Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I will speak in favour of the amendments tabled by my noble friend Lord Murray of Blidworth. I will concentrate on one narrow area—one of the practical aspects of this generational ban—which, as my noble friend Lord Clarke highlighted, is the inevitable difficulty of age verification in st…
Lords
Proceedings
4 February 2026
China and Japan
The noble Baroness said earlier that steel was at the forefront of the Prime Minister’s mind. We understand that the steel strategy, which is long awaited, is with No. 10 and the Prime Minister at the moment. Can she enlighten us a little more as to when we can expect to see that published? If she c…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 February 2026
Land Covenants: Supermarket Chains
Taking a broad perspective on the question, I came into government to support the pro-business agenda. What the Government are trying to enact is the ability to stabilise the economy based on fiscal rules, to create an investment environment that is investable from all parts of the market, and then,…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
2 contributions
Hospitality Businesses
My Lords, hospitality businesses are fundamental to the life of our communities. As such, we are introducing permanently lower business rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, and a £4.3 billion support package over three years to shield rate payers from bill increases followi…
Business rate reform has been on the agenda for the last number of Parliaments and this Government have taken it on. Since I came into government six months ago, I have been proud that our overall objectives have been about stability in our economy, bringing down inflation—it is on target for next y…
Lords
Proceedings
22 January 2026
3 contributions
Retail and Hospitality Sector
My Lords, it is my privilege to respond on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton of Dallington Forest, for securing this debate. I thank all noble Lords for their thoughtful, informed and passionate contributions on a subject of real importance to our…
Is the noble Lord referring to on employment rights or does he mean across everything?
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
17 December 2025
2 contributions
Fair Work Agency: Small and Micro Businesses
My Lords, this Government recognise the vital contribution that small and micro-businesses make to our economy. The Fair Work Agency will provide better support to the majority of businesses that want to do right by their staff to help them comply with the law. Assessing how best to support small bu…
The noble Lord is absolutely right to highlight this issue, and I welcome his continued engagement on it. The agency will provide straightforward, sector-specific guidance written with small and micro-businesses in mind. The requirements are not new—minimum wage, holiday pay and sick pay already app…
Lords
Debate
16 December 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, mentioned part of the letter written to the Business Secretary yesterday by six business groups including the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chambers of Commerce. What he did not mention is that the letter from those groups also said th…
My Lords, at Second Reading in March—nine months ago, although it feels longer ago—I said that
“the Bill will damage growth and, most importantly, the employment opportunities of the most vulnerable people ”.—[ Official Report , 27/3/25; col. 1907.]
After nine months of debate and scrutiny, it is …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
10 December 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I thank the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Collins, for meeting with me earlier today. It allowed us to sort out some misunderstandings, for which I am very grateful.
I will speak only to Motions B and B1. I somewhat regret that this is not the speech that I had originally intended to …
I am sorry. It cannot be withdrawn, because the noble Lord has made a speech. I must put the question.
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
24 November 2025
2 contributions
ExxonMobil: Mossmorran
My Lords, His Majesty’s Official Opposition’s thoughts are with the 450 workers at Exxon Mobil’s Fife plant, who now face losing their livelihoods. That plant had been a cornerstone of chemical production in the United Kingdom for 40 years. These are skilled people—proud people—and whole communities…
My Lords, if no one else has another question, I will ask a very quick one. The Minister referred to £250 billion-worth of inward investment and 450,000 jobs that will be created. I do not expect her to have this information to hand, but would she be willing to commit to write to noble Lords who hav…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Brain Tumours: Causes and Treatment
I take the point the noble Lord makes, and I am sorry to hear of his son’s—and of course his family’s—experience. One of the things we are working on is increasing public awareness of brain cancer research opportunities. That is not quite the same as the point the noble Lord made, but extending that…
Lords
Debate
17 November 2025
7 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, we have heard four very good speeches, and I do not intend to repeat them. I listened very carefully to the Minister and, unusually, I will read what he said in Hansard rather than just saying I will, because there was some interesting stuff there. I picked out the phrase, “We will not com…
My Lords, I apologise: I wanted to speak before the noble Lord, Lord Fox, spoke, but he went far too quickly and never looked in my direction.
