Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
London Boroughs: Financial Support
I hope my noble friend has been in the Chamber when I have spoken before about the £39 billion investment that our Government have made into social and affordable housing. We look forward to working with our partners in local authorities to deliver that housing. I hope that that, along with other ad…
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Water Companies: Private Ownership
My Lords, the Government are committed to protecting the most vulnerable households, and we expect water companies to put robust measures in place for households that are struggling to pay their bills. We are bringing forward secondary legislation to introduce new and increased compensation—double t…
The Government have indeed published our analysis of the cost of renationalising the water sector, which I believe is what my noble friend is getting at. Our analysis is that—on the basis of regulated capital value, which takes into account not just equity but debt—it would cost at least £100 billio…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
People with Disabilities: Employment
My Lords, if anyone is not paying the legal minimum then they are breaking the law, whatever the circumstances, and should absolutely be taken to task for that. However, my noble friend is making a broader point, which is that there are clear gaps in employment: for female employment, for the disabi…
Lords
Debate
21 October 2025
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I will say a few words about Amendment 60. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for her support.
My concern is about justice. People on the receiving end of DWP penalties and accusations of fraud will predominantly be old, sick, disabled and the poor. Most would not b…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 October 2025
GDP Per Capita
Clearly, we need to make sure that we retain top talent in this country, as the previous questioner asked me about, but we also need to make sure that we increase the living standards right across the income distribution, and particularly for working people. My noble friend will know that wages cont…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 October 2025
3 contributions
Companies (Directors’ Report) (Payment Reporting) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I was surprised to hear the noble Lord, Lord Sikka, describe this SI as looking persuasive, as nothing he said prior to that indicated that that was how he felt. I will pick him up on one point on auditors, having been responsible for the content of dozens of annual reports at a corporate …
The Minister has sat down.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Chinese Espionage: Parliament
My noble friend raises an interesting point, which has been discussed many times in your Lordships’ House, about the role of Chinese investment in our country. The reality is that we consider both that there is an element of security threat but also that we have the potential to compete, challenge a…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
Deforestation
Electricity generators—and that does include Drax—receive subsidies only for the electricity they generate from biomass which has demonstrated compliance with the Government’s sustainability criteria. We have strengthened the sustainability criteria for large-scale biomass generation by increasing t…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 September 2025
Economic Growth
My noble friend is absolutely correct to say that we need a different approach to the economy from the one we had over the past 14 years, and he will have seen how we are delivering on that. He will know that living standards are forecast to grow over four times faster than in the previous Parliamen…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
Plastic Pollution
At the moment, I am not aware of Defra having had such conversations. It may be that the Department for Transport has, so I will go back to my department, ask for more information on this subject and write to the noble Lord.
Lords
Oral Questions
8 September 2025
Labour Market
As I have said before, I can reassure the House that the Government are committed to their Employment Rights Bill and will make sure that the measures in it go ahead. There is a great deal of detail yet to be worked out. A lot of consultation is going on, but our job is clear: we want to make sure t…
Lords
Committee Stage
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Local Audit (Amendment of Definition of Smaller Authority) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I declare an interest as I have, in the past few days, stepped down as the vice-chairman of the local government resources panel, which has oversight of audit and accountancy within the Local Government Association. In that guise, I have been very well acquainted with the difficulties in l…
It is not usual to have an impact statement for an instrument such as this. There will be an impact statement for the Bill, of course, when it comes forward with the local audit office proposals. However, I can tell my noble friend that the assurance reviews to which smaller authorities are subject …
Lords
Oral Questions
2 September 2025
Gilt Yields
I am not sure I entirely follow my noble friend’s question. What I will say is that current global market volatility underlines the centrality of our fiscal rules. We have fiscal rules specifically to give markets confidence that we have a clear path to get borrowing down, and there should be no dou…
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Financial Services Reform
My Lords, history shows that infatuation with deregulation of the finance industry always ends up destabilising the economy. At the moment, shadow banks are bigger than retail banking and totally unregulated. Private equity is devouring care homes, water, veterinary services, town centres and compan…
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
My Lords, Ministers claim that public ownership of water would somehow cost £100 billion, which is a totally unsound claim. Let me explain. The £100 billion figure is generated by Ofwat, which calls it “recognised capital value”. It is calculated by taking the value of the company at the time of pri…
Lords
Debate
22 July 2025
Universal Credit Bill
My Lords, it is an absolute pleasure to follow my roommate and noble friend Lady Bryan of Partick as she makes her valedictory speech today and says farewell to the Chamber. As my roommate in Room 14 on the 2nd Floor, West Front, along with our mentor and boss, my noble friend Lady Gale, and my nobl…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
My noble friend raises an important point. I would stretch that out to talk about the care market’s sustainability. The whole system is in real difficulty, not least because of the funding taken away from local authorities over the past 14 years. Local authorities have had difficulties in sustaining…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Tax on Imports under £135
I am always grateful to my noble friend for his Budget representations. He knows that I am not going to get into speculation about the next Budget and that, in terms of what we have done so far to tackle the tax gap, the Government announced the most ambitious package ever to close it, raising £6.5 …
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
2 contributions
Companies House: Filing of Annual Accounts by Small Companies
My Lords, this Government are committed to implementing the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. The reforms in the Act aim to improve the accuracy of Companies House data, strengthening the UK’s reputation as a place where legitimate businesses can thrive while driving out dirty mone…
My Lords, the reforms under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 represent the largest changes to the UK’s financial framework for registering companies in over 180 years. With the help of new powers, Companies House has already prevented some 14,600 suspicious filings and queried …
Lords
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
Unpaid Tax
What is conducive is the most ambitious package ever to close the tax gap, raising £6.5 billion in additional tax revenue per year by 2029-30 and an additional £1 billion as a result of the measures in the Spring Statement. The spending review fully funded HMRC to deliver on those commitments.
Lords
Oral Questions
30 June 2025
School Libraries
In citizenship, RSHE, maths, economics and history classes throughout this country, children are learning about all the things that my noble friend just mentioned, so whether or not this guidance was issued in the way in which he said it has not impacted on the breadth of learning that children are …
Lords
Statutory Instrument
23 June 2025
Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
My Lords, we are a remarkably united House tonight. I too support the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle. I am not the first to say that the case for biomass is very weak. It is, in effect, a historical anomaly. As others have said, biomass emits more carbon than co…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 June 2025
Official Development Assistance: Vulnerable Children
My Lords, that would be straying slightly beyond my remit on development. However, I would point out that all of us ought to be deeply concerned about the lack of attendance at school, about mental health affecting too many of our young people and about too often their inability to access the world …
Lords
Oral Questions
17 June 2025
Cladding: High-rise Buildings
I hope my noble friend understands that this is still a live criminal investigation, so it would be remiss of me comment. However, let me reassure him: this will take time, as the Met Police has said. It is one of the largest and most legally complex investigations ever conducted by the Met Police, …