Lords
Debate
24 October 2025
Secure 16 to 19 Academies Bill
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for the positive and constructive debate on this important subject, and I congratulate my noble friend Lord Bach on bringing forward the Bill. I have been particularly struck by the emphasis of all those who spoke, including the noble Earl, on the fact that these are ch…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Fracture Liaison Services
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Black, on securing this important debate and thank all noble Lords for their significant contributions. I pay tribute to his personal background; it has brought such depth and strength of feeling to the subject, and I am sure many noble Lords have simila…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Music and Dance Schools: Affordable Access
My Lords, I start with an enormous thank you to the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, for bringing forward this important debate. The number of people taking part demonstrates the strength of feeling in this House and, clearly, beyond. I thank all noble Lords who have spoken, who have considerable experie…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Alzheimer’s Disease
I think the valid points that the noble Earl raises refer to a whole range of health conditions. I refer particularly to our health service’s struggle to support those with complex needs. Clearly, prevention of ill health—one of the pillars of the 10-year plan—is going to be crucial, and that will i…
Lords
Debate
18 September 2025
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, and other noble Lords who proposed the amendments in this group. This is a very technical area, and we have heard much expert opinion from my noble friend Lord Banner, the noble Lord, Lord Carter, the noble Baroness, Lady Longfield, the noble and le…
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for raising the critically important issue of sport and physical education in schools, which I personally feel particularly strongly about. If schools were to follow the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and perform physical exercise in the morning before c…
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, His Majesty’s loyal Opposition believe that we do, of course, need to pay careful attention to the barriers that prevent children from low-income backgrounds, young carers and others from attaining higher grades and better results in school. Ensuring that every child has a fair and equal c…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
2 contributions
Merck Research Site
My Lords, the decision by Merck, or MSD, not to progress its investment, with 126 jobs lost—I express my sympathy to those individuals—is part of a broader effort by MSD to optimise its resources. It announced in July that it would cut $3 billion per year by 2027 and that 6,000 jobs would go worldwi…
The decrease in funding for the life sciences sector, in terms of NHS purchasing of medicines, started in 2015 and has continued since. It has not been a good position. We are reversing that now with the Life Sciences Sector Plan to make sure there is proper investment. Some £2 billion is going in a…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
UK and EU Trade: Arts and Creative Industries
I appreciate that this is a question for me from His Majesty’s Opposition, but these are things that presumably came up as part of the impact assessment when we withdrew from the EU.
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will speak only briefly to these amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth. The misconduct regime covered in these clauses is clearly very important for the protection of schoolchildren and maintaining the highest standards both in the classroom and outside, in public …
Lords
Oral Questions
10 September 2025
Gaza Protests: Anti-terrorism Legislation
I am grateful for the noble Earl’s support. We will do that and have done that, but there are several cases pending on which we are not able to comment. Therefore, I hope the public will accept and understand the reasons why that assessment has been made, but he is absolutely right in his comments .
Lords
Committee Stage
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Warm Home Discount (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this important debate on an important issue for their contributions and for the broad support that the Committee has expressed for this statutory instrument. I shall cover the questions as best I can. First, the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, ta…
I am sure that the noble Earl and his colleagues are aware that we have made a very strong commitment to nuclear energy and are pushing forward on that in a way that previous Governments have not done. It is really important that we are investing in nuclear energy with that commitment. The departmen…
Lords
Debate
2 September 2025
4 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to this group of amendments on the children not in school register, which seek to probe issues surrounding privacy. The children not in school consultation aimed to collate thoughts and views around local authority registers of children not attending school to ensure that all…
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Lucas has raised concerns about parental and child involvement at both a national and local level. It is of course important that local authorities consult with home-educating parents. But His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition are of the view that the establishment of a “pare…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Financial Services Reform
My Lords, the Minister mentioned how interest rates have been cut, and other noble Lords on the Government Benches have mentioned the same thing. Does he agree that the Bank of England dictates monetary policy, not the Government, and that the reason why the Bank of England has been cutting interest…
Lords
Proceedings
16 July 2025
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
My Lords, the Secretary of State said that resident doctors
“should start to experience an improvement in their working conditions on everything from the availability of nutritious food and drink ”—[ Official Report , Commons, 10/7/25; col. 1150.]
to other items. I would be interested to know: how…
Lords
Committee Stage
14 July 2025
Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 3) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank noble Lords again for a good debate, with some incisive observations made by noble Lords opposite. This Government are steadfastly committed to deploying renewables in order to achieve our ambition for clean power by 2030 and to protect bill payers both now and in future. The instr…
Lords
Committee Stage
14 July 2025
Nuclear Installations (Compensation for Nuclear Damage) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful for the valuable contributions and the insightful questions. As I said, this is a technical issue, so it is only right that it be looked at technically and in detail.
I say to the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, that a formal public consultation was not undertaken for this draft…
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2025
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
My Lords, following on from the question of the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, on screens, new research shows that gaming addiction and smartphone overuse is, frighteningly, starting much earlier than previously thought—in fact, in primary schools rather than in teenage years. Does the Minister agree …
Lords
Committee Stage
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Sheep Carcase (Classification and Price Reporting) (England) Regulations 2025
My Lords, these schemes, long established in the aforementioned beef and pork sectors, have provided transparency, accountability and consistency across the market. It is only right that the sheep sector now be afforded the same standards.
The proposed regulations, based on the existing Carcase Cla…
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their valuable contributions to today’s debate and their strong support for these regulations; it is much appreciated. These regulations are important, so it is very good that we can bring them in smoothly.
The key issue raised in the debate is that of small abatto…
Lords
Committee Stage
7 July 2025
Combined Authorities (Adult Education Functions) (Amendment) Order 2025
My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, for his comments and his overall support of the direction of travel. I will pick up a couple of the points that he raised, in particular his comments about the reduction in adult skills funding allocations. I have to say that our analysis is that we …
Lords
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
Artificial Intelligence: News Media
The noble Earl clearly raises some important points. We genuinely want to get this right and for AI to work for everyone. All our work so far has been on protecting existing rights. In that context, I am happy to write to the noble Earl on that question.
Lords
Debate
4 July 2025
Mortgage Prisoners Inquiry Bill [HL]
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, for his continued commitment to this important issue, and all noble Lords who have contributed their perspectives to the debate. As discussed at Second Reading, the origins and treatment of mortgage prisoners have been subject to close consideration by…
Lords
Committee Stage
1 July 2025
Protection and Disclosure of Personal Information (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, and the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, for their contributions. I will respond to some of the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Bourne, and I need to declare an interest: I was the publisher of his major textbook, Bourne on Comp…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
UK Modern Industrial Strategy
My Lords, if this Government are pro-business, as the Statement says, why has £143 billion-worth of initial public offerings gone to New York? Why are Revolut, Unilever ice cream and many others jumping ship?
Lords
Oral Questions
30 June 2025
Arts Sector
DCMS is not suggesting that there should be one source of funding and that the arts’ only source of funding should be public funding—a mixed economy is really important. DCMS in particular is committed to championing philanthropy, which has a rich tradition in our country. It is key across the DCMS …
Lords
Debate
25 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I declare an interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Earl, Lord Effingham—I almost agreed with some of the things he said. It was quite charming.
For a passionate Green like me, who spent the first 18 years of her life living …