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 …
Lords
Oral Questions
23 July 2025
Jobs Market
Of course my noble friend is utterly right. [ Laughter . ] Noble Lords opposite laugh, but this is no joking matter. One year in, and we are still uncovering the damage they did to our economy. We are making progress, and we will continue to do so. I repeat: employment and real earnings are up, econ…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Weight Loss Medication
My noble friend is right that there is a lot of attention on the food industry, and that is why so many programmes are now being targeted against advertising to children, et cetera. We will continue to work to make sure that that industry takes due regard of the impact of its products, and to do eve…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Official Development Assistance
That is an incredibly important area to focus on. We have spent £60 million this year on the UNFPA and an additional £8 million on humanitarian family planning products because, as my noble friend says, this is such a vital issue. It can make such a difference to women and girls and to whole communi…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Taxes
I completely agree with my noble friend on that point. Every time we hear from the party opposite, it opposes every single measure we have taken to stabilise the public finances, yet at no point has it opposed the spending that that has gone to fund. That is exactly the mistake Liz Truss made in her…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Tax on Imports under £135
It is not quite 14 years, I think; these rules came in in 2021. The previous Government prioritised trade facilitation in the aftermath of Brexit and, since 2021, VAT on imports below £135 is collected at the point of sale to prevent congestion at the border. However, this has opened up some opportu…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
Tax Increases
My noble friend is absolutely right to point out the mess that we inherited and why so many difficult decisions had to be taken. He is right to point to the mess they left us in the welfare system; I think we had the highest proportion of people not working and were the only country in the G7 where …
Lords
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
Falkland Islands: Fisheries Exports Tariffs
My Lords, I live in Stoke-on-Trent, and I campaigned for remain in a 72% leave constituency. There are some elections I was definitely never destined to win. My noble friend will be aware that this Government are committed to making Brexit work. There is no point in looking back at this point; now w…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2025
Government Performance against Fiscal Rules
My Lords, will the Minister rule out following the example of the Truss Government, who crashed the economy? Has he received an apology for being left such a sad state of affairs in the economy that we have inherited?
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
ARIA: Scoping Our Planet Programme
I have not looked at that specific point, but I accept that that is indeed a possibility. The Freedom of Information Act has an enormous number of important roles, but it can be overwhelming. That is another reason why a very small organisation such as ARIA, which is focused on getting its work out …
Lords
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
Unpaid Tax
I do not think the honours system is for me to comment on. The noble Lord will be pleased to know that we are taking the action I have already described, and we also intend to take further action to close the tax gap. At the Spring Statement, we published consultations on a wide range of issues, inc…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
UK–EU Defence and Security Co-operation
My noble friend highlights the importance for us of developing a relationship with Europe. Where it is appropriate and where it is complementary to NATO, having a defence and security partnership with Europe, as outlined in the document, is in our interest, Europe’s interest and, ultimately, the int…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2025
Peers’ Entrance Security Door
My Lords, again I have to preface this with what the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, said. I am not directly responsible for all this. My understanding is that the cost originally was £6.1 million. There were changes because of planned patterns of work and technical issues. One of the particular problems…
Lords
Oral Questions
25 June 2025
Independent Schools: Tax Changes
My Lords, this Government worry about people in all schools. My noble friend is right that as a Government we have a job to put right some of the underinvestment of the last Conservative Government and to deliver our pledge to ensure that there are 6,500 new specialist teachers in secondary and spec…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Baby Foods: Nutrition and Marketing
I have answered the point before. Our focus is on improving the situation; however, we kid ourselves if we think that it will be solved just by forms of regulation. This is a much bigger issue: it is about changing culture. It is about making sure that we take young women—and dads—forward on this jo…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 June 2025
Business Rates Reform
That is a very interesting proposal from my noble friend. As I say, we will set out an interim report later this summer, setting out a clear direction of travel, and let us see whether those ideas are included.
Lords
Oral Questions
23 June 2025
2 contributions
Live Music Industry: Support
My Lords, I declare my interest as a governor of an independent school—and give way to the noble Lord.
I thank my noble friend for allowing me again to draw attention to the fact that the department has today published its Creative Industries Sector Plan . That identifies the music industry and other parts of the cultural sector as a high-growth subsector and sets out the actions from the Government …
Lords
Oral Questions
17 June 2025
Learning Disabilities Nursing
I agree. We have many excellent staff from countries around the globe who are very committed, professional and hard-working. I presume my noble friend is referring to changes in international recruitment. I can assure him that that is why, certainly in respect of care staff, there is a transition pe…