Defamation Bill

Moved by

Lord Mawhinney

39: Clause 7, page 5, line 14, at end insert—

“( ) Afte...

My Lords, although two days have passed, this is the first debate following that on Amendment 31,...

My Lords, I rise in support of the amendment and what I will say briefly has some relevance to my...

On behalf of my noble friend Lord Browne, I thank the Minister—and, even more perhaps, his offici...

My Lords—

When a Front-Bencher stands up, that is usually a signal that it is the end of the debate.

Am I done for?

No.

It is only a short point. Will the Minister confirm that the amendment will not affect a situatio...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, is the most frustrating of colleagues, because, the mome...

My Lords, I think my noble friend in his careful reply hinted vaguely that I might have been moti...

Moved by

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town

39A: Clause 7, page 5, line 23, after “inclu...

My Lords, the amendment in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Browne of Ladyton would exten...

My Lords, as an afterthought on my noble friend Lord Mawhinney’s approach to amendments, I can co...

My Lords, am I in order in speaking?

Probably not, but I will defer to the chairman.

It is unusual to speak after the Minister, but there is nothing to prevent any noble Lord speakin...

I am grateful to the deputy chairman. I am sorry to be unusual, but I normally am. Not only do I ...

I was going to use two words I now know I should not: they were simply “thank you”. I am not allo...

Moved by

Lord Phillips of Sudbury

40: Clause 7, page 6, line 6, at end insert “or its...

My Lords, as has already been said, Clause 7 substantially amends the provisions of Section 14 of...

My Lords, my Amendments 41 and 42 have been bracketed with this amendment, and I would like to sp...

My Lords, I rise to support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Mawhinney, and to say tha...

Given the noble Lord’s deep involvement in this issue, I understand what he is saying about the a...

The noble Lord makes a very good point, one that I was actually aware of. While I fully understan...

My Lords, I had not expected to need to reply about press conferences but, in the light of my nob...

I do indeed.

What happened was that a soldier was found guilty of murder for, I think, killing a woman at a ro...

There is no answer to that. On the first point, on the face of it, it appears to be not a bad ide...

In relation to Amendment 40, the Defamation Act 1996 gives a defence of qualified privilege to fa...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving away and apologise to Members of the Committee since I d...

I doubt that. We are moving the extra line to where a company has made a decision to change its a...

My Lords, I am sorry to say that I cannot understand that. We are dealing with a publicly listed ...

I am Daniel in the lion’s den here. I will certainly look at—

In the interests of clarity, I am not very pleased with how I put the argument earlier. I can put...

I will reflect on that but I am also very concerned and do not want to enter a field regarding th...

We are not supporting the amendment. We are urging the Government to accept that the amendment is...

Before this mini debate concludes, I would just say that I agree with my noble friend Lord Lester...

You can see, Lord Chairman, that this is a very interesting Committee. Amendments 41 and 42 would...

We are all agreed on the importance of peer review. As my noble friend is going to think further ...

Most certainly. That was the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, made, with which I heart...

I am grateful for what the Minister said and for the contributions to the debate on this amendmen...

It might be an indication of how confused the Minister gets that it was subsequently clarified to...

That does not change my reply. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Moved by

Lord Lester of Herne Hill

43: After Clause 7, insert the following new Claus...

In speaking to Amendment 43, it may be convenient for me to speak also to Amendment 44 as they bo...

My Lords, just to give some sense of momentum on this, I can tell your Lordships that the Joint C...

I am grateful. I learnt this appalling word from Europe, comitology, which is the study of commit...

Moved by

Lord Browne of Ladyton

44A: Clause 8, page 7, line 3, leave out from “if” to...

My Lords, the amendment, which is in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Hayter, would apply...

My Lords, I do not know whether my few words in Amendments 45 to 47 could be described as eloquen...

Elegant.

Oh, elegant. Well, they are certainly not elegant and certainly not eloquent. Nevertheless, they ...

My Lords, I support the principle of Amendment 44A moved by the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyto...

In terms of audibility for all noble Lords, please could noble Lords make sure that their mobile ...

I rather hope it was not mine, but it might have been. At any rate, it has been moved now.

...

I was not proposing to speak to this amendment at all but it seems to me that there is an enormou...

On my noble friend Lord Phillips’s Amendments 45, 46 and 47, I hardly ever argue with parliamenta...

My Lords, we have heard much about balance. In order to provide balance from the Dispatch Box, at...

My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords for participating in this short debate on the amendments, ...

Moved by

Lord Mawhinney

48: Clause 9, page 7, line 29, at end insert—

“( ) A pe...

My Lords, politics is frequently described as the art of the possible, but it is also described a...

My Lords, I speak to Amendment 49 in my name. I believe that Clause 9(2) goes too far in requirin...

What the clause actually says is,

“satisfied that … England and Wales is clearly the most a...

I am obliged to my noble friend for picking up my slackness. No, I do not think it would. The wor...

On that point, it is the litigant from abroad that I am concerned about, not the defendant in thi...

With respect, it says:

“Action against an individual domiciled in the UK”.

It does no...

