Results 1-20 of 2,079 for speaker:Lord Howarth of Newport

Intellectual Property Bill [HL]: Second Reading (22 May 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, I have no interests to declare. I have no financial benefit from any dealings in relation to intellectual property and I have not talked to anybody seeking to lobby us on this Bill. I say this, which noble Lords may consider to be superfluous, because policy-making in the field of intellectual property is peculiarly beset by lobbying. It is good for the House and it is good for...

Publishing: Public Lending Right — Question (22 May 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: Does the Minister recognise that the authors’ public lending scheme has been very successful indeed over many years and that it has become an established part of our culture? We afford recognition to authors by way of a payment for each loan by public libraries of their physical books. Is it not now long overdue that we extended that practice to e-books and audiobooks? The Government...

Mesothelioma Bill [HL] — Second Reading (20 May 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: Even before the noble Lord opens his heart to us in Committee, will he look again at the question of the start date in the light of the figures we have been given? We have been told that the life expectancy of a mesothelioma sufferer following diagnosis is perhaps two years. We are told that around 2,400 people die each year, and that the insurance history can be traced in more than 50% of...

Mesothelioma Bill [HL] — Second Reading (20 May 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, I, too, thank and congratulate the Minister on bringing the Bill to the House. He is a good man who has fallen into bad company. He has had to present a number of pretty miserable policies to the House. However, we should recognise that he has worked long and hard to develop this scheme and today he brings us, by his standards, very good news indeed. We should also express measured...

Tobacco: Smuggling — Question (16 May 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: I welcome the Minister’s statement that the Government are considering introducing greater consistency in their treatment of tobacco smuggling and the smuggling of other substances. Will they consider aligning more extensively their treatment of tobacco, alcohol and other psychoactive substances in making policy across those fields more consistent?

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: Will the Minister confirm that the Government have just announced that they are going to spend somewhere between £100 million and £200 million on the modification of the Olympic stadium for the benefit of West Ham United Football Club? Why are the Government so open-handed in their funding of access to sport but so cruelly restrictive in their funding of access to justice? What...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My criticism was of the Government, and the Minister speaks on behalf of the Government.

Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill — Committee (and remaining stages) (25 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, is it not the case that every Government of the United Kingdom since 1948 have been committed to the principles and values articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Is it not also the case that Article 7 declares that all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law? If the Government deny legal aid in these...

Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill — Committee (and remaining stages) (25 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: I wonder whether the Minister would reconsider the language habitually used by DWP. When he talks of a stockpile he is referring to human beings in very anxious circumstances who are waiting for their cases to be considered. Does not this language rather dehumanise them?

House of Lords: Debates — Question (25 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, if there were to be a minimum ration of, say, five minutes for each speech, surely it would not matter very much if from time to time debates ran on a little longer. That would facilitate the kind of more spontaneous and lively debating that the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, rightly calls for while ending what is, frankly, the demeaning practice of limiting the time for noble Lords'...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill — Third Reading (20 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, the last bars of the music are dying away, the curtain is falling, moving valedictory statements have been made but, unfortunately, I have again to be the grit in the oyster because I need to respond to the debate, and the House may wish to know my intention in respect of these amendments. I thank all noble Lords who have participated in a genuinely helpful debate. I was...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill — Third Reading (20 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, Amendments 10 and 11 in this group are intended to help refine the orphan works licensing scheme which the Government are rightly bringing in, to make it more fit for purpose. I say at the outset, as much for the ears of officials as for noble Lords, that these amendments have been tabled entirely at my own instance. Those in various parts of the cultural sector with whom I have...

Alcohol: Minimum Pricing — Statement (14 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, many of us have some anxiety about what appears to be the disproportionate influence of lobbyists in Whitehall. Some time ago the Prime Minister expressed his anxiety about the growth of the lobbying industry and the possible susceptibility of politicians to lobbying. Will the Minister say what the Government are doing to ensure that as civil servants develop policies for the...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill: Report (4th Day) (Continued) (11 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, the novelist Edith Wharton has a character in one of her early stories, a woman novelist, who discusses with her former lover what should be done with their love letters. She says: "A keen sense of copyright is my nearest approach to an emotion". Noble Lords may be feeling rather similar by this stage of the proceedings. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken in the...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill: Report (4th Day) (Continued) (11 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, this amendment arises from conversations that I have held with the British Library, with Universities UK and with the Wellcome Trust. They all endorse this amendment, as do the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals-CILIP-the National Museum Directors' Conference and the British Broadcasting Corporation. The issues at stake are important for our universities,...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill: Report (4th Day) (Continued) (11 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, I speak to Amendment 84AE only. The noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, referred to it as a loose end. It is an issue of fundamental importance. The effect of the amendment would be to require that a diligent search should be made for each individual orphan work. It is true that the European Union orphan works directive requires the same. We have not yet incorporated the directive in...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill: Report (4th Day) (11 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, I should like to enter a dissenting note in relation to what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, and my noble friend Lady Whitaker on this specific question of designs-for example, of furniture. It is not clear to me why it would be an improvement to extend the period of protected copyright in a registered design from the 25 years that has prevailed for a long time past to the...

Inequality: Income and Wealth — Question (11 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, given the view of employers that business competitiveness requires the replacement of British jobs by new technologies at home and by low-paid jobs abroad; given the Government's view that the rate of income tax paid by the wealthy should be cut, public services for us all should be cut and the incomes of the poor should be cut; and given that, taking these together, the effect is a...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill: Report (3rd Day) (Continued) (6 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: The Minister very kindly answered a Written Question on whether an individual impact assessment would accompany each of the regulations introducing new exceptions. While I normally follow the noble Viscount with ease and find his presentations pellucid, I did not find the answer to his question without ambiguity. While I recognise that the impacts of some of the regulations may overlap, I...

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill: Report (3rd Day) (Continued) (6 March 2013)

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, I, too, welcome the Minister's commitment that an annual report should be published by the Intellectual Property Office. It may not reach the top of the bestseller lists, but it is right in principle that the public should have the opportunity to be informed about what the current issues are and what developments in policy are or may be. That is very proper. Of course, Parliament in...