Lords
Proceedings
18 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
My Lords, I join the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, and others in roundly celebrating this announcement, although we should take a second to reflect on the tragedy of those who missed out in the desert years. Those affected were not only those who might have travelled, but students staying here who did n…
Lords
Proceedings
16 December 2025
NHS: Winter Preparedness
My Lords, when it comes to influenza, the focus is often on droplet transmission, but there is also evidence of aerosol transmission, with the deeper lung deposition resulting in greater potency in initiating infections. That means that ventilation and air filtration are hugely important. How would …
Lords
Committee Stage
15 December 2025
2 contributions
Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, we support the Government’s fundamental ambition grow UK heat networks from the current 3% to 20% of the UK’s heat network demand by 2050. We share this ambition; we recognise that heat networks will play a pivotal role in helping to achieve our drive towards net zero and driving low-carbo…
The noble Baroness makes a good point in relation to what are, as I have said, a huge number of systems of very different quality and status. Making regulations in respect of those sorts of bodies is very difficult, because they are all mini electricity or gas networks in their own right; indeed, th…
Lords
Committee Stage
26 November 2025
4 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly to address a couple of these amendments in a broad sense. Amendments 182 and 187 would ensure that all schools and colleges were vape-free and would require them to proactively implement policies as such. I draw here on my own experience from the Learn with the Lords scheme.…
My Lords, I will speak very briefly against all the amendments in this group. I respectfully disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Howard of Rising, about our understanding of heated tobacco products. I am drawing here, as I have been throughout Committee, on the excellent briefings from Action on Smok…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
25 November 2025
Migration: Settlement Pathway
My Lords, the Statement says:
“Fairness is the most fundamental of British values”.
Is it fair that people who have uprooted their lives, moved their children here and made their lives here should suddenly find the rug pulled out from underneath their life plans? In responding to the noble Lords, …
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Plastic Recycling Targets
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville for securing this debate and for highlighting in her very powerful speech the incredibly detrimental effects of plastic in the environment. As …
I was going to give some examples of schemes for reusables, although I might have to write on the details of the metrics. A good example of a reusable plastic cups scheme already operating in a closed environment setting is the one launched in 2023 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, operated by Re-u…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Private Equity
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, and I also thank my noble friend Lord Monks for securing this debate. Private equity’s trail of destruction includes Debenhams, Homebase, LloydsPharmacy, Maplin, Poundworld, Silentnight, Toys R Us, The Body Shop, Southern Cross H…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 November 2025
Space Debris
That is a very interesting position to take, but whether we like it or not, we are in the digital age. We cannot go back to the analogue age. Because we are in the digital age, we rely on satellites, and it is very important that we ensure that it is safe up there.
Lords
Debate
17 November 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I rise with pleasure to join the three other proposers of Amendment 49. I apologise for not taking part at Second Reading. As my noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb said then, there are two specific issues that we will be dealing with, and this is one of them. The case for the amendment…
I thank the noble Lord for giving way. He speaks about so-called judicial overreach, but building on what the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, said, in a consultation in 2018, 75% of police said they did not want these extra powers and 85% said that they did not support the criminalisation of unauthor…
Lords
Committee Stage
17 November 2025
5 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I will speak against all the amendments in this group. They all, in various ways, could restrict or delay action by the Government—action that is urgently needed.
