Lords
Oral Questions
17 December 2025
Employment Gap for Blind and Sight-impaired People
My Lords, I cannot speak to exactly what happened at the time that was abolished. What I can say is that this Government are absolutely committed to supporting people. I talk to brilliant, inspiring disability advocates in my organisation—advisers who have customers who come in and start out thinkin…
Lords
Proceedings
16 December 2025
NHS: Winter Preparedness
My Lords, many parents shielding their children who have had serious illnesses are having to pay up to £90 each for a Covid jab. Many of those families do not have those resources, so their children are put at risk. Will the Minister look at that?
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Asylum Accommodation
I say to my noble friend what I said to the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering: this Labour Government have invested more money in servicepeople’s housing than any Government previously over the last few years. We have done that to upgrade housing that was left to go to wrack and ruin by the…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Free School Meals
I agree with my noble friend. This Government, in providing the additional commitment to children and the additional investment to expand free school meals, have recognised that, wherever it comes from, in-house provisions can often have a range of benefits for the school. More children will be able…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 December 2025
Social Media: Scam Adverts and Fraudulent Content
It is important that we get these things right—I say that to my noble friend in the spirit of camaraderie—and sometimes there are issues that take a while to work through. If he is referring to the question of Ofcom and advertising that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, raised, there is a wish for…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
Mobile Phone and Broadband Prices
There are very important roles for our regulators. There are also very important governance systems in place that govern how regulators work and how they are accountable to Parliament. I do not think there is any case at present to take the action my noble friend suggests.
Lords
Oral Questions
25 November 2025
Schools: Funding
No, the Opposition have not apologised, and nor would I necessarily expect them to. That will not stop me continuing, as I think my noble friend has invited me, to identify the facts of the situation as opposed to the rhetoric from the noble Baroness opposite. I am sure that noble Lords will be inte…
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…