Lords
Statutory Instrument
27 April 2026
Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) (England) Regulations 2026
My Lords, like the noble Earl, Lord Devon, this is my final speech in the Chamber, so it is a rather poignant moment. It feels rather odd speaking on this topic today—as if, after 24 years, I have come full circle. I found this rather interesting report when I cleared my desk last week, which was wr…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
National Museums and Galleries
I am not sure that there is fear baked into their concerns, but I recognise that there are a large number of museums out there that do charge. Where museums charge, they tend to be quite modestly priced. The issues that we are exploring are broader than that. We will look at the whole range of thing…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Farming Road Map
I could not agree more with the noble Earl on the need for consistency. There has been an enormous churn in government over the last eight years, which has not helped at all. That is why we want to provide a 25-year farming road map.
Lords
Debate
10 March 2026
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
I echo the sentiments of the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, about the noble Lord, Lord Grocott. I did not realise he was ill. It is very sad that he is not with us today, and I know we will all wish him the very best recovery from the problems that he has at the moment. I was a great admirer of the noble …
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
British Farming: Competitiveness
On the latter part of the noble Earl’s question, Great South West does tremendous work in this area. I went to the launch of its review, which is a blueprint for how the Government believe we should be delivering and supporting farming in our country. I commend the noble Earl for his work with and s…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 February 2026
New Housing: Flood Risk
I had heard about that very interesting concept. We need to make sure that all steps to mitigate flood risk are taken, even in areas that are not subject to traditional flood risk. The increase of surface floodwater is an issue and we need to make sure that, where possible, permeable surfaces are la…
Lords
Proceedings
2 February 2026
3 contributions
Conduct Committee
My Lords, if I may, before I speak to the Motion, and in the light of the tributes to the noble Lord, Lord McFall, from the Front Benches, I offer a brief thank you from the Back Benches for his tireless and devoted service to our House.
On behalf of my noble friend Lord Kakkar, who is unable to be…
My Lords, under Standing Order 68, no debate is allowed on this Motion. I must therefore put the Question that this Motion be agreed to.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
2 contributions
Hospitality Businesses
My Lords—
I believe the original Question was about helping the hospitality sector. The comment about housing is outside the purview of my domain of expertise as Minister for Investment. However, the Government are investing in young people’s futures holistically. We have seen a sharp decline in apprenticeshi…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 January 2026
Great Western Railway: Infrastructure
Since the collapse of the line into the sea in Dawlish in 2014, about £140 million has been spent on resilience to keep the railway running. There is work left to do, in particular on the cliffs at Teignmouth, but there is no practicable, affordable alternative route that can be provided any time so…
Lords
Committee Stage
20 January 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I was not going to speak on this group, but the amendments from the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, made me think that it might be helpful to ask the Minister to explain where she sees land management and agricultural policy fitting in any of these categories. This is a bit of a precursor to…
My Lords, I would like to add a small voice to the chorus of support for these amendments. I do so from the perspective of my role as the owner of a cultural institution in Devon and my work on the Exeter place partnership, which has been particularly successful in encouraging arts and heritage acti…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
Large-scale Waste Crime
Prosecutions take a long time to work through the legal system and the court system, but numbers are in line with other law enforcement agencies when we compare them with the number of interventions. Of course, prosecutions are only one part of the picture. Prevention and disruption work is just as …
Lords
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
Meat Labelling
I have every sympathy for the noble Earl’s concerns about the closure of small abattoirs and the distances that animals have to travel. I was previously the president of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, which had a specific campaign on that, so I understand the issue. The Government have provided gra…
Lords
Oral Questions
7 January 2026
Public Sector Productivity
We talked before about AI and digital adoption. Digital adoption is incredibly important when it comes to rural communities—ensuring that they have access to extremely fast broadband, for example, will be important. Working from home has been mentioned. There are interesting studies that show that, …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Free School Meals
I am sure the noble Earl will realise that that would not necessarily be possible in every school. I refer him to the good food cycle, the food strategy produced by my colleagues in Defra, which sets out the Government’s vision to drive better outcomes from the UK food system and particularly suppor…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 November 2025
Cryptocurrencies: US Regulation
I am not sure I share the noble Earl’s characterisation of the distinction between the two regimes. The US will legislate for their interests, and we will legislate for ours. The US passed legislation for the regulation of stablecoin in the summer. US regulators will publish their regulatory rules i…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Plant-based Diet
The important thing to say to the noble Earl is that it is about empowering people via the food strategy to have more and better options so that they can make better choices. That can include a range of different food options. No one is going to yield to me in my preference to have, occasionally, a …
Lords
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
New Homes Target
That is an appropriate question for today because I met the leader of Plymouth City Council just this morning, and we talked about some of the issues facing Devon. We understand that the reorganisation of local government adds to the considerable pressures that local authorities already face. Howeve…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 October 2025
Waste Crime
The noble Earl is absolutely right that this can be a really dreadful problem for landowners, and it can be very expensive and difficult to clear up. He may be interested to know that we are working with a range of interested parties to specifically look at these issues through the National Fly-Tipp…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 September 2025
Open Artificial Intelligence Service
Of course, this is a major issue, particularly in health data. I was intrigued when speaking recently to colleagues in Denmark. They made the point that they have a very simple message: they provide a health service free of charge, and in return citizens of Denmark are expected to provide their data…
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
5 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson. I applaud his efforts to formalise the procedure regarding the determination of peerage claims, which I broadly support.
I shall speak to the two amendments in my name in this group, Amendments 25 and 27, which seek to ensure equali…
The Bill addresses the determination of hereditary peerages and transfers that power to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, so it is not accurate to say that it addresses only membership of your Lordships’ House.
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
4 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 19, in my sole name, which proposes the replenishment of the Cross Benches following the departure of the hereditary Peers with 20 appointments over five years via HOLAC, the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which is chaired so ably by the noble Baroness…
That is very helpful, because I was going to propose a possible number. As I was saying: in other words, from initially making nearly six HOLAC appointments a year, we now have only one such appointment annually.
Despite having a non-partisan, highly qualified appointments commission, we are simply…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I will briefly address Amendment 1 and will ask a couple of specific questions related to the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain.
First, in closing, can the noble Baroness the Leader of the House please confirm what discussions she might have had to confirm that their ceremonial …
The point that I think the Earl Marshal was making was that the seat in the House that he might occupy would perhaps be open to more diverse occupants, not his role as Earl Marshal.
Lords
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Young People: Sporting Activities
Let us be clear: it is not true that there are only a few remaining secondary school playing fields. However, the noble Earl makes a really important point that, where a facility is provided for a school to use during the school day, we should work harder to ensure it is available for communities to…