Having slightly altered the layout last week, let’s see if we can keep to it this week.

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

• the Water (Special Measures) Bill – about the regulation, governance and special administration of water companies.
• the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill – now concluding its Committee Stage, and
• the Arbitration Bill – which seeks to improve the arbitration system as created by the Arbitration Act 1996.

In terms of Oral Questions from the Liberal Democrat benches this week, Monday sees questions from Claire Tyler on fees charged by unregistered children’s homes and from Susan Kramer on confidentiality and protection for whistleblowers.

Last Monday saw a rather moving intervention from Sal Brinton in a debate on the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024, noting the impact on those affected:

Urgent dialogue is vital, because these delays are causing real hardship for dying affected persons who have no chance of interim payments because of the delay. One is the mother of a child sandwiched between her infected father and child. She has had to give up her whole life to care, having already lost her father and mother young. This mother and her husband are very ill; they need the interim payment for care to relieve their suffering. Then there is Helen, an affected person who is already in the system and who is clearly entitled to payments. She is terminally ill with stage 4 ovarian cancer. She has been told that she is unlikely to survive the publication of the second regulations, let alone their anticipated rollout in 2025. For her, an urgent interim payment would provide funds for her to be able to pay more for care and support than she can afford now. Later will not do.

On Tuesday, a Government statement was made regarding the deal signed with the authorities on St Helena to take any migrants arriving in the British Indian Ocean Territory pending a formal treaty with Mauritius. Mike German took the opportunity to raise concerns over the fate of the Chagos Islanders and the Tamil asylum seekers on Diego Garcia:

My Lords, it is good news that the Government have reached an agreement with Mauritius in principle, although there are of course still concerns about the involvement of the Chagossians in the process. Will any migrant who gets to these territories and is then transferred to St Helena have an opportunity to apply for asylum in this country, given the role we are playing in the interim period before Mauritius takes over its responsibilities? Will the Mauritius agreement be subject to scrutiny by the International Agreements Committee of this House? If so, when is it likely to come before us? Will the Tamil asylum seekers, who were kept in awful conditions on Diego Garcia without a solution being found until recently, be able to seek asylum in this country, even though they may have to transfer elsewhere in the interim? If so, what will be the timescale?

And finally, for this week, I should report that, the day before his 89th birthday, Roger Roberts raised two of the issues that he has fought so hard on over the years:

Last week the blast furnaces at Port Talbot closed and 2,700 people lost their jobs. That surely has a massive influence on the number of children in poverty in Wales. In consultation with the Welsh Senedd, what proposals do the Government have to make sure that those workers are re-employed?

Happy birthday, Roger, and many more of them!

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