Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
7 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, for stepping in and moving the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Wei. I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to this short but thoughtful debate. I will not take it personally.
Fundamentally, the Government believe that the department’s …
My Lords, this has been a useful and considered debate. I thank noble Lords for their participation. Local authorities have existing duties under the Education Act 1996 to identify children in their area who are not registered at school and not receiving a suitable education and to intervene in such…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 September 2025
8 contributions
Civil Service: Interns
My Lords, both the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles make it clear that a person’s selection for work in the Civil Service must be on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition. These rules ensure that the Civil Service can …
My Lords, I declare an interest as the First Civil Service Commissioner. It is the Civil Service Commission’s statutory duty to ensure that entry is based on merit and is open and fair. However, as the Minister has outlined, this is an internship that leads to a process of being able to proceed to t…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I am sorry, but I do not think this is in order. We have heard from the Minister, and now it is for the person who moved their amendment—
I am advised that it is unusual—very unusual. Could the noble Lord keep his contributions exceptionally brief? Many other noble Lords intervened on the Minister at the pertinent points during her speech. It really is now the time for the noble Lord, Lord Hacking. The noble Lord’s Front Bench is agre…
Lords
Proceedings
24 July 2025
7 contributions
Infected Blood Inquiry: Additional Report
My Lords, I am grateful, as ever, for the contributions of the noble Baronesses, Lady Finn and Lady Brinton. Their responses were, as they have always been in previous debates in this House, measured, reasonable, productive and challenging where we need to be challenged. I truly believe that this de…
The impact on the noble Baroness’s family reminds us every time we hear of it that there is a real human cost. It is very easy for all of us to consider this just to be news and outside of your Lordships’ House. This scandal was in your Lordships’ House, it was in this building, and the noble Barone…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
23 July 2025
7 contributions
Casement Park: Spending Review
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her remarks about Enniskillen and for her Answer. She must realise that back in 2011 football, rugby and Gaelic got similar amounts from the Northern Ireland Executive to develop their stadiums. Football and rugby did theirs, but Gaelic did not. Casement sat …
My Lords, I convey my sympathies to the people of Maguiresbridge in Fermanagh and to the families of the victims this morning. On behalf of the GAA, and on my own behalf, I thank the Government for the £50 million contribution towards the construction of Casement Park. It is long awaited and I hope …
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
23 July 2025
8 contributions
Pensions: Low-income and Self-employed Workers
My Lords, we welcome the setting up of the commission under the chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Drake. Making the case for saving for retirement is crucial, given that the DWP has highlighted that 15 million people are saving too little for retirement, which is about half the workforce. Cur…
My Lords, I too welcome the commission, chaired by my noble friend Lady Drake, and the timetable; a two-year period for something of this importance is right. It gives the possibility of legislation in the current Parliament, so perhaps I will be here to take part in it. Given the timetable and the …
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
22 July 2025
Universal Credit Bill
I thank the noble Lord. With speakers in the gap, you never know quite where you are.
My Lords, first of all, it is a great pleasure to welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson, and to compliment her on her maiden speech, as well as to compliment the noble Baroness, Lady Bryan, on her val…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 July 2025
3 contributions
Legislative Reform (Disclosure of Adult Social Care Data) Order 2025
My Lords, this Government are committed to rooting out public sector fraud wherever it persists. It is a pervasive crime that takes money away from vital public services and enriches those who steal from the taxpayer. This draft legislative reform order builds on initial work carried out by the last…
My Lords, I begin by thanking the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee for its excellent report on this order, which was published on 13 June. I am also grateful to the Business and Trade Committee in the other place for its own report, which was published earlier this month.
As the Min…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
10 July 2025
11 contributions
Government Resilience Action Plan
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Finn, and noble Earl, Lord Russell, for their comments and broad support for the Government’s actions.
Before I continue, I want to pay tribute to the work of many other noble Lords across the House. Specifically, I thank my noble friend Lord Harris of Har…
I thank my noble friend for both the work he has done for decades in this area and his expertise, and also for raising an incredibly important point. Our general security environment has changed, and the national security strategy was clear. The resilience action plan and strategy we believe to be o…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
11 contributions
Falkland Islands: Fisheries Exports Tariffs
I am very grateful to the Minister because she recognises how important the income from the fishing industry is for the Falkland Islands, given that 63% of its income comes from fishing. Will she ensure that their next meeting under the UK -EU reset will include this item, demonstrating the UK’s cre…
The European Union Committee looked at this issue in 2020-21. What was interesting about it then—and I am sure that it is fairly similar now—is that the fishing grounds for the Falkland Islands were fished by ships that were largely 50% owned by Spanish interests and 50% owned by Falkland Islands in…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
6 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I am ever so sorry, but given the hour, I thought it would be helpful to remind noble Lords that this is Report and any interventions need to be short, please.
