Crime and Policing Bill

Baroness Kennedy of Shaws Excerpts

Committee stage
Thursday 5th February 2026 Lords Chamber

That was good evidence from an organisation we might not have anticipated would support these amendments. I hope the Committee will. I look forward to hearing from other noble Lords and the Minister. I beg to move.

[Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the noble Lord. This legislation presents a unique opportunity to close long-outstanding accountability gaps in the UK’s universal jurisdiction laws and ensure that the perpetrators of the world’s most serious crimes can be brought to justice on British soil, which is not always possible under current law.

Many organisations support these amendments, which, to be clear, amend the International Criminal Court Act. That Act confined universal jurisdiction relating to crimes under the Rome statute to those who had residency in or nationality of this country, so it is very limited. The United States law followed ours and limited certain crimes that would be covered by universal jurisdiction to nationality and residence. It has now amended its law to make sure that anybody coming through the United States who is suspected of serious, grievous crimes that would fall under this universal jurisdiction framework could be arrested. That is also the case in large parts of Europe.

Noble Lords will be asking what this business of universal jurisdiction is. UK courts can prosecute certain international crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction because it is a legal framework that allows states to pursue justice for the most serious offences committed abroad, even when the case has no direct connection to their citizens or territory. Noble Lords can imagine what those crimes are. They include genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. Universal jurisdiction reflects the global consensus that such crimes are so grave that they demand accountability wherever they occur.

At present, as I have said, the UK’s ability to prosecute grave international crimes under universal jurisdiction is limited. It is quite contradictory, but under the International Criminal Court Act, prosecutions can be brought for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity only where the suspect is a UK national or resident. As a result, individuals accused of serious international crimes can enter this country without facing justice—and, let me tell you, they do.

I hear this from reliable witnesses who have fled persecution. They know those who have come here, seeking independent schools for their children or university places—usually for their sons, it has to be said—and to shop at Harrods or vacation in London with all its amenities. They often come in civilian attire, not wearing the Iranian revolutionary guard or Russian general uniforms that they wear back at home. They come for all manner of purposes. They come and go, and we cannot act. When I was the master of an Oxford college, there was a scandal because the son of a revolutionary guard torturer found a place at an Oxford college, his father having accompanied him. This is happening in a subterranean way, and action could be taken.