Lords
Committee Stage
9 July 2026
3 contributions
Women and Girls: Impact of ODA Cuts
My Lords, not for the first time the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, deserves our gratitude for concentrating our minds on victims and survivors of international crimes, especially on women and girls in need of access to life-sustaining support. In my three minutes, I will focus on Sudan and Nigeria.
Su…
I am grateful to the Minister for her intervention, but what I said is based on information provided to me by officials who work in her department. It is said that the
“FCDO opted to take the fourth – and least ambitious – option … FCDO stakeholders … recognised the value of supporting locally led …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Military Conflicts: International Law
My Lords, I thank the Attorney-General for his recent engagement with the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, and myself on universal jurisdiction and genocide determination. In the light of the current events referred to in this Question, but specifically in Sudan, where horrendous crimes ha…
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Historical Forced Adoption
My Lords, I thank the Lord Privy Seal for the tone and manner in which she repeated the Prime Minister’s Statement in your Lordships’ House this afternoon. She will be aware that, in 2022, the Joint Committee on Human Rights described forced adoption as
“the violation of family life”.
I am glad th…
Lords
Debate
30 June 2026
National Security (State Threats) Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter. This builds on the Private Notice Question which she placed before your Lordships’ House and indeed on our Second Reading debate last week where the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, which, as the noble Baroness has right…
Lords
Debate
30 June 2026
National Security (State Threats) Bill
My Lords, from the Cross Benches, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Anderson of Ipswich, myself and my other noble friends, we too would echo the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Lochiel, and of the noble Lord, Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames, in thanking the Minister for engaging with us. …
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Darfur: Atrocities
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. The Foreign Secretary has said:
“El Obeid is on the precipice of an atrocity”,
in a country with an estimated 150,000 fatalities and between 14 million and 15 million displaced people. Given that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday, wit…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
G7 Summit
My Lords, the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe is in Sudan. Can the noble Baroness say what more was said at the G7 summit about the atrocities in Sudan, given that it is a major root cause of displaced people, of whom there are now 120 million in the world? Will she look at the statements iss…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office
I welcome what the Minister just said about the updating of some of the guidelines but will he return to the report that the Joint Committee on Human Rights published exactly 10 months ago, which called for the highest enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme to apply to the Chines…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Transnational Marriage Abandonment
My Lords, just two nights ago in Parliament, there was a two and a half-hour session organised by one of the all-party parliamentary groups at which a number of women and girls gave evidence. Evidence that was given by Professor Javaid Rehman and Professor Mariz Tadros is germane to my noble friend’…
Lords
Proceedings
11 June 2026
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: Proscription
My Lords, I strongly welcome the role that the Minister has played in ensuring that this legislation is brought forward. I remind him of the debate that we had in in your Lordships’ House on the Joint Committee on Human Rights report, Transnational Repression in the UK. We took evidence from Iranian…
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
2 contributions
Concealed Surveillance Equipment in Government Offices and Vehicles
I am grateful to the noble Baroness, and to the Minister for that reply.
That disclosure was made yesterday to a Select Committee in another place—that a Chinese cellular module was discovered in the then Prime Minister’s car—and on the previous day, there was a report of secret cameras being disco…
My Lords, the Minister is always helpful in the replies that he gives to the House, but I press him further on the second limb of the question I put to him about the discovery of cellular modules in a former Prime Minister’s car. This was not something just reported in a newspaper, as he said to the…
Lords
Proceedings
9 June 2026
Cuba: Humanitarian Situation
My Lords, in that one-party state which systematically suppresses dissent, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, which routinely uses sham trials and which imposes arbitrary detention in harsh prison conditions, targeting journalists, labour activists and pro-democracy activists, can the Mini…
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2026
Combating Atrocity Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords participating in today’s debate, along with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Protection Approaches, and the Coalition for Genocide Response—of which I am a patron—Dr Ewelina Ochab, and the House of Lords Library for its invaluable backgrou…
Lords
Proceedings
21 May 2026
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda: Ebola Outbreak
My Lords, given what the Minister has rightly said about the systemic challenges facing aid workers and others in the east of the DRC, will she look carefully during her visit to the region at the effect of the large numbers of displaced people now in refugee camps? Those are the perfect breeding gr…
Lords
Proceedings
19 May 2026
Supreme Court Dillon Judgment
My Lords, in thanking the Minister for the way she introduced her response to the Statement this afternoon, I link that with thanks to the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn MP, for the way they both engaged with the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the remedial order and the Troubles Bill. Given tha…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 April 2026
Sudan
As the noble Lord knows, the UK is supporting a sexual and gender-based violence representative to make sure that there is accountability. The fact that sexual violence is used in the way that it is, to the extent that it is in Sudan, often with absolute impunity, is something that the international…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Data Centres: Energy Demand
I have a feeling that the noble Lord will shortly be in receipt of a further letter from me on this subject. It is the case that the Modern Slavery Act, particularly in terms of a number of the concerns that have been raised about the more offset arrangements as far as modern slavery is concerned, n…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
UK Energy Sources and Cost of Energy
I will have to write to the noble Lord on the specifics he mentioned. He should know that the UK Government are pursuing very robust measures to ensure that the supply of products such as solar panels is not the product of modern slavery. Efforts are under way on the diversification of supply and on…
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, brevity is the order of the day but, like some of my noble friends, I would like to add my support to the amendments that have been laid before your Lordships’ House by my noble friend Lady Kidron.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights, which I have the privilege of chairing, is currently c…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
BBC World Service: Sustainability
I have not read that evidence, but I will do. What the noble Lord describes is transnational repression and criminality. We will do whatever we need to do to stamp it out, and he is right to draw our attention to it. We are deeply concerned, and this is another reason why we must do everything we ca…
Lords
Proceedings
26 February 2026
3 contributions
Transnational Repression in the UK (JCHR Report)
My Lords, before the debate gets under way, I want to highlight the four-minute advisory time for Back-Bench contributions. This is designed to ensure that the debate can finish within two hours, in line with the usual timings for Thursday debates, and that the House can rise at a reasonable time. I…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for his warm welcome and for introducing this important debate: one that is fundamental to protecting freedoms and human rights in this country, and one that I believe highlights the important work of his committee. I rise for my maiden speech with a rea…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Jimmy Lai: Prison Sentence
It is outrageous that Jimmy Lai has not had contact from his family—that is inhumane. We continue to argue that he should have that contact and consular assistance. The Foreign Secretary has spoken to Secretary Rubio about this, and noble Lords will know that President Trump intends to visit China l…
Lords
Debate
5 February 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in moving all-party Amendments 472 and 473, I thank the co-sponsors and other supporters, who include the noble Baronesses, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws and Lady Hodgson of Abinger, my noble friends Lord Anderson of Ipswich and Lord Carlile of Berriew, and the noble Lords, Lord Wigley and Lor…
I ask the noble Lord to continue the discussions with those of us proposing this amendment today, but our amendment is not as ambitious as he suggests. I wish it were, but actually it is much more limited. On some of the points he raised about the kinds of people who could be brought for prosecution…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
5 February 2026
Iran
My Lords, will the Minister commit that we will be unrelenting in working with like-minded nations in holding to account those who have been responsible for these atrocities, these massacres, on such a scale? Before the House debates the report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights on transnational…
Lords
Proceedings
4 February 2026
China and Japan
My Lords, following the issue of sanctions, in my case it is one down and three to go. I welcome the intervention that the Prime Minister made on behalf of those parliamentarians who have been sanctioned—not by China but by the Chinese Communist Party. Many of us are careful to make that distinction…