Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 135 to 143, all in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Hunt of Wirral. When this power first appeared in the Bill, the Minister in the other place, Mr Justin Madders, admitted that the Government had not even decided whether they were intending to use it.…
I am grateful to the Minister for setting out the context in a bit more detail, but I am afraid I am not entirely persuaded. I would like to test the opinion of the House.
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Goddard. I agree with pretty much all that he said. I thank my noble friend Lady Barran for her amendments. I thank my noble friend Lord Agnew for his interesting and timely perspective, and I salute the teaching assistant whom he mentioned.
…
My Lords, Amendment 125 in my name speaks to a fundamental principle that we should run through every piece of employment legislation that we consider, and that it is the right of the individual to determine their own path.
Too much of the Bill rests on an implicit and rather patronising assumption…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Post Office Horizon Inquiry: Volume 1
My Lords, I will respond to the Government’s Statement and the accompanying Green Paper, Future of Post Office . This marks the first comprehensive review of the network in over 15 years—one that, I must say at the outset, raises as many questions as it seeks to answer. We on these Benches recognise…
Lords
Debate
16 July 2025
10 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, the Government’s intention to protect workers is commendable. We all agree that fairness, dignity and security at work are essential pillars of a just society. However, the approach taken in this Bill, particularly the changes to unfair dismissal rights and the introduction of a statutory …
My Lords, I am enormously grateful to the Minister for her response. It was remiss of me earlier not to thank the noble Lord, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, and my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe for signing various amendments. I am grateful to the noble Lord for his comprehensive and powerful speech, and …
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Lords who have contributed to this debate, and in particular the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, for introducing it. We must, of course, recognise that violence and harassment in the workplace are unacceptable in any form. It is also important to acknowledge that …
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
6 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, it is a genuine pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Wolfson, who speaks with genuine authority and deep experience on this important subject.
Amendments 2, 3, 4 and 5 stand in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Hunt. I shall start with Amendment 2, about which we have just heard…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 24 and 25 standing in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Hunt of Wirral. As we highlighted in Committee, the Government appear to hold an implicit bias in favour of the trade unions, as though they are the only legitimate bodies capable of making rational d…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Companies House: Filing of Annual Accounts by Small Companies
The noble Lord is absolutely right. It is important that people must be able to rely on the data that is on file with Companies House, whether they are doing business with a particular company or to determine whether the company’s financial statements are accurate. Most companies file their accounts…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
2 contributions
UK Modern Industrial Strategy
My Lords, I genuinely admire the intent of the industrial strategy. The sectors that it highlights are sensible. I like the aspiration to focus on all regions and to nurture clusters. All that is very good, but it is a list of aspirations; it is not a strategy. A strategy is a plan of action designe…
Wait until the Employment Rights Bill passes—then you will get a table.
Lords
Debate
24 June 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, with whom I agree pretty much entirely.
This has been a much more fascinating debate than I was anticipating, and that says a lot more about me than it does about the debate. I was particularly struck by the comments from the noble L…
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 325, 326A and 329B, and briefly allude to Amendments 330BA and 330E, tabled by my noble friend Lord Leigh of Hurley.
The Government have stated that this Bill represents the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. Given the tremendous importance t…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
24 June 2025
4 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, in some ways, we are continuing a theme with Amendment 313 in my name. The Government have talked about supporting those on the fringes of the labour market; this is a goal that I hope we all share. We know that different individuals face different work challenges, whether due to education…
I thank the Minister for his answer. I am also grateful to my noble friends Lord Jackson, Lady Lawlor and Lady Cash for their supportive comments and to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, who raised some very interesting points.
I gently suggest to the noble Lord, Lord Leong, that we are not just talkin…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
18 June 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, that was a most interesting exchange, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, and my noble friend Lord Jackson for it. As I have said many times, I am not a lawyer, but as a broader observation, there seems to be a slight philosophical discussion developing this evening between i…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 279ZZB and 305 to 309, which are in my name.
Turning first to Amendment 279ZZB, we firmly support the principle that workers must receive their full entitlement to holiday pay and that those rights must be enforceable. However, we believe that achieving that goa…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
18 June 2025
6 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 271ZB I will speak also to Amendments 271ZBA, 271ZD and 273LA in my name. Amendment 271ZB ensures that the powers being granted to enforcement officers under this part of the Bill are used proportionately and only in response to the most serious breaches of labour marke…
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Haslemere, for his intervention, because I was about to raise a similar point. It has been a long time since, as a policeman, I applied for a warrant, but we did not routinely notify the intended recipient of our visit that we were about…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 June 2025
6 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
I will speak to Amendments 263ZA, 263ZB, 263B, 263C and 271ZA in my name. I will also briefly refer to Amendments 268 and 271 tabled by my noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond who sends apologies that he cannot be here this evening.
