The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 23rd February 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of potential data processing measures to enable automatic registration for free school meals.
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The Bishop of Leicester asked a question on supporting young people not in work, education, or training on 5th February, during a discussion on youth unemployment:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester: I welcome the Government’s new initiatives in this area, particularly the youth guarantee. Can the Minister tell us how the Government are going to tackle the estimated 500,000 young people who are not in education, employment or training, and who are not claiming benefits either? Are we not at serious risk of a whole generation of young people not being able to use their gifts for the good of wider society?
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester asks about support for youth employment”The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answers on 3rd February 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government for how long they will remove the right to claim benefits from 18-to-21-year-olds on Universal Credit who do not accept the offer of a work placement through the Youth Guarantee scheme.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester asks about employment and social security”The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 30th January 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that cash payments received through the Crisis and Resilience Fund do not lead to a deduction in a person’s Universal Credit payment.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester asks about welfare payments”The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 27th January 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government how they will ensure the jobs created for the Youth Guarantee scheme for 18-to-21-year-olds on Universal Credit are genuinely new roles which would not otherwise have been advertised.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester asks about youth employment scheme”The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 23rd January 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that the trusted adults targeted through the National Youth Strategy are trained and equipped to provide skilled work-readiness coaching for young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester asks about youth work”The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 22nd January 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government what measures they have in place to ensure that the trial of new interventions within the Youth Trailblazers programme does not affect participation levels in existing employment programmes run by the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector which they have evaluated as effective.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester asks about youth employment schemes”The Bishop of Leicester spoke in a debate on a report from the Common Good Foundation and Centre for Policy Studies on the UK’s demographic future on 11th December 2025, pointing out the impact of poverty and and inequality on social cohesion:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, for his work in bringing together this report and giving us the opportunity to debate it. I add my thanks to him for his fascinating speech today and his wider contribution to this House, and I wish him well for the future.
The authors of this report raise various thorny policy problems, each of which demands careful negotiation so as to manage conflicting trade-offs. It would be easy to brush them aside in favour of more electorally popular concerns or to oversimplify them to stoke division. I want to put on record first my support for an open debate on questions such as, “What is a reasonable level of population growth?” It may be an uncomfortable question, but what are we here for if not to model healthy, mature debates on uncomfortable questions?
I want to focus my remarks on the chapter on social cohesion by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali. While I would differ from Dr Nazir-Ali on a few of his points, I welcome his overall thrust: calling for more attention to be paid to the fabric of our society and how it is affected by the demographic shifts noted in the report.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester speaks in debate on the UK’s demographic future”The Bishop of Leicester spoke during a debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life Bill) on 5th December 2025, supporting amendments regarding the bill’s impact on children and young people:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester: My Lords, I too rise to support this amendment with some caution, noting that these are deep waters. I hope that noble Lords will forgive me for pointing out the blindingly obvious: as I look around your Lordships’ Committee, I do not see any 18 to 25 year-olds on these Benches, and the voices of children and young people are vital in such a debate.
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The Bishop of Leicester spoke during the Bishop of Leeds’ debate on the humanitarian situation in Sudan on 27th November 2025, focusing on efforts to fund local partners in Sudan working to combat the crisis:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester: I am grateful to noble Lords for ignoring the request from my right reverend friend the Bishop of Leeds that this should not be a valedictory debate for him. His contribution to this House, and to the Church and nation more widely, has been immense. However, I sincerely hope that this House and His Majesty’s Government will not ignore the right reverend Prelate’s words regarding Sudan, something which is very dear to his heart.
I want to focus my comments on the funding of local partners in Sudan. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact, in its October 2025 report, found that the UK Government
“in many instances demonstrated credible political leadership and strong convening power, drawing on deep networks that are valued by stakeholders”.
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