Lords
Committee Stage
23 March 2026
Train Driving Licences and Certificates (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their attention and for their comments about this instrument.
In response to the noble Baroness’s questions, I reassure her that I and my officials are working closely with all the people involved to ensure that we can capture the interests of young people and prom…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 175 and 384, in my name, and I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, for her support.
These amendments concern prognosis. We have discussed prognosis briefly in previous debates, but I wanted to raise this in the context of my own experience of…
My Lords, I am not saying—nor was anybody—that a positive attitude on its own is going to save somebody from cancer. Professor Gould also benefited from the fact that he had the best medical treatment, and he went on various experimental courses. That was not my point at all. But people with a posit…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to a couple of amendments that I have in this group. I start by responding to what the noble Lord, Lord Moore of Etchingham, has just said. I think that he misconceives his opponents—indeed, if I may say so, our opponents. They do not regard the offer of assisted suicide as…
There is, indeed, a spectrum, and the doctor should be able to speak. As I say, there have been 3,000 years of thought given to this. What has resulted from that is a firm conviction that, while some medications that do you good may also do harm—and the doctor has to make careful judgments about tha…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
9 March 2026
3 contributions
Goods Vehicles (Testing, Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I was just coming to the point of saying that—as the noble Lord, Lord Pack, pointed out—we are now seeing personal safety and road safety being sacrificed on the altar of net zero. It is undoubtedly the case that heavier vehicles have a greater impact when an accident takes place. I am not…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lords, Lord Pack and Lord Moylan, for their comments on this important area of work. Some of the points raised have come together from both noble Lords, if from slightly different angles, so perhaps they will forgive me if I cover them together.
One of the major themes c…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
5 March 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their thoughtful contributions to this important debate, which goes to the heart of both public safety and the need for flexibility within our transport system. The proposed introduction of national minimum standards has an important role to play in delivering c…
Lords
Debate
3 March 2026
2 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 125 and 134 in this group. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, for the support that she has indicated for them. On the speech just made by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, I am obviously distressed that she has been exposed needlessly t…
I hate to interrupt the noble Lord, but Clause 91 gives the Secretary of State powers to regulate the substances that may be included in a relevant product. I am not proposing that we change that at all. I am simply suggesting we change “flavour” to “flavour descriptor”, because flavour is inherentl…
Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak briefly to my Amendment 134, which is a probing amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Weir, drew our attention to Clause 4(4), which sets out what he referred to as the functions of the assisted dying commissioner. In fact, the text refers to the “principal functions”, and my ame…
Does my noble friend agree that, given the surreptitious but none the less firm support that the current Prime Minister has shown for this Bill, it is almost impossible to believe that he would not be personally involved in this appointment?
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
Cyclists: Safety
No. The reason for that is that a bus stop looks like a bus stop, as the noble Lord will know, and it is pretty hard to make it not look like a bus stop. The serious point at issue is that some detailed design features need to be carefully considered. I take what the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, says wi…
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, in approaching this amendment, I start with a very powerful series of BBC News reports that were broadcast before Christmas—other noble Lords may have seen them. The BBC accompanied trading standards officers—and, I believe, Customs and Excise—on raids of various high street premises in va…
My Lords, that is a disappointing response. I repeat that my amendment does not rest on any claim that this Bill is going to make a bad situation worse. I do not want to get into that argument. It is a bad situation already. We should be willing to acknowledge that perhaps it is worse than we realis…
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendments 3 and 12, which would have the effect that the regulations to be issued in relation to age verification should be made under the affirmative process, rather than the negative process as originally envisaged.
When I tabled these amendments in Committee, t…
My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords who have spoken in this short debate. Concerning the debate about enforcement, as somebody who in the past had political responsibility for trading standards in a local authority, which is the mechanism by which enforcement of underage tobacco sales is achieved…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
Smart Motorways
The noble Lord will be aware that we do not hold that level of detail on potholes, but what I can say is that this Government have made the biggest commitment of financial support to local authorities, so they can assess priority need and get on and repair the roads in their areas, which will contri…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
Electric Vehicles: Transition
The Government have the £4 billion DRIVE35 programme supporting investment in zero-emission vehicle manufacturing R&D and the supply chain in the UK. We are working across the whole system looking at where gigafactories are located and, most importantly, working closely with the sector. I point …
Lords
Debate
10 February 2026
12 contributions
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My Lords, I wish only to congratulate my noble friend Lord Grayling on his amendment and, further, on having persuaded the Government to table alternative amendments that have the same effect as his. We have no objection to those amendments.
