Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Offshore Oil and Gas: Venting and Flaring
I thank the noble Baroness for that question. The COP meeting is in Brazil next month. We are advising the Brazilian Government on how to control zero routine flaring going forward, and we are not just doing it there—we are also doing it with the central Asian republics and Finland. We have a good r…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I rise to follow two of your Lordships’ House’s leaders in the culture and heritage space and I find myself in a position I am quite often—modestly backing up the excellent work of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, and the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg.
The noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, has alrea…
Lords
Proceedings
27 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
My Lords, I am aware that the Minister is not responsible for the detail of this Statement. None the less, in the first substantive paragraph there is a statement that I suggest requires correction:
“Britain wants to fly”.
A report published in June from the New Economics Foundation states that in…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak chiefly to Amendment 121E in my name. It has not been addressed yet, but it is very much a package with two amendments that have already been widely addressed: Amendment 107 on playing fields, from the noble Lord, Lord Addington, and Amendment 88 on blue and green spaces, from…
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the two noble Baronesses who have just spoken, demonstrating the breadth of support for this set of amendments around the House. As the noble Baroness, Lady Willis, said, to paraphrase, this is a common-sense set of measures which are not big-P “political” at all…
My Lords, I apologise for gazumping the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham. For the record, I am always happy to take my name off amendments in a case where we can demonstrate political breadth, but I was very happy to sign Amendment 72 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Best.
I will give one examp…
Lords
Proceedings
22 October 2025
Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy
My Lords, on the reality of student debt, for the cohort that started to be liable for paying off debt in April 2025, the average debt was £53,000. In the government stats for students starting in 2024-25, it is expected that about 56% of full-time undergraduates will repay in full, which of course …
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, who is one of the House’s great champions of the arts and cultural life. Briefly, I will express the Green group’s support for Amendment 87D in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey. This would ensure that assets of community …
My Lords, briefly, I have a simple question about government Amendment 67, which would allow an extension of time to implement a planning permission or a listed building consent where there has been a legal challenge. This returns to the ecological surveys which got such a discussion in the group be…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, who so ably introduced Amendment 62 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott. I do not need to say very much, but I will just add a couple of extra perspectives. This amendment would ensure that there is training for members o…
Oh!
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
21 October 2025
2 contributions
Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Mutual Recognition Agreement) (Switzerland) Regulations 2025
My Lords, this statutory instrument gives legal effect to the mutual recognition agreement between the UK and Switzerland known as the Bern financial services agreement. As the Minister has so clearly outlined, the agreement enables the UK and Swiss financial firms to provide services to each other’…
Obviously, I will write with further detail but, as I said, the regulators will be held to account for what they do. This requires transparency—that is one of our stipulations—but I can write to the noble Baroness with further detail about that.
Lords
Debate
20 October 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly. It is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, as I did recently in the Moses Room on the same issue of whistleblowing. The noble Baroness is our pioneer, expert and leader on whistleblowing. I signed this amendment because it is important to demons…
My Lords, I will move Amendment 24 and briefly speak to Amendment 46 in this group. I will start with Amendment 46, tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Russell, and the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, because this is a very important amendment talking about the idea of local area energy plans. I signed the …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, having attached my name to the amendment so ably introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, I will speak very briefly to explain why this is something the Government need to address and respond to.
We know that the Government tend to operate in silos and look at one pro…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 October 2025
HIV: Testing and Medical Care
As I have mentioned, the plan—which is due to be published by the end of this year—will include a focus on HIV testing and will take account of the groups that are less likely to be tested, because that will be key to our success in eradicating new HIV transmissions by 2030.
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
2 contributions
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
My Lords—
My Lords, I do not want to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, in her discourse on the Ukraine war. My position is known on that. As for the rest of it, I have more sympathy with the spirit of the noble Baroness, Lady Stuart, than I have with that of the noble Lord, Lord Hannan.
I may have a c…
Lords
Proceedings
14 October 2025
Digital ID
My Lords, the noble Lord may have seen an article in Computer Weekly in June in which the headline talked about the eVisa system as being “error-prone” and “anxiety-inducing”. Among the cases in this extensive report was a doctor with indefinite leave to remain who had been here for 20 years but cou…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
West Papua: Deforestation
I thank the noble Baroness for her question. I have already commented on the UK’s stance on human rights in Papua, but I also recognise that, as she said, deforestation is not only associated with the climate. In fact, the biggest contributor to the growth of deforestation in recent times has been w…
Lords
Debate
18 September 2025
5 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to take part in this rich and terribly important debate, having attached my name to Amendments 469 and 470, which are also signed by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. They have broad cross-party support, and we…
The noble Lord, Lord Russell. There we are—promotions are good. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Russell, even though he pre-empted one of my lines: imagine having on the front of every Bill a statement that says, “This complies with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child”—what …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I shall speak chiefly to the amendments in the Green group’s name in this diverse but very important group. I will briefly mention Amendment 345, already powerfully and poetically spoken to.
In the discussion, we heard so many sad stories of the trees we have lost. As a Save Sheffield Tre…
Given that my noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb signed this amendment, I just briefly reinforce what the noble Baronesses have already said. The noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, made the point about laws being passed and then nothing happening. That is a problem both for industry—in thi…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
Deforestation
No, it is not an impact of either of those issues. We need to get this right, so we are looking at the best regulatory approach to address deforestation, including in the supply chains that the noble Baroness referred to. We also need to look at the compatibility and interoperability of the forest r…
Lords
Debate
17 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 290 in my name, which was tabled as Amendment 119 in the other place by my honourable friend Ellie Chowns. I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Russell, that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, has clearly identified where this group has taken us, and we have heard powerfu…
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
5 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, first, I want to reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, that the World Health Organization has a clear definition of well-being:
“Well-being is a positive state experienced by individuals in society … Well-being encompasses quality of life and the ability of people and societies to contri…
In responding to the noble Baroness, I can speak as a former school governor, and I have my own opinions of Ofsted. I want to put it on record that the Green Party wishes to abolish Ofsted, so that is where I am coming from.
It is important that we speak in support of Amendment 502YG about allergie…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I give the Green group’s strongest possible support for all the amendments in this group. I am pleased to say that my noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb is recovering well from her operation last week.
If there is one amendment that my noble friend will regret not being here for, it i…
My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, said, my noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb signed Amendment 219. It would introduce a new clause so that where there is permission for a development of 100 homes or more and it is not used, it is use it or lose it, and within the applicable period …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, as I speak towards the end of the day, the range of the arguments has been thoroughly rehearsed. I want to focus on an uncomfortable truth that most of us do not want to admit, even to ourselves: the issue of human nature and the evil that is in every human heart. I pay tribute to the nobl…
Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
8 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, who has long been the House’s champion in these areas and provides us with great leadership. I was pleased to attach my name to Amendment 145, also supported by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester and the n…
My Lords, I will concentrate chiefly on Amendment 150 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, to which I have attached my name, but I shall briefly comment on Amendment 148, very comprehensively introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter. Indeed, we have majored on chalk streams and I…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 447 and 447ZB, which appear in my name. I must begin by apologising to the Committee and the Minister for failing to introduce my amendments in the group before the break. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, for picking up the slack. My only explanation is …
I am taking some encouragement from the Minister’s remarks. I wrote down and underlined that the Government have no immediate plans. That is interesting, because it is a statement of a possibility for the future. We all know how hard it is to get parliamentary time to get Bills through Parliament—th…