King’s Speech

Lord Foster of Bath Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords, the Government are right to focus on economic growth. But in parts the plans are timid and in others they are, frankly, bizarre and wrong. They are timid about rebuilding our relationship with the European Union, given the inhibiting red lines. The recent first quarter 0.6% of GDP rise pales into insignificance against the latest estimate that Brexit hit GDP by as much as 8%. So, after the catastrophic mistake of Brexit, the Government should be much more ambitious, going much further towards reuniting with our European allies to rebuild our economy and our defences. When he responds, I hope the Minister will tell me whether he agrees with these Benches, Wes Streeting, and possibly, though we are not quite sure, Andy Burnham.

Elsewhere, though, the Government are getting it very badly wrong. They have said that, despite the harm and misery that it causes, they want to grow the gambling industry and believe it can be done while also reducing gambling harm. This is absolute nonsense. National and international public health experts believe that it will lead to more gambling harm and more misery for individuals, families and communities. It is also economic nonsense. Four recent reports all show that reducing gambling will put more discretionary spend into more productive parts of the economy, creating more jobs, higher tax receipts for the Treasury and reduced treatment costs. Labour has admitted it got it wrong with the Gambling Act 2005. Encouraging growth in gambling now would be an even bigger mistake.

On a different subject, live facial recognition—LFR—is increasingly being used around the country. But, as the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, which I chair, has regularly pointed out, this is without proper legal basis, adequate independent scrutiny or consistent national training. The policing reform Bill promises to address this. Consultation has already been conducted. But, while the deadline has passed, the Government’s response still has not appeared. So will the Minister tell us when we can expect the response, and can he give us the timeline for the creation of a legal framework and a regulatory body to oversee the use of LFR?

Finally, on prisons, last year the Justice and Home Affairs Committee report on prisons highlighted the high reoffending rate of ex-prisoners. We argued for more measures to reduce reoffending, as well as for education, skills training, help with drugs, alcohol and gambling problems, and help with housing and jobs on leaving prison. We pointed out that in particular we need to reduce overcrowding and improve recruitment, retention and training of prison officers. The highly effective Prisons Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, is doing as much as he can, but still prisoners, often let out of their cells for less than three hours a day, spend far too long with little to do.

The Minister is hindered by delays and cost overruns in the new building programme; a maintenance backlog of £1.8 billion; inadequate fire safety arrangements, with cell fires averaging eight per day; and the temporary closure of Dartmoor prison because of radon gas, with 16 other prisons possibly having the same problem. He has to deal with the uncertainty for foreign prison officers who have only a temporary reprieve from the impact of the new Immigration Rules, which means their salaries fall below the new minimum for skilled workers’ visas. There is the real possibility that the measures in the proposed courts modernisation Bill, with more cases to be handled by magistrates’ courts with extended sentencing powers, will lead to an increased prison population. So can the Minister share the Government’s assessment of the proposed Bill’s impact on prisoner numbers, and can he ensure that the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, gets more support from the Government for the good work that he is already doing?