On 16th July 2025, the House of Lords debated the Employment Rights Bill. Votes were held on an amendment to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:
Votes: Employment Rights Bill
Category: Bills
Legislation before Parliament
Votes: Renters Rights Bill
On 15th July 2025, the House of Lords debated the Renters Rights Bill. Votes were held on an amendment to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:
Renters Rights Bill: Bishop of Manchester moves amendment on Decent Homes Standard
On 15th July 2025, the Bishop of Manchester moved his amendment 105 to the Renters Rights Bill, and spoke in support of two further amendments:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: 105: Clause 101, page 134, line 11, leave out from “(homelessness)” to end of line 13
Member’s explanatory statement: This amendment would make the Decent homes standard apply to all homeless temporary accommodation provided under the Housing Act 1996.
My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. My wife and I own one apartment; it is in the West Midlands, and it is let out. Nothing in this amendment or any others in this group would provide me with any advantage that I can foresee.
Amendment 105 seeks to extend the decent homes standard to temporary accommodation. As I said in Committee—and hence I can be extremely brief today—those in temporary accommodation are among the most vulnerable in our society. They are already battling against major disadvantages, and being placed in properties that fail the standard simply adds to their burden.
Continue reading “Renters Rights Bill: Bishop of Manchester moves amendment on Decent Homes Standard”Votes: Employment Rights Bill
On 14th July 2025, the House of Lords debated the Employment Rights Bill. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:
Votes: House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
On 9th July 2025, the House of Lords debated the Hereditary Peers Bill in report. Votes were held on an amendment to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:
Still-Birth (Definition) Bill: Bishop of Guildford welcomes legislation
On 4th July 2025, the Bishop of Guildford spoke at the second reading of the Still-Birth (Definition) Bill [HL], a private members bill tabled by Baroness Benjamin, supporting the bill and welcoming its principles behind it:
The Lord Bishop of Guildford: My Lords, I will speak in support of the principles of this Bill, and I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, for having brought it to the House. One of the best traits in human nature is using the difficult experiences that we ourselves encounter to speak up for others facing similar situations. I applaud the noble Baroness for using her experience and her voice in this way, and especially for the achievement of the introduction of certificates of loss last year.
During my time as a vicar in south-west London, another inspiring woman from within my then congregation came to me with the idea of starting a listening service for women who had miscarried or were facing difficult or unintended pregnancies. This was partly born out of her own experience and partly out of the fact that she lived around the corner from a large BPAS abortion clinic, where a constant trickle of women, sometimes accompanied by their partners or their mums and sometimes quite alone, would make their way to the front door, often in considerable distress, with very little time or opportunity to think through what was for some a desperately difficult decision. It was not long before my congregation member had assembled a small group of other people—about six in all—who were enthused by the vision. They undertook substantial training, not least given the extreme sensitivity of what they would be doing and the need to ensure that they were both professional and non-directive in their approach.
Continue reading “Still-Birth (Definition) Bill: Bishop of Guildford welcomes legislation”Votes: House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
On 2nd July 2025, the House of Lords debated the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill in report. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:
Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports legislation and raises need for equality in housing access
The Bishop of Manchester spoke at the second reading of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on 25th June 2025, welcoming the legislation and the expansion of social housing in the UK, and raising the needs of rural and minority communities in relation to housing and land development:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, it is always a great privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Best, whose wisdom on housing is quite unparalleled. I draw attention to my own interests in social housing, as set out in the register, and to the fact that a number of provisions in the Bill might impact on the interests of the Church Commissioners for England, who pay my stipend and own the house I live in.
I welcome the Bill. We desperately need a rapid expansion in the building of social homes, ideally at social rents. Enactment of the measures here included can be part of the architecture—please excuse the pun—we need if we are going to underpin the ambition for a mixed economy for housing, one which will live up to the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing’s values of homes that are safe and sustainable.
Continue reading “Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports legislation and raises need for equality in housing access”Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Bishop of Lincoln moves safeguarding amendments on behalf of the Bishop of Manchester
The Bishop of Lincoln moved two amendments in place of the Bishop of Manchester on lifelong safeguarding for children in care during a debate on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on 19th June 2025:
The Lord Bishop of Lincoln:
146B: Clause 21, page 39, line 21, at end insert—
(e) to have due regard to the need to remove or minimise the disadvantages suffered by looked-after children and relevant young persons.”Member’s explanatory statement
The amendment seeks to expand and strengthen Clause 21 by replacing the light-touch duty to be “alert to” their needs with a stronger requirement for public bodies to have “due regard” to eliminating disadvantage and to take reasonable steps to mitigate any harmful effects of their policies. The amendment intends to create a legally enforceable, lifelong safeguard for anyone who has ever been in care.
My Lords, I move the amendments in the name of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester. In relation to Amendment 146B, 120 councils around the country have already committed themselves voluntarily to embrace the “due regard” implementation, but this amendment intends to create a legally enforceable, legislative and lifelong safeguard across government for anyone who has ever been in care.
Continue reading “Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Bishop of Lincoln moves safeguarding amendments on behalf of the Bishop of Manchester”Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports amendments on safeguarding children’s rights
On 17th June 2025, the House of Lords debated the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of amendments to the bill that would ensure safeguards and limits on deprivation of liberty for children:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I have added my name to a number of the amendments in this group; I could probably have added it to all of them. Like other noble Lords, I am very grateful for the work of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, which has been quoted several times. I am ignoring all the careful facts and figures I had prepared for this evening, because most of them have already been given by other noble Lords, and it is a principle here that we do not repeat what has already been said. Rather, I would like to speak to the broad principles and the moral case, and to be brief.
Continue reading “Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports amendments on safeguarding children’s rights”
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