My Lords, this whole amendment is concerned with protection against those domiciled abroad using ...

My Lords, I shall speak briefly only to Amendment 50A, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Singh of Wi...

My Lords, I rise briefly to support the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Mawhinney. Aga...

My Lords, I briefly comment on what the noble Lord, Lord Singh of Wimbledon, said. I have to stic...

My Lords, this has been an extremely useful debate. From the beginning there has been a question ...

Perhaps I may correct something that I have said. My example, which was off the cuff, of Italy wa...

I was just thinking that myself, but I did not want to raise it.

Broadly, at the moment we ...

Before the Minister sits down, I shall explain in case I was not clear. I was trying to say that ...

Noted.

My Lords, I listened carefully to what my noble friend said, and he generated in me a little surp...

Tabled by

Lord Phillips of Sudbury

49: Clause 9, page 7, line 38, leave out “clearly”...

Perhaps I may make a comment, but not to pick up the point so clearly made by the noble Lord. It ...

Tabled by

Lord Singh of Wimbledon

50A: After Clause 9, insert the following new Claus...

On rereading the wording, I feel that it does say what I intended it to say but that is drafting....

Moved by

Lord Browne of Ladyton

50B: Clause 10, page 8, line 24, at end insert “damag...

The amendment, standing in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Hayter, would confine Clause ...

I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Browne, for the way in which he has just presented the...

If peer-review is one of the principles that we want to hang on to, combating chilling effect sho...

My Lords, I will take all three amendments together as they have been grouped. In doing so, I wil...

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, for his intervention and fo...

Moved by

Lord Mawhinney

51: Clause 11, page 8, line 38, at end insert—

“( ) A c...

My Lords, there is no need to take any time to establish that all of the members of the Joint Com...

My Lords, there can be few occasions, particularly at five past five on a Thursday afternoon, whe...

My Lords, I am so glad that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Brown, has just made that very impor...

Could the noble Lord just inform me, although I am sure I ought to know this: is Fox’s Libel Act ...

I think so but I am not absolutely certain.

Well, if you are not certain, who is?

I am not certain.

My Lords, I, too, am extremely unhappy with the amendment. To take a literal point, why only a se...

My Lords, when coming back to this it is helpful to have been a member of the Joint Committee and...

My Lords, perhaps I should say at the outset that both my party and the coalition Government are ...

My Lords, I do not need to take too much time. I thought it was interesting that all three distin...

Moved by

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town

51A: Clause 13, page 9, line 14, at end inse...

My Lords, I rise to move this amendment which is tabled in my name and that of my noble friend Lo...

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for introducing the amendments. I want to revert to the broa...

I thank the Minister for that. He is right about Amendment 51B; that was the intention. His assur...

Moved by

Lord Browne of Ladyton

51C: After Clause 13, insert the following new Clause...

My Lords, Amendment 51C would disapply the LASPO Act in relation to defamation proceedings and Am...

My Lords, I cannot clearly say whether I do or do not support these two amendments as they have a...

My Lords, I will not, at this hour, reopen the debate on LASPO except to say that what we were ad...

My Lords, the Minister shares with me the view that this is a fiendishly complicated challenge. I...

Moved by

Lord Browne of Ladyton

51E: After Clause 13, insert the following new Clause...

My Lords, this amendment is designed to probe the Government on the possibility of creating a def...

My Lords, I strongly support allowing county courts to hear all but the most serious defamation c...

My Lords, just as I paid tribute earlier to the noble Lord, Lord Bew, for his contribution, so I ...

My Lords, I add my strong support for this amendment. You could almost say that we have been mour...

My Lords, it has taken me till the fourth day of this Committee to rumble the noble Lord, Lord Br...

My Lords, I am grateful for the support of the noble Lords, Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames and Lo...

Might the noble Lord encourage the Government to look at the possibility of empowering registrars...

I am grateful for that intervention from the noble Lord, Lord Phillips. The best that I can say i...

The noble Lord asked a specific question on the powers to create a court in this area. The amendm...

I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Moved by

Lord Mawhinney

52: After Clause 14, insert the following new Clause—

“...

My Lords, at the end of his last contribution to the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyton, the Mini...

My Lords, on behalf of the Opposition, I wish strongly to associate myself with the amendment tab...

Lord McNally: My Lords, I was getting a little frivolous earlier because we have had a long day, ...

My Lords, I offer warm thanks to my noble friend for what he has said. He pointed out that arrang...

Moved by

Lord Mawhinney

53: After Clause 14, insert the following new Clause—

“...

My Lords, I feel, on a personal level, the need to start, not exactly by making an apology, but b...

My Lords, the Committee has heard from me before, as has the House at Second Reading, on my admir...

I associate myself and these Benches with the most recent remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Hay...

A few weeks ago in the House I tried to make a Churchillian quote and got it completely messed up...

Would it not be possible to think of what was done in the Charities Act 2006? This is landmark le...

But, my Lords, that is exactly what will happen. There will be post-legislative scrutiny within t...

My Lords, I salute my noble friend the Minister. I thank him and the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad. We a...