Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this huge group was always going be pivotal for us to discuss, and it is full of moral dilemmas. I am genuinely torn on many of the amendments; I do not know where I stand on some of them. I therefore appreciate the debates that we have had so far. It has been very worth while to hear the …
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I broadly agree with the excellent comments made by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, in moving this, as well as the noble Lord, Lord Strasburger. I was reminded, when the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, reminded us of the exemptions, that retrospectively, having been arrested or ha…
Lords
Debate
9 January 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have added my name to two amendments in this case.
I have my name on a number of amendments. I did not know that those rules applied—anyway, they do not.
I have added my name to a number of amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Haslemere, in this group.
In general, I am glad to support many of the amendments on palliative care in this gro…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 369 because I like the fact that it creates a duty on public authorities to respect, protect and facilitate the right to protest so that:
“A public authority may only interfere with the right to protest, including by placing restrictions upon its exercise…
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, briefly, because very good points have been made, I am tempted to say, yes, we need to increase penalties or threaten people with prison, because fare dodging does drive me mad, particularly on the Tube. It is partly the brazen, quite violent and intimidatory way that it happens for ordina…
Lords
Debate
6 January 2026
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, to start with, I would just like to point out that the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, is undoubtedly personally committed to resolving this issue. Nobody, I think, is making any party-political points and nobody is personally having a go at the Minister. But that is not sufficient for us to go …
Lords
Debate
6 January 2026
3 contributions
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I too will be brief because I have agreed with everything that has been said so far. It is important to acknowledge that a strategy and policy on violence against women and girls can only mean something if in practice it results in taking that issue seriously. I would expect everybody acro…
My Lords, it is no fault of the noble Lord, Lord Bach, who has just explained why his amendment should perhaps not be in this group, but I am not going to talk about what he has just said. I want to go back to the purpose of this group, which is to discuss the purpose of prison, and to make a couple…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
5 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower, has explained all my reservations about these clauses very articulately, so I will not repeat them. They add an unnecessary implication that the public are a threat to emergency workers. Why are religiously and racially aggravated offences being highli…
Nobody here is going against the principle that we should not racially or religiously insult, harass or be vile to people. We are talking about changing the criminal law and ensuring that the concerns of the Constitution Committee—not mine or those of the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, or anyone else—are…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I rise briefly to support the amendments in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean of Redditch. Both amendments have been spoken to very well and very strongly.
I want talk about one particular case, of a sex offender called Clive Bundy, who …
On a final clarification—possibly the Minister will write to us, because there is some confusion—I have always said that it is about managing risk and that it has nothing to do with gender. When I have raised this issue in the past, my concern has been that once gender is added into the mix, risk so…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, returning to the amendments that we are discussing, I want to commend the sponsors of the Bill in the sense that, when I read the Bill, multiples clauses referred to the applicant’s GP. There is an assumption, however, of an ongoing relationship with that GP. If there is not, we can come b…
I will just finish, because it relates to this. I appreciate that, once given a terminal diagnosis, that might be true, but not necessarily. That is the honest reality of the situation.
