Lords
Proceedings
10 September 2025
Defence Industrial Strategy
My Lords, the Minister suggests that campaigns to boycott and target defence firms, particularly on university campuses, are based on misunderstandings. Does he acknowledge that the campaigns occur in the context of British arms sales to dubious—and worse—regimes around the world? There is Israel, o…
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
8 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to several amendments in this group, Amendments 125, 126 and 181, all of which address the issues of overheating.
I shall constrain myself to commenting on the amendments in my name, but this is the direction of the overall travel of the group. I do not have any particular…
My Lords, this has been another rich and full debate, and I thank the Minister for his answers and everyone who has taken part in this debate. It will, I am sure, please the Whips to know that I am not going to run through the whole lot, but I want to pick out a couple of highlights.
The cri de coe…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
6 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baronesses, Lady Hodgson and Lady Parminter, and to offer support for Amendment 115, to which I attach my name, and for the general intention of Amendments 116 and 117. In the interests of time, I will restrict myself to Amendment 115.
I do not o…
I ask the noble Earl, and indeed the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, perhaps rhetorically, whether they are aware of the One Million Cisterns project in Brazil, which aimed to deliver what it said on the tin and indeed has done so and was expanded subsequently. This is in the semi-arid area of Brazil, ho…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
8 September 2025
3 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Noble Lords will note, being terribly observant, that I am not my noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb. Around about now, I hope, she is emerging from theatre, having had an operation on her foot. She will not be in the House for a few weeks, so I am afraid that I am picking up amendments from my …
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their kind wishes to my noble friend. I will certainly be passing all those on as soon as possible. I thank all noble Lords for contributing to this debate—including the Minister. However, I will point that in his closing comments he repeated several times, “Do …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
4 September 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 100, which is in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, and to which I and the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, have attached our names. In the interests of time, I will chiefly restrain myself to commenting on that, although I note the fortunate congruence of A…
My Lords, I rise briefly to offer the strongest possible Green group opposition to all these amendments. I do that to make sure that the breadth of opposition across your Lordships’ Committee is demonstrated. I hope that we are going to hear very strong opposition from the Government Front Bench too…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
2 September 2025
2 contributions
Borders and Asylum
My Lords, I am sure the Minister is aware of the detailed and carefully worked-out proposal put forward at the end of last month by the Refugee Council. Its plan could close asylum hotels by the end of next year by putting in place a one-off scheme to give permission to stay for a limited period, su…
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Kirkham, expressed concern about the level of first-tier decision-making in the Home Office. I agree with the noble Lord that there is reason for concern about that, but concern about ill-founded refusals of asylum applications—the evidence for which is in the high num…
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I offer my strongest possible support for Amendment 90 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Russell, to which I have attached my name, and some slightly qualified support for Amendment 177, which we have just heard about from the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale.
Coincidentally, and entirely wi…
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow all the noble Lords who have spoken in this group, and as has already been said, I attach my name to Amendment 87 in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, and to Amendment 93.
I will seek to add to, rather than repeat,…
Lords
Debate
24 July 2025
8 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, there are 100 million animals killed for meat in the UK every month, which is quite a statistic. There are 75,000 people who work in abattoirs and associated institutions. The amendment from the noble Lord, Lord, Lucas, raises an important issue. Whether this is the right way to address it…
My Lords, I briefly and with pleasure offer support for the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, who is the House’s acknowledged expert and champion in the area of whistleblowing. Reacting to some of the comments made, the noble Baroness said she would prefer to see an overarching system rather than operati…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
24 July 2025
Voting at 16
My Lords, more widely, a programme of work, including engagement with the Electoral Commission, local authorities, think tanks, academic and civil society organisations, is being done to identify the barriers to participation, along with potential interventions to tackle those barriers. This program…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, aware of the hour, I begin with a promise that I will not test the opinion of the House, although I am afraid that I cannot speak, of course, for the numbered amendments after this one.
