Lords
Committee Stage
15 April 2026
Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, like the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, I am grateful to the Minister and his officials for arranging a short briefing for me yesterday on this measure, which I found very helpful. That was a useful thing to do and I thank him.
The substance of this statutory instrument is not terribly int…
Lords
Debate
13 April 2026
3 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I will speak in favour of Amendment 217 in the name of my noble friend Lord Pack, who has set out clearly why it is so important to have the right voting system in place for mayors, given the growing powers that they have and will have in the future. Democratic accountability is really important.
A…
My Lords, I welcome the government amendments tackling some of the issues around taxi and private hire licensing and enforcement across the country. This is an issue I raised through a series of amendments in Committee, and in discussion with the Minister, and I am grateful for this action.
In Comm…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
13 April 2026
Rail Freight
I am glad that the noble Baroness asked me that question. Network Rail has found some money to do studies on greater access to London Gateway, and that is the right thing to do. The question of electrification is one of the subjects that we need to discuss with the port’s owners, DP World. The other…
Lords
Debate
26 March 2026
7 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I thank the Minister for meeting me so that I could explain more about my amendment, in particular the need for the wider power of summons for the London Assembly. Amendment 82 is about the need for a greater power of summons. The London Assembly has a limited power of summons over individ…
I thank the Minister for her response, but I think it misses the point. There is a gap in the existing legislation which means that key organisations can simply refuse to attend meetings and to answer questions. That includes organisations such as High Speed 2, London Councils and the Environment Ag…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
24 March 2026
2 contributions
Public Transport: Accessibility
My Lords, the Government are committed to improving public transport services so they enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. The Bus Services Act 2025 and the Railways Bill both include a comprehensive package of measures to improve the accessibility of public transpo…
The oldest railway in the world still needs better accessibility at many stations, between platforms and trains, and in information and customer service. We have committed to more Access for All schemes at stations following the recent spending review and intend to set out clearer criteria for futur…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 March 2026
Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019
A parking regulator was considered as an option in the options assessment published last year. However, it was dismissed as disproportionate. Establishing a regulator would have involved significant cost, complexity and even further delay, duplicating functions that can be delivered more efficiently…
Lords
Committee Stage
23 March 2026
Train Driving Licences and Certificates (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I thank the Minister for setting out so clearly his succinct response to the issues raised by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. It is good to have those comments on the record. It also saves me the trouble of asking all the questions that it asked and pressing him to give answe…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
2 contributions
Rail Infrastructure Resilience: Storms and Floods
My Lords, I start by wishing the Minister a happy birthday—
I thank the noble Baroness for her good wishes. There have been quite a lot of birthdays in my life so far. The Tarka line is part of what was the Southern route around the northern edge of Dartmoor. The highest rainfall ever in the south-west of England closed the line for a long period of time sim…
Lords
Committee Stage
5 March 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, there are a number of issues in this group on taxis and private hire, but I will explain my Amendments 235BA, 235CB and 235CC. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Hampton and Lord Bradley, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester for adding their names to them.
Out-of-area workin…
As the Minister works through options to bring back on Report, would he be prepared to meet with me and other interested noble Lords on the matter of enforcement?
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this group of amendments is focusing on penalties and other measures for dangerous cycling on our streets. These Benches support a proportionate and evidence-based approach to updating the law, whereby any changes do not discourage people from cycling—considerately, of course—which we beli…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
Assisted Dying Legislation: Isle of Man and Jersey
The most recent communication from the Isle of Man—the latest information—was received at the end of January. Officials are now preparing advice for the Lord Chancellor. It would be completely inappropriate for me to comment on either the timing or the content of that advice.
