Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Scottish Government: Social Security Benefits
My Lords, unlike Scotland, which has taken on significant social security powers and used them directly to address child poverty in Scotland, Wales has limited control over the welfare system. Does the Minister agree with the principle of Gordon Brown’s report that nothing that is devolved to Scotla…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Child Poverty
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for bringing forward this important debate.
Few issues test the conscience more directly than child poverty. Across the UK today, around 4.5 million children are growing up in poverty. In Wales, around 31% of children are living in relativ…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
Youth Justice
My Lords, I welcome the publication of the youth justice system reform and delivery plan. In particular, I welcome the announcement of an expanded and clearly defined role for the Welsh Government, in recognition of the fact that the context has changed considerably in Wales since the current arrang…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I begin by recognising an important democratic moment in Wales: 11 days ago, Plaid Cymru secured the largest number of votes that any party has ever received in Wales, leading to the formation of the first Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government. I hope the Minister responding to the debate will …
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I begin by recognising an important democratic moment in Wales: 11 days ago, Plaid Cymru secured the largest number of votes that any party has ever received in Wales, leading to the formation of the first Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government. I hope the Minister responding to the debate will …
Lords
Proceedings
21 April 2026
House of Lords: Legislative Procedures
There is probably not much I can say that is helpful to the noble Baroness. She will recall that the measures in the Labour Party manifesto are in three stages. The first stage, which was the removal of the hereditary Peers, will be completed at the end of Prorogation; for the second stage, we are a…
Lords
Proceedings
24 March 2026
Youth Unemployment
My Lords, the Minister referred to evidence that has been looked at to shape this new initiative. What evidence has been taken from the scheme that has existed in Wales for the last decade—the young person’s guarantee in Wales? What lessons have been learned about what did and did not work well with…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendments 844, 903 and 905 in this group, but I first turn the Committee’s attention to the LCM debate, as the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, just did, that took place in the Senedd on 24 February. At the beginning of the debate, Jeremy Miles, the Cabinet Secretary for H…
I thank the noble Baroness for her intervention. However, that is not the case in terms of the practical reason why the Senedd Members raised those points; it is also in relation to the fact that they passed an amendment to this LCM, which I was lately going to touch on, which states that the Senedd…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
11 March 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, my Amendments 409A and 409B concern the devolution of policing and youth justice to Wales. These are the same amendments that I tabled in Committee. I will keep my remarks brief, considering the late hour, but I hope that the Minister can provide further clarity, because the questions rais…
In looking ahead to a future legislative vehicle for progressing the devolution of youth justice, does the Minister have a specific timeline in mind and what stage of the programme have the Government got to?
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 March 2026
Equality Act 2010: Section 106
I agree with the noble Baroness. Until the Life Peerages Act, this House was absolutely full of men, so progress has been made and we should not underestimate that progress. I suspect that after today’s decision, we will make even more progress in due course.
Lords
Proceedings
6 March 2026
International Women’s Day
My Lords and Ladies—I reckon that, if my noble friends Lady Linforth, Lady Hunter and Lady O’Grady can talk about Lords and Ladies, I can do so too—it is a great privilege to make my maiden speech on International Women’s Day, to stand among so many women who have championed women’s rights in and ou…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
Student Loans: Review
No we are not, and nor should we, which is why we have made increasing access and participation a major pillar of our reforms of higher education. Despite the student loan system, we have seen an increase in the numbers of young people going to university. We now need to close the gap between those …
Lords
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Youth Unemployment
My Lords—
We have looked at information from around the UK and from previous job subsidy schemes to help to design this. Of course, the first six job guarantee areas that I mentioned in the original Answer include one that covers a significant area of Wales. We will also use the experience of that to build th…
Lords
Proceedings
3 February 2026
Police Reform White Paper
My Lords, I welcome the publication of the much-anticipated White Paper on the future of policing across England and Wales. I particularly welcome the focus on neighbourhood policing to better address everyday crime. However, the White Paper has not addressed the unfairness of policing powers being …
Lords
Oral Questions
26 January 2026
2 contributions
ILO Convention 190
My Lords, the UK ratified ILO Convention 190 in March 2022, demonstrating its commitment to preventing and addressing violence and harassment in the workplace. We have a robust legislative framework in place, consisting of strong health and safety at work and discrimination laws. We are confident th…
The noble Baroness is obviously right and correct that we need to be concerned about prevention and building a culture of positive employers’ attitudes towards tackling harassment and victimisation in the workplace, rather than simply relying on tackling harm when it is caught.
