"My Lords, I appreciate that the Government’s youth guarantee scheme is well intentioned, but would it not be more effective if it applied to those 18 to 21 year-olds who have been out of work and education for six months rather than 18 months—by which time many will have lost …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, Governments can be forced to make abrupt, top-down decisions without having the time to undertake scientific ground-up assessments on the impact of those decisions. That is very much the case with our ODA budget, which, at a stroke, will lose an annual £6.2 billion, taking it down to …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, I will focus on the BBC from a commercial and international perspective, and should declare an interest up front. In my years as a journalist and foreign correspondent in Latin America and the Middle East, and then as a CEO of a British online information service on emerging …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, there is growing support for a social media ban for all those under the age of 16. In the interests of public sector productivity, would the Minister consider a similar ban during working hours for all government officials and civil servants under the age of 60?..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, I commend the Government on adjusting the threshold to £2.5 million, which I and other Cross-Benchers advocated a year ago in this place and which strikes the right balance. However, how many agricultural, forestry and fishing businesses closed in the 12 months since the 20% IHT measure was …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, the brutal truth is that the number of graduates in the UK has almost doubled over the last 20 years, far outstripping the supply of graduate jobs, and that was before the decline in the last five years. This gross mismatch in supply and demand has resulted in …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, the Minister just mentioned that as many as 400,000 workers are being paid under the minimum wage and another 900,000 are having their holiday pay withheld. Given the enormity of these numbers, how will the FWA be resourced to deal with the scale of its many responsibilities, particularly …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, child poverty is undoubtedly a serious issue, and the steep drop in the number of children being born in this country is perhaps even more serious. Last week, we learned that the average cost of raising a child has now risen to £249,000, according to research by Moneyfarm, …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech
"My Lords, I have two brief points for the Minister. First, given the importance of the OBR, why is it so lightly resourced? Those of us who run businesses or organisations of 50 staff will know that IT and security systems will essentially be back office and unsophisticated, as indeed …..." Lord Londesborough - View Speech