Coroners and Justice Bill

The House will be aware that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, and I do not always agree on a large amount of matters that come before this House. I can agree with him on one thing: the chances of this amendment getting on the statute book. He was right in saying it has no more than a snowball’s chance in hell of being accepted by the Government. I also thank the noble Lord for his history lesson in the honourable part that my party had in seeing the European Convention on Human Rights come into effect back in the late 1940s and 1950s. I thank him for that lesson but I knew it all already. I remember being informed of all that by our late colleague Lord Renton, who also played some part in these matters. I admire the ingenuity of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, in bringing this amendment forward. I warned the Government of this at Second Reading. If they insist on bringing forward these massive Home Office or Ministry of Justice Bills that cover every possible subject, they will find that every other possible subject can be added to them. That is why we have had debates on assisted suicide and all sorts of other matters that were not originally in the Government’s plan. On the amendment itself, as the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, rightly pointed out, it is now seven and a half years since the European Court of Human Rights case was decided. Since then we have had two consultations from the Government. They seem to be frozen like rabbits stuck in the headlights, unable to decide what to do. It is not for me to say what we will do at this stage because we are not yet the Government. That will come in due course. I can give the Minister some reassurance that we on this side are unhappy with the idea of extending the franchise to offenders in prison. The Minister will be aware of what my honourable friend Dominic Grieve said on this matter: ""Many people will question whether this is a sensible development"." One does not need to dismiss that, as the noble Lord, Lord Lester, did, as a knee-jerk reaction to the tabloid press. Often when people say something is a knee-jerk reaction to the tabloid press they are saying they do not like what the majority of the country thinks about these matters. This is a democracy and we have a chance to make up our minds about it. To continue to quote from what my honourable friend said: ""The principle that those who are in custody after conviction should not have the opportunity to vote is a perfectly rational one. Civic rights go with civic responsibility, but these rights have been flagrantly violated by those who have committed imprisonable offences"." He then went on to demand that the Government allow a parliamentary debate. I appreciate we are having something of a debate now, but this must be a bigger debate in both Houses, that gives MPs the opportunity to insist on retaining our existing practice, that convicted prisoners cannot vote. Having said that, I cannot offer much support for this amendment.