The noble and learned Lord, Lord Phillips, a former Lord Chief Justice and the first President of the Supreme Court, asked a question: would you employ some…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
11 November 2025
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I will speak very briefly to my noble friend’s Amendment 114A. First, I apologise profusely for not being here in time to speak to my amendments in the last group. I feel doubly guilty about that because I am going to pick up on something the Minister said in answer to the fact I was not h…
Lords
Debate
28 October 2025
8 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I oppose Motion E1, which is unnecessary. Under the Employment Rights Bill, employers can still dismiss workers fairly—for example, as they can now if they are incompetent or there is misconduct or a redundancy situation. But without the day one protection proposed by the Government, when …
My Lords, on the Minister’s response, I positively welcome the Government’s commitment to this review of the right to be accompanied, and I thank the Government in this instance for listening to the concerns raised at Report and Committee stages. On Report, I put forward an amendment that would have…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Built Environment Sector
I think the noble Lord knows that that is an issue the Treasury will be dealing with in due course.
Lords
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025
My Lords, I am pleased to respond for the Government and I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Lloyd for initiating this debate. Based on the comments, it seems I am the only one who has not worked with her in a previous life, so I look forward to working alongside her in both the Department for Bus…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
2 contributions
Youth Unemployment
My Lords, too many young people are at risk of being left behind without the right skills, opportunities and support to thrive. This Government are committed to changing that, which is why the Chancellor has announced a job guarantee scheme for young people on universal credit who have been unemploy…
I am always pleased to hear the views of the Daily Telegraph on issues around young people’s employment. I hope that the Telegraph , as well as the noble Lords opposite, will get behind this Government’s efforts on the youth guarantee and on cutting the unacceptably large number of young people who …
Lords
Committee Stage
15 October 2025
Companies (Directors’ Report) (Payment Reporting) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am really conscious of what is happening in the Chamber, so I will try to be as comprehensive as possible and brief at the same time. I am really grateful to noble Lords across the Committee for their contribution. It is evident that we all agree that tackling late payments is crucial fo…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack
I thank the noble Lord for that point. As far as private enterprise is concerned, the Government will not interfere in what private business organisations do. However, government can produce the tools and the guidance so that companies can have a more robust and resilient approach to cyberattacks. F…
Lords
Proceedings
10 September 2025
Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack
My Lords, as the nature of the threat that we face is evolving and the lines between hostile actors are blurred, do the Government have any plans to centralise verification and procurement approval, so that the best available commercial solutions designed to be able to tackle, investigate, monitor a…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 September 2025
Labour Market
My Lords, if ever a Bill was set to be relitigated on a weekly basis, this House is the place to do it. The Government remain committed to our Employment Rights Bill. We believe that having appropriate rights for workers increases productivity and strengthens the labour market. On the broader point,…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
That issue will be discussed as part of these agreements; it is not specific to the discussions that we are having at the moment. I remind noble Lords that we see ourselves as a global trading partner: the fact that we already have deals with India and the US and are now developing them with the EU …
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
The noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, has reminded me of what I have been missing while I was in a hospital bed in agony. Can I remind him that the Companion says:
“Any remarks should be brief and should not … reopen debates at previous stages of the bill”?
My Lords, I will probably not find a lot of favour on this side with what I am about to say. I remind the House that I am the honorary president of BALPA, the pilots’ union, a union that does not go on strike and does not regard militant industrial action as an achievement. A dispute that leads to a…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, that was a fascinating debate. I am not a lawyer either, but I was very taken by the arguments made by the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Haslemere, which I thought were quite superb, by my noble and learned friend Lord Garnier and by my noble friend Lord Murray of Blidworth. I thought my nobl…
My Lords, there is really very little to say, but obviously I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf of Dulwich, for bringing forward this very thoughtful and necessary amendment. She is right that apprenticeships represent one of the most important pathways into skilled employment and a vital investme…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, on balance, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Goddard. I will speak to Amendments 148, 149A, 149ZA and 150 standing in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Hunt of Wirral. Before I do that, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Burns, for his common- sense amendment. We thin…
My Lords, time and again we hear about workplace democracy from the Government Benches, and then they introduce this. So yes, I would like to test the opinion of the House.
+1 more contribution in this session