Week beginning 2 February 2015

Whats Coming Up
Monday: Lord Avebury will be asking what the timetable is for legislation making
caste a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. The Coalition
Government is committed to eliminating caste-based discrimination and
harassment in the UK.

Quote of the Week

Baroness Hussein-Ece is asking a question on the availability of new epilepsy

medication and treatments. Every day in the UK, 87 people are diagnosed with
epilepsy.

I was a police officer for 30

yearsunless we have the right
balance between rights to privacy
and powers for the police and
security services, large swathes of
communities in this country will no
longer co-operate with the police
and the security services.

Mental health campaigner Baroness Tyler & Lord Addington, Vice President of
the British Dyslexia Association, will be speaking in a debate on mental health
services for deaf people using British sign language.

Brian Paddick speaks out in favour

of community intelligence over
invasions of privacy

The Lords will also debate the Report Stage of the Counter Terrorism and
Security Bill. The debate will include an amendment tabled by Lord King to put
into law the Data Communications Bill (The Snoopers Charter). Lib Dems have
consistently opposed the snoopers charter and will strongly oppose its inclusion
in the Bill. At Committee Stage Lord Paddick, Baroness Ludford and Lord
Strasburger spoke against the proposals as a serious and unnecessary
infringement of civil liberties.
__________________________________________
Tuesday: The House will debate the first day of Report Stage on
the Deregulation Bill. Lord Bradshaw will be debating
amendments about the use of public footpaths by motor
vehicles. Bill Bradshaw has be working with the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to protect footpaths which
are often damaged by motorbikes and other heavy off-road
vehicles.
__________________________________________
Wednesday: Lord Roberts will be asking what plans the Government have to
mark National Voter Registration Day (Thursday 5th February). Roger Roberts is
President of Bite the Ballot who created NVRD as a response to the lack of
education and awareness around voter registration in the UK. This year, they are
aiming to register 250,000 people.
Lord German is leading a debate on the review in setting of Universal Credit
conditionally when children are in distress.
__________________________________________

Tweet of the Week

Lindsay Northover
(@LPNorthover) sees the
importance of UK aid first hand on
her trip to Darfur.
Next weeks bills
Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill
Report Stage

Deregulation Bill
Report Stage

Thursday: Lord Greaves is asking the Government what steps they are taking to
promote the use of brownfield sites for house building instead of using
untouched greenfield land. The Lib Dems propose to build 300,000 homes a year
to help make homes more affordable.
Peers will discuss the Deregulation Bill, including amendments by
Baroness Bakewell and other Lib Dem Peers to stop retaliatory
evictions. The move comes after Sarah Teather MPs Private
Members Bill which would protect tenants who ask for reasonable
repairs from being evicted by unscrupulous landlords was
filibustered by right-wing Conservative MPs in the House of
Commons. Baroness Bakewell and Sarah Teather are working with
Ministers to secure Government support for the measures.
The Deregulation Bill is also expected to see a victory in Baroness
Scotts campaign on behalf of genealogists to reduce the cost of
getting official birth and death records. Baroness Scott has been
pressing for changes so that those researching their family
history will be able to get a simple copy of a record rather than
having to pay for a full price certified copy of each record they
want to access.
__________________________________________

Pension Schemes Bill

Third Reading

International Development Bill

(Official Development Assistance
Target)
Committee Stage

Health and Social Care (Safety and

Quality) Bill
Second Reading

Self-build and Custom

Housebuilding Bill
Second Reading

Friday: Michael Moore MPs International Development (Official Development

Assistance Target) Bill is going through Committee in the House. The Bill passed
its Second Reading with strong cross party support from Peers.
The Bill seeks to establish a commitment to spending 0.7% of the UK budget on
foreign aid. Currently the Foreign Aid budget is so variable year-to-year that
forward planning for long term international projects is often put in jeopardy.
The Bill comes to the Lords having been piloted through the Commons by
Michael Moore MP, in the face of an attempted filibuster by UKIP and right-wing
Conservative MPs.

