Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.
Lords
Proceedings
9 March 2026
Energy Markets
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, is taking part remotely and I invite him to contribute now.
Lords
Proceedings
4 March 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, this Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
Assisted Dying Legislation: Isle of Man and Jersey
At the risk of repeating myself, the Government do not look at the merits of the legislation that they receive in relation to the Crown dependencies: these are stand-alone pieces of legislation that do not affect the position the Government take in relation to the Private Member’s Bill before this H…
Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I will speak briefly to my amendment in this group because it is my duty shortly to chair the Committee. To broaden the debate that the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, introduced, I simply say that there is clearly a need to establish that this post can have confidence and a degree of consensus around it…
Lords
Debate
25 February 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
I call the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower, to move Amendment 13. I must advise that if it is not moved, I cannot call Amendment 14.
Clause 9: Guidance on fly-tipping enforcement in England
Amendment 13
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
Nationalised Passenger Rail Services
I am sure that I have just written to the noble Lord on the same subject, but I have been monitoring the east coast main line timetable daily since December when it went in. There have been some very good days, but he is right that there have been some infrastructure failures. There have also been s…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, and the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, will be taking part remotely. I remind the Committee that unless they are leading a group, remote speakers speak first after the mover of the lead amendment in a group and may therefore speak to other amendme…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Railways: East Coast Main Line
I will make sure that we follow up the comments that the noble Lord has made. It was my responsibility to be heavily involved when the timetable changes were introduced in 2017, and I would say that, overall, this introduction has gone exceptionally well in comparison to what was experienced in the …
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord has moved the amendment, and the opportunity is there for other Members to speak to it.
Lords
Debate
26 November 2025
3 contributions
Sentencing Bill
On behalf of my noble friend Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames, I beg to move Amendment 45. The purpose of this amendment, and indeed of Amendment 45A which is grouped with it, is to get the focus right. We believe the focus on the victims of crime should be clear on the face of the Bill and regularly …
My Lords, the Minister has made a good case for his reliance on Clause 4 in its reference to victims. The wider issues raised in Amendment 45A ought still to attract the Government’s interest as we proceed with the Bill, but on the basis of what has been said in this short debate, I beg leave to wit…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
26 November 2025
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, there is a curious diffidence over so important a part of the Bill as Clause 1. I shall not say much about it, except that, although the amendments are worth studying to see whether they do improve how Clause 1 can operate, they seem to stem from a general hostility to the Bill disguised a…
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I was hoping to get an answer; we can speak more than once in Committee, because we are trying to understand. Otherwise, later days in Committee and Report could become quite painful. I hope to get an answer from the Minister today.
Lords
Debate
12 November 2025
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I start by declaring some interests. I was on the independent panel chaired by David Gauke which produced a preliminary short review in February, History and Trends in Sentencing . I shall return to that, if I may. It then produced a final report in May, many of the recommendations of whic…
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Amendment 166 having not been moved, I cannot call Amendments 167 to 171.
Amendment 173 having not been moved, I cannot call Amendment 174.
Amendment 175
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I want to speak briefly to the concern of feeling a burden to one’s carers and the impact that will have if the Bill passes, which has been mentioned by many of the speakers this morning.
As many of your Lordships across this House know, caregivers are the very best of us. We can all atte…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
2 contributions
Train Operators’ Revenue Protection Practices Review
My Lords, deliberate fare-dodging has no place on our railways and is being tackled, but it is vital that passengers are treated fairly and consistently. We are urgently considering the helpful and comprehensive Office of Rail and Road report, with its sensible recommendations, and will respond to i…
The noble Lord knows as much about the December east coast main line timetable as I do now. I compliment him because he asked the flexible public sector operators to add a stop at Berwick to the weekday 1900 train to Edinburgh from King’s Cross, and they have agreed. I think that is a great thing. O…
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
I draw to the attention of the noble and learned Lord, whose interest in this matter is much appreciated, the fact that, when we considered this in the Burns committee, it was clear that there needed to be some way in which Ministers could be brought to the Front Bench—by being admitted to a peerage…
Lords
Proceedings
4 July 2025
3 contributions
UK Constitution: Oversight and Responsibility (Report from the Constitution Committee)
My Lords, I will speak to the Constitution Committee’s report, published in January, on Executive Oversight and Responsibility for the UK Constitution . I speak in place of the noble Baroness, Lady Drake, who was chair of the committee during this inquiry but is unfortunately unable to be here today…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord. I congratulate all the members of the committee and the chair for the report they have produced and their success in getting this debated. It is always a good idea to debate our constitution, and I regard today’s debate as a welcome chance to take…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
4 June 2025
2 contributions
Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill
My Lords, I agree very much with what the noble Viscount has said. His amendment, like others in this group, would give some helpful clarity to an extremely unclear piece of legislation. I think we are about to make bad law, because the Government have been unable or unwilling to define what “person…
Before the Minister sits down, could he clarify something for me, because he has made two apparently conflicting statements in the course of the correspondence? One is that it would be unlawful—and that is his word—for the Sentencing Council to frame guidelines in a way that reflected the existing c…
Lords
Committee Stage
19 May 2025
3 contributions
Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill
My Amendment 14 in this group, like all the others, seeks to probe and challenge the uncertainty surrounding the definition on which the whole Bill depends. I welcome the amendments of the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, in that respect. I am particularly attracted by Amendment 5, which goes to th…
Can the Minister clarify something he has not covered? It is how we deal with things that perhaps the Government regard as personal characteristics but that are not listed in the Bill, although they could fall within the non-exhaustive character of that provision in the Bill. Is it the Government’s …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
7 May 2025
Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill
My Lords, it was a pleasure to hear the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Nichols of Selby. I particularly liked her comment that politics is about service. I think that almost everybody in this House understands that extremely well and tries to commit to it. It is also a pleasure to be in a…