Lords
Proceedings
15 July 2026
Sudan: Operational Restrictions on Humanitarian Actors
My Lords, we are hearing deeply concerning reports of continued assaults in El Obeid, and I welcome the recent statement from the UK and like-minded partners on that. Given these reports and the strategic importance of El Obeid as a humanitarian hub and as a gateway to Kordofan and Darfur, what asse…
Lords
Committee Stage
9 July 2026
Women and Girls: Impact of ODA Cuts
My Lords, I am pleased to bring forward this debate and I thank all noble Lords who will speak. Although speaking time is unfortunately short, I hope that today’s interest leads to further opportunities to examine the impact of cuts to official development assistance. I declare my interests, as set …
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Official Development Assistance: Bilateral Allocations
I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer, and I look forward to the publication. The cuts to the UK’s official development assistance—some of the most severe across G20 countries—mean that the remaining bilateral spend will need to be targeted to remain as effective as possible. How will the Go…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
World Ocean Day
My Lords, my noble friend referred to bottom trawling, and I previously asked the Minister about the Government’s response to bottom trawling in our marine protected areas, which is causing extreme damage to the ecosystem. The noble Baroness pointed to a record number of responses. I am not sure if …
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Mindanao Earthquake
My Lords, are the Government having discussions about deploying emergency response teams to assist on the ground, such as the excellent Hazardous Area Response Team or UK-Med, which have been trained in providing life-saving assistance in these cases?
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2026
Combating Atrocity Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide
My Lords, I express my sincere thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for securing today’s debate and for his tireless and principled leadership on atrocity prevention. His work, including the Genocide Determination Bill and the genocide amendment to the Trade Bill, both of which I have previously su…
Lords
Proceedings
23 April 2026
Women’s Health Strategy
My Lords, I welcome the commitment in the strategy to women’s health hubs:
“Where high quality women’s health hubs exist, they will continue to lead service delivery. In other areas we anticipate there will be a dedicated space within broader neighbourhood health centres”.
However, the guidance fo…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 April 2026
Sudan
We have put in gender-based violence advisers on the border to help with the psychosocial effects of what people have had to endure. We are now the biggest funder internationally, I think, of UNFPA, because this is such a priority for us, but the noble Baroness is right to draw our attention to the …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
2 contributions
Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling
My Lords, the consultation on the latest round of proposed by-laws to introduce restrictions on bottom trawling in 41 marine protected areas resulted in a very large number of responses being received. The Marine Management Organisation is now carefully considering those responses and reviewing the …
I agree with the noble Baroness that this is a serious issue that we need to move on as soon as we can. We have proposed that we will do this by the end of the year. The big issue is the sheer number of responses that were received; it is taking a long time to go through them. Also, the proposed by-…
Lords
Proceedings
6 March 2026
International Women’s Day
My Lords, ladies, sisters and brothers, I congratulate everyone who has chosen to give their maiden speech on International Women’s Day. I have to admit that I struggled with how to begin my contribution today— I hope I am not the only one—at a time when partial publication of the Epstein files, tha…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to the Government for tabling their Amendments 339 and 340, and thank all noble Lords who supported this call in Committee.