My Lords, for the benefit of noble Lords who have not become totally enmired in the question of sustainable aviation fuel, it might be appropriate at this stage to spell out that there are, essentially, three sorts of aviation fuel. Of course, everything I say on this topic is, to some degree, a sim…
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Public Transport: Remote Communities
The noble Lord ought to know that, in respect of ferry transport to the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly, new ships and methods of transport are being procured and built in order both to provide up-to-date transport and to reduce carbon emissions on those services. We reject absolutely the conc…
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have four amendments in this group, three of which are closely related. They are Amendments 85, 894 and 896, the latter two of which are consequential on Amendment 85. I also have Amendment 100, but I will come back to that towards the end. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox o…
May I pursue a point the Minister made about my Amendment 85? My understanding of the Bill, as drafted, is that one has to have an inevitably progressive illness or disease, not that one has to have a six-month prognosis of one’s death. The two might be quite separate.
One might, as the noble Baron…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
2 contributions
Nationalised Passenger Rail Services
My Lords, public ownership is a vital step towards reforming our railways and rebuilding trust and pride. On average, publicly owned train operators perform better on punctuality and cancellations than those yet to come under public ownership. They are already delivering improvements, with lower can…
The discussion on the forthcoming Railways Bill will happen in this House in due course. Meanwhile, the Government are pursuing reliability very strongly. If a train company is left, by a combination of the previous Government and the previous operator, desperately short of drivers, with 83 of 90 ne…
Lords
Committee Stage
2 February 2026
15 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, like the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, I start by apologising for not having spoken at Second Reading.
I will speak to a number of amendments in this group standing in my name and, with the indulgence of the Committee, I will speak also to Amendment 112 in the name of my nobl…
My Lords, I shall speak briefly on Amendment 114A, which is genuinely probing. The effect of the amendment would be to ensure that parking enforcement and the charges associated with it remain with the lowest-tier authority, as they currently are, and are not subsumed into a combined county authorit…
+13 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
May I ask the noble Lord a question? This is not a trick question; I sincerely want to know his opinion from a legal point of view. The Bill refers—and he has said it refers—to a reasonable expectation of death within six months. Normally, and this was a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay…
Lords
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I too have a history in London local government, though nothing like as illustrious as that of my noble friend Lady O’Neill or the noble Lord, Lord Tope. I was a councillor for 28 years, in a borough that has been Conservative for 60 years. I am looking forward to it continuing to be Conse…
There is a certain sleight of hand going on. The noble Baroness referred to scrutiny arrangements and, of course, the London Assembly is largely a scrutiny body; that is what it spends most of its time doing. But when it comes to budget setting, it is a co-decision-maker. That is a crucial differenc…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will be brief; I want to make only one point. I am slightly surprised to be making it, because I expected others to make it during this now quite lengthy debate, although it was hinted at by my noble friend Lord Harper and the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley. It is to do with public …
I am very sorry to interrupt my noble friend, but even the sponsor of the Bill, the noble and learned Lord, has been very clear in saying that the six-month prognosis is a trigger that gives you admission to the process, if you like, but it does not have to be the reason, so it is not by definition …
Lords
Oral Questions
22 January 2026
Number Plates Intended to Defeat Enforcement Cameras
I refer the Lord to page 40 of the recently published Road Safety Strategy , where there is a lot of text headed by:
“Continuing to work closely with the police and other enforcement agencies to ensure the outcomes of the Roads Policing Review are fully considered”,
and underneath it is text that …
Lords
Oral Questions
21 January 2026
Motorway Speed Cameras
It is important to note that this is an issue because of the interaction of two systems. The technology used for camera enforcement is obviously checked and there is an audit process—I cannot describe it to the noble Lord in detail. The matter we are discussing about enforcement of variable speed li…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 January 2026
Great Western Railway: Infrastructure
Nobody said that there was too little money. A lot of money is being spent on railway infrastructure. The problem has been that the climate has changed faster than adaptation of the railway infrastructure. The noble Lord is quite wrong about ticket retailing. There are currently 14 websites from tra…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Railways: East Coast Main Line
We have had many robust debates through the passage of different legislation in this House and I look forward to continuing to do so. Yes, in answer to the first question, we very much do intend to be here to see through the development of the legislation. Of course, it is going through the other pl…