Lords
Proceedings
18 December 2025
Puberty Suppressants Trial
My Lords, I understand the concern about illicit provision on the dark web, which is a very serious matter and difficult to manage. None the less, I must ask what provision is being made to meet potential claims for damages from young people like Keira Bell in the future who sustain permanent damage…
Lords
Debate
16 December 2025
Victims and Courts Bill
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her clear introduction to the Bill this afternoon. The Liberal Democrats broadly welcome the principles behind the Victims and Courts Bill: strengthening support for victims, strengthening the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner and improving the court system. The …
Lords
Proceedings
11 December 2025
Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry
My Lords, the core group in this will, of course, be the survivors. The inquiry will be there to ask what happened and what we can do to prevent it happening in future. Yet I read in the press today that the survivors group is to be wound down very shortly, this month or next month. What representat…
Lords
Debate
26 November 2025
3 contributions
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly to these amendments, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hamwee and Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb.
Amendment 15, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, seeks to insert an explicit reference to Section 77 of the Sentencing Act 2020 to make it plain that courts may mit…
My Lords, His Majesty’s Opposition have made no secret of our profound reservations about the sweeping presumption in favour of suspended sentences. We fear that it risks sending entirely the wrong signal about the seriousness of offending and will undermine public confidence and place additional st…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will not be long. I speak to Amendment 726, which, as those of you who get that far in the list of amendments will see from the explanatory statement, is one of a number of amendments that I have been prompted to put down by the Law Society. They are intended to make the Bill safer in op…
Lords
Debate
19 November 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, we on these Benches believe that this group contains sensible and prudent amendments. They require us to review the effectiveness of the Government’s measures and to consider carefully the potential implications of the new regulations around the sale of knives. They also seek to ensure tha…
I thank my noble friend Lord Blencathra for his series of interesting amendments regarding knife crime. As we have already heard, my noble friend comes to this debate with the experience of some time in the Home Office—a real experience at the sharp end. Although the rates of knife crime have fallen…
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I wish to respond briefly to two points. I have every admiration for the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and I definitely concur that we have a responsibility in this House. I also gently remind this House that there were a number of Members of the other place who said, both in writing to their constit…
I was picking up on the word necessary. What the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, is suggesting is that we remove the word “capacity”. I do not know if I misunderstood the noble Lord, but that is what I thought he was saying.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
Prisoner Releases in Error
My Lord, we heard that, in the seven months April to October this year, there have been 91 mistaken releases, which is 13 a month. How many of those 91 had been convicted of sexual or domestic abuse offences and whose victims would have been unaware that they were now loose?
Lords
Debate
12 November 2025
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I had hoped that a more favourable reception might have been accorded to the Bill by the Conservative Front Bench, given the respect that many of us have for David Gauke and the work he did on the independent review, and the respect we have for the Minister, with his practical experience i…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
2 contributions
Financial Provision on Divorce
My Lords, I begin by joining all other noble Lords in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for securing this debate. The noble Baroness has, as other noble Lords have said, been unceasing in championing reform in this area, and I was very grateful to her for meeting me before the debate so that …
I am afraid I am going to have to disappoint the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, because our assessment is that looking at these matters piecemeal will run the risk of creating new disputes and injustices. In the end, it is about making sure principally that children are protected when the relationships…
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed to this thoughtful debate on Clause 4 and associated amendments. The discussion has reflected the balance that must be struck between proportionate enforcement and ensuring that penalties remain effective and fair. As anti-social behavi…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
Accidental Prison Releases
The process is a mixture of paperwork and computers and digital. In an offender management unit, there are literally boxes and boxes of paperwork, all over desks and on the floor, that follow offenders around the various prisons that they go to.
My and the team’s solution is very much digitally bas…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
Trials: Timeliness
I thank the noble Lord for that question. It is an interesting point. For example, the delays are much worse in central London than they are in Wales. There can be all kinds of reasons for that. I have already said that a trial, as the noble Lord knows, is a complicated factor. There are difficultie…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 November 2025
Equality and Human Rights Commission: Draft Updated Code of Practice
As part of the parliamentary process for implementing the new code, the previous code will be revoked, but I understand that the EHRC has asked the Government to revoke the previous code at this point. We are considering the benefits and risks of doing that.
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
3 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I begin by making plain our opposition to the amendments in this group. In Committee, we spent much time rehashing the arguments over the Illegal Migration Act 2023. We have made our position abundantly plain. It is obvious that there exists a gulf in opinion regarding that Act between man…
My Lords, efforts to tackle modern slavery are indeed a noble and important cause—we all agree on that—but, as my noble friend Lord Harper said in Committee, there is a balance to be struck.
My noble friend Lady Maclean of Redditch has made many of the points I would have made, and I will not repea…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
24 October 2025
Licensing Hours Extensions Bill
Oh dear—the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, has presented me with a with a rhetorical challenge to which I shall not attempt to rise.
I thank my noble friend Lord Watson for sponsoring this Bill and congratulate him on a wonderfully eloquent speech. I also thank my honourable friend the Member for Wrex…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
I welcome the Minister to her role. She introduced this large Bill with admirable clarity.
The need to address the mandatory reporting of abuse of children is urgent, but the Bill should go wider than sexual abuse, because the criminal exploitation of children is associated with all types of abuse.…
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, this group is certainly a tale of two halves. We on these Benches are unable to support the first two amendments. The United Kingdom’s problems with the current migration crisis stem not necessarily from the refugee convention itself. Rather, the problems lie with the metaphorical scaffold…
My Lords, the amendments in this group raise a serious and important issue. As we have heard, tens of thousands of decisions of real importance to both the individuals and the wider public go unreported every year. We on this side are most grateful to my noble friend Lord Murray of Blidworth for bri…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will also speak to Amendment 467. These amendments have the support of the noble Baronesses, Lady Morris of Yardley and Lady Cash, who are not here at this late hour. I also support Amendment 502YE, to which I put my name, in the name of my noble friend Lady Barran.
Both my amendments a…
I thank the Minister for her reply. By introducing the statutory guidance in this form, the Government have recognised the points which needed to be made and the health and protection for which I have argued. I made it plain, I hope, that I think that the current guidance is excellent. It really doe…
Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 227G, which stands in my name. This amendment would insert a new clause after Clause 106 that would require the Secretary of State, within one month of the Bill being passed, to publish a report on whether the exercise of compulsory purchase powers by local author…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
IPP Sentences
I thank the noble Lord for his question and for coming along on Thursday. The Parole Board is the best body to decide who is safe to be released, because public protection is our priority. If we went with the Howard League’s suggestion, it would mean people being released without their risk being as…
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I shall speak against the Bill and in support of my noble friend Lord Forsyth’s amendment, as amended by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew. I speak as a former World Health Organization ambassador for Africa and the Middle East, and as chair of the AMAR International Charitable Found…
Lords
Committee Stage
9 September 2025
Interpreting Services in the Courts (Public Services Committee Report)
My Lords, I start by thanking all noble Lords for the warmth of the welcome I have received this afternoon. Today is literally my second day in the job and therefore I hope that I will be able to do justice to the wide-ranging points that have been made in this extremely important debate.
I am grat…
Lords
Committee Stage
8 September 2025
Sentencing Act 2020 (Amendment of Schedule 21) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful for the contributions to this debate. I hope that noble and noble and learned Lords will appreciate that, due to some personnel changes in the department over the last couple of days, I may not be as familiar with or as expert on this as my noble friend Lord Ponsonby, who wou…