Full schedule here

Lib Dem Lords

in Government
Baroness Jolly answered questions on NHS services and finances. Responding to Peers she stated that there
are now a million more people over 65 than there were at the beginning of this Parliament, but at the
beginning of this Parliament there were no plans to cope with that onward growth.
__________________________________________
Baroness Kramer visited Taiwan and Japan to promoting British
transport expertise by leading the biggest ever railway delegation to
Taiwan, consisting of 14 UK companies and organisations to showcase
their expertise in complex, large scale rail infrastructure projects such
as HS2, Crossrail and network electrification that are at the heart of
the governments rail modernisation programme.

In Japan she visited Hitachi, Toyota, and Nissan which have significant interest in the UK and directly
contribute to job creation here. Susan emphasised the vital importance of retaining this investment and had
fruitful discussion on strengthening research and development cooperation, and the sharing of expertise in the
transport sector especially in rail, ultra-low emission vehicles and driverless technology.
__________________________________________
Lord Newby braved the snow to travel to Yorkshire and the SCR LEP Business Conference. He announced the
Sheffield City Regions expanded Growth Deal, an extra 30.7m. As part of his speech he highlighted the
benefits to the region stating that up to 15,000 new jobs could be created and up to 12,000 new homes built
as a result of the Governments investment and the match funding this will leverage. The commitments in this
overall Deal also have the potential to generate up to 530m public and private
investment.
He also talked about how this is good news for the area in which he grew up: "This
Growth Deal is bringing in the infrastructure. The private sector depends on
confidence of individuals. If the general mood music is bad they won't invest, but
now we sense it is good. We have seen big falls in unemployment around here, there
is a sense of 'we can do it'."
He also visited Cleethorpes Pier, which is due to open in spring 2015 and is part of a
wider regeneration programme that is being supported through the Humber LEPs
expanded Growth Deal programme.
__________________________________________
Baroness Northover has been in Sudan where she has spent time meeting victims of
the violence in Darfur. Whilst there she announced a further 7m in humanitarian
assistance from the UK Government. Funding so far has ensured that over 35,000
children were treated for malnutrition, 91,500 internally displaced people were
provided with agricultural supplies and 760,000 outpatient consultations were
conducted.
Lindsay has also met with the President of Somalia and highlighted the importance of increasing the role of
women in the Government. She also met with the Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone to discuss UK efforts to
combat Ebola.
__________________________________________
Baroness Randerson has met with leading Welsh
academics to discuss the future of Welsh devolution.
Jenny Randerson spoke about the importance of hearing
a wide range of views on delivering constitutional change
that works for Wales. She highlighted that The
academics Im meeting today are some of the best and
brightest minds in Wales and have an excellent
understanding of Welsh politics, history and society.
Many of them also play a leading role in our universities institutions which are key to a successful Welsh
economy.
She has also met with influential Welsh businesswomen to discuss the importance of work place equality to
the economy of Wales. Encouraging and supporting women to venture into business is an essential part of
creating a stronger economy and fairer society. Since 2010, we have seen more women on FTSE boards than
ever before a rise of 10% since the election - and a substantial increase in female-led small and medium-sized
businesses up 14% since 2010.
__________________________________________
Lord Wallace of Saltaire answered questions from Peers on Boko Haram. He highlighted how closely the UK

has been working with Nigeria. Including training teams and intelligence teams that we have sent to work with
the Nigerians on coping with the pressure from Boko Haram (who now occupy a substantial chunk of northeastern Nigeria). The abduction was an appalling example of Boko Harams brutality.
Since the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls another 900 or more individuals have been abducted by Boko
Haram in separate incidents. The UK, along with international partners, has increased its support for the
Nigerian Government to help locate the girls and to tackle the broad threat posed by Boko Haram. A
substantial package of UK military, intelligence and development is being provided in support of Nigeria.

