Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Fair Funding Review
I agree with my noble friend that we need to make sure we realign funding with need and deprivation so that local authorities can deliver for their communities—as I said, the services that are needed and the economic growth that they need. The vast majority of councils with social care responsibilit…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
From the number of amendments here it is clear that this is about wrecking the Bill. It is not about improvements, it is about wrecking the Bill. I went through this with my late wife, who suffered a very long and painful death and wanted to have the opportunity of ending her life. If they wreck the…
Can we perhaps shoot just one fox? There was a suggestion that there are not enough non-Anglo-Saxon GPs available to do this. I have just looked at the facts: 46% of GPs were born outside the UK and 25% of them are from Asia.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
19 November 2025
Ukraine: UK-USA Discussions
We have many reasons to believe that, not least because that is what Putin himself has said. We also look at the behaviour of Russia in Georgia, Romania and Poland. There is plenty of evidence to support what my noble friend asserts.
Lords
Proceedings
18 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
My Lords, is the Minister surprised at the criticism that has come from the Opposition Benches about leaks when, in the past, leaks went as widely under any previous Government as under this Government? Is he surprised to hear criticism about the impact on the bond markets after we have had one of t…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 November 2025
Police: Records
My noble friend makes a very interesting point. I bear the scars of that one as well, in the sense that I answered for the Home Office in 2009 when the phone hacking scandal first erupted. Lessons have been learned. There have been many litigious court cases and a range of policy changes have been m…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
National Insurance: Partnerships
I am grateful to my noble friend for his question. I am not going to comment, as he knows, on individual tax measures, but I think we can be clear that the priorities for the forthcoming Budget will be protecting our NHS and public services from a return to austerity. It should be a Budget for growt…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
Office for National Statistics
The noble Lord raises a very important point, especially given the concern about some of the data. I reassure noble Lords that we have faith in the ONS and that the overwhelming majority of its data is sound. Having said that, we have established, with the ONS, the economic statistics steering group…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 November 2025
Prison Services: Insourcing
The noble Lord will be well aware that we have lots of maintenance issues in our prisons, 25% of which are Victorian. In HMP Preston, the first governor was appointed in 1790, and in 1791 at HMP Lewes. Dealing with the maintenance on those is very complex and often requires a hybrid model, because w…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
Public/Private Partnerships: Shares
My noble friend raises an interesting question. I am sure that is something the Treasury will look at in the next few weeks before the Budget and after.
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Youth Mobility Scheme
My Lords—
My noble friend raises a very important point. I campaigned for remain, though I lived in a leave area. I appreciate and fully respect the result of the referendum, and we need to make it work. That is not to say, however, that it came without a cost—paid by individuals, including our young people. …
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Built Environment Sector
This question is very pertinent. I am afraid that I cannot give him the full details on that right now, so, if I may, I promise to follow up in writing with him.
Lords
Oral Questions
27 October 2025
Western Sahara Conflict
My noble friend and I could have quite a long discussion about our support for the KRI and for Kurds more generally. I would be very happy to do that, although perhaps not during a Question on our agreement with Morocco.
Lords
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Erasmus+
Lords
Oral Questions
20 October 2025
GDP Per Capita
My noble friend is absolutely correct. The previous Government gave us austerity, taking demand out of the economy at exactly the wrong moment; a Brexit deal, which reduced GDP by 4%; and the Liz Truss mini-Budget, which crashed the economy. We will take no lessons from the party opposite when it co…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Telegraph Media Group: Ownership
My noble friend raises an interesting point. The ownership of our media is an interesting area. The tradition of having a broad church of opinions expressed through our media is important, and is one of the cornerstones of our democracy.
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Chinese Espionage: Parliament
My Lords, I never thought I would be discussing real estate and espionage, but we find ourselves in a strange set of circumstances. I thank my noble friend. As he is very well aware, the decision about the future location of the Chinese embassy is a matter for the Secretary of State for Housing, Com…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
School Fees: VAT
I am grateful to my noble friend for the points that he makes, and I agree very much with what he is saying. As he knows, we are increasing per-pupil funding to record amounts. It is absolutely correct that we have heard many scare stories about this policy—that schools would close. Since VAT was ap…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
Making Tax Digital
My noble friend makes an important point; the tax gap is a significant issue. Small businesses account for some 60% of that tax gap, much of which comes from unintended errors. One of the big advantages of Making Tax Digital is having more frequent reporting, and therefore there are far fewer errors…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
3 contributions
Plastic Pollution
Oh, not him!
Oh!
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
My Lords, as I say, we see huge advantages to our reset with our European partners. The fact is that UK agri-food trade with the EU has, since 2018 to 2024, fallen by 21% for exports and 7% for imports. It is important that we re-establish those relationships so that our own trade can benefit from t…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 September 2025
Gilt Yields
My noble friend is obviously right to draw attention to the previous Government’s disastrous economic policies. He knows that, as I have said, the Government do not comment on specific financial market moves, but he will also know that current conditions in gilt markets are completely different from…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023
The Civil Service animal welfare team in Defra is extremely committed and works incredibly hard. This is a very broad area, with many areas of animal welfare that we are working on at the same time. This is something that we want to deliver on. I know the team is working very hard with both industry…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Children: Dangers of Screen Time
This is precisely why advice is provided by the Government—for example, through the Chief Medical Officer; by ParentZone through videos that it has produced specifically to focus on screen time, with practical advice to parents on how to set boundaries; and the early years guidance that I was talkin…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 July 2025
“Hillsborough Law”
My Lords, I do not think that this Bill, which has not been published yet, will address that issue. However, I take the point that my noble friend makes. Really, he is raising a far wider concern and if there is anything more that I can say to him, I will write to him, but I think his question goes …