Lords
Oral Questions
26 January 2026
8 contributions
ILO Convention 190
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. However, if one in five workers reports feeling at risk of violence at work, on what basis are His Majesty’s Government confident that existing legislation is sufficient to result in prevention, rather than simply to respond to the harm once it has occu…
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the rise in the number of reported harassment cases—certainly of women—means either that we have got a great rise in the number of incidents or that people are more prepared to report it? If so, can we make sure that there is an easier way of getting resolution…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
26 January 2026
3 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
If this is an intervention, it is quite a long one. I ask that interventions be kept brief; they should just be questions, really.
The noble Baroness has spoken for five and a half minutes now. Whether she is pressing or withdrawing her amendment, this should be brief.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for the insightful debate today. As they know, the Government remain neutral on the principle of assisted dying and on the passage of this Bill. Whether and how the law in this area should change is, of course, a matter for Parliament. The Government have no major worka…
To repeat—and I hope this helps—the Government do not see any major workability concerns. Our concern is specifically with the drafting, in that it uses different language from language that already exists in the Bill. We feel there is a risk of duplicating existing requirements in Clause 12 for the…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
22 January 2026
7 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
The noble Lord was not here for the start of the group, so I am afraid that he cannot contribute.
My Lords, Amendment 431 deals with the use of algorithmic tools in policing. While the Government agree on the importance of transparency in the use of algorithmic tools by police forces, we do not believe that the amendment would be the optimal means of delivering either meaningful improvements in …
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
21 January 2026
3 contributions
United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (Exclusions from Market Access Principles: Glue Traps) Regulations 2025
My Lords, the regulations the Committee is being asked to consider were laid before the House on 1 December 2025. The instrument makes an exclusion to the market access principles of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020—also known as the UKIM Act, for convenience—for legislation prohibiting t…
My Lords, I will speak briefly. First, I commiserate and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Katz, because, for the past two months, he has sat diligently on the Government Front Bench and listened to about 30 speeches I have made on amendments to the crime Bill; admittedly, he rejected every single o…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords—
My Lords—
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
7 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower, for setting out the case for Amendment 415. He says a week is a long time in politics, but I am going to take him all the way back to the announcement on 26 September from the Prime Minister that the Government were intending to introd…
I am going to try to stay roughly on the topic of the amendment, rather than turn this into a wider debate on the introduction of digital ID, because I am not entirely sure that my briefing will cover all the points that the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, has addressed.
To be absolutely clear, we are no…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 January 2026
7 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to all who have contributed to this short but focused and important debate on the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Leigh of Hurley, which seek to extend the power for police to restrict protests near places of worship to cover faith schools and faith community centre…
I remind the noble Baroness that while she is able to ask questions for clarification, interventions are meant to be brief and I urge some brevity, given the progress we have made in Committee so far this afternoon.
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
14 January 2026
8 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to be opening for the Government on the second day of Committee on the Pensions Schemes Bill. Once again, for the sake of the record, I am not sure whether it is otiose but I repeat that I am a former councillor in Camden and, as such, a member of its councillors’ pension …
I am seeking help from my noble friend Lady Sherlock in a helpful conference on the side. The investment assets are in pools, so that is not necessary. The backstop powers are very clear: if there is a need for a merger or we are worried about a failing scheme, there is that backstop power and this …
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
5 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this has been a long and wide-ranging debate, and rightly so. The issues that we are discussing in this rather large group of amendments go to the heart of who we are as a nation. I will try to do justice to the sincerely held, if somewhat, at times, diametrically opposed views expressed a…
That is a helpful clarification. Ultimately, there are still the basic safeguard backstops of the CPS decisions to prosecute and police decisions to make arrests. There will always be discretion and flexibility, and one might posit that the CPS would not risk a prosecution where it was clear that th…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
This is a slightly delayed response, but I have just realised that the noble Lord was speaking to Amendment 371AA. I realise that there are a lot of amendments in this group, and there have been some changes in the groupings since the previous day in Committee. Amendment 371AA is in group 6. I apolo…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 January 2026
8 contributions
Independent Water Commission
My Lords, among the recommendations made by Sir Jon Cunliffe were proposals to have mandatory statutory provisions for sustainable drains and the end to the automatic right to connect to main sewers. Given the outage and the water leaks in Kent and Sussex, whereby tens of thousands of homes have bee…
My Lords, given the commitment from the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, on 20 November to publish a White Paper by the end of last year, does the Minister now regret the assurances given to those of us who pressed for urgent legislation to protect chalk streams—protections abandoned at th…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
12 January 2026
13 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords for these amendments in the names of the noble Viscount, Lord Younger, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Stedman-Scott, Lady Bowles of Berkhamsted and Lady Altmann. Before I proceed, as we have had a bout of putting things on the record and making declarations, I …
My Lords, the Government share the noble Viscount’s aim of ensuring that administering authorities can continue to comply with their fiduciary duty to act in LGPS members’ best interests. I assure the Committee that the Government are not seeking to undermine the fiduciary duty of local pension fund…
+11 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, this Government are deeply concerned by the devastating impact online fraud can have on individual victims, both financially and emotionally. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, for tabling this amendment, to the noble Lord, Lord Young, and to the noble Baroness, Lady …
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Davies, for explaining the purpose of this amendment. He is right to highlight the importance of the issue that it raises. The Met estimates that electronic devices are used in approximately 60% of vehicle theft, so I am glad that we have the opportuni…
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for speaking in this debate and raising these important issues. Turning first to Amendment 357, moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, I can confirm that the Government remain committed to the implementation of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 and fully …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
18 December 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
My Lords, I beg to move that the House do now adjourn and, in doing so, wish everyone in the House, and all those working in the House, chag sameach, a very happy Christmas, a restful break and a happy new year.
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am going to call a halt at this point. This is remembrance of things past. We have an important amendment to discuss today, and we should focus on the amendments.
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
8 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, these amendments, in their different ways, seek to extend liability for the unlawful actions of cyclists to their employers or contractors. Amendment 346C, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, proposes a review of the new cycling offences provided for in Clause 106 one year after the cl…
To be clear, I was talking about evidence of causality rather than necessarily data on incidents. Let me make some progress, and maybe the noble Lord will be a little mollified by the time I get to the end of my contribution—or maybe not.
The fundamental purpose of the new offence is to—
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
13 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Amendment 337 replicates for Northern Ireland the provisions of Clause 105, which apply to England and Wales. Amendments 520, 550, 559 and 561 are consequential to Amendment 337.
Currently, the definition of regulated activity—that is, roles that are subject to the highest level of enhanc…
I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, for setting out the case for his Amendment 337A. I pay tribute to his advocacy on this issue and on many other related issues as a teacher and—I did not realise this until tonight—as a cricket coach as well. I hope he is doing good work churning out a b…
+11 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, the Minister has gone over time, but in any case the noble Lord needed to be here at the start of the group to be able to intervene during the debate.
Lords
Committee Stage
15 December 2025
4 contributions
Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, these draft regulations were laid before this House on 3 November. They amend extended producer responsibility for packaging, or PEPR, across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. They represent a major step towards a circular, resource-resilient economy—one where producers take g…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his introduction to these regulations and also declare that I am a vice-president of the LGA and a past leader of a local authority. I welcome and note this statutory instrument creating an obligation on businesses that supply household packaging and managing the p…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Litter on Canal Towpaths
I have forgotten what terms I used on Monday or Wednesday this week. I did not call it fly-tipping. I honestly cannot remember; I could not find it when I was searching for it. It was “criminal waste disposal”, or something like that.
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 guidance…