Results 1-20 of 7,622 for speaker:Lord Bach
- Judicial Review — Question (23 April 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, linked to the issue of judicial review is the idea of a residence test, which is presently being consulted on. If put into effect, that residence test would mean that someone here lawfully but who had not been here for 12 months or more would not be entitled to legal aid in civil actions, presumably including judicial review, however overwhelming their case might be. Does the...
- NHS: ECMO Machines — Question (22 April 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, can we take it from the answer that the Minister gave two questions ago and the praise that he rightly gave to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester that that ECMO unit will not be closed down?
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in this debate. I thank in particular the noble Lord, Lord Phillips of Sudbury, for his remarks. If the word “spite” offends him because it is rather overblown—rather like the number I claimed for a previous amendment—I apologise. I do not want to overblow this but I want to make the point. I am grateful to my noble...
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: No.
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: I am grateful to the Minister, and I am grateful for what he said earlier. There is £1.7 billion left, of which approximately £1.2 billion is spent on criminal legal aid, which leaves for civil legal aid—including public family law and asylum law, which remain in scope—precisely £500 million. Social welfare law was always a small part of the legal aid budget. It is...
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: No.
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: I do not think that the Minister can really get away with that. The Government changed their policy as a consequence of the House of Lords vote. On this occasion, the Government have said, “We don’t like what the House of Lords have said. Therefore, we’ll do quite the opposite of what they wanted to happen”. However, let us not retreat into history; let us talk about...
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, I hope to move this regret Motion in an entirely non-partisan manner, because this matter in my view affects the whole House and its reputation and it is not meant in any sense as an attack on the Minister, who has been on the side of the good within the department in trying to make sure that this ghastly Act of Parliament was modified. Some noble Lords may remember the background...
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013: Motion to Approve (27 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, I apologise—it is nearly the end of term. I meant 201 votes to 191. I was about to say, that in the somewhat heightened minutes before the vote was held, which were a good deal more heightened than they are at present, the Minister warned—or, to use another expression, threatened—that a vote against the regulation would not necessarily result in a better offer. He...
- Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill — Committee (and remaining stages) (25 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. I thank other noble Lords who have spoken, all of them in favour of my amendment. I also thank noble Lords who have asked questions of the Minister in regard to this matter. I have to say that I sometimes wonder whether the Government really understand how important these issues are. We enjoy a system of law that enjoys a reputation that is well...
- Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill — Committee (and remaining stages) (25 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, perhaps I may go back for a moment to the hiatus caused by the Court of Appeal decision. It means that those who stood to have the protection of the law as it stood at the time that they were sanctioned or due to be sanctioned will, if the Minister is right, no longer have that protection, merely because of the passage of time and because something has intervened that is absolutely...
- Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill — Committee (and remaining stages) (25 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, Amendment 2 is in my name and those of my noble friends Lady Sherlock, Lady Hollis of Heigham and Lord McKenzie. My first point is that this is about as mild an amendment as could possibly be imagined. All that I am asking is that the Secretary of State should lay a report before Parliament within one month of the Act coming into force. The report would outline the Secretary of...
- Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill — Second Reading (21 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, it is hard to think of a more unattractive, more unappealing and more unworthy Bill than this one. In its damning report, our Constitution Committee condemns the constitutional basis on which the whole Bill rests in direct and straightforward terms. Whether it is the issue of fast-tracking, of retrospection or, tellingly, a combination of the two, the report is unambiguous. I am not...
- Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill — Report (Continued) (19 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, I very much support what my noble friend has said in moving the amendment. The House seems very quiet this evening, following the shenanigans of this afternoon when it looked very much to some of us as thought there was an organised group on the other side-many of whose members are no longer present, of course, it being after dinner time-who found a huge interest in this Bill in...
- Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill — Report (Continued) (19 March 2013)
Lord Bach: I wonder whether the noble Lord is going to deal with the amendment in what he has to say.
- Justice: Legal Advice — Question (11 March 2013)
Lord Bach: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consequences for access to justice for those who will not be able to receive free legal advice on social welfare law matters from 1 April.
- Justice: Legal Advice — Question (11 March 2013)
Lord Bach: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply as far as it goes but I do not think it is very full on detail. It is now only 21 days until civil legal aid effectively disappears, affecting access to justice for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people every year. What do Her Majesty's Government think will happen to the disabled person, for example, who wants to appeal his or her Atos decision,...
- Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill — Committee (1st Day) (25 February 2013)
Lord Bach: Of course I did not imply that for a moment-and I think that the Minister knows that. However, when there is some doubt about whether an amendment is in scope, there would be nothing wrong in the authorities asking both the Government and the person who might be tabling the amendment for their thinking on the issue. The decision is of course for the authorities and nobody else, but there...