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Week beginning 2 March 2015

Whats Coming Up
Monday: Lord Strasburger will be debating his amendment to the Serious Crime
Bill which pushes for further protection GPs information and strengthens the
support for journalists under RIPA. His amendments, come after Lib Dems in the
Commons secured changes to the Code of Practise for RIPA aimed at protecting
journalists and their sources in response to the use of Data Communications
material to identify sources of Tom Newton-Dunn during Operation Alice
scandal.
Tuesday: Lord Scriven will be asking the Government what
steps are being taken in light of complaints against police
forces in England and Wales as reported by the Independent
Police Complaints Commission. In his first oral question in the
House of Lords, Paul will be using the question to highlight the
handling of the recent abuse scandal in Rotherham.
In the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill Lord Stoneham will be
supporting Government amendments to strengthen measures designed to giving
a fairer deal to local pubs. Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland lead the campaign in
the Commons to protect pubs including by allowing landlords of pubs owned by
large pub companies to choose a Market Rent Only option rather than being
tied to deals on what beer a pub can sell.
Wednesday: The Deregulation Bill will undertake its Third Reading. As part of this
amendments will be debated on short term letting in London. Lib Dem Peer Lord
Tope has long pressured the Government to ensure that proper protection is in
place for residents and prospective tenants under Government proposals
allowing London landlords to offer Air BnB style short term property rental.
Thursday: Ahead of International Womens Day on Sunday 8 March Lib Dem
Peers are asking a series of questions directly related to women and girls.
Lord Loomba is going to ask the Government what they are doing
to promote the education of girls and young women and further
the cause of gender inequality in developing nations. Lord
Loomba is the founder of The Loomba Foundation and
organisation that seeks to promote the welfare and economic
empowerment of widows and education of their children.
Baroness Hussein-Ece will be asking what steps are being taken to foster greater
public understanding about the prevention of sexual violence against girls and
women. The Crown Prosecution Service have released a What is Consent toolkit

Quote of the Week


it is useless for the sheep to pass
resolutions in favour of
vegetarianism if the wolf is of
another opinion
John Lee on the response of NATO
member states to Russian
aggression in Eastern Europe

Tweet of the Week

Olly Grender highlights how often


Lib Dems are held back by out of
date views in the Lords

Next weeks bills


Recall of MPs Bill
Third Reading

Serious Crime Bill


Ping Pong

Small Business, Enterprise and


Employment Bill
Report Stage

Modern Slavery Bill


Third Reading

Deregulation Bill
Third Reading

to help victims of sexual violence know their rights.


Baroness Parminter is asking what the Government are doing to
promote womens participation in sports. DCMS research has
shown 2m fewer women actively participate in exercise, but 75%
want to do more sports.
Baroness Jolly and Baroness Garden will be opening and closing a
debate taking note of womens economic empowerment and the
progress in achieving it that has been made in the UK and internationally.
Despite huge progress in recent history in 2013, the average woman still earned
19.7% less than the average man. In order to ensure women are paid equally for
the work that they do the Liberal Democrats would make it a legal requirement
for companies employing more than 250 people to publish the average pay of
their male and female workers.