Noble Lords will be disappointed that I do not have a line from the Box on one thing, so they may have to bear with me.
I thank noble Lords for this surprisingly short debate on some very important issues. To clarify, as we have just heard from the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and as he so entertaine…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, Amendment 17 is identical to Amendment 35 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in Committee. There was a lively debate on this proposal in Committee, as we have also seen today. However, I would point to our extensive, comprehensive and long-standing honours system that seeks to recognise…
My Lords, Amendment 21 tabled by the noble Viscount, Lord Thurso, is similar to his amendment in Committee. With regard to a term limit of 20 years, it may be of interest to your Lordships’ House to know that the current average length of service for noble Lords is 13.7 years, which suggests that 20…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 July 2025
6 contributions
Fujitsu: Government Contracts
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her Answer. Given yesterday’s results from the official inquiry into the Post Office scandal, and the human tragedies which unfolded as a result of wrongful convictions of postmasters, what additional due diligence measures have the Government imple…
My Lords, Fujitsu has paid not one penny towards the victims of the havoc and misery that it helped to cause. Is the Government —is the country—over a barrel to Fujitsu? If not, why is Fujitsu still winning government work? If we are, what are the Government doing about it?
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, in order to fix our current technological challenges, we require a temporary adjournment. The House will therefore adjourn during pleasure for five minutes. We will resume at 3.45 pm.
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Data Centres: Energy and Water Consumption
My Lords, I for one am very grateful to the right reverend Prelate for raising this issue. I think the House is only beginning to realise just how staggering big tech’s energy usage is. I understand that Google has doubled its CO 2 emissions since 2020 and signed a contract with Commonwealth Fusion …
Lords
Proceedings
4 July 2025
4 contributions
UK Constitution: Oversight and Responsibility (Report from the Constitution Committee)
No doubt the noble Baroness will have noticed that I was not referring to any of those three people.
I ask for an assurance that when the Cabinet Manual is renewed, there will be consultation with the appropriate committees in both Houses before it is published.
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
5 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, can the noble Viscount confirm which amendment in this group he is addressing?
My Lords, it may be helpful if I inform your Lordships’ House that my noble and learned friend the Attorney-General also took an oath to uphold the rule of law when he took office.
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, this has been a genuinely interesting debate, and I thank the noble Lords, Lord Newby and Lord Brady, for tabling their amendments. First, I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Newby, that I am one of the minority: a West Midlands-based Peer.
My noble friend Lord Winston as always makes a perti…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 July 2025
9 contributions
NHS, Armed Forces and Civil Service Staff: Public Meetings
My Lords, if senior public servants cannot address their staff or answer their questions without first having cleared with Ministers everything they are going to say, they risk losing their public personal authority and becoming not leaders but puppets.
Does the Minister agree that, while senior military officers, for example, are Crown servants, and it is not appropriate for them to dissent from or challenge government policy in public, nevertheless, if they are constrained to being little more than oral press releases, they will lose all credibil…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
1 July 2025
10 contributions
Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 (Extension of Duration of Non-jury Trial Provisions) Order 2025
My Lords, this draft order extends provisions in the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 that enable criminal trials to continue to be conducted without a jury in Northern Ireland, where certain conditions are met, for a further two-year period until 31 July 2027. Otherwise, these provi…
My Lords, I have two principal reasons for speaking to this instrument. The first is that I currently chair the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee of this House, and therefore am very sensitive to issues that affect the communities in Northern Ireland. One of the issues that is absolutely of the gr…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
26 June 2025
National Security Strategy
My Lords, there are 20 minutes for these questions. We will hear from the Labour Benches.
Lords
Oral Questions
26 June 2025
8 contributions
UK Extreme Heat
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer. Prolonged extreme heat is now 100 times more likely because of climate change, a new Met Office report has found. Inescapable heat is a silent mass human killer. Our systems and infrastructure are not prepared. The recent adaptation report found that ma…
My Lords, I do not know whether my noble friend the Minister has had a chance to read the report by the Physiological Society entitled Red Alert: Developing a Human-centred National Heat Resilience Strategy . As the House may appreciate, there is growing scientific interest in the effect of heat on …
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 June 2025
2 contributions
Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill [HL]
My Lords, it might be helpful if I inform your Lordships’ House that we will be finishing all the business on today’s Order Paper, so Members may want to consider the length of their contributions.
My Lords, I did just put it in the Teams chat. I did try to talk to the noble Lord about it this afternoon. I am happy to continue such conversations, but having this conversation is also eating into our time. It may be helpful, given that noble Lords are here waiting for their business to commence,…