Speeches – Page 69 – The Church of England in Parliament

Bishop of St Albans asks about money laundering in British overseas territories

The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on financial fraud and money laundering in British Overseas territories during a debate on the scale of money laundering in the UK on 13th January 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, in last year’s parliamentary debate on the Church Action for Tax Justice report Tax for the Common Good, the Minister assured us that progress was being made on reducing money laundering and financial fraud in our British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies. Would he be able to update the House on this? If he cannot do so now, would he please write to me with information on the progress we are making?

Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con, Treasury): It is important to remind the House that the overseas territories are independent entities and that we cannot just force them to comply with our own regulations. But we have an ongoing dialogue with them. For example, we have a very useful exchange of information through the exchange of notes arrangements, and they have agreed to introduce publicly accessible registers of companies’ beneficial ownership. The discussions are very much ongoing and I respect the right reverend Prelate’s concern.

Hansard

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Bishops of Gloucester & Derby support updated statutory definition of child criminal exploitation

On 12th January 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The Bishop of Gloucester, on behalf of the Bishop of Derby, spoke in support of an amendment tabled by Lord Rosser which would introduce a new statutory definition of child criminal exploitation:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, I speak in place of my right reverend friend the Bishop of Derby, who sadly cannot be here today. She and I support this amendment, to which she has added her name. I declare her interest as vice-chair of the Children’s Society. These are her words.

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Bishop of Gloucester supports amendment to review criminal sentencing

On 12th January 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The Bishop of Gloucester spoke in support of an amendment tabled by Lord Marks of Henley on Thames which would establish a royal commission to review criminal sentencing:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, I fully support the amendment. Sometimes I feel a bit as if I am in “Groundhog Day” as we listen to things that are said again and again. When we first discussed the Bill in this House, many people far more learned than me commented on all the issues with the Bill and the fact that so much of it is piecemeal—that we are trying to put sticking plasters over things without looking at the issues holistically and without looking at evidence. So much of it seems to be a reaction—often to populist headlines, let us be honest. There is so much evidence that we are not looking at, and so much of what we are discussing is not backed up by the evidence.

Health & Care Bill: Bishop of London supports greater advocacy for patients

On 11th January 2022, the House of Lords debated the Health & Care Bill in committee. The Bishop of London spoke in the debate, supporting stronger voices for patients in the NHS, particularly in governing boards:

The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, I declare my background as a former government Chief Nursing Officer and non-executive director of a number of healthcare trusts. I was not going to speak, but I have listened to noble Lords’ comments today and I come down with the noble Baroness, Lady Harding, in saying that we should not stipulate what skills are required of a board too tightly. What is in front of organisations changes over time, so the chair needs to be empowered to change. However, one caveat is that it would be wise to consider having somebody on the board with a background in patients. I speak from experience as a clinical professional: we can too easily forget the patient and to see things through their eyes. Far too often, we see things through the eyes of the clinician, which is not always in the best interest of patients.

Hansard

Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill: Bishop of Gloucester supports establishment of a Women’s Justice Board

On 10th January 2022, during a debate on amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Bishop of Gloucester spoke in support of an amendment tabled by Lord Marks of Henley Upon Thames that would establish a Women’s Justice Board to address the needs of women within the criminal justice system:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, I add my wholehearted support to this amendment. I am very grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Marks and Lord Ramsbotham, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, for their continued commitment to women in the criminal justice system. As bishop to prisons and president of the Nelson Trust, I am acutely aware, as I have said so often, of the need for a gendered approach to justice. The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, has just put that very powerfully.

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Bishop of Gloucester raises issue of threats to vulnerable women and girls

On 10th January 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The Bishop of Gloucester raised the issue of vulnerable women being caught in “joint enterprise” scenarios involving weapons and given prison sentences, and supported amendments which would address this:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, I rise to support in particular Amendments 90H, 90J, 90K and 90L. As has been said, they are critical to ensuring that more vulnerable women are not drawn into the criminal justice system through the de facto joint enterprise element of SVROs. Probably like other noble Lords, I was shocked to read the briefing from Agenda, which states that analysis of

“109 joint enterprise cases involving women and girls”

shows that

“there was not a single case in which women and girls had handled a weapon; in 90% of cases they engaged in no violence at all; and in half of the cases they were not even present at the scene of the crime.”

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Bishop of Manchester speaks in favour of amendments on Serious Violence Reduction Orders

On 10th January 2022, the House of Lords debated the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in the fourth day of the report stage. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of a group of amendments relating to the implementation of Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs):

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I support Amendments 90H, 90J, 95A, 95B and 95C, to which I have added my name. I also signal my support for other amendments in this group which also seek to control more tightly how serious violence reduction orders will operate. I draw your Lordships’ attention to my work on policing ethics, both for Greater Manchester Police and for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, as set out in the register of interests.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, has indicated, Amendment 90H seeks to ensure that an SVRO can be applied only when a bladed article or offensive weapon is used to commit an offence, not simply when such an item happens to be present and in the possession of the defendant. As the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, has indicated, as presently drafted, the Bill requires no substantive link between the weapon and the offence. An individual could, for example, commit a road traffic offence while driving home from a church picnic, with their used cutlery on the passenger seat next to them, and the prosecution could ask for an SVRO.

Bishop of St Albans urges commitment to international responses to refugee displacement

On 6th January 2022, the House of Lords debated the issue of mass refugee displacement. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate, stressing the importance of a global response to help refugees and displaced people and address the causes of displacement:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, for initiating this most important debate and for his excellent introduction, which has set the scene for us all.

We face not a static situation but one that is constantly changing. Since the start of 2020, we have seen the re-emergence of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, bringing back the displacement that characterised the conflicts in the 1980s and 1990s. Ethiopia’s ongoing civil conflict has left just over 2 million internally displaced people in Tigray and a further 250,000 in the region of Amhara, according to the UN. We have seen the military coup in Myanmar, which has done nothing to improve—indeed, it has made worse—any prospect of resettling the estimated 745,000 beleaguered Rohingya Muslims resident in Cox’s Bazar, now the world’s largest refugee camp.

Bishop of Leeds speaks in debate on mass displacement of refugees

On 6th January 2022, the Bishop of Leeds spoke in a debate on refugee displacement, highlighting the role of climate change in displacement and the need for urgent action on the causes of refugee crises:

The Lord Bishop of Leeds: My Lords, I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on securing this debate. I am grateful to him for personifying the issue by naming individuals. I visited camps for internally displaced people in Iraqi Kurdistan several years ago. I am still haunted by the faces, not always the voices. When you are confronted with a 12 year-old boy who had not spoken since being forced to watch his father be beheaded outside his front door, then it is the faces, not the voices. They haunt me.

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