Results 1-20 of 51 for speaker:the Bishop of Norwich

Leveson Inquiry — Motion to Take Note (11 January 2013)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, the 2,000 pages of the Leveson report makes the New Testament seem a lightweight document, at least in terms of bulk. But it is important to remember why the report came to be written: it was the consequence of national, moral outrage. Anyone who believes that Britain's moral conscience is duller than it was might do well to reflect on our collective response to the phone hacking...

Online Safety Bill [HL] — Second Reading (9 November 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, for introducing the Bill, which is both principled and practical and has an elegant simplicity that is not characteristic of all proposed legislation. The revelations concerning Jimmy Savile have shocked the nation and it is right that we are shocked. We are much less tolerant, as a society, of inappropriate sexual contact between...

NHS: Death at Home — Question for Short Debate (8 November 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Warner, for securing this important debate. We should probably all declare an interest as speakers since the one certainty is that we shall all die. We speak of dying as a process which occurs in the last stages of life but since, each day, we are moving nearer to the moment of our death, we could be said to be dying all the time. Living and...

Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012 — Motion to Take Note (8 November 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, this is a welcome debate and I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, for securing it. Like others, I look forward enormously to the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Deighton. The Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer were a wonderful antidote to the cynicism which bedevils too much of our public life. Quite apart from the brilliant organisation and the...

Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2012 — Motion to Approve (6 November 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, there is a logic, if a rather cold one, in suggesting that those on housing benefit should not be supported from the public purse if they live in homes larger than they need. However, as we have already heard, it is the lack of availability of alternative accommodation in reasonable proximity that may make this proposal so socially disruptive and prompts me to support this...

Universities: Overseas Students — Question (5 November 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, at the University of East Anglia in Norwich we are seeing a very marked downturn in applications from postgraduate science students from India. This is consistent with evidence from 2010-11 that, when one lifts China out of the figures, there has been a rapid reversal in Britain's relative attractiveness to overseas students. If the Government are not going to lift students out of...

Legal Aid — Question (31 January 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, what impact does the Minister expect the cuts to have, in particular, on disabled people who rely very heavily on law centres for advice on housing and welfare issues? Might this not be a further blow to those who are already disadvantaged in making their case to tribunals?

Pakistan — Question (30 January 2012)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, as we approach the first anniversary of the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian Minorities Minister, in Pakistan, does the Minister detect any signs of hope that Christians and other minorities will be able to play their fullest and most active part in the democratic process there?

Immigration: Students — Question (15 November 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, theological and bible colleges are generally small institutions but highly cross-cultural in character because of their international students. The chances of these international students abusing their immigration status seems tiny, yet these institutions have to go through the same procedures as large universities at a very high and unsustainable per capita cost. Can the Minister...

Food: Prices — Question (14 November 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, is the Minister aware of the rapid growth of food banks around the country-a Christian initiative which is gaining ever wider support? I declare an interest as the patron of Norwich Foodbank, which has assisted 860 families and individuals in just the past three months. What might be done to better integrate this generous voluntary provision with the work of statutory agencies?

Localism Bill: Second Reading (7 June 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, I begin by saying that a family bereavement this morning means that if the House sits much longer than the estimated rising time I may have to leave to return to Norwich. I hope that that will not be necessary, but I apologise to the House if that proves to be so. There have been frequent pleas from these Benches over the years to listen to the voice of local communities, so the...

Communities — Debate (12 May 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, I am delighted to follow the excellent maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Noon, and hope that we will indeed hear from him very often in your Lordships' House. His services to the British food industry have been enormous, and I imagine that quite a number of us in the Palace of Westminster have taken advantage of the ready meals produced by Noon Products Ltd, especially after...

Big Society: Church of England — Question (12 May 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, as county youth services have diminished, the number of youth workers employed by the Church of England has increased considerably. Faced with inflation, reductions in gift aid and the other challenges to charitable giving faced by the voluntary sector, what steps will the Government take to help the Church of England develop further the community provision so essential to building...

The Big Society — Question for Short Debate (11 May 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, you cannot make people more altruistic by telling them to be so, and you cannot make them more neighbourly by instructing them to be better neighbours. We tend to learn these things by participation in intermediate institutions, larger than the family, of which churches are a good example but far from the only example. Not long ago, I commissioned 24 street pastors in the city of...

Children: Adoption — Question (10 May 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, a significant number of faith-based children's agencies are still providing adoption services in compliance with the Equality Act, while others are now restricted in that area to providing services after adoption. Does the Minister agree that, taken together, all these faith-based children's agencies provide a key service to vulnerable children-one that could be further extended?

Israel and Palestine — Question (9 May 2011)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, does the Minister agree that the recent withdrawal of residency permits from any Palestinians is a grave violation of basic human rights, and diminishes the capacity of many faith and community leaders to contribute to a peace settlement? In the case of Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, it also further alienates the small Christian community in the Holy Land.

Norwich and Norfolk (Structural Changes) Order 2010: Motion to Approve (22 March 2010)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, if you are the Bishop of Norwich it seems a bit superfluous to declare an interest. I was born in Torrington, Devon, but of pure Cornish parentage. They apologised to me for having their principal residence in the wrong place. The diocese of Norwich covers nearly all Norfolk and much of north-east Suffolk; namely, the Waveney valley. Apart from some parishes in west Norfolk which...

Personal Care at Home Bill: Committee (Continued) (22 February 2010)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, the financing of this Bill is a puzzle to me but then lots of things to do with finance are a puzzle. As I understand it, the Pre-Budget Report suggested that annual savings of £250 million could be achieved from the reduced costs of residential care by 2012-13-and thus I suppose available to local authorities. However, after implementation on 1 October local councils would be...

Personal Care at Home Bill — Committee (22 February 2010)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, I add my support for the amendment. One of the most distressing features of increasing incapacity is a sense that you can be disempowered from making decisions about your life. If we are talking about personal care at home, care cannot be imposed on people, because it then treats the human person as an object to be done to. The value of the amendment is that it recognises that real...

Personal Care at Home Bill: Second Reading (1 February 2010)

The Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, we must be the first generation in human history in which a substantial number of people retire and then find themselves fully occupied both babysitting grandchildren and looking after even older parents. Last week, a man who is now 70 and well retired talked with me about the care of his mother in her late 90s, who was still in her own home and who valued her independence, but...