Defamation Bill

My Lords, Amendment 11 seeks to amend the second condition of the defence to libel of honest opin...

Amendment 13, in my name, has been grouped with this amendment, but it raises a separate point. I...

My Lords, I apologise to the Committee for arriving late for a group in which I have amendments, ...

My Lords, first, I am glad that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, referred to Lo...

My Lords, the Committee will be pleased to hear that—broadly for the reasons articulated so well ...

My Lords, I rise simply to say that for the reasons given by my noble and learned friend Lord Llo...

My Lords, I rise to say the same thing because, of course, I was the other person who had his dec...

I suspect that I am the only non-lawyer around the table but I wish to express my enthusiasm for ...

My Lords, I should be interested whether the Minister who is to sum up can tell the Committee whe...

My Lords, I note with great interest that everyone referred to my noble friend Lord McNally, but ...

Regretfully noting such a thing is not enough. I was promised a reply and it did not come. Someth...

I thank the noble and learned Lord for his suggestion, but if I had been able to finish my senten...

I am grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. Apropos of his comments about the noble and learn...

I thank my noble friend. He emphasised the word “friend” and I acknowledge this fully. I can assu...

This is not on the subject we have been talking about but goes back to the amendment in the name ...

I hear what the noble Earl says. We shall return to this point in writing. If the noble and learn...

We know that the common law is being overruled by this clause. As I understand the Minister’s rep...

We will take this on board in light of the comments that have been made. I seek the Committee’s i...

My Lords, I am sorry to say that I am confused by the Minister’s reply to the noble and learned L...

I did refer to that. We believe that the situation is already covered by Clause 3(3), to be clear...

My Lords, perhaps I may first ask a question on the matter raised by the noble and learned Lord, ...

I thank my noble friend for his questions. I can give him an assurance that we will write to him ...

I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, for his support for this amendment, and indeed...

My Lords, to be frank with my noble friend, I do not feel that his response to Amendments 11 and ...

Moved by

Lord McNally

14: Clause 4, page 2, line 34, leave out paragraph (b) and inse...

My Lords, this is the first opportunity for me to associate myself with the apology that my noble...

My Lords, does my noble friend—

Page 2, line 34, leave out paragraph (b) and insert the new paragraph (b) as printed on the Marsh...

My Lords, I was going to ask my noble friend a question. Is it too late to ask him?

No.

In that case, it is very important, in the light of the amendment in my name, to know whether the...

My Lords, to get us back on to the straight and narrow, an amendment to Amendment 14 has been pro...

Tabled by

Lord Phillips of Sudbury

15: Clause 4, line 3, at end insert “; and

(...

I have rather lost the plot. Can the Minister reply to my question before I move my amendment? I ...

Yes, my Lords, he can.

I would have to take advice on those matters. In a room full of lawyers, I am not going to make c...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend and sympathise with his predicament. In the light of w...

I am sorry—I am always very bad on procedure.

Clause 4 is at the heart of the Bill. The Gov...

My Lords, the Joint Committee’s report was published 14 months ago. It is a fairly accurate accou...

My Lords, I found the question of whether we should or should not have a list of factors in Claus...

I entirely take what my noble friend has said and agree with it. However, would it not be advisab...

I am bound to say that I am worried about the way in which the amendment in the name of my noble ...

I am catching a bad habit from sitting next to my noble friend Lord Phillips and interrupting but...

Before we go on, perhaps I should remind the Grand Committee that we are discussing an amendment ...

If it will assist the House, I will withdraw it post haste.

I would rather that my noble friend Lord Phillips did not withdraw it. I was about to address it ...

May I offer my noble friend a personal apology? I said that there were three distinguished member...

My Lords, of course I accept that. I would like to say that I am grateful for the apology, but I ...

My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendment 22 but in a broader context, as I believe that it relates ...

I am grateful to the noble Lord. I am sorry, but Clause 4 in its present form and in its amended ...

I realise that the situation is more complicated than I may have portrayed it. One of the more fa...

I am sorry, but if the Libel Reform Campaign has been briefing in that way, it is completely wron...

I declare an interest as a journalist, producer and director at the BBC. I support Amendments 14,...

My Lords, I had not intended to speak but I am one of the campaigners, and one of the signatories...

My Lords, I support government Amendment 14. The recollection of the noble Lord, Lord Mawhinney, ...

My Lords, I join noble Lords who have thanked the noble Lord, Lord McNally, for the way in which ...