However, we have ver…
Lords
Debate
22 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Amendments 433 and 434 are in my name. I thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, and the noble Baroness, Lady Humphreys, for adding their names to both amendments, and the noble Lord, Lord Hain, for supporting Amendment 434. I look forward to hearing contributions from a…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response, although I admit that I am quite disappointed with the position expressed by the Government. I certainly do not agree that it is too complicated to devolve policing to Wales when apparently it is not too complicated to abolish PCCs and create a brand-…
Lords
Debate
6 January 2026
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendment 97 in the name of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, to which I have added my name. The case for devolving prisons and probation to Wales has already been eloquently made by him, so I will confine my remarks to three points.
First, priso…
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
5 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 348 and 349, in my name. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Russell of Liverpool and Lord Hendy, for adding their names. These amendments seek to tackle one of the most pressing issues in our society, gender-based violence and harassment, with a clear focus on work…
I want to come back really briefly on the language of “gender-responsive approach”. That is not a “gender-inclusive approach”: it is based on the ILO convention that our Government ratified, along with the rest of the global community, and relates to the fact that more women than men face misconduct…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
26 November 2025
Domestic Abuse: Emergency Accommodation
What the noble Baroness describes is part of a trend of observation and control, which is part of the controlling and coercive behaviour that is now recognised as an integral part of domestic abuse and every bit as violating as actual physical violence. I do not know what is being doing about the ac…
Lords
Oral Questions
25 November 2025
2 contributions
Wales: Further Devolution
The Government remain committed to the promises in our manifesto and are working to deliver them. For example, we have so far provided £10 million for the Welsh Government to deliver an economic inactivity trailblazer in Wales, as part of our wider commitment to devolve employment support funding to…
The noble Baroness will not be surprised at all to hear that I disagree with both her assessment and her request that we devolve policing to Wales. The announcement last week on PCCs was not about the devolution of policing. It related solely to the abolition of PCCs, a model that simply was not wor…
Lords
Proceedings
18 November 2025
Police Reform
My Lords, the Statement describes policing in Wales as “unique”. Perhaps that actually furthers and strengthens the case for the devolution of policing to Wales. I welcome the news that discussions are to take place with the Welsh Government on new arrangements to replace PCCs in Wales. We do not ha…
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I shall be brief. I oppose the amendment. As the noble Lord, Lord Markham, said, this is a decision for the people of Wales to make—not for the people of England, who dominate this Parliament, both in the other place and here.
The problem arises because of the complexity of the devolution…
I will certainly look into the matter that the noble Baroness raised and would be pleased to write to her. However, the first point I wanted to make here was about engagement with the Welsh Government. Of course, Ministers themselves have not met with the Welsh Government in relation to this Bill, a…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Artificial Intelligence: Safeguarding
Sadly, I cannot say I am young myself, so I cannot testify to this, but the answer to that is yes, the department does that. I refer to the point that the noble Baroness has emphasised: over a third of five to seven year-olds are using social media in 2025, and that proportion rises as young childre…
Lords
Oral Questions
29 October 2025
Youth Mobility Scheme
As someone who lives in Stoke-on-Trent, I completely appreciate where the noble Baroness is coming from. Some 61% of participants in the Turing scheme in England come from underprivileged backgrounds and disadvantaged communities. Erasmus’s current focus is also about ensuring that people who would …
Lords
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025
My Lords, in welcoming the opening speech, my primary thought is, “What a difficult job you’ve taken on”. We have been battling with the strategy for the steel industry for rather a long time, we have not made a very good job of deciding what to do, and when we have decided what to do, in general we…