Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
2 contributions
Best Start Family Hubs
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. I declare my interest as co-founder of the not-for-profit Family Hubs Network Ltd.
I thank the Minister for that reply. Family hubs are not Sure Start rebranded. There is a multitude of problems affecting families with older children, yet all that is ever talked about, in my opinion, is the early years. Hubs need to support parents of teenagers to prevent them becoming and staying…
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Concealed Surveillance Equipment in Government Offices and Vehicles
Have parliamentary Members’ offices been checked for any of these devices, in the other place and in this place? I imagine that foreign powers could be quite interested in the conversations going on in the offices of certain Members of Parliament. Is there is a usual check of our offices?
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, first, I support the Government’s health plans, which include a strong focus on prevention and neighbourhood, and I want to help them build on the integration of health and other services required by the Health and Care Act 2022.
We are getting there with the early years in delivering hea…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, first, I support the Government’s health plans, which include a strong focus on prevention and neighbourhood, and I want to help them build on the integration of health and other services required by the Health and Care Act 2022.
We are getting there with the early years in delivering hea…
Lords
Debate
24 April 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords—
My Lords, I speak for the first time in this debate as a nurse and former dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London. Our patron saints include Florence Nightingale and Cicely Saunders. It would be hard to imagine two more rigorous a…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
20 April 2026
Civil Preparedness for War
My Lords, I add my gratitude to the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, for bringing this vital Question forward, and I declare my interest, having served for a brief while in chaplaincy in our Armed Forces. Both the SDR and the 2025 resilience action plan raise this whole-of-society approach as a “fundame…
Lords
Debate
25 March 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am sorry that the noble Lord did not give way, because I wanted to ask him this question. In his first sentence, he managed to speak to the amendment before us. He then went off on a tangent. In relation to impact assessment, has he, like me and many others, received hundreds of emails w…
My Lords, this Bill attempted to canter through some profoundly important issues, such as child sexual abuse, which the police have described to me as a “tsunami” and which I do not think is fully understood by most people, including some politicians. The other issue that is misunderstood is the ram…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
10 March 2026
Victims and Courts Bill
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Polak in his Amendment 7.
It is now rightly impossible for any public discussion of the Epstein files and grooming gangs—or rather child rape gangs—not to put victims front and centre. About a year ago, we were discussing child rape gangs in this House, and …
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
Child Poverty Strategy
My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right about the importance of family stability; it is extremely important for children to grow up in a stable family wherever possible. He is right that poverty is both a driver and a consequence. We know that poverty puts huge pressures on families. Lifting th…
Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I speak in support of amendments on behalf of my noble friend Lady Maclean of Redditch, who unfortunately cannot be in her place at this hour on a Friday afternoon. I refer to Amendments 445, 483A, 495B and 941A. First, Amendment 445 would require the panel to consider signs of fluctuating capacity.…
Lords
Proceedings
12 February 2026
Better Prisons: Less Crime (Justice and Home Affairs Committee Report)
My Lords, having just joined the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, I support this report and particularly commend the noble Lord, Lord Foster, for the way he introduced it. I thought he was direct, unsparing and fair. I am sure that this Minister in particular will take its central message: that i…
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I support the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey. I am going to talk about my sister, whom I asked before she died whether I could bring her case before your Lordships. She said yes, so I have.
My sister had a very unhappy life; she was badly abused when she was a child a…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 February 2026
Two-child Benefit Cap: Foreign-born Children
My Lords, I have seen no evidence that anything as specific as this has any impact on asylum. I am sure the noble Lord is aware that our system is so strict that, for somebody to be able to come to this country, they need to meet the requirements. If someone is in the country illegally, they are not…
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
In response to the noble Lord, Lord Russell, the Companion says that we should not read speeches, but there is an argument that that is classist and sexist. Many women are not used to speaking ad lib—
Well, they are not. Many of us have not been parliamentarians for long, and we have not been at the right schools that have debating societies. If we want to say something important for the good of the common—
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, is quite right that autonomy is the basic principle under this Bill. In fact, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, told the Select Committee that the essence of the Bill before us is autonomy, which makes it an outlier. Terminal illness plus an autonomou…
I am supporting the inclusion of suffering from the noble Lord, Lord Frost, which is increasing the choice from autonomy to increased suffering. That is how it joins here. As many noble Lords have said, it is a very important area for us to discuss, and it is the underlying principle that the noble …
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
Best Start Family Hubs
I acknowledge the noble Lord’s involvement in setting up the family hub programme under the previous Government. I reassure him that Best Start Family Hubs will be open to all families with children aged nought to 19 and up to 25 for young people with SEND. They will be welcoming spaces where every …
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I rise in support of Amendments 43 and 49 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler of Enfield, to which I have added my name.
In Committee, the Minister clearly understood the basic principle of this group was to ensure that young people leave care with supportive and, hopefully, lifelong…
Lords
Debate
6 January 2026
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, for giving way. I rise to speak to Amendment 70, which my noble friend Lord Jackson, who cannot be here today, led on in Committee, and which I have signed. It would require the Secretary of State to lay a report before Parliament on how the…
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, in giving support to Amendment 22, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, I will also speak to Amendment 30C in my name and hers. These amendments would prevent serving prisoners—those on a hospital order and remanded— and bail defendants accessing legally assisted suicide.
Thi…
I thank the noble and learned Lord for giving way. I will comment on the other side of the argument, which is the moral hazard. This could be an extreme case, but I will give the example of somebody who has lung cancer and has within a year to live. They also have some very difficult relationships a…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 December 2025
2 contributions
Universal Credit: Two-child Limit
My Lords, this Government are determined to lift children out of poverty, and removing the two-child limit is the fastest and most cost-effective way to do so. The benefit cap is still in place, encouraging parents to take responsibility and work towards financial independence. Our approach balances…
My Lords, the Government have seen no evidence that the two-child limit had an impact on family size. For example, 47% of households affected by the two-child limit were not claiming universal credit when any of their children were born. In other words, things happen; people set out, they have child…
Lords
Proceedings
25 November 2025
Separation Centres: Terrorist Offenders
My Lords, there is a gaslighting quality about the High Court judgment that the public sector equality duty was breached because no consideration had been given to decisions that meant a cohort of prisoners, all Muslim, were treated in a particular way. The judge said that this could have been perce…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise in support of Amendment 118 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, and I am introducing Amendments 118A and 118B which follow it. I also support Amendments 45, 46, 47, 49 and 58.
This is an atheist Bill that assumes there is nothing after death, which is not a neutral …
Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Adult Prison Estate: Support for Young People
Transition from the youth to the adult estate is a critical time and needs to be managed with care and thought for the safety of the young person. The transitions policy framework is a guide for all practitioners to ensure that the transition is focused on the needs of the individual, so that when t…
The noble Lord does amazing work in this area and I appreciate his focus on it. The trauma-informed approach is well established for the transition of women within the justice system. Stephanie Covington and others have been great on training staff. We now need to train more in the youth estate for …
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, having nodded along to those who complained about the length and diverse nature of the Bill, I am going to propose five modest additions to it, which in their entirety would take up less than an extra page to add to the 400 that the Bill already contains. These measures are related to the …
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, stated in this House on 4 September last year, that the Government’s commitment is
“to ensure that any debate on assisted dying … will take place in a broader context of access to high-quality palliative and end-of-life care ”.—[ Official Report , 4/9/24; …