Licensing: Closing Time

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Tuesday 29th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I am sorry to disappoint my noble friend, but SAGE is an independent body and anything it publishes is down to it. On her point about an 11 pm curfew, that is what we had until recently. When making their decisions, the Government strike a balance—I know my noble friend disagrees—between suppression of the virus and trying to keep the economy going to some extent.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, as the last two speakers intimated, when restaurants and pubs close, consumers dive into other sources for their alcohol. Will the Minister explain why the Government refuse to listen to local authorities, such as the Mayor of Manchester, that want alcohol sales after 9 pm stopped?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I acknowledge all the views of noble Lords who want the curfew later, and I know the Mayor of Manchester wants the curfew earlier, but the Government have to balance the economic effect with the effect of the virus going up.

Knife Crime

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I certainly agree with the noble Baroness’s sentiment. It is of course up to local authorities where they deploy their finances, but I get her sentiment. On investing in youth services, the Home Office invested £22 million in an early intervention youth fund a couple of years ago. The Home Office’s Youth Endowment Fund of £200 million runs over 10 years and the Youth Investment Fund of £500 million runs over five years to do just the types of things that she talks about.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, one of the early interventions that has been shown to be very effective is sport. Young people belonging to sporting teams, rather than gangs, can turn their lives around. Will my noble friend the Minister commit to encouraging more charities and sports organisations to create after-school clubs and other community clubs where these young people can belong to positive teams, rather than gangs?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I most wholeheartedly agree with my noble friend. I can even cite examples, although I will not at the Dispatch Box, where I have seen people whose lives have literally been turned around by their engagement in sport, rather than activity that will lead to a life of crime.

Port Examination Codes of Practice and National Security Determinations Guidance Regulations 2020

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Friday 10th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wheatcroft (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, the Government have to be supported in their efforts to protect the public against both terrorism and acts of hostile states—and we know that they succeed in protecting us far more often than they fail. In the context of hostile states, I do hope that the report of the Intelligence and Security Committee into Russia and its involvement here might be made public sooner rather than later.

I support the noble Lord, Lord Balfe, in his call for a national database of biometrics. I see nothing sacrosanct about biometric data and I think that a national library of this data, protected by an independent body, would be useful. I welcome this SI and the changes that have been made to take account of some of the reservations expressed in the House. The provisions relating to the treatment of confidential information seem to go as far as they practically can in protecting journalism. I accept the qualms of the noble Lord, Lord Harris, regarding the use of journalism as a cloak beneath which to hide malign practices; I believe that, while a free press is crucial, national security has to come first.

My fear over these regulations is whether we actually have the resource to implement them fully and effectively. As other noble Lords have mentioned, not all ports are covered. I echo the questions asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, regarding the effects of our departure from EU security arrangements. As these regulations apply to UK ports and the Northern Ireland border area, can the Minister tell the House how the Northern Ireland border area is to be protected?

Quarantine: Scientific Advice

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford [V]]

My noble friend is right. We are aiming for a risk-based approach, based on other countries’ levels of infection and the public health of the people of this country. That is entirely what the strategy is about.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, as other noble Lords have made clear, the logic of bringing in quarantine at this stage is hard to understand. Was this proposal put before focus groups before it was adopted? Can the Minister assure the House that the Government are following the science, not the focus groups?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford [V]]

My Lords, mandatory self-isolation is certainly based on the science. The time to introduce restrictions is when infection rates in this country are low. We had some restrictions initially, when we hit the peak. Those restrictions were increasingly ineffective at controlling the virus. Now that we have got the infection rates low, it is time to introduce restrictions to keep the rate of the virus low.

India: Scam Call Centres

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

That is quite all right, Lord Speaker.

I thank my noble friend for that question. He raises a very pertinent point, and I myself have had representation from older people who are worried about scams. As regards our work with India and the Indian Government, my noble friend mentioned the City of London Police, which, as I said, is the lead force for economic crime and has partnered with law enforcement and industry to combat call centre fraud from India and other jurisdictions. It has, for example, partnered with Microsoft, which has led industry efforts to combat this kind of fraud, and as a consequence of that partnership the City of London Police has supported Microsoft in the initiation of a number of enforcement actions, the most recent of which occurred in the Kolkata region. Obviously, things that happen overseas are a matter for the overseas authorities. Moreover, this type of fraud is global, and quite often you cannot trace where it originated.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, last week I received an Outlook email that cited a password I have used, although not for the dubious purposes it alleged. If I paid $1,900 into a Bitcoin account, discretion was assured. Clearly, the attacker had accessed the passwords from one site and sent out a blanket blackmail attempt. Is the Minister convinced that the platform operators are doing everything they can to detect the pattern of such blackmail attempts?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I know that law enforcement agencies are working extremely hard. In fact, every day I am on operational calls with various law enforcement agencies, and my mother was targeted by exactly the same scam last week. The FCA has conducted the ScamSmart campaign to raise awareness of this type of thing, particular pension and investment scams.