Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the responses to its consultation on the Bill of Rights Bill supported (1) the proposal to repeal the Human Rights Act altogether, (2) the proposal to restrict positive obligations, (3) the proposal to diverge from the European Court on Human Rights’ living instrument doctrine, and (4) the proposal to remove judicial power to interpret...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have received from (1) other states, and (2) the UN Universal Periodic Review which took place on 10 November, regarding the Bill of Rights Bill.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, and in the widest sense I agree with her—but I come at it from a rather different angle. I am concerned about the integrity of the legal process. I do not want to repeat what I said earlier. The Minister heard me referring to a very recent statute that came into force in August, I think from memory, which in my view...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, I will make a very serious request of the Minister, who is dealing with this difficult Bill with great courtesy and who is very amenable to comment, even if he disagrees. I ask him to take the trouble, before he replies to this debate, to read Section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022—it is only one page, and I will lend him my iPad if he needs it. In this...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: Will the Minister at some point explain to us why Section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, introduced by this Government, does not meet exactly the requirements discussed in this Bill? It is not an ancient Act of Parliament but a new one, and it seems to me to fit the bill proportionately.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: If I am to be corrected, I am, but may I just offer a view? It is an offence to wilfully obstruct the highway. Of course, if you obstruct it because a person in your car is having a heart attack and needs attention, there will probably be a reasonable excuse for the obstruction and that is a defence. However, it is a summary offence to obstruct the highway, punishable by imprisonment.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Balfe. I absolutely agree with his fundamental point that here we are trying to create offences which are not necessary because there are already adequate offences to deal with these situations. I do not understand why the police have not used those existing offences in entirely appropriate situations. I apologise for not having been...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: Given that Vladimir Putin is an unprincipled opportunist, can we take it that the Government are aware of the danger that the exodus into Georgia of Russians apparently wishing not to serve in the Russian forces may well include a fifth column placed there under Putin’s instructions? Will we try to ensure that such a fifth column does not do what some Russians were doing in Ukraine?
Lord Carlile of Berriew: That is what noble Lords have been saying.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: Is not the noble and learned Lord confusing two quite different things? The expert does not give an opinion on whether the person should be released, as the noble and learned Lord suggested has been the case; the expert gives his opinion on whether it is safe for the person to be released. That is quite different. Can the noble and learned Lord, with all of his expertise, think of another...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: In the jurisdiction in which the Minister is so expert, namely competition law—as he knows, I have sat with him in the Competition Appeal Tribunal—economists and other experts giving evidence before the Competition Appeal Tribunal do give an opinion as to whether the practice under consideration is competitive or anti-competitive. I pull the Minister back to a previous point. Time and...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, I speak in support of my noble friend’s regret Motion, which she moved with such clarity. She speaks with great experience and authority, as she told us at the beginning of her speech. These regulations, already in force, feel like an attack on the Parole Board. I have been knocking around the legal system for decades, and I know many people who have been, and some who are,...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, I start by congratulating my noble friend Lady Gohir on her excellent maiden speech and the noble Baroness the Minister on her new appointment, and wishing the right reverend Prelate well on his retirement from this House in what can only be described by our standards as early middle age. I wish to pick up two points in this debate: one about poverty and the other about mortgages....
Lord Carlile of Berriew: Would the noble and learned Lord be kind enough to help Members of your Lordships’ House, Members of another place and, above all, the public by informing the remaining candidates for leadership of the Conservative Party of what he has just said so that they get it right during the TV debates that will start tomorrow?
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness. I agree with what she said and defer to her experience in dealing with matters under the Human Rights Act. The background to this debate is in six stark words in paragraph 2 of Schedule 5 to the Bill of Rights Bill: “The Human Rights Act … is repealed.” The noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, opened this debate in that context,...
Lord Carlile of Berriew: My Lords, does the Minister agree that the Russians are committing unforgivable war crimes virtually every day? Does he agree that any form of appeasement with that kind of regime is wholly unacceptable?
Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to bring forward legislation to enable the removal of peerages from those who have been convicted of and imprisoned for serious criminal offences.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers were detained on (1) 30 April, and (2) the same day in each of the previous three months.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that individual asylum seekers are not detained if there is no evidence that the individual presents a reasonable suspicion of danger to national security.
Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average cost of (1) detaining an asylum seeker in custody, and (2) providing them with social housing in the community.
