Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what operational and legal actions the Government and Crown Prosecution Service will take to ensure that high-profile national security prosecutions do not fail for similar procedural reasons as the China spy case.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
National security is of the utmost importance to this Government.
On 16 October 2025, the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy launched a formal inquiry into the issues surrounding the case to which this question refers. On 3 December 2025, the Joint Committee published its report on Espionage cases and the Official Secrets Acts. The Government is carefully considering the Joint Committee’s conclusions and recommendations and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the anticipated commencement dates for each of the provisions in the Public Office (Accountability) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government will not delay bringing the measures in the Public Office (Accountability) Bill into force.
We are urgently looking at what is required effectively to implement each of the measures.
We will update the House in due course on the planned timeline for implementation and commencement.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when and how they intend to respond to the report by the Children's Commissioner "A production line of pointlessness": Children on custodial remand, published on 11 November.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises the importance of the Children’s Commissioner’s report and shares concerns about the number of children remanded to custody. We have taken steps to address this, including publishing the Youth Remand Concordat earlier this year to help all partners meet their statutory responsibilities and work effectively together throughout the bail and remand process. We are also supporting local authorities to tackle this issue, for example, by continuing to fund the Greater Manchester remand pilot to enable regional pooling of remand funding, supporting the development of alternatives to custodial remand. Reducing unnecessary remands to custody remains a priority, and we will set out further plans in due course.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede on 22 April (HL Deb col 550), what is their expected timescale when they say that the publication of the proposed 'Hillsborough Law' is being taken forward “at pace”.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
Families have waited decades to get justice and we are fully committed to bringing legislation forward.
Having consulted with those groups and their representatives, it is clear more time is required to draft the best version of a Hillsborough Law. We will continue to work with those families to ensure they receive the justice they deserve.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimates they made of the cost of legal assistance and representation for bereaved survivors in relation to their proposals for a 'Hillsborough Law', and on what data they based any such estimate on.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
The Government’s commitment in its 2024 manifesto to provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths will support bereaved families at an incredibly difficult time following the loss of their loved ones. We are currently working on plans to deliver on this commitment and, as such, we are unable to share information on costs. The Government will announce its approach in due course.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many successful prosecutions there have been in respect of the importation of (1) bushmeat and (2) other illegal, non-compliant or contaminated meat products since 2019.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions at criminal courts in England and Wales between 2018 and June 2024 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024.
However, offences relating to the importation of bushmeat or other illegal, non-compliant or contaminated meat products cannot be specifically identified from the Court Proceedings database. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether amending the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) by means of statutory instrument provides for sufficient parliamentary scrutiny; whether they plan to introduce legislation to amend the Civil Procedure Act 1997 to require amendments to the CPR to be made by means of primary legislation; and whether they will consider holding fresh consultations regarding the introduction of fixed recoverable costs in cases of medical negligence.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
The Government is satisfied that the current means of amending the Civil Procedure Rules by way of a statutory instrument provides sufficient parliamentary scrutiny, and there are no plans to amend the Civil Procedure Act 1997 in this regard. Secondary legislation has been used as a means for amending court rules since the Judicature Acts 1873-1875. Alongside parliamentary approval rule changes are approved by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, the Master of the Rolls and a Government Minister.
The Government is considering the way forward on a range of issues related to clinical negligence, including fixed recoverable costs reform, and we will announce our position in due course.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether efforts to eliminate rats, mice and cockroaches in all prisons in England and Wales have been successful, and if not, in how many prisons they still present serious problems.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
We undertake routine planned pest control regimes as part of our existing Facilities Management contracts. Where we encounter higher than normal level of pest infestations, we put in place targeted control measures to eliminate/reduce the particular pests.
We do not hold a list of the current number of prisons where we have serious infestations. Any/all infestations are dealt with as quickly as possible in order to ensure that we do not have high numbers of sites with serious problems.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) job centres, and (2) prisons, currently use Chinese-made Hikvision and Dahua Technology cameras.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
1) DWP have one Hikvision camera across DWP jobcentres.
DWP have no Dahua cameras in any jobcentres.
2) MoJ does not disclose details of our prison security defence capability, including our use of CCTV, for reasons of operational security.