Bills – Page 30 – The Church of England in Parliament

Illegal Migration Bill: Bishop of Manchester tables motion to maintain safeguards for unaccompanied children

On 12th July 2023, the House of Lords debated Commons amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of motion A1, moved by Baroness Chakrabarti, to insert a new clause into the bill which would stipulate that the UK must abide by international obligations, and in support of his motion U1, which would propose that removal of putative children should be delayed until judicial review of disputed age assessments had been completed:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I support Motion A1 but will speak more particularly to Motion U1 in my name, to which the noble Baroness just referred. It proposes that if an age-assessment judicial review is in progress, removal should be delayed until its completion. I welcome comments from Ministers that those subject to an age dispute will be accommodated in an age-appropriate setting here in the UK, but can the Minister confirm that will be the case in a third country? Will Rwanda, for example, be informed that a young person is subject to an age dispute, and will the Rwandan Government then be required by the UK to keep that person separate from other adult residents and to supervise them properly as a child until the courts have made a judgment?

Votes: Online Safety Bill

On 12th July 2023, the House of Lords debated the Online Safety Bill in the report stage. A vote was held on an amendment to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:

Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: Bishop of Durham supports inclusion of missions on child poverty and health inequalities

On 11th July 2023, the House of Lords debated the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in the first day of the report stage. The Bishop of Durham spoke in support of two amendments to the bill:

Amendment 4, tabled by Baroness Lister of Burtersett, which would include a mission to reduce childhood poverty in the levelling-up missions
Amendment 7, tabled by Baroness Finlay and supported by the Bishop of London, which would include a mission to address health disparities in the bill

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 4, to which I have put my name and which I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for leading on, and to Amendment 7, to which my right reverend friend the Bishop of London has added her name. She sends her apologies that she cannot be present today.

I draw attention, as has been done already, to the latest research on the number of children living in poverty in the UK. I highlight particularly that in 2021-22 in my part of England, the north-east, more than one in three children were living below the poverty line. The number of children living in poverty in the region has seen an increase of 26% since 2014-15—the steepest rise of anywhere in the country during this period.

Votes: Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

On 11th July 2023, the House of Lords debated the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in the first day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:

Votes: Online Safety Bill

On 10th July 2023, the House of Lords debated the Online Safety Bill in the second day of the report stage. A vote was held on an amendment to the bill, in which Bishops took part:

Online Safety Bill: Bishop of Oxford supports amendments on definition of online harms

On 10th July 2023, the House of Lords debated the Online Safety Bill in the second day of the report stage. The Bishop of Oxford spoke in support of a group of amendments to the bill stipulating that online harms can arise from functionality and design of services as well as from content:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: My Lords, as often, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baronesses, Lady Harding and Lady Kidron, and to support this group of amendments, especially those to which I put my name. I thank the Minister and the Secretary of State for the many amendments they are introducing, including in the last group, on which I was not able to speak for similar reasons to other noble Lords. I especially note Amendment 1, which makes safety by design the object of the Bill and makes implicit the amendments that we are speaking to this afternoon, each of which is consistent with that object of safety by design running through the Bill.

Online Safety Bill: Bishop of Oxford speaks to amendments on misinformation and disinformation online

On 6th July 2023, during the first day of the report stage on the Online Safety Bill, the Bishop of Oxford spoke in support of amendments targeting the spread of misinformation and disinformation online, particularly with regard to the risk posed to children:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: My Lords, I too welcome these amendments and thank the Minister and the Government for tabling them. The Bill will be significantly strengthened by Amendment 172 and related amendments by putting the harms as so clearly described in the Bill. I identify with the comments of others that we also need to look at functionality. I hope we will do that in the coming days.

I also support Amendment 174, to which I added my name. Others have covered proposed new subsection (9B) very well; I add my voice to those encouraging the Minister to give it more careful consideration. I will also speak briefly to proposed new subsection (9A), on misinformation and disinformation content. With respect to those who have spoken against it and argued that those are political terms, I argue that they are fundamentally ethical terms. For me, the principle of ethics and the online world is not the invention of new ethics but finding ways to acknowledge and support online the ethics we acknowledge in the offline world.

Online Safety Bill: Bishop of Oxford supports amendments on safety and risk assessment

The Bishop of Oxford spoke in support of a group of amendments to the Online Safety Bill designed to encourage a focus on safety by design in technology and online services, and to provide frameworks for assessing risk, on 6th July 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: My Lords, I broadly support all the amendments in this group but I will focus on the three amendments in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Russell, and others; I am grateful for their clear exposition of why these amendments are important. I draw particular attention to Amendment 281A and its helpful list of functions that are considered to be harmful and to encourage addiction.

Online Safety Bill: Bishop of Oxford welcomes amendments on artificial intelligence, stresses importance of future-proofing

On 6th July 2023, during a debate on the Online Safety Bill, The Bishop of Oxford spoke in support of a group of amendments to the bill focusing on the development of artificial intelligence, whilst raising concerns about whether the bill was sufficiently future proofed given the rapid movement of technology:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: My Lords, I warmly welcome this group of amendments. I am very grateful to the Government for a number of amendments that they are bringing forward at this stage. I want to support this group of amendments, which are clearly all about navigating forward and future-proofing the Bill in the context of the very rapid development of artificial intelligence and other technologies. In responding to this group of amendments, will the Minister say whether he is now content that the Bill is sufficiently future-proofed, given the hugely rapid development of technology, and whether he believes that Ofcom now has sufficient powers to risk assess for the future and respond, supposing that there were further parallel developments in generative AI such as we have seen over the past year?

Online Safety Bill: Bishop of Manchester voices support for collaborative production of the bill

On 6th July 2023, the House of Lords debated the Online Safety Bill in the first day of the report stage. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in favour of a government amendment to the bill introducing a new introductory clause setting out the purpose and duties of the act, and voiced his support for the collaborative way in which the bill had been produced:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I too support the Minister’s Amendment 1. I remember vividly, at the end of Second Reading, the commitments that we heard from both Front-Benchers to work together on this Bill to produce something that was collaborative, not contested. I and my friends on these Benches have been very touched by how that has worked out in practice and grateful for the way in which we have collaborated across the whole House. My plea is that we can use this way of working on other Bills in the future. This has been exemplary and I am very grateful that we have reached this point.

Hansard

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