Cyclists: Safety

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The £626 million investment over four years in active travel infrastructure is designed to do precisely that. The noble Baroness is completely right; we want people to walk and cycle, and we want kids to do that as a matter of habit. That is why the Government are investing so much money. Before Christmas, we consulted on the third cycling and walking strategy. I anticipate that that too will have something to say in the direction that she wants us to go in.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister please tell us what action the Government are going to take to make cyclists more aware of their responsibilities towards pedestrians? All too often, cyclists show a complete disregard for the Highway Code and the safety of pedestrians.

[Noble Lords]

Hear, hear!

Northern Powerhouse Rail

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Birt (CB)]

My Lords, I worked at No. 10 as Tony Blair’s strategy adviser in 2005 when an in principle go-ahead was given to an ambitious high-speed rail network for the whole country. Twenty-odd years later, we do not even have one small part of that plan in place. In the same period, since 2008 China has built 48,000 kilometres of high-speed rail.

I am a Liverpool supporter, so I regularly go—

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

You have lost us there.

[Lord Birt (CB)]

It has been a difficult weekend. I regularly visit the north-west of England, as I did at the weekend. I am involved in an east of Pennines business, so I am very familiar with the 19th-century infrastructure of the whole of the north of England. Are we remotely ambitious enough with our rail infrastructure?