Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
Violence Against Retail Workers
My Lords, violence against retail workers does not stop at the shop door. Staff who refuse unlawful sales or challenge theft can face online threats and harassment. This includes sharing their images and personal details. What steps are the Government taking to address this rapidly growing problem a…
Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
Death of Ann Widdecombe
My Lords, from these Benches, we join others in extending condolences for the death of Ann Widdecombe. The reaction to this tragedy has rightly included tributes from every party and from all sections of society. That is a reminder that, under fierce disagreement, there is a shared commitment to our…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Police Leadership Commission Report
My Lords, I welcome the report from the noble Lords, Lord Blunkett and Lord Herbert, which rightly starts with an uncomfortable truth: leadership across policing is too inconsistent and, for decades, we have failed to invest in developing leaders for the world they now face.
We support clearer stan…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Rochdale Grooming Gang: Offender Deportation
My Lords, this case arises from one of the most despicable and notorious failures of local agencies to protect local vulnerable girls. Can the Minister tell the House what specific lessons have been learned from the original Rochdale investigation? How have those lessons now been built into national…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Counterterrorism: AI and Facial Recognition
My Lords, the Government have committed substantial resources to live facial recognition technology, but, at present, the police authorisation makes no distinction between the technology being deployed on the high street and for counterterrorism purposes. Will the Minister confirm that the forthcomi…
Lords
Debate
23 June 2026
National Security (State Threats) Bill
My Lords, the Liberal Democrats support the principles of the Bill. We have been clear that we also want this legislation on the statute book and we will not seek to hold it up. We fully recognise the unprecedented security challenges that we face, confronting more serious and less predictable threa…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
2 contributions
Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry
My Lords—
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, drew attention to the fact that victims may have had convictions for underage prostitution quashed yet they still remain criminalised for offences such as drug possession, which have been forced on them by their abusers. Will the Minister commit to broadenin…
Lords
Proceedings
3 June 2026
Murder of Henry Nowak
My Lords, in the face of an unimaginable tragedy, the Nowak family has shown a level of moral leadership that puts many in the political sphere to shame. While others have rushed to use the death of their 18 year-old son to stoke the fires of a culture war, the family’s plea has been for one thing: …
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will restrict my remarks to the Government’s proposals for policing. At the start of the last Session, many of us hoped for a serious reforming agenda after too many years in which our public services stagnated and, in too many respects, went backwards. Nowhere is this truer than in poli…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will restrict my remarks to the Government’s proposals for policing. At the start of the last Session, many of us hoped for a serious reforming agenda after too many years in which our public services stagnated and, in too many respects, went backwards. Nowhere is this truer than in poli…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 April 2026
Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025
The noble Baroness is revisiting areas that we discussed during the passage of the legislation, on which I gave, I hope, clear answers. The statutory guidance—which I do not have with me, but which is quite a significant document—was published to give guidance to those nominated individuals responsi…
Lords
Debate
22 April 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, regarding Motion A1, moved so ably by my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones, on disincentivising fining for profit and, importantly, ensuring that contractors found to be profiteering from fixed penalty notices may risk losing their contracts, I have nothing to add to what he said.
On Motion…
Lords
Debate
16 April 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I thank everyone for their insight on and support for the principle behind this matter, which is that urgent action is needed. In the light of what has been said, I am reluctantly content to withdraw my Motion. In doing so, I will leave the Minister with two thoughts.
First, this will not…
Leave out from “House” to end and insert “do insist on its Amendment 342.”
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
15 April 2026
Knife Crime
My Lords, we welcome the Government’s new strategy in broad terms. It is the right direction of travel. There is much in Protecting Lives , Building Hope to support the focus on prevention, early intervention and joined-up local action. These are principles that the Liberal Democrats have long champ…
Lords
Proceedings
15 April 2026
Southport Inquiry
My Lords, I commend the Statement made in the other place. Our thoughts remain with the families of Elsie Dot, Bebe and Alice, and with those still living with the physical and psychological scars of Southport.
The Liberal Democrats welcome the first phase of Sir Adrian Fulford’s inquiry. Its findi…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 April 2026
Nitrous Oxide
The noble Baroness mentions the forensic service. It is really important that we keep that up to date. As she mentioned, under the policing White Paper we are having a review of how that is undertaken. It is extremely important, not just in this context but in the context of much more illegal drugs.…
Lords
Debate
25 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his comments and for speaking to me earlier today. He talked about the cost implications of the Bill, and there are many, but I am not sure that anybody knows what the cost implications of Clause 246 might be. Be that as it may, my amendment to the Motion was to dr…
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in moving this amendment, I will also speak to Amendment 417A.
Amendment 409G would ensure that, before a court imposes a youth diversion order, it has clear evidence of any alternative interventions that have been tried or considered, why they failed and what consultation took place with…
My Lords, I am disappointed with the Minister’s response because the current duty to consult requires the police to speak only to the youth offending team, not to social services, health, education and others who know the child. The whole point of my speech was to say that in order for these very po…
Lords
Debate
11 March 2026
9 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Amendment 393 seeks to protect the operational independence of chief constables by introducing vital safeguards at the point of suspension—the moment when they are most vulnerable to political pressure in practice.
In Committee, I tabled an amendment addressing a later stage of the formal…
Amazed is the word.
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
11 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, these amendments all address the same question: how we protect the public from unlawful force while treating officers fairly when they carry out dangerous duties on our behalf. From these Benches, we start from two simple principles: there must be clear, consistent standards of accountabil…
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
7 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Amendment 374 seeks to place statutory guardrails on the use of live facial recognition, echoing the recent calls from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. We recognise that this technology can assist the police in tackling serious crime, but it must be used responsibly. Its rapid spr…
My Lords, I thank the Minister and all noble Lords who have spoken. I have no doubt at all that everything the Minister said, he actually believes. But it reminds me of when I was on the Metropolitan Police Authority for the first time and I went round all the police stations in London—I think there…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, as the Minister said in his introduction, as a result of the earlier amendments from the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, the Government have now brought forward much-needed statutory guidance, together with a clear statutory definition of this pervasive yet often overlooked form of abuse. Both …
My Lords, we strongly support the creation of a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker. It sends an important signal to those working in shops at a time when shop theft has surged and the risks to staff have grown. But if this measure applies only to those who work in shops, we risk sending …
Lords
Debate
2 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s amendment on sexual activity with an animal. The original amendment in Committee from the noble Lord, Lord Black, shone a fierce but necessary light on the grim intersection of animal abuse, child exploitation and online coercion, and it is because of that work t…
Lords
Debate
2 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, we believe that Amendment 235 delivers on the crucial recommendation from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, in her national audit. By creating these strict liability offences where consent is rightly irrelevant and the offence of reasonable belief in age cannot apply, these clauses send an i…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 277, which would create a specific criminal offence of secretly filming someone without their consent for sexual gratification or in order to humiliate or distress them. In addition, it would make profiting from such footage a serious aggravating factor for senten…
Lords
Debate
25 February 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I apologise to the House; I was not ready, but it is worth waiting for. This amendment would change the legal test for imposing a respect order, requiring the court to consider this step “necessary and proportionate”, and not merely “just and convenient”, in preventing a person engaging in…
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken, and I am very grateful for all the support that I got. I am disappointed, but not at all surprised, by the Minister’s response because, in my experience, the Minister is good at listening but not particularly good at hearing. I think we have done ev…
+1 more contribution in this session