Lord Bellingham

Conservative Peer

Security Sensitive Evidence in Courts

There have been votes in Parliament on if there should be a mechanism for material deemed national security sensitive to be made available to a civil court and a special advocate but not parties to the case. The mechanism is called the "closed material procedure".

Photo: Alba Palacios

Lord Bellingham consistently voted for allowing national security sensitive evidence to be put before courts in secret sessions

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TheyWorkForYou has calculated this MP’s stance based on votes we have grouped on this topic. Learn more.

You can browse the source data on PublicWhip.org.uk. We are in the process of moving away from using the PublicWhip and there may be some discrepancies between the two sites.

Major votes

  • On 17 Jul 2013: Lord Bellingham voted in favour of rules implementing the introduction of "closed material proceedings" to the civil courts in Northern Ireland; the procedure involves making material deemed national security-sensitive available to the court and a special advocate but not parties to the case. Show vote
  • On 17 Jul 2013: Lord Bellingham voted in favour of rules implementing the introduction of "closed material proceedings" to courts; the procedure involves making material deemed national security-sensitive available to the court and a special advocate but not parties to the case. Show vote
  • On 7 Mar 2013: Lord Bellingham voted to allow material deemed national security-sensitive to be made available to a civil court and a special advocate but not parties to the case; to strengthen oversight of intelligence and security activities in Government; and to permit intercept evidence in closed proceedings in employment cases before tribunals. Show vote
  • On 4 Mar 2013: Lord Bellingham voted t to to permit closed material proceedings only if a fair determination of the case would not be possible by other means. Show vote
  • On 4 Mar 2013: Lord Bellingham voted to prevent the disclosure of material if the court considers disclosure would be damaging to the interests of national security, even if that damage would be outweighed by the interests of justice. Show vote
  • On 18 Dec 2012: Lord Bellingham voted to allow material deemed national security-sensitive to be made available to a civil court and a special advocate but not parties to the case; to strengthen oversight of intelligence and security activities in Government; and to permit intercept evidence in closed proceedings in employment cases before tribunals. Show vote

Minor votes

  • On 4 Mar 2013: Lord Bellingham voted against allowing the closed material procedure for using national security sensitive information in court to only be used where the degree of harm to national security caused by disclosure would be likely to outweigh the public interest in fair and open justice. Show vote

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