13 October 2014

What’s Coming Up 

Monday: Lord Marks, Baroness Grender, Baroness Brinton & Baroness Barker are

all meeting with Lord Faulks, Minister of State for Civil Justice and Legal Policy, to

discuss legislation to criminalise ‘revenge porn’. 

Lord Sharkey is asking a question on the implications of the Scottish referendum

on the rest of the United Kingdom.

Lord Dykes will ask the Government what progress they have made in

negotiations on the reform of the EU.

Wales Minister Baroness Randerson will be is steering the

Wales Bill through its committee stage. As part of this

Baroness Humphreys is using her amendment to put

forward the case for increased membership of the Welsh

Assembly. Lord Tyler & Lord Thomas of Gresford have

both put their name to an amendment that will see 16-

year-olds voting in Welsh Assembly elections. Baroness

Randerson & Lord Roberts of Llandudno  have also put

forward amendments to the Bill.

Tuesday: Lord Clement-Jones is asking whether UK parliamentarians can be

included under the definition of “Politically Exposed Persons” in the European

Commission’s proposed Money Laundering Directive. 

Wednesday: Baroness Falkner is asking what the Government strategy is for

confronting ISIS.

Lord Shipley is defending the importance of wind power in Wednesday’s question

on the assessment of wind farming in Northumberland.

Thursday: Baroness Falkner is leading a debate on the role of

Russia and the former Soviet nations’ varying success rates in

attempting to uphold international law and democracy.

Baroness Tyler is moving that this House takes note of the

Government’s Social Justice strategy. 

Full schedule here

Quote of the Week

“ Compassionate Conservatism is

dead, the Tories are a nasty party

again”  

Paddy Ashdown

(@paddyashdown) throws down

the gauntlet as part of his speech

to Lib Dem Conference

Tweet of the Week

Paddy Ashdown

(@paddyashdown) highlights the

the problems facing UKIP

following their recent successes

Next week’s bills 

 

Wales BillCommittee Stage

• 

Serious Crime Bill

Report Stage

 

 

This Week’s Focus

Lib Dem Peers lead the fight against revenge porn

Lib Dems in the House of Lords have moved one step closer to criminalising the sharing of

revenge porn following the tabling of a new amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill

on Friday. The revision, which makes it an offense to publish a private sexual image of another

identifiable person  without their consent, focuses specifically on the distress caused to the

victims.

The amendment was tabled by Lib Dem Peers Lord Marks of Henley-on-

Thames, Baroness Grender, Baroness Brinton & Baroness Barker. The

proposal follows a hard fought campaign by Lib Dem MP, Julian Huppert,

who has previously highlighted the issue in the commons and campaigned for a change in the

law.

The amendment is expected to be debated on 22 October 2014, during the report stage of the

Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.

Revenge Porn Campaigner Hannah Thompson said: “It made me really ill to see that my ex -boyfriend had published

 pictures of me online.

“I remember thinking at the time that this must be illegal. When I found out it wasn’t I started my campaign to ban

revenge porn but I never thought anyone would listen to me. I was so pleased when the Lib Dems picked it up in the

House of Commons. The law needs to be changed and I am glad to see that we have a real chance to make this

happen.”  

Julian Huppert MP said: “I have campaigned vigorously to make a criminal sanction available when people share

indecent images in the knowledge that consent would not have been given.

“Without these measures more people will unfairly suffer at the hands of malicious former partners.”  

Baroness Grender said: “It is vital that we act in the House of Lords to criminalise revenge porn and protect that

victims of this heinous practise. Ultimately this isn’t about the sexual nature of the images but about the

embarrassment and shame felt by those that have their privacy breached in this way.

“I am grateful for the work my Lib Dem colleague Julian Huppert MP has been doing in the Commons to both raise

awareness of this issue and lead the fight for it to be criminalised.

“I must also congratulate Hannah Thompson who was brave enough to get in touch and ask Julian and I to change

the law.”

See all the work that the Liberal Democrat Lords are doing at  libdemlords.org.uk  

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