Results 1-20 of 3,896 for speaker:Lord Alderdice

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (Continued) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have participated in this debate, perhaps particularly to the Minister for pointing out the purpose behind what I am doing, and for drawing some attention to a number of the points that I made in my introduction, which were studiously ignored by a number of colleagues because of a degree of discomfort about the whole business. I am used to...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (Continued) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: If the noble Lord expects me to provide chapter and verse, either medically or theologically, I am not prepared to do that.

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (Continued) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: If the noble Lord maintains that doctors and the medical profession have always been justified in their ethical and moral stance and have never had to change it, that is a position to which I would not hold, nor do I believe that he would. I offer it as an example, and we could look to providing the chapter and verse that he wishes, but that is not the issue. The issue is whether one is...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (Continued) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I wish to explain why I am bringing forward the amendment at this point. As some of your Lordships know, I tabled the amendment for the Committee stage at which another amendment in the name of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, and others covered a wider basis. I was asked to withdraw my amendment to enable the focus of debate to be clear so that your Lordships' House could...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I do not wish to repeat what my noble professional colleague said, so I will address a different, and straightforwardly political, difficulty that leads me strongly to support this amendment. The population as a whole does not necessarily look in the same way at the detail of how a court has come to its conclusion. I cite the case of Private Clegg. When he was convicted, there was a...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, Amendment 54 is in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford. Clause 42 describes interested persons who may be appointed by the coroner. The problem is that there are circumstances in which there is no interested person who is willing to represent the interests of the deceased person, but there may be persons or organisations that are prepared to address this...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for what he has said. Our concern is, first, to put the matter beyond peradventure, as it is not wholly clear in the Bill, and, secondly, to remind coroners that they have this option. As he said, from time to time they will undoubtedly glance down the substantial list of those who they may appoint, but it may not be entirely obvious to them—it...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (2nd Day) (26 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I simply give some support, because Amendments 46 and 48 are in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford as well as in that of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham. One of the really important roles of the coronial service is investigating and inquiring into not just particular deaths and how they occurred but how we can prevent such things happening in future. A...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (Continued) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I rise to support to support the two amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, and to speak to Amendment 34, which is tabled in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, has with great elegance and eloquence, as usual, conveyed some of the problems that have arisen out of legislation and regulations that...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (Continued) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: I, too, thank the Minister, who has responded not only positively and constructively but in some detail, in the amendments and in his detailed description of them, about how the posts will come into being, qualifications, consultations and so on. I go along with the terminology that he has identified. I welcome the amendment and appreciate the Minister's positive response. Amendment agreed....

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, the emphasis is on the word "determine" whereas the problem in the clause is the word "appear". The question is not whether the coroner would make a determination of this kind. The problem is that the clause states that he should not appear to make such a determination. Appearance, like beauty, can be in the eye of the beholder, and it can push back considerably how far a coroner...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, the amendment relates to the part of Schedule 1, on page 120, that largely replicates Section 16 of the Coroners Act 1988, save that it dictates that a coroner can refuse to adjourn an inquest when there are parallel criminal proceedings only when there is an exceptional reason to do so. At present, the test is that there is a good reason not to adjourn. We are really not all at...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, in the number of our earlier arguments and discussions in your Lordships' House—for example, on the inclusion of the Security Service—the Minister's response was that there has been no instance of a problem of this kind in 50 years. I am therefore a little surprised that he has not taken the opportunity, even when invited by the noble and learned Baroness, to explain...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, my name is attached to this amendment and I wish to give support to what the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, has said. In a sense we are returning to territory similar to that which we discussed under Amendment 3 and Clause 5 regarding the coroner's grounds for exploration, expansion and expressing his or her findings. One needs to be careful about other legal interventions, but it...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I do not wish to detain the House save to give support to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, in the amendments that have been put down in his name and my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford. He addressed the question of the inclusion of a jury and the problem of deaths in psychiatric hospitals—something of which I am rather aware. The Government should...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I hear what the noble Lord says in this regard. However, it is not simply a matter of saying that only the family should be involved at the heart of the inquest. The whole point is that it does not involve just the family of the person who has gone; other families might find themselves in similar circumstances if the matters are not resolved and clarified. That is also an important...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Report (1st Day) (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Alderdice: My Lords, Amendment 3 is in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford. During earlier stages of the Bill it was repeatedly drawn to noble Lords' attention—particularly by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and by others—that the genesis of at least some of the momentum behind this Bill was the events of the Shipman inquiry, subsequent to the horrible and terrible events...

Coroners and Justice Bill — Committee (4th Day) (Continued) (30 Jun 2009)

Lord Alderdice: I had not intended to speak in this debate, because many of the things that relate to it were discussed during the debate just before the dinner hour. However, the more I thought about the Attorney-General's response, the more troubled I became by the message that I got from it. Below the age of 18—and no differentiation seemed to be made between those who were 10 and 11 and those who...

Coroners and Justice Bill — Committee (4th Day) (Continued) (30 Jun 2009)

Lord Alderdice: I wish to speak to Amendments 151 and 158 in the name of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford, Amendment 154 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, and Amendment 155 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, who has just spoken. One of the difficulties for psychiatrists who have any contact with the courts and the law is that we are working on totally different sets of...

Coroners and Justice Bill — Committee (4th Day) (Continued) (30 Jun 2009)

Lord Alderdice: I want to take a matter that has been referred to by a number of noble Lords, including the noble and learned Lords, Lord Lloyd of Berwick and Lord Mayhew, and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. That is the Clegg case. What has been addressed is one component of the public and personal reaction to the situation of a soldier who, by nature of his job, finds himself effectively...