Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Arts Education
My Lords, applications open in the autumn for the next round of the Arts Council’s national portfolio investment programme. I particularly welcome that it will be a five-year window, which was one of the recommendations from the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Hodge. There were many other importa…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Media Green Paper
My Lords, there is much to be commended in the Green Paper, not least adding on-demand rights to the listed events regime which we have been discussing in the Sporting Events Bill. As the Government recognise, some of the questions in there are thorny ones which will need careful consideration, not …
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Clergy Conduct Measure
My Lords, I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester for introducing the Measure and to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, for setting out the work that the committee that she chairs and that Members, from your Lordships’ House and another place, have done a…
Lords
Debate
22 June 2026
2 contributions
Sporting Events Bill [HL]
My Lords, it is a pleasure to open this first group of amendments in our debates in Committee on the Bill, not least because I was unable to speak at Second Reading. I was physically present but mentally less so, as I had just arrived back on a red-eye flight from the United States—in part, visiting…
I am grateful to the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Addington, for their comments. As the noble Lord said, there is an element of risk here, but, as we know, this is a proven risk. In 2012, 2022 and earlier this year, we saw the deliberate targeting of major sporting events by trade unions to exe…
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2026
EU-UK Creative Sector Cultural Exchange Arrangements
My Lords, we all want to see better cultural exchange, not just with the 27 members of the EU but with 200 countries around the world. Issues of visas, cabotage and carnets are not restricted to the European Union. What work are the Government doing on the broader international stage to make it easi…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
National Museums and Galleries
Absolutely: we will be looking at all those things. Indeed, when I spoke to the national museums directly, these were some of the issues that came up.
Lords
Oral Questions
20 April 2026
Charity Giving
The noble Lord will be entirely aware of the difficult decisions this Government had to make on winning the election in 2024. My noble friend Lord Livermore is not here, but I think he would probably refer that back to the Benches opposite. If the noble Lord has not read the report—it is a really in…
Lords
Debate
24 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, like others, I commend the Government for their Amendment 2. We had a good debate about this in Committee, with significant support from across your Lordships’ House for the Government to expand the list of strategic competences in this way. As I hope the Minister can hear, we are very gla…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 March 2026
Media Literacy (Communications and Digital Committee Report)
My Lords, in view of the limited time that we have, I shall try to speak as quickly as I can to allow the committee’s chair to sum up. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed such thoughtful and compelling insights this afternoon. I thank my noble friend Lady Keeley for securing this t…
Lords
Debate
11 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I fear I am a wholly inadequate substitute for my noble friend Lord Attlee, who has now retired from your Lordships’ House after 35 years of dedicated service. During that time, he raised many important issues relating to haulage, including in Committee on this Bill. While my noble friend …
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Addington and Lord Pannick, the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, in her absence, as well as to my noble friend Lord Cameron of Lochiel, for their support on the amendment. I am grateful to the Minister for his reply, for the engagement that we had in rec…
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, as I explained in Committee, I support the aims that the Government are seeking to achieve through Clause 137, which creates a new offence of climbing on memorials. Although there is a long history of statues forming part of peaceful protest and standing in dialogue between past and presen…
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for that response and I thank him again for the time that he and his officials gave me last week to discuss this in detail. I am grateful too to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my no…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
Class Inequality in the Arts
One of the issues with private schools is that, in principle, they have not been open to everyone. Ending the tax breaks on VAT and business rates for private schools was a tough but necessary decision that will secure additional funding to help deliver the commitments by this Government relating to…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for the way he introduced these amendments. As he said, this is a government manifesto commitment, and it was evident in the pride with which he moved this amendment. However, I agree with concern raised by the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, and others—that it is re…
I cannot—not as a lawyer; I cannot refer to case law on this—but I would not rely on past example alone. If we are passing laws that seek to apply equality, we should seek to apply it on the basis of somebody’s disability status, whether they are disabled or not. It is not implausible—though I accep…
Lords
Committee Stage
11 February 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friends Lord Black of Brentwood and Lady Stowell of Beeston, as well as the noble Lord, Lord Storey, for their support on this amendment. My noble friend Lady Stowell will unfortunately be unable to speak as she is in a meeting of another committee of your Lordshi…
My Lords, I am grateful to all those who have spoken in this debate. My noble friend Lord Black mentioned the disproportionate impact that this will have on older residents. Of course, age is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, and I wonder whether the Government have carried out a pu…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 February 2026
2 contributions
Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Prescription of Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Regulations 2026
I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord, but a Division has been called. We look forward to hearing from him again in about 10 minutes.
My Lords, I am not quite sure, as the procedure is rather arcane, but I think I manage to get a very quick wind-up. The positive thing today is that we have heard so much about our music ecosystem, and people have been celebrating that. The noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, was absolutely right when he ta…
Lords
Debate
28 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
I have added my name in support of Amendments 127 and 129 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, and outlined so eloquently by her just now. I also signed her amendments on a similar topic during earlier stages of the Bill, and I commend her for pursuing this important topic throughout its pas…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support all the amendments in this group and I am glad that my noble friends Lady Barran and Lady Morgan of Cotes have signed them on behalf of these Benches. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, and, of course, to all the bereaved parents and family members who are campaign…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 January 2026
Uniformed youth groups: Promoting Skills and Resilience in Young People
I have committed to my noble friend to take the point about transitional funding back to the department. However, as the noble Lord will be aware, the uniformed youth fund was announced in the immediate aftermath of Covid and was intended to allow the groups to set up additional units. It was only e…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 January 2026
Grass-roots Music Venues
I am not in a position to promise who specifically will attend the meeting, but I will absolutely take that representation back to the department to see if it is possible. I agree with the noble Lord on the importance of music venues; as he says, they are the R&D incubator for the rest of the se…
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Bill
My Lords, I contributed to earlier Holocaust Memorial Bill debates, and I shall speak briefly in this one. I was moved to do so mainly by the remarks of my noble friend Lord Wolfson, who made the excellent point that the amendment talks about
“The main purpose of any Learning Centre”,
which dilute…
Lords
Committee Stage
20 January 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I am very supportive of Amendments 6 and 10. I would have added my name to them, but the slots were already gone on Amendment 6. I am agnostic about the difference in wording between Amendments 6 and 10. Like the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, I am keen to use this opportunity to discuss the …
I said Bristol.
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to this rather lovely debate. I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, cannot remember who won—probably very diplomatically. I thank particularly the noble Lord, Lord Brennan of Canton, for championing this important measure through bo…
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 370B, I shall speak to my further Amendment 370C. I must admit that I felt a little bit indulgent when I asked for them to be taken separately—but, as the noble Lord, Lord Katz, said, the previous group was rather a large one, which took us four and a quarter hours from…
I do not think that the group will take long, if the Minister is happy to respond.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 January 2026
Heritage Craft and Building Sector
The noble Lord is aware that the current scheme is funded until the end of March, when the budget is reached. We are very clear as a department that huge value is placed on listed places of worship by local communities and by their congregations. We extended the scheme in recognition of the importan…
Lords
Proceedings
8 January 2026
2 contributions
Broadcasting: Recent Developments
Dreadful film.
My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, for securing this debate on UK broadcasting. Given the limited time that we have, I will commit to writing to noble Lords on points that I cannot cover in my concluding notes—I have a lot of bits of paper in front of me, so noble Lords must p…