"Will the noble Lord be kind enough to write to me with his response to my points on the Defence Academy and the issue to do with Afghan interpreters?..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, I shall raise two issues that were not covered in what is otherwise a thoroughly convincing and comprehensive review. The first is soft power. Perhaps the terms of reference were too tightly drawn or too narrowly interpreted, but defence is not just about weapons and Armed Forces—the hard …..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, what assessment have the Government made of the risk of further World Service closures, which might result in Russia or China immediately occupying those frequencies? Would not more robust, long-term government funding for the World Service be a sensible protective measure against disinformation?..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, if the military base on Diego Garcia is just as important to the US as it is to the UK, was the US ever asked to split the costs of leasing it back?..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, Russian-backed media are now transmitting on the radio frequency previously occupied by BBC Arabic. While the FCDO funding for 2025-26 is helping the World Service, as the Minister said, to maintain existing language and emergency services for those in crisis, including in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, this cannot …..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, the Statement read out by the noble Baroness the Leader said that this arrangement will do away with the long delays faced by lorry drivers with rotting food in the back. Can she say whether it will do away with the long delays faced by coach-loads of schoolchildren …..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, does the Minister agree that caution is needed if public services, in an attempt to be inclusive but also to save money, convey information in languages other than English that has been produced by machine translation? That works pretty well for standard Romance languages and for German, but …..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"My Lords, I know the Minister is already well aware of the recent escalation in the Iranian authorities’ harassment and intimidation of BBC Persian journalists and their family members in Iran. The aim is to intimidate the journalists into stopping their work for the BBC World Service and to silence …..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech
"Before the noble Lord sits down, can he comment on the question I asked about his willingness to speak to Home Office colleagues about being quicker off the mark in processing visa applications for the relatives of BBC Persian journalists? They need to come here to visit their family because …..." Baroness Coussins - View Speech