Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Historical Forced Adoption
My Lords, I sincerely thank the Lord Privy Seal for repeating this Statement and taking the time to read it out today, as the Prime Minister did in the House of Commons. We on these Benches associate ourselves fully and without reservation with the apology that the Statement contains.
The scale and…
Lords
Debate
1 July 2026
Draft Conversion Practices Bill
My Lords, it should go without saying that anyone who has been subjected to violence, coercion or abuse because of who they are or whom they love deserves the full protection of the law, but this Bill provides no necessary new protections and risks criminalising people who have done nothing wrong. I…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2026
University Student Finance
My Lords, I welcome the Minister’s indications in response to questions so far. However, three months on from her first announcement about poor-value courses, we are still waiting for the information that is needed for students to assess which courses they should avoid before they are saddled with l…
Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Puberty Blockers Trial: Consent
My Lords, yesterday the Minister told the House that the PATHWAYS trial would be covered by insurance. I have been unable to identify any insurance company that will cover such treatment, even in a trial setting, so can she tell us how insurance has been obtained, the information on which it is base…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
PATHWAYS Study: Puberty Suppression
My Lords, the proposed PATHWAYS puberty blockers trial for 226 children as young as 11 risks becoming a medical scandal unfolding in real time. Gender-incongruent children include some of the most vulnerable children in society, with disproportionate numbers of that cohort having autism or mental di…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry
My Lords, may I begin first by paying testament to the tireless advocacy of the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, on behalf of the victims of grooming gangs, and the tremendous courage and persistence that she displays in public service? She has warned again this week that fear of accusations of racism pl…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Master’s Level History Scholarships
My Lords, I join from these Benches in congratulating noble Lord, Lord Barber of Chittlehampton, on all his work to support the study of history. Higher education resources, however, are under strain, and the IFS has reported independently that some courses have persistently poor outcomes and very h…
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Children: Physical Punishment
My Lords, it would be wrong to speak today of physical punishment without raising the evil murder of the baby Preston Davey. As the Minister knows, we on the Conservative Benches welcome her structural reforms to social care, but there is still a gap. As the Munro inquiry and repeated case reviews h…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Teachers’ Pension Scheme: Automatic Enrolment
My Lords, there is a financial crisis in higher education. The Government have acknowledged it; I do not think it is contentious. The House of Commons Education Committee recently published its report on higher education funding and how these pension contributions are contributing to the risk of ins…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Mental Health Conditions: Diagnoses
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean, for securing this debate. I am also grateful to my noble friends for their contributions so far, particularly their citation of the data, which will save me from repeating it. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Shah, for sharing her…
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
School Admissions: Selective Inclusion
My Lords, the OECD PISA survey looks at whether the school that children attended makes a difference to their attainment. Contrary to some of the assumptions underlying the Sutton Trust report, it makes less difference which school you attend here in the UK than in many other countries; we are below…
Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
Children’s Social Care: Enduring Relationships Strategy
My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing this Statement to the House and for her kind words to me earlier. I look forward to working constructively with her in the coming months, in the interests of all children and young people.
We on the Conservative Benches welcome this Statement. Indeed, it …
Lords
Proceedings
3 June 2026
Murder of Henry Nowak
My Lords, I agree with the Minister that it is a time for calm heads, but it is also not a time for heads in the sand. As the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, has just outlined, this wicked crime and terrible tragedy has thrown up issues about the conduct of the police and their paranoia on the ground. The…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Reid of Cardowan, for outlining, much earlier today, the challenges that this country has been facing over a period of 20 years in the rapid rates of immigration. I am also grateful—as noble Lords will be, because I will not repeat the speech—to m…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the amendments of my noble friend Lord Young of Acton and oppose the Government’s amendments in their entirety, on principle.
I did not expect to be beginning in the way I am about to begin, but I want to say this because the quality of debates around hate crime have become incr…
Lords
Proceedings
11 February 2026
Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts
My Lords, it is of note that, as reported by openDemocracy, one of the Labour Party’s largest donations, if not the largest, of £4 million, came from a hedge fund called Quadrature, which has holdings in Blackstone. The openDemocracy website reported that it stood to benefit from government contract…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
As we are in Committee, I welcome the noble Baroness’s comments on this. The 18-category classification is the gold standard of identification. In practice, a police officer may have a conversation with a suspect. Reality needs to be injected with a bit of common sense. If an individual does not kno…
My Lords, the mandatory recording of ethnicity data was a recommendation of the Macpherson inquiry—it was that long ago—and it just has not happened; it has not been put on a statutory footing. So, due to the variability in collection of data up and down the country we have already heard about today…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
6 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 438B, the wording of which is intended to be replaced by Amendment 438EF. I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, and the noble Lord, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, for supporting this amendment. I am also grateful to the Minister for remindin…
I have never spoken in this Chamber on digital ID; I want to make that clear for the record, because the noble Baroness used the plural in talking about all those present. I also want to come back on her very emotional intervention, for which I am grateful as she clearly feels very passionately abou…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
22 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the stand part notices tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, and supported by the noble Lord, Lord Black of Brentwood. Clauses 152 to 155 should be removed from the Bill in their entirety.
Before I begin, I want to make absolutely clear to the Committee that there is no questi…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 January 2026
Equality and Human Rights Commission: Code of Practice
I have been pretty clear every time that I have answered. People might not like the answer. But ensuring that what is laid before Parliament is legally defensible will enable those who need the protection of this code and of the Equality Act to receive it without us being bogged down in lengthy lega…
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I support this group of amendments for a specific reason. I tried to ask the Minister this question during their closing speech last week, but there was not time. The Equality and Human Rights Commission gave evidence at the Select Committee—I declare an interest that at the time I was a c…
It was Alasdair Henderson, who gave evidence to the Select Committee and raised a lot of the concerns that have been reiterated by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, and others today. Indeed, the point that the noble and learned Lord makes about being poor and having a choice is something that is real…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, mindful of time, I will limit my comments to the first amendment of the group, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Walney, and spoken to by my noble friend Lord Young.
A few people have mentioned that laws already cover the incidents referred to by groups such as Bash Back; I will focus on Bas…
I am grateful for that reminder. It is another point in support of the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Walney. The overall position of the group is much more easily managed by the police when there are deliberate attempts to evade any type of prosecution.
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for raising the issue of Miznon and Erev in Notting Hill. There have been a number of protests outside that restaurant, which is actually on my street. The owners of the restaurant and the residents who use it, including me, have been subjected to the v…
Lords
Debate
5 January 2026
5 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I support Amendments 28 to 31A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, who very sadly has been struck down by the ghastly flu. I had not intended initially to speak to these amendments, but was very happy to do so after hearing from him and reading the speech of the noble Baroness, Lad…
I agree 100% and could not have put it better myself. I hope that the Minister will address the points raised by my noble friend Lord Goldsmith.
As raised by a number of Oxford academics, there is also the additional, profound danger of deep-sea drilling once the very issues that my noble friend ra…
+3 more contributions in this session