House of Lords Podcast: Lord Speaker's Corner

How should the curriculum for 11-16 year olds be reformed and should GCSEs remain? How can health services and community care be work better together?Hear from members on these topics and more in the latest episode of the House of Lords Podcast. First up we speak to the Senior Deputy Speaker, Lord Gardiner of Kimble, about how committees function in the House of Lords and his experiences as both a minister and in his current role.Next we speak to Baroness Pitkeathley, Chair of the new Lords committee investigating the integration of primary and community care. She explains what the challenge is, why the committee is looking into it now and what they hope to find out.Then we speak to Lord Baker of Dorking. Lord Baker introduced the National Curriculum in 1989 when he was Secretary of State for Education. More recently he helped proposed a new Lords committee to look into the curriculum now and how it should be changed for 11-16 year olds.Find out more about the Education for 11–16 Year Olds CommitteeFind out more about the Integration of Primary and Community Care Committee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘In the House of Commons there's a culture of assertion. Government knows it'll normally get its way. In the House of Lords, it's a culture of justification. So government's got to persuade the rest of the House that what it wants to achieve it is desirable. So ministers have to engage. They can't simply rely on their own side to get a measure through.’In this third episode of Lord Speaker's Corner, Lord McFall of Alcluith speaks to constitutional expert and Professor of Government at the University of Hull, Lord Norton of Louth. They discuss the importance of good lawmaking, why everyone should care about secondary legislation and the complementary roles of the House of Lords and House of Commons.Find out more about the series, including a transcript of the interview https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2023/february-2023/lord-speakers-corner/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘One of the problems I had growing up as a young person in Northern Ireland when things were breaking down into violence again was... I was very troubled by the violence. I thought we must find some kind of way of living together. But the other thing was, I wanted to understand why.’Welcome to the second episode of our Lord Speaker's Corner series. In this episode, the Lord Speaker is joined by psychiatrist, former speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and leader of the Alliance Party, Lord Alderdice as he discusses his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process and his current work on international conflict and peace building.Find out more about the series or watch a video of the interview Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing a special series from the House of Lords: Lord Speaker's Corner. Over five episodes, Lord McFall of Alcluith will speak to members of the Lords about what drives them and what they hope to achieve in the House. In this first episode, the Lord Speaker sits down with Lord Dubs:‘I think it's possible in the House of Lords to achieve things. And there's no point in being here unless one sets out to do that.’Speaking shortly after Lord Dubs’ 90th birthday, the Lord Speaker discusses Lord Dubs’ experience in the Kindertransport as a child refugee and what continues to drive his work. They also discuss their shared experiences in Northern Ireland, and convincing the government to change legislation.Find out more about the series including videos of the interviews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month we speak to two members who have been leading investigations into improving adult social care and how the government has incompletely implemented the Children and Families Act.‘A gloriously ordinary life’‘We cannot keep asking families and friends to step up and take more and more responsibility for the adult social care services, while denying them some basic rights in terms of fair benefits and fair access to work.’First, we speak to Baroness Andrews, who has been chairing the Lords Adult Social Care Committee. The committee's recent report, titled 'a gloriously normal life' has just been published. It makes several recommendations on what the government needs to do to improve social care. Listen to Baroness Andrew's interview to find out what the committee found as it spoke to people with lived experience of caring or care, and what the committee now wants the government to do.‘What we heard from carers was the privilege of caring and how much they got out of it, how much they'd learned, for example, from growing up alongside a disabled child or how much they had learned from seeing their parent become a slightly different person from the one that they had been brought up with. It was a positive experience in terms of love and duty for so many, but most had never had a choice, and what we looked at as a consequence of that is what is going to happen in the future when there will be two million people in the next decade aging without children.’·      Find out more from the Adult Social Care Committee‘A failure of implementation’‘Sadly, we found that, due mainly to a lack of real focus on implementation and monitoring the implementation of the Act, it's really been a missed opportunity. And so many of the reforms as envisaged, just haven't taken place or haven't had the desired impact.’Then we speak to Baroness Tyler of Enfield. Baroness Tyler has chaired the Lords committee investigating the government's implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014. In this interview, Baroness Tyler explains how a lack of scrutiny has meant the Act has failed to achieve its desired purpose and what the government can do to fix it.‘We feel it's been a real missed opportunity to improve help, support and protection, particularly for vulnerable children and their parents.’·      Find out more from the Children and Families Act CommitteeCommittee CorridorInterested in hearing more about Parliament’s committees? Listen to the House of Commons Committee Corridor podcast. Visit parliament.uk or search wherever you get your podcasts.More episodesHear more from the House of Lords, including how Hansard works, why members put forward their own draft laws, women in Parliament and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you know what a member said in the House of Lords, or Commons? And did you know that you could once be arrested for reporting what was happening in Parliament? In this month’s episode of the House of Lords Podcast, we meet the team behind the Official Report, known as Hansard, who ensure written proceedings are made available and accessible to the public each sitting day. We hear about everything from the history of Hansard, why you might hear ‘can I have some ears please?’ in their office, the unusual name of where the reporters sit in the chamber and what they do if a member bursts into song.Find out more about House of Lords Hansard Read 'The History of Hansard' by John Vice and Stephen Farrell (PDF) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you know that it’s not just the government that can propose new laws in Parliament?This month we are looking at how members campaign for change via private members’ bills. These are bills that can be introduced by any member of the House of Lords, who is not a government minister, to change the law.Amy and Matt speak to Lord Farmer, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and Lord Wills about their bills, covering subjects from child benefit to preventing suicide to creating an advocate for the victims of major incidents. They each explain what they are trying to achieve with their proposed law, and why they have put them forward.We also speak to Alasdair in the House of Lords Legislation Office and Ed in the Lords Library about the process for putting forward a bill, why they tend to be shorter than government bills, and how they can be about more than getting on the statute books.Find out more about private members’ bills in the House of Lords during this session of ParliamentRead more from the House of Lords Library Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this month’s House of Lords podcast we talk to Labour’s Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon and Conservative peer Nicky Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes.First up, we hear from Baroness Morgan about the new Lords committee investigating how we tackle digital fraud, how you can get involved in the committee’s work and what former minister Lord Agnew of Oulton told the committee about the government’s work on fraud.‘This was chosen as the topic because of the scale of fraud. It now accounts of 42% of all crime against individuals and it's the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales.’ Baroness Morgan of CotesWe also discuss Baroness Morgan’s change to the Domestic Abuse Bill to tackle revenge porn, plus what she thinks of the upcoming Online Safety Bill and equality online. We also find out whether it is MPs or members of the Lords who ask the toughest questions to ministers.‘Sadly, I think there is a lot more to be done. I think that our online spaces are still too unfriendly to lots of people, but women included… I still hear too much, 'if you don't like it, then don't participate', well, we don't tell women, we shouldn't tell women not to participate in our public offline spaces so why would we expect women not to participate online?’ Baroness Morgan of CotesNext up, we speak to the Leader of the Opposition in the Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon. She talks about what has changed for women in Parliament since she was elected in 1997 and what she thinks still needs to change for representation.‘The sad thing was how often the press liked talking about what we wore, and if we wore certain kind of nail varnish… There was a lot of interest in that, and some of it wasn't healthy. We were always referred to as the women MPs… Nobody ever uses that awful term now, you're just an MP. And I think that's one of the shifts. No one thinks being a female MP is unusual.’ Baroness Smith of BasildonWe also discuss what the role of Leader of the Opposition involves, why it’s good to be a bit nervous and discuss some of the famous faces who have visited the Lords, from Harry Styles to Robert Redford and Bradley Whitford.‘I don't think you ever lose the nerves. And I think the day you are never nervous about doing anything is the day you've lost your edge… when there's a really important debate on, statements on the big political issues of the day, there's a nervousness for me, and that's that sort of anticipation that I've got to get this right, people are relying on me.’ Baroness Smith of Basildon  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month, we hear from Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate why the House of Lords is the best place for checking draft laws, his experiences as a whip and as a rebel, plus updating the Queen on what’s happening in Parliament.‘This is a bit like Deja-vu, this particular legislation’Lord Kirkhope also explains why he is putting forward changes to the Nationality and Borders Bill based upon his experience as a former immigration minister. ‘It is House of Lords, which in my opinion, and from my experience, now does better and more full scrutiny of legislation than the House of Commons.’He also explains what happens in the chamber and behind the scenes at each stage of the legislative process in the House of Lords as members consider draft laws and try to help the government refine them. ‘I was a whip and my job was to make sure that legislation got through… and what I've got to watch out for now is the operation of the whips.’Lord Kirkhope is also a former whip in the House of Commons. He explains how the job worked and what, in his view, was the worst thing an MP could do.‘It's quite a... What can I say, quite a challenge? How are you going to amuse the monarch?’Finally, we ask Lord Kirkhope about his time writing to Her Majesty The Queen to inform her on what was happening each day in Parliament, and we find out what she thought of his updates. ·      Find out more about Lord Kirkhope’s parliamentary career·      Follow Lord Kirkhope on Twitter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this month’s episode of the House of Lords Podcast, we are talking about protecting children and strengthening the Union, plus RuPaul’s Drag Race and seeing yourself on stage.Children and the internet‘I saw in the attention economy that, in order to create as much value as possible from data… you created features of the system that were unsafe or exposing for children… They should not be working for the man in Silicon Valley.’First, we speak to Baroness Kidron about her work to protect children online. She explains why she led the way on creating ground-breaking protections for young people. In this interview, Baroness Kidron explains the need to carry on pressing the issues created by a lack of regulation for tech companies, and the need for a series of interventions, likening the situation to the industrial revolution and a need for 17 Factory Acts at the time.‘We've done a lot of the work of taking a draft bill, which was really approaching one of the most difficult issues of our time and actually taking it up a level into being a pragmatic and implementable bill’Baroness Kidron also talks about the way forward for regulating social media giants, her hopes for the Online Safety Bill and the findings of the committee she served on to scrutinise the draft law.‘It’s one of the joys of my life to have been embraced by that community’Baroness Kidron also talks about her experience as a filmmaker, including directing the renowned To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. She explains how pleased she is to see drag and its stars such as RuPaul (who appeared in the film) doing so well today.The Union‘It really is time that we release the trap that central government has on law-making and indeed, on spending and delivering services’We also speak to Baroness Taylor of Bolton and Lord Dunlop this month. They are discussing the Lords Constitution Committee’s report on resetting relations across the UK’s parliaments and governments.‘The biggest threat to the Union is people feeling they're not sharing equally in the Union's benefits and that they feel powerless to make their voices heard… We're waiting as we speak, for the government's leveling up white paper. And I think that's going to be very important and it needs to be ambitious.’They also discuss the threats to the Union between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and how the dynamic can be improved.‘Government doesn't always understand Parliament can actually be helpful in terms of getting the legislation into the right shape’We also talk about the importance of legislative scrutiny and the recent Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and, keeping to a cultural theme, we discuss with Baroness Taylor what it is like to see yourself portrayed on stage.Find out more about the Joint Online Safety Bill CommitteeFind out more about the Lords Constitution CommitteeRead an introduction to the Constitution Committee’s latest report Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.