Full schedule here

Lib Dem Lords


in Government
Baroness Jolly responded to the Lib Dem Peer Baroness Thomas debate on disabled facilities in hotels. Celia
Thomas opened the debate revealing that: One of the most shocking things that I have heard from those
who talk to hotel managers is that they do not want any of their rooms to look medicalised because it puts
non-disabled people off. One Member of your Lordships House has had that said to him, so he has generously
agreed to support a design competition, in my name and with charitable funds, which aims to improve the
definitely non-medicalised design of hotel rooms for disabled visitors, working with the hotel industry in the
UK
Judith Jolly responded by saying: There are more than 12 million disabled people in Britain, which means
that they account for around a fifth of the customer base of the average UK business. Households with a
disabled person have a combined income of 212 billion after housing costs, so it makes good business sense
to be accessible to them. Within that, accessible tourism is hugely important.
However important accessible tourism is to the economy, it is not about the money. Tourism should be
welcoming to everyone, as well as disabled people and their carers. This should of course include older people
and family or carers who travel with themthe Equality Act 2010 requires all service providers to make
anticipatory reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage
compared to non-disabled people. This means that service providers are expected to foresee the requirements
of disabled people and the reasonable adjustments that may have to be made for them.
Lord Newby made a statement to the Lords on the recent tax avoidance scandal. In the questions that
followed he highlighted the successes that have already occurred under this Government including the deal
with the Swiss authorities that has yielded more than 1 billion. That is 1 billion more than the Labour
Government even set about trying to get from people who had bank accounts in Switzerland.
The Governments pursuit through G8 of the automatic transfer of tax information, which has now been
agreed by 90 countries, will mean that the kind of activities that were happening in Switzerland simply will not
happen in future, because all transactions and money placed in Swiss bank accounts will automatically be
disclosed to the British tax authority.
Everyone agrees that there needs to be a change of culture in the banks, including many who are in senior
positions in those banks. I agree completely that Parliament has a role to play in calling the banks to account,
and I hope that both Houses will continue in it.
Baroness Northover visited the University of Cambridge to hear
more about their world leading research to help end extreme
poverty in developing countries.
Supported by the Department for International Development, the
University of Cambridges research is helping to understand how to
improve agriculture, education, medicine and technology across the
developing world in a bid to end dependency on aid. Around a third
of all research projects run by DFID are won by British universities.

Last Weeks Business

Lib Dems Aid Commitment Passes Main Test in Lords


Lib Dem MP Michael Moores Foreign Aid Bill has passed its Report Stage after the Lib Dems
saw off attempts to talk it out. Lord Purvis welcomed the successful progress though the House
of Lords of the Lib Dem Bill to enshrine the UKs aid spending target in law.
The Bill will ensure 0.7% of the UKs Gross National Income is spent on international aid,
cleared its Report Stage despite sustained pressure from a small minority of Peers set on
derailing the proposals.
The Bill will now be scheduled for its Third Reading- the final test it must overcome before
being signed into law.
Commenting Jeremy Purvis said:
Michael Moores Bill is now just one step away for becoming law. I am hugely grateful to all those, from all sides of
the House of Lords and particularly my Liberal Democrat colleagues, who came out in force to support the Bill and
vote down amendments designed to wreck it.
I am also grateful to the many people outside Parliament who have made clear their support for this vital legislation.
We have overcome a crucial stage of the process and now it is important we do all we can do finish the Bills passage
before the election.
UK aid has the capacity to change lives, by passing this Bill we can move the debate on from how much support we
give to how we ensure our support goes to those who need it most. I look forward to making sure the Bill overcomes
its final hurdle and gets onto the statue book.

Sue Miller shoots down UKIPs agricultural policy


In Thursdays UKIP led debate on EU agricultural policy Lib Dem Peer and Chair of the All Party
Groups on Agroecology and Food and Health, Baroness Miller, attacked the shortcomings of the
anti EU position. In the debate she argued that:
[People] are living on processed food saturated with sugar, palm oil and salt, which is doing no
good to their health. That has nothing to do with the EU; that has to do with the food system,
which has broken down. That is what we have to mend. In this country, we need an overarching
food strategy that covers the spectrum from what Defra covers to what the Department of Health covers.
One of the big steps that this Government have taken was to bring in the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which we need
to do more to strengthen. We can see that from the dairy sector, but that is a different issue. Socially, UKIPs policies
would be an utter disaster. UKIP has nothing to say about young farmers, the price of land, capital machinery
investment or food quality assurance and it wants to get rid of all of these border controls and regulations. What is
going to happen when we have another horsemeat scandal? Finally, UKIP seems to have nothing to say on animal
welfare issues, which certainly concern the Liberal Democrats and the public, and should concern the noble Lord.

Lords approve Mitochondrial DNA regulations


On Tuesday the House of Lords debated regulations that would see the UK become the first country in the World to
allow mitochondrial donations.
Baroness Barker argued that Our top scientists have been making themselves available to Members of Parliament
for all of the past year to explain as clearly as they can this science as it is emerging. I do not think that we should
abrogate our responsibility in this House. I think we should continue to listen to the scientists.

The House of Lords approved the regulations.

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