lords
Committee Stage
5 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I feel that, once you have left the environment out of the legal safeguards on this particular aspect, you are inviting people to ignore them. I am very concerned about that. I am not just talking about sorting out problems; opportunities for local people could be completely disregarded.
Lords
Oral Questions
4 March 2026
Ballot Secrecy Act: Breaches
We do not want to see breaches of electoral law at any time, whatever the outcome of the election. It is very important that voters going to cast their vote can have complete confidence in the system that is operating, whether it influences the outcome of the election or not. It is also very importa…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
2 contributions
Carbon Budget 6
Carbon budget 6, which was set out in 2021 and is current from 2033 to 2037, was subject to several legal challenges. It is now in the hands of the present Government. The Secretary of State carried out a full and rigorous assessment of the package, policies and proposals prior to publishing the rec…
We do not have the announcement of carbon budget 7 until the summer. The noble Baroness might care to think about what the process of looking again at carbon budget 6 was after those legal judgments. Indeed, the Government have taken a much more robust approach to developing the plan, which has allo…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 February 2026
3 contributions
Public Office (Accountability) Bill: Exclusion
My Lords, what a small, select and charming group we are to discuss a topic that could feature quite high in news media later, because I think it is an issue that the public will care about.
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill has rightly been recognised for its proposed duty of candour, but th…
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, and congratulate her on bringing forward this important debate. It is a good Question. I agree with her that the Public Office (Accountability) Bill should be welcomed, but I will wait until Second Reading in this place before addressing the wider me…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
26 February 2026
New Housing: Flood Risk
I do not agree with the noble Baroness. Some amazing work has been done by the development industry to tackle and mitigate the risk of flooding. I have been to visit sites with very attractive-looking sustainable drainage systems; they not only deal with the issue of surface water and floodwater but…
Lords
Debate
25 February 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, like other noble Lords here this evening, I am quite keen to get home, especially as I will have to stay up all night tomorrow night reacting to the Gorton and Denton by-election, which is going to be very exciting. I hope the Minister expresses the same sort of support for these amendment…
I thank the noble Lord for his answers. I recognise the points he made, and those made by the noble Lord, Lord Davies, but quite honestly, when you have so many children’s organisations saying that the Government have got something wrong, the Government ought to listen. Although I am not going to pu…
Lords
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
2 contributions
Cyclists: Safety
My Lords, it is the turn of the Conservative Benches, if they can make their mind up.
Self-education is not a bad thing sometimes. I know that the Mayor of London is making strong attempts to improve the behaviour of cyclists. It is a concern that people feel able to cycle through red lights and across zebra crossings when people are on them. It is dangerous not only for pedestrians,…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 February 2026
Global Biodiversity Loss and National Security
At least the noble Baroness thinks I sound good. The revised environmental improvement plan is designed to deliver everything the noble Baroness talked about. We are working very hard in Defra to ensure that it does.
Lords
Committee Stage
11 February 2026
7 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I rise to oppose Clause 57 and Schedule 26 and express my deep concern about the way in which the Government are pushing through local government reorganisation under the banner of devolution. Local government reorganisation is not new. It can and does happen but, where it does, it should …
I thank the Minister for her answer. I know she has huge experience of local democracy and councils, but there is quite a lot of experience in this Room as well. If noble Lords from the Conservative Party are agreeing with the noble Lord over there, I think there might be a problem. I just hope the …
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
9 February 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, in moving this amendment, I shall speak also to Amendments 193 and 194 in the name of my noble friend Lady Bennett of Manor Castle.
On potholes, in the past four days, I have been campaigning in Barnet, in Gorton and Denton—we are doing pretty well there—in Cardiff and in Cambridgeshire. …
I thank all noble Lords who have spoken. I am sorry that I did not mention Amendment 241B but, yes, I would support it if my amendment were not accepted.
On the duty to think about climate change and so on, the Minister asked what extra the duty would add to current systems. However, there will of …
Lords
Debate
5 February 2026
10 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 470, which I, too, have signed. I agree with every word that we heard from the noble Baronesses, Lady Chakrabarti and Lady Miller. This references a deep vein of misogyny that existed then in the Met police—and I suspect it still exists, in spite of all the promises to …
Thank you, everybody. I tried to be a core participant in the spy cops inquiry—I think it was the first one—but the judge ruled that it did not apply to me because I had been spied on by the regular police, not the spy cops, so I could not be part of it. I was very disappointed about that.
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
2 February 2026
6 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I apologise to noble Lords for not being at Second Reading, but I care deeply about these issues. Amendments 104A and 105A seek to ensure that, when we talk about micromobility vehicles in this Bill, we do not inadvertently exclude those used for delivery services. These services are now a…
I think there were some pilots of privately owned e-scooters. Have the results of those come through? Have they been published?
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
28 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I got around to reading all these amendments only today, and I was quite impressed. I felt that in some ways this is your Lordships’ House at its best, because this is all from personal experience. People are talking about something they know very intimately and can therefore put the neces…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I too support both amendments. I support Amendment 449 because proscription is a huge power. The noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, used the word “awesome”, and it is indeed an awesome power: it can turn ordinary behaviour into crime. Parliament should not be asked to rubber-stamp those dec…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
I am really thrilled to be supporting the noble Viscount, Lord Hailsham, because obviously he is so sure of everything he says that I must be doing the right thing. I will deal with Amendments 447 and 448 slightly differently, because they are different. I support Amendment 447 because it directly r…
Lords
Debate
22 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am never sure what a probing amendment means, because surely all our amendments are probing, and I certainly would support both these amendments on Report, because they are actually crucial. Although I am vastly older than the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, I, too, have been working o…
I thank the noble Baroness very much.
At the moment the rule of law is not for us all, as exemplified by the way we treat police in some cases. On pensions, why do the Government prefer decisions about pension forfeiture to be taken later behind closed doors rather than in open court, where reasons…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Sentencing Bill
I thank all noble Lords, especially the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, for their insightful contributions to today’s debate. I would like to think that my years of doing business deals have helped in trying to get this through. What I have learned doing business deals is that the way to get a good deal…
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this is an unusual amendment for me because it is very exploratory. At the end, I am going to ask the Minister three questions, which I would really like an answer to, perhaps in writing if it is not possible today. This amendment is supported by StopWatch, an organisation that seeks accou…
I thank all noble Lords who have spoken, and I take to heart the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, and the noble Lord, Lord Davies. Of course I want fast action. I want it all and I want it now—that is my motto for life. It seems that this Committee is always hearing, “Oh, it’s all right,…
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
Very quickly, given that there is such a high level of agreement and support, I thank noble Lords for their co-operation and efforts in getting this done. I note what the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, said about the conference of the parties; our intention is to play the fullest of roles in making this…
Lords
Debate
15 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have signed this amendment because I think it is very sensible and covers some ground that really needs tackling. It would ensure that the police could not use live facial recognition technology when imposing conditions on public assemblies or processions under Sections 12 or 14 unless a…
Shifty.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
COP Climate Negotiations: Cities
The noble Baroness puts forward an accurate picture of how the C40 group was originally founded. I was not going to mention in this Chamber that it was founded by Ken Livingstone because I was worried that some of the responses might not be as positive as the noble Baroness’s. She is right that the …
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
I have two small points to make. First, there seems to be a lot of prejudgment of the report by the noble Lord, Lord Macdonald—the Minister seemed to say that the noble Lord will not disagree with anything that has gone through in the Bill. I do not understand why we did not wait for the report to b…