Lords
Oral Questions
11 December 2025
Wheelchair and Community Equipment Strategy
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, on securing this important debate. I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, on her excellent maiden speech. From these Benches, we look forward to her many future contributions.
I too am a member of the All-Party Group fo…
Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Black of Brentwood on introducing his proposed new clause and on running through the sordid details, which we did not want to hear and do not want to think about, but had to hear if we are to have better legislation, which I believe his proposed new clau…
Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I think we all welcome the concept of Clause 82, because it provides a significant step forward towards justice for survivors of child sexual abuse. By removing the limitation period, the provision acknowledges the unique barriers facing victims in coming forward after many years of abuse.…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I had intended to give my strong support to Amendments 3, 45 to 49, 52 and 58—a mere eight amendments out of the 21 in this massive group—but in the interests of time I will dump my notes on all those and speak merely to Amendment 58 in the name of my friend, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Litter on Canal Towpaths
My Lords, I am pleased to respond to this Question for Short Debate. I am grateful to all who spoke, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Evans of Rainow, and I join the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, in paying tribute to his tenacity in pursuing this subject. As the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, noted…
I am happy to join him in that sort of terminology or to call it environmental vandalism, which is a phrase I certainly used when responding to the noble Lord in that debate in the Chamber.
We are modernising the code of practice on litter and refuse in England, and refreshing best practice guidanc…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Plastic Recycling Targets
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to address this important question on the progress that His Majesty’s Government have made towards achieving our plastic recycling targets. I am also grateful to all those who have contributed to the debate, particularly the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell o…
I am grateful to the noble Lord for that; he has pre-empted my vote of thanks to the negotiating teams. I am glad about, and welcome, his recognition of our intent, the quality of the people involved and the thought we put into the negotiation process.
The noble Baroness, Lady Miller, touched on th…
Lords
Debate
19 November 2025
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, as well as moving my Amendment 216A, I shall speak to my Amendments 216B and 216C. These are three large proposed new clauses, and I assure the Committee that I will not be speaking to any other groups of amendments tonight.
Why have I tabled these when there are already laws on shoplifti…
I did not think my amendment was creating considerable extra powers of arrest for the security guards, but it seems that the current power largely mirrors a lot of things that I put in this amendment. My question then is, why are so many shops scared to use it? I appreciate that the retail unit or o…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
19 November 2025
8 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, once again, I find myself in the rather scary position of seeing some considerable merit in the suggestion of a Lib Dem Peer, the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. I will also comment on the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, who also advocated for controls on knives.
There is merit in…
Before the Minister replies, I will briefly respond to the very kind remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington. To continue the love-in, I say that he was not only an excellent commissioner but a superb chief constable. He was a hands-on bobby as chief constable.
One night, he deci…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 November 2025
17 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I apologise for the delay; the lift was delayed, so I just made it.
In moving my Amendment 40, I will also address Amendment 42. Amendment 40 suggests omitting subsection (7), on the forfeiture of vehicles, from the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The first question is: what does subse…
My Lords, I am grateful for the Minister’s response and to all those who have spoken in this short but interesting debate. I start with the problem: fly-tipping does not sound as bad as the crime actually is. Many people say, “Oh, fly-tipping, that is just dumping a mattress or a fridge in the count…
+15 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Coffey’s amendments. I will raise two issues, one on the principle of how we are dealing with devolution. I also want to bring to the Committee what I hope is some valuable experience from my time in the House of Commons about the detail of how these services…
My Lords, I profoundly disagree with the argument just made by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra. He suggested that using “ability” rather than “capacity” would end misunderstanding. I cannot agree that that is true because you would be creating an undefined and novel test and substituting that for on…
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
6 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Amendment 26 relates to Clause 5. Clause 5 is very short and is titled “Closure of premises by registered social housing provider”. It says that Schedule 2 amends various parts of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014
“so as to enable registered social housing providers t…
My Lords, I am grateful for that clarification. I am quite happy with all the standards and powers, and I disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Clement Jones; I know there are robust standards. The only thing I was interested in was whether the word “premises” includes individual flats in a housing blo…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
5 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 3 and 10. Superficially, Amendment 3 may look radical, in seeking to reduce the age from 18 to 14. The noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, certainly might not like it, but, if we want to tackle the lack of respect or anti-social behaviour of those aged 18-plus, …
The noble Baroness says that child homicides are very rare, but they have doubled in the past 12 years. All the statistics that I quoted were from the Youth Justice Board and the Office for National Statistics, showing a huge increase in knife crime. Then there are the police forces themselves; ther…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
4 November 2025
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I think we all agree that what a Labour Government did 60 years ago in displacing the Chagossians was disgraceful and that there has been a tangled web of deception ever since under Governments of all parties. The Chagossians have been treated with shameful contempt and disdain. This treat…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support the amendments in the name of my noble friend Lady Rock, supported by my noble friend Lady Coffey and the noble Baroness, Lady Grender.
