I really ought to get better at producing this mostly erratic column. After all, with all those new MPs on the green benches, the prospects of decent coverage of our Parliamentary Party in the Lords fall somewhat, and they’re still as busy as ever…

We’ll start with a quick trot through the business for the week.

There are four Bills before their Lordships’ House this week:

• the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill – intended to enable the transfer of the remaining passenger service franchise back to Government control.
• the Crown Estate Bill – intended to widen the borrowing and investment powers of the Crown Estate so that it can invest in green energy projects
• the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill – intended to abolish the existing Institute and effectively transfer its functions to Skills England, and
• the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill – which pretty much does what it implies, ensuring that Bishop appointments to the Lords are obliged to be filled by women for longer.

Naturally, the Liberal Democrats have been busy teasing out the Government’s plans on railway passenger services and facilities, with strong interventions two weeks ago from Bill Bradshaw (a former General Manager of British Rail’s Western Region), Caroline Pidgeon (making her maiden speech), Ros Scott, Sal Brinton and, of course, our Transport Spokesperson, Jenny Randerson.

On Monday, Sal Brinton has a Motion of Regret in relation to the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024, seeking to insert:

but that this House, while welcoming the progress made to compensate eligible infected persons, regrets that close family members and carers affected by the infected blood scandal are not included in the Regulations, as recommended by the Inquiry.

There’s only one Oral Question from the Liberal Democrat benches this week, on Thursday when Dominic Addington seeks the Government’s response on the effectiveness of the Education and Healthcare Plans process for identifying and delivering support to those with special educational needs.

Finally, as far as the week ahead is concerned, Friday will see a debate on the situation in Ukraine.

Looking back to last week, a couple of highlights…

Lynne Featherstone made an impassioned plea in a debate she sponsored to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Michael Buerk BBC report which brought the Ethiopia famine to the attention of the british public and spawned Live Aid. In her opening speech, she concluded:

And as I stand here, I call on our new Labour UK Government to focus on malnutrition and to press our international partners to do the same. Surely we can promote this message—shout from this Chamber to reach across the world—of the urgent and ever-pressing need to focus primary development efforts on tackling malnutrition. It is the basis of everything, for without food you cannot study, you cannot grow, you cannot think, you cannot live, and you certainly cannot thrive.

I was pleased to note that Sally Hamwee moved her own Private Members’ Bill, the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill, on Friday. This seeks to provide, in primary legislation, the rights of people who seek safety in the UK to be joined by their family. She finished her remarks with a story:

In 2020, 14 children from a London primary school who had read the book The Boy at the Back of the Class—I commend it to noble Lords—told me how sad they were about the plight of lone refugee children. The boy at the back of the class was an unaccompanied asylum seeker. They were happy, though, that the book had a happy ending. In fact, the fiction involved the intervention of the late Queen Elizabeth. One child wrote:

“It must be very scary … to be in a big new country surrounded by new people. A strong country like ours can help”.

Hopefully, there’ll be another column next week, but do use the comments to indicate what you might find helpful in these reports going forward.

* Mark Valladares is the Lords Correspondent of Liberal Democrat Voice.