Just to explain very briefly—it is fairly self-evident—my amendment calls for a new clause to review th…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response. The problem is that words such as “reasonable” and “assessed risk” refer to what may happen in well-regulated, well-controlled workplaces; in contrast, it is the most vulnerable workers who are the most vulnerable to that not happening. However, many …
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Financial Services Reform
My Lords, my question follows on from those of the noble Lords, Lord Davies of Brixton and Lord Sikka, both of whom spoke about financialisation. Earlier this year, the head of UNCTAD—UN Trade and Development —Dr Anastasia Nesvetailova wrote a piece on a path out of the “finance curse”. It offered s…
Lords
Debate
22 July 2025
3 contributions
Universal Credit Bill
My Lords, I declare my interests as president of the Local Government Association and a recipient of personal independence payment.
Like others, I have received many emails from people worried about the proposed changes and I am extremely concerned about how this narrative has played out in the med…
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for introducing the debate with such clarity. I also look forward with great anticipation to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson. I look forward in a slightly different sense—with great regret—to the valedictory spee…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, Amendment 127A in my name is a milder attempt to deal with the pressing issue of pay inequality and soaring executive pay in our society than the amendment I tabled in Committee, which was to provide for a 10:1 maximum pay ratio for enterprises. I hope this one has a slightly less inflatio…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his answer, although I have to express disappointment that none of the other Front Benches wanted to engage with the issue of high pay. The Minister very much acknowledged the issues around low pay and talked about robust monitoring and evaluation of high pay, but …
Lords
Proceedings
21 July 2025
State of Climate and Nature
My Lords, the Statement refers to the legal duty on the Government to halt species decline by 2030—except that is not happening. To take the example of birds, including the starlings, turtle doves and grey partridges the Statement refers to, overall, bird species have declined in the UK by 2% and in…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Official Development Assistance
I think those comments were made by the Minister for Public Health, Minister Dalton, at the International Development Committee last week. I would invite the noble Baroness to look at how we are focusing on function and not form. The decision from the Department of Health and Social Care, led by Chr…
Lords
Debate
17 July 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I offer my strong support for the entire presentation from the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, and her amendments. I cannot top her example of unknown mines underground, but the example that I was thinking of is on a much smaller scale, and it addresses the point raised by the noble Baroness…
My Lords, I will chiefly offer support to Amendment 46A from the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey.
In response to the challenge from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, who said that of course the Government would not do this, I am afraid that we hear that very often in your Lordships’ House. The noble Lord may …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Sudan
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, referred to the extreme levels of sexual violence happening in Sudan, particularly against women and girls. As a result of a lack of funding, the UNFPA—the sexual and reproductive health agency—has been forced to withdraw from more than half of the 93 health fac…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
Tackling Unsustainable Debt
That is exactly what our approach is designed to do. As I have said, multilateral action is the right way forward. The G20 common framework remains the best available tool for us to tackle debt vulnerabilities, bringing together traditional and newer creditors to co-ordinate on debt treatment, which…
Lords
Proceedings
16 July 2025
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
My Lords, I gave prior notice to the Minister that I want to ask a couple of questions about the Leng review into physician and anaesthetist associates which was published today, dealing with issues of high relevance to the concerns and the levels of dissatisfaction among resident doctors. Indeed, t…
Lords
Debate
16 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly to offer the strongest possible Green support for this amendment, and the support of many others who cannot be here today. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, has outlined the reasons for this amendment very clearly, and I am just going to make a couple of additional poi…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2025
2 contributions
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment, etc.) Regulations 2025
My Lords, we are very supportive of these measures and I very much welcome the Government bringing them forward as part of addressing an ever-growing problem. As the Minister rightly highlighted, e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, with the 50 million tonnes currently generated…
As the noble Baroness knows, most legislation is reviewed after five years, so three years is a fair time. It would become fairly obvious if the legislation were completely failing and not working. Presumably, any legislation that is not working needs to be reviewed and looked at in that context. I …
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will speak very briefly. It is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, who very powerfully made the case for Amendment 48. I am going to focus on Amendment 47. The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, has already made the case for that very powerfully, but I will a…