UN Special Rapporteur report: 'Paying polluters: the catastrophic consequences of investor-State dispute settlement for climate and environment action and human rights' published on 13 July 2023. – Lord Browne of Ladyton.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: Does the Minister have a response to my question about the coincidence of the Government consulting on imposing fees on those who seek to apply to an employment tribunal in the face of the case of UNISON v Lord Chancellor, where fees were held to be unlawful because they impeded access to justice? This issue was not addressed in the letter that the noble Lord, Lord Johnson of Lainston, sent...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I am confident that the Minister will have read the Second Reading debate of my noble friend Lord Woodley’s Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill. I too do not intend to repeat the speech I made then, but I make no apology for repeating the most important points, because they were designed to expose whether the code will be the deterrent that the...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to their Government Cyber Security Strategy: 2022–2030, published on 25 January 2022, what assessment they have made of the UK Cyber Security Council’s progress in developing consistent taxonomies, standards and pathways for the cyber security profession across the UK.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, if I understood the Minister earlier, did he mean to tell the House that this arrangement with Rwanda—for people to go there with £3,000—is not covered by the UK-Rwanda asylum partnership agreement, and that there is another agreement of some description with Rwanda, the details of which have not been shared with Parliament? When will Parliament see that agreement?
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I beg to move Motion H1, and I wish to test the opinion of the House. Ayes 248, Noes 209.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I will speak to Motion H1 and Amendment 10B in lieu. Having done so previously, I do not intend to rehearse the moral imperatives that underpin this amendment. In responding to the Minister, I will focus on the chasm that yawns between what the Minister in the other place said about what the Government might do post the current reviews of ARAP decisions of ineligibility and their...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support businesses seeking to adopt process improvement programmes for their organisational cyber-resilience.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of existing cyber-resilience regulations relating to the UK’s critical national infrastructure.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I shall ask the Minister a question that is within his brief. The respected Institute for Economics and Peace has identified 27 countries with over 700 million people who already face catastrophic ecological threats but at the same time have the lowest levels of societal resilience. This is a recipe for conflict. The list includes countries where we are likely to deploy our Armed...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, when biomass subsidies were initially awarded, was it envisaged that the Drax power station would receive more than £2 million a day in biomass subsidies, emit about 12 million tonnes of CO2 a year, and, last year, take more than 40,000 tonnes of wood from old-growth forests in British Columbia—a practice, incidentally, which Drax previously decried in its own sustainability...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, the Minister will remember that, last year, a senior US general remarked that the British Army was no longer regarded as a top-level fighting force. Some short time thereafter—I cannot remember exactly when it was—at Defence Questions, the then chair of the Defence Select Committee invited the Secretary of State to comment on these remarks as he said they tallied with his...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, the 2010 Act was an excellent example of cross-party co-operation because it was passed by the Labour Government and implemented by the coalition. The United Kingdom and New York have a unique power to take leadership of this issue, which is important to a substantial part of the world, because 90% of the private lender contracts that are causing the problem are written under either...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: To ask His Majesty's Government on what date they expect to receive the Health and Safety Executive's delayed final restriction opinion in respect of the risks of using lead in ammunition to human health and the environment; and whether they will make and publish their decision on the restriction within three months of receipt of the opinion.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I wish to test the opinion of the House. In the interests of being concise, I draw on the words of one of the most concise and persuasive speakers in your Lordships’ House: my friend the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, who said when debated this amendment on Monday: “That really is the question before your Lordships: would the harm done to the UK by not agreeing this...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the release on 29 February of 13 reports produced by the former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, and their findings in particular with regard to the conduct of staff responsible for unaccompanied refugee children in Kent.
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, the reports are damning, documenting the disappearance of 467 asylum- seeking children and Home Office employees asking lonely unaccompanied children to play a cruel guessing game as to which of them will receive foster care; and revealing systemic failures at the border and in the asylum decision-making process. It beggars belief that David Neal was not sacked for revealing these...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I want to raise the issue of proper accountability, because there appear to be few real consequences for police officers who grossly breach police discipline. For example, there is no legislation to prevent members of police staff retiring or resigning while they are under investigation for gross misconduct. I am told that, because of Operation Onyx which, as the Minister will know,...
Lord Browne of Ladyton: My Lords, I want to raise the issue of proper accountability, because there appear to be few real consequences for police officers who grossly breach police discipline. For example, there is no legislation to prevent members of police staff retiring or resigning while they are under investigation for gross misconduct. I am told that, because of Operation Onyx which, as the Minister will know,...