Tag: manchester

Bishop of Manchester asks about support for children orphaned as a result of AIDS

On 1st December 2025, the Bishop of Manchester asked a question on support for children orphaned as a result of AIDS, during a discussion marking World AIDS Day 2025:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, one of the most tragic consequences of AIDS remains children who lose both their parents at a very young age and often end up in an orphanage. We were talking in the House just last week about some of the challenges of orphanages. What is the Government’s plan to support children who have been left orphaned as a result of AIDS?

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Crime and Policing Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports amendments on combatting child trafficking and improving safeguarding regulations

On 27th November 2025, the Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which would expand the definition of exploitation under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to include children who have been recruited into residential care institutions that engage in orphanage trafficking:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I too support this amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Randall of Uxbridge. It is my privilege, as I travel around the world visiting Anglican provinces, often to visit orphanages and see some of the work they do. As noble Lords have already said, many of these children still have a living parent somewhere, but that parent, for whatever reason, no longer feels able or wishes to look after them, particularly if the mother has died in childbirth.

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Bishop of Manchester asks about preparing young people for civic participation

The Bishop of Manchester asked a question on preparing young people for participation in politics on 18th November 2025, during a discussion on election law and the expansion of the voting franchise:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, as an enthusiastic volunteer on the Learn with the Lords programme, I strongly applaud the Government’s plans to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16. In preparation for that, what can the Government do to help teachers in schools prepare young people and be able to teach about politics in a way that does not get them in trouble for perhaps being seen to be partisan?

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Crime and Policing Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports amendments on tackling prejudice against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities

The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill at committee on 17th November 2025, opposing over policing of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and urging the government to tackle discrimination and prejudice against these communities:

My Lords, Manchester’s famous Christmas markets are now in full swing. If you’re visiting my city any time in the next few weeks, until the last few days before Christmas, you are most welcome to patronise them. However, that was not the case for a number of young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds this time last year. They were turned away by police at the railway station on the supposition that they must have come to commit crime. Children were seen being forced on to trains heading to unknown destinations, separated from family members, and subjected to physical aggression. That included shoving, hair-pulling, and handcuffing. Several individuals reported officers making disparaging remarks about their ethnicity.

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Votes: Employment Rights Bill

On 17th November, the House of Lords debated Commons Reasons and Amendments to the Employment Rights Bill. Votes were held on further amendments to the Bill, in which a Bishop took part:

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Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: Bishop of Manchester supports amendments on right to work

On 5th November 2025, the Bishop of Manchester spoke in a debate on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, supporting amendments on removing the restrictions on work for asylum seekers:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, as well as Amendment 45 in my name, and that of the noble Lords, Lord Alton of Liverpool and Lord Watson of Invergowrie, I also strongly support the other amendments in this group, to which the noble Lord, Lord German, has just spoken. In fact, I have added my name to two of them.

The current lengthy ban on asylum seekers working wastes talent. Lifting it would let an incredibly talented, resilient group of people—as those are the qualities they needed to even get themselves here—support themselves and their families. It would allow them to rebuild their lives with dignity and independence, at the same time as they would be filling vital UK labour shortages.

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Bishop of Manchester asks about new EHRC Chair

The Bishop of Manchester asked a question on the appointment of a new chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 5th November 2025:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: Like many, I am grateful that the interim advice that was issued and caused such widespread alarm was withdrawn, albeit belatedly. As the Minister has just said, we need to get this right rather than done quick. With that in mind, can the Minister assure us that the forthcoming appointment of the new chair of the EHRC will be taken as an opportunity to reset an organisation that has, of late, lost the confidence of many?

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Bishop of Manchester responds to statement on Huntingdon Train Attack

The Bishop of Manchester spoke in response to a government statement on the Huntingdon Train Attack on 4th November 2025, asking about bias in surveillance technology and methods of deterrence for knife crime:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, these Benches pay tribute to the train crew and others who responded so heroically. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all those who have been impacted. The traumatic effects of being involved in an incident like that, in an enclosed space, do not just go away after a short period of time. I declare my unpaid role as co-chair of the national police ethics committee. I am grateful that information about the perpetrator was got out early, and not just the fact that it was not terrorism. Since Southport last year, we have known that releasing other information is vital to calming some of the public’s fears. That is something that my ethics committee has been discussing at length in recent times.

Like many noble Lords—I am looking at the noble Lord, Lord Goddard, who may want to intervene shortly—I travel a lot on trains that do not stop for quite a long distance and which have many carriages. I could have made some of the points that have already been made about this. It is about having enough first responders, who are equipped to respond effectively, on those trains throughout the journey.

My trains have CCTV in every carriage—it usually works. That helps. I think facial recognition technology has been referred to. That needs to be managed very carefully. Many of the models that I have seen still have an in-built ethnic bias, inherited from the fact that the original training of their algorithms is often based on the faces of white men such as me. These models sometimes struggle to distinguish people from other groups within society, leading to too many false positives and causing people who are entirely innocent to have their lives interrupted by being stopped and accused of an offence. If we are to increase stop and search, there is no problem with that as long as we ensure that the officers involved are trained in unconscious bias so that they are not carrying it out in a way that is unfair.

Finally, does the Minister agree that deterrence for knife crime and other crime is driven much more by fear of detection and arrest than by the theoretical length of a maximum sentence?

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Bishop of Manchester asks about education and forced marriage

The Bishop of Manchester asked a question on preventing forced marriage and pregnancy as barriers to women’s education during a discussion on official development assistance on 4th November 2025:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, while we are on the theme of supporting women, as I travel around I find that one of the greatest impairments to young girls completing their education is that they are forced into pregnancy—sometimes by their families—at a very young age, pre leaving school. What can His Majesty’s Government do to help prevent young girls being made pregnant, usually by older men and in very difficult circumstances?

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Votes: Planning and Infrastructure Bill

On 3rd November 2025, the House of Lords debated the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:

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