My Lords, as we have heard, declining birth rates carry profound economic and social consequences. The story of human origins in the Book of Genesis begins with a God-given mandate to populate the Earth, and supports the basic goodness of family life. The Christian tradition has consistently affirme…
My Lords, as the Church of England’s lead bishop for housing, I commend the measures in the gracious Speech that will improve different parts of our housing system.
The housing affordability crisis threatens to unravel the unwritten social contract: that if you get a decent education and then work …
My Lords, the Government are gravely concerned about the conflict in Lebanon and the humanitarian impact. We strongly condemn Hezbollah’s ongoing attacks against Israel. These must cease immediately. The forced displacement of 1 million Lebanese people as a result of Israeli operations is unacceptab…
We condemn Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. Hezbollah is a proscribed terrorist organisation and must immediately cease its rocket fire. Israel must not expand this war further into Lebanon, and we are deeply concerned by the scale of Israeli military action. We are providing humanitarian funding in L…
My Lords, some of your Lordships will know of my personal interest in this topic, having experienced at first hand something of the brutality of the Iranian regime. While I certainly would not lament the end of that regime, I share the concern of those who express it that this war is neither legal n…
My Lords, I declare my interests as per the register. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord German, and the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for their support as signatories and for their guidance, especially as this is the first amendment that I have sponsored to a piece of legislation. My thanks go al…
I am very grateful to the Minister for giving way. On the question of children, the Minister has just said the policy does not apply to children under 10. What is the logic for applying it to children over 10? I do not understand the distinction, and it would be helpful to.
A debate in this House will be a matter for my noble friend the Chief Whip. Members of your Lordships’ House may seek to encourage such a debate, which I would certainly welcome. I can say to the right reverend Prelate that the sequencing of 100,000 newborns through the Generation Study will be comp…
My Lords, I speak in support of Amendment 464 knowing that, had my right reverend friend the Bishop of Lincoln been in his place, he would very much have wanted to contribute to the debate. If passed, this amendment would introduce a duty on schools to record and report any incidents of racism or fa…
My Lords, sadly, my noble friend the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester is unable to be here to speak to Amendment 482 in her name.
This amendment, which I support and has already been touched on by a couple of noble Lords in our debate on the previous group, would compel the Secretary…
I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate for that question. I will certainly drop her a note after Question Time to give her detail on how we are examining the family reunion policy and the impact on children. I am afraid that in a 25-second answer I cannot sum up the detail that I would like to,…
My Lords, I am pleased to support the Private Member’s Bill of the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, on asylum support and her Amendments 1 and 2, which would enable the Government to extend the move-on period according to their plans and timetable. The Bill is extraordinarily well timed, with the move-o…
I am sorry, but I am really confused, because what the noble Lord has said conflates two issues: those who have not been given leave to remain and those who have and for whom therefore the extension period is in order to give them a little bit longer to sort themselves out. They have been given thei…