Business of the House

Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row

Monday 17th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My Lords, I think the House will agree that there is nothing unusual about this ping-pong process. One thing that has led to a slight delay today is that there was a Statement in the House of Commons. The Statement is coming first, followed by the consideration, then the Bill is coming back to us. That is not unusual. I hope that the noble Lord will be satisfied.

[Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row (Con)]

My Lords, when the House sits as late as it may tonight and tomorrow morning, expenses are provided to certain House staff. I understand that, following a recent late sitting, after 6 am—when it is not impossible we will be sitting at again—some staff were not allowed to claim expenses for travel. Can my noble friend please have a look at that?

[Lord McLoughlin (Con)]

My Lords, before my noble friend gets up, bearing in mind the interview that the Minister of State gave on Saturday morning on the “Today” programme, could we not save some time by telling those noble Lords who want to put down amendments that the Bill is not going to change? It will come back in the state in which that the Minister of State says it will come back. That would save quite a lot of time and we could just get on with the debate.

Business of the House

Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row

Thursday 8th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row (Con)]

I agree with everything my noble friend said. I was one of the Peers here—there were about 80 of us for the majority of the time. I put on record my sincere thanks to all the House staff who supported us, such as the doorkeepers and so on.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I second that. They are absolutely wonderful.

Metropolitan Police: Live Facial Recognition

Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row

Monday 16th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, there were several points in that question. First, the High Court has said that the police are operating within the legal framework. Secondly, this technology would not be used in relation to overdue parking tickets. To quote the Metropolitan Police, its use of this technology targets

“those wanted for imprisonable offences, with a focus on serious crime, with a particular regard to knife and gun crime, child sexual exploitation and terrorism”.

[Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that there is a lot of misinformation on this subject in the public domain? Can she confirm to the House that there is no intention to record images of members of the ordinary public?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I can absolutely confirm that LFR is deployed against a watchlist, which is not made up of every member of the public but of those people I have just listed, for the safety of the public.