I wonder whether it is any comfort to the noble Lord, Lord Triesman, to know that the courts have...

My Lords, I am very grateful for the intervention because it will cut out my saying a great deal ...

To correct the record, the noble Lord, Lord Lester, referred to Sir Brian Neill and the huge cont...

My Lords, my noble friend in his speech, and my other noble friend subsequently, convinced me tha...

My Lords, first, I join those who have expressed their gratitude to the Minister, the noble Lord,...

Would it not be in favour of the amendment to look back at what Clause 4(2) looks like? In subsec...

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his intervention. Unlike a previous intervention that he made...

Not only do I agree but I wonder whether the following might meet that need. The Explanatory Note...

I am very pleased to have given the noble Lord an opportunity to make a very good and common-sens...

It affects Wales, too.

Of course it does. I am sorry.

My Lords, I come very late to this legislation, having devoted myself over recent years merely to...

My Lords, my first thought is about the wish that Sir Brian Neill, having just been released from...

Before my noble friend leaves this point, who are the Cabinet Ministers who fail the McNally test...

I will publish them on the MoJ website. Even better, I will tweet them. No, I will not. Now I am ...

Would the Minister’s decision have been difficult if a huge sum of money had hinged upon it?

I was just going to pay the noble Lord, Lord May, a compliment. When he spoke about the fact that...

It is a question of solving the Simon Singh problem. However well we draft the legislation, if th...

This is interesting. There is a suite of protections in this legislation, and I want to test it. ...

Perhaps I could assist the Committee by suggesting that the noble Lord, Lord Phillips of Sudbury,...

I do not. The noble Lord, Lord McNally, has given as satisfactory a reply as is possible in the c...

My Lords, perhaps I may suggest to the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, that if he is not going to move...

He shuts up?

If he would not mind.

He shuts up forthwith.

Moved by

Lord McNally

16: Clause 4, page 2, line 36, leave out subsection (2)

Moved by

Lord Lester of Herne Hill

18: Clause 4, page 3, line 8, leave out subsection...

My Lords, I am sorry that the Minister has put me in the position of Scrooge by suggesting that h...

I shall speak to Amendment 20, tabled in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Hayter, simply ...

It might be helpful to the Minister as well, because I did a pretty sloppy job just now in my des...

I am very grateful to the noble Lord and am pleased to have given him the opportunity to make the...

I intervene with great temerity given this incredibly legal provision. However, as an outsider, I...

My Lords, when both the noble Lord, Lord Browne, and the noble Lord, Lord Lester, tell me that we...

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his explanation. The criteria in Clause 4, as it now ...

Moved by

Lord McNally

19: Clause 4, page 3, line 8, leave out subsections (3) and (4)...

Moved by

Lord McNally

21: Clause 4, page 3, line 14, at end insert—

“( ) In det...

Moved by

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town

23A: Clause 5, page 3, line 21, leave out “a...

My Lords, I have lost my support team. The amendment is in the name of my noble friend Lord Brown...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 24, 25 and 29 in my name. I agree with virtually every word...

My Lords, I shall address my amendments in this group and reiterate that I have a considerable in...

Why should the expense and risk be on the side of the citizen?

Absolutely—the expense should be on the citizen who, having made the comment, is the target of th...

My noble friend is putting forward a situation which has no parallel, for example, in newspapers,...

We are dealing with the web operator as a conduit and not as a publisher. If I want to make a par...

My Lords, I also declare a considerable interest in that I work for Facebook, one of the web oper...

To equate the world wide web with a pub discussion is bizarre. The thing about a pub discussion i...

I agree with the noble Lord. The new concept has been described. There is a lot of thinking and l...

I am grateful that the noble Lord made this argument because of all the arguments we heard in the...

I want to remind the Committee that the Chamber will be rising in about five minutes and, in the ...

I shall aim to do so. I turn specifically to the amendments. Let me work through those. There is ...

My Lords, I will try to do this as briefly as possible. I support my noble friend Lady Hayter’s a...

The noble Lord, Lord Triesman, had Second Reading to say all this. I have some points on the amen...

My Lords, I do not accept that supporting the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Phill...

My Lords, I am sure that the Committee will agree that, in light of the other contributions that ...

Before we put that to the Committee, perhaps we may take this opportunity to thank the Deputy Cha...

In adjourning the debate until the day specified, I wish you all a very happy Christmas and new y...