These amendments respond to a campaign from Karma Nirvana and 60 other specialist violence against women and girls organisations, along with survivors …
I am very grateful to the Minister for that response, and it is great to hear that the Home Office is considering how this might impact the legislation. However, I do not think I have heard exactly what harm this might do or why it is allowed in other legislation but not in this. I therefore wonder …
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
6 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, we have all received briefings on this clause, telling us that, unamended, it would allow abortion up to birth. I will address that in two ways. First, Clause 191 does not fully decriminalise abortion or alter the legal time limits. The legal framework remains for medical staff, which the …
It is not the prosecutions that I am referring to, it is the cases themselves. I absolutely acknowledge that telemedicine is not available through medical services in Northern Ireland, but the pills are available illegally online and people are purchasing them. However, because women are decriminali…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
29 January 2026
UK Development Partnership Assistance
My Lords, I declare an interest as the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and I thank my noble friend Lady Featherstone for her excellent introduction to this debate. I also pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Hyde, for her excellen…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 January 2026
Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy
The noble Baroness raises an important issue. Honour-based abuse is directly addressed in the strategy, as the noble Baroness has observed. It is often hidden in nature. That means we must try harder to address the needs of victims and build trust with them. We have set out clear action within the s…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
Official Development Assistance
My Lords, worldwide cuts to international development programmes are a reality. We cannot escape the adverse effects this will have on poverty reduction, healthcare, education and, importantly, national security. Depressing as these statistics are, they enforce innovative, perhaps leaner, ways of de…
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I will speak to the amendments in my name in this group. Amendments 353 and 355, co-signed by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester and the noble Baronesses, Lady Doocey and Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, relate to a statutory definition of honour-based abuse and a duty to issue …
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for taking part in this debate. As I said, it is slightly later than hoped but really is much appreciated. I am grateful for the Minister’s reply and, as I said earlier, her openness to engage on these issues.
On the aggravating factor, I will consider carefully wh…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
2 contributions
Women’s Health Strategy
My Lords, this Government are committed to prioritising women’s health as we reform the NHS and have been clear that women’s health will never be neglected again. The renewed women’s health strategy will reflect on delivery since 2022, address gaps and go further on totemic issues, including health …
I very much share the noble Baroness’s assessment of the value of women’s health hubs. She will know that I have taken a considerable personal interest in this. The target to establish a women’s health hub in every ICB was the purpose of a time-limited pilot established by the last Government, and t…
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 335A and 335B in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton. I am grateful to the noble Baroness for setting out these probing amendments, because, as the Minister will know, there is concern that this change will criminalise domestic abuse survivors, who const…
Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, like everyone else, I am in favour of all the amendments in this group. The noble Baroness, Lady Bertin, set out very powerfully and alarmingly the reality of what is happening online. I do not think that I need to go through all the amendments in detail—other noble Lords have done that ve…
My Lords, I support the amendments in the name of my noble friend Lady Owen, which have been signed by noble Lords across the Committee. I welcome the Government’s Amendment 300 to extend the time limit for the sharing offence, which my noble friend’s amendments also seek to do.
My noble friend’s a…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 November 2025
Telemedical Abortions
I certainly can confirm that the changes voted into that Bill involve no change to the provision of telemedicine. To the noble Baroness’s other point, we would need to review the data, including the available data in respect of her question about health and well-being, on which I would be pleased to…
Lords
Proceedings
11 November 2025
Conflict in Sudan
My Lords, I welcome the recent announcement of £5 million in additional aid to survivors of sexual violence, and I am pleased that the Minister has met some of those survivors. Can she say what steps the UK has taken to ensure accountability for sexual and gender-based violence, which is being used …
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
It is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg. First, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Hanson of Flint on securing the considerable legal services of my noble friend Lady Levitt. The Government are very lucky to have them both steering this supertanker. There is much to commend: its fo…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
West Papua: Deforestation
I thank the noble Baroness for her question. The UK is supportive of the implementation of the Indonesian sustainable palm oil standard to support Indonesia’s sustainable economic, social and environmental objectives. Agricultural expansion for a small number of commodities, as the noble Baroness ri…
Lords
Debate
5 September 2025
Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill
My Lords, I strongly support this long-overdue Bill and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Trees, on skilfully steering it through this House. My noble friend Lady Fookes has asked me to say how much she wishes she had been able to be here—she is at a long-standing event for the War Widows’ Associati…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Official Development Assistance
I would be very happy to meet with the noble Baroness, especially given her track record on this agenda. She will have noted that we intend to integrate and mainstream our work on gender, particularly through our work on humanitarian and health priorities, and she will note the appointment of my nob…