Retirement of a Member: Lord Denham

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Monday 26th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

My Lords, I should like to notify the House of the retirement, with effect from today, of another good friend, the noble Lord, Lord Denham, pursuant to Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014. On behalf of the House, I thank the noble Lord for his long and much-valued service to the House.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I want briefly to acknowledge what the Lord Speaker has just announced and pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Denham on the notification of his retirement from this House.

Lord Denham became a Member of this House in 1949 and has served with us for over 71 years. On his retirement, he was the longest-serving Member of the House. My noble friend had an admirable career, serving in the Governments of Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and culminating in an impressive 12-year term as Government Chief Whip. He was devoted to this House, knew it backwards and served it well. I know your Lordships will join me in thanking him again for his long and distinguished service to the House and to the country.

Commonwealth Countries: Reciprocal Pension Agreements

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Monday 1st March 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

Are you there, Lord Randall?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

If you can hear me, Lord Randall, you are on.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

I will call the noble Lord, Lord Randall, one more time. He is not there, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, to ask her question.

Green Economic Recovery

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Monday 14th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

Baroness Walmsley?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

The noble Baroness needs to unmute.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

We shall go on because we cannot hear the noble Baroness.

[Baroness Hayman (CB) [V]]

My Lords—[Inaudible.]

Hate Crime: Misogyny

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Monday 23rd November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

The noble Baroness should unmute.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

With apologies, I think I will move on. I call the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza.

Housing: Rent, Evictions and Covid-19

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Tuesday 13th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, I remind the House that the Procedure Committee has recommended that supplementaries should not last longer than 30 seconds. During the last Question there were examples of questions by Members from nearly all parties and groups that went on for longer than that. It would be of benefit to all noble Lords if Members restricted their supplementaries to 30 seconds.

Covid-19 Secure Marshals

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Tuesday 15th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, and that brings this part of Question Time to an end.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, unusually, today, we have to have a 10-minute break.

Arrangement of Business

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Thursday 10th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

My Lords, the Hybrid Sitting of the House will now resume. Some Members are here in the Chamber, respecting social distancing, others are participating virtually, but all Members are treated equally. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, I am afraid that I will immediately have to adjourn the House.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, before we start, I remind noble Lords that this is a Private Notice Question. I urge noble Lords to keep their questions short in order to allow everyone to get in; they should not make speeches.

Agriculture: Dairy Prices

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Tuesday 28th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

I will come in, as the Chief Whip. I am very sorry, but the answer is that I have no idea why my noble friend Lord Gardiner is unavailable. I apologise to the House. Something technical has obviously gone wrong, and I can only ask your Lordships’ forgiveness on this occasion. There will be a thorough inquiry into this, and I apologise to the House.

[The Lord Speaker]

Thank you, Chief Whip. Can you stay on the line and at least field the questions that will come? The right reverend Prelate needs to ask his supplementary.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

Thank you very much. I cannot thank the Minister for his Answer because he has not given me one, but he will be aware that some dairy producers are unable to change contracts and are finding it extraordinarily difficult to access business support grants. What changes have Her Majesty’s Government made in the past month to cut red tape and save some of our dairy farmers who are going bankrupt?

Lord Speaker’s Statement

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

My Lords, welcome back. It is very good to see you all. As noble Lords will know, in the light of the judgment of the Supreme Court yesterday, Parliament is not prorogued. Accordingly, the Clerk of the Parliaments will delete the following items of business from the Minute of Proceedings of 9 September: Royal Commission, Royal Assent, Queen’s Speech and Prorogation. Instead, the Minute will record that the House adjourned at 1.40 am. I should also inform the House that signification of Royal Assent to the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Bill will take place in due course. I take this opportunity to thank the staff of the House and all those who have worked against the clock to make the resumption of business possible.

I now return to our constitutional duty of scrutinising legislation and holding the Government to account. I call on the Government Chief Whip to make a business statement.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, before I turn to the business before us today, there is one thing I think we can all agree on, and that is to echo the comments of the Lord Speaker and thank all the staff who have returned at very short notice to get this Chamber up and running. We are very grateful to them. Some noble Lords will have noticed that some of the usual facilities are not available, but alternative arrangements have been made. I urge all noble Lords to be tolerant: services may not be fully staffed and refreshment outlets may be busier than usual.

For those noble Lords who may not have had time to study a copy of today’s list, our business today is as follows: there is a Private Notice Question on the extension of Article 50; an Oral Statement on Thomas Cook; an Urgent Question on the Attorney-General’s legal advice; and three more Oral Statements, on Brexit readiness, Iran and an update from the Prime Minister. For the Prime Minister’s Statement repeat, I have agreed with the usual channels that the time for Back-Bench questions will be increased from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. We then intend to finish the day’s business with a debate on the spending round. I cannot provide any certainty on timings as we are subject to the timing of Oral Statements in the other place. We will endeavour, though, to communicate any updates via the annunciator and the usual channels. Tomorrow, there will be four statutory instruments, ranging from tachographs to a gas tariff code. I will ensure that the Printed Paper Office has the details of these SIs so that they can be made available for noble Lords. Further usual channels conversations are required before business is confirmed for next week; however, it is my intention to issue a Forthcoming Business tomorrow afternoon, or Friday morning at the latest, providing the details of our business for next week.

European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill

Debate between Lord Ashton of Hyde and Lord Fowler

Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Friday 6th September 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, I understand that this matter has followed what has been a sometimes difficult and prolonged debate. I agreed with the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberal Democrat party that we would make sure that the Bill was passed by the end of today and sent back to the Commons. As my noble friend indicated, the Government are not in favour of the Bill but we made those undertakings. We will complete them but we are not responsible for the Bill.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

The mover of the amendment has the right to reply at this stage.