My Lords, I congratulate the committee on an excellent report, which is a magisterial review of the issues in space policy that also brings out the opportunities for us. I declare an interest as chair of SaxaVord spaceport, which has already been referred to. Before that, as chair of the UK Space Ag…
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, on calling the debate. I declare my interest as a visiting professor at King’s College London and as a director of Thames Holdings. It would be in the spirit of an education debate to have some set texts. I have two set texts, although I am af…
My Lords, the Minister rightly referred to the recent IFS report showing that on average graduates will earn £100,000 more than if they had not gone to university. That is why a graduate repayment scheme is fair. Can I invite her to place in the Library of the House of Lords an updated version of th…
My Lords, I declare my interests as co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, a former president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and, more pertinent to this debate, a former named veterinarian—more than 30 years ago, I stress—to a university animal unit.
I realis…
In the light of what the Minister has said, I am even more struck by the significance of Amendment 170. Given that there is going to be this change in the regulatory regime in terms of the FCA, I do think that Amendment 170 is the crucial one. It absolutely is not inconsistent with the Government’s …
LordsCommittee Stage19 January 20262 contributions
My Lords, I want briefly to enter this discussion to identify another group not captured in the neat divide of employers and scheme members. When there is £160 billion knocking around, people tend to work out elegant arguments for why some group or another has a claim on that money. I understand the…
I am not against such payments. As I say, I think this is highly discretionary—there would be a negotiation. I absolutely understand that argument, and we have all received letters from the people suffering financial distress in some circumstances because of not having pre-1997 inflation protection.…
I have one question following the Minister’s very helpful explanation. I was involved in the internal government discussion leading up to the 2013 legislation, and at the back of our minds was the whole issue of merging local government pension schemes for economic and investment reasons. The model …
My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, for securing this debate, and more importantly for her tireless leadership in this subject.
I think that I will have to be the first to confess that I have a Duolingo addiction, but I know that a charming app—however motivating—cannot replace…
My Lords, I too look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady White of Tufnell Park. I was delighted to discover that we are both honorary alumni of the University of Bradford.
An adequate pension must be the goal for everyone to ensure a happy and secure retirement. This Bill aims …
My Lords, I particularly welcome the increase in fees for students, as that sets the resources available for the education of students without affecting the monthly repayments that graduates subsequently make. However, the international student levy will take away quite a bit of that resource, so do…
My Lords, I will speak briefly in support of Motion H1 and the powerful points that have just been made by noble friend Lady Scott. The Minister spoke as if one-bedroom and two-bedroom student accommodation would be occupied by families and people who needed deep roots in their university environmen…
My Lords, I have been shocked at the inaccuracy of the parliamentary process applied to the Bill. It has lacked the detailed scrutiny that such a major piece of legislation requires, as confirmed in recent devastating reports by committees of this House. Despite all the hype in the Commons, it faile…
My Lords, I commend the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, and the honourable John Grady in the other place for introducing this Private Member’s Bill. I welcome the Bill, which is short in text but highly significant in impact. It addresses a crucial point of clarity; by changing one word from “may” to “…
My Lords, today’s OBR report shows that the cost of the pensions triple lock is running three times higher than previously forecast. It is costing over £10 billion a year, and we now know that pensioners, on average, enjoy higher living standards than working-age families. If tough decisions have to…
My Lords, I support the excellent amendments proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, in particular Amendment 5, which strongly resembles an amendment which had cross-party support at an earlier stage of our deliberations on the Bill and I hope will continue to have that support. It seems to me t…
I am grateful to the Minister for that very full explanation of the monitoring. In her long list of organisations that would be consulted, I do not think she had universities. Will she assure the House that they will be included as well?
My Lords, I add my welcome to the noble Lord, Lord Massey. I also look forward to hearing from the noble Lord, Lord Evans. I thank the committee for its very valuable report, and for the determination of the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, and her colleagues, not to split the interests of the creative…