Lord Russell of Liverpool — Hansard

Lords Proceedings 16 June 2026

My Lords, earlier today, I had the enormous privilege to co-host with the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, who I suspect will try to ask the question after me, a group of the bereaved parents. Four of them spoke very bravely in person. Behind them were arrayed the photographs of even more children who l…

Lords Debate 28 April 2026

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

My Lords, I pay tribute to the work of the noble Lord, Lord Nash, and to the tireless campaigning of my colleague and noble friend Lady Benjamin, as well as the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, who I do not see in her place at the moment. This issue has been long in the waiting. For many years, we have h…

Lords Debate 27 April 2026 2 contributions

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Indeed. I thank the Minister for responding to the points I raised on educational technology at the last round of ping-pong. It has an awful lot of consultation in it, rather than action, which is emblematic of the situation we find ourselves in. We went through only one round of ping-pong on the …

My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, for all the service that he has given over many years. It was an absolute pleasure to join him at the dining table before this debate to exchange views about his long history here and his guidance to me as one of the younger Members of your…

Lords Debate 20 April 2026

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Mohammed of Tinsley in his Motion A1. We are united across this House and, indeed, across Parliament in our desire to protect children from the significant harms of the online world, but, as we consider these amendments in lieu, we are presented with three ra…

Lords Debate 16 April 2026 2 contributions

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Young of Acton, has set out his reasons for insisting on his Motion Q1, which would delete records that the police hold non-crime hate incidents in certain circumstances which he outlined, even when the police had a concern about the pattern of behaviour and that it mi…

My Lords, we have heard harrowing evidence in this House on AI chatbots, including the tragic case of Sewell Setzer, a high-achieving child who was captured, coerced and encouraged to commit suicide by a companion chatbot. Today, the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, gave another example. She has brought…

Lords Debate 25 March 2026

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

I had a lot of sympathy with the Government’s position on Report of trying to think about whether we could use consultation before embarking on drastic measures. I am just disappointed that the Government have brought forward at such a late stage these amendments that potentially give draconian powe…

Lords Debate 25 March 2026

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, can I add one word? In my experience in dealing with a large number of offences where corporations were responsible, it is only fines—and fines of a substantial amount—that have any real effect. The fines in this Bill are modest, in my view. I hope everyone will realise that unless we put …

Lords Debate 18 March 2026

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I will be brief. I entirely support the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, on all her amendments. What I would say to the Government about their own amendment is that I have just had what I suppose is the privilege—although it sometimes seemed quite lengthy—of being a member of the Secondary Leg…

Lords Debate 17 March 2026

Victims and Courts Bill

My Lords, I rise briefly—conscious of my noble friend to my left—to pay tribute to the Minister for how she has handled her first Bill through your Lordships’ House with good humour and considerable judicial skill. It is always slightly challenging to put an amendment or an argument to a Minister wh…

Lords Debate 13 March 2026

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Before anybody else intervenes, I should have said at the beginning of this group of amendments that the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, and the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, will be taking part remotely. I apologise to both of them for forgetting that at the beginning. The noble Lord, Lord …

Lords Debate 10 March 2026 7 contributions

Victims and Courts Bill

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 2 and 3, which were laid by the noble Lord, Lord Meston, who apologises for being unable to be in the House today. Rather courageously and dangerously, he has asked me to present the two amendments in his name. I shall do my amateur best. Amendment 2 would restr…

My Lords, I was very happy to put my name to the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Polak, not least because he and I, every Thursday morning in the post-legislative scrutiny committee for the Domestic Abuse Act, hear from the sector exactly what is going on and, perhaps more pertinently, what is n…

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Lords Debate 4 March 2026 2 contributions

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I want briefly to thank the Government for Amendment 338. I know the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and her team are extremely grateful that they have been listened to—this is something they have wanted for some time—so I would just like to say a big thank you for that. On Amendment 361A from…

My Lords, this has echoes of previous legislation that has passed through your Lordships’ House. In the three or four years before the Domestic Abuse Act became law, if you had asked people to define domestic abuse, I think you would have had a range of interpretations, many of which would be somewh…

Lords Debate 4 March 2026

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I declare that I am a cyclist. I came in this morning and, as noble Lords can see, survived in one piece, miraculously. Secondly, I have to declare that the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, saw me dismounting from my e-bike as I arrived, as he put it, prosaically, in front of our “prison gates…

