Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I support the amendment for all the reasons given by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, in her most eloquent speech. She has left it to me to say something about the law in this area—a somewhat duller subject, I fear. The basic legal principle involved is not in doubt. Executive detention in immigration cases is lawful if—but only if—there is a realistic prospect of removal...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I can see that the Minister’s time is nearly up. I wonder whether he could deal with one or two of the arguments which have actually been advanced in the House this afternoon, in particular regarding Section 128. What did Parliament have in mind when that power was conferred on the Secretary of State?
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I do not intend to go into the background of the IPP sentence, which was so well described by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, to whom we are all grateful for initiating this debate, but propose to concentrate instead on a particular group of prisoners who were given a tariff of less than two years before Section 225 of the 2003 Act was amended in 2007, of whom there are 773. I start by...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, in his very helpful letter of 30 January 2014, the Minister referred to the amendment moved by the noble Viscount, Lord Hanworth, at a meeting of the Special Public Bill Committee on 16 December. He indicated that the present amendment is to the same effect. These things go out of one’s mind so quickly that I have had to refresh my mind as to what took place at the two meetings...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I am very glad to follow the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, who has spoken so clearly on these matters. When I put my name down to speak in this debate I knew that I must look back at what I said the last time we debated these matters, to ensure that I do not say something different on this occasion. I find that on 9 July 2013 I asked whether there was not an unjustified risk in opting...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, perhaps I could just have a brief word on Amendments 93A and 93B. There has been much discussion over the years as to whether the right to stop under Schedule 7 should be available only on reasonable suspicion. I am glad that the amendment now before the House does not go that far. The arguments in favour of and against the power to stop without reasonable suspicion are all very...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what considerations led them to provide a £30 million contribution towards the cost of the Garden Bridge across the Thames.
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and declare an interest as a resident of the Inner Temple.
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I am grateful for that Answer and would ask simply three supplementary questions—
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: —of which I have given prior notice to the noble Lord, so he will not be taken by surprise. First, does he agree that there is no real need for another crossing on this part of the Thames, seeing that there are already two pedestrian bridges within half a mile of the proposed bridge, on either side, not to mention Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge? Secondly, supposing that there is a...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: —is the noble Lord aware that there are gardens all along the Embankment, from the Inner Temple garden to Westminster, where trees are growing perfectly well? Why try to plant trees on a bridge, where they will be exposed to all the elements, will be a hazard to river craft once they are fully grown and will, in my view at any rate, look completely ridiculous?
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: I fully understand and accept the position which the Minister has taken. It would be admirable if we could organise some sort of cross-party discussion, perhaps with outside assistance. Lawyers need assistance from social workers to find out the best way of finding a solution. If we can find one before Third Reading, so much the better; if not, then clearly it ought to go to the Law...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords,I am very grateful for the Minister’s careful response to this amendment. I am also very grateful to all those who have spoken in support of it. Of course, I am also very aware of those who have spoken against it. Even if I had thought that we would win tonight, I would not want to divide the House. It would be highly irresponsible to make a snap decision on such an important and...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I imagine that most of your Lordships have some experience of the procedure for taking children into care, probably more experience than I have. For those who have no such experience, perhaps I should say a few words of explanation. We are concerned with the interaction of two sections of the Children Act 1989, Section 1 and Section 31. Section 31 provides that a child may be taken...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, perhaps I might briefly ask the noble Lord to say a bit more, if he can, about the part played by our colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, in brokering this very welcome agreement.
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, I had not intended to speak on this part of the Bill, so I am afraid that I have not done as much homework as I should. For many years, however, I have protested against using the civil law to do the work of the criminal law, because it leads to problems when you adopt that approach. For that reason I have always been uneasy about ASBOs. For example, it was years before it was...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to implement the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Vinter and Others v United Kingdom.
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, the noble Lord will know that there are now 51 prisoners serving whole-life sentences. He will also know that on 9 July the Grand Chamber decided by 16 votes to one that whole-life prisoners are entitled to have their sentences reviewed after 25 years, a right which they always had under English law and practice until they lost it, by an oversight it seems, as recently as 2003. It...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, with whom I so often find myself in agreement. I hope that tonight he is not casting me in the role of his hypothetical judge. I was of course very glad that the Government decided to include Europol, Eurojust and, above all, the European arrest warrant among the 35 measures, but I am not yet persuaded that an opt-out in 2014...
Lord Lloyd of Berwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Bamber and others vUnited Kingdom.