Amendments 263ZA and 263ZB go to the heart of what it means to enf…
I am very grateful to the Minister for her extensive answer and to my noble friends Lady Noakes and Lady Coffey, the noble Lords, Lord Carter of Haslemere, Lord Londesborough and Lord Stoneham, for their contributions to this short but very interesting debate.
As we come to the end of our discussio…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 June 2025
10 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, the amendments in this group seek to address gaps in our current legislation by establishing clear exemptions from detriment protections when workers engage in unacceptable conduct during industrial disputes, while creating a comprehensive framework that restores balance to industrial rela…
I am very grateful to the Minister for his very comprehensive answer, and also to the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, for her comments. I will have to read Hansard very carefully, because there is quite a lot of detail in the Minister’s answer, but I will say that for months we have listened to Ministe…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 June 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I rise to express my deep concern about the inclusion of the clause repealing Section 116B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, and to urge that it be removed in its entirety from the Bill. The clause does not merely tidy up legislation or modernise outdated pr…
I thank the Minister for her explanation, although I am not particularly persuaded.
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 June 2025
7 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, this amendment would introduce necessary and proportionate safeguards to ensure that patient safety, clinical operations and infection control were not compromised by well-intentioned but potentially disruptive physical access to hospital environments by trade union representatives. Hospit…
We have been making progress.
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 June 2025
Corporate Liquidations
Apologies; it is 0.7% growth. I thank the noble Lord for that. At the end of the day, what is really important is that we have to support businesses, and the Government are supporting businesses. Capital gains tax is still the lowest in Europe. In the G7, only the US and Japan are lower than us. Fra…
Lords
Debate
5 June 2025
9 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond, the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for their amendments in this group and for their thoughtful introductions and contributions to what is clearly a vital and timely discussion around the…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, and my noble friend Lady Barran for their contributions to this debate. I commend the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, for getting rich people and yachts into a debate on the School Support Staff Negotiating Body. That is no me…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
4 June 2025
2 contributions
Denial of Banking Services: UK Defence Sector
My Lords, the Government have been clear that there is nothing contradictory between ESG considerations and defence. No company should ever be denied access to financial services solely on the basis that they work in the defence sector. The Government are working closely with the defence sector and …
I am grateful to the noble Lord for his Question, and I am happy to say that to all three of his supplementary questions the answer is yes. I agree with a lot of what he says. Access to finance is a significant issue for defence SMEs, and as a result it will be one of the key considerations for the …
Lords
Debate
3 June 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I appreciate the intent behind Amendment 143. After all, we are all familiar with the high-profile cases, such as P&O Ferries, to which the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, referred in his introduction.
I cannot pretend that I was au fait with the case details that the noble Lord explained, bu…
My Lords, I thank both noble Lords for their contributions, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, for her introduction to her Amendment 143B. We think it is important to recognise the unique position of higher education providers when considering worker protection in public se…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 June 2025
6 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Holmes for tabling this amendment and the noble Viscount, Lord Colville, with his perspective from the creative industries, for introducing it so well.
This amendment highlights an important issue: ensuring that work experience opportunities do not become a me…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond for his amendments in this group, and my noble friend Lord Hunt of Wirral for introducing them on his behalf. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, for his contribution.
There is no doubt that those with disabilities, incl…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
3 June 2025
Gulf States: Trade and Human Rights
I confirm that we hold our standards around human rights, and value our press, incredibly dearly and we would not do anything in a free trade agreement that takes away or dilutes any of those assets that we hold dear within the UK.
Lords
Debate
21 May 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I join the general congratulations offered to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, on her very comprehensive introduction of these amendments; she deployed some incredibly powerful examples.
We are all in agreement that violence and harassment, particularly sexual harassment and ge…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Young of Acton for his expert introduction to the amendments in this group. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Monks, about common sense, but I fear that went out of the window of an employment tribunal some years ago. As my noble friend Lord Young laid out in a…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
19 May 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I agree that this has been an extremely interesting debate. I thank all noble Baronesses—they are mostly Baronesses, with some noble Lords—for their contributions. In particular, the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, deserves singling out for her very thought-provoking introduction to this grou…
I am sorry to intervene on the noble Baroness once more. Does that mean she intends to talk to interested Peers before Report?
Lords
Debate
19 May 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friends Lord Young of Acton and Lady Noakes very much for their expert, valuable and important introductions to and insights into this group. I also thank my noble friends Lady Meyer, Lady Lawlor, Lady Cash, Lord Strathcarron, Lord Ashcombe and Lord Murray for their practi…