Lords
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
Cyclists: Safety
The £626 million investment over four years in active travel infrastructure is designed to do precisely that. The noble Baroness is completely right; we want people to walk and cycle, and we want kids to do that as a matter of habit. That is why the Government are investing so much money. Before Chr…
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My Lords, despite the applause from all sides of the Chamber for this Bill, I am afraid it remains a very troubling piece of legislation. It has been described by the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, effectively as a piece of net-zero legislation, but, as I have insisted throughout its passage, this is…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
Smart Motorways
I can absolutely assure the noble Baroness that no more smart motorways will be installed. It is difficult when you inherit a programme, and it has obviously been done with the best of intentions—to save lives, increase capacity, help people move around and support the economy. Obviously, the costs …
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
2 contributions
Electric Vehicles: Transition
My Lords, the UK is a global leader in the transition to zero-emission vehicles, with the largest EV market share of any major European economy in 2025. The Government are committed to working with manufacturers, charge point operators and fleets to ensure that the transition is a success. We are in…
The ZEV mandate is the largest carbon-saving measure across government, providing policy stability and regulatory certainty, and is an essential driver of investment and consumer confidence. It is the Government’s long-standing commitment to have a review of the ZEV mandate. It will commence later t…
Lords
Committee Stage
11 February 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, this has been a very interesting group and discussion. I will raise a couple of points. Amendment 235, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, would remove the hope value from playing fields when being sold under the community right-to-buy process, enabling community groups to buy th…
Lords
Debate
10 February 2026
2 contributions
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My Lords, there has been a lot of consensus at each stage of this Bill. The Government have shown that they are willing to listen and make amendments as we have debated. They have consulted the sector on different aspects of this legislation. As we have heard, this is an emerging field in terms of t…
I thank the Minister for his response and the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, for his support for my amendment. From listening to the debate, I think I am living in a different world from the noble Lords, Lord Harper and Lord Moylan, who seem to have an unhealthy obsession with these Benches’ and my pers…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Public Transport: Remote Communities
I am surprised that the noble Baroness is not aware that the local transport funding formula does recognise rural areas. We had extensive discussions, as the noble Baroness will recognise, in the then Bus Services Bill, and, indeed, the Government, compared with previous Governments, have chosen, ri…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
Nationalised Passenger Rail Services
The Sunday position, particularly for drivers in a number of train companies, is very difficult. A number of them, after 30-odd years of the previous regime, have no contractual commitment to work on Sundays and volunteer. That is unsatisfactory. In several train companies, negotiations are taking p…
Lords
Committee Stage
2 February 2026
4 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I have tabled a number of amendments in this group. Amendments 108 and 109 would place stronger requirements on traffic authorities with regards to parking and docking, and Amendment 113 would expand the duty to co-operate to Great British Railways and other relevant bodies. I am grateful to the cha…
My Lords, I will speak to my noble friend Lady Pinnock’s Amendment 238, as she cannot be here today. Local authorities currently have civil enforcement powers which enable council officers to enforce parking contraventions on the highway, such as parking on a bend, across a driveway or too close to …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, it is essential that, as we debate this group of amendments, we keep in mind the fact that the systems that we are creating are for people in the last six months of their lives. We must balance the demands that we place on them at this very vulnerable time with what really matters to them …
I am coming to the end of my speech; I do not think I have to take an intervention, so I would like to finish my point.
It seems to me that this is about making the choice of an assisted death difficult or impossible. We need to think carefully about the checks that we are putting in place for peop…
Lords
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I shall speak initially to my Amendments 70 and 71 in this group. It is a pleasure being here with noble Lords; it feels like a reunion of assembly or London Councils meetings. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, who I know is not able to be here today, for adding his name to Amendment…
We talked about a review of the scrutiny arrangements of other metro mayors, if you like—mayoral and strategic authorities. Is the Minister able to give us a timescale for that? We also talked about discussions with the GLA; the GLA is made up of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. Is the d…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 January 2026
Number Plates Intended to Defeat Enforcement Cameras
The actions taken by the Government include considering online sales of number plates, which is clearly one source of illegal number plates. As to the scale and for an example: in 1,000 vehicle checks carried out by the Metropolitan Police with Transport for London in March 2023 using cameras which …
Lords
Oral Questions
21 January 2026
Motorway Speed Cameras
I can confirm that the review will look at the time it took between first knowledge and public action. We remain very confident that this is both a subset of speed cameras and a subset of variable speed signs, and that it applies only to some motorways and, I think, two A roads.