Lord Moylan — Hansard — Westminster Brief

Lords Debate 22 October 2025 6 contributions

My Lords, Amendment 47 relates to Clause 33. We debated this in Committee at some length, but the result of that debate was not in any sense satisfactory from my point of view. I wish to take this opportunity to express my thanks for the letter written to me by the Minister after the Committee debat…

I assure the noble Baroness that I have done so.

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Lords Oral Questions 21 October 2025

Great British Railways: Rolling Stock

The Government’s policy is to continue to use the private sector to supply rolling stock to the British railway market. That has been quite clear since the manifesto before the election and nothing has changed. I think it is likely that the cost of rolling stock will be better than it has been, simp…

Lords Committee Stage 15 October 2025

Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2025

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for attending the debate and for their input. I listened intently to the highly experienced noble Baroness, Lady Foster. She raised a valuable point about the minute parts that might cause a serious failure. I recall the example used, albeit not as a practitioner. T…

Lords Committee Stage 14 October 2025

National Policy Statement for Ports

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. It is fitting that, in calling the debate, the House has recognised the importance of the port sector in England and the UK as a whole. Our ports are essential to our trade and our economy, and it is important that they should hav…

Lords Debate 13 October 2025 5 contributions

Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [HL]

I was pleased to hear what the Minister had to say about my amendment. I thank all those who voted for it on Report, including my new Tory best friends, who were very kind to vote for it, and the Lib Dems. It was a novelty and wonderful, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, for arranging that. …

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his work on this Bill and for meeting me to discuss any concerns that may remain. We on these Benches are pleased to hear from the Government a commitment to a comprehensive review that will cover many of the issues that we discussed at earlier stages of this Bill …

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Lords Debate 19 September 2025

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

My Lords, sadness and sympathy are palpable in our inboxes and in this Chamber. Your Lordships’ House is a sobering scene. I begin with what is missing from the Bill—the letter “S”, the plural. As the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, has outlined, there is no mention of family or relatives. Its premise …

Lords Oral Questions 18 September 2025

Rail Fares

The noble Lord has some background in this, because he was deputy chair of Transport for London and, I think, the Deputy Mayor for Transport. He knows perfectly well that, when we rationalised the fare structure on the Tube, some fares did go up while others went down. We made sure that the fares th…

Lords Oral Questions 15 September 2025 2 contributions

IPP Sentences

This Government welcome and share the Howard League’s determination to support those serving the IPP sentence, but we cannot take any steps that would put the public at risk. For that reason, we remain firmly of the view that the Parole Board must determine that a prisoner serving the IPP sentence i…

The Deputy Prime Minister, my new boss, shares my determination to do all we can for those serving IPP sentences and their families while ensuring that we do not take any steps that put the public at risk. Having visited prisons for over 20 years and met many IPP prisoners, I completely agree that a…

Lords Committee Stage 10 September 2025

Hovercraft (Application of Enactments) (Amendment) Order 2025

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their consideration of this draft order. I am grateful for the scrutiny and interest shown in ensuring our maritime legislation remains coherent and fit for purpose. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, spoke eloquently about the varied use of hovercraft…

Lords Debate 5 September 2025

Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill

My Lords, I am delighted that this short but crucial Bill has come before your Lordships’ House, and I join all noble Lords in thanking the noble Baroness for bringing it forward. I am pleased to confirm that she has the full support of the Government. I thank all noble Lords for their comments in t…

Lords Debate 24 July 2025 26 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, we come to a series of amendments that relate to transport and the Department for Transport. If I may, I shall begin with a few preliminary remarks. The first is to apologise to noble Lords that I did not speak at Second Reading on the Bill—I was not able to. The second is to thank the Min…

My Lords, I start by congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, on the deftness with which he developed a debate on charging fees into one about charging his electric vehicle. It demonstrates the indulgence of your Lordships that he could get away with that for the whole length of a speech. Well do…

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Lords Oral Questions 17 July 2025

Train Operators’ Revenue Protection Practices Review

The noble Lord has a point of view, but I do not agree with it. Currently, the ORR is independent. In the future, the Government’s proposals will leave it independent. It will have a slightly different role in respect of access; it will be an appeal body. Fundamentally, somebody has to be in charge …

Lords Proceedings 14 July 2025

Road and Rail Projects

My Lords, in the light of that last vote on the Bill, I will have to be very careful about what I say to ensure that it does not offend staff. It must be tough being the Secretary of State for Transport, because every time the Government are in difficulty with their Back-Benchers she is sent out to…

