I want to write to Lord Whitty
Did you mean alleged speaker:Lord Whitty?
Lord Whitty: ...is important. However, the law does set the context, and that is what we are debating today. As has been explained, this Bill is supposed to be part of the Brexit dividend, replacing a complex and allegedly heavy-handed EU system and the four sets of regulations transposed into British law into one single place. I am not sure that a Bill of 115 clauses, 11 sections and umpteen...
Lord Whitty: ...to blight neighbourhoods where buildings really need to be in keeping with the surroundings and the natural environment. The Prime Minister’s reported aversion to the planning system’s alleged tenderness for endangered newts seems to apply to almost all protection of wildlife and biodiversity in planning. It is in contrast to his support for inebriated newts in the first part of the...
Lord Whitty: ...with Japan, Korea, Canada and so forth, and we need to get this right by the time we do so. We also need to set the right precedent for dealing with treaties in the future as we move into the new alleged global Britain in a post-Brexit world. My view is that we need a trade committee in this Parliament covering all future free trade agreements or possibly a more general treaties committee....
Lord Whitty: ...say that they do not intend to fundamentally change the UK’s competition law and enforcement framework, but they have, for example, said that they are taking steps, independent of Brexit—allegedly—to strengthen this framework, including granting additional resources to the CMA and completing their review of UK competition policy by April next year. I ask the Minister whether there...
Lord Whitty: ...our landscape and biodiversity at risk, in order to cut regulatory costs. They insist on light-touch regulation or thin self-regulation and reduce the powers of regulators and cut their resources—allegedly so that the UK can compete in a ruthless world market. That is not my vision of post-Brexit Britain, but it is one that has an uncomfortable resonance in some circles not far from the...
Lord Whitty: ...context, lower than the current common external tariff between ourselves and the EU. Not all of them will be at zero but, even if they are, or if most of them are, that will not fully achieve the alleged objective of the Government to achieve frictionless trade. The reality is that outside of a single market and a customs union, there is really no such thing as entirely frictionless trade....
Lord Whitty: ...can tackle carbon and other emissions which are damaging to public health. Technology ought to be able to provide solutions and regulation has to back it up. Other choices such as wood burning are allegedly also carried out for environmental reasons. I have my doubts about wood burning myself because I think that it is more of a lifestyle choice, and it is an increasing contributor to...
Lord Whitty: ..., which was an interesting job—I am sure the Minister is so finding it. I find the proposals on the Highways Agency interesting and I am not opposed to them. However, I do not believe some of the alleged benefits that are set out in the advocacy of them. It could be constituted as a government-owned company, although I hope we find a better name for it than “GoCo”. I do not object in...
Lord Whitty: ...out there, in view of recent months, is that there are forces within the Government who regard any reference to sustainability or sustainable development as part of what the Prime Minister allegedly referred to as “green crap”. I am not sure whether that has been mentioned before in this House and if it is out of order, I will withdraw it. However, it has been widely reported. If the...
Lord Whitty: ..., "overstate the true rate at which crime has been falling", and that officers may have been failing to document some offences. The Minister may also be aware that there are even more serious allegations around, some of which may well be aired in a meeting here tonight, that some of that underrecording is deliberate, whether as result of reduced resources in police forces or as a result of...
Lord Whitty: ...general fund. If that could happen in a scheme as large as the Post Office scheme-and there is the possibility of a predatory Treasury down the line-then it could happen in relation to failing or allegedly failing local government schemes. The reality is that the boards of the local schemes and the national board would need to take steps within the LGPS to ensure that such schemes did not...
Lord Whitty: ...to be rechannelled through the centre. In reality, the position is that local authorities will not know how much they will get from the business rate. That is surely completely non-conducive to the alleged aim of this: to allow local authorities to stimulate local business and prosperity. Unless they know what kind of income they are going to get over a relatively long period, that kind of...
Lord Whitty: My Lords, would the Minister accept that the Government and the European authorities are right to proceed with caution on this front? I speak both as the Minister who was allegedly in charge during the last stages of food and mouth and as a former consumer champion. The noble Lord, Lord May, has spoken about BSE and we still do not know how the foot and mouth virus entered the chain. While...
Lord Whitty: ...both economically and demographically, and assess the quantity and quality of the available housing for the various different groups. That is localism. Some may object to the clause because it allegedly imposes an additional duty on local authorities, but in fact this duty is absolutely central to the local authority's ability to provide for the well-being of their communities. In one...
Lord Whitty: ...in her reply to my noble friend Lord Lea. I have tabled the amendment from the perspective that my previous organisation, Consumer Focus, and its predecessor, Postwatch, have been through two alleged rationalisations of the post office network, the first of which was based on no objective criteria at all. It worked from where sub-postmasters were finding it difficult to maintain a post...
Lord Whitty: ...I deplore-of the 36 other bodies on the abolition list, no fewer than 14 are Defra organisations and another seven are from the Ministry of Justice. Effectively, two-thirds of the bodies that this allegedly objective process abolishes come from two small departments. That cannot be right. We must have a better process for this because the normal process of the House is not correct for it....
Lord Whitty: ...accept them. We have threatened several millions of our citizens with exclusion from the internet by administrative decree, with dubious means of identifying who was actually the perpetrator of the alleged infringement. We have seen the Government, putatively this House and other political parties backing protectionism rather than competition and innovation, moving towards an exclusion of...
Lord Whitty: ...an administrative process that denies the subscriber who has been accused of an infringement the right to due process and the right to go to court. In all other cases where breach of copyright is alleged, access to the court on the part of the defendant is always available. This is a new move, which raises fundamental issues. I will not go on about it any further tonight, but I will return...
Lord Whitty: ..., if evidence is being gathered at this early stage, it is useful to identify the motivation of the unlawful downloader or file-sharer. I simply suggest in the amendment that, if there is an allegation that the individual is making money out of this breach of copyright, that should be known at the earliest possible stage. That will then have consequences regarding the nature of any...
Lord Whitty: ...the right of the system administrator to require ISPs to impose technical measures, subject to an appeals process, and substitute something that is closer to the normal process when a wrong is alleged through our legal system. That is to say that technical measures-sanctions-would not be applied until the courts system had agreed that they should be applied. I have never denied that there...