Welcome to the latest edition of Letter of the Lords the weekly newsletter aimed at shining a light into the

e work the partys peers are doing in the second chamber. Why not let us know what you think? Email the newsletter onlordsmedia@libdems.org.uk. And thats also the address to give to friends, colleagues and loved ones to sign up too. Plus dont forget to keep up to date with the blog at libdemlords.org.uk and follow us on Twitter @LibDemLords.

IN THE CHAMBER

Lord Navnit Dholakias Private Members Bill raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 today received its Second Reading in the House of Lords. The Age of Criminal Responsibility Bill would, as it says on the tin, up the age at which children can be prosecuted in a court of law. As Lord Dholakia told peers, at 10, England and Wales have the lowest age of criminal responsibility in Europe. In Scotland in 2010 legislation provided that children provided that children cannot be prosecuted below the age of 12, he to ld peers. Outside the British Isles the age of criminal responsibility is invariably higher. In France, Greece and Poland it is 13. In Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania it is 14. In the rest of Europe it ranges between 14 and 18. He pointed to the fact that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly stated that our minimum age of criminal responsibility is not compatible with our obligations under international standards of juvenile justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. He said: There is no other area of the law whether it is the age for buying a pet, the age for paid employment, the age of consent to sexual activity or the age for

smoking and drinking where we regard children as fully competent to take informed decisions until later in adolescence. The age of criminal responsibility is an anomalous exception. My Bill is a simple proposition which would, if enacted, be an important step towards dealing with vulnerable, difficult and disturbed children in a way which befits a civilised society. It will now into Committee stage in the House of Lords.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK The Snowden cat is out of the bag. He has 58,000 secret documents, and so far the Guardian has published excerpts from just 17 of them. There must be much more to come. It will no longer do for the Government to sit Canute-like on the beach while a tsunami of further revelations engulfs their old policy of sticking their fingers in their ears and muttering that they do not discuss security matters. They must stop trying to shoot the messenger by attacking the Guardian. They must also stop pretending that Britain has the best oversight of its security services in the world when that oversight has spectacularly failed to spot and prevent intrusive surveillance of every citizen without Parliaments knowledge and consent. Lord Paul Strasburger pulls no punches in a debate on supervision of the security services.

TWEET OF THE WEEK Jim Wallace, Advocate General for Scotland and Deputy Leader of Lords on 159 bus with me to Whitehall. Tell Alex (limo) Salmond Its not often we quote a Labour peer, but Lord Foulkes of Cumnock kindly drew his followers attention to leader Lord Jim Wallaces eschewal of ministerial cars for a good old-fashioned London bus.

The Government has agreed to hold a fresh consultation on part 2 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, MinisterLord William Wallace announced. He said there would be a pause of nearly six weeks in proposals which would tighten the requirements on organisations other than political parties to register their spending. Lord Wallace told

peers: In that period I and my colleagues will consult widely with all the interested parties Members of the House and the many others outside.

Baroness Zahida Manzoor asked her first oral question in the chamber, on the subject of female genital mutilation. She asked the Minister for the Governments assessment of the Royal College of Nursings recent report, Tackling Female Genital Mutilation in the UK, saying that the issue should be treated by healthcare wo rkers as a crime and reported to the police. The Minister, Earl Howe, said it was child abuse and violence against girls and women.

Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece led a debate in the Lords Grand Committee on thestatus of women in the Middle East after the events of the Arab Spring. Rather than automatically getting better, she told peers, in many cases things had actually regressed. The Arab Spring signalled many new beginnings, possibilities and, most of all, hope for a better future, she said. However, the rise to power of religiouslydominated patriarchal parties in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya meant new restrictions imposed on women.

And Lord Dick Taverne dubbed the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council Ofquack as he questioned whether the Government intended to appoint a scientist to the Professional Standards Authority. He said the registration of such bodies means, in effect, that craniosacral therapists, reflexologists and homeopaths can

now claim to be covered by the same professional standards as doctors and nurses. Minister Earl Howe claimed the scheme did not endorse any particular therapy.

BEST OF THE BLOG This week on the Lib Dem Lords blog, Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece wrote about the status of women in the Middle East following the events of the Arab Spring, while Lord Navnit Dholakia explained why he is seeking to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10.

WHATS COMING UP MONDAY Peers continue to debate the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration and Children and Families Bills. TUESDAY Baroness Sal Brinton leads a debate on ensuring that pupils who have not been formally excluded but are not attending school are provided with a full-time education. For more detailed information on what's coming up in the Lords, click here.

Follow the Lib Dem Lords on Twitter @LibDemLords, contact the newsletter at lordsmedia@libdems.org.uk and see the blog at libdemlords.org.uk.