Lords Debate 2 March 2026 4 contributions

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Kidron—I was very happy to put my name to this. The noble Baroness and others in this Chamber were at a meeting that we had at lunchtime today with a variety of really knowledgeable experts in this area. Even for those of us who have been to these sorts of me…

My Lords, I am grateful, as I am sure the whole House is, to the noble Lord, Lord Nash, for tabling this amendment. We are all familiar with regular updates on our smartphones that eat more and more of the memory and use up more and more of the battery. They happen systematically, usually for securi…

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Lords Debate 25 February 2026 2 contributions

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 8, 9 and 10 in my name, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, who is outside the Chamber at the moment—I think she is talking to the other Minister—has kindly added her name. I thank the Minister and his officials for the meetings that we have had since Comm…

I thank the Minister for his response, which was much as anticipated—so no surprises. I think we all understand the underlying issues and some of the bad things that victims are currently experiencing. These three amendments come from a period during which the Victims’ Commissioner office has been …

Lords Debate 11 February 2026 5 contributions

Victims and Courts Bill

My Lords, I rise briefly to speak to Amendment 61. In doing a little background on this, I looked at the Law Society’s response to the MoJ call for evidence, which it produced last April. I wish to read two brief excerpts, because I think they are both particularly pertinent to what we are talking a…

My Lords, I did not speak to Amendment 62 when I briefly got up but I did some research on it. I think it is usually the case in a particular area of law that, where you have a body of experts in particular areas of evidence, it is not uncommon for those experts to be used by both the prosecution an…

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Lords Oral Questions 10 February 2026

Better Start Longitudinal Programmes

It is an important point that the noble Lord raises. This is being dealt with by the Government’s proposal to have a three-month consultation, so that we get it right in terms of acknowledging the concerns and challenges of screen time for children. So, I take the point that the noble Lord has made.…

Lords Debate 9 February 2026

Victims and Courts Bill

My Lords, I also put my name to Amendment 46, which was originally laid by Sarah Champion in the Commons; the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, has spoken to it comprehensively, so I will not add anything to that. Instead, I will speak to Amendment 47 in my name, which, in many ways, is very closely rel…

Lords Debate 9 February 2026 3 contributions

Victims and Courts Bill

My Lords, I will speak very briefly to support the noble Lord, Lord Meston, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, on Amendment 34. As they mentioned, the Victims’ Commissioner has been approached by a variety of individuals who survived attempted murder by their other half or partner. In those cases…

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 42, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay; to the two amendments in my name, Amendments 47A and 47B—I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, for adding her name to them; and to Amendments 55, 56 and…

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Lords Debate 3 February 2026

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

My Lords, I put my name to the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, for a very simple reason. An awful lot of what we have been discussing today, and in recent days in Committee, is about trying to make this Bill as child-centric and school-centric as possible. There is a common the…

Lords Debate 3 February 2026

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

My Lords, I rise briefly to support Amendment 208 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan. The reason is very simple. I do not know how many of your Lordships have seen a documentary available on BBC iPlayer called “Lover, Liar, Predator”. For those who have not seen it, it is pretty searing.…

Lords Debate 2 February 2026

Crime and Policing Bill

I will make an intervention in general about this rather lengthy debate. I draw your Lordships’ attention to paragraph 4.46 on page 63 of the Companion , entitled “Reading of Speeches”. I will read it out very clearly so that everybody can understand what it says: “The House has resolved that the r…

Lords Debate 28 January 2026 3 contributions

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

My Lords, I am happy to have added my name to Amendments 121A and 131A by the noble Baroness, Lady Barran. I am grateful to officials from the Department for Education who had a meeting with us to discuss these amendments and the reasoning behind them. The reasoning behind those amendments is reall…

I remind the House that if Amendment 138 is agreed, I cannot call Amendments 139 and 140 because of pre-emption. Amendment 138

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Lords Oral Questions 27 January 2026

TikTok: Bereaved British Parents

All services operating in the United Kingdom must comply with the Online Safety Act. Ofcom is the regulator of online services and, when services fail to comply with the duties under the Act, it has enforcement powers to take action against them. We have made it very clear that Parliament has given …

Lords Proceedings 27 January 2026

Arrangement of Business

My Lords, if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, this Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.