Lord Judd: My Lords, I speak in support of Amendments 3 and 4. If I may so, my noble friend Lord Dubs covered very well the arguments in support of his Amendment 3. Amendment 4 seems self-evidently right and should not cause controversy. It is not possible to speak to these amendments without referring to the important speech made by my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti. Unfortunately, given the nature of...
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of concerns raised by local authorities, in particular those raised by Cumbria County Council, about the performance of private companies carrying out track and trace operations to address the COVID-19 pandemic; and what plans they have to divert the resources provided to those companies to local authorities to ensure that contact...
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of the shortage of oxygen supplies for COVID-19 patients in Gaza; and what steps they are taking, if any, to address any such shortage.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of food insecurity in Palestine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports of an increase of COVID-19 cases in Gaza, what action they are taking with international partners to support the health care system in that region.
Lord Judd: My Lords, it is with considerable sadness that I shall vote to support this Bill; the alternative is even worse. The Bill is further confirmation that we have turned our backs on a great European initiative. From the earliest days of the Coal and Steel Community, the driving vision has been political—of course, it has. Economic arrangements have never been a primary end in themselves; they...
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities about the commencement of their new, consolidated, global resettlement scheme and the resettlement of 5,000 refugees in one year at the conclusion of the Vulnerable Persons’ Resettlement Scheme; and what was the outcome of any such discussions.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the fraud and corruption charges against Georgy Bedzhamov in the context of his application for British citizenship.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education, the Incorporated Society of Musicians and the University of Sussex Music Education: State of the Nation, published in January 2019; and what steps they have taken to improve music education in schools.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding by the Foreign Secretary and the Egyptian Foreign Minister on 6 November 2015, what representations they have made to the government of Egypt about its use of anti-terrorist charges against (1) Karim Ennarah, (2) Mohammed Basheer, and (3) Gasser Abdel Razeq; and what discussions they have had with that...
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure a comprehensive, UK-wide interoperable vehicle charging network to improve consumer take-up of electric vehicles.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to develop opportunities for geothermal energy generation to help address climate change.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of (1) soil restoration, and (2) kelp, forests for carbon sequestration.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to establish a tree planting target for England to achieve an increase in England’s woodland cover; and how they plan to ensure that progress towards any target is achieved.
Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Egypt about the release of (1) Karim Ennarah, (2) Mohammed Basheer, and (3) Gasser Abdel Razeq; and what representations they have made to the government of Egypt about the importance of the work by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in upholding human rights.
Lord Judd: My Lords, I thank unreservedly the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, for the way in which he introduced this amendment. It was a challenge to us all. In protecting the values of our society, of which we like to speak so often, and in protecting the young and the vulnerable, there have to be some absolutes. I am glad that some of the other amendments have drawn attention to other vulnerable...
Lord Judd: My Lords, I shall speak warmly in support of the amendment by the noble Lord, Lord Cormack. It is succinct and brief, and it clearly spells out the issues at stake. He explained why they matter so much. I am also glad to support other amendments that develop that theme with reference to activity in the same sphere. I am also glad that the importance of the European Convention on Human Rights...
Lord Judd: My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of a trade union ever since my undergraduate days in my first job, during a long vacation, as a garden labourer for the LCC. I joined a trade union as a young man and have remained convinced about the unions’ role in society ever since. They are fundamental to the kind of free society in which we want to live, a society with checks and balances...
Lord Judd: My Lords, the dividing line between a police state and a democratic society with a liberal, humanitarian base is sometimes hard to define. It is not absolute and the dividing line wanders around a certain amount, but one principle should be clear above all, and that is that in the kind of society in which we want to live, the tradition is that the police do their job by public consent. The...
Lord Judd: My Lords, we are indeed fortunate to have working for us, in both Houses, the Joint Committee on Human Rights. I find its reports invariably well argued and well researched. The arguments and logic of those reports are not to be easily dismissed. We have been fortunate this afternoon to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and my noble friend Lord Dubs putting their experience on the...
