On 3rd March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Health and Care Bill in the second day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:
Votes: Health and Care Bill 2022
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Legislation before Parliament
Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of London speaks in favour of amendment to protect migrant victims of crime
On 2nd March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Nationality and Borders Bill on the second day of the report stage. The Bishop of London spoke in support of an amendment to the bill which would prevent immigration data about victims of crime who report offences from being shared:
The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 58A. I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, for introducing this new amendment. In Committee, I tabled an amendment looking to create a data firewall for survivors of domestic abuse. This amendment, however, is helpful in that it is broader in its scope and gets to the critical underlying principle: namely, that victims and witnesses of crime should not need to fear coming forward on account of their migration status. I and my colleagues on this Bench, including the right reverend Prelates the Bishops of Gloucester and Bristol, have highlighted these concerns, notably during the passage of the Domestic Abuse Bill.
Continue reading “Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of London speaks in favour of amendment to protect migrant victims of crime”Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Durham speaks in favour of greater protection for children and vulnerable groups
On 2nd March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Nationality and Borders Bill in the second day of the report stage. The Bishop of Durham spoke on several amendments to the bill, including:
- Amendment 35, which would prevent offshoring of asylum seekers
- Amendments 40-45, moved by the Bishop of Durham on behalf of the Bishop of Gloucester, which relate to the standard of proof applied to vulnerable people seeking asylum
- Amendments 48 & 49, which would promote more safe routes for asylum seekers and targets for resettlement
The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, in rising to support Amendment 35 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, to which I have added my name, I declare my interests in relation to both RAMP and Reset and set out in the register. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud, for the way she introduced this amendment, and I fully support all her points.
I set out my reasons for supporting this amendment in Committee. However, a significant concern for me now is that the Minister was not able to give assurance that children in families would be excluded from offshoring, nor that families would not be split up in the process. This is deeply concerning. I appreciate that the policy document of 25 February sets out that exemptions will depend on the country where people are being offshored and tat publicising exemptions will fuel the movement of the most vulnerable not subject to offshoring.
However, I would set out that, for children, onward movement to any country after an often traumatic journey to the UK, in addition to the trauma in their country of origin, is simply never in their best interests. All the concerns I set out in my Committee speech regarding the monitoring of the practice of offshoring processing centres are especially true for children.
Continue reading “Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Durham speaks in favour of greater protection for children and vulnerable groups”Building Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans urges proportional approach
On 2nd March 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Building Safety Bill in Grand Committee. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in favour of a proportional approach to new safety regulations, balancing the need for remediation of risk with the potential effects on leaseholders:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I will add a few extra words to this. I apologise to the Committee; I am struggling, as I think a number of us are, as there are so many Bills going through that we are bobbing in and out of various Bills. It is frustrating for us that we cannot necessarily sit and follow everything through, but I think this probing amendment touches on some really important issues for us.
Not surprisingly, after the absolute horror of Grenfell, we are rightly trying to think about how we offer maximum safety for everybody. But safety comes at a cost, as we are all aware. As we work on a Bill that we hope will do its job for many years, we need to take an objective view on some of these areas, particularly on what the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, said about proportionality.
Continue reading “Building Safety Bill: Bishop of St Albans urges proportional approach”Votes: Nationality and Borders Bill 2022
On 2nd March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Nationality and Borders Bill in its second day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part.
Health and Care Bill: Bishop of London speaks in favour of amendments on palliative care
On 1st March 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Health and Care Bill in the first day of the report stage. The Bishop of London spoke in favour of an amendment regarding palliative care, and urged that this care should be delivered with consistency:
The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, I declare my interests in the register. I join in thanking the Government for having listened in Committee. I hope that this will make a difference not just to the lives of those whose lives are shorter but also their families, so it is very welcome. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, but also to my friend, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle, who put his name to Amendment 17.
Continue reading “Health and Care Bill: Bishop of London speaks in favour of amendments on palliative care”Votes: Health and Care Bill
On 1st March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Health and Care Bill in the first day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:
Votes: Nationality and Borders Bill
On 28th February 2022, the House of Lords debated the Nationality and Borders Bill in the first day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:
Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Chelmsford supports right to work for asylum seekers
During a debate on the Nationality and Borders Bill in the first day of the report stage, on 28th February 2022, the Bishop of Chelmsford spoke in support of an amendment tabled by Baroness Stroud that would allow for the right to work for people seeking asylum who had been resident in the UK for six months:
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford: My Lords, I give my strong support to Amendment 30 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud. She has eloquently made the case for this amendment, so I do not intend to take a great deal of the House’s time, but I wish to add a few brief remarks in support.
At Second Reading, I raised the question of how different our migration policy might be if we stopped looking at asylum seekers as either victims without agency or criminals seeking to exploit us and instead as future citizens and neighbours. In this light, the right to work for asylum seekers who have waited six months or more for a decision represents an excellent opportunity. It would be good for asylum seekers and for the soul of this nation. Such people are often left without agency or dignity. Their identity becomes limited to a sort of victim status. Being unable to work leaves them dependent on the state or at risk of falling in with illegal labour exportation.
Continue reading “Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Chelmsford supports right to work for asylum seekers”Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Durham tables amendment to restrict use of accommodation centres for families and vulnerable groups of asylum seekers
The Bishop of Durham tabled an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill on 28th February 2022, seeking to restrict the use of accommodation centres for asylum seekers falling under certain categories, such as families and vulnerable adults. The amendment was not moved to a vote, following a response from the government with more information on proposed accommodation:
The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I have tabled Amendment 29, with the noble Baroness, Lady Lister. I declare my interests in relation to RAMP and Reset, as set out in the register.
I have tabled this amendment again because in Committee we did not have as satisfactory a response to our questions as we had hoped on the basic details of what these accommodation centres will look like. We do not know how many or where these will be. We do not know how many people will be accommodated in each one. I am not assured that the previously terrible, and now still wanting, conditions provided at Napier will not be repeated. We are being asked to agree to the use of accommodation centres without any information or reassurances of what they will look like, where they will be, and so on. We can only go on what we see as existing provision on MoD sites. That makes me very concerned—I remind the House that I had the privilege of visiting Napier barracks recently—and gives me strong reason to call for their use to be restricted, so that the vulnerable groups set out in this amendment cannot be accommodated in them. I continue to believe that placing people seeking asylum in housing in communities is much better for everyone.
Continue reading “Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Durham tables amendment to restrict use of accommodation centres for families and vulnerable groups of asylum seekers”
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