These are very important amendments, not just because the contents are wise and right, but also because of the detailed knowledge my noble frie…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Control of Mercury (Enforcement) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
Will the Minister give way?
I thank the Minister for the offer of a letter about the gold mining issues. All these are related, because it is the amount of mercury in the environment, globally, that matters. I mentioned a study about British seafood—fish and mussels—which was produced literally a couple of hours ago. I am awar…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
30 October 2025
Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend Lord Caithness for moving this debate, which touches on many important issues. Following on from my noble friend Lord Blencathra, I had to look this up, but when we have four of a kind in a row, it is a “haul”. So we experienced a haul of Earls at the …
Lords
Proceedings
30 October 2025
Asylum Seekers: MoD Housing
My Lords, I urge the Minister and the Government to have the guts to stick to this plan to use the barracks in the short term, and not to be terrorised out of it by immigration pressure groups, one of which said yesterday that this would further traumatise people who have suffered enough. I stayed i…
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for tabling her amendments in this group. I know that the whole House respects her for her commitment to the issue of sustainable drainage, and I pay tribute to her for her persistence in raising this particular matter, because it is about time that we made some pro…
My Lords, we all share an appreciation of our heritage trees. The Fortingall yew in Perthshire is estimated to be around 2,300 years old, and there are oaks on the Blenheim estate that are estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Of course, the iconic Sycamore Gap tree, which I was driven past the day …
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I too wish the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, a speedy recovery. We both endure long journeys on the west coast main line with Avanti, and that is enough to make any of us ill on any occasion.
As we have said throughout the passage of this Bill, Governments should not, as a rule, introduce …
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in this group. On this side, we share the passion that has been expressed across the House for a biodiverse and environmentally rich country. The proposals brought forward here are all rightly focused on boosting habitats for species and promoting na…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, when I saw Amendments 206 and 114, I knew that I had to table my Amendment 121F, so that biodiversity was not forgotten again as all attention focused on climate change. I say again, and for the last time on this Bill, that with enormous political will and expenditure, it is possible to re…
Lords
Debate
27 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 88 and congratulate noble Lords on all the excellent speeches we have heard so far in support of it. The provision of green space is terribly important when building homes. I am in despair to see so many developments of little houses packed tightly together with little …
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 87BA. The most important vehicle for nature recovery in this country is via the local nature recovery strategies being developed by the 48 local authorities in charge. One can design a recovery strategy only if one knows what is there in the first place, or ra…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will comment briefly on these amendments. The Government may say that if you stop these conversions of hotels, where will we put the people? The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, asked the same question. That is a fair question. The answer is to use all spare military accommodation, recently…
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
I am grateful to my noble friend for giving way. When I looked at the figures last year, I found that 1.1 million homes were approved that were not built. That is quite a few hundreds of thousands.
My Lords, in view of the speech by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, saying that she is opposed to the measure, I feel it is my turn to stand up and say that this is a very sensible amendment. Based on my time in Natural England, I strongly support it.
Generally, it was my experienc…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I am in the rather frightening position of agreeing with Amendment 48 in the names of the noble Baronesses, Lady Pinnock and Lady Bennett of Manor Castle—no doubt they are as concerned about my support for them as I am. However, they have raised some very good points here.
I am in complet…
My Lords, I support Amendments 53, 54 and 55 but express some concern about Amendment 52. My noble friend Lord Moylan is absolutely right to call for an impact assessment before local authorities go overboard with removing non-electric car spaces in an obsessive drive for electric vehicle charging p…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 October 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, there are 3.3 billion barrels of oil easily available in the North Sea. An independent study by Westwood Global Energy Group for Offshore Energies UK suggests that up to 7.5 billion barrels could still be produced, while the Government’s own figures suggest about 3.2 billion barrels. The N…
That is in the sentence that I am just about to say.
The Secretary of State’s obsession with net zero is now leading to the destruction of some of our finest British countryside, with the imposition of massive solar farms on some of our finest productive land. We would not need all these solar farm…