Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
My Lords, my question is about the accuracy of the Statement. I hope the Minister will be able to reassure me that it is accurate. I refer to the third page, under the headline “Major road network”, and the Government explaining
“why we extended the temporary cut in fuel duty at the last Budget”.
…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Advertising Restrictions on Less Healthy Food
As I said in my Answer, that was not in scope, so we cannot have an impact statement. That is the point we are trying to get over. Things are changing, and we know that there will be attempts to bring in other products, and so we have to be vigilant. That is why we are updating our nutrient profile …
Lords
Debate
10 July 2025
Product Regulation and Metrology Bill [HL]
My Lords, I will say a few words about Commons Amendment 2—I am grateful to the noble Lord for introducing all the amendments and referring to the purpose of that amendment. As he clarified, Commons Amendment 2 takes Clause 9 out of the list of those parts of the Bill which will in due course be sub…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Forest Risk Commodities
I absolutely agree that we need to take action on this. The Government are looking at the best way to do so in order to be most effective. The EU reset is also part of that because the EU’s deforestation programme that it is working on is ambitious and we need to look at how we align with that. Also…
Lords
Proceedings
4 July 2025
2 contributions
UK Constitution: Oversight and Responsibility (Report from the Constitution Committee)
Probably.
My Lords, I join others in paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Beith, for introducing this debate and for the work of the Constitution Committee in another excellent report. I will focus my remarks on chapter 4, paragraph 46, and the role of the Parliamentary Business and Legislation Committee—PB…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
3 July 2025
Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025
Forgive me, my Lords; I think I was nodding off.
No matter how passionately any of us may feel about the unfolding tragedy in the Middle East, we all remain bound by the law. Activists cannot expect to waltz into a high security Ministry of Defence base and escape without consequences. The Liberal …
Lords
Debate
3 July 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baronesses, Lady Boycott and Lady Parminter. The noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, just made an extremely powerful case for Amendment 202A, to which I attached my name. In the interests of time, I shall mostly focus on the two amendments that appear i…
Would the Minister care to address my point about the fact that we have great concern about pupils not in school, yet we are excluding them for this reason? It is reducing the amount of education that pupils are getting.
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2025
2 contributions
Welfare Reform
My Lords, in continuing the cuts to the health element of universal credit and denying it entirely to people under the age of 22, the Government are offering in recompense the fast-track £1 billion support plan to get people back into work. Yet in a BBC report on 27 June, a senior DWP official was q…
It was universal credit.
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
Plastic Pollution
We are trying to move forward on a global scale while bringing people with us. This treaty will have more impact if every country is signed up to it. Because of that, we were very disappointed that we were not able to conclude negotiations last time around. However, behind the scenes, a lot of work …
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
UK Modern Industrial Strategy
My Lords, in its introduction, the industrial strategy says that
“we live in a world dominated by the rise of superstar firms, whose success spills over to the wider economy”.
It seems that the Government are adopting a trickle-down theory of business, but is this not assuming a future that looks …
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
2 contributions
UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago
No it has not.
I thank the Minister for listening so carefully and attentively to this wide-ranging debate, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, for his report. Both reports are carefully written and carefully judged, even if many of us disagree with the conclusions the Government have reached; but they…
Lords
Debate
25 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, this is a Bill I strongly support, I want it to work, but I think it will be a waste of time. That sounds harsh, but it need not be. As I said in the King’s Speech debate last year, on 18 July, I have been involved in planning reform before as a Minister, more than once. My radical suggest…
Lords
Committee Stage
25 June 2025
3 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I rise extremely briefly and apologise to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, that I could not be in the previous group as I was in the Chamber. I will take seconds to intervene in the interesting debate between the noble Baroness and the noble Viscount to say that, of course, if you have a u…
My Lords, I will put this amendment in the context of the discussion on the previous group. The noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and the Minister have been telling us regularly that this is all about people who do not engage. As the noble Lord said, he has seen people with a stack of envelopes behind the ch…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
24 June 2025
4 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, my Amendment 320 sits in glorious lone splendour in this group. I am not responsible for degrouping it; that was the way it was arranged. Noble Lords will see that this is a proposed new clause to introduce a maximum pay ratio. I thank the Public Bill Office for assisting me with the draft…
My Lords, this has been a short but very clarifying debate on the political divisions in our society. I will be fairly brief in responding, but there are some points that I must pick up.
