Lords
Debate
9 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I had not intended to speak on this group but, as the only nurse present, I want to say that nobody could deny the principles of the amendments that are being discussed today. They are right and proper in respect of good health care for the nation.
I have two concerns, however. One is tha…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 January 2026
Toilet-training: Support for Parents
Again, that is an important point. We all welcome that a lot of advice and guidance from the Best Start family hubs, including advice from public health visitors, will be available online. We have to embrace the digital aspect of this to enable people to be in communication with other people, access…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 December 2025
Special Educational Needs: Investment
The noble Baroness is absolutely right: there will be a small number of children for whom the excellent special schools that we already have—or, in some cases, additional spaces in special schools—will be the most appropriate way to support them. That is why the approach that we are taking with resp…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 December 2025
Employment Gap for Blind and Sight-impaired People
I am grateful to the noble Baroness. Like her, I have had the benefit of a physio- therapist who is herself blind and is very good indeed. The noble Baroness makes an important point. We have been working really hard with our colleagues who work with the young people who come in. The reason we try t…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Free School Meals
It is the nature of devolution that different Governments make different decisions on how they fund and how they distribute that funding. Since this Government came into power, we have seen a considerable increase in the core schools budget, which increased by £3.7 billion in 2025-26. That benefits …
Lords
Proceedings
26 November 2025
Arrangement of Business
If there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, this Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.
Lords
Debate
24 November 2025
Mental Health Bill [HL]
I had an amendment in the area covered by Amendments 1 to 4 at an earlier stage of the Bill, and I just wanted to put on record my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady May of Maidenhead, for her tenacious pursuance of this issue, and the discussions which followed. I also want to thank my noble friend…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
NHS: Wheelchair Services
I will be pleased to write to the noble Baroness about the specific data that is available, but we know that, because of issues to do with aids and adaptations, sometimes people’s leaving hospital is not as timely as it should be. That is not in their interests. We certainly expect local authorities…
Lords
Proceedings
20 November 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for making that point, because it takes me to two of the points that I was about to make about the two committees in the Senedd that have looked at this: the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee. Both have explic…
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
Arrangement of Business
If there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and return in 10 minutes.
Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
Adult Prison Estate: Support for Young People
Let me take the example of the female prison population. Young adult women aged 18 to 25 make up 12% of the female prison population, but they account for just under 50% of all instances of self-harm. For me, that is a very distressing figure. What was clear from going round women’s prisons, as I ha…
Lords
Committee Stage
30 October 2025
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I broadly support these amendments but also agree with my noble friend Lord Patel that there is probably no reason to have oral pouches at all. It is something that we could carefully consider deleting from our society. If you are trying to withdraw from tobacco, nicotine patches are just …
Lords
Committee Stage
14 October 2025
National Policy Statement for Ports
After that innovative departure from our normal process, it is a pleasure to speak—an unusual pleasure because, despite the centrality of ports and shipping to this country, we rarely debate such things in the House.
I have no current interests in the maritime sector but I do, as they say, have for…
Lords
Proceedings
14 October 2025
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, this Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
School Fees: VAT
I do not know about specific decisions that each individual school is making. Obviously, how individual schools fund a specific policy is a matter for them, but I am very confident that our free school meals policy is fully funded.
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will present five bases of rejection to the Bill. The first is the evolution of the Bill in the other place, which we can hardly call Parliament at its best. It was deemed to be a Private Member’s Bill, but I am sorry to say that I think we are being fooled here; it is quite obviously a …
My Lords, it has been a long day at the end of a very long week, at the end of this September sitting, when we have made good progress on the legislation before the House. I thank the usual channels and all Members for that most sincerely. As we adjourn our proceedings, I am sure all noble Lords wil…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 September 2025
Child Poverty Strategy
I thank the noble Baroness for her question. The Children’s Commissioner’s report, as I am sure she knows, made pretty harrowing reading—as it should. If we are going to tackle these questions, we have to look at the reality of children’s lives nowadays. Her point was very well made. The Government …
Lords
Oral Questions
8 September 2025
Suicide Reduction
I thank the noble Baroness as well for her kind comments. I assure her that the whole point about the e-learning module is that it can extend to people beyond those in mental health services. As I mentioned, only one-third of those who die by suicide are in contact with mental health services. Of th…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Taxes
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. It was premised on a hypothetical, and I am not going to speculate on the next Budget now. I absolutely understand the issues that she is raising, and I am very happy to take those points back to my colleagues in the Treasury.
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2025
Welfare Reform
My Lords, I declare my interest as a current non-executive director of NHS England. Will the Minister explain whether it the Government intend to return to face-to-face PIP claims, including a biannual review for the majority of claimants? If not, what are the reasons behind that? The Timms review c…
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
Does the noble Lord not think it possible to do both—to limit the number of appointees through the prime ministerial structure and to reduce the size of the House in the way that is suggested in this Bill?
Lords
Oral Questions
26 June 2025
NHS and Social Care: Joint Working
The noble Baroness raises a practical and realistic point that many care workers speak about. She will know that we are implementing a new fair pay agreement that, for the first time ever, will reflect what people actually do. Also, for the first time, there will be a universal career structure for …
Lords
Oral Questions
19 June 2025
Self-driving Vehicles: Disabled Passengers
The noble Baroness is entirely right. One of the really good prospects here is the provision of public services to people in rural areas where buses, with the best will in the world and despite the Government’s ground-breaking bus legislation, will not serve every need of the community because of th…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2025
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
My Lords, will the Minister say whether the review involving children will also consider young boys? As patron of a drug treatment centre and chair of a homeless housing association, I am convinced that there are young boys who are led into prostitution in a similar way.