Civil Service Pensions

Debate between Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent and Baroness Winterton of Doncaster

Monday 13th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord. One of the reasons I love being a Member of your Lordships’ House is that every day is a history lesson, including about history that happened before I was born—I say that just to make me feel better. The noble Lord raises an important point about transparency. He will be aware that I am the Minister with responsibility for standards, so how could I do anything other than make sure that my officials meet him to try to get him the answers he is looking for?

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, as a previous Pensions Minister, I am aware of how difficult it is to persuade young people in particular to make proper pensions provision. The danger of a scandal such as this, caused by Capita, is that confidence in the pensions system is undermined. Can my noble friend the Minister assure me that government campaigns to make people aware of the importance of proper pensions provision will continue, and in fact be redoubled, perhaps in conjunction with the trade unions, who I am sure she meets on a regular basis?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend. She is absolutely right. It is incredibly important that the failure that we are currently discussing and wider concerns about how our pensions operate are not seen as suggesting to younger people, especially, that they should not sign up to pension schemes. It is deferred salary and they are entitled to it; it is part of their overall package.

I was reflecting today with my private office—all of whom make me feel very old, hence my previous comment—on the fact that we are trying to fix their pension scheme. The first thing I did when I started working for my trade union, which is now Unite, was to write a guide for our members to the NHS pension scheme. The unions fulfil an exceptionally important role in making sure that people have access to their full terms and conditions. As for the problems that we are currently experiencing with this scheme, our officials are meeting every week with the FDA, PCS and Prospect to make sure that the workforce is fully engaged.

Foreign Interference in UK Democratic Processes

Debate between Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent and Baroness Winterton of Doncaster

Wednesday 17th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises a genuinely important point. The responsibility of every Government is to make sure that we keep all our citizens safe. We have seen significant state-based interference, both violent and online, in our democratic space. But rest assured that the Government keep these issues under review every day.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, I was an OSCE observer last week at the elections in Armenia. Initial reports show that, although there was significant Russian interference, particularly on social media, its effect was mitigated because there was a very effective public education campaign. Will my noble friend the Minister therefore look at what this Government can do to educate the public about the dangers of foreign interference and the difference between information and misinformation from foreign sources?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her work in Armenia. What has come to light is extraordinary, although I have been reassured that, even with all those efforts, the Russian-supporting political party got only 17.5% of the vote. Obviously, we work closely with all our partners across all our allies to make sure that we learn best practice and share best practice where appropriate, and we will continue to do so. But each and every one of us also has a responsibility in this space to protect the democratic values we hold so dear.

Public Trust in National Politics

Debate between Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent and Baroness Winterton of Doncaster

Thursday 29th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

Regarding the substance of the noble Baroness’s question, this Government have made over 3,000 policy announcements in the last 18 months because of the mess that we inherited from the previous Government. We may have made 14 U-turns, but that is because we have listened where things needed to be tweaked. We have had to do so many things so quickly that it is not a surprise that, occasionally, we have to reflect on whether they were the right things to do.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that building trust in politics needs to start with young people? The measures in the national youth strategy on civic engagement are extremely important, but we need to stop the misinformation on politics that is directed specifically at young people. Can she assure me that the Government will engage with tech company bosses to prevent this poisonous spread of misinformation?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right that one of the biggest challenges we face—and I say this as my stepdaughter is 15 years old—is what young people are exposed to online, but there is a balance here with the fact that current 13 and 14 year-olds will be voting at the next general election. We need to balance protecting them with making sure that they have access to accurate information and that, through the national curriculum, they are taught how to interrogate information so they know what is right and wrong and can ask questions of the people who seek to represent them.

Government Resilience Action Plan

Debate between Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent and Baroness Winterton of Doncaster

Thursday 10th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I am very aware of the noble Lord’s interest. He is absolutely right that we have, too often, relied on our military to fix holes. One of the things I should have said in response to the noble Baroness, Lady Finn, is about module 1 of the Covid recommendations—I think either recommendation 2 or 10—about the Cabinet Office versus a lead department dealing with resilience issues. This pertains system-wide and relates to the question raised by the noble Lord. The Cabinet Office is strengthening its core to make sure that we can have cross-government oversight, but we will retain the lead department model. As part of ensuring the strengthening of our core, we would obviously seek to undertake a clear audit, to make sure that everyone has appropriate provision in place for any crisis. In fact, one of the things the action plan seeks to do is to ensure a baseline of resilience, which will require such data-gathering exercises.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, noble Lords have referred to intelligence sharing and co-operation between government departments, but many aspects of the resilience plan will rely on international co-operation. Certainly, for example, on cyber intelligence sharing. At the annual meeting of the OSCE last week, there was wide discussion on how to make democratic elections resilient to misinformation and foreign interference. This is becoming an increasing problem and I am not sure we are taking it seriously enough at the moment; we certainly need to turn our attention to it. Will my noble friend the Minister agree that deepening our ties with organisations such as the OSCE and the Council of Europe, and looking at that particular aspect of intelligence sharing, would strengthen our international resilience as well as our national resilience.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very important point. Sometimes it is easy to separate our online and our offline worlds. With the issue of misinformation and the cyber threats we currently face, there is a clear crossover between online and offline and the impact that can have. This is clearly a space where we need to operate internationally, and we do so. Only recently, my honourable friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster met with the Japanese cyber Minister, to make sure we were having cross-country communications. Deepening our intelligence ties through both existing networks, and also through our responsibilities under Article 3 of NATO, as well as ensuring we are one step ahead of both cyber and misinformation threats, will be key, given the current threats we face as a country.

Council of the Nations and Regions

Debate between Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent and Baroness Winterton of Doncaster

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I assure the noble Baroness that that is not the case. Before the first full meeting on 11 October of the Council of the Nations and Regions—which, to remind the House, was a manifesto commitment—the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and the First Ministers of all devolved Governments had a multilateral meeting with the Prime Minister, which would fulfil tier 1 of the IGR requirements. With the greatest respect to noble Lords opposite, that was the first time such a meeting had happened since 2022.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, as a former Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber and a strong supporter of regional development agencies, which the previous Government made a big mistake in abolishing, I welcome the establishment of the Council of the Nations and Regions. Can my noble friend the Minister assure me that she will encourage mayors and combined authorities to draw up strategies for the whole of each region, such as Yorkshire and the Humber, to complement their individual strategies?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her support. The Deputy Prime Minister is fully committed to empowering mayors and combined authorities, and we are working with local leaders from across England to deliver the most ambitious programme of devolution that this country has ever seen. We want to see all partners collaborating regionally, which obviously includes Yorkshire and the Humber. Our upcoming English devolution White Paper will be published in due course and will set out details.

Anti-Semitism

Debate between Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent and Baroness Winterton of Doncaster

Tuesday 17th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Ruth Smeeth]

I have run out of time; I am sorry.

There is something more fundamental at stake here than any party’s policy platform or electoral performance: the right of Jewish people to participate in the politics of our country as equals. Last month we heard a plea: enough is enough. I stand here today to say that we will not be bullied out of political engagement, that we are going nowhere, and that we will stand and keep fighting until the evils of anti-Semitism are removed from our society. [Applause.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Order. I completely understand that colleagues have been very generous and that interventions have been taken, but I am sure that colleagues will also appreciate that we are very short of time, so after the next speaker, I shall reduce the time limit to four minutes.