Last Weeks Business

Lib Dems Lead the Fight for Civil Liberties
On Monday the Lords debated new amendments to the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill that attempted to bring
back the controversial (and Lib Dem blocked) Snoopers Charter. The Lib Dems turned out in force to oppose the
proposed changes.
Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Met Police, Lord Paddick spoke first from the Lib Dem benches. He
argued: We need to engage with communities, not create alienation and resentment. My fear is that the way in
which these amendments are drafted is likely to cause exactly that negative effectI know from personal experience
the sorts of dangers that we are facing.
Unless we have the right balance between rights to privacy and powers for the police and security services, large
swathes of communities in this country will no longer co-operate with the police and the security services. That will be
an even greater loss of intelligence than any gap that currently exists in the powers of the police and the security
services.
Lord Strasburger highlighted that security agencies needed to make better use of the information they already had.
He also argued that the way that these amendments were introduced undemocratic and did not leave enough time
or the right circumstances in which legislation of this importance and of such controversy should be considered.
Notwithstanding the many faults that these amendments inherited from the snoopers charter, the Committee must
consign them to the dustbin of history because Parliament cannot possibly give them the consideration they
absolutely need.
Baroness Ludford also argued that the amendments were a dangerous approach to controversial legislation and that
it would lead to further mistrust of politicians. She also highlighted that few people were happy with this legislation:
There was [a] failure to consult communication service providers and internet service providers, and there have been
recent complaints by the Internet Services Providers Association about the lack of consultation.
Even the Intelligence and Security Committee said that more detail was needed on the face of the Bill, but that detail
is not in the amendments put forward today.

Lord Chidgey highlights the plight of Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees

Lord Chidgey led a debate on Eritrea & Ethiopia in which he highlighted a number of frightening statistics: in the first
10 months of 2014, the number of asylum seekers in Europe from Eritrea nearly tripled. In Ethiopia and Sudan, the
number of Eritrean refugees also increased sharply. By November, some 37,000 Eritreans had sought refuge in

Europe, compared with around 13,000 a year ago. Most asylum requests have been lodged in Sweden, Germany and
Switzerland, with the vast majority arriving by boat from across the Mediterranean. Eritreans were the second
largest group to arrive in Italy by boat, after the Syrians. An unprecedented number of Eritreans are fleeing their
country as refugees, on a precarious journey to Europe as well as to bordering countries. As at mid-2013, the UNHCR
estimated that the total population of concern originating from Eritrea was more than 313,000 people, including
more than 292,000 refugees and 20,000 asylum seekers.
As part of the debate Lord Avebury called for I call the Government and EU to launch a new diplomatic effort for
peace in the region and for Ethiopia to withdraw its forces from Eritrean territory.

House of Lords debate Palestinian recognition

Lord Steel led the debate noting the House of Commons resolution to recognise the state of Palestine. Opening the
debate Lord Steel highlighted his historical association with the issue, including his role in diplomatic talks with Arab
and Israeli leaders whilst he was leader of the Liberal Party.
Baroness Williams also spoke in the debate arguing that: Many of us deeply want to see the survival of Israel. We
want to see it as a Jewish state; we want to see it as a guarantor that there is no future in anti-Semitism. However,
we cannot hope to achieve these things if the state of Palestine continues to be unrecognised, dishonoured, abused,
and relegated to a lesser marginal role.
Lord Palmer highlighted the lessons to be learned from other examples of new states being recognised. He
highlighted the cases of East Timor, South Sudan and Bosnia. States that were created through negotiations and the
hard work of the international community; not as a result of a divisive and confrontational unilateral declaration.
He concluded by saying: I support a state of Palestine, but by a negotiated agreement, with pressure from all friends
and enemies of both to get the two sides to sit down and actually hammer out an answer. That is the only way that
we will have the realism of a Palestinian state.

On the blog this week:

o

Lindsay Northover: Born Whole Being A Woman In Sudan

Susan Kramer Promotes UK Transport Expertise In Taiwan And Japan

Lindsay Northover: New Year, New Home

Lindsay Northover Announces New Humanitarian Support For Sudan

Lib Dem President Sal Brinton Interviewed In The New Statesman

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