On vaping, I know that the Advertising Standards Authority has expressed concern about product placement on websites such as T…
My Lords, I was saying that, if noble Lords travel home on the Tube tonight, they will see at the side of pretty much every escalator at least one advert for nicotine pouches. Theoretically, these are stop smoking aids, but what does the advert say? It is along the lines of “Make your journey more p…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
Prisoner Releases in Error
The Minister referred to the importance of having experienced prison officers, yet prison officer unions point out that 2,600 prison staff face deportation because the Home Office has raised the salary threshold to £41,700. Is the Minister talking to the Home Office about this situation and seeking …
Lords
Oral Questions
13 November 2025
Covid-19 Pandemic: Commemoration
Ensuring that the UK is prepared for a future pandemic is absolutely a top priority for the Government. We are embedding lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, including the inquiry’s recommendations, within our pandemic preparedness. Like other noble Lords, we are hugely grateful to the noble and lear…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 November 2025
2 contributions
Barnett Formula: Wales
My Lords—
To repeat what I have said before, Wales and the other devolved authorities have done really well out of the Barnett formula this time around. It is the biggest increase in their funding from the Barnett formula since 1998. The money is there and it is up to the elected Assembly to decide how it is …
Lords
Committee Stage
11 November 2025
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I have attached my name to Amendment 81 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, from whom we have not yet heard—but that is the way the order works. I declare my position as a vice-president of the Local Government Association.
I am slightly torn because the noble Lord, Lord Lan…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 November 2025
Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) (England) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her positive introduction to this important SI. Plastic and microplastic pollution is a scourge of the modern age that did not exist when I was a child, and which must be tackled effectively if we are to save countless species. Unlike many previous SIs I have spoke…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I follow the noble Baroness, Lady Young, with pleasure and particularly agree with her point about judicial reviews. I have visited more local communities than I can count, where they have desperately been trying to bake cakes and to collect pence and pounds here and there, struggling to s…
My Lords, I will speak very briefly at this late hour, having attached my name to Amendments 247 and 248, so ably and clearly introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Crisp. I will make two brief points.
The first point is about the proposed duty to promote health improvement. The UK has a terrible state…
Lords
Committee Stage
3 November 2025
3 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 33 in my name, I will also speak to the related amendments in this group.
Amendment 33 has a very simple aim: to ban filters on cigarettes. I must start by saying that this is healthwashing. Filters on cigarettes have no health benefits. They were developed by the toba…
I thank the noble Baroness for giving way. By way of correction, in case I was not clear, 75% of smokers do not know that filters do not have any health benefits; the stat is the other way round.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
31 October 2025
Ukraine
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Barrow, on his maiden speech and look forward to many more of his speeches to come. I also congratulate and thank the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, for such a powerful opening, particularly in the light, perhaps, of some of the recent speeches in this debate.…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
30 October 2025
3 contributions
Control of Mercury (Enforcement) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for her very clear presentation. I take the opportunity to wish the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, a speedy recovery. If she is watching this debate today, she should know that we are all thinking of her. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, for the opportunity t…
I am grateful to the Minister. This is not a specific Northern Ireland point, but we heard a fairly powerful speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, who said that Germany has introduced an alternative that it is only marginally more expensive than mercury amalgam. My noble frie…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, my noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb attached her name to this amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh. It is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, who waited with such patience to present this terribly important group of amendments. It is disappointing tha…
My Lords, having also attached my name to this amendment, for reasons I shall get to in a second, let me say that it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Grender —and the noble Baroness, Lady Young, in particular, as she has been our champion in this space.
I am going to speak abo…
Lords
Proceedings
29 October 2025
Prisoner Release Checks
My Lords, I note that the Statement directly addresses strengthening prison release checks, but I put to the Minister that it is important to look at this in the broader context of the Home Office. I note that on Radio 4 this morning there was a list of schemes and programmes within the Home Office …
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Randall, and indeed everyone who has spoken in this group.
I will be very brief, starting with Amendment 246, to which, as the noble Baroness, Lady Freeman, said, I have attached my name. I heard some expressions of shock around me when the …
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I have attached my name to Amendment 115, so ably introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Willis, and addressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, who is of course our total champion on the land use framework. I share her desire to see progress in that area as soon as possible.…
My Lords, I shall speak solely to Amendment 117 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath, to which I have attached my name. The noble Lord has already introduced it eloquently and powerfully, but I want to add a bit of context and a little more information to what he said.
The context is …
+2 more contributions in this session