Lords Committee Stage 14 July 2025 2 contributions

Transport Act 2000 (Air Traffic Services) (Prescribed Terms) Regulations 2025

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their consideration of these draft regulations. I will now attempt to respond to the specific points raised. I was pleased to hear the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, welcome these proposals. He referred to general aviation, as did the noble Lord, Lord …

I thank the noble Lord for his intervention. I will write further on what we can say about the projected timescales of conclusion. It is enough to note for now that this work is extraordinarily complex, particularly since we are seeking to address the airspace around London, which is one of the worl…

Lords Oral Questions 14 July 2025

Rail Freight

I have met the freight operators, both individually and collectively—indeed, I have met most of their shareholders—in the last six months. My current belief is that they have a very clear understanding of how the access and use policy will develop from the present policy. In the meantime, as I menti…

Lords Oral Questions 9 July 2025

European Union Entry/Exit System

The noble Lord raises an excellent point. In fact, the Government and I are very active in encouraging more freight through the tunnel—and, indeed, more railway freight generally. Of course, as the noble Lord will know from our discussions on the then public ownership Bill and subsequently, the Gove…

Lords Debate 4 July 2025 2 contributions

Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Woodley, on the tenacity he has shown in continuing the fight against the injustice of the IPP sentence. I hope the Minister will understand that the amendments in this group are intended to be helpful, in that they offer the Government a range of possib…

My Lords, I am conscious of the time. The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, has put her finger on a problem that the Government have not properly faced but which they will have to face soon: the commendable action plan they have been pursuing with vigour will not reach a large number of prisoners who have n…

Lords Proceedings 19 June 2025

HS2 Reset

My Lords, the history of the HS2 project is not a happy one. It was initially proposed in its current form by the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, and endorsed by Gordon Brown in the wake of the global financial crisis, then taken up enthusiastically by the coalition Government, in which all major decisions…

Lords Oral Questions 19 June 2025

Self-driving Vehicles: Disabled Passengers

I have no doubt that the noble Lord spends far longer reading the Daily Telegraph than I have time for. As it happens, I did not read that particular article, but I do know of the subject. Of course, we have to be concerned in all aspects of national security that things controlled by clever compute…

Lords Oral Questions 17 June 2025

E-scooters, E-bikes and Pedal Bikes: Legislation

Last time the noble Lord said that to me, I repeated the answer I gave him on 1 April, which is that “I do not … care to be lectured about drift by somebody who represents a party that did an experiment in 2021, published some results in 2022 and then did nothing ”.—[ Official Report , 1/4/25; col.…

Lords Oral Questions 10 June 2025

Driving Test Delays

Well, if the noble Lord adds the 287 who have been taken on board and started the training course to the future training pipeline of 178, I think he will see that it gives 465, which is extraordinarily close to the figure that I cited last time.

Lords Debate 6 June 2025 2 contributions

Complications from Abortions (Annual Report) Bill [HL]

My Lords, it might be helpful if I spoke next so I could update the House on various developments that have taken place since Second Reading. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, for her remarks about the importance of improving data and the importance of that data for women’s health.…

For clarification, is the Minister saying that the digitising and adapting of the abortion notification system that her department plans to carry out will be done in collaboration with the Office for Statistics Regulation? Or is the intention that the department does the work in its own box, so to s…

Lords Proceedings 5 June 2025

Regional Growth

My Lords, I am curious about the relationship between the timing of this announcement and the review of the Green Book. The figures announced today are practically the same as those promised by the Conservative Government a year ago. We are expecting from the Government a review of the Green Book wh…

Lords Oral Questions 2 June 2025

Channel Tunnel: International Rail Strategy

The noble Lord will know that those decisions, at least on open access, are currently made by the Office of Rail and Road. He also needs to note that the Government have not subsidised HS1, Eurostar or Getlink, unlike the national railway network, which receives billions of pounds in subsidy at the …

Lords Statutory Instrument 19 May 2025 6 contributions

Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

My Lords, I do not have any argument with the Government over their laudable environmental and other objectives in bringing forward these regulations, but I have a question that is really to do with the physics of the matter. We know that kinetic energy is a key, or perhaps the key, determinant in t…

My Lords, as the Minister points out, we have a large electric car market; as my noble friend Lord Moylan on the Front Bench points out, what we have is a market for large electric cars. I ask the Minister: why does that continue to be the case?

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