We have a moral dilemma here. GPs are being called on as though they are important to this Bill, but if they are …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
10 December 2025
Restriction of Jury Trials
My Lords, does the Minister not worry that, in waiting and hoping that their case might be brought to trial, the suffering of so many rape victims has been weaponised in an attack on the jury system, one of the fundamental aspects of our democracy and of a free society? Their pain is being used to a…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
Facial Recognition Technology: Safeguards
First, there is a consultation about the very issues the noble Baroness raises and oversight of the technology. Secondly, this is not about individuals who are not known to the police; it is about individuals who are on a watch-list who might be wanted, individuals who have already committed a crime…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 November 2025
West Midlands Police: Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans
I do not recognise the noble Baroness’s characterisation of any part of the United Kingdom as being “Jew-free”; that is a highly emotive way to describe it. However, I share the concerns of those who want to ensure that people of all religions—but, particularly in the current climate, Jewish people—…
Lords
Committee Stage
26 November 2025
5 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I am very much in favour of these three amendments. As we come to the end of Committee, it is important that we consider some of the unintended consequences of this Bill, particularly in relation to retailers. In relation to Amendment 188 from the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, and the noble Ear…
If the Committee will allow me, I want to come back on the point about retail organisations. I am more than happy to acknowledge that all sorts of organisations are not quite as independent as they seem. In fact, many health charities over the years feel more like Astroturfed organisations, because …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I, by contrast, speak as an atheist and humanist, mainly to address my Amendment 45, which would add the word “encouraged” after “coerced”. I support the general theme of the other amendments in this group, which largely tackle the need to strengthen safeguards against patients being indir…
Some clarification is needed in relation to a number of points that you have made. How does anybody know, how does the doctor know, whether any of these scenarios have happened? Is there anything in the Bill that makes the doctor ask and explore? The word I proposed was “encouragement”—that you woul…
Lords
Proceedings
18 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
No one was speculating until the Chancellor raised the subject of income tax. Does the noble Lord take the public for fools by thinking that there is nothing to see here, when we can all see that there is something to see here? Secondly, if any of the public are looking at these Questions, does the …
Lords
Committee Stage
17 November 2025
4 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I put my name to Amendment 161 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Udny-Lister, and I am interested in the themes in Amendment 173A, about which we have just heard from the noble Lord, Lord Howard of Rising, because I think that an assessment of and research into the impact of any kinds of…
I, too, am slightly confused by this. I was reading something the other day from the DCMS, boasting about the creative industries, and one of the big and most profitable parts of the creative industries in this country is advertising and marketing. It is considered to be something we are proud of. L…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
That is very well put and is exactly the question. Is it appropriate to bring the Mental Capacity Act into this Bill? I understand that whether you have an assisted death is an incredibly important decision. You cannot remove the word “capacity”, so you have to reject the amendment from the noble Ba…
Lords
Committee Stage
13 November 2025
3 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I shall speak in defence of flavours, especially regarding Amendments 144 and 146. Over the last five years, 21% of adult smokers have quit smoking. Nearly half of them used vapes as part of that successful quit journey. I am one of those people. I started with single-use vapes, but they g…
My Lords, I have put my name to Amendment 198. This vaping and nicotine industry forum is very important; I am also very sympathetic to exploring different kinds of self-regulation, as is suggested in Amendment 154.
It is interesting that the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, was forced to put down that the…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
12 November 2025
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I am co-chair of the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group, and I very broadly welcome this Bill as a logical and rational response to the serious problems of prison overcrowding and of years, even decades, of sentence inflation. I will focus my remarks on two areas, if I may: on concerns wit…
Lords
Committee Stage
11 November 2025
4 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I feel I might lower the tone, especially after the contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Johnson of Lainston. This is absolutely not my world; I am much more on the grubby vaping/smoking side of the fence, to be honest. However, the world of cigars and other tobacco products is also not …
Just to clarify, the aim of the Bill, as far as I understand it, is not to go through every single thing that any adult does in society and assess its harm. There may be some harm in smoking cigars, and there may well be some harm in, say, staying in this House until two in the morning voting. There…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendments 1 and 21 in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, which have just been moved so well. I agree with all the amendments in this group, although I am not quite sure and have reservations about Amendment 2 on lo…
My Lords, I have listened to the quite detailed discussion that we have had so far in our attempt at line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill in relation to respect orders. Weighing up the pros and rather more cons, I am very aware that what I am going to say might seem glib about anti-social behaviour. Pe…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
5 November 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I am particularly interested in the student visa amendments, which are both very helpful. There is now an informal assumption that there is a problem with some overseas students playing the system and potentially using their student visas as a mechanism for seeking asylum. The noble Barone…
I want to clarify, in case there was any confusion, that I have worked with and have great admiration for many Chinese students in this country. My contribution was not an attempt, in any way, at smearing them. That is not to say that there is not an abuse of the system in some instances. I was quer…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, it is entirely positive that we can say, “Let’s look at the wording of this”; we might have some qualms about whether we need to reword it to avoid unintended consequences—that is fine. The noble Lord, Lord Mackinlay, made a good point: this is a very important moral debate. It is one that…