The response of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, really sounded like something from a debate out of the 20th century. …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2025
UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy
My Lords, there have been a number of references to NISTA, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. The Statement says:
“Based in the Treasury, NISTA brings oversight of infrastructure strategy and delivery together, and integrates assurance, design and delivery assessments…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2025
Middle East
My Lords, the noble Lord has spoken about short-term tactical victories versus long-term strategic outcomes. Iran is known to have had 400 kilograms of 60% purity enriched uranium. If it went to 90%, which is relatively easy, it could produce about 10 warheads. The International Atomic Energy Agency…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
23 June 2025
3 contributions
Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for speaking in the way she did. I am a member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which produced the report she referred to. I ought also to declare a former interest in that I was a director of a company that briefly, while I was a director, owned L…
My Lords, I am really concerned about the legislation in front of us, because it seeks to extend subsidies to highly profitable corporations, at least until 2031. Inevitably, the major beneficiary is Drax, which is the UK’s single largest emitter of CO 2 . In 2023, its electricity-generating operati…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
23 June 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, Amendments 191 and 192 are in my name and are closely related to that already introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for offering her support to my amendments.
Amendment 191 is essentially a different way of getting to the same intention …
Lords
Debate
19 June 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. I attached my name to Amendment 161 on automatic enrolment for the Healthy Start scheme, as indeed did the noble Lord, Bethell—so if we are looking for broad, cross-party-political spectrums, this is one of those.
The noble Bar…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2025
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
My Lords, in responding the right reverend Prelate, the Minister said victims need to find a place they can trust. Among the promises of action in the Statement is a promise of further action to support child victims. For many of these children and young people to be able to speak out, they will nee…
Lords
Committee Stage
18 June 2025
3 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly to support the amendments so powerfully, and with considerable detail, explained by the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley. I want to cross-reference a couple of things. I was unable to be here for the whole discussion on the last group in this Committee but I came in and h…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, who has clearly and eloquently outlined the reasons for this amendment, which the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, tabled, and to which I attached my name. The noble Lord talked about the risk of loss of trust in public aut…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler—whether I agree with her or not. I note the phrase that she used, “toxic mix”.
I think there has been broad agreement around the Chamber, including on the Government Benches, that we have a huge problem. The Minister said on one of…
The noble Lord has just essentially agreed with what I said, that some of these entities are financially unstable and uncertain. Would the noble Lord understand, at least, the argument that it is better to bring these back? These facilities are going to have to stay open: we need them. It is better …
Lords
Debate
17 June 2025
4 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Since we are forming a set for Amendment 117, I will stand up now, having attached my name to it, and will focus chiefly on that amendment.
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has stolen my starting line with her final line: nothing about us without us. I first used that phrase in a debate on rather…
My Lords, I have attached my name to Amendment 165, but as three noble Lords have already spoken to it, I will be brief. I declare my involvement with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households in Temporary Accommodation.
Here is one stat to feed into our debate. In the year to September 2024…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 June 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Caine. She made some terribly important points; they are literally about matters of life and death.
I have added my name to Amendment 259, alongside the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, and the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty. I apologise to …
Lords
Committee Stage
16 June 2025
4 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure briefly to follow the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, who made a typically powerful case. I echo his comments, particularly on the need for safeguards on the face of the Bill. We need only look across the Atlantic to see how badly things can go wrong and how important it is that th…
I thank the Minister for giving way. It is important that we identify something here. I mentioned that case study because there are, of course, many carers in this situation. As I understand it, the DWP is considering prosecuting carers where it regards the outstanding sum to be more than £5,000. In…
+2 more contributions in this session