Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is with a mixture of sadness and pleasure that I rise to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, and have added my name to the amendments in this group. Much of the Bill impacts in small ways on the lives of many citizens in this country. These amendments, which I hope very much the Gov…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
TikTok: Bereaved British Parents
Yes, we are aware of those calls and those measures that have been put forward. We are working closely with Ofcom and the Chief Coroner’s office to understand how those would work. We are closely monitoring this and actively considering options to strengthen the process.
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
Best Start Family Hubs
The noble Baroness touches on an important point: we need to build on the good things from the Sure Start model and the good things that came out of the family hub model, bring them together and analyse the way forward. On working with parents, the model has proved that parents coming in will often …
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
4 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, this is a very different topic from what we were discussing before the dinner break—we move to nursery milk. Only in your Lordships’ House could one say those words.
My Amendment 98 would bring childminders who are registered with a childminding agency into the scope of the free nursery m…
I thank the Minister for her encouragement. I am not sure whether I wanted the accolade of being the anti-Thatcher milk donor, but I will take whatever she gives me.
I am encouraged by the Minister’s commitment. I managed to write down only “within six months” before the next thing she said—unfortu…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I echo other noble Lords and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Grey- Thompson, for her very powerful and moving speech. Sadly, like other noble Lords, I know families who have been touched in similar ways. Both personally and professionally, I hope that the Government listen to the noble Baro…
My Lords, a good speech is a short speech.
Like the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, I have spent most of this debate rewriting my speech. I have tried hard to listen to what noble Lords have said. We have three options before us tonight: the Government option of a consultation; the Liberal Democrat op…
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, noble Lords will remember from our debate in Committee that on this side of the House we had considerable practical reservations about the Government’s approach to regulating groups of children’s homes and foster care providers. These two amendments aim to improve the process that the Gove…
I thank the Minister for her remarks. I perhaps accept them more in relation to my Amendment 63 than my Amendment 64, but time will tell how the Government’s plans work out. With that, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
8 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, like the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler of Enfield, I welcome the amendments that the Government have tabled to Clause 8. I think they will meet the aims of our Amendment 35, so I look forward to hearing from the Minister about the additional support that the Government will offer to care leav…
My Lords, we have had a good debate on this group. I have a great deal of sympathy with the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Watson, and would be interested to know whether the Minister knows what the cost of this funding would be if it were extended in the way that the noble Lord’s re…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 January 2026
5 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, on these Benches, we welcome government Amendment 29.
As the noble Lord, Lord Storey, said about his Amendment 44, there is a gap where the Government have extended the role of virtual school heads but not extended pupil premium plus to children in kinship care. As a minimum movement on t…
I open by thanking the Minister for those final remarks, particularly in relation to kinship leave and the school census.
The Government have acknowledged that the kinship rules need reviewing and updating. The amendments in my name and the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, who brings real expe…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 January 2026
13 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is good to be back scrutinising the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill after what seems like a long break. But noble Lords will remember that, while I think all sides of the House supported the approach of family group conferencing or a family group decision-making meeting, as descri…
On the last point on Amendment 5, the noble Baroness talked about the local care offer. Is she able to say today whether she expects that, when the consultation happens and a template is developed for what that will look like, there will be a specific section on reunification? Obviously, that is a r…
+11 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
Early Years Education
I am becoming used to the noble Baroness asking quite specific questions. I do not know the answer to that; I am sure that it is being worked on and looked at. We are happy to share our thinking on that in the appropriate way.
Lords
Oral Questions
12 January 2026
Sexual Harassment in Educational Settings
I am very aware that there was misogyny, sexual abuse and harassment long before there was social media. However, of course, some of the vile attitudes towards women and girls disseminated online are precisely why we need strong relationships, sex and health education and why we need to ensure that …
Lords
Oral Questions
18 December 2025
Preschool Children: Digital Technology
I have probably gone as far as I can today in talking about the work that the Government are doing in thinking about how we can improve the guidance for parents. We will have more to say about this in the near future. As I said, we will also have the opportunity to consider this in more detail when …
Lords
Oral Questions
18 December 2025
Girls: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
First, we have to acknowledge that there is an issue, and the statistics are stark. Of course, maths is compulsory, as has been said. Following on into A-levels and beyond GCSEs, only 37% of girls take maths and only 27% take further maths. They are absolutely stepping stones to so many different ca…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Free School Meals
We have been clear with schools about the 10% increase in teacher pay that we have delivered since we came into government. Additional funding has been provided but, of that, we will support schools to find approximately 1% through efficiencies. I am sure that the noble Baroness supports the focus o…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 November 2025
Domestic Abuse: Emergency Accommodation
As the noble Baroness knows, I broadly agree with pretty much everything she says. That is why the Government are working on the three strands of dealing with domestic abuse: the first is prevention, the second is robust enforcement against those who perpetrate it, and the third is support for victi…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Teachers: Music, Drama, Art and Design, and Dance
I believe that good teachers bring specialist knowledge as well as the particular skills that teacher training and qualified teacher status bring alongside that. That is why pupils have an entitlement to ensure that those teaching them have both the knowledge specialism and the teaching specialism i…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Dyscalculia
The Government will be introducing a reading assessment in year 8, on the basis that we think reading is the thing most likely to open up the rest of the curriculum and the ability to succeed in assessment. We will also make sure that schools have the support to use a range of methods of assessing p…
Lords
Proceedings
10 November 2025
2 contributions
Curriculum and Assessment Review
My Lords, I start by acknowledging the work of Professor Becky Francis and her expert advisory team on this very important and detailed review. They were set clear criteria, which the team has diligently sought to incorporate. The level of detail in the review means that, given the time available, I…
They will get 20 minutes.
To take one example of curriculum change and how to spot misinformation, as Daisy Christodoulou wrote in her recent blog on the Pacific Northwest tree octopus, there is a risk that we end up with simple checklists that aim to identify misinformation but which, in practice,…
Lords
Proceedings
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Protection of Children Codes of Practice
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, began with an apology and I must do the same, because I did not leave my office soon enough and I missed the first few paragraphs of the speech by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, to whom I personally apologise, and I apologise to the House in general fo…
I thank the noble Baroness for that suggestion. I would be very happy to speak with the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, and leverage her experience in drawing up the right models of evidence-gathering and research.
To come back to the core of some of the points that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, a…
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
Antisemitism: Universities
If a university gets to the point of having to be referred to the OFS as part of E6, it has clearly already failed and not done what this Government—I know this is supported across the House—have been very clear that it should be doing, including directly with vice-chancellors. The OFS would have th…
Lords
Debate
28 October 2025
6 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
Less—or more—prosaically, the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, has set out the issues here doggedly and in detail. I still feel that we are in a “he said, she said” situation, and it is extremely difficult to unpick how this will work. I assume—I am sure—that the statutory instruments and the rules will…
My Lords, I will speak also to Motions F and J. I first come to Motion D, on non-disclosure agreements, also known as NDAs. In the other place, the Government proposed two minor amendments to the clause on NDAs. The first will extend the scope of the clause to include staff of the House of Commons a…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
23 October 2025
Autistic Children: State Schools
I am sure the noble Baroness was listening to my initial response, when I said that the Government support head teachers to make the right decision about exclusions. I also agree with her that all pupils have the right to learn in a safe and calm classroom. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to re…
Lords
Proceedings
22 October 2025
Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy
My Lords, I thank the Government for this White Paper, which is an incredibly important and wide-ranging document. It is essential that we build the skills pipeline to turn around the current stagnation in productivity and economic growth. But we also know, on all sides of the House, that this is a …
Lords
Debate
18 September 2025
12 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
She said flu vaccination.
My Lords, I formally move the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lord Lucas and I will speak to it in my closing remarks.
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
10 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, as we have heard, this group and the next one cover a range of issues in relation to admissions. My sense is that most of the amendments in this group are not really needed in practice, but the Minister will no doubt clarify.
In relation to Amendment 449 in the name of my noble friend Lor…
My Lords, Clause 53 covers the role of schools in general and academies in particular in relation to pupil place planning. As we know, in the vast majority of cases, academies co-operate and fulfil their role in helping the local authority to meet its sufficiency duties, as the Bill says, so far as …
+8 more contributions in this session