Lords
Debate
11 September 2026
Local Plans (Burial Space) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her positive engagement with me on this Bill, at Second Reading and since. I also thank Adam from our Lib Dem office for his help and advice in drafting the Bill, because all I picked up was that there was a need in the country for burial space. He helped me draft …
Lords
Debate
7 September 2026
Local Plans (Burial Space) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I understand that no amendments have been set down to this Bill and that no noble Lord has indicated a wish to move a manuscript amendment or to speak in Committee. Therefore, unless any noble Lord objects, I beg to move that the order of commitment be discharged.
Lords
Proceedings
3 September 2026
Office for Students: Academic Misconduct Allegations
My Lords, I also pay tribute to Jason Arday. In the Minister’s response to the noble Lord, Lord Young, she talked about the Office for Students having the powers already, but is she willing to carry out a review to ensure that it has sufficient powers and, if possible, look at the possibilities of b…
Lords
Proceedings
2 September 2026
Schools: Mobile Phone Policy
My Lords, the effectiveness of a policy is always about how it actually happens on the ground. What assessment has been made about the variations in how schools are implementing “not seen, not heard” policies? In particular, what support is given to those schools that are facing a challenge from eit…
Lords
Proceedings
1 September 2026
Working-age Welfare System
My Lords, can I talk about the young people whose parents are the richest—that is, the corporate parents, us, the state? In particular, can I press the Minister on supporting looked-after young people? What particular support can those young people who are leaving care look forward to from this new …
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2026
Charities: Banking Services
My Lords, I want to take up the issue of debanking, not just in the charity sector but in independent journalism. I do not know whether the Minister knows about the Canary, an independent journalism outlet that Lloyds Bank has debanked, meaning that it did not have access to substantial amounts of m…
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2026
Jammu and Kashmir: Human Rights and Political Situation
I thank the Minister for his Answer and welcome the efforts to mediate. A number of individuals have tried to mediate between the action committee and the Governments of Kashmir and Pakistan, including the chair of the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation, Syed Qamar Raza. There has not yet been a resolut…
Lords
Proceedings
22 July 2026
Category 4 Steel Imports: Tariff-free Quotas
My Lords, nearly 40,000 people are involved in steel production in this country. However, 400,000 people are involved in manufacturing as a byproduct from steel. It is really important that both sides of that industry are protected. My fear is that these tariffs may actually affect badly the manufac…
Lords
Proceedings
16 July 2026
Key Stage 2 Exam Results
My Lords, this time of year is very stressful as school leaders come to the end of the academic year. I welcome the Minister’s statement today about a review, but what assessment have the Government made of the level of disruption and additional workload that primary schools now face because of the …
Lords
Proceedings
16 July 2026
Government Record on Education, Employment and Welfare
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Evans, for securing this important debate. I looked at the list of speakers and thought this was going to be a fantastic debate about our children’s future. I do not want it to be about how bad one side or the other was, because that will not help any young…
Lords
Proceedings
15 July 2026
Maximum Temperature for Indoor Workplaces
My Lords, there is a huge increase in people now working from home. Will the Minister also look at guidance for local councils, in particular with the review of the National Planning Policy Framework, to make it easier for people to cool their homes, particularly given that in some council buildings…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2026
Lifelong Learning (Fee Limits) Regulations 2026
My Lords, on these Benches we have also long supported the principle of lifelong learning. Because of the rapidly changing economy, where technology, artificial intelligence and the transition to a greener economy are reshaping jobs, people need the opportunity to retrain and upskill throughout thei…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Unpaid Carers
My Lords, given that the issue of NEETs has been looked at by His Majesty’s Government, and that they will report back on Milburn’s recommendations, will the Government please look at the possibility of providing a free bus pass for young carers, particularly given that they have sometimes had to sa…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Rochdale Grooming Gang: Offender Deportation
My Lords, at lot of the attention at the moment is rightly on Shabir Ahmed, but there are two other individuals who are facing deportation. Is the Minister able to update the House on whether there are any obstacles to their deportation from this country? Are they in a similar situation to Shabir Ah…
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Historical Forced Adoption
My Lords, I too thank the Lord Privy Seal for repeating the Statement. It was particularly moving to hear the examples of the parents and the mothers. It was a difficult thing to hear, particularly those young mums who were basically stitched back together again without any help or support—it is rea…
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Drugging and Sexual Assault of Women
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the response he gave, particularly around one of the groomers from Rochdale, and I can tell him personally that I will support whatever action he takes to get evil men such as him out of this country, because they do not belong here. For me, there is a culture here…
Lords
Proceedings
6 July 2026
International Marine Protected Area: Sargasso Sea
Given that, as we have just heard, it took 12 meetings for His Majesty’s Opposition to realise that, in their opinion, Mauritius was not a great place to protect the environment, does the Minister think that this is just rank hypocrisy on their part, given that they started those negotiations? Tryin…
Lords
Debate
3 July 2026
Local Plans (Burial Space) Bill [HL]
My Lords, we often hear that death is one of the few certainties in life, yet the question of where people may be laid to rest is all too often treated as an afterthought in our planning system. This Bill seeks to address that omission through a simple but important principle: every community should…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2026
Post-16 Education and Skills: Funding
My Lords, although the funding increase in the post-16 FE sector is welcome, I press the Minister on that increase: will it reflect some of the increasing costs in that sector, particularly of energy, staffing, et cetera?
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2026
University Student Finance
My Lords, I recently attended a meeting in my home city of Sheffield, where students and staff from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University came together to highlight the chronic financial pressures that are leading to staff lay-offs and the closure of some of the courses. The ke…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2026
Steel Trade Measure
My Lords, as someone who has spent most of his life in Sheffield and South Yorkshire, I know that this issue is not an abstract discussion about tariffs and trade policies; it is about the future of communities that have made steel, engineering and manufacturing part of their identity for generation…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Construction Sector: Skills Shortage
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s announcements about apprenticeships, particularly in the construction industry. Given that small and medium-sized businesses deliver the bulk of the construction infrastructure, particularly housebuilding, in the country, what support are the Government going to …
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Master’s Level History Scholarships
My Lords, does the Minister share my concern that the decline in scholarships will disproportionately affect people from lower-income backgrounds? If she does, what steps will His Majesty’s Government take to make sure that people get to study based on talent and not their ability to pay?
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
State of Extremism Report
My Lords, given the recent incidents in Southampton and Belfast—in which individuals who appeared to belong to either the Black or the Asian community were particularly targeted for no reason other than what they looked like—does the Minister agree that social cohesion must now be a national priorit…
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Children: Physical Punishment
My Lords, I turn to the point mentioned by my noble friend Lady Walmsley about the experiences of Scotland and Wales. Have the Government looked at the assessments that have been made by those Governments on safeguarding and the